Psalm 130:8 (NIV), He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
Redeeming Israel from all their sins is something that God only can do. Israel here refers to God’s people. The key word in the verse is “himself” which indicates a desperate situation that no one else can resolve or deal with effectively. Someone rightly said, “God specialises in desperate cases”.
Similarly, the prophet Isaiah writes in Isaiah 59:16 (NIV): “He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.”
The statement “He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene” evokes a desperate situation, so desperate that God himself had to do something about it for his own sake as the next statement clearly indicates: “His own arm achieved salvation for him”. Anyone familiar with the Christ event in the New Testament, and apostle Paul in particular, can hear the gospel in Psalm 130….
What is redemption? Simply put, redemption is the action of buying one’s freedom. Let’s consider Romans 6:22 (NIV), “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Here apostle Paul refers to redemption from sin and the implication thereof….
Please note, “slaves of God” simply means “obedient to God” so that a slave of God is synonymous with a servant of God, the two expressions can be used interchangeably…. How would you like to be called a slave of God?
Whilst the Greek language uses the same word (doulos) for both servant and slave, it is important to know that the implication for us is understanding that a servant of God is someone who has chosen to surrender his will (freedom) to God, someone who does the will of God…. Hence, Isaiah describes the Messiah as the Servant of the Lord (see Isaiah 49 & Hebrews 10:7).
According to Romans 6:22, serving/obeying God rather than sin yields great benefit which leads to holiness (key to spiritual victory) and the result is eternal life -the same result as when one sows to please the Spirit (see Galatians 6:8). Conversely, serving/obeying sin rather than God is costly always as the opening verse of Psalm 130 clearly suggests….
It is interesting that psalm 130 begins as an individual or personal prayer, but then it concludes with reference to a people (Israel). We cannot help but see this as God’s way of telling us that the problem of the psalmist as an individual is widespread or true of his people Israel -Thinking of it as a “spiritual disease/condition” – it would be fair to say that the whole humanity is affected in the same way.
The psalmist begins by crying to God out of the depths. We are told that the expression “out of the depths” hints at being in water so deep that one might sink, if not rescued, hence the psalmist cries out to God. Undoubtedly, the psalmist was in deep trouble, indeed!
And, interestingly, the fact that he concludes the psalm stating that God himself will redeem Israel from all their sins suggests that he must have understood that he was in deep trouble on account of sins, his own as well as his people’s -He didn’t beat around the bush, as it were, but pointed straight to the real issue.
In other words, the real problem is not the deep water/trouble (the depths) the psalmist was in but the sins that led (brought) him into the depths. In fact, sins not only brought him into the depths but, even more, kept him there -talking about a predicament….
Please take time to prayerfully read the following passage:
Mark 2:1-12 (NIV), A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Jesus asked, “which is easier…”. It is a rhetorical question. However, for our purpose suffice it to note that Jesus used the occasion to tell the world what the real problem is for humankind or the world, namely, sin.
See, the man’s real problem was not his paralysis but his sins. In this context we also recall Luke 13:16 (NIV), responding to those who were judging him for healing on the Sabbath Jesus said, “Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
It is important to understand that Satan, also called the devil, has no power (legal right) to steal, kill and destroy anywhere on earth except through sin. In fact, sin gives Satan a foothold or landing pad without which he cannot operate (see Ephesians 4:26-27). Hence, no witches or wizard and not even a legion of demons can hurt anyone who walks in holiness: Not my word…. Remember, as mentioned above, obeying God rather than sin yields real benefits….
It is amazing that the psalmist rightly diagnosed his real problem, unlike most of us. We see that although he found himself in the depths, he didn’t look at his circumstances as the real problem. No one has better words to describe the psalmist real problem than the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 59:1-2 (NIV), Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
Significantly, Psalm 130:8 (NIV), “He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” Please note, the expression “all their sins” means to the extent that they will be cleared of sin, that is, Satan would have no legal ground against them…. We’re talking about a privilege reserved for the saints or God’s people exclusively -hence a motivation for evangelism, isn’t? The good news is that you could become one by believing in Jesus Christ today as your personal Lord and Saviour.
If the real problem of humankind is ignored the dream of a better world on earth is an illusion: Only God can deal with it!
