Guilt. It can crush you, push you down, make you feel so far away from God. In fact, knowing that we have broken God’s law can lead us to hopeless despair, to believe that there’s no way God could ever forgive us.

But instead of hiding from God, the psalmist keeps crying out for the Lord to hear his prayers (verses 1 and 2). Instead of running away from God, he waits at the scene of his crime for the Lord to come and get him, longing for God’s coming just as much as soldiers on the night watch long to be relieved of their duty (verse 6).

Why would the psalmist do this? Verse 5 tells us that his hope is based first on God’s Word. He doesn’t rely on his feelings, which in his guilt could only lead him to depression and despair. But at the same time, he doesn’t look to other people, to what his peers think is rational or acceptable, to minimize his sin. No, he places his trust in the Word of God, that same Word has convicted him of wrongdoing.

And that’s because the Word of God doesn’t just describe God’s expectations for us. It also tells us a lot about Who God Is. For if God is a holy and righteous judge, if “He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations,” He is also “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7).

And we know how God is able to be both perfectly just, yet at the same time to justify those who have sinned against Him (Romans 3:26): the cross of Christ. For when Jesus died, He took upon Himself all the guilt, all the sin of all the people who have placed their trust in Him. As Paul explains in II Corinthians 5:21, the Father made the Son “who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

So, no matter what we may have done or left undone, no matter how far down into guilt our sins may have pushed us, let us continue to cry out for God’s mercy. And as we cling to the cross, claiming Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, let us wait for God, confident in His forgiveness and redemption.

Psalm 130 (NASB)

A Song of Ascents.
Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O LORD.
2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Thine ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.
3 If Thou, LORD, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with Thee, That Thou mayest be feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption.
8 And He will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.