Out of the Depths
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Introduction
Introduction
In we have really a Penitential Pilgrim Song.
Penitential Psalms are
6, 32, 38,51, 102,130,143
These are Psalms of confession or of repentance
It is also a Pilgrim song, it is one of the 15 songs of Ascents
120-134
This songs would be recited as pilgrims would make the pilgrimage up to Jerusalem for the feasts
And in many ways this is doubly a song of ascent as the psalmist begins in the depths and ends in the heigths
This song has also been a favorite song of many
Early church father Augustine
Reformer John Calvin
Also the Reformer Martin Luther
Luther stated that he loved psalms that declared God’s forgiveness to sinners and that once while reading he saw the gate of heaven opening wide to him.
Another interesting thing about this Psalm is that this Psalm was used in the conversion of John Wesley. Wesley was a minster but he was unconverted and one of the things that the Lord used in bringing conviction upon Wesley was an evening service at St. Paul’s Cathedral where Wesley heard the choir singing this Psalm and especially, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord who could stand?”
Wesley said at that moment it hit him that he knew that he could not stand before the Lord.
So this has been a favorite Psalm of many,
Luther even wrote a hymn using and we will actually visit an updated version of that hymn at the end of the sermon and we will sing it as our closing song.
But as I have already mentioned, we see the Psalmist beginning in the depths and going to the heights and we will notice that the only things that gets him from the depths to the heights is the good news of divine forgiveness.
Out of the Depths
Out of the Depths
Out of the Depths
Out of the Depths
This psalm begins with this phrase right of the gate.
The depths, these are the deep places the dark places, the hard places.
Have you ever been in the depths? Sure you have, we all have
What do the depths look like?
depression
despair
struggles (financial, physical, emotional)
sickness, pain
death of a loved one
maybe sometimes you just look at the world around us and all of the craziness, all of the chaos and you just feel overwhelmed
When we are in the depths we feel overwhelmed, we can feel helpless
If we continue to read here we see why the psalmist was in the depths, because of his sin against God
How about you have you ever felt in the depths because of your sin? Feel overwhelmed, feel like you are undone before a holy God.
This is one of the things that happens when the Lord is at work bringing someone to Christ, He cast them into the depths if you will, He opens their eyes to see their sin and to see the wrath of God that is against them because of their sin, He opens their eyes to their hopelessness and their helplessness
If we continue to read here we see why the psalmist was in the depths, because of his sin against God
How about you have you ever felt like you were in the depths because of your sin?
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your sin against a Holy God and the wrath of God that was against you because of your sin?
This is one of the things that God will do when He is bringing someone to Christ, He will open their eyes to their hopelessness and their helplessness before a holy God.
My testimony of how I felt if the whole world had been snatched out from under before and I felt bare and exposed before a holy God.
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear (that is amazing grace that casts us into the depths)
Have you ever felt that? every child of God has
But not only that there are even times in the Christian life when we feel that again, maybe it is that besetting sin that continues to plague you
maybe it is the deceitfulness of sin, some sin that promised you so much and you believed the lie and now you have been left standing there holding empty promises again after that sin drug you into the depths
There are times in our lives as Christians when the Lord pulls back more of our heart and exposes again the sinfulness within and we are reminded of how sinful we really are and we feel that we are in the depths again
Brother, sister in Christ remember that being in the depths is not a bad thing if it causes us to look to the Lord
We will notice three things about the psalmist in the depths
Notice who he cried out to
To you
Notice the psalmist does not look within for strength, he does not look around for strength, instead he looks up he looks to God
To whom do you cry when you are in the depths?
Do you cry out to God?
What are we prone to do? When in the depths people will try to go to others, prone to look within, drugs, television, or some sin to self medicate?
Some people wallow in self pity or blame others
But what are we to do? We are to cry out to God
2. Who is this God to whom he cries, who is the one to whom he looks for encouragement?
LORD, Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, the covenant keeping God, the God who is faithful to all of His promises
Yahweh is El Shaddai according to , He is God Almighty the God who is able, the God who is strong to deliver His people and to provide for His people
Lord, Adonai, that is Lord, Master, the Sovereign One, the Ruler of the universe.
In the depths the psalmist does not look to a god who may can help, I hope he can help
No he cries out to the Lord God, to the Sovereign ruler of the universe.
What a comfort brothers and sisters to know that when we are in the depths we can cry out to the Lord God, to our Covenant God who is the ruler over all creation
And to know that if we are in Christ then this God hears our cries and that He is working all things together for our good.
Notice the longing of the psalmist for God to hear (v.2)
Have you ever felt that way as your cried out to God?
Maybe you have felt that God did not hear your cries to Him.
Brother and sister in Christ, we can know that in Christ, when we cry out to the Father He hears us
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
But in v.3 you see the tension that the psalmist feels? Oh LORD if you should mark iniquities, that is if you keep track of my sin, if you are keeping a record of my sin then i can not cry out to you and expect deliverance, instead i should expect to be destroyed in the depths.
The Good News of Divine Forgiveness
The Good News of Divine Forgiveness
We see this in v.4
Notice the word but, this is one of the greatest words in all of scripture
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2.1-
What is the psalmist saying here? If You were not a redeeming and restoring God, if You were not a forgiving God then I could not stand before You, and I would be overwhelmed and destroyed in the depths,
But with you there is pardon/forgiveness
Interesting thing here, the LXX uses the word ilasmos which is the word that is translated propitiation
This word is used 4 times in the NT
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Discuss the meaning of this word, this is a word that speaks of substitution, that Christ died in our place, that He bore the wrath that we deserved
This is a bloody word
But there is only forgiveness because of the bloody work of our Lord Jesus Christ
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
This is the gospel brothers and sisters, we were in the depths because of our sin and we cried out to God.
In God’s grace and mercy, instead of laying our sins upon us to destroy us in the depths the good news of the bible is that the Lord laid our iniquities upon Christ, that He became sin for us and that the wrath of God was poured out upon Him
So that we might be forgiven and that God may rescue us from the depths.
That we may be rescued, that we may be washed, that we may be made whole
This is one of the clearest places in the OT that teaches us of the redeeming grace of God.
Are you burdened by your sin? Are you weighted down by your sin?
Our God has provided atonement
O believer are you burdened by our besetting sin? Have you been reminded of your sinfulness and does Satan whisper in your ear reminding you of your sin telling you of the death that you deserve?
Look to Christ and remember that there is forgiveness with God in Christ!
The only reason
Into the Heights
Into the Heights
Wait for who?
For the LORD
This verb for wait speaks of eager anticipation, of a longing, a hopeful longing
Same verb Jacob uses
I wait for your salvation, O Lord.
Instead of dread, despair and sorrow there is great hope now because of the promises of God
The psalmist says I hope in Your Word of Lord
Just as the watchman watches carefully through the night and longs for the rising of the sun so also the psalmist keeps His eyes upon the promises of the Lord longing for the Lord to come in power.
What was the psalmist longing for? full deliverance from his sin, the day when sin would be no more? The day when there would be no more darkness, no more despair, no more sorrow, no more heartache?
Brothers and sisters we experience the depths now do we not, there are times when we feel hopeless or maybe at times when we feel despair
Brothers and sisters in those times we need to remember who our God is and what He has done for us in Christ Jesus our Lord
Oh brothers and sisters, we need to remember the hope that we have in Christ, that there is coming a day when the Lord will return and we will be fully and finally freed from sin and from the curse
There is coming a day when all things will be made new
Oh how we ought to long for that day, how we ought to long for the coming of our Lord
We ought to long for it as a watchman longs for the coming of the morning.
Here we see the psalmist soaring with the heights of hope
Notice as well the psalmist soars as he remembers that with the Lord there is Plentiful Redemption
Plentiful Redemption
His redeeming love for His people will not run out.
will not run out.
The redeeming love of God is infinite
We need not fear exhausting the steadfast love of the Lord
Brothers and sisters He will redeem us from all our iniquities (v.8)
Our sins they are many but His mercy is more
Amen?
Brothers and sisters
Let us soar in the heights of God’s love
His redeeming love is plentiful
His redeeming love brings hope that can never be taken away
Do you know this love?
Are you in the depths this morning unbeliever?
praise God if you are it is His mercy to you, run to Christ
Are you in the depths this morning believer?
Are you beat down? Is there sorrow, is there heartache, is there pain?
Oh remember the love and the hope that God has given you in Christ
We are going to close singing this song
Song
Song
Out of the depths I cry to You,
Lord, hear my voice of pleading;
Bend down Your gracious ear, I pray,
Your humble servant heeding.
If You remember each misdeed,
And of each thought and word take heed,
Who can remain before You?
Only by grace, by grace alone.
Your pardon is a gift of love,
Your grace alone must save us,
Our works will not remove our guilt,
The strictest life would fail us.
Let none in deeds or merits boast,
But let us own the Holy Ghost
for He alone can change us:
Only by grace, by grace alone.
Though great our sins and sore our woes
His grace much more aboundeth;
His helping love no limit knows,
Our utmost need it soundeth.
Our kind and faithful Shepherd He,
Who will set all His people free
From all their sin and sorrow:
Only by grace, by grace alone.