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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
In delivering Flood Buckets recently after the heavy rains East Texas received, we were vividly and repeatedly reminded that water does not have to rise up out of a creek or river in order to cause damage but also can seep or flow in in some other way. Likewise, we heard stories of how even a little water in one’s home can cause a lot of damage, just as people are thought to be able to drown in a very small amount of water. Nevertheless, a large amount of water is evoked tonight in Psalm 130, the last of the Seven Penitential Psalms that we have been praying and reflecting on in our midweek services this Lent, and in this psalm we find the psalmist crying out of the depths but ultimately being raised to the heights. We at Pilgrim have used Psalm 130 on Maundy Thursday previously, and the Church at large has given the psalm a special place as the canticle De Profundis (The Lutheran Hymnal, #664) and in the historic funeral liturgy. Psalm 130 was one of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s favorites and is the basis for his hymn that we know as “From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee” (Lutheran Service Book, 607), and I myself list among my favorites both the psalm and that Luther hymn. Psalm 130 is notable for its sincere and simple language that nevertheless expresses a deep understanding both of the nature of our sin and of God’s graciously forgiving that sin (Weiser, 773). You may wish to re-open your hymnal to Psalm 130 as we reflect on it.
As it has come down to us, Psalm 130’s ascription calls it simply “a song of ascents”, which probably means that the psalm was used by pilgrims—if not by the king and his people—as they processed to the Temple, perhaps even using the psalm as part of their preparation to celebrate festivals there (Leupold, 903), much as our season of Lent prepares us to celebrate Easter here. The psalm’s ascription does not identify its author or the circumstances for which it was written, and so commentators differ as to whether they think it might have been written before or in connection with King Solomon’s dedication of the Temple (2 Chronicles 6:40-42; 7:15; Wohlrabe, CPR 25:2, 61; confer Keil-Delitzsch 302) or much later, such as under Nehemiah after the people’s return from exile in Babylon (Leupold, 906-907; confer CSSB, 926; but compare Neale and Littledale, 232). Regardless, the Divinely-inspired author seems first to express his own meaningful experience and then to invite the whole nation to join him in sharing it. The psalm that results is said to be set apart from the other Penitential Psalms for its attention to sin itself, expressing what an evil sin is (Leupold, 902).
The psalmist seems to liken his sin to “depths”, and such “depths” are usually of water, such as the water I mentioned earlier, suffered in our recent rainfall. But, the Old Testament also connects such “depths” to dust, mire, slime, mud, silence, darkness, destruction, the grave, and hell (CSSB). The psalmist’s unspecified outward and inward distress (Keil-Delitzsch, 302) can lead us to think of any and every kind of danger, in which we might find ourselves or our country (Leupold, 903). Yet, like the psalmist apparently does, we should think chiefly of our sin, which by nature separates us from God, forming a chasm that is unbridgeable (Weiser, 773), apart from faith in Christ. The psalmist speaks as if God had a record of each and every sin, and the psalmist knows, as we should know, that God certainly has plenty of legitimate reasons to destroy us. And, we cannot save ourselves—no amount of self-help or positive thinking will work (Wohlrabe, 61)—we can only be led by God to repent and to trust Him to save us.
A person who is drowning in depths of water is usually thought not to be able to call or cry for help, but, as God enabled the psalmist and enables us, we are able to cry to the Lord for mercy. The psalmist says that with the Lord, that is, in His presence (Weiser, 773), there is forgiveness, so that He may be feared. If there were not forgiveness with the Lord, we could only flee in terror from Him (CSSB, 926), and there would be no one left to worship Him (Neale and Littledale, 235, citing Cocceius). But, there is forgiveness with the Lord, so out of the depths of our sin we cry to Him to forgive our sin. Not only on Maundy Thursday, and not only in the season of Lent, but every day we cry—we cry out of sorrow over our sin and with faith that the Lord will forgive our sin. We revere, love, and trust in the Lord our God above all things, and so we honor and worship Him by seeking forgiveness (confer Wohlrabe, 62). And, the Lord’s ears are attentive to the voice of our pleas for mercy; for Jesus’s sake, He forgives all our sins—all our sins, whatever they might be (Weiser, 776).
The old saying goes that elephants never forget, and apparently there may be more truth to that saying than some might think. But, these days we might be more inclined to say that the internet never forgets, although the European Union is at least battling search-engine giant Google over what is being called a “right to be forgotten”. Despite the potential for the Lord to have a damning record of our sins, the Lord God wipes the slate clean with the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. In tonight’s Old Testament Reading we heard the Lord say He forgives iniquities and remembers sin no more (Jeremiah 31:31-34), and we heard that quotation again in the Epistle Reading (Hebrews 10:15-25). The psalmist says that, with the Lord, there is steadfast love and plentiful redemption, and that the Lord redeems Israel from all his iniquities, or sins. Truly, Jesus’s blood shed on the cross is sufficient to redeem the whole world (Neale and Littledale, 236, citing Hugo Card.), and the whole world would be saved, if only everyone in the world would trust the Lord to forgive them and so would receive His forgiveness through His means of grace!
A former Navy chaplain tells of the risk of leaving behind a sailor fallen overboard into the depths at night and so how, throughout the night, navy vessels always have someone standing watch on the fantail, or stern, of the ship (Wohlrabe, 61). Surely someone so standing watch with the responsibility for spotting such a sailor waits anxiously for the morning when the watch comes to an end. The psalmist says he so waits for the Lord—a protracted waiting (Keil-Delitzsch, 304; confer TLSB, 977) and a plaintive waiting (Leupold, 906)—and so the psalmist puts his trust in the Lord and places his hope in the Lord’s Word. The Word of God that would have been recorded and available to the psalmist at even the earliest date for the psalm certainly tells both how the Lord mercifully forgave sin (for example, Exodus 34:6-7) and how the Lord mercifully forgave sin through His Word attached to earthly elements, such as the Rite of Circumcision, the Passover Meal, and the like.
Tonight’s Epistle Reading also made reference to how the New Testament rites to which the Old Testament ones pointed wash our bodies with pure water and sprinkle, as it were, our hearts clean with the blood of our sacrifice. The water and the Word of Holy Baptism may drown our sinful natures but, as the waters of the flood saved Noah and his family, the waters of Baptism also save us by raising up our redeemed natures (1 Peter 3:20-21). Although we could not stand in the Lord’s presence if He would mark or otherwise remember our iniquities, the Lord Himself comes to be present with us here as we “remember” Him in the Sacrament of the Altar. As Jesus seemingly used His divine knowledge to provide Himself a colt to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, so, as we heard in tonight’s Gospel Reading (Luke 22:7-20), Jesus seemingly used His divine knowledge to provide Himself a place to institute His Supper on Maundy Thursday. By that Supper, He makes us partakers of His New Covenant in His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Forgiven in these ways, as we prayed in the Collect, the fruits of our redemption are continually manifest in us. As the psalmist did, we do, that is, we call on those around us to wait on, to trust in, the Lord, to put their hope in Him and His Word. As the Epistle Reading put it, we do not neglect meeting together in the Divine Service, and we stir up one another to love and good works. For, like the psalmist, here we cry out of the depths but ultimately are raised to the heights.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +