Scott Schutte: This is Psalm 130. From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help. Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive?
But you offer forgiveness that we might learn to fear you. I am counting on the Lord. Yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word. I long for the Lord.
More than centuries long for the dawn. Yes, more than the centuries long for the dawn. O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is unfailing love. His redemption overflows. He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin.
This Psalm really makes me reflect on just the despair of humanity and the sin that we all have and struggle with. We know that everyone has sinned and fallen short of, perfection, fallen short of the Father, and we are lost without Him. And, we get to read this Psalm and it in itself has some, comforting words, but we also get to read this now in the context of knowing who Jesus is and what he has done and how he has saved us from the wretchedness of our of our own sin, our own flesh. I just reread Psalm one or the the first verse here. It says, from the depths of despair, oh Lord, I call for your help.
Hear my cry, oh Lord, pay attention to my prayer. If you kept a record of our sins, who could ever survive? I couldn't survive without Jesus and who he is in my life. I have sinned countless times. I sinned probably more than I realize.
Sin every day. But Jesus and his perfect sacrifice on the cross has, died for me and he offers me new life. And so with confidence, I can reiterate the end of this Psalm. Hope is in the Lord, for with the Lord there's unfailing love. And so I don't know where you're at today, whether you're feeling down on yourself or you're struggling with sin, but I want to encourage you with this, that Jesus loves you.
He died for you and he is offering you new life. And he is providing a way for you to get out of your routines of sin and into a new and blessed life in him. And so let's pray together. God, I pray that you would remind us of how great you are and how not great we are and how you offer us that greatness. You offer us, forgiveness of sin.
You offer us your righteousness. I ask that you would lay it on our hearts to confess our sins, to turn from our evil ways, and to rely on you for salvation, to rely on you for a new way of life. And so God, I pray that your spirit would fill us now and convict us of our sin and turn us from our evil and turn towards you. And all this we would lift up in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.