Right Attitudes of Worship Lead to Right Acts of Worship
The goal of this Psalm, as with the rest of the Psalms, is worship. As we read the Psalms, there are concepts contained within each that pertain to worship—tons of doctrines, theologies, acknowledgments of our helpless estate, and essential reliances upon God from the psalmists themselves.
There are different types of psalms. Some reflect accurately the human experience of life, as the psalmist almost seems schizophrenic: crying out, "Lord, you are so near. You would never leave me nor forsake me." Then the very next psalm: "Lord, you have left me. Lord, you have forsaken me. I am doomed and hopeless without you." Yet we get the reality of the heart of the psalmist being real about his humanity, being real about the Lord in worship—crying out to God in worship.
These are not blasphemous statements toward the Lord, but the heart cry and pain of being without God in total perfect state, not yet achievable in this life.
The type of psalm we have here is called a song of ascents. The Hebrew word for ascents is ma'alot, meaning a staircase, a pilgrimage, or simply moving from a low location to a high location. You are ascending, going up to meet God where He is in the heavenly places with the worship you ascribe to Him—your worship arising to God.
The specific goal of this song is to stimulate the minds of God's people to worship God in a more transcendent way. David gives us an outline of worship, instructing the redeemed to have a right attitude of worship and to worship God with right actions of worship.
Our desire is to focus on this song, to recognize what it means to have a right attitude of worship and to allow that right attitude to lead into right actions that worship God, pleasing to Him and bringing Him glory, honor, and fame. We want to know what our attitudes should be and how they produce right worshipful actions. The desire is to glorify God through Psalm 130 in worship—that is the attitude all Christians ultimately need, to bring glory to God through the outline David gives us.
1. Recognize Your Sin
In order to have a right attitude of worship that produces right actions of worship, we need to recognize our sin.
The context of Psalm 130 has been misconstrued in many commentaries as a psalm of suffering, where life's issues pile up—under the depths of problems, deadlines, and suffering. Of course, the New Testament promises suffering: not if you fall into various trials, but when. Many connect that with Psalm 130: out of the depths of problematic situations, crying out to God.
Other psalms address those issues, but this psalm is not specifically about the weight, suffering, or sorrow from life's issues. Notice verses 1–3:
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?
The concern, the focus of this psalm, is the weight, suffering, and sorrow of sin. It is sin in the psalmist's life creating the astronomical weight and sorrow. He cries out for mercy, for relief from God Almighty because of the sin he is experiencing.
Other psalms address suffering from life circumstances. Psalm 13:3–4 describes crying out amid suffering:
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
The psalms cover crying out to God because of suffering. If you are enduring trials God has decreed, the psalms provide the form of worship. But our psalm focuses on the weight, suffering, and sorrow of sin.
The psalmist has an intense awareness of his own sin, suffering as if in the deepest darkest recesses of the earth under the astronomical weight and pressure of his sin. He cries out to God, knowing his sin is known by God, forgiven by God, and his prayers heard by God. It is this intense awareness causing his suffering.
Psalm 32:1–3 says:
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
Do not shy away from "blessed" meaning happiness—there is huge happiness for the person in Psalm 32. It is where happiness dwells: do we derive joy from creation or the Creator? Psalm 32 and Psalm 130 derive joy from the Creator in the context of sins forgiven, God not counting iniquity.
Psalm 32:1–2 is cited in Romans 4, where Paul uses the blessed man to prove justification without works—a person decreed righteous with Christ's righteousness, innocent of the law's punishment. That justification exists through forgiveness of transgression, covering of sin, and the Lord not counting iniquity.
The connection is that the blessed man no longer keeps silent about his sin. He confesses because the Lord forgives—not to receive forgiveness, but because the Lord does not count iniquity. Now he can get sin off his chest, finding relief because of forgiveness in God, secured by Jesus Christ, producing confession. If forgiven, what is there to hide?
Psalm 130:3 confirms: If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? David is concerned about his sin, describing humanity's hopelessness if God marks iniquities.
The word "mark" is Hebrew shamar, meaning to guard, watch over, protect, keep safe, store up, treasure, or pay close attention to use against someone. If God stored up sins, no one could stand innocent—totally guilty, deserving judgment.
His worship pleads for mercy, recognizing inability to worship or receive mercy unless God ignores sin. God ignores sin through a Savior satisfying God's demand for righteousness and justice—attention to sin satisfied on Christ. Verses 7–8 teach plentiful atonement, where wrath is removed, viewing us through Christ.
The psalmist recognizes his sin, drawing him to need God's forgiveness in Christ. His worship praises and pleads for mercy, knowing our position in Christ is forgiveness. God's attitude toward our sin frees us to confess, forsake sin, and enjoy God in worship. David asks for mercy because he knows he can receive it due to God's gracious, cross-centered attitude—that is the attitude we need.
2. Resting in Satisfaction
Knowing your sins are not marked by God leads to a peculiar attitude toward God—a paradox. Verses 4–6:
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.
Verse 4: With the Lord there is forgiveness—not marking, scrutinizing, holding sin against us. But peculiar: forgiveness that you may be feared. Cause and effect: because of forgiveness, the Lord is feared.
Why not "that you may be loved" or "praised"? Why fear? Why wait for and hope in one you fear?
The fear of the Lord differs from worldly fear—it combines with hope. Scary movies that stuck were those eliminating hope, creating hopelessness. As Christians, we have the apex of hope in Christ's salvation—anything robbing hope should be abandoned.
The Hebrew for "fear" is yare in Niphal form (reflexive): the Lord causes fear in Himself through salvation. It means terror and awesomeness, fear and honor—standing immobilized by God's immensity in forgiving sins, stunned, awestruck, totally distracted by God's majesty, drawn to honor and praise.
David swings from bottomless pit of sin's hopelessness to incomprehensible heights of God in forgiveness—a complete reversal to awesomeness, hope, expectation of God's salvation finalized in eternity.
Fear creates cautiousness in living, not wanting to offend this awesome God. Without vowel markings, "fear" consonances with Torah (law)—obedience in response to forgiveness, not to earn it.
David waits for the Lord more than watchmen for morning (repeated for intensity). Not fearing enemies, but longing for morning's relief—like the watchman exhaling at dawn. David longs for the Lord more intensely, rejoicing in God's awesomeness, desiring God as He truly is—the One forgiving enormous sin with wonderful forgiveness.
Seeing sin's deserving wrath, yet God's forgiveness, creates love and desire for soul-satisfying God.
3. Our Redemption Is from Steadfast Love
Verses 7–8:
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.
"Redemption" and "redeem" mean propitiation—removing God's wrath, exchanging it for favor. Perfect atonement through Christ.
Key: with the Lord there is steadfast love—Hebrew chesed: loyal, immovable, unshakable, eternal love impossible to remove. It cannot change, diminish, or increase—perfect love redeeming us.
Love demonstrates in actions (1 Corinthians 13). Christ proved it on the cross, laying down His life. God's love is manifested, inseparable from redemption. If love unending, redemption unending.
You cannot worship truly without worshiping because of God's unchangeable redemptive purpose. If salvation can fail, worship falls short. God does not start and stop salvation—hope is unshakable.
God's love grants inexhaustible salvation from all iniquities. The psalmist starts with sin's misery, not love first—avoids presuming on grace to sin more. His worship overflows gratitude, hope, knowing he cannot stay in sin under God's immensity, awaiting final freedom—like Paul: amazed at grace, yet "shall we sin that grace may abound? May it never be!"
Formula for Godly Attitudes and Actions in Worship
1. Live under the realization of the heinousness of your sins. Do not dismiss as mistakes or brokenness—recognize heinousness, or it will not lead to proper worship. Removing sin's weight eliminates gospel's impact and worship reasons.
2. Live under the paradox of worship: forgiveness leads to awe of God, creating obedience. Fear and hope is worship's heart—healthy fear, honor seeing God immensely valuable. David starts with God's awesomeness enabling obedience.
3. Live under the assurance of God's love. Christ is perfect Savior who saves perfectly.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ... For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31–39)
