Preparing for Sunday

Song Highlight: I Will Wait For You (Psalm 130)

This week’s hymn highlight is I Will Wait For You (Psalm 130) by Matt Merker. As you can see from the subtitle, it is based on Psalm 130 which is probably the most well known of the Psalms of Ascent. The Psalm starts with a crying out to God that He would hear our prayer and our petitions amid our sorrows. Yet one quickly becomes aware of our unworthiness to enter into the presence of a Holy God. As the Psalmist writes in v.3 “If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, who could stand?” (ESV). For all of us have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. No one can enter into His throne room on our own merit. But God, being rich in mercy, grants us forgiveness through the blood of Christ so that we may be welcomed into His presence and can bring our petitions before Him. In light of this forgiveness, the Psalmist then declares that he will “wait for the Lord” and hope in His word. The Psalmist wrote this in anticipation for when God would restore Israel from all their iniquities and bring about a plentiful redemption.  

The Psalmist, trusting in the promises of God, wrote looking forward to the Messiah to come. We read this Psalm looking back at the Messiah who came to free us from our sins. And we sing this Psalm-based hymn in eager anticipation of when He will come again to make all things new for His true people. We put our hope and trust in the promises found in His word for we know that He is faithful and true. In Him there is “steadfast love and… plentiful redemption” (v.7 ESV). He has been faithful to redeem us from our sins and has given us the hope of restoration to come. So until then, we wait, we hope, and delight in the love that He has so graciously lavished upon us.