So again a good morning to every one of you. I’ll like to acknowledge this morning friends who have written to me. Now we have brethren from India alright written to me saying that he and a group of his fellow pastors joined us online this worship. Like to welcome them too. So we are amazed by the working of the Lord that as we are unable to gather in person, but through these means, we are gathering people not just in this city or in this country but also people from all over the globe. And so I’ll like to again study with you the book of Psalms this morning. And this morning, we are looking at Psalm 130. Psalm 130. So again let me first read through this psalm. 

Psalm 130. “A Song of Ascents”, beginning in verse 1. “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared. I will wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning—yes, more than those who watch for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” Now let us again look to the Lord for help as we study His Word.

“Our Father in heaven, we thank You for the gathering of Your people this morning from all over the places. Lord, we thank You for such an opportunity. We thank You for such a means. Most of all, we thank You for Your Word that You have preserved for our benefit. And now we draw near to You through Your Word and we ask for understanding. And we ask that You will give us a heart of obedience that we’ll not just be hearers only but also be doers of Your Word. For these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright, Psalm 130. As again you might have noticed that this is another of the song of ascents, one of those songs that the pilgrims sing when they go up to Mount Zion in Jerusalem for their worship. But also, this psalm is what we call one of the seven penitential psalms. One of the seven penitential psalms. So the other penitential psalms are like Psalm 6, Psalm 32, Psalm 38, Psalm 51, Psalm 102, and Psalm 143. And perhaps of all these, the most well-known or familiar is Psalm 51, where we have the prayer of repentance by David where David cried out to the Lord and say: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness”.

Now penitential means repentance. And therefore, as the pilgrims ascend closer to the temple of God, to Mount Zion, a question probably read large in their mind. And the question could be the question raised in Psalm 24. Psalm 24:3, where in this psalm we have that haunting question as it were. We have that question that the psalmist asked: “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place?”. Now it seems that this is what Psalm 130 is about as they approached the temple of God on Mount Zion. As they come closer as it were to the presence of God, now this question comes to mind: Who may approach God? Who may come into His holy temple?

And so this psalm seems to reflect that thoughts and feelings of the pilgrims as they approach the presence of God. So to help us understand this psalm, I would use a few words alright- a few words to help us understand this psalm. And so let us begin. The first word is the word ‘trouble’- is the word ‘trouble’. We see that in verse 1. It begins this way: “Out of the depths”. Now this expression or this phrase is a phrase that reveals the emotions of the pilgrims here. It talks about the depths that they were in. Now “out of the depths” means they were thinking about the depths that they were in. They were in the depths. 

Now in the depths means trouble. And so the first thing that the pilgrims were thinking about was the trouble that they were in. They were thinking about themselves. Or here the psalmist is thinking about himself and the trouble that he is in. And that is what depth means. You reference to Psalm 69, we have a similar expression there. Psalm 69, the first two verses. Again we have the psalmist thinking about troubles. Psalm 69:1-2, the psalmist here cries out: “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.”.

Now that is the picture, and that is the same picture here in Psalm 130. The thinking here, the picture here is a person in deep waters, where the flood waters overflow him, where he is seeing that he is in great danger. And perhaps this morning as we come to worship our great and almighty God, now some of you may feel the same that you are in some kind of depths, in some kind of deep waters. Now your deep waters could be a number of things. Maybe some of you are in big trouble financially. You say: Oh Lord, I am in depth. Help me out of this depth. And so some may be in big trouble in terms of a relationship. You may be in this deep waters in this aspect of your life. Or you may be in deep waters in terms of your health.

Now we can surely think of many aspects of our life, where we might experience this same experience. Now we would like to ask at the very beginning here as the psalmist thinks about his problem, about the trouble that he is in. Now, what really is that problem that he’s thinking about? What is that deep trouble perhaps this morning that you are conscious of about yourself? What prompted him in other words to pray this prayer? Well, it is this. It is what he tells us in verse 3. He says out of the depths (in verse 1) I cry to You O Lord. I’m in big trouble. He asked the Lord to hear him, to be attentive to him and to the voice of his supplication. And then he tells us what that deep trouble is.

He says in verse 3: “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?”. Now, this is what prompted him to pray this prayer. This is what prompted him to cry out to the Lord and it is this. He says: “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities”. In other words, he is saying that Lord, if you should keep a record of my sin. Now that is what it means. Lord, if you should keep a record of all my wrongdoings, then I will be in big trouble. And so that begs the question: Does God keep a record of our sins? Now have you ever ask yourself that question? Now we live from day to day, and we are conscious perhaps of the many sins that we have committed. And perhaps many of the sins are hidden sins.

Nobody knows of the things that you have done or that you are doing at the moment. Nobody knows what is in your heart or what you are thinking in your mind. But God knows. But does He bother? Does He keep a record of these sins? Does He think about the sins of the world? Does God think about the evil that is being committed in the world today? We know that this world is filled with evil. Many crimes out there, corruption, and so on. We know that this world is filled with evil. Does God (that is the question) take note of every evil in this world? And does God take note of every evil, every sin that you are committing or have committed?

Now as we read the Bible, and if you read your Bible, there is every indication that He does. Every indication in the Bible that He does take note of the sin committed by every individual in this world. Look for example at the list given by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 and there beginning in verse 29. In verse 29, Paul wrote: “being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful”.

Now I’m not sure how does this passage here in Romans 1 affects you as your read Paul writing these sins one by one. What does that mean? And how often do we even think of every single individual sin that is committed in this world? And when we think in terms of a list, we think of the list of things that are being done, committed by people in this world that is against God. We think of God-haters. What about ourselves? Do we even list down the sins that we ourselves have committed against God? Do we take note? Do we ourselves even take note of the very things that we have committed against God?

But whether you take note or not, but what the Bible tells us is this, that God takes note. God in His holy Word bothers to put it down one by one. And we know that this is even not an exhaustive list, but Paul here takes the time to write down, to name them one by one the kind of sins that have been committed by the people in this world. And then when you look at Paul’s writing or Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in First Corinthians chapter 6. First Corinthians chapter 6, beginning in verse 9. Now Paul writes here: “Do you not know that the unrighteous (do not or) will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. For neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, or homosexuals, or sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”.

Again you see the very listing of the sin committed by the people tells us that God remembers them. God takes note of them. God identified every single sin that had been committed by these people. He knows them, and He takes note of them. And then we read in Galatians chapter 5. The reason why I draw your attention to these various passages is to tell you how again and again God is not ignoring sin. God is not brushing this aside, but God is raising them up. God is putting them down in writing. God wants us to know that He knows. He wants us to know that He takes note of all these sins.

And so when Paul writes to the Galatians in chapter 5 beginning in verse 19, and here he says: “For the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you before, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice (such a thing or) such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”. Does God take note of sin? As I said, there is every indication- every indication that He does. But He bothers to list them one by one. He bothers to remind us what He is taking note of here.

And then we read in Revelations. Revelations chapter 20, and what are we told there in Revelation 20:12-13? Revelation 20:12, John writes: “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.”. Can you see that is repeated there in verse 12: “according to their works as written in the books”. And verse 13: “they will be judged, each one according to their works”.

Yes, God takes note. God keeps a record, in other words. He keeps a record of every single sin that you and I have committed. And on the Day of Judgement, those sins will be revealed. We will be judged, the Bible says, according to our works. And God is a righteous judge. He sees. He takes note. He thinks about the evil that’s being committed by people and by us. Now that’s what the psalmist is talking about here in Psalm 130. That’s why he is crying out: Out of my depths, O Lord, save me! Hear me! Be attentive to me, for I am in deep trouble. And that trouble that he is thinking about is his iniquities. He knows that God knows all the wrong that he has done. He can hide nothing from God, and God keeps a record of that.

Lord, if you should mark iniquity, and yes, the Lord does mark iniquities. He does keep a record of them, and that’s what the psalmist is talking about, and that’s what he sees about himself. And that is his big problem, and that is the depth that he is in. I want to ask you this morning. I know that you have probably many of your own problems in life. We all have problems in this world. But the problems that this psalmist want us to see that all of us have this problem that if God takes note of our sins; if He keeps a record, and if on the Day of Judgement everyone will be judged according to the things that we have done, we are doomed. And that is the big problem.

So, I want to ask you: Do you see that that is also your problem? That is also your problem. I say this psalm is a penitential psalm. It’s a psalm of repentance. It’s a psalm that is crying out to God for forgiveness. So, do you pray? Do you pray a penitential prayer? How often do you come to God and pray like the psalmist here: Out of my depths, O Lord, hear me. Be attentive to me, for I am in deep trouble, for I am a man of sin, for I am the chief of sinners.

How often do you come to God and are fully aware of your true spiritual state? Or put it another way: How much do your sins bother you? For the psalmist, it bothers him. His sins bother him because he knows that the Lord knows; because he knows that the Lord marked those iniquities. And so that is the first thing we see in this psalm, and that is the word ‘trouble’. He sees his big problems in his life. And that’s why he cries out.

Now the second word to help us understand this psalm is the word ‘hope’. While the psalmist is in deep waters as it were in the depths, and from that depth, he cried out to God. But there is hope. He knows that the Lord marks iniquity. And because He marks, no one could stand, or no one can stand. But the psalmist has hope. And what is his hope? What is his hope? You see, when the psalmist says who could stand, now the psalmist is thinking of the consequence of it. When we think of our sin and when we remember that God takes note of them, now what would be the consequence of it? Now perhaps the psalmist is thinking of Genesis 6. If the Lord, he says, regards our iniquity or should mark our iniquity, now what then would be the consequence of it?

Now we are reminded in Genesis chapter 6 when God marked their iniquities, we are told in verse 5 that “the LORD saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”. We are told that “the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And so the LORD said, “I will destroy man”. “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth”. Now the psalmist is aware that if the Lord should mark our iniquity, now that would be the consequence.

The Lord will wipe us out. The Lord would punish us just as in the days of Noah when the Lord took note of their sins and sent the flood to wipe them out from the surface of the earth. Perhaps the psalmist was also reminded by Genesis 19. Genesis 19, and here in verses 12 and 13. Genesis 19:12-13, we are told: “Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, whom you have in the city—take them out of this place!”. Why? Here is the angel telling Lot: Get these people out of this place! Why? Because the Lord has taken note of the sins of these cities, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God marked their sins. And then what?

Verse 13: “For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”. Now that is what it means when God takes note of our sin that God will punish. And so, we read on in verse 24 of Genesis 19: “Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.”. Now that is a very, very vivid and very dramatic scene of destruction that everything in his path was destroyed when fire and brimstones were rained down from heaven. And perhaps that is what the psalmist had in mind.

And we can actually read on through the Bible and see that if the Lord should mark- if the Lord should mark our iniquity; if He should keep a record of our sin, now that is the consequence. Now that is what will happen. And that’s why he cries out: So who could stand if God should mark? Then we come to Psalm 130 again. Now that was in his mind when he says who could stand. And then in verse 4, there is the ‘but’. But there is forgiveness. Now that is the good news of the gospel of God’s grace. That is the good news of the gospel of God’s grace. The Bible, again and again, reminds us like this psalm here that we are all in deep trouble, for we are all sinners.

We have sinned against the almighty God, the all-holy God, and we will face His wrath. “But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.” And that is the hope, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is what we see in the New Testament also when Paul writes to his spiritual son, Timothy in First Timothy. 1 Timothy 1:15-16, and Paul had the same thought in mind. He thinks of his own sin, and he thinks of the grace of God. 1 Timothy 1:15-16, Paul writes: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.”.

So what is Paul saying here? Paul is saying what the psalmist is saying here that I have come to see my sin. I’m the chief of sinners, and I am in big trouble. I am in big trouble, but here is the grace of God. Though I’m the chief of sinners, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners like me. And that is what the psalmist is talking about. But there is forgiveness. The same thing written by John in his letter in First John chapter 1. 1 John 1:8-9, John writes: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”.

Now we see this echoed, again and again, all through the Scriptures. That is the message of the Bible. That is the message of the church. That is our Christian message to the world that though we are in deep waters, we’re in big trouble because we have sinned against the almighty God and we are facing His judgement. But there is hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what is this hope based on? What is this hope based on? How do we know? Back to Psalm 130:5, where the psalmist continues. He says: “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, for in His word I do hope.”.

Now that is the word here ‘hope’. Yes, we’re in big trouble because of our sin and also because the Lord keeps a record of our sin and that He would judge us for our sin. But there is hope. And where do we find this hope? What is this hope based on? The psalmist says here in verse 5: “in His word do I hope”. In His Word. You see, our hope is not found in our circumstances. Our hope is not found in our feelings, and then we feel hopeful or we just feel good.

But our hope is based on His sure Word, the sure Word of God. If you take away the Word of God; if you take away the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you are taking away hope from us. That’s what the psalmist is saying. It’s based on the revelation of God. God has revealed to us. God has given us His promise of His Son. God has revealed the gospel to us, and that is what we are holding on to, and that’s what we cling on to because that is our hope.

Now that leads us to the third word to help us understand this psalm. There is trouble that the psalmist is in, and there is that hope that he sees that is being revealed in the Holy Word of God. The third word is ‘wait’. So, what should you do now? What did the psalmist do? We are told here that he waits. Verse 5 said: “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits”. And then verse 6, he repeats that: “My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning— Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.”. Now the psalmist says that is what I would do now. I will wait upon the Lord. Whom do you wait for? Whom was the psalmist waiting for?

And the answer here: I will wait for the LORD. And remember the word ‘LORD’ here refers to Yahweh. So, he’s thinking of the covenant-keeping God. He is thinking of the God who has revealed Himself to Israel. Yahweh. He said that is the God, the God who has revealed Himself to us or to me. Yahweh, I will wait for Yahweh. I will wait upon Him. And how do you wait for Him? Well, verse 6 tells us, I will wait like the watchmen waiting, “more than the watchmen”. Now here the expression those who wait for the morning is a reference to the watchmen.

Now you see, the watchmen will be doing their rounds or their duties at night, and the watchmen will wait till the morning and so that he can go home. But he waits with hope. He waits with hope because he knows that the morning will come and then his duty done and then he will be back home and will have his good rest. Now that is the picture used here. He said I will wait. I will wait with expectancy because I know that He is a faithful God. I will wait in faith because that will surely come. And so we see in verse 7: “O Israel, hope in the LORD”. So he is now calling the other people. He is saying that: “O Israel, hope in Yahweh”. Why?

“For with Yahweh there is mercy”. He is saying that He is a faithful God. He is a God who will surely keep His promise. And then he says here: “For with Him is abundant redemption (or plentiful redemption).”. Now, these are rich words: ‘mercy’ and ‘redemption’. Now the word ‘redemption’ is a picture-word. It’s a word which means buyback, and that is how the Lord is going to show mercy to us. We know that He is rich in mercy, and He is rich in redemption. So how shall He redeem us? How shall He redeem us? What was the psalmist thinking about? What is he calling us to look forward to in his days? He’s telling the people of God we should hope in God who has revealed Himself to us. He is a faithful God, and there is redemption. They’re looking forward to something. What is that?

Now when we come to the gospel of Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1, we see that this psalm, verse 8, where the psalmist says: And He shall redeem Israel from their iniquities.”. He shall redeem Israel from iniquities. Who is Israel here? Israel is a reference to the people of God- to the people of God. And so, if you read verse 8 of Psalm 130 again, he said He shall redeem the people of God or His people from their sins. Now that seems to be echoed by Matthew in his gospel in chapter 1 and verse 21- in verse 21. In verse 20 we are told the angel appeared to Joseph, and he said to Joseph: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”.

And then he says in verse 21: “And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He shall save His people from their sins.”. That is the exact quote as it were from Psalm 130. He shall save Israel from their iniquities. God’s promise is fulfilled here in the gospel of Matthew when Jesus came, and that is what God is saying to the people. That is your Saviour. And that is what the psalmist is thinking about here. We hope. We are like the watchmen. We wait and we wait in hope, for God is rich in mercy, for God is abundant in redemption. He will come. He will save us.

And today as New Testament people, we see that that is already done. God has sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to this world to die on the cross in order to redeem His people from their sin. Yes, we are people with sin. We are people in deep trouble. We are filled with iniquity. The Lord knows that. He keeps a record of that. He will punish us for that. But because of His grace, He has sent His Son to this world to die on the cross to redeem us from our iniquities. And let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we thank You again for the gospel that is being so clearly spelled out here by the psalmist to show to us though we are people who are in deep trouble, though we are deep in our sin, though we are the chief of sinners. Every day in our life we know that we do things that we ought not to and we are not doing things that we ought to. We have sinned against You. Indeed, we are like people in deep waters and the floods have overflow our heads, The sins have grown up to the heavens.

And we pray that we would come to You like the psalmist with a penitential spirit, to come with a heart of repentance to cry out to You. And we cry out to You because there is hope; because You are a God rich in mercy, abundance in redemption. And because of that, You have sent Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to this world so that sinners like us may be redeemed, for these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.