May 21, 2022 - Psalm 130-134

“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? But with you there is forgiveness, 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” (130:2-4,7-8).

Often, I have observed that I so greatly love the Psalms because in the testimonies of the writers I find my own story. I have been with them on the mountain tops but also in the valleys. I have grown tepid in my love for God only to have him pull me back to himself in love. I have struggled with sin and my hurting conscience, then to revel in his forgiveness and steadfast love. Over and over again, we, and the psalmists, run to the Lord because with him is plentiful redemption.

Plenteous grace with thee is found,

grace to cover all my sin;

let the healing streams abound;

make and keep me pure within.

Thou of life the fountain art;

freely let me take of thee;

spring thou up within my heart,

rise to all eternity. –Charles Wesley (1740)