This world is a mess. Ten minutes on your favorite news channel will remind you. There are wars, droughts, economic turmoil and threats of depression, inflation, stagflation, diseases, murders, and thousands more problems. Most of the time, I am able to narrow my focus from that macro view and pay attention to my own little world. But, that’s not always enough. Eventually, world events come to infect our own backyard. They can no longer be ignored.
You can no longer ignore world events when they begin having an effect on you. Yes, that could be physical, or circumstantial. If for example, you became sick or unemployed. There are other effects, however, that are more insidious. These are the things that affect our souls, our inner lives.
Maybe you know what I mean. We have all experienced it. The pressures of the world rob the joy from our daily lives. It seems that nothing will restore the joy and vigor that we once had. Today, in Psalm 130, this is exactly what we see. The author cries out “from the depths.” That means he has sunk low. So low, in fact, that he cannot see a way out. The light is disappearing. As he sits, watching the light fade, he is reminded of his shortcomings, his sins, and iniquities. Maybe you know how he feels.
Thankfully, this is not the end. The Psalmist knows that this is merely a passing moment. His hope is not in the things of this world, or even it God’s immediate rescue. No, the Psalmist relies only on the promises of God. He is keenly aware that forgiveness and salvation await. Someday.
As I read this Psalm, again and again, I am struck by his ability to wait. “My soul waits,” he says. Waits for the promises of God to be fulfilled. Maybe that will be today, maybe tomorrow. Either way, he watches and waits. Ironically, it is in the waiting and hoping that the Psalmist experiences God’s love and the promise is once again fulfilled.
Sometimes, when our soul is tired, the hardest thing to do is cry out to God, and dwell on his promises, but that is precisely what he expects us to do.