the Way Out

Well, you may have seen in the headlines, or maybe

you heard in one of your favorite podcast news apps

this past week the sad reality that our friends over

in Britain have moved further into the dark land of

assisted suicide. They passed a new bill in hopes to

further resource terminally ill adults who want to expedite their deaths. Well,

you probably also know that Britain is hardly alone in

this endeavor, right as many Western nations, including our own,

have been taking steps in this direction for about twenty

five years now. It really very much speaks to this

wide spread desperation that people feel for a way out

of their pain, of their hopelessness, where people can't see

a way out of struggle and only feel that they

are some unworthy of life, burden on family or on society. Now,

at some level, at some level anyway, many of us

can probably identify with the despair that people encounter right

that sense of drowning or intense discouragement where hope just

seems very far away, seems very absent. Well, this should

remind us to be compassionate, of course, but also as

the people of God, it should really compel us to

search out to embrace, to even promote a very different

way out of this kind of inner turmoil that people

that we experience. In Psalm one thirty Psalm one thirty

this morning, if you haven't gotten there yet, start opening

up your bibles. There. Psalm one thirty presents us with

such a path into a place of renewed hope, away

out of the despair. So let's look at it together.

Psalm one thirty. You'll see there at the top of

the psalm it says a song of a sense. This

is one of fifteen in somewhat of a set here

in the psalms of shorter psalms largely that we're probably

recited on journeys up to Jerusalem for times of worship,

for times of sacrifice or festival. So Psalm one thirty

is a song of a sense, and there we read

out of the depths. I cry to you, Oh Lord,

oh Lord, here my voice. Let your ears be attentive

to the voice of my please for mercy. If you,

oh Lord, should mark iniquities, Oh Lord, who could stand

but with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in

his word I hope my soul waits for the Lord

more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for

the morning. Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord. For with

the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is

plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Is God's word. So here's a short eight verses or

four stanzas if we count them that way, that take

us on a brief but rich journey with a desperate person,

A desperate person who shifts his focus off of his

inner sorrow and onto his God. We see in his

example the way out of hopeless drowning. Now we don't

know everything that he was facing when he wrote this psalm,

or as he was recalling certain things, but we don't

necessarily need to know all those details. Either I have

walked with or prayed for enough of you to know

that his anguish is not utterly foreign to you. Great

physical pain, severe loss, intense shame over sin, ongoing and

often mysterious struggles with anxiety and depression. These mark many

of your, many of our lives. Right. So while we

don't know the circumstances of the Psalmist, we simply observe

that if we follow his example, we should firstly, we

should firstly plead with humility. We should plead with humility

is the first thing that we see here. We notice

that in verses one through four, so let your eyes

fall on them again. You see that the Psalmist was

in the depths of his pain, his soul in a

troubled place. And what does he do? What does he do?

He cries out to the Lord or to Yahweh, represented

by those capital letters there for Lord, God's self revealed name,

also referring to him in those verses as ad an eye,

his master or lords a lower case letters. There, this

one and personal God, who alone hears and responds to

the prayers of his servants. So we get to see

here this start of his journey on the way out

of his despair. Again, I don't know why he was

in the depths exactly, so that frees us up at

some level, I think, to identify with him in our

own pain. That may include any mixtures of grieving, of

deep anxiety, of shame over sin, of long lasting disappointment,

or perhaps extensive hurt from betrayal you may have experienced.

Have you ever identified at any level with any of those,

anybody in here at any level any of those. Well,

he needs audience with God, and he makes that so

clear in his opening words, doesn't he I'm crying to

you God, hear me. I need your ears, Lord God. So, Church,

what's your first inclination when your soul is troubled? Do

you look for entertaining distractions that might be where you

sometimes go? Do you just try to push down the pain?

Have you even ever considered harming yourself or even have

done so? Do you lash out at others or simply

perhaps sulk around family and friends. Do you find yourself

doing any of those things, any mix of those things?

Or is this your way? Is this your way to

cry out to our God of mercy? Is see the

Psalmist by the spirit of God. Here he's learned the

richness of crying out to him. He gives it priority,

but he also does it with humility, doesn't he. That's

the second part of his prayer as he faces the

fact that he's a sinner among sinners. Again, we don't

know the mix of the trouble in his soul, But

what we don't see is any shaking of his fist

at God or any proud claim that he is owed favor. No,

we don't see those things. Look again at verse three.

If you, oh Lord, should mark wit ease, Oh Lord,

who could stand? See? Here's here's the tricky thing about

being in the depths. I think the tricky thing is

that we may or may not be able to easily

tie it to a specific sin that has originated in

our hearts, or even maybe to a direct sin someone

else has committed against us. Sometimes an originating sin is

really clear. Other times it's simply is not. But you know,

and you've you've watched the story in some sense. In

the midst of any trial where our initial thoughts are

initial thoughts are not ones of faith, or where we

don't immediately move toward a love of of God and

others in our hearts, sin is or is becoming present

in us. You know what I mean by that? As

we react to trial, and even if we look outside

this moment of trial we might be facing and back

into our histories, we easily find ourselves there to be

sinners against a holy God. We were there pre trouble.

We were there pre trial. And this almost understands this

about himself and his community. That's why he brings up

iniquities here. Now, it might be at this point, and

I understand that you're thinking that just seems really cruel,

seems really cruel to bring accusations of sin to those

who are in the depths. I get that. I get that,

And we certainly don't want to be some bullish sin

hunters as we engage one another. But that's not what's

happening in this Psalm either, right, And we'll miss the

richness of hope. We'll miss the richness of hope here

if we don't welcome the humbling over our broken unholiness,

the sinful nature that's yet to be extinguished in us.

The Psalmist gets this, but then also delivers verse four,

thankfully but with you, But with you there is forgiveness

that you may be feared. Well, let's just take the

first half of that verse. See when we get to

a place where we really understand how broken, how broken,

we are as sinners living in this sin cursed world,

still still in some sense reaping the consequences of Adam

and Eve in the garden and all the way through

the generations into today, as we add to their sins.

Only then only then can we feel something of the

weight and glory of that statement. With God there is forgiveness.

And how though, how does that lead us to a

fear of him? I think it's this we come to

recognize that he has full authority to punish us forever,

but instead, what does he do? He offers forgiveness to

the repentant. That's what produces reverence and awe and wonder,

which is the way that fear is being used. In

this sentence, we're essentially saying, how can something as stunning

as this forgiveness even be possible? We'll have this reaction

when we see ourselves rightly and start to move out

of this inward focused despair and into a wonder over

the fact that we can receive any measure of favor

at all from our Holy mighty God. So that's the

start of the path here that the Psalmist gives us.

We utter our needy plea to the Lord with humility

and hopefully begin to catch a glimpse of something wondrous there.

This might be very difficult in the moment of trouble

or trial. It's definitely a first hurdle to sometimes get over.

But when hurt and humility begin to find seats together

in our hearts. We're in a good starting place to

move forward, and that's where God means to situate us

in this psalm. It's from there, from that place where

he would have us. Secondly, persevere in the waiting. We

might say, to persevere in the waiting. Now you know

how it goes right. Occasionally God fixes our troubling situation immediately,

but she knows. But most of the time. Most of

the time, however, things progress a little more like verses

four and five, don't they. I wait for the Lord,

My soul waits, And in his word, I hope my

soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning,

more than watchmen for the morning. Anybody here just love waiting,

counting it your favorite path time. Anybody here like that? Well? Me, neither,

me neither. It's I think it's partly because we really

don't tend to know how to wait wealth. It's pretty

foreign to us in our day and age, when all

we can think about is the way things. Just think

in the moment, as we're frustrated over our own repeated

failures in sinning or the stagnancy of a rotten situation

in a relationship, or in an irritating work trial, or

in dealing with a chronic health issue, or even even

when a dark and ugly cloud hangs thick in our soul,

when we're zeroed in on the trouble, Waiting with patience

seems impossible, doesn't it. But this waiting, in this text,

it's filled up with something much more than a resigned

complacency and sometimes with that a growing bitterness. Now it's

different than that. There's active hoping in something in what

what does he say in God's Word? In your word?

He says, Now, we've just looked at how he's a

forgiver of unworthy sinners. That's certainly fuel for hope, right,

and we'll see in a minute that he's full of

steadfast love and plentiful redemption. That's at the end of

the psalm here, But right here in the middle we

see how the author has given himself to knowing truth

about God that he can recall in the day of

trial and heartache. He hopes in God's Word he's made

the knowledge of Yahweh a priority. It's likely that there's

remembrance of passages like Exodus thirty four six through nine,

where God met with Moses on Mount SINAI listen to

this passage and listen for overlap with our current one

of Psalm one thirty. The Lord passed before Moses and

proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God, merciful and gracious,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

keeping steadfast love four thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting

the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the

children's children to the third and fourth generation. And Moses

quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And

he said, if now I have found favor in your sight,

Oh Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst

of us, for it is a stiff necked people, and

pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for

your inheritance. With scriptures like that in the Psalmist's mind,

he engages his present hardship. You can hear some of

the repeated truths and recognize that the likely attempt to

reflect Moses's humble example here when he says things like

nobody could stand if you counted those iniquities. God, Yeah,

with you, there is forgiveness now to that what we

know of Moses's story and the extensive perseverance that he needed,

I mean, stiff necked people seems like a bit of

an understatement in certain moments in Israel's history, right as

we would ponder such examples as this and many others

through God's word. This is where the illustration of the

waiting watchmen becomes so helpful. The waiting watchman. So what

was the job? What was the job of this night

watchman that we read about here? Well, he stayed up

through the night to keep an eye out in a

certain area, perhaps in a city wall tower up high,

watching for any threats or dangers. Now, most of you

know what it's like to have work that you're expected

to do until a certain end time, right, and you're

eager for the close of that shift, or maybe even

that class period finals week for some of you. Right,

But put yourself back in that day before clocks or

watches or smartphones, and you're sticking with your job during

the night. You're trying so hard just to stay awake,

keeping a regular eye to the east, waiting for just

a glimpse of the sunrise. Can you imagine sometimes the

difficulty of those stretches of waiting. Now, those of you

who know me, you know, are not a night owl,

so this probably connects with me a little bit better

than with some of you. But I think that the

combination of having to stay vigilant while trying to see

some hope on the horizon had to make for some

long nights. But here's the thing. What always comes after

the night, the morning sunrise? Right, It never fails. So

how much more so should be our confidence in our eternal,

ever present God. I think that's what this almost is

getting at here. That's what he's saying to his own

soul and to us. Now. Just like the sunrise doesn't

make all of life's troubles disappear, even as it does

bring some legitimate hope and relief, so are these cycles

of trials in our own lives? Right? We cry out,

we cry out humbly to him. We keep sharpening our

focus on who he is, as revealed through his word,

by which he then renews our hearts with peace and

often shows his kindness even by altering at some level

some of our hard circumstances. There are cycles like this

that we go through, experienced them, right, But our lives are,

in many ways also just one long path we walk down,

a life that's filled with trouble. We make in trouble,

we encounter the Praise God. Praise God. One day the

weight will be ultimately over. We'll be home with our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, without suffering, freed from all sins,

tangled and nodded consequences. There'll be this grand final sunrise.

It'll last forever. So, brothers and sisters, how's how's your

persevering watchmen? Like scripture prioritizing weighting going, how's that going

for you? This psalm is God's good path for us

to travel down, but many of us are not well

practiced or maybe out of practice with it. So here's

a specific challenge between now and the end of the year,

because we all want something more to do in December, right,

here's a challenge before the end of the year. If

you aren't currently daily engaging God through his word in

a prayerful, meditative way, how about this. Take these psalms

of assent as they are labeled Psalms one twenty to

one thirty four and read one today, so read it

and then go back through and pause at each sentence

or two. Sometimes the stanzas help with with that and

link your prayers to them, crying out to God with

your troubles and your praises as you see his character

and his ways revealed there. So, for instance, when you

would get to Psalm one thirty, your pauses for prayer

might look something like the first one, Oh God, I'm

crying out to you with humility. I'm a sinner and

a struggler who needs you in these ways, and then

detail them out before your God, and then a second

pause might be Lord, Lord, the waiting is hard, but

I want to look to you and your promises and

not wallow. So please help me persevere in the waiting,

especially when it comes to and detail out the situations

in which it's hard to persevere in the waiting. And

then finally you might pause and pray and say something like, Father,

situate me well in my community, help me to listen

to proclamations of your redemption and to help others in

the same. Lead me to do this, especially in the

relationships with and detail out what those relationships are to

your God, who hears have a go at something like

this between now and the end of the year. If

you aren't already well that example that I just gave

you just now, it really leads us to the final

section here, doesn't it, where we see a kind of

exhortation to finally proclaim his redemption, To proclaim his redemption

as part of this community. So church, each of us

is not ultimately or only on some solo project here

in our growth. Look at verses seven and eight again,

Oh Israel, Oh Israel, hope in the Lord, for with

the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is

plentiful redemption, and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

This all missed up to this point. He's done his

deep down soul work. He's pressed through the time of

active waiting, hoping in the truth of God's word, and

now also says, let's do this. Let's do this. Everyone.

We're a mess, but he he's full of enduring love.

We've been reaping consequences of our sins, but his redemption,

his deliverance that draws us near to himself is overflowingly effective.

Keep on hoping in him and not looking for worldly

ways up out of the muck and distress. Friends, if

you are, by God's grace crying out and actively waiting, well,

praise God. But would you help a brother or sister

who's maybe struggling in that. And if you're especially struggling

right now to do these things, ask for some help

or some partnership from somebody in your small group or

similar circle who seems to be seeking God through his

word with some general faithfulness right now? Can we practice

things such as this together? Church? And let me just say,

if you feel kind of distracted in this psalm by

some of the israel language here and you can't see

how it applies to you, it's important to understand something

that if your faith is in Jesus, the ultimate and

supreme Redeemer, you are in the line of the faith

of Abraham, the Father of Israel, the one whom the

apostle Paul says is the Father of us all through

that same faith. So this psalm is for you if

you share this trust in Christ, our Savior. So those

of true biblical faith, like the Psalmist, they've always looked

to this final redeemer, Messiah, Jesus, our God and King,

who gave his life to fully secure once and for

all this kind of forgiveness and redemption that we read

about in Psalm one thirty, and quite frankly all over

the scriptures, he has paid since price in full union

with God is yours through a trusting surrender to this

Lord Jesus