Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is Your Life in Danger? | The Writings | Psalm 130

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

Are you in danger? How can we be delivered from sin? What do you long for? In today's episode, Jensen shares how Psalm 130 reminds us that despite our sin, God has defeated evil and rescued us from the kingdom of darkness. Prepare your heart this Advent with the 2024 TMBT Advent Calendar! Each day, receive a new prompt for Scripture, prayer, and reflection—designed to help you slow down and reflect on the Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy that Jesus offers. Sign up now to receive your free Advent calendar! Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 130

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I've never been in serious mortal danger that I know of. I live a pretty vanilla life. But I love to read. And in high school, I read a lot of dystopian-type novels. The protagonists are always in danger, always running from someone trying to get

somewhere fighting to stay alive, always on alert. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, Divergent. There's always a theme in these stories. In none of these books does anyone ever think that it's a good idea for everyone to be sleeping at all the same time? They always set up a guard, someone to be on alert, because danger is always lurking. They don't want to be caught off guard in nighttime is particularly,

dangerous. With the darkness and the sleeping and the shadows, you're vulnerable. The person on guard is fighting to stay awake, always on alert, anxious for the unknown, longing for the light of day to push back the danger of a dark night. In Psalm 130, the psalmist uses the imagery of a watchman on duty to paint a compelling picture of our deep need for God. In verses 1 and 2, the psalmist is lamented. crying out to God, we learn that he has a need for help. Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord, Lord, hear my voice, let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. He's desperate for God to step in to help him, to hear him, to have mercy.

He's in danger. But what is the danger? A dystopian government, orcs, wild animals? Let's look at verse three. If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? So what's the danger? It's our sin. Our sin puts us in mortal danger. It puts us at odds with a perfectly holy God. If he kept a record of our wrongs against us, we could not stand, we could not be in

his presence, we would be cast off destined for judgment, for death. It's a short verse, but we don't want to miss its importance. The psalmist wants the reader to understand the threat of their sin, to understand the weight of it, the danger in it. It's not benign. It's not something to be ignored or shrugged off. Paul puts it plainly in Romans 623, for the wages of sin is death. Peter reminds us that there's an enemy about, a living, evil, evil,

enemy that is actively trying to entice us to pull us into sin when he writes this in 1st Peter 5. Be alert and of sober mind your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. We are not safe. There is a spiritual war going on, one that has eternal, final, and devastating consequences if we choose to ignore it or remain ambivalent towards it.

The danger is as real as a prowling, roaring lion, waiting for us to become complacent, caught off guard, to fall asleep. And yet, in the midst of this very real danger, we read verse four. But with you, Lord, with you, there is forgiveness so that we can, with reverence, serve you. There's hope. There's forgiveness found in God. We have a goal, a direction, something to journey towards, something that can bring us deliverance so that we can serve God with our lives. And so in verse five, we read this. I wait for

the Lord. My whole being waits. And in his word, I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than the watchmen wait for the morning. More than the watchmen wait for the morning. We wait for the Lord because he's our only hope from the danger. We wait for him. We hope for him. We long for him. More than the watchmen wait for the morning. Think about that. There's repetition. The psalmist's wants that to sink in. The desperation the watchman feels hoping for the light to be near, to clear out the darkness,

to provide a sense of security, of safety, of calm, and yet, it's a false sense of security. Even with the morning light, night will come again. Danger still lurks even if it feels less threatening in the light of day. True deliverance doesn't come with morning light.

It comes with defeating the enemy, cutting down the danger, ridding your world of the threat. And when the enemy is the devil, when the danger is the sin that's been bubbling up inside of us from Adam, we need true deliverance. We need a savior. We need the Lord. The psalmist knows this too. Verse 7. Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. Put your hope in the Lord because his love is unfailing. His redemption is full.

He will redeem his people from all their sins. Complete forgiveness. The psalmist and the people of Israel sang these words with a forward-facing hope, a longing for their deliverer. the one who would come who would rescue and deliver them for good. They lived faithful lives trusting God serving him, knowing that he would be faithful to his promise to redeem them to forgive them. Their only hope from the danger surrounding them was found in their God.

Now we, we can sing these words, pray these words, and we can look back, back on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We have an even more complete picture of our life. what our hope is founded on. 1 Peter 2.24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. Romans 5-8, but God shows his love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. John 316, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

2 Corinthians 521, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. John 1.29, the next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Roman 623 For the wages of sin is death But the free gift of God

is eternal life In Christ Jesus, our Lord Scripture is clear The danger is real But our redemption is full And our hope is secure in Jesus We await the Lord for our complete redemption We put our hope in the Lord, we praise our God for the good gift of his salvation,

and we remain on guard against the very real and present danger, not to be lulled into complacency or entitlement of the gift we have been given, but ever aware of the magnitude of this gift, the blessing that comes from true deliverance, true peace, true safety, complete, and full forgiveness. We long for the Lord more, than watchmen wait for the morning. God would that be true in our lives? Would we live our lives longing for your hope,

for your deliverance more than anything else? God, would we give our lives in service to you resting in your promises, resting in the gift of your life, death, and resurrection? The price was so steep, the danger so real, and you stepped in. You are our Savior, our deliver. our hope in a barren and dangerous world. Thank you, God. Thank you for your gift. Thank you for the righteousness and forgiveness that you've given me. Would I live a life worthy of it all, fighting my sin, standing firm in your promises, waiting for you to come and deliver your people

into your kingdom. Amen.