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Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, it sounds like they're still working with the technology. It seems like there was a whole bunch of background noise before. Hopefully that will have been fixed. We switched to a different microphone. We'll have to figure all of that out again. We'll do our best.So please bear with us.
Today we are talking about the Psalm that we sang earlier, Psalm 130. This is a part of the song of ascents, as in going up. We believe that many of these songs were songs that people would sing or say, as they were heading up the hill to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was on top of a big hill and anywhere in Israel. If you're going up to Jerusalem, you went up to the city. And then from the city, they also said that the temple was on the holy mount. And so from even within Jerusalem, you would walk up to the temple.
So this was a song that they would sing on their way, maybe on Passover, when they would go together all sorts of crowds and people coming together, up to celebrate in the holy city, or maybe even when individuals came, and individuals would go to the temple to offer sacrifices, so that they could have forgiveness of sins. It was a place for worship. So they sing this song on the way.
It starts out, "out of the depth. I cry to you, oh Lord, oh Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy." This literally could be "out of the depths" right there coming up from the ground all the way up to the city of Jerusalem.But more likely, it's following the patterns and the songs where they "cry out of the depths" means out of the depths of their repentance, for pain, the crying out for Please, have mercy. And we know that Israel would be asking for mercy from God because of their sins.
And we do the same thing when we come to worship. We asked for mercy from God because of our sin. We know that God could judge. We know that we are sinners and we are in need. And so we cry out from the depths of our pain. I cry out for mercy. Now, I bet it's likely that you have heard some Christians somewhere or read something somewhere or even just thought yourself that this thing we're going through must be some sort of judgment from God. And wouldn't that make sense? God is a God who judges sin and we would think he must be doing that sort of thing because only bad people would get really bad things.
But we know that isn't the way God works. Jesus even says that himself in Luke chapter 13. He says, "there were some present at the very time, who told him about the galleons whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, do you think that these galleons were worse sinners than all the other Galileans? Because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish, or those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them. Do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? Now I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise, Perish.
Jesus is telling us that when disaster happens, not just this kind of sickness, but when we don't have the things that we need when we get in car accidents or friends get hurt or anything is a problem around us. Not a judgment on specific sin. reminder that we are all sinners, we all deserve nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. And the only thing we should expect from God is death.Which is why Jesus says, repent or you too will perish.
Why, we with the Psalmist should cry out, "out of the depths I cried to you, oh Lord, oh Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy."
That's not what we get, only pain and death. We get so much better than that. The song continues if you are Lord should mark iniquities. Oh Lord who can stand When you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. If there was only the depths of pain and our sin, then they wouldn't be walking up to Jerusalem they wouldn't be crying out for please of mercy. Just like if it was just our sin in the depths we would not be walking into worship. We could not stand before our Lord God either in this church building or even at home and expect forgivenes because of our sin.
But they say, “if you would mark inequities, no one could stand.” There is forgiveness. Israel had confidence in that, because of the covenant of blood the God had made with his people. God said that he wasgracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding with steadfast love. And my God chose them as a people at the bottom of Mount Sinai, Moses sprinkled the blood of the covenant on them as a promise that God would be that way to them all, that when they repented and came to him, he would forgive them and give them grace. And he did it when they brought their sacrifices. As they came to the temple, they would take an animal and they would sacrifice it, the forgiveness of sins. And God was gracious and merciful. He didn't look at their sin but washed it away.
We see that same thing for us. We have a blood of a new covenant. Jesus Christ. When He died on the cross, he became the sacrifice for you. And for me. But God would not mark our iniquities or our sins. If he was looking instead of on our unrighteousness everything that we do wrong, and then he would look at Jesus's perfection, because Jesus died on the cross. We are God's people. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding its steadfast love for you. Just like Israel, when we would walk into the place where God is, we can say, you do not mark iniquities, Lord, but you give forgiveness.
That's why God sends the church he sends his a word that when you hear God loves you, God forgives you. Even through a camera. You get the Holy Spirit are not here sitting in the pews that are volunteer volunteers today. Well, we are hearing His Word scattered throughout our places. But he does give you this grace because his voice delivers.
Song continues."I wait for the Lord, my soul always in His Word. I hope my soul waits to the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. More than watchmen for the morning." Israel trusts. As they're heading up the mountain, they cry out to the depths to ask for God's mercy. They speak about how he forgives their sins and in the assurance of God's love, they wait. Waiting for the Lord is the only way that we can talk about God's salvation. We wait the Lord, because we can do anything. And every time there is some big problem, every time the world seems questionable, things get broken. This is what he points us to. When we look out at our communities, and we see empty streets to remind of that.
I've been doing a lot of running now that the trails are closed in Chicago. I've been running down city streets. And it is amazing. Running downtown and seeing how many cars there. Imagine being downtown and looking down one street and another Street and seeing nothing. Upper Wacker drive is usually crowded with cars flying by us three, four lanes thick. If you're walking, even with a walk signal, you'd have to dodge traffic sometimes. And that's scary. We feel so helpless. There's nothing we can do. And that's what our world needs. We Christians should see that and see. I can do nothing to bring myself salvation. I can do nothing to rescue me from a broken, sinful world.
All I can do is wait for the one who says, I am a resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will never die. And he who lives in believe in me even though he died, yes, shall We wait, just like Israel. We wait for Jesus to come to us and say, "Come out" and he'll raise us from the dead to give us life nonetheless. I was really hoping the Lord for with him the Lord there is steadfast love and with him is plentiful redemption. He will repeat Israel from all hesitant. This is the promise that God gives us. Through Jesus Christ, we are redeemed, we are forgiven. We do not have our sin counted against us, because of Jesus's death on the cross loves us and promises. So we have hope, no matter what.
In Jesus name Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai