- ASH WEDNESDAY

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These are the words of the psalm we just sang, Psalm 130.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.

O Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy.

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O 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.

O 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.

Thus far, God's holy word.

May God add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his word.

If you've ever traveled to a country where you didn't speak the native language of that country,

you know how difficult and awkward that can be.

How disconcerting it can be for you.

To try to have even the most basic conversation.

Or to find the simplest place you're trying to go when you can't read the words on the signs,

and you don't know what words to use to ask for what you're looking for.

I love languages.

And I love being in other countries and trying to learn how to communicate without actually knowing the language.

It's embarrassing if you're with me.

But I really enjoy it.

Even for someone who enjoys that setting, I can tell I'm missing some of the richness of life,

the relationships that would be there because of that language barrier.

It feels even worse if you don't like and enjoy that dynamic.

I think that feeling is true for many of us with the language of lament.

The language of the psalm that we just read and sang that cries out of the depths.

The language of lament is not, for most of us, our native tongue.

And it's not our native tongue largely because we haven't spent a lot of time in the depths.

I define the depths as an experiential or felt distance from God.

A time or a place where we seem desperate and He seems far away.

For most of us, we've lived with most of our needs met and more.

We've grown up with churches on every corner.

We've heard it's more spiritual to smile than to frown.

We're just not that familiar with the depths.

It doesn't seem right to us.

God seems to be nearby.

At least, we should act like it.

In fact, I think to put the first three verses of this psalm into the native tongue of most middle class American Christians,

they would sound more like this.

And I don't mean this in a blasphemous way,

just to help us notice some of the differences.

We might say something like,

in the midst of life's inconveniences and frustrations,

I complain to you, O Lord.

O Lord, hear my gripes.

Listen and do something about my discomfort.

If you, O Lord, kept track of sins,

well, no one's perfect.

That may be most of what we could put into words.

In our language, we're not used to speaking the language of this psalm.

And it's not just this psalm.

The lament is the most common type of psalm in the entire psalter.

The hymn book of God's people.

The words God has written to be put in the mouths of His people.

The language He tells them they ought to speak

and that He teaches them to speak.

Lament is a primary dialect in the language of the psalms.

The psalmist speaks often of feeling distant from God.

Of being in the depths.

So we as God's people must learn the language of lament.

The language of the depths.

Why, I want to ask tonight,

why particularly is that so important for us?

Three brief reasons that we see here as we look at Psalm 130.

The first reason is our universal human condition.

The depths are where we experience or feel distance from God.

And that, by the very nature of who we are,

is what humans experience.

There is a huge gap between creator and creature.

We are in many ways very different from God.

We're not like Him.

His thoughts are higher than ours.

His ways are higher than ours.

He is limitless while we are by nature.

And as He created us, very limited.

So the feeling of distance from God is a common human experience.

He is crying out and saying,

God, where are you?

You seem far away.

That's why the psalmist speaks so regularly of it.

You could think of many other biblical characters

who experience the depths in this sense.

Perhaps Daniel felt it in the lion's den.

Joseph maybe in the bottom of a pit or in prison.

Certainly Jonah in the belly of the whale

cries out from what he says is the depths of Sheol

as far away as he could possibly be from the presence of God.

As people, we suffer and feel God far off in all sorts of ways.

The grief of losing a loved one.

The trauma of a surprise diagnosis.

The horror of natural disaster or the devastation of war.

All sorts of suffering around us that we see,

at least in others' lives, day in and day out.

They may make us feel the distance from God.

The depths of sorrow and anguish.

You've read the news.

Those who love God are martyred.

Lord, their families certainly would weep and cry out,

God, from the depths, where are you?

Hear me.

When we read these first two verses of the psalm,

Oh Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy.

All of us can imagine in different ways

feeling the need to cry out for mercy, can't we?

We need the language of lament to cry from the depths.

But why else do we need to learn the language of lament?

I think secondly, it's the undeniable reality of sin.

Look at verse 3.

If you, oh Lord, should mark iniquities,

oh Lord, who could stand?

It's in this verse that we see the particular situation

that called for this psalm of lament.

It was the psalmist experiencing the depths

and the sense of seeing the reality of his own sin.

He realizes that if God kept records of sins

and used them against us,

none of us would stand before Him.

In fact, God's Word says,

far from standing,

we fall before His glorious and perfect standard.

All of us.

But the psalmist's vision of his own sin

has made him desperate, hasn't it?

That's what it is that caused him to cry out

from the depths where he feels overwhelmed

by the distance that needs to be bridged

to reunite a sinful psalmist with His holy Creator.

He's pleading for mercy

because he knows there's no way

that he deserves to be near God.

He's not just less than perfect.

He's desperately wicked.

He's slowed down to examine his heart and his life

and he's disgusted and distressed by what he finds.

Romans describes no one as righteous.

Instead, it says our tongues are deceiving.

Our mouths are cursing

and venomous to wound others.

Our feet are rushing to violence,

leaving destruction in our wake.

And those are harsh words,

but that happens in our homes,

in our relationships every day, doesn't it?

But we say,

well, I just had a bad day.

You know, really, that's just not like me.

I slipped up.

We minimize and gloss over our sin.

We fail to appreciate the depth of our depravity.

And we need the language of lament to speak about it appropriately,

the way God sees it.

And I think finally we need to learn the language of lament

because of the unparalleled riches of God's forgiveness.

not just so we can voice our universal human distance from God,

not just so we can accurately account for our sin,

but also so we can rightly appreciate God's incredible grace.

That's what the rest of this psalm speaks of the last several verses.

Look at verse 4.

No one can stand.

We're full of sin.

And then, but.

But.

There's something else.

There's more to the story.

With you, there is forgiveness.

Verse 7.

With the Lord is steadfast love and plentiful redemption.

He'll redeem us from all our iniquities.

Verse 8.

Those same iniquities that were the ones

that made us not able to stand before Him.

Isn't that glorious once you've faced the depths of your sin?

Once you've despaired over your separation from God,

then you hear plentiful redemption

and you're desperate for it.

Those become beautiful words.

Plentiful redemption.

Oh, there is hope.

But until we really see our sin rightly,

that plentiful redemption will seem

merely like a nice gesture

rather than our only hope for life.

It's the difference between a refill on your drink

during lunch at a restaurant

and a stream of water that you lap up desperately

after days of walking in the desert

and your mouth is parched.

Is God's forgiveness merely a refill to you?

Nice to have because you weren't quite perfect?

Or have you really seen your sin

and gotten desperate for a drink?

Longed for hope somewhere?

Ask God over the next few minutes

and the next few weeks

in this season of Lent

to show you the depths of your sin.

Because you won't be stuck there.

If He pulls the curtain back for you,

He'll not only show you a little bit of your sin,

He'll be there too.

Full of forgiveness.

If you let Him expose you,

it will make your joy even greater

because your desperation for His deliverance

will be so strong.

Spurgeon said this psalm teaches us

that he that cries out of the depths

shall soon sing in the heights.

You have to get there to the depths

if you really want to enjoy the song

at the end of it.

I love this other line from Spurgeon.

I'll put it in context a little.

He said,

Deep places beget deep devotion.

Depths of earnestness are stirred

by depths of tribulation.

Diamonds sparkle most amid the darkness.

And here's the line I love.

Prayer de profundis,

which is from the depths,

gives to God gloria in excelsis.

You know those words.

Prayer from the depths

gives God glory in the highest.

Those who learn the language of lament

also learn to sing with the angels,

don't they?

They're overjoyed at God's provision.

They rejoice the way God has said we should.

It's natural.

We don't have to pretend.

So how do you learn the language of lament?

Boy, you can't order that online, can you?

How do you learn the language of lament?

I think it's similar to the best way

to learn another language

that's not your native tongue.

What's the best way?

It's immersion in the culture, right?

Go.

Live with those who speak the language.

Live around it.

Just a few ideas for this particular language

I'd offer you tonight.

Listen without judgment

to those who have suffered deeply.

Don't criticize them for not smiling

or sounding spiritual

to you in the moment

when they're sharing their deep pain.

Listen to them.

Learn without pride

from those under severe persecution.

Don't look down on other cultures

but learn from brothers and sisters

around the world.

Read a blog or a news report

or an interview with someone

who's had a family member martyred

and don't think of how you're better

than they are.

Learn from what they've gone through.

Say look without excuse

at the sin in your own heart.

Don't downplay it.

Really take this season

and ask God to show you

what you often miss.

Take an honest look

and ask that God would reveal

your sin to you.

And then perhaps easiest

but most important,

lament without editing

from God's Word.

Don't be too creative.

Read the Psalms.

Learn how God's people

are to cry out to Him.

You can't flip more than a couple

without hitting a Psalm of Lament.

You can get a list of them anywhere.

Read the Psalms of Lament.

See the words that God puts

in the mouths of His people

to speak to Him,

to cry out from the depths to Him.

When you begin to learn a new language,

you get through some of the discomfort

and you find a richness of life

and relationship on the other side.

It's a painful process.

Difficult often.

But you find that you connect

in new ways with the people

all around you.

The ones who speak that tongue

naturally.

I hope we're starting

some of that together tonight.

During this season of Lent

that we have together.

We must learn this language

so that we can fully enjoy

the richness of life

together in God's kingdom.

Because it's full of this.

It may not be your native language tonight,

but it's the one that someone

sitting next to you needs.

It's the one that they can't find

to voice what's going on

in their hearts.

It's one that soon

you'll be longing for

and reaching for.

We must learn it together

so that we can share

the fullness and the richness

of the life that God intends for us.

The good news is

God's committed to teaching it to us.

Puritan Archibald Simpson

once wrote,

When we are in prosperity,

our prayers come from our lips.

And therefore,

the Lord is forced

to cast us down

that our prayers may come

from our hearts

and that our senses

may be wakened

from the security

in which they are lying.

That can't be a pleasant process,

I don't imagine.

But I look forward

to learning together

more of what it looks like

to pray from our hearts.

I suspect in the next few days,

in the next few decades,

of living as God's people,

that won't be easy

or pain-free,

even in Huntsville.

But as we experience the depths,

He will meet us there.

And one day, someday,

we will also sing together

in the heights.

Amen?

Amen.

Amen.

In response to God's grace,

in the knowledge

that there is indeed

plentiful redemption

to be found

when we cry out to Him,

let us therefore embrace

a season of self-examination

and repentance

by prayer,

fasting,

and self-denial,

and by reading and meditating

on God's Holy Word,

and to make a right beginning

of repentance,

and as a mark

of our mortal nature,

let us now silently

confess our sins

and shortcomings

before the Lord,

our Maker and Redeemer.

Let's pray.

Almighty God,

You have created us

out of the dust

of the earth.

Grant that these ashes

may be to us

a sign of our mortality

and repentance.

We are created

from the dust

of the earth.

To dust

shall our bodies return.

Grant that we may remember

without Your gracious gift

of everlasting life,

we would be nothing more.

Through Jesus Christ,

our Savior.

Amen.

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Amen.

Amen.