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When we don’t just “say-a-prayer” but instead “cry-out-to-God”

 

I’m so thankful that Psalm 130 is in our Bible. It’s more than a prayer. It’s a cry from the heart to God! It’s nor the typical liturgical prayer. It’s not a prayer with perfect wording, solemn, lofty and poetic, with concepts worthy of a pew prayer book. It’s an anguished, desperate appeal to God for His help.

 

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!

O Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy!

If you, O Lord, kept record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness;

Therefore you are feared.

I wait for the Lord,

my soul waits,

and in His word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,

more than watchmen wait for the morning.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,

for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

 

Three pearls of truth

 

      The name of God appears 8 times in 8 verses! In utter desperation the man doesn’t hesitate to cry out to God. He doesn’t go the Temple. He’s not looking for a priest or someone who can pray for him. He’s without hope and in reckless abandon dares to cry out to God with all that’s in him. Nothing else matters – only God hearing him!

 

      The God to whom he cries, even though holy, forgives. There’s no hint of a discount or any thought of a negotiation – God simply forgives, entirely. And yet, at the same time, he’s a God who will be feared. There’s no generosity bigger than that of the last line: “He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins” Where can anyone fine such limitless love?

 

      The writer’s cry is to God alone. He’s not waiting for anyone else. Other alternatives are not even on the screen. They don’t exist. Only God can help and it’s to Him that he cries. Even if he has to wait – he’ll wait. Even if the night is pitch black and the skies tempestuous he’s not be distracted. Even more than a longing watchman looks for the morning, he’s determined to hear from God!

 

In our own critical times of desperation, this Psalm tells us that there is a place of hope that will not let us down!

 Dear reader, please don’t hesitate to make this Psalm yours!

 

Paul Finch, pastor