Scripture Reading:  Psalm 130  (De Profundis)

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.

My dear friends,

We all long to be heard.  The teenager cries, “You never listen to me!” Sometimes it is true.  Sometimes a spouse declares the same thing, “You never listen to me!” Sometimes that is true as well.   Listening is important.  It helps others know they are important enough to be heard.  The Psalmist entreats God to hear him.

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!

When someone is in the “depths” we need to be attentive to the cries of the heart.  Paul Simon song goes:

People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.

Listening to another is difficult.  It takes discipline to listen as though the other person is the most important person in the world.  Listening is a gift.  It is the gift of our ears and heart and time. God listens because to God you ARE the most important person in the world. You are God’s beloved precious child.  Let us listen to each other in the
same way.

God go with you,
Pastor Tom

Scripture Reading:  Psalm 130  (De Profundis)

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.

My dear friends,

The crux of this psalm is in the sixth verse of the psalm.  It is a verse so important that the writer echoes it a second time. “My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.”

Perhaps this is what needs to sink into the very marrow of our bones. Waiting can be a dark place, but it is only in the darkness that we can truly prepare for the light. Perhaps our call is to embrace the darkness for exactly what it is that we may know more fully the light whenever and however it arrives.

We know that seeds need the dark, cool, damp to gestate. We know that babies need the warm, dark to grow in their mother’s bodies. We know that our bodies need the dark night to rest. Our waiting, while dark, can still be a time of growth, even if it feels lonely and isolated. And breathing softly in the dark shadows, is the breath of the Holy Spirit, who never abandons us, but sits quietly with us in the stillness.

God go with you,
Pastor Tom

Scripture Reading:     Psalm 130  (De Profundis)

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.

My dear friends,

John Wesley's conversion took place in the evening of May 24, 1738, when he attended a meeting in a little nonconformist chapel on Aldersgate Street in London and he heard someone reading from the Introduction to Martin Luther's work on Romans. It was the occasion when he described his heart as being"strangely warmed." What is not so well known though is that on the afternoon of that same day Wesley attended a vesper service at St. Paul's Cathedral, and in the course of that the service Psalm 130 was sung as an anthem. Wesley was greatly moved by the anthem, and it became one of the means that God used to open his heart to the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Martin Luther also loved this psalm. He called it one of the Pauline Psalms because of its offer of forgiveness by grace apart from human works. In fact, it is one of the best expositions in the Old Testament of the way of salvation by grace on the basis of Christ's atonement. Now Luther wrote a fine exposition of this psalm as well as a very beautiful hymn. The first stanza of that great hymn is:

From depths of woe I raise to thee, the voice of lamentation;
Lord, turn a gracious ear to me and hear my supplication:
If thou iniquities dost mark, our secret sins and misdeeds dark,
O who shall stand before thee?

Psalm 130 is a penitential psalm. It starts at the lowest depths of despair, but it progresses steadily upward until, at the end there is encouragement for many from the experience of one. And in this sense Psalm 130 is in itself is a literal Song of Ascents. It climbs from the abyss of depression to the high ground of steadfast hope. You'll notice in many of David's writings he starts down where we usually spend much of our life and he describes and paints the problem, then he turns his eyes God-ward and he considers the God who delivers him in his journey in life, and finally the psalm ends with great words of praise and testimony.

God go with you,
Pastor Tom

Scripture Reading:  Psalm 130  (De Profundis)

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.

My dear friends,

De Profundis (from the depths).  Really, this Psalms speaks about times in our lives when we reach “the depths” and most of us can recall a time in our lives when we have been there.  Often, the first step to getting out of the depths is to realize that we are there.  Many people do not want to admit that they have reached the depths.   Sometimes, it takes a long time to admit that we have fallen down a big hole and cannot get ourselves out of it.  Sometimes, we have gotten so used to the pit and that it seems normal to us.  Things happen that for a time stop us in our tracks, like the loss
of a loved one, illness, or depression and we realize that are broken. Good friends and family can help and do a lot for us to help us: a comforting word, a thoughtful deed, a small gift.  Sometimes, people will even take care of some of the things that we would normally do ourselves. Family members often know us better than we know ourselves and can help us when we can’t help ourselves.  However, when things get really bad, even the best of friends and family have their limits.  It can be very hard work and
tiring – exhausting even – to care for somebody who is ill or cope with somebody who is depressed.  When we are the ones in need, we need to remember that we can only expect so much of other people.

The God we worship knows all about us: knows every single detail of our lives, our “depths”, and all our secrets.  There is not one thing in our lives unknown to God: no event, no joy, and no sorrow and there are no limits to God’s compassion.  God does not suffer from compassion fatigue and God does not give us quick fixes.  There are no limits to what we can say to God.  It is never too early in the morning, or too late at night to call to God.  There are no problems that are too big and no problems too small.  God cannot handle anything.  There is never “a bad time” to call upon God. In fact, God wants us to call upon him.  God will never say, “not you again”, and God will answer our prayers.  That is not to say that God will give us
exactly what we want or what we think we need but God will give us that which is best for us and will certainly give us the strength that we need to face whatever situations we may find ourselves in.

Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord.  For with the Lord there is steadfast love,