Psalm 130

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0:00 Okay. Some things are mistakes. That's okay. Sometimes things are mistakes. You don't know that until after. I think that will come up in our story of scripture a little bit this morning. But before we get that, I want to walk us through our call to worship. Our call to worship is just, it's intended for you to recognize that the next hour is set aside as

0:36 something different from all the other hours of your week. That this is your space to, this is your time and space to approach God. So God can handle your joy and your confusion. He can handle your frustration and your peace. And so this, the call to worship is meant to be a line of demarcation that says, now we're going into something different. And we're going to use Psalm 124 as our call to worship this morning. I'll read it for you. It says this. If it had not been the Lord who was on our

1:09 side, let Israel say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when the people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive when their anger was kindled against us. Then the flood would have swept us away. The torrent would have gone over us. Then over us would have gone the raging waters. Oh blessed be the Lord who has not given us as prey to their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we have escaped. Oh, our help is in

1:46 the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Let's pray together. Lord, we agree together that our help is in you and that you made own and sustain heaven and earth. Teach us to take comfort in that truth, to rest in that reality and be with us this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

2:19 So we're still going through these Psalms of Ascent and looking at starting new things, thinking about how we approach challenges in our life. I think that the idea of the people of Israel moving together in families towards the temple for the feast days is a good analogy for us moving

2:50 through life. And I like the way that the Psalm of Ascent are honest both about the challenges and fears of moving towards something in life and the consolation and hope, the place that God is as we move towards things together. And so we all have things that we are moving towards whether that's the progression of a career, the raising of kids, the starting of new projects. We all have

3:21 stuff we are moving towards. And it's a fair question and even a helpful question for us to say, how are we feeling about those things we are moving towards? Are we afraid? Are we hopeful? Are we joyful? And then where is God relative to our emotions? And I think Psalms of Ascent really help us ask those questions because their questions are people have been asking for a long time. And we're not covering all the Psalms of Ascent. They start at 120 and go through 134. Today I want

3:55 to look at Psalm 130 if you want to look there with me. And I'll read through it for us and then it really turns for me in the middle and it makes me think of another story from Scripture. So let me read it first and then we'll look at that story. The Psalm goes like this, out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the

4:27 voice of my please for mercy. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand. But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. Oh, 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. Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is steadfast love and with him there is plentiful redemption and he will redeem Israel

5:04 from all his iniquities. I think it's a really sweet Psalm and you see that it kind of turns on those that middle couplet of verses five and six where he decides he will wait on the Lord. That the psalmist is in this problem, this depth, and out of the depths he cries, and asks the Lord to hear. And then he acknowledges, Lord, I have no reason to ask for you to move on my behalf. But with you there is forgiveness. And then he says this thing, I will wait for the

5:38 Lord. My soul waits and in his word I hope. And I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. I was thinking about that watchman wait for the morning and it made me think of this story from the gospels. If you want to look here with me, it's in Matthew. Matthew is the count of the gospel. Matthew, his account of the gospel is assembled first in the New Testament. It's the very first book in the New Testament. It goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. So it's towards the back. But if you get to Acts and Romans, go back to the left. If you get to

6:10 Malachi and stuff, go back to the right. And I'm looking at Matthew chapter 26. And I was thinking about watchmen waiting for the morning and this story came into my mind because at the critical point in this story of rooster crows for the morning. And it's in Matthew chapter 26, verse 69. It says, now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and the servant girl came to him.

6:46 Remember how Peter got here at this sitting outside in the courtyard. Remember that he had this like amazing encounter with Jesus where Jesus washes his feet. Remember in Peter's like, Jesus, washing your feet, washing somebody's feet is a menial task. You don't need to be washing my feet. I need to be washing your feet. And Jesus says, Peter, unless you let me wash your feet, I can have no part with you. Jesus, you need to, Peter, you need to learn to let me serve you, Jesus says.

7:18 And so Peter does. He lets him wash his feet and then they have that really intimate Passover meal where Jesus reinvigorates the Passover meal and says, now that this bread and wine will carry with it my body and blood and continue having this meal until I return again. And then they make the walk out to the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is dramatically, well, he makes the walk with all 11, Jesus is gone by now. And then he takes Peter with James and John a little bit further, and he sees Jesus perhaps in his most vulnerable. The most vulnerable Peter has ever seen him,

7:54 where he's stressed out and confused. Some people say he sweat drops of blood, he was under such stress and Peter was there and saw it happen. And then Jesus was arrested and everyone runs and scatters. Everyone takes off because they are immediately afraid. And what is so interesting to me, and I never thought about this before, that this story, Peter, he clearly ran off because he didn't want to get arrested, but then he makes his way back to the courtyard. And he wants to be,

8:32 he doesn't quite have the courage to go all the way in, or maybe they won't let him. But he didn't stand with Jesus when Jesus was arrested. He didn't stand in front of Jesus and say, if you're going to take this guy, you got to take me first. He didn't go with Jesus into the incarceration. He fled. But then he didn't leave him completely. He's in the courtyard.

9:03 And that must be such an interesting place of tension, where I wonder what Peter is going through in the moment. Like, I wonder if the fleeing felt like a mistake yet. I wonder if he wished already when he was standing there in the courtyard, but he's clearly conflicted because he ran away, but then he didn't run away all the way. He's got this interesting, he's conflicted in an interesting way that I never

9:37 really thought about before, that he ran away, but he didn't all the way run away. He said, I need to abandon Jesus. I don't have the courage to hope all the way in him yet, but just a little. He's conflicted. And I think that's interesting. Now, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came up to him and said, you also were with Jesus the Galilean. And the narrative doesn't flinch at all with Peter's response. It doesn't say that he waffled or couldn't decide

10:12 what to say. A servant girl comes up to him and she says, you also were with Jesus the Galilean, but he denied it before them all saying, I don't know what you mean. And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl, a different one saw him and she said to the bystanders, hey, I saw this dude with Jesus of Nazareth. You know, they've been around for like a week in town. Jesus has been teaching. The 11 disciples would be like in the front row. She's like, I saw this dude with Jesus of Nazareth. Right. And again, he denied it. I don't even know him, he said.

10:47 And after a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, certainly, look, man, you too are one of them for your accent betrays you. You sound like one of them. One of those Nazarenes, nothing good comes from there but the stench. And then they began to invoke a curse on, he began to invoke a curse on himself and say, I do not know the man and immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times and he went out and wept bitterly.

11:18 I wonder like what kind of fear or like anxiety comes up in Peter as these people are asking him, don't you know Jesus? I wonder where he's at. He must be afraid for his life. I wonder what it feels like to be afraid for his life.

11:49 I heard, well, maybe some of you have been afraid for your life before. The narrative is careful to say that it was a servant girl that asked him. I don't know what they would have done if Peter had said, yeah, I was with him.

12:22 But the narrative seems to want us to think that he was not in mortal danger. They didn't send the centurion. Pilate didn't call out for him from the courtyard. That Peter felt like his life was in danger but it was his like fear and anxiety that trumped it up.

12:55 And he felt like his life was in danger. In this moment when you would want him to be peering into the courtyard with hope to see what Jesus would do in this dire moment, Peter is overwhelmed by fear. Maybe merited, maybe unmerited fear. Jesus told him it would happen. Isn't that interesting?

13:28 At the last supper, Jesus told Peter, hey, Peter, this is exactly what's going to happen. Before the rooster crows for the morning, you will have denied me three times. Peter said, no way. Jesus knew exactly what would happen. He told Peter what would happen. And then when he sees Peter after the resurrection, he gives him the chance to tell Jesus that he loves him three times, almost to undo the three times where he failed.

14:01 It seems like, though this is clearly a failure and we would prefer Peter to have owned his relationship to Jesus rather than deny it, it seems like he's never out of the grasp or the plan or the care of the God. This moment of fear and anxiety does not mean that Peter has failed beyond redemption.

14:31 Or that he is somehow so far outside of the will of God that he cannot be rescued. It says, as soon as the cock crowed, Peter went outside and wept bitterly. I don't know what he felt in that moment, but I know what complete regret feels like. I know what it feels like to feel like you have completely failed.

15:04 I imagine Peter was in that moment. And in that spectrum of emotion through that whole experience waiting for the morning to come, I think is a good metaphor for us, for the Psalmist from 130. Look back at it with me. The first part that's so interesting to me is how it starts. Out of the depths I cry to you, the Psalmist is in depth of something.

15:41 Fear, despair, confusion, isolation, loneliness. Out of the depths I cry to you, but the Psalmist, though they are in the depths, are allowed to call out to God. Though they are in the depths of emotion, they are within earshot still of God.

16:14 Peter denying his relationship with Jesus in front of the servant girl could have at any moment called out to God for courage or hope or perseverance. Out of the depths I cry to you, I'll say it blatantly so you don't miss it. If you find yourself in a position that could be described as the depths,

16:52 you are yet within earshot of God. It does not mean because you find yourselves in the depths emotionally or physically, it does not mean you are beyond the reach of God. The Psalmist from the depths cries out to God. And then he acknowledges, if you, oh Lord, should mark iniquities who could stand.

17:27 I think of the metaphor of Peter. It's true I just denied you. Think of the places you have found yourself, the depths that you have found yourself in. It's true, Lord, I have forgotten you until it got hard. It's true, Lord, I ignored the way that I knew was right or that I knew you would prefer and I went a direction and now the direction I chose has led me to the depths.

18:03 It's true that if you should mark my iniquities, I would have no ground to stand on. But with you, Lord, I know though the depths are of my own making, with you, Lord, I know there is forgiveness. And the translation here is, therefore you are feared, but the fear consistently in the Old Testament is a position of respect and connotes an intimate relationship where there is deep respect.

18:38 And so it says, my soul waits for the Lord and in his word I hope, my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. Why? He says here, I like that the psalmist, I don't know exactly how the psalmist does it and I don't know how it happens to me periodically. But there are times, there have been times when life gets hard where I have the capacity for hope.

19:10 Where when the world says that I should be confused and full of anxiety, I am able to encounter peace. Where those things are hard and challenging, I glimpse moments of joy. The psalmist seems to have that from the depths they cry and still they hope in the Lord and soul waits for the Lord. And then the psalmist encourages us, Israel, the Church of God, the psalmist encourages us to wait with steadfastness.

19:43 He says, oh Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is steadfast love and with him is plentiful redemption and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. If you and I from the depths can find courage to wait on the Lord, there is for you and I steadfast love

20:15 and this phrase plentiful redemption. There is redemption enough for you. There is redemption enough for you. From every depth God can redeem.

20:52 Every mistake and shortcoming God can redeem. Every hopeless situation God can redeem. My prayer is that we like the psalmist can trust even from the depths that redemption is coming, that steadfast love is available to us even in the depths.

21:28 Let me pray. Hey Lord, would you make us people with the courage to believe and the fortitude to cry out? Lord, allow our hope to be the motivation to cry out to you rather than deal with the depths ourselves. Teach us to be people who cry out to you and await your steadfast love and your redemption.

22:07 In Jesus' name we pray, amen.