Who Else

DEVOTION

PSALMS

WHO ELSE

Ps 130

130:1 A song of ascents.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

NIV

The eleventh song of ascent on the eleventh of fifteen steps up to the temple. Who else would our soul cry out for, other than the Lord? Who else could redeem us from the depths, other than the Lord? Who else would show us the mercy the Lord does? Although we are told that love keeps no record of wrong in 1 Corinthians 13, which of us can say we have been able to accomplish that? There always seems to be that lingering hint of memory about something someone did or said which we deemed as offensive to us. We say we forgive you, but can we say we have totally forgotten? The idea of not keeping a record of wrongs may not be about actually not remembering, but more like never bringing it up ever again for the rest of our lives. It means never reminding a person of something they did that was deemed wrong or we could say as deemed as sin. That is how God is. He would not be God if he could actually forget something, but once he has forgiving us of our sin, he has forgiven us and we are no longer held accountable for that sin. If he did hold us accountable for every sin in our life, we could not ever stand before him. In fact, we could not bear to stand period. The weight of our guilt and shame would crush us. This is why people who refuse to accept Jesus Christ stand with arrogance. They have denied who God is, suppressed the truth of God deep within themselves so their evil deeds do not crush them, they feel no shame or guilt, so they can live. They prefer the darkness so the light of the truth of God will not shine into their hearts. They do no fear God. But we know God and we have cried out to him and he has forgiven our sin and so we fear, we reverence him. Our soul waits for him, we yearn for the Lord. We put our trust in his word. Just as the watchmen waits for the morning, we watch for the morning of the Lord, the Day of the Lord when everything will change forever. Sometimes we can get too distracted just in our daily living, doing the daily chores of life that we do not pay much attention to the coming Day of the Lord. Sometimes we make too many of our own plans of what we want out of life, our wants, our goals, our desires, and our ambitions, what we want for our future days to look like, and how much we want to accomplish. What about waiting for the Lord? What about seeking him more? He is the only one who loves us enough to have done everything so that we can be redeemed. He reconciled himself to us so that we can have eternal life. All too often we hear of people saying they simply do not love someone anymore. Isn’t that what divorce is about, falling out of love? Maybe it is more about selfishness, rather than selflessness. That is how the love of God is, selflessness. He came in to earth in the form of man to humble himself unto a death on a cross for us. That is love divine. That is unfailing love. The love of people may fail, but Gods love never fails, it continues forever. He has redeemed us and holds us up, sustains us in his love. Who else could we turn to? Who else would love us as much as God does? Who else?