The background of Psalm 130 reminds us that God who was at the beginning, is now, and always will be, created each one of us. He is the One and Only God we seek for forgiveness of our sins. We know from Genesis, that God began with the creation of Adam and Eve. Other humans were created from this union, all created in the image of our Creator. Nothing has changed in the method to birth the human race. Only mankind has disrupted God’s plan created for our best.
From the creation of Adam and Eve, God gave us the gift of decision making. He gave Adam the choice of naming all the animals. He gave both of them the choice to relate to Him. Later, we learn that Adam and Eve were presented with the most important decision of all—to obey God or not. Their relationship with God was at risk but they didn’t take time to consider the consequences of their decision.
Adam and Eve were too distracted and craftily deceived as Satan manipulated their thinking with the temptation to “be as wise as God”. A new feeling, not felt before in their relationship with God, was shame and humiliation. Shame was birthed from their disobedience to God. They no longer saw themselves as God saw them; holy and pure, made in His own image. The prince of darkness, the Deceiver lied to them in ways that made them feel they could as wise as God, with superiority equal to God—their Creator! He uses the same old, tired tricks today! It’s all he has. Evil’s powers are limited. God’s power is not.
The result of listening and falling for the lies of the Destroyer is a broken relationship with God. The Fall of Humanity began with the decision to disobey God. Since the Fall, many people have sought reconciliation with God through repentance of their sins. Others seek validation for their disobedience of God by rationalizing their sins as “the devil made me do it,” or “everyone’s doing it”. Others tend to rank their sins as being “not as bad as this guy or that guy.” Jesus addressed these thoughts in His story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. (See Luke 18:9-14)
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” —Paul, proclaiming The Salvation Plan of God to all who would believe. Romans 3:23-24
Why did Adam and Eve fall for the lie? (Read Genesis 3 for the whole story!) God wanted and gave His best to them. God desired to have this a loving, perfectly beautiful relationship with them. God enjoyed walking with Adam and Eve in the “cool of the evening” each day in the garden. God created a perfect home for Adam and Eve before He created them. Then God placed them in His perfectly created, beautifully growing garden of provision, made for the pleasure and sustenance. He only had one command of them. “Don’t eat of this tree—the tree of Life”.
God’s enemy, the fallen angel who wanted to be God and take over and was kicked out of heaven decided he would go after what God had created, loved and was precious to God—Adam and Eve. We can imagine evil disguising himself as a serpent, slinking and crawling into the forbidden tree, and then beckoning them to come and take a bite of the fruit. “Seriously Eve, it’s a talking serpent! Adam, don’t fall for what he is saying!”, we want to say. But we read on as the deceptive serpent tempted Eve first, convincing her that eating the fruit would make both of them be as wise like God. Notice that evil is using the same tactics that got him kicked out of heaven!
God’s only recourse for Adam and Eve’s disobedience was to kick them out of the Garden of Eden—The perfect place created by our Perfect God who loves us with His perfect love. The consequences of their decision to buy the lies of Satan, the Deceiver and Destroyer of all relationships, has severed the relationship God wanted to have with His created.
Adam and Eve hit rock bottom before enjoying the fullness of their relationship with God in the place He had created for them to enjoy. “You had one job—to avoid the tree of life like God ordered,” we might shout to Adam and Eve, until we too are tempted with distractions and fall for the insane lies of evil because of the seeds of arrogance that lie within us! We might question, (I did when I was much younger), why did God give them a choice, (free will)? Doesn’t He know we will fail and fall?
Hold that thought…
Psalm 130, The Message
A song of ascents.
1-2 Help, God—I’ve hit rock bottom!
Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to my cries for mercy.
3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,
who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
and that’s why you’re worshiped.
5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer—
and wait for what he’ll say and do.
My life’s on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.
7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for God—
with God’s arrival comes love,
with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel,
buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
Truth: God loves us and wants us to love Him back because of our own desire to be with Him in relationship. Our obedience to God is our measure of our love for God.
This isn’t really that hard to understand how God thinks concerning His love and care for us. Loving relationships are our main desire with our kids—from birth through adult. As parents, and later grandparents; we want our kids and grandkids, (anyone actually) to want to be with us as their choice. We do not want them to come from a feeling obligation—how awkward is that?
We desire the relationship with our beloved with the same desire God has for us. He wants to love us and demonstrates this love daily. God also wants us to to love Him back, telling us to imitate the love Jesus showed for all when He came to earth. This is real love that is not tainted by duty, manipulation, or commanded obligation—just pure love—the perfect love God has for each one of us. We want them to decide to love us because they know we love them deeply and forever!
John, the “beloved disciple” of Jesus explains the love of God this way;
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:7-12
God’s love is a love that “covers a multitude of sins” and “keeps no record of sins” against each other. God’s love is intimate and forever. God’s love for us does not change and will never give up on us. His desire is for us to love like Him! God gave us the proof of His love: “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
Psalm 130 is a lament by one who knows that even though he is a sinner, the Lord hears his cry out of the depths. The Psalmist proclaims in his prayer to God, “As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.” The Psalmist was so right!
God loved us so much that He also created a Buy Back Plan, from the beginning of creation, to rescue us from the Enemy we fall for and decide to follow instead of God. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost; then became the One who paid the price for our redemption from sin. He is the One God chose to give His life for ours. Jesus willingly obeyed God with broken relationships with God on His mind.
The cost to pay for sins of the world was the cost of a life who was sinless. Jesus knew the price that had to paid to “buy us back” from the master we chose to foolishly follow. Jesus, our Redeemer said yes to bearing the beatings while enduring the humiliation and mocking. Jesus silently listened to the false accusations brought up against Him. With prayerful resolve, He then carried the cross He would nailed upon while the weight of the sins of the world bought him to his knees. A person was ordered to carry the cross to the place meant too shame Jesus in the most public place for all passersby to see Him suffer and die—as a criminal. He could have called ten thousand angels to rescue Him—but He did not. Buying us back by taking the punishment we deserved to pay the sin debt so we could reconcile with God in relationship was too important—a matter of life in eternity with us!
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17
It is Jesus, alone, who sets us free to have a wonderful, relentlessly loving relationship with God! Sins gone “as far as the east is from the west”. Sins erased “to be remembered no more”. We are free to love God back without anything or anyone standing between us and our God.
Simply stated: We sin. God made a Way we can return to a loving relationship with Him through Jesus. But it is still our choice to accept the gift of God, repent and be saved by the blood of the Lamb. There is no one like our God!
What kind of love is this? I’m still trying to understand the depth and fullness of God’s love for us; but I choose to love Him back because He first loved me. I accept His gift of salvation and believe in the love He has for me. I pray that others will know Him through these writings. I will proclaim this love as long as I have breath on earth! To God be the glory, honor, and praise! I love you, Lord, with all my heart, all my mind, and all my soul. Continue to teach me to love like you love me.
In Jesus Name, Amen
