"The Battle is the Lord's"

Here's the video link to the entire worship service including the sermon:
https://vimeo.com/132101320

Meditation on 1 Samuel 17: 32-49

June 28, 2015

***

     “David said to Saul, ‘Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’ Saul said to David, ‘You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.’ But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.’ David said, ‘The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.’ So Saul said to David, ‘Go, and may the Lord be with you!’

      “Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, ‘I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.’ So David removed them. Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.

       “The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. The Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, ‘Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.’ But David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.’

      “When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.”

***

    I had just sat down with my books to prepare for my Thursday morning Bible study when there was a knock at my back door. I opened it to find a young lady dressed in Sunday best, holding some printed material and a Bible. “Can I help you?” I asked, cracking the door just wide enough to stick my head through, without my two, small, barking dogs running out. She gestured to the church building next door and said, “I guess you are the pastor’s wife.”

      I laughed. Most people don’t expect the pastor to be wearing yoga pants and a pink T-shirt.

     She asked if I wanted to read the Bible with her. I looked past her and saw a sedan idling in my driveway. Two or three people, similarly dressed, were watching and waiting for her. She was a Jehovah’s Witness. Some had come to our home about a year ago when we were out. I had seen the telltale signs--“The Watchtower” and “Awake!” magazines at the door. At the time, I remember thinking how bold they were to come to the house next to a church, which was almost certainly the pastor’s. The message was loud and clear. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have targeted our community for conversion. What better way of influencing an entire congregation than to persuade the pastor of their errors in their doctrine and ways? I was annoyed when I saw the material last year, but now it wasn’t just a handout to toss in the trash. She was a real, live person standing at my door, someone whom God loved as much as He loved me. And I thought, “But for the grace of God, that could be me or one of my children.” I felt sorry for her, but I didn’t feel safe inviting her in, especially with the carload of Witnesses in my driveway, as I was home alone. And I was busy--preparing for my Bible study. I had God’s work to do.

    I took her literature. “The Lord be with you,” I said, as a prayer for her soul and not a declaration of God’s presence. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not Christians; they have their own Bible translation called the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Among their errors in doctrine, they adhere to a works-salvation mentality. They coerce new members to prove the authenticity of their faith by going door to door. According to statistics on the Web, more than 8 million Jehovah’s Witnesses are involved in “evangelism” and more than 19 million people worldwide adhere to the faith. They refuse military service and blood transfusions. They shun all “pagan” celebrations, including birthdays, Easter and Christmas. They refuse to salute the American flag or say the “Pledge of Allegiance.” But the most destructive doctrine they teach is that God is not Trinitarian. Jesus is not “Christ our Lord and Savior,” for he is not divine. If Jesus is not both human and divine, then his death on a cross did not achieve humanity’s forgiveness for their sins. We are not, therefore, reconciled with God.

    I closed the door, thinking, again, how bold she was to come to a pastor’s home. And how vulnerable people are, especially the elderly, alone in their homes, too polite, perhaps, to ask someone dressed in “church” clothes, carrying a Bible, to leave. Jehovah’s Witnesses seem so “nice.”

     Friends, the spiritual battle wages on! There’s a battle for our souls. Thank God the battle is the Lord’s!

***

     I had been meditating on this passage in 1 Samuel when the stranger came to my door. The line that was engraved in my memory was, indeed, verse 47, when David says, “The battle is the Lord’s!”

     But first, let’s admit what we are all thinking about David as we read this passage. He must have been nuts! Why on earth did he go into battle wearing no protective gear, armed only with a slingshot? Why did he think he could “win” against Goliath, the giant who had already killed veteran Israelite soldiers, bigger and stronger than David? And why did his family and community let him do it?! Although we don’t know hold old David was for sure, he is disdained for his youth, red hair and complexion, and attractive appearance or face. I Samuel 17:42 says when Goliath “looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance." 

     It wasn’t just his appearance that made David stand out from other youth and men.  The one whom God had chosen for His purposes was completely without fear, a teenager able to convince a king that he was fierce enough to do battle for Israel; for the entire Philistine threat is embodied in Goliath, not a giant of fairy tales, but a very large, powerful fighting man. David tells Saul he saved his father’s flocks, rescuing lambs from the mouths of lions and bears.“And if it turned against me,” David says, “I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it.”

      The most important thing we should know about David--even more important than his youth, courage and strength-- is his extraordinary faith and devotion to the Lord. As Acts 13:22 tells us, “David the son of Jesse, was raised up by God to be king of the Israelites because he was a man after God’s own heart, a man who would do “all” God’s will.

    Now God was calling young, fair David to make a stand, live by it or die. David wanted everyone to see and know that he was on the Lord’s side! The battle--and the victory--would not be won by David’s wisdom, power and strength. “Your servant has killed both lions and bears,” David tells his king. “And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.”  Saul answers, ‘Go, and may the Lord be with you!’

    But the youth who had never tasted battle is too small to walk with the heavy armor that professional soldiers wear. He cannot use his king’s proffered sword. Strengthened by the spiritual gifts God has given him and the skills learned as a shepherd boy, David relies on the Lord for victory. He picks up his slingshot and five stones from the wadi--a creek bed that is dry, except during a rainy season. Then he responds to the giant’s trash talk with his own declaration of faith. “Goliath, you come to me with sword and spear and javelin,” says David. “But I come to you in the name of the Lord.” 

***

    Friends, not many of us will encounter actual giants that we must fight with slingshot and stones. But every day, we are engaged in spiritual battle. We make choices that reveal to God and the world whose side we are on--and whether or not we are with the Lord. We may live in fear or in confidence, depending on whether we believe, like David, that God has already won. We can live our lives for ourselves and our own desires or we can choose to live like the one Scripture says was a man after God’s own heart, a man who would do “all” God’s will.

       I couldn’t stop thinking about the visitor who came to my door this week. I kept wondering if I did the right thing. Should I have invited her in and shared Jesus with her? Should I have been bold and told her how destructive these people are who seem so “nice,” for they turn people away from the gospel of love, mercy and grace?  I can only pray that the Spirit would lead her to discover the hope and promise that we have through belief on the perfect work of Christ Jesus, God’s Son. The spiritual battle wages on. But Christ’s followers need not fear. We can go with the confidence of our faith into every dark place. Like David, let us be brave when God calls upon us to make a stand, live by it or die. Let us with courage declare by our words and acts of love whose side we are on. And that the battle, the victory, and WE belong to Him.

   

Let us pray.

Holy Three- in- One, thank you for your Word and Spirit that guides us to your truth and reveals your love and mercy for sinners. Thank you for sending your Son to die in our place. Thank you for your forgiveness and for winning the spiritual battle for us before it was even begun. Help us to be brave and do all your will. Empower us to go with confidence with the Good News of Jesus Christ to the dark places in our community and world. Stir us to be bold--as bold as Jehovah’s Witnesses who go door to door. We lift up to you all the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other non-Christians in our area--and ask that you would draw them closer to you. Open their hearts and minds to hear and embrace the true gospel of grace. May the young lady who came to my door come to believe that Christ was not only human; he was fully divine. And He is alive today! Forgive us for not caring enough about our non-Christian neighbors to reach out to them more. Stir us to let everyone know by our words and acts of love that we are on the Lord’s side! And the battle is the Lord’s. Amen.

“Counting Our Days”

Meditation on Psalm 90

Pastor Karen Crawford

“A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
Lord, you have been our dwelling-place in all generations. 
Before the mountains were brought forth,
   or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
   from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 
You turn us back to dust, and say, ‘Turn back, you mortals.’ 
For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past,
   or like a watch in the night. 
You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; 
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
   in the evening it fades and withers. 
For we are consumed by your anger;
   by your wrath we are overwhelmed. 
You have set our iniquities before you,
   our secret sins in the light of your countenance. 
For all our days pass away under your wrath;
   our years come to an end like a sigh. 
The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
   they are soon gone, and we fly away. 
Who considers the power of your anger?
   Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to you. 
So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. 
Turn, O Lord! How long?
   Have compassion on your servants! 
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
   so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
   and for as many years as we have seen evil. 
Let your work be manifest to your servants,
   and your glorious power to their children. 
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
   and prosper for us the work of our hands—
   O prosper the work of our hands!

***

  I watched my dad put on his shoes the other day and look for his blue, button-down sweater as he prepared to go to a doctor’s appointment with my mother. “It seems like all I ever do is go to the doctor,” he said, and sighed.

    Dad, who will be 81 in August, moves more slowly these days. He has numerous health challenges; some that are complications from a fall on a rainy day two months ago. He needs more time and effort to do many of the routine tasks he used to do with ease, without hesitation. He gets discouraged.

      I agreed with Dad – yes, he does seem to go to the doctor a lot. But I was happy, really happy, to see how well he is doing now, compared to my last visit to my parents in Florida—two days after his April fall, when even with the help of a walker, every movement was a struggle. He was in so much pain. He was forgetful, confused, and exhausted. Sometimes he would nod off in the middle of a sentence.

       I worried that my father would not be with us much longer. I prayed. And I began to count the days and give thanks for every one.

***

       It’s too easy to fall into a rut and begin taking for granted God’s gift to us of every day. We may say to the Lord, “Thank you for this day,” without feeling, deep down, truly grateful. If we were completely honest with God, we would say, “Lord, change my life, so that I may have what I want,” instead of asking that God’s desires be ours, and saying, “Please Lord, change my heart. Change me.”

     Psalm 90 urges us to give thanks to God for the Lord’s loving care and provision for us all the time, even on our so-called “bad” days, when nothing seems to be going right and in the months when the bad news keeps coming, threatening to overwhelm you like the waves of the ocean. The death of a loved one. A diagnosis of cancer, Alzheimer’s or other serious health problem. The psalm urges us to begin each day with gratefulness to the God who made us, always loves us and will never leave us. The God who is our “dwelling place for all generations.”  We cannot expect to be happy and healthy all of our days. But we do have the promise of joy and contentment in the midst of our suffering and trials, if we seek God’s help, like the psalmist. He asks the Lord for help not just for himself, but for all God’s people. Two times, he asks the Lord to make them glad or “happy” as the word could be translated, which gives us the sense that the writer and his community are not happy with the life God has given them, a life of “afflictions.” “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,” he says, “so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad, for as many days as you have afflicted us and for as many years as we have seen evil.”  We find, in this prayer, reassurance that while our “toil and trouble” may seem to go on forever, they will come to an end, as the psalmist says, “like a sigh.” The writer isn’t referring to a “sigh” of annoyance; he uses the Hebrew word hevel, which means “breath.” (Huh—exhale of breath). The writer is trying to tell us that life is short. But there is hope and promise, for the God who “sweeps away” our days so that they are “like a dream” renews us like grass that flourishes in the morning. With hevel, we hear echoes of Ecclesiastes, which says that all of life is hevel or breath (sometimes translated as vanity or meaningless) “a chasing of the wind.” Hevel is the same word we translate as “Abel,” in the story of Cain and Abel. Abel’s life is tragically cut short, like a “breath.”

    Psalm 90 takes on deeper meaning when we consider the author’s identity and the context. This is the only psalm attributed to Moses, who endured many trials and tribulations, leading a group of unhappy people to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. He also experienced the goodness of God, the miraculous provision of food and water and protection from their enemies with the parting of the Red Sea so Israel may cross on dry land. We can imagine his gratitude as he prays, “O Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” Moses had no earthly home at all! He could only trust that wherever He walked or camped, in whatever circumstances, he was already home. His place of rest and peace is God, who promises to always be with him. Then, when Moses speaks of God’s wrath, we recall how God punishes Moses for his lack of faith by not allowing him to enter the Promise Land. Still, by God’s grace, Moses lives far beyond the 70 or 80 years he mentions as the “usual” lifespan for the “strong.” He dies at the age of 120. Again by God’s mercy and grace, he is honored throughout Scripture for his faithfulness, despite of his sin. This “man of God,” as the psalm introduces him, is humble enough to recognize and confess his own failures and weaknesses—and to seek God’s help, for his own sake, and for the sake of God’s people, as he had throughout their wandering years.

    He asks the Lord, “Teach us to count our days”—to remember how brief they are and that each one is truly God’s gracious gift—“so that we may gain a wise heart.”

***

     Friends, the same grace and mercy the Lord shows to Moses God offers to us. Because of Jesus’ life given for our sakes, God sees us as faithful. The same promise of everlasting presence the Lord makes to Moses, Jesus makes to us. “I am with you always,” the risen Christ says in Matthew 28:20, “until the end of the age.”

     Knowing that I only had about a week to spend with my parents in Florida this visit, I could not help but count the days, all the while praying that I would be doing what the Lord wanted me to do. This is what I think Moses meant when he prayed that they would gain a “wise heart,” for true “wisdom” comes only from God and “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” as Proverbs 9:10 and Psalm 111:10 assure us.

    As I traveled back from Florida, I heard of the shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. A 21-year-old man opened fire on a Bible study. Among the 9 who died was the pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a state senator who had welcomed the young man, a stranger, into the Bible class. The young man had targeted the church simply because it was an historically black church, the oldest AME congregation in the south. My heart broke at the senseless loss of life. I thought about how the people had no idea that morning when they got up that it would be their last day. And how the people were doing exactly what God calls us to do-- how they went to church that evening for worship, fellowship, prayer, and Bible study.  They spent their last moments being faithful to the call of Jesus Christ to take up their cross and follow Him.  

      Then, yesterday, I read how the victims’ families were reaching out to the perpetrator with forgiveness. How could they do such a thing? Then I realized that it was by the grace of God. For if they had not forgiven him, the hurt, bitterness and anger would tear them apart. Those who chose to forgive were numbering their days, choosing to walk with the Lord and serve Him, rather than waste a single day wallowing in self-pity or anger with God for allowing such a tragedy to happen.

      Counting our days, sisters and brothers, means making every day count—not growing lazy and deciding that today, we don’t need to pray or worship or read the Bible -- or love and forgive our neighbors. Counting our days means not spending them doing things that seem “good” to us--just filling up our days with activities that aren’t really God’s will for us. It means not being negative or complaining about things we cannot change, things that only God can understand and control. It means being faithful to seek Him and trust Him to lead us every step of the way. It means accepting our human limitations, like Moses, and receiving God’s grace, more and more, day by day. We are like grass, that fades and withers in the evening, but with God’s mercies, is renewed and flourishes in the morning. Every day we have another chance to begin again! To forgive ourselves and others for the mistakes of “yesterday,” for, as Psalm 90 assures us, a thousand years in God’s sight are like “yesterday when it is past.” Like Moses, I pray that I would learn to be content, because we aren’t always content—are we? When our loved ones suffer, and we are not able to help them. When we are struggling with our own health challenges or other problems. When our troubles mount up and threaten to overwhelm us, like the waves of the ocean. I pray that the Lord would fill me up with His Spirit, so that I am “satisfied” in the morning with His steadfast love and so that I would “rejoice and be glad all of my days.” I pray the Lord will help me see that my requests shouldn’t be, “Please, Lord, change my life,” but instead that God’s desires become my own, saying, “Please, Lord, change my heart. Change me!”

Will you join me in prayer?

Holy One, we thank you for your love, mercy and grace, shown to us through the sacrifice of your Son – so that we might be forgiven for all our sins—and enjoy new,  abundant, and eternal life with you.  Heal us, Lord, of our hurts. Make us whole. Thank you for being our dwelling place in all generations and for being so patient with us. Teach us to count our days and see each one for what it truly is---a precious gift from you. Grant us your wisdom. Help us to find contentment and joy in You and accept the good life you have planned for us. Lead us to be more faithful. Humble us, Lord, when we are tempted to be selfish. Stir us to trust that you are in control and will use all things for our good and your glory. May your Spirit change us, more and more, into the image of your Son, so that we want only your desires and to be pleasing to you. In Christ we pray. Amen.

“Out of the Depths!”

Meditation on Psalm 130

June 7, 2015
Here's the video link:

Pastor Karen Crawford June 7, 2015 https://vimeo.com/130044757 "Pastor Karen's sermon on Psalm 130."

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
   Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
   to the voice of my supplications! 

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
   Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
   so that you may be revered.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
   and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
   more than those who watch for the morning,
   more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
   For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
   and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
   from all its iniquities.”

***

    “Don’t go into the water,” my mother warned, sounding very much like the tagline from the movie, Jaws. But she wasn’t making a joke.

     I was telling her how I am looking forward to my visit with them in Florida this week, and that I hoped on this visit, I would be able to see the ocean. On my last visit in April, my dad had fallen 2 days before I arrived and was in too much pain to walk. We weren’t able to do many of the things we had planned to do. Surprisingly this time, Mom was less than enthusiastic about the beach. She discouraged me from doing one of my favorite things--walking along the shoreline, with my feet in the water.

     Mom said there had been shark attacks. I laughed. In spite of the movie Jaws inspiring universal fear about sharks, shark sightings, let alone attacks, are pretty rare. But I searched on the Internet, and sure enough, I found reports of some recent sightings and even a few attacks in Florida. At trackingsharks.com, I read about a man who encountered a great white shark when he was spearfishing about 25 miles off the coast of Port Canaveral. Zack Spurlock actually grabbed his camera and started filming the 11 to 12-foot shark making 3 passes by him, until his friends hollered for him to get back in the boat. He was, perhaps miraculously, unharmed.

     Josh Green, however, needed 18 stitches when a shark attacked him May 11 while he was swimming at Cocoa Beach, about 60 miles south of my parents’ home in Port Orange. Josh “felt a yank on his leg,” the Jacksonville Sun Times reported. Then he “felt several bites and fought back.” “I didn’t realize it was a shark,” he said, “until I punched it, thinking it was someone messing with me then felt the face.” Another man survived a shark attack in April on the Gulf Coast of Florida while he was walking in only 2 feet of water! The April 27 newspaper story (in The Patch) began: “A 60-year-old man’s afternoon on a Marco Island beach ended with a trip to the hospital Sunday.”

      And if fear of sharks is not enough to deter me from swimming, reports of the dangerous rip currents in the area are too sobering to ignore. On the Atlantic Coast of Florida over Memorial Day Weekend, lifeguards struggled to save more than 500 people from drowning. 

      People know about the danger. They hear about the powerful undertow and dangerous rip currents every night on TV and read about them every morning in the newspaper. Yet even native Floridians who should know better are enticed to go into the sparkling, greenish-blue water on a hot sunny day--only to have rip currents catch them off guard, pull them down and carry them away, farther and farther into the watery deep.

***

      How I am drawn to go in the water, like so many other swimmers, despite knowing the risk of drowning from dangerous rip currents is similar to how we are drawn to sin.  Sin always looks good to us, even though we know what sin is and that we should never do it and that it is bad for us and for the people we love. It is bad for the entire community, the whole Body of Christ. Sin is, plain and simple, being disobedient to the Lord in thought, word or deed. And we know that our sin may prompt others to sin because when someone sees us doing something wrong, they are tempted to do the same. Or they will see our sin for what it is and be upset by it--and possibly respond sinfully--by being angry and judgmental or gossip about it with others. Sin hurts our relationships with one another. It hurts our witness as Christ’s followers to the world. Worst of all, sin hurts the Lord. And it separates us from Him!

       Friends, what I am trying to say is that our sin matters, even though Jesus has died to take away the sins of the world, and to make a way for us to be reconciled with God. Our sin still matters! The saddest part is that when we sin, the last thing we want to do is talk to God about it --or confess to a fellow Christian, who will hold us accountable for our sin. This is exactly what we need to do when we sin--go to the Lord with a contrite heart and seek help from our Christian brothers and sisters. What gets in the way of our confessing and seeking help is the sin itself. We don’t want to give it up! We keep wanting to go back in the water, though we keep getting pulled under, carried out, and almost drowning every time, maybe pulling others down with us! Or, we don’t want to admit that we are sinning. We convince ourselves that what we are doing -- or not doing -- isn’t really offensive to God or hurting anybody else.

      A little gossip here and there. That’s not going to hurt anything, right? A little gluttony, greed, deceit or discontentment now and then.  A little spiritual laziness--not reading the Bible, praying, or going to worship regularly. That won’t hurt anyone, will it? Losing our temper, being impatient, complaining, flirting, refusing to share what we have with others, pretending we don’t have anything to give when we do, failing to show compassion, coveting what our neighbor has. It’s all sin. And none of us is without it. Romans 3:10 assures us, “there is no one righteous. Not even one.” Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

      For all of us, for all the world, there is only one answer--and that is crying out to the Lord for forgiveness, like the composer of the psalm we read today. Not just one time in our life to be "saved," but over and over again, when we find ourselves slipping into the murky deep of sin. The composer of Psalm 130 cries out to God when he comes to the end of himself and understands his complete, utter dependence on God's mercy and grace. “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord, hear my voice!” The psalmist doesn’t hold back or try to hide his guilt; his “cry” is personal and emotional. He is authentic and real with the Lord! He isn’t arrogant, expecting that of course the Lord will forgive him, no matter what He does. The psalmist realizes the depth of his own depravity and is ashamed, while at the same time, approaches God’s throne boldly, without fear. He trusts in the One whom he knows truly loves him and will not reject, condemn or abandon him. Still, he begs the Lord not to “mark”-- take note of or count up or hold his sins against him. You can hear the sincerity of his words--that whatever mess he got himself into, whatever wrong he did, he knows it is his own fault. He doesn’t make excuses. He doesn’t blame or name someone else. He doesn’t say, like Adam, “the woman gave it to me, so I ate.”

      Psalm 130 is called, along with Psalm 120-134, “A Song of Ascents.” God’s people on pilgrimage in ancient times may have sung these hymns as they went “up” to the temple in Jerusalem. Along their spiritual and physical journey, the pilgrims sought to prepare their hearts and minds as they drew nearer to their encounter with the Lord in worship and sacrifice.

      We find a pattern for righteous living in this psalm--that is, living in submission to the Lord. Not our will, but Thy will be done. We discover a model for prayer --one of humility, honesty, gratefulness and reverence. And we find a promise--that when we come face to face with our own sin and see ourselves as we really are, if we turn back to the Lord with a contrite heart, we will receive God’s mercy and grace. But the one who is forgiven is called to respond to God’s grace by living in fear and awe of Him. The psalmist says, “But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.” If we receive God’s forgiveness, only to turn around and willfully engage in sin again, we are not living in the awe and fear of the Lord. Likewise, in John 8:11, when Jesus delivers the adulterous woman from being stoned, he mercifully forgives her, but tells her, “Go and sin no more.”

     After seeking God’s forgiveness, the psalmist says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits.” But the psalmist isn’t waiting in agony, fearing that God will withhold His mercy. He waits in joyful anticipation, trusting the Lord will redeem, renew and restore his soul. “In his word I hope,” the psalmist says. “My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning.” He says it again for emphasis, “more than those who watch for the morning.”

***

     Friends, meditate on Psalm 130 this week to remember God’s steadfast love for you--and His mercy and grace! Know that you can, like the psalmist, approach God’s throne of grace boldly--every day--to confess your sins, so that your soul may be renewed and restored. Don’t hold back or try to hide your sins from Him! Be honest, be real with the Lord who knows you better than you know yourself!

      If I do get to the beach next week during my visit to Florida, with the seagulls’ cries overhead, I will remember the Psalmist’s words, “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord!” When I see the sparkling turquoise ocean washing up onto the sand, I will be reminded how we are always attracted to sin, no matter how dangerous we know it is--how it hurts not only us, but God and other people.

      And I will try hard to heed my mother’s ominous warning, like the tagline from Jaws: “Don’t go into the water.”

Let us pray.

    Out of the depths we cry to you, O Lord! Hear our voice, we pray. Please forgive us for our many sins. Do not count them or hold them against us, for if you did, who could stand? Thank you for your mercy and grace. Help us to respond to your grace by living in reverence, in awe of you, obeying you out of love and gratitude. Thank you for giving up your only Son so we could be forgiven and reconciled with you. Lord, teach us to set aside time each day to praise you, humbly confess, and wait on you in joyful anticipation that you will renew and restore our souls. Lead us to hope in you always, to trust in your steadfast love and in your great power to redeem. In Christ we pray. Amen.