Let us turn to God's word once
again, and I want to read the 130th Psalm. Psalm 130, a song
of degrees. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, He shall stand, but there
is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait
for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope. My
soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the
morning. I say more than they that watch for the morning. Let
Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy,
and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel, from
all is iniquity. We have the songs of degrees
then in the Psalms 120 to 134. In fact we were considering last
time the 123rd Psalm, one of the songs of degrees. And I want us now to turn to
this other psalm that we've just read, Psalm 130, a song of degrees. Remember what we said by way
of opening remark last time, now that the word degrees is
literally steps or ascents, a song of steps, a song of ascents.
And it is said that these particular psalms were those that would
be sung by the priests as they were ascending the steps as they
entered into the temple of the Lord. But also it is said that
it is likely that these psalms were also sung by the men as
they made their journey to the place where God's tabernacle
was and then where the temple was as they made their way to
Shiloh and then subsequently to Jerusalem because as we see
in Deuteronomy chapter 16 and verse 16 they were to observe
those great three festivals every year all the males were to go
to the tabernacle to observe the feasts of Passover and of
weeks, or Passover, as we sometimes call it, and the tabernacles. And as they made the journey
to that place, to the tabernacle, to the temple, they too might
sing these particular psalms. But as we come to consider the
130th psalm, I want us, in particular tonight, to take up the spiritual
significance of the words, a spiritual interpretation. Isn't this a
psalm that sets before us something of the ascendings of prayer? Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. That then is the theme that I
want to center your attention upon, the ascendings of prayer. and first of all to see that
here we have the soul of the psalmist mounting up on high
here he expresses something of his ardent desires something
of his holy longings after God and we are reminded of that ladder
of which we read in the 28th chapter of the book of Genesis
where Jacob of course has left his father and his mother in
a sense he has to escape because of the anger of his brother Esau
he had stolen the birthright remember and his father sends
him away now to his mother's family that there he might take
a wife and as he makes that journey he comes to the place that was
then called Las, which he renames Bethel because of his experience
when he sees that remarkable vision in his dream, the ladder
that is set up on the earth. He dreamed and behold a ladder
set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold
the angels of God ascending and descending on it and behold the
Lord stood above it and said I am the Lord God of Abraham
my father and the God of Isaac the land whereon thou liest to
thee will I give it unto thy seed and he goes on to speak
of that seed in thy seed shall all the families of the earth
be blessed ultimately of course that seed the seed of Jacob the
seed of Abraham the seed of the woman It is the Lord Jesus Christ
who is being spoken of, who is being promised, but we think
in particular of the significance of the ladder and how low that
ladder is set up. It has been said that the ladder
is set up a little higher than hell. It's set up upon the earth,
but we're told, are we not, by John at the end of his first
epistle, how the whole world lies in wickedness. And yet the
ladder is set up on this wicked earth. It dwells in the wicked
one. But God's promise is that He
will yet bring His children up, even from the depths of the earth. Psalm 71 and verse 20. The Psalmist
cries out, Thou shalt bring me up again from the depths of the
earth. When we think of the depths of
the earth of course we have to take account of the mighty oceans
and the great depths of the seas and remember in another psalm
that 107th psalm we have mention of those who are doing business
in great waters Psalm 107, going as a natural interpretation,
it speaks very clearly of the providential government of God
over men in all the various spheres of their lives, and amongst that
we have mention of those who are mariners. But surely there
is a deeper meaning to the words that we have in the psalm. There's
a spiritual significance also. And there in the 107th Psalm
we are told of those who are doing their business in the great
waters. They that go down to the sea
in ships that do business in great waters. The Psalmist says,
These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.
For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth
up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven They
go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because
of trouble. Isn't this a description often
of the troubled soul of the child of God in the midst of all the
conflicts that he has with the world and with Satan and with
sin? They go down again to the depths.
Their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and
fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end.
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth
them out of their distresses. He maketh a storm occur so that
the ways thereof are still. God hears them. God answers them
when they cry unto He then is the psalmist out of the depths,
he says. Have I cried unto thee, O Lord? Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. I suppose the most striking example
in all of the scripture of one who is doing that business in
the great waters is the prophet Jonah when he was disobedient. and sought to flee from the call
of God, sought to flee from the presence of the Lord. And instead
of going to Nineveh, where God had commanded him to go as his
servant, he flees in the very opposite direction and goes to
the extreme western end of the Great Sea, the Mediterranean,
to Tarshish. But there, as he is on board
the ship, we see how the Lord pursues him and takes a great
storm out of his treasures and cast it after that ship and our
Jonah is taken up by those men taken up and cast into the raging
sea and swallowed by a great fish and then we find him in
the very depths of the sea but there he prays he's brought
to pray to the Lord as he's in these deep places that prayer
of Jonah's in the second chapter Jonah prayed unto the Lord his
God out of the fish's belly and said I cried by reason of mine
affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly
of hell cried I and thou heardest my voice for thou hast cast me
into the deep in the midst of the seas and the floods compassed
me about all thy billows, and thy waves passed over me. He
sees God's hand in all of these things. Then I said, I am cast
out of thy sight. Yet I will look again toward
thy holy temple. He had clearly looked to God
previously. He had looked to the holy temple
of the Lord. But here he is determined again. I will look again Toward
thy holy temple the waters compassed me about, he says. Even to the
soul the depths closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped
about my head. I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains. The earth with her bars was about
me forever. Yet, as thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God, when my soul fainted within me
I remembered the Lord. and my prayer came in unto thine
holy temple. He didn't know where the temple
of the Lord was, of course, but he is a spiritual man in spite
of his backsliding and his rebellion. He was a man who had prayed before,
sought God many times, and when he speaks of turning again towards
the holy temple of the Lord. It's not the literal temple there
at Jerusalem that he is looking to. It's him who is the great
antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember how in John 2 he speaks
of his body as that temple. Here is Jonah, then he looks
to the Lord. He is a wonderful example, I
say, of that person in the 107th Psalm who is doing business in
those great waters. And how applicable are the words
of the Psalmist here then in the 130th Psalm to Jonah's case. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. And God does hear his people.
That ladder is set up upon the earth. reaches down into the
lowest part of the earth, just a little above hell itself. God says in another Psalm, Psalm
68, I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea. There is the promise of the Lord.
Whatever depths God's people feel themselves to be in, when
they're at the wit's end, and they know where to turn, yet
God is the one who is able to deliver them from all their troubles. We know that there is a great
mystery in the ways of God. His dealings are indeed past
our finding out. Psalm 77, thy ways in the sea,
thy path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known.
But what do we do when we're in those situations that we cannot
begin to fathom? We cannot understand, we can't
unravel the dealings of God. We have to look to Him and call
upon Him and cry to Him. The soul is to mount up there
from the very depths and to look to God in the heavens and to
desire to be found upon that rock, even the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a wonderful word at
the beginning of Psalm 61. Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer from the
end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed
lead me to the rock that is higher than I here then we have something
of the the mounting up of the soul here we have something of
those ascendings that are true prayer when one is able to ascend
out of the depths and to come and appear before God now In
the second place I want to say something with regards to the
motivation to wait upon God in such prayers as this. What is
it that would move us to such cryings after God when we find
ourselves in these deep places? And here we have to observe the
great objectivity of faith. What is it that encourages us
and moves us to pray? It is God Himself, of course,
and it is God as He has revealed Himself in His words. Verse 5, I wait for the Lord. My soul does wait, and in His
words do I hope. We see two things in this particular
verse. We have mention of the Lord,
and it is the Great Covenant name. It's Lord in capital letters,
that is, the name Jehovah, the unchanging God, the God of the
Covenant, the Great I Am, whose purpose always stands firm and
true. He's faithful to his words. We should encourage ourselves
in the Lord. This is what David did. He encouraged himself in
the Lord. is God. But then also there is
that reference to his word, in his word do I hope. It is here in the scriptures
of course ultimately that God has made himself known, he's
revealed himself. We see something of his greatness
and his glory in his works, in his works of creation, his works
of providence. He certainly have a voice. The heavens declare his glory
says the Psalmist. and the firmament, the whole
host of the heavens show his handiwork. He is the creator
God and creation speaks and so do does providence at the end
of that 107th psalm. We have that verse, who so is
wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the
loving kindness of the Lord. We are to be observant of God's
providences and we'll see something of his character in all his works
but ultimately We see him, we learn of him in the words, in
the scriptures. I wait for the Lord, my soul
does wait, and in his word do I hope. Now who is the God who
declares himself in the scripture? Well I want us to observe some
three things concerning God in this particular psalm. First
of all, we see clearly that he is the God of forgiveness. He
is the God who forgives. Verse 3, If thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Oh, this is not slavish
fear. This is not filial fear. The
mark of the godly man. who fears God and fears Him because
he is a sin-pardoning God. The experiences of so many of
the saints recorded in the scripture when God is pleased to reveal
Himself, so gracious a God. There are several examples we
could turn to but just one in particular I think of Theta and
that miraculous draft of fishes. In Luke chapter 5 how God incarnates here reveals
himself in the miracle he tells these experienced fishermen to
launch out into the deep and let down their nets for a draft
Simon Peter says we have toiled all the night and have taken
nothing nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net and they
take such a draft of fishes that the nets begin to break and they
have to call their partners to come and help them and then When
Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished,
and all that were with him at the draught of fishes which they
had taken. Oh, what fear there is here,
you see. This is that fear of the Lord that is feeling. He
feels his sin before the Lord Jesus Christ. as Christ reveals
himself in all the glories of his deity. There is forgiveness with thee,
that thou mayest be feared. The Bible tells us that God is
a sin-pardoning God, and we see it ultimately in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the great sin offering. But there are those
remarkable statements that we have in the Old Testament Scriptures,
wonderful verses, are they not, at the end of the book of Micah?
Doeth a God, like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage,
he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in
mercy. He will turn again, he will have
compassion upon us, he will subdue all our iniquities, and thou
wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea thou wilt
perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou
hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old who is a pardoning
God like thee or who has grace so rich and free and then another
scripture in the book of the prophet Jeremiah there in chapter
50 how we need to to dig into these books you see there's much
that's difficult for us to understand in the prophetic scriptures and
yet what gems of truth we find if we do but trouble ourselves
to read these things there in Jeremiah 50 and verse 20 in those
days and in that time, this is the gospel day those days, that
time, the great day of the Lord in those days and in that time
saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and
there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve."
He is a God who pardons sins. He is a God of forgivenesses.
The God who reveals himself here in this particular psalm. There
is forgiveness that thou mayest be feared, but then He is also
a merciful God. His mercy is spoken of. Verse
7. With the Lord there is mercy. Now if mercy is with the Lord,
what are we to do? We should seek that we might
obtain that from Him. If He has great stores of mercy,
we should come and we should ask that we might partake of
those mercies. We need to come then with the
publicans in Luke 18 and remember what Christ says concerning the
publican is the justified man this is a man who is justified
who comes with that prayer the prayer of the publican Luke chapter
18 verse 13 the publican standing afar off we're told would not
lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven but smote upon his breast
saying God be merciful to me a sinner and Christ says this
is the man who goes to his house justified or to make that prayer
our own prayer God be merciful to me a sinner literally God
be propitious God be propitious to me a sinner I know that propitious or propitiation
you might say is a technical term it's a theological word
but it's a biblical word and we certainly need to familiarize
ourselves with these words that we find in the scripture. I remember
the late pastor here remarking to me once that on regenerate
men they have their hobbies and their interest and if they're
interested in in motor cars they will get a manual on the vehicle
and they'll read it and they can understand all the technical
terms they have such an interest in it but what of the people
of God do we trouble ourselves to understand these technical
terms the significance of the word propitiation as it has to
do with that God who is a merciful God and a God who pardons sins the two words that are similar
and yet different with regards to the great work of the Lord
Jesus Christ are the words propitiation and expiation. The word expiation
has to do with the guilt of our sin and
by the shedding of his precious blood the Lord Jesus Christ has
dealt with that matter, the guilt of the sins of his people. It's the man-wood aspect then
that we think of when we take up that expression, expiate,
our guilt. Proficiation really deals with
the God-wood aspect of sin. How that God, who is the Holy
One, He must deal with that sin. He's angry. with the wicked,
his wrath then must be appeased. That's what propitiation suggests,
being at peace. It's a technical term, yes, but
it's a biblical term. We have it, of course, for example,
in John's first epistle, there in chapter 2 and verse 2, he
says concerning Christ, he is the propitiation for our sins. And then again in chapter 4 and
verse 10, here in his love, not that we love God, but that he
loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Oh God so loves the world, you
see, that he pours out his wrath against sin upon the very person
of his only begotten and well-beloved son. What an amazing display
it is. And that prayer, you see, of
the publican God, be propitious. Or where do we find mercy? We
find it when we come to God and plead Christ and all that Christ
is and all that Christ Himself has done. With the Lord there
is mercy. He is a forgiving God, He is
a merciful God. Thirdly, He is also a redeeming
God. the end of verse 7 and verse
8 with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who has come
of course and paid the redemption price he has ransomed his people and
how has he ransomed them? by paying the debts that was
owed to the holy law of God. The ransom isn't paid to the
devil, the devil has no rights, he's a usurper. The ransom is
paid to God, it's paid to God revealed in his holy law. And how that law must be satisfied,
the law that says the soul that sinneth it shall die. The wages
of sin is death, that's what the law says. But when the fullness
of time was come, God sends His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Oh, the Lord
Jesus has come, and in that law place He has stood, and He has
paid the debt, and satisfied all the demands of God's holy
law. What remarkable gospel words
are those of Elihu in Job 33 verse 24 following read that
passage there at the end of verse 24 deliver him from going down
to the pit I have found a ransom out of the depths have I cried
unto thee O Lord there is deliverance you see from the deeps deliverance
from the pit because God has found a ransom with him is plenteous
redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Now, this redemption is very
much bound up, of course, with propitiation. In Romans chapter
3, and there in verses 24 and 25, we read of these things together. Romans 3 verse 24, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. Christ has not only paid that
debt that was owed to the Holy Lord of God Christ has also satisfied
God's justice and God's wrath it has been poured out upon him
that just wrath of God and he has borne it and so the sinner
is now reconciled to God here is the God then who reveals himself
in scripture, revealing himself in the psalm. He is the God of
forgiveness. There is forgiveness with the
Lord. He is the God of mercy. With
the Lord there is mercy. He is the God of redemption.
With Him is plenteous redemption. And what are we to do? As these
things are said before us, we are to cry to Him. Out of the
depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. Hear my voice, let thy
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. We can be
so taken up with ourselves and our circumstances and what we
need to do of course is to look away from ourselves and to contemplate
something of the character of the God that we are privileged
to have dealings with, the God that we pray to. The blessed
objectivity then of praying faith. We've considered then these two
things, the mounting up of the soul in prayer, the ascendings
of prayer, even coming up out of the death, taking that first
step on the ladder that he set up upon the earth and his top
reaching to heaven, the motivation to such waiting upon God. And finally I want to just mention
some of the marks of waiting upon God. Verse 5, I wait for
the Lord, my soul doth wait and in his words do I hope. Now we mentioned just now that
here there is a reference to the Lord, the covenant God of
Israel and not only waiting upon him but waiting also and hoping
in his word that word of revelation that he has given but what is
it what is it to wait as David speaks of it here in the psalm
what is it to wait well it is not slothful inactivity it is
not doing nothing that's not waiting on the Lord just to do
nothing to be passive And to say, well, salvation is of the
Lord, therefore if the Lord is going to save me, he'll save
me. Remember the prayer of Jonah, he makes that great statement
at the end of his prayer, salvation is of the Lord. But how previously
we see him wrestling with God, crying to God, even out of the
fish's belly, out of the depths. Where there is a waiting then
there is not that sinful inactivity. Woe to them that are at ease
in Zion. Two things here then. There is
a waiting in hope. Verse 7. Let Israel hope in the
Lord. And hope is not just wishful
thinking. Oh, I hope it might happen. No
hope is much more than that. Hope is joint of faith, is it
not? We know that Abraham is the great
exemplar of faith. He is renowned for his faith
and we're those who desire that we might know something of the
faith of Abraham. But now in Romans chapter 4 we
see his faith so closely bound up with hope. Verse 18 in Romans 4, who against
hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many
nations. According to that which was spoken,
so shall my seed be. He is the father of many nations,
he is the father of all believers. Christ is the true seed of Abraham.
But here we read of his hope, who against hope believed in
hope, it seemed a hopeless case. Could Sarah ever really bear
him the promised child? But what do we read concerning
this man, his hope, his faith? He staggered not at the promise
of God. Oh, he was not weak in faith,
it said. He considered not his own body
nor no dead when he was about 100 years old, neither yet the
deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was able also to perform and therefore it was imputed to him
for righteousness. and what's imputed to him for
righteousness that blessed object of his faith and his hope even
the seed the promised seed and that seed ultimately is Christ
of whom Isaac is but the type and all is in that blessed object
the seeds Christ and Christ's righteousness imputed to him
but how we see this man against hope, believing in hope, not
weak in faith, not staggering at the promises of God. But then
later in Romans, Paul goes on to say something more with regards
to this hope. Verse 24 in chapter 80 says,
we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. Wasn't this Jonah? He was saved by hope. There he
was in the fish's belly, all was blackness. Oh, graphic is
the language of his prayer. He's in the very depths of the
seas. he's at the foundation of the mountains the earth is
all around him, he's in total darkness and yet here is his
blessed hope and it's interesting how in his prayer he uses what
is often referred to as the prophetic perfect he speaks of a thing
in the future as if it is already done verse 6 there in Jonah 2,
yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption. He doesn't say
thou wilt, he says thou hast, it's done. It's done. God has done it, although it
still has to be fulfilled in the experience. This is how the
man hopes, hopes in God. Oh God grant that we might know
such such a hope as that. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption,
and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. There's a
waiting in hope, and then also the mark of waiting, there is
a waiting in prayer. Verse 2, Lord hear my prayer,
let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. how He cries and calls, how He
is brought to sigh and to groan before God, how He waits upon
God. Verse 6, My soul waiteth for
the Lord more than they that watch for the morning, I say,
more than they that watch for the morning, like the mariner
in the midst of a great storm and it's all dark around him. and he longs and he yearns for
the dawning of the day, or like that person who lies upon a bed
of languishing, a bed of sickness, and the tossings and the turnings
in the night season, and he waits and longs for the dawning of
the day. But it's more than they that
watch for the morning. Oh, this man, you see, he feels
it in his soul. And so he waits upon the Lord
and he watches. He watches with the Lord. Remember how the Lord Jesus comes
to his disciples there in the garden of Gethsemane. They were to watch with him unto
prayer. And what did they do? We're told
that they, instead of watching, they slept. And Peter amongst them Matthew
26 verse 40 He cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep,
and saith unto Peter, What? Could ye not watch with me one
hour? Watch, and pray that ye enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. How we are to be those who would
wrestle with God in prayer as we wait, and as we watch, You
see this watching then is indicative of that spirit of expectation
that there will be an answer, there will be a return. It won't
be in vain that we're waiting on the Lord. There's all this
exercise going on then in the soul of the man as he comes to
God in the words of the psalm that we consider tonight. The
ascendings of prayers, true prayers, out of the depths, have I cried
unto thee, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice and let thine ears be
attentive to the voice of my supplications. Well, the Lord
help us thus to learn from the experience of the Psalmist. Let us now sing the hymn 900 and 43 the Tunisian
Mansa 364 and the hymn 943. The God of grace delights to
hear the plaintive cry, the humble prayer, nor shall the weakest
saint complain that he has sought the Lord in vain. 943. The God of grace delights to
hear the plaintive cries Nor shall the weakest saint complain
That he has sought the Lord in vain With power to Jacob's seed While grace, the rage of sin,
Controls and deep repentance melts Seek ye my face, Jehovah Christ,
with joy the contrite heart did dice. Thy face I seek with proud
descent, from every foe my soul defends. A plea in Christ is all they
plead, and all that guilty sinners need. In heaven's dear name their
fervent cries before the