Read Psalm 130 from the ESV.
Read my Psalm 130 poem from A New Song.
When released from oppression it is not uncommon for our minds to race back to the sins that led us into oppression in the first place. And, if you and I honestly saw our sins as the abhorrent things they are — a stench in the nostrils of God — we might wonder if God is really willing to forgive our sins. It is often difficult to look at the mountain that is our sin and wonder if anything could ever excavate that mountain and remove it from existence.
I’ve often been told that God listens to our pleas for mercy and our requests for forgiveness, but if I am being honest when I look at my own sin I have difficulty imagining that God would have any motivation to listen to me or to forgive me. I can see why he would listen to someone else and forgive their sins — their sins never seem as bad as mine. But to imagine that God would want to grant me mercy is a difficult thought to process.
But, setting aside my feelings, when I read scripture I am confronted with God’s promises. The psalmist tells us that if God were to keep a tally of our sins we would have no chance to recover from the wrong we have done. But in his cry — his moment of desperation — the psalmist puts his feelings aside and says one simple phrase which is the most profound of all truths — it is a phrase that can move mountains of any size. But with you there is forgiveness… The creator of the universe is not so limited in his power that he cannot remove the sinful mountains we have constructed; he is not so impotent that he is unable to forgive us of our sins.
Let that sink in a bit.
You may not feel it. You may not rise from the depths of your self-loathing and jump with joy, but you must recognize its truth.
But with you there is forgiveness of sins!
Even if your enemies will not forgive you; even if your former friends will not forgive you; even if you will not forgive yourself, God will forgive you.
God forgives. God pours out his steadfast love upon us and redeems us.
He redeems us.
Do you know what the word redeem really means? I think if we did, we might act quite differently when we reach out for God’s redemption, but also when another person is seeking God’s mercy and redemption. If we truly realize that we have been redeemed then when others reach out for God’s mercy and redemption we should be able to do nothing but encourage and rejoice with them.
God redeems us by paying for our sins himself. His redemption forgives us of our sins, clears us of our debt, and restores to us his relationship. Most of us understand what forgiveness is, but it seems, sadly, that we are not always willing to offer it. Most of us also understand what it means to clear a debt, but again, we are not always willing to do so.
But when God redeems us, he forgives us, he cancels our debt, and he turns our sinfulness and imperfections into perfection. As the writer of Hebrews says in 10:14, “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Christ’s death on the cross redeems our sinfulness and makes us perfect forever!
The psalmist understands that true forgiveness comes by the hand of God, Jonah understood forgiveness when he used God’s forgiveness as the reason he didn’t want to preach to Nineveh, but the wicked servant in Matthew 18 didn’t. He astonishingly large debt was forgiven but he would not the tiny debt he was owed.
But if we truly understand God’s forgiveness and redemption and what they have done for us, then we should do nothing other than
When the psalmist concludes Psalm 130 by saying “And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities” we should realize this is essentially saying, “Look at all the horrible things Israel did which got them in trouble in the first place. But you know what? God forgives Israel for EVERYTHING. Now, if God can forgive Israel for everything, don’t you think he can forgive you?” If God is willing to forgive the people who erected idols to foreign gods in the holy of holies, don’t you think he will forgive you for lying, stealing, adultery, murder, and more? And if God forgives us for such things, don’t you think we ought to forgive others?
We can choose to be like the wicked servant in Matthew 18 and receive God’s forgiveness but not offer it to our brother.
We can choose to be like Jonah avoiding the sinner because we know God is forgiving.
Or, we can be like the psalmist and accept God’s forgiveness because he removed the mountains of our sins, and thereby rejoice in God’s forgiveness as he offers it to others.
As a bonus this week, please listen to Don’t Shoot the Wounded a song by Christian musician Chuck Girard.
God offers to remove the mountain of our sins, don’t you think you can rejoice when he does the same for your brother or sister?
