Psalm 130: The Soul of the Christian

[0:00] Well, if we could, with the Lord's help and the Lord's enabling this evening, if we could turn back to that portion of scripture that we read in the book of Psalms, Psalm 130.

[0:16] And I just want to, we're going to walk through this whole psalm, but we'll just take us our text to the words of verses 1 and 2. Psalm 130 from the beginning, a song of ascents.

[0:28] 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.

[0:41] Now, there's a picture which hangs in our hallway in the manse, and I'm sure that many of you who've been to the manse, you're all welcome to come. I'm sure that some, well, those who have been there before, I'm sure you've seen it.

[0:54] And there's this picture in the hallway, and written on the picture is the opening verse of a well-known hymn by a man called Horatio Spafford. And the words of the hymn, I'm sure that they're very familiar to all of us, but they were written after Horatio Spafford received the news that the ship his four daughters were travelling on, it had sank in the Atlantic, and they were all drowned.

[1:19] And as an expression of his soul, Spafford wrote, When peace like a river attended my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.

[1:38] And you know, they are beautiful words that express a father's sorrow and emotion of the loss of his own children. And they communicate to us the depth of pain that he felt and the distress of soul that he experienced.

[1:53] But they also highlight to us the comfort that he found in knowing that the Lord was with him, even in his darkest hour, that he could respond to such heartache by saying, it is well, it is well with my soul.

[2:08] And you know, when we come to Psalm 130, we have to see that this beautiful Psalm, it's all about the soul. It's about the anatomy of the soul.

[2:21] I'm sure we're all aware of John Calvin's description of the book of Psalms, where Calvin, he described the book of Psalms as the anatomy of all parts of the soul. Calvin believed that when we study the Psalms and when we look at the Psalms, they all get under the surface of us.

[2:39] They uncover the facade that we present to people. They put to one side the front that we uphold. And they get right into our very being and they address all our emotions and all our feelings.

[2:52] They get right to our soul. And you know, as Calvin says, they reveal to us the anatomy of our soul. And you know, Psalm 130, it's a soul Psalm because it not only reveals to us the anatomy of our soul, it also addresses our soul at every level.

[3:12] In fact, you could say that if you look at every stanza in this Psalm, it highlights that there are four levels, four stages when the Lord is working in our life.

[3:22] And at each stage, you could say that the soul, it begins to ascend higher and higher. And you know, it's interesting that the title that's given to the Psalm, it's called A Song of Ascents.

[3:36] And of course, it's been given that title because it's part of this group of 15 songs called the Songs of Ascents. The Psalms numbered Psalm 120 to Psalm 134.

[3:48] As we know, we've looked at these before, they were termed the Songs of Ascents because they were sung by the pilgrims as they ascended Mount Zion towards the city of Jerusalem for all the annual festivals that were held there.

[4:04] They're ascending songs. But what's interesting about Psalm 130, and we'll see it as we walk through it, is that it really is a song of ascent.

[4:15] It is an ascending song. Because at each stage, there is this beautiful progression in which the soul begins to ascend higher and higher. But when the psalmist begins this psalm, he begins in the depths.

[4:31] In the depths of despair. And that's the first title I want to use, the word despair. That's to describe the stanza of verses 1 and 2.

[4:41] He's in the depths of despair, and he's saying in verses 1 and 2, 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.

[4:55] And so when the psalmist, when he begins this Song of Ascent, he begins by crying to the Lord out of the depths of despair. But you know, the reason he cries to the Lord is because he has come to realise that he's not where he should be.

[5:10] He's not near to the Lord. He's not close to the Lord. He's in the depths. He's in the depths because of his sin, and he's pleading for the Lord to show him mercy. But what's so beautiful about his prayer is that he's so honest with the Lord.

[5:29] He doesn't tell the Lord how good he is. He doesn't say how faithful he's been to the Lord. He doesn't even present the righteous acts that he's performed for the Lord. He doesn't come before the Lord with the prayer of the Pharisee.

[5:42] Because, as we all know, the Pharisee can't see himself. The Pharisee can't see his sin. The Pharisee can't see his need. The Pharisee can't see all the mess that he's in. That's why Jesus gave to us the parable about the Pharisee and the publican.

[5:57] And he said that the Pharisee came before the Lord with such pride, saying, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I'm not like the extortioners, the unjust, or even the adulterers, or this publican here.

[6:12] I'm not like them. But that's not how the psalmist comes before the Lord in prayer. He doesn't have the prayer of the Pharisee because he's come to realize that he has nothing to boast in.

[6:24] He has nothing to cling to. And his righteousness before God, he knows that it's as filthy rags. And he's come to realize all of this because his soul has been awakened.

[6:37] His soul has been enlivened. It has been made alive by the Holy Spirit. His soul has been challenged and confronted by the word of God. And his soul is making him aware that he's not where he should be because he's in the depths of despair.

[6:53] He's feeling the burden of sin, the strain of guilt, the weight of unfaithfulness. But like the publican, who doesn't even so much as lift his eyes to God, the psalmist is hanging his head in shame and he's beating his breast and he's saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.

[7:14] You know, the language that he's using here, it gives to us, it's, when you look at the original language and what's been said, it's giving to us the image of being out at sea and being caught in a storm and dangerous and terrifying water.

[7:34] Water overflowing the boat, you could say. It's the awful image of someone who's drowning at sea, struggling to keep their head above water. Where every breath has now become precious.

[7:47] And yet with every breath, it seems that the psalmist, he's crying to the Lord. With every breath, because every breath to him is precious and he's crying out of the depths, crying to the Lord.

[8:01] But what's interesting about the way the psalmist speaks is that in the book of Jonah, these same expressions are used here.

[8:12] You'll remember when Jonah was thrown overboard. He was told to go to Nineveh. He didn't go there. And he was in the storm and in order to protect those on the ship with him, he said, throw me overboard.

[8:25] And when he was thrown overboard, he was swallowed by the big fish. And when Jonah was in the belly of the fish in the depths of the sea, he was crying to the Lord for mercy.

[8:36] But he didn't cry to the Lord to free him from the belly of the fish. Jonah's plea was for the Lord to forgive him. Because Jonah says in Jonah chapter 2, it says, I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction.

[8:52] And he answered me, out of the belly of the grave I cried and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea and the flood surrounded me. All your billows and your waves passed over me.

[9:05] The water surrounded me, even to my soul. That's what he says. And so when we look at these words, we can see that the root, we can see first of all that the root cause for Jonah's plea, which came up out of the depths of the water, it was because of sin.

[9:23] And that's the reason why the psalmist is pleading with the Lord for mercy. Sin was the reason. Sin was the problem. Sin was what had brought him into the depths.

[9:34] And you know, that's where sin will always bring us. It will never bring us up to God. But sin will always bring us down, down, down into the depths. Sin was the reason why the psalmist is the truth.

[9:44] And my friend, what's being illustrated to us here is that this soul is in despair. It's a soul under conviction of sin. That's maybe something we don't talk about very often.

[9:57] We don't talk about our sin, or our struggles with sin, or our conviction of sin. Or being in the depths because of our sin. We sometimes skirt over the issue and emphasize the Lord's forgiveness.

[10:11] And rightly so, we should emphasize the Lord's mercy and the Lord's forgiveness. And we'll see that as we come through the psalm. But we will never seek the Lord's forgiveness and mercy.

[10:24] Unless there is, first of all, conviction of sin. And my friend, we need to be men and women of conviction. And when I say conviction, I'm not talking about theological conviction.

[10:38] It's conviction of sin. Where the Holy Spirit is striving with us, and teaching us, and challenging us, and pressing the truth of God's word upon us. We need to be men and women of conviction.

[10:52] Not men and women of contradiction. We need to strive to live Christ-centered lives for the glory of God and the extension of Christ's kingdom. But as we know only too well, there are many times when we let the Lord down.

[11:09] And sometimes, well, it may be the case that no one else knows about it. No one else knows when we let the Lord down, except the Lord. But my friend, if our soul has been awakened, and if we have an awareness of our sin, and we find ourselves in the depths, then we need to cry to the Lord.

[11:27] To cry to the Lord for mercy. And you know, that's what we're being encouraged with here. Because sometimes, I don't know about you, but sometimes when we fall into sin, maybe we're so ashamed.

[11:39] Ashamed of our sin. Ashamed of the thoughts we have. The words we speak. The things we do. And we're so ashamed of our sin, we think, well, the last place I want to go is to the Lord. But in the experience of the psalmist here, it ought to remind us that our sin, it shouldn't drive us away from the Lord.

[11:57] It should drive us back to the Lord. Because the cry of the despairing soul, that's what we have in verse 2. He says, But you know, the depths of despair which are expressed in these opening verses, it's not only found when we experience the conviction of sin.

[12:25] I'm sure that there have been times maybe in your experience where you cry to the Lord from the depths. But you were crying to him not because of your sin, but because of your situation.

[12:39] Where the providence of illness or death or heartache or sorrow, these things brought you down, down into the depths. And maybe in those dark moments of trial under that immense burden.

[12:53] Maybe even at your wits end, wondering how this is going to change. Words, you thought to yourself, well, words are failing me here. You can't speak to the Lord. You have no prayer to the Lord.

[13:06] You have no words to the Lord. And yet, the wonder of it all is that what arises or what arose from your soul to the Lord were groanings and sighs and tears which couldn't be uttered.

[13:21] Sometimes we don't have words. Sometimes we don't even need words. Because whether we're crying to the Lord because of our sin or our situation, we have the promise here that the Lord promises to hear our voice.

[13:37] And the Lord promises to lift us up so that we will discover his sufficient grace and his renewed mercy. And that's what I want us to see secondly as we go through this psalm.

[13:48] Because in this song of ascent, you could say, the psalmist says that when the Lord begins to work in our life and our soul begins to ascend higher and higher, he says that we begin with this experience of despair in verses 1 and 2.

[14:03] But then we come to make a discovery in verses 3 and 4. Despair and discovery. He says in verse 3, And you know, what a discovery he made.

[14:23] What a discovery. Because as the psalmist describes the experience of his own soul, that he was under this conviction of sin and desperate to know the Lord's forgiveness and to know that the Lord is hearing his pleas for mercy, he says that as he cried to the Lord, his soul ascended out of the depths.

[14:41] And he came to discover the abundant grace and mercy of the Lord. What he's saying is that it was through genuine repentance that he came to discover the Lord's forgiveness.

[14:54] And you know, this is why Psalm 130 is described as one of the seven penitential psalms in the Psalter. There are seven of them. If you can remember them all, it's Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and Psalm 143.

[15:14] They are the seven penitential psalms. They're psalms that express sorrow for sin and this desire for the Lord's forgiveness. But what's interesting about these penitential psalms is that it was Martin Luther, the German reformer, he referred to Psalm 130 as a Pauline psalm.

[15:36] Luther, he actually referred to Psalms 32, 51, 130, and 143. He called them all Pauline psalms. And what Luther meant by calling it a Pauline psalm was that they're Pauline in their theology.

[15:50] They emphasize and teach the theology of the apostle Paul in the New Testament. And as a reformer, Martin Luther, he was influenced by the teaching of Paul and he in turn taught many other people.

[16:04] But Martin Luther said about Psalm 130 that it was one of the best passages of Scripture to expound the doctrines of grace. Martin Luther said that because Psalm 130 portrays to us the way of salvation, he said it does so but it presents to us Paul's theology of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

[16:29] And you know, when we look at this psalm with that Pauline lens, we see that Psalm 130, it's more than just this cry for help. It's a psalm which is laying hold upon the abundant grace and the unending mercy of God by faith.

[16:47] And you know, it gives to us the greatest assurance that our sins can be forgiven and that in Christ there is plenteous redemption. And as a Christian, that's what we have come to discover, is it not?

[17:01] And that's what the psalmist has come to discover too. But what's remarkable is that the psalmist describes his discovery so vividly to us in these verses and so beautifully.

[17:13] Because in verses 3 and 4, we're given this image of a throne. Verses 1 and 2 was the image of in the depths, but verses 3 and 4, he's given the image of a throne.

[17:25] And upon that throne, God sits in judgment. But when they appear before this throne, this throne will either be to us, he says, a judgment seat or a mercy seat.

[17:38] And in verse 3, the psalmist describes what it would have been like for us if we had remained out of Christ and approached God's throne. We would have approached God's throne and experienced it as a judgment seat.

[17:51] He says, if you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? And he's given to us this illustration of the bar of God's judgment. And he says that if the Lord was to have marked down and taken note and kept a record of all my sins, my faults, even my faults of youth and all my shortcomings, I could never have withstood his righteous judgment.

[18:16] I wouldn't have been able to defend myself against his accurate description of my soul. I couldn't have endured the wrath and hell that my sin deserves because if I had stood before the judgment seat and the Lord looked into my soul and saw all my sin, all my thoughts, all my words, all my actions, all my gossip, all my anger, all my backbiting.

[18:40] If the Lord had called me to stand before his throne without Christ, I could never have done it. Who could stand? He says, who could stand?

[18:51] I would have been condemned immediately under the righteous judgment of the Lord. But you know, the wonder of this illustration is that when the psalmist is presenting to us this throne, this throne, he says that those who have cried to the Lord for mercy, me and you.

[19:13] When we cried to the Lord for mercy, this throne that was once to us a judgment seat became a mercy seat. And you know, when we came to the throne, he's saying, we came to discover that this throne, which was once a throne of judgment, it's now become to us a throne of grace.

[19:34] And in the place of wrath and condemnation, we receive mercy and forgiveness. And you know, we're always left asking, well, why?

[19:46] Why me? Why am I shown mercy? Why am I shown kindness? Why do we experience grace? Why are we not judged according to our sins?

[19:58] Why are we not condemned because of all of our wrongdoing? Why are we not left in the depths to suffer? Why are we not cast into the outer darkness of hell where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth?

[20:11] Why? It says in verse 4, That's why. With you there is forgiveness.

[20:24] And my friend, is that not the message of our gospel? The gospel of a forgiving God. Because the good news tonight is that the Lord of all the earth does not deal with us as we deserve.

[20:38] But he deals with us through the death and judgment of his own son, Jesus Christ. And this is the wonder of our salvation that in order to bring us to the mercy seat, God the Father brought his son to the judgment seat of Calvary.

[20:58] That's the wonder of our salvation. And you know, when I consider the cross of Calvary, and you know, I'm always brought back to the words of that hymn. Where it says, Man of sorrows, what a name.

[21:13] For the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a saviour. Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood.

[21:24] Sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah, what a saviour. Guilty, vile and helpless we. Spotless Lamb of God was he. Full redemption can it be.

[21:37] Hallelujah, what a saviour. That was Calvary's great transaction. The sinless for the sinner. The righteous for the unrighteous. The just for the unjust.

[21:49] In which this Jesus, as we know, he became sin for us, who knew no sin. And he did it all so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

[22:00] And you know, our soul can rejoice and be glad tonight. Because we have received the promise that if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[22:15] Why? Because the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. My friend, this should thrill us.

[22:28] Always being reminded of what we have received should thrill us and spur us on. Because when we cry to the Lord from the depths, we have the assurance that we will be brought to the mercy seat and assured, assured of this promise that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

[22:52] But what should be our response to this forgiveness? The psalmist says, well, he says, but with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.

[23:03] It says the Lord is to be feared. Our response to the Lord's forgiveness is to fear the Lord. To fear him. To give him the honour and the reverence that he deserves.

[23:16] Then his sermon on this psalm, Spurgeon explained what it means to fear the Lord. And he explained it simply when he translated verse 4. He translated it as, but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be loved and worshipped and served.

[23:33] There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be loved and worshipped. And so my friend, our response to the Lord's forgiveness is that we should love him, worship him, and serve him.

[23:47] Our response to the Lord is to be a response of dedication to the Lord. And that's the third experience which the psalmist describes in this Song of Ascent.

[23:58] Because as he describes the experience of the soul, he says that there is despair, verses 1 and 2, there is discovery, verses 3 and 4, and then he says there is dedication, verses 5 and 6.

[24:12] Dedication. He says, 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.

[24:24] You know, the progression of this Song of Ascent, it's wonderful to follow it. Because what the psalmist is illustrating to us is that having risen out of the depths of despair, and having discovered the Lord's forgiveness, he says that we must now be dedicated to the Lord.

[24:43] And he says that we're dedicated to the Lord by waiting upon the Lord. And we're to wait upon the Lord, first of all he describes, by prayer.

[24:54] We're to wait upon the Lord in prayer. And you know, it's very easy to say that that's what we're meant to do, isn't it? But as we all know, that waiting upon the Lord in prayer, it's one of the hardest things to do.

[25:08] It's one of the great disciplines of the Christian. And yet at the same time, it's one of the greatest privileges of the Christian. Because we've been given access to the throne of grace, not only to obtain mercy, but also to find grace to help in time of need.

[25:25] And yet, sometimes in our Christian walk, we go on struggling. We go on struggling in our discipline or our ability to be disciplined, simply because we don't take up the promise to come to the throne of grace for grace to help.

[25:43] And you know, there's no doubt that in the busyness of life, our greatest struggle as a Christian is prayer. Because every time we try to pray, if it's anything like my experience, you know, we're always trying to fight off all these distracting thoughts, what we have to do in the day ahead, something on the telly or something that was said at work, something that happened at work, something someone said to us in the home, it's this constant battle.

[26:14] But you know, it's no wonder Jesus told us that when we pray, go into a room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. We should seek to shut out our distractions for a little while and come to the throne of grace and wait upon the Lord in prayer.

[26:32] And I know it's not easy, but when we come to the throne of grace, we have the promise. When we wait upon the Lord, we have the promise that's given to us in Isaiah 40, that beautiful promise that those who wait upon the Lord, they shall renew their strength.

[26:49] That's what waiting upon the Lord's all about, renewing our strength that they may mount up with wings as eagles, they may run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. When we wait upon the Lord in prayer, the Lord promises to give us grace to cope with the day ahead, whatever is in our day.

[27:07] And when we wait upon the Lord in prayer, he gives us the strength to get through the day, whatever is going to be in our day. But you know, the psalmist, he affirms to us that when we wait upon the Lord, the Lord not only gives us grace, he also gives us hope.

[27:26] Because he says in verse 5, I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word, I hope. The psalmist says that he found hope and he was assured of his eternal hope when he spent time reading God's word.

[27:44] I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, that's him praying, and in his word, I hope. That's him reading. And you know, what the psalmist is giving to us is, he's giving to us just the staple diet of a dedicated disciple of Jesus, where they're exercised in reading God's word and praying.

[28:04] Because that's what feeds our soul. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. God's word and prayer is what gives us hope.

[28:15] It's what assures us of our eternal hope. Because the word of God, it assures us of God's promises. And prayer at the throne of grace, it allows us to plead these promises, to plead them back to God.

[28:30] Because, you know, as we all know, we have a hope, and it's a hope that is sure and steadfast. It's a hope which is the anchor of our soul. But you know, then in verse 6, the psalmist goes on to give this illustration of our soul waiting upon the Lord.

[28:49] He says, My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. And he repeats it, more than watchmen for the morning. The psalmist, in this verse, he's describing the watchman and his watchtower watching over the whole city.

[29:05] And I believe that the psalmist uses this illustration because the role of the watchman was crucial in the protection of a city. The watchman had to be dedicated in his job and he had to be dedicated to his own people.

[29:19] Because, as we all know, just like it is this evening, when the night would draw in and the light of the sun would slowly fade, the work of the watchman would become harder and harder.

[29:32] He wouldn't be able to see as far as he could during the day. He wouldn't be able to see very well and the place would begin to be surrounded by shadows. And without the light of the sun, it would make it more difficult for him to see an enemy approaching.

[29:48] And if he didn't see the enemy approaching, he couldn't warn the people in the city in time. Without daylight, the city was vulnerable and more likely to be attacked.

[29:59] And not knowing what could happen during the shadows of the night, he says, the watchman longs for the morning. But notice what the psalmist says, my soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning.

[30:15] More than the watchmen for the morning. And what we have to see is that even though the watchman is dedicated in protecting his city from an enemy ambush, the psalmist says, I am more dedicated to waiting upon the Lord.

[30:33] I am more dedicated to the Lord than the watchman is to his own city. And he's dedicated because he loves the Lord.

[30:45] And he delights in the Lord. and he's dedicated in living his life for the Lord. You know, looking at this progression through this psalm, what a change that has taken place in his life.

[31:00] From despair to discovery to dedication. He's dedicated to the Lord. This change has taken place and that's the change that takes place in the life of every believer.

[31:12] Where we're brought from the depths of despair to discover the forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ. And we live our lives dedicated to the Lord through prayer and reading his word.

[31:25] But last of all, and this is what's important, we're to make a declaration. And they're the four levels of when the Lord works in a soul. And we're seeing that process through this song of ascent.

[31:38] There's this ascension from despair to discovery to dedication to declaration. Declaration. Where he says in verses 7 and 8, O Israel, hope in the Lord.

[31:52] For with the Lord there is steadfast love and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. When a soul experiences the transforming power of the gospel, it's being brought from the depths of despair to receive the forgiveness and mercy of God and all the promises that are bound up in his word.

[32:16] And our soul's desire, is it not, that when the Lord works in our heart we want others to have what we have. The longing of our soul is that those who are in our family or in our homes or in our workplace, our longing is that those who are still in the depths without Jesus will run to Jesus.

[32:43] And that's what the Sabbath illustrates to us in these closing words. Because he's exhorting and he's appealing to those who are still outside of Christ. He calls them to come and experience the hope and the love and the mercy and the forgiveness and the redemption that alone is to be found in Christ.

[33:01] He says, O Israel, O Israel, hope in the Lord. That's his plea. He's pleading with those around him.

[33:12] O Israel, hope in the Lord. And the word hope, it's the same word that was used back in verse 5 of waiting patiently upon the Lord.

[33:23] It's about dedicating your life to the Lord. And that's what he's saying. O Israel, dedicate your life to the Lord. He's pleading with those around him.

[33:34] Dedicate your life to the Lord. But like the psalmist, we don't encourage people to dedicate their lives to the Lord for no reason. No, we declare to them that with the Lord there is mercy and with him there is plenteous redemption.

[33:52] With the Lord, if you translated it literally, with the Lord there is covenant love and with the Lord there is a redeemer. O Israel, he's saying, hope in the Lord because with him there is covenant love and with him there is a redeemer.

[34:10] And in the last verse of this psalm, the psalmist explains what this redeemer will do. He says, and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

[34:22] In the Old Testament, redemption was usually spoke of in terms of being redeemed from slavery, just like it is in the book of Hosea where Hosea goes to buy Gomer back. Sometimes redemption was spoken of in the terms of redeeming land for those who had lost it.

[34:38] That's what happens in the book of Ruth. But this is the only time in the Old Testament that redemption is spoken of in terms of the Lord redeeming his people from their sin.

[34:52] This is the only one. And so what we have to see is that in this closing section of declaration, what we see here is that the psalmist is declaring that there will be a redeemer who will redeem his people from their sins.

[35:13] And you know, this is why Martin Luther referred to Psalm 130 as Apolline's Psalm. Because as we follow the thread of the whole psalm, he's pointing to us that the way of salvation, it's through grace alone.

[35:28] Grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. And that's what Paul was always talking about. You read his letters that he's always talking about. God's grace, God's mercy in Jesus Christ through faith.

[35:44] And you know, Paul always said that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But we have been justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

[35:56] And he says, that's where our assurance lies. Because our standing tonight as those who are righteous in God's sight is all because of this wonderful redeemer. And you know, that's what we are to declare to those around us.

[36:10] That there is covenant love with him. And with him, there is a redeemer. That is our declaration. That is to be our declaration.

[36:20] We are to declare the wonders of this redeemer because he's a redeemer who has pulled us out of the depths of despair. He's a redeemer who brought us to discover the wonder of his forgiveness.

[36:34] He's a redeemer who calls us to live our lives dedicated to him. And he's a redeemer who commissions us to declare to others that he is mighty to save.

[36:47] You know, it really is a song of ascent. Out of the depths he comes. Because from verse 1, we've ascended higher and higher from despair to discovery to dedication and then to declaration.

[37:04] that's the Christian's experience. And you know, what a declaration it is that we are to give to those around us.

[37:16] O Israel, hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is steadfast love and with him there is plentiful redemption. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us.

[37:28] Let us pray. O Lord, our gracious God, we give thanks to thee this evening for the reminder of what thou art one who does in our experience.

[37:40] We thank thee, Lord, and we praise thee that thou art the God who plucked us as brands from the burning, who brought us out of the depths, who caused us to discover the beauty of salvation in Jesus, and that we are those who are to be dedicated disciples, committed to the Lord, and declaring that this God is our God and that he will be our guide even unto death.

[38:04] O Lord, remember us, we pray, in our homes and our families. Help us to be witnesses for thee wherever thou hast put us, Lord, even in the workplace. O Lord, wherever we are going each day, Lord, that thou wouldest give to us that word in season, give to us the strength to speak that word in season for the name of Jesus.

[38:25] Bless those who are not with us this evening. We think especially of Bill. We pray for him. Pray that thou wouldest restore him to health and strength. Remember others, Lord, that are not with us tonight, those who are mourning, those who are struggling.

[38:38] Help us to bear one another's burdens. Help us to keep praying for one another, to keep waiting upon the Lord, knowing that when we wait upon the Lord, he will renew our strength, that we will mount up with wings as eagles, we shall run and not be weary, and we shall walk and not faint.

[38:56] All go before us and we pray, do us good, for we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. We shall conclude by singing in that psalm, Psalm 130.

[39:10] Psalm 130, page 421. Psalm 130, page 421. We'll sing the whole psalm.

[39:26] Lord, from the depths, to thee I cried, my voice, Lord, do thou hear, unto my supplications' voice, give an attentive ear.

[39:36] The whole psalm, to God's praise. Lord, to thee I cry, my voice, Lord, to thee I cry, my voice, Lord, to thee I cry, my voice, Lord, to thou hear, unto my supplications' voice, till I not tempted be ear.

[40:18] Lord, good, good, shall stand, give thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, but yet with thee forgiveness is that fear thou mayest fear.

[40:56] I wait for God, my soul doth weigh, my hope is in His word, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, may God, for morning watch, my soul waits for the Lord.

[41:35] I say, my Savior, Lord, may God to watch, the morning light to see, let his triumph open the Lord, or with him mercy speak.

[42:13] Atlantia's redemption is ever found within, and from all his iniquities, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all, now and forevermore.

[43:02] Amen.