Psalm 130:1–8 (ESV):
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.
Aren’t you grateful God does not keep an account of all of your wrongs?! For ‘who could stand’ if He did?
Only Jesus has the right to stand before God if The Lord ‘should mark iniquities’. For Jesus is the only one, ever, to have never sinned. The only way that you or I can talk to, stand before and have relationship with God is because of Jesus. There would have been no hope for you without the sacrifice of Jesus life to atone for all the wrongs you have committed. So thank God for Jesus! You can now stand before God as if you had never sinned, as if you were indeed Jesus, because when you surrender your life to God and accept the love and sacrifice of Jesus, who put to death all sin, God sees Jesus. ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ (2 Corinthians 5:21) You can know forgiveness and hope because you have ‘become the righteousness of God’ through Jesus - isn’t that incredible?!
God’s great kindness, love and sacrifice of being torn away from his only son, leads to your complete forgiveness. You may have times when you feel wretched, blemished, dirty or bad. Do not believe those feelings. Instead, learn to hope in God’s Word (v5). All throughout the Bible, God has been correcting, guiding, and forgiving people. He will forgive you too if you ask Him and trust in His son’s purity which wipes away all wrongdoing. You do not have to carry the load of sin or shame, you can say to yourself, 'with you there is forgiveness' so ‘in his word i hope’. Let God’s Word have more influence in your heart and mind than your own thoughts of who you are, so that your fears of not being good enough, of being bad or a perpetual sinner are put ot death as Jesus was. You can hope in God's Word, and you can know forgiveness.
To know this forgiveness and really accept it, this psalmist recognises it takes patience and commitment. For they write, ‘my soul waits for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word i hope’. You have to wait for the fullness of forgiveness to seep into your heart and mind. It is such great news that radically transforms you, that it takes time to change your perception of who you really are. In order to know the freedom of forgiveness wait for His hope to live in you as your mind is transformed to seeing who you are due to Jesus.
When you have wronged someone and apologised, the relief of being forgiven by them and given another chance is huge. The power of the words that show you are forgiven break off pain and despair, and bring restoration, relief and joy. Now, think about this; you have offended and wronged God countless times, yet He still chooses to forgive you! You can still approach Him and say sorry, He is not fed up of hearing it. For the reality is when you accepted that Jesus died for all your sins, he died for ALL your sins, therefore you are forgiven. You are even righteous in God’s eyes, just like Jesus is!
1 Peter 3:18 says; ‘For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit’. Your unrighteousness has been exchanged for righteousness. All that bad stuff that you see in you can be put to death - are you letting go of it? Jesus has already put it to death, and God doesn’t see it anymore, so why do you? You do not need to live carrying around sin and shame - it is not yours to carry - you gave it all to Jesus when you first trusted and believed him. You have the right and permission to live and believe that you are righteous! You can ‘hope in the Lord’ and know His ‘steadfast love’ and ‘plentiful redemption’. For you live in the days when God has redeemed all of mankind ‘from all his iniquities’ and you have 'become the righteousness of God'.
