“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!” (Psalm 130:1-2 ESV).
Read those words slowly. What do you notice?
Perhaps my struggle caused me to stop and re-read these words. Or possibly it’s my desperation that amplified them in my heart.
I’m troubled. I’m weary. I see the heartache and pain people experience—desperate for relief. Conflict is everywhere, divisive behavior separates us, and suffering surrounds us! Every day, we see the injustices in our world. But injustice is not new.
The apostle Paul reminds us of what we instinctively know. In one sentence, he sums up the present state of our affairs:
“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22).
The Psalmist’s cry to the Lord comes out of deep distress. The phrase “out of the depths” is a figure of speech that suggests “insurmountable difficulty—even to the point of death.”
Talk about desperate!
Psalm 130 is a heartfelt, earnest plea to the Lord to show His people mercy. The psalmist is confident God forgives sins. He has experienced the forgiveness of sins. He encourages those around him to join him in waiting in hope for the Lord to redeem them from all their iniquities.
So, here’s the question: How do we wait in hope?
Again, Paul gives us insight: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).
In a groaning world, we mustn’t lose sight of the day “…when creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).
Whatever we struggle with today, our hope is not in what we see, but in God’s promise for which we wait. Paul reminds us:
“…Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:24-25).
The Psalmist’s words remind us that because the LORD forgives sins, we can “…wait for the LORD and hope in His word” (Psalm 130:4-5).
-Richard
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