Psalms 130:3

Psalms 130:3

We have here the second stage in the journey of the soul from the abyss to God.

I. Consider the state itself. "If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (1) There has been distinct progress here, yet the eyes are still dim with past slumber; the heart is still hardened by former sin; the vision is not clear. The soul is beginning to understand that to make any real progress it must know two things alone at first: itself and its wants, Christ and His redeeming blood; yet it cannot now shut all else out. Other men are still included in its view others, with their measure of guilt. The eyes are but opening to spiritual things; the soul is not yet alone with God. (2) Mark how this verse discloses all the conflict that rages in the soul. It is as though the shipwrecked man had been thrown upon a rock, bruised, stunned, bewildered; as if he could just hold on there, and no more; as if the roar of the angry waters was still in his ear; nay, as if he saw those waters almost sweeping up to him again, almost enfolding him in their fearsome embrace once more, and yet was powerless to move: only in his heart there is a reaching out to One who alone is powerful to save.

II. Consider the peculiar dangers of this time: (1) despair; (2.) a want of thoroughness and reality; (3) impatience; (4) the haunting of old temptations.

III. This stage is also one of hope, and one on which there rests an especial blessing from our God. If Satan be busy round us then, yet is not the heaven opened above us? Is not One watching us who Himself once suffered in the attack of the thronging temptations? He will never mark iniquities if you deal truly and honestly with Him. Yes, it is a time of hope, of joy in the presence of God, when the repentant sinner seeks the homeward way.

Bishop E. R. Wilberforce, The Awaking Soul,p. 16.

Reference: Psalms 130:3. Clergyman's Magazine, vol. xii., p. 84.