Sunday, April 20, 2008
Psalm 130
130:1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas 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.
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.
O 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. (ESV)
by Linda Harris
The Message begins Psalm 130, “Help, GOD—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help!” (130:1, MSG). The Hebrew word for “cry” is qara. It means crying or calling out but also accosting. The verb tense suggests that the psalmist cried out to God continually. He was desperate for God’s help.
Have you felt like the bottom has dropped out or that you’re at the end of your rope? Someone said, “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” But God has a better solution—turn to him because he specializes in rescuing desperate people.
Copyright Information
Daily Bible Meditations are taken from The Helping Hand,a Sabbath School student quarterly for youth and adults. Copyright © 2008, Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service .
dbm