Morning Is Coming // Psalm 130
Were going to get deep today! Every Friday during the season of lent I'll be joining up with SheSharesTruth to share what God is saying to us through His word. I'm excited to share a little hope with you today wherever you're at.
This week is Psalm 130... Ready? Here goes...
Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
We all know our share of depths. There are seasons where it can feel like everything is falling apart at once. Maybe money's just not there and bills are arriving much too quickly. Maybe it's a damaged relationship that makes you desperate for life to just go back to normal. Maybe you've made mistakes or seen the mistakes of others so clearly that the weight of it all feels crushing. We cry out to him, like a determined child to her daddy, "Lord, hear! Do something. Fix this. Fix me."
If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
We can only act like it's okay for so long...Smoothing everything over, making it appear like we have it all together. But if we're honest, we can't stand. The list of all that's wrong with us and the world keeps growing longer until it brings us to our knees. This isn't the way it was supposed to turn out.
But.
I love this word - the turning point. It feels so hopeless until we remember that our God is different. He isn't like everyone else. Those who ignore us, reject us, point fingers or whisper behind our backs. He doesn't throw up his hands in frustration with us or walk away when the situation gets too hard. He doesn't lash out when we hurt him too deeply. He forgives. A perfect, holy God. Why would he do that?
So that when we serve him. We do it out of reverence.
If we didn't feel loved, forgiven and understood, we'd still have to acknowledge that he was God. But we wouldn't do it with our hearts. We wouldn't be thankful and in awe of who He is. We might be resentful, Bitter even, that a God who doesn't care about us would expect us to listen to him. But He does care. He doesn't want us to be shackled, hopeless and desperate. He doesn't want us stuck in the pit.
So we wait.
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
We keep going. Even if we don't feel hopeful, we make ourselves trust him. We put our hope in him, in his Word, in his promises. We keep watch. We don't give up when we're tired. It's there twice like a chant. Just keep going. Just keep watching. The morning is coming. And with it hope rises.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
Israel = Gods people. A brief reminder that we are His, and we can look back on all the ways He was faithful before. Think of the last pit you were in and how he brought you up out of it. Make yourself hope in him again. Trust him.
Why?
Because he loves you. He LOVES us. His love doesn't stop short when it sees our mess. He takes that mess and redeems it. He turns it into something beautiful and makes things right.
He himself. Do you see the action here? I see Him pulling up his sleeves and getting to work alongside us. He doesn't pass the work off to someone else. He comes down into our pit and lifts us up out of it. He takes the weight that was crushing us and let's it crush him instead.
Because He can take it. He's strong enough to carry whatever you've got going on. And someone that loves you enough to be crushed and crucified for you -someone who cares that much- is not going to abandon you now or ever.
So wait for him, keep watch and put your hope in him. Morning is coming.
