Daily Meditations

Psalm 130:4 There is forgiveness with God After Moses had smashed the stone tablets containing the first set of Ten Commandments, he returned to Mount Sinai, to make atonement for the people who had been worshipping a golden calf at the foot of the mountain. An extraordinary conversation develops between Moses and the Lord, which is recorded in Exodus 32 to 34. During this dialogue between a man and the Lord God, the Lord tells Moses, “ The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”  Exodus 34:6-7.  It has always been in the heart of God to forgive man’s sin, to forgive your sin and my sin. His character has never changed; it is still His heart’s desire to forgive us. The greatest act of forgiveness that the world has ever seen, was the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, for the sins of the world. That is why the rejection of His forgiveness...

Psalm 130:3 The record of our sins Can we imagine what it would be like if every sin that we had ever committed, every thought, every word and every deed, was recorded and published? Say there was a public exhibition, and all of our sins and transgressions were posted on the walls of a room, and members of the public were invited to go in and read them! The shame, the embarrassment and humiliation! We would all hide away in disgrace and probably never been seen again!  The psalmist ponders this idea and wonders if the Lord God keeps such records. He freely admits that if this is so, then none of us will ever be able to stand. Can we imagine entering the Throne Room of the Lord and seeing Him with a bulky document in His hands, a document that bears our name and that contains a record of our sins. An autobiography if you like. Who can stand? Who would not fall on their face and plead for mercy? This is the awfulness of sin, it bars us from God’s presence, it robs us of fellowship wi...

Psalm 130:2 Lord hear me! The plea here is a reflection of the nature of human faith far more than it is an indication of the character of God. Of course, He hears our voices when they are raised in sincere petitions before Him. Of course, He hears our cries for mercy when we plead from a broken heart at the foot of His throne.  The methods by which men and women have communicated with the Lord God have been many and various over the centuries. In ancient times the Lord spoke to men like the patriarchs in a direct manner, there were conversations going on, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and others seemed to have an open line to heaven! The prayers of Israel were recounted by the priests who daily entered the Holy Place and poured incense on the hot coals of the altar within the Tabernacle, and later the Temple. There was no such restriction placed upon the apostles and early followers of Jesus, prayer became one of the fundamental constituents of the life of the early church and it was an e...

  Psalm 130:1 Crying out of the depths The author of this Psalm is anonymous, but his sentiments readily identify him as one who is like us. He appeals for mercy and the Lord’s attention. He is well aware of his sins and the fullness of God’s forgiveness. He has learned to wait upon the Lord, and he appeals for all of Israel to do the same. We will all see ourselves in this song; how comforting it is to know that someone who lived perhaps a thousand years before Christ, experienced the same remorse that so many of us feel and he, like us, cried out to the Lord from the depths of his despair. And the Lord heard him and has been hearing similar pleas every time someone reads this psalm!   V1        What does it mean to cry to the Lord out of the depths? In Psalm 60:2 we find these words,  “I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.”  At the time this was written ...

This psalm’s author has one final shot to fire at his enemies and the enemies of his people. He pictures reapers and hay-gatherers standing in their fields; they stare bleakly at the scorched ground and the withered remains of their crop. Travellers pass by the fields and look away, for there is nothing for the farm labourers to gather in, the fields are bare, the hoped-for harvest is non-existent. Perhaps it was common practice for passers-by to call out a blessing, for a farmer’s abundant crop was good news for his balance sheet and also for all who benefited from his labours. But in this scenario, there is no blessing and those who pass by are happy to see the barren fields for this was the wish of all who hated Babylon and any other nations that came against Israel.  To pray a blessing over crops and those who work them was obviously common practice in Israel. Ruth 2:4 records this,  “And then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!” ...

Psalm 129:6-7 Grassy roofs My wife and I recently indulged ourselves and went on a cruise to the Norwegian fjords. For many reasons it was a trip that was meant to be, and we were able to experience what it feels like to be waited on for a whole week! One of the things that intrigued me was the number of houses in the mountains and rural areas of Norway that had grass on their roofs. Grass that had been deliberately planted and that was growing healthily in what is obviously a damp and cooler climate than the fluctuations we experience in the UK. This is unthinkable in Israel where rainfall is negligible in the summer months and the temperatures are very warm. No sensible person would ever try growing grass on the flat, sunbaked roofs of any Middle Eastern country, it’s not even feasible in the fields in high summer!  To compare one’s enemies with grassy roofs may seem extreme but we need to remember just how brutal and demeaning the Babylonians and others had been in their treatme...