The Penitential Prayer

The Songs of Ascent

Text: Psalm 130

Title: The Penitential Prayer

Introduction

The previous song dealt with affliction and persecution by the enemies of God. This is one of the great penitential psalms. Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, and 143 are all penitential psalms, but the best known are 32, 51, and 130. Martin Luther called these three Psalmi Paulini, Psalms of Paul because the condemnability of the natural man, the freeness of mercy, and the spiritual nature of redemption are expressed in a manner thoroughly Pauline. As the worshippers draw close to the city of God the most appropriate and indeed absolutely essential attitude is one of repentance. God can never be worshiped apart from repentance. Indeed, as we read in Isaiah 57:15, 15 For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. I have noticed with increasing frequency the absence of confessions of sin and expressions of contrition in modern user friendly worship services. Everything is supposed to be up-beat in order to keep people happy and not offend them. Their are no mournful songs in these modernized worship services, and yet, the hymnal of God, the book of Psalms has many. Not only do we not sing the Psalms, we do not even sung anything like them. We cannot meet with God without a spirit of repentance, penitence and confession. In this Psalm we see the worshiper’s plea, and God’s provision and promise.

I The Plea

The psalmist’s plea is in verses 1 and 2, Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. The psalmist does not approach God casually as if the Lord cannot wait to hear what he has to say. When sinners come to worship God they must cry out for mercy. If we are brought to the depths of our depravity like David, and truthfully, we often ought to be, then we will be crying out to God and pleading for Him to hear us. This prayer has sometimes been used by those praying for souls in purgatory, but there is no purgatory, and those who have died cannot be helped by our prayers. The depths of which David speaks are found in our own sinful hearts. God does not answer all of our prayers in the way we desire. That would not be good for us. It is better to be heard than answered, and this is one prayer that is always answered because we know that God is merciful and that he hears such prayers, again, as in Isaiah 57:15, For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. This is why in more liturgical services the confessions of sin are always followed by the preacher giving a statement of forgiveness or absolution. I John 1:9 reminds us, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. But John quickly adds in verse 10, If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. True worship consists in God speaking to you through His Word and you speaking back to God, and this is the way you address Him.

II The Provision

The provision of God is spoken of in verses 3 and 4, If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. The psalmist begins with a rhetorical question. He knows the answer. If we come to the judgment on our own record we are surely lost. Yet many base their hope on their performance and come to worship God as if they had a right because they are, in comparison to others, essentially “good” people. They are like the Pharisees who were confident of their own righteousness, but as Jesus points out in Luke 18:9-14, To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Now who was fit to worship God? Not the self-righteous Pharisee, but the publican who confessed his sinful condition. He truly feared God and demonstrated it in his contrite attitude. He was, like the psalmist, ready to give proper deference and devotion to the true and living God who alone can forgive sin. God can do this because in the person of His only Son, Jesus Christ, payment for sin was made at the cross through His atoning death. In the days of the psalmist this forgiveness was pictured and promised in the sacrificial system of the tabernacle and temple. David reflects this in another penitential psalm that is quoted by Paul in Romans 4. In Psalm 32 David writes, Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long…Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”—and you forgave the guilt of my sin…Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found. In Romans 4 Paul says of Psalm 32, Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

III The Promise

Verses 5-8 declare the confident hope of the psalmist because he believes what God has said in His Word, I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O 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. I cannot emphasize enough that the conviction of these verses comes only from believing what God has said as in Psalm 86:5, For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. (King James Version). Three times in this brief passage the psalmist says he will wait on the Lord. His patience in waiting upon the Lord is a way of expressing the sentiment uttered by the Apostle Peter when many turned back from following Jesus and our Lord asked if his apostles would also go away. In John 6:68 Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” The psalmist is declaring that he will wait on Jahweh because He alone can forgive and save. Spurgeon comments here, “The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord’s people have always been a waiting people: they waited for the First Advent, and now they wait for the Second. They waited for a sense of pardon, and now they wait for perfect sanctification. They waited in the depths, and they are not now wearied with waiting in a happier condition. They have cried and they do wait; probably their past prayer sustains their present patience.” Patient waiting is he product of faith and hope, and that is how the psalmist ends this song. O 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. Our attention is directed to the future and the final deliverance. This was foreshadowed in the Old Testament worship ritual, but for the psalmist the fulfillment was yet to come. The deliverer came, and the angelic messenger told Joseph as we read in Matthew 1:20 and 21, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Indeed, He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. Worship is waiting upon the Lord to fulfill His Word.