A Word in Season: Out of the Depths (Psalm 130:1)

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Psalm 130 and verse 1 says, Out of the depths I have cried to you,

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O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

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The first thing we see in that verse is our need. We cry out of the depths.

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I don't know whether or not you have been in the depths or now are in the depths. It seems from the balance of the psalm, as the psalmist goes on to speak of his iniquities and how he desires forgiveness, that the great pain and the great darkness that he feels is conviction of sin and guilt and shame over his transgressions.

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There may be many particular depths that a Christian feels, many particular assaults or temptations that he or she undergoes, but the greatest darkness that we know is the darkness of our own sin, even our own continued sin, as we cry out to God against the wickedness that remains in our hearts.

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Out of the depths then we cry. If that's true for a Christian, how much more for those who do not yet know

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God, for those who begin perhaps to feel their sin, who begin to understand what it is to break the law of the

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Holy One of Israel, to disobey the God of all the earth, to rage against Him who has loved so much and blessed in so many ways.

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But even in the depths, out of the depths, there is no place so deep, no experience so dark, that we cannot now cry out to God.

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And that's the second thing, not just the need but now the cry. Out of the depths

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I cried to you. I have cried. It's an earnest plea.

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It's a cry for help. It's a desperate calling upon and resting upon and looking for help from the

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God of salvation. And it is not just because we are crying, but to whom we cry.

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It is our God, the Lord. It is Him in His sovereign mercy and grace to whom we can come.

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A cry to anybody else might perhaps somehow relieve the soul a little bit of some pressure, but it will not relieve the soul of the actual burden of sin.

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We cry to so many different people. We look in so many different directions. We're ready to try and find solace and succor from any number of different sources.

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But if we want forgiveness for our sins, if we want help from heaven, it is to heaven we must go.

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There is a God who forgives that He may be feared. There is a God who is ready to put away sin in order that we might have peace with Him.

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If God should mark our iniquities, if He should take notice of the perversity of our heart, then we could not stand before Him.

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But this God in mercy is ready to hear a cry from the depths.

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If you're in that state today, if there is distress and grief and shame and sorrow of soul, then you need to cry out.

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You need to call upon the name of the Lord. You need to ask Him who alone is able to save, who alone is able to bless, who alone is able to deliver, who alone is able to forgive, to have mercy upon you.

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And He will. It is God's delight to show mercy. He does not turn away those who come to Him.

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He will draw them to Himself. He will prompt these cries within the soul.

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His ear will be open to every need. And for sinners like me and like you, there is no sweeter thought than this, that there is a

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God of mercy and of grace who waits to hear a cry from the depths. So if you are burdened in soul today, if there are griefs and pains because you have offended

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God, it is to God Himself that you can go, to God Himself that you must go.

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Cry out to Him. Pour out your heart before Him. Seek His face and ask

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His forgiveness, because a forgiving God is always willing and able to put away your sins, to blot out your transgressions through the blood of His beloved

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Son, Jesus Christ. There is a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness, and those who call upon this