FULL Redemption!

Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

Full Redemption - by Beth Moore

I often recall something I head from Florence Littauer. "Of all things beyond salvation, people are most desperate for hope." I know from personal experience. After a terrible season of sin, I would've despaired without biblical hope that I had not destroyed my future. My shattered heart told me I was finished, but as I held my Bible to my chest day after day, surviving on its precepts, I finally accepted that the truth of Scripture trumps every human emotion. In doing so, I put my hope in His Word. A season of sin is not the only thing that can make us feel hopeless. (Name a few other things that lead to hopelessness.)

Loss can make us feel hopeless. So can a betrayal or a health diagnosis. Jeremiah 29:11 has been a steam in the desert for God's people for centuries. Relish the words in the Holman version: " 'For I know the plans I have for you' - this is the Lord's declaration - 'plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.' " Satan, the great counterfeiter, also knows the plans he has for you. Figuring out what they are is not difficult because they are the polar opposite of God's.

Let's try sometime to make a point. As if from the pen of Satan himself, write the absolute reverse of Jeremiah 29:11: (meredith's answer) "I have plans to destroy you, to take every good thing away from you. Plans to make you live in darkness, depression and self-defeat."

No matter what has happened, you are not hopeless. Satan's native language is deception. Christ Jesus defied the laws of nature to become the very embodiment of your hope and your future. As we soak both feet in the hope of Psalm 130 today, we will concentrate on verses 5-8.

How would you describe the theme of the second half of Psalm 130?

The psalmist pictured a watchman as a comparison for a person waiting on the Lord. Perched on a city wall, the ancient watchmen served the original nightshift. He watched for nothing more closely than morning itself. The fate of the entire village rested on his shoulders. If he dozed or became distracted, enemy forces could overtake him. His eyes constantly searched the horizon for hints of anything unusual.

In some ways the watchmen's ears were even more important to his task, enabling him to hear what he could not see. No more beautiful sight existed for the watchmen than the sun raising its fiery head on the eastern horizon. The watchman could gather up his robes, store his weapons, kiss his wife good morning, and fall in the bed with the relief of a job accomplished. Some called him brave. After he'd spent the black of night scared of his own shadow and jumping at the sound of a breaking twig, he knew when morning came safely that he wasn't brave. He was blessed.

The psalmist described his posture as exceeding the one practiced by the city watchman. "I wait for the Lord MORE than watchmen for the morning - MORE than watchmen for the morning." (vs.6)

The psalmist wasn't watching for morning. He was watching for the one who owned the morning. His eyes were fastened to the horizon for a glimpse of God's presence. The Hebew words translated "wait" (qawah) and "hope" (yahal) in Psalm 130 both include the indivisible element of expectation. Likewise, the Green term translated "hope" (elpis) loses all meaning without anxious expectation.

Nothing is more critical than expectation to understand biblical hope and this psalm. Though the psalmist was convinced that his own poor decision had aggravated his plight, he placed his hope in what God's Word said about confession and forgiveness, he sought his God, and then he fully expected God to show up in his circumstances.

The psalmist petitioned God from up on his tiptoes in a posture ready to receive. Does that sound like how you usually approach God?

By all means, if it does, say yes! But if you're more like me, when you feel like your own mistakes added insult to injury in your circumstances, you're more prone to hang your head in prayer than to lift it in full expectation of God's forgiveness and full redemption.

I'm about to get personal with you, but the vulnerability is worth it if it invites you to relate or helps make a point. Keith and I had a difficult marriage and desperately needed a miracle from God to make it. I had almost no confidence in my petitions before God's throne because I knew our hardships were direct results of a sinful relationship we'd shared before we were married. In fact, we were still so emotionally unhealthy that we had a long way to go toward sanctifying our sexuality. Satan, the accuser of all God's children, tried to convince me that Keith and I could expect little from God because we'd done so much wrong. "We should never have gotten married," I reasoned. Therefore, there was only so much that could be done.

Can anybody relate? Sexual sin is not the only place guilt can eclipse our expecations for God to act. Parents can feel like they blew it so badly with a child that his future - or their future relationship with him - is, at best, limited.

What is another example of how guilt can eclipse expectation?

We are often convinced that the more we can be blamed for our plight, the less God can do about it. What muddies the waters is that we're often right in the solely natural realm. Where do you think the adage "You made your bed, now sleep in it" comes from? A lawyer explains to his client that the plea bargain of 25 years in prison is the best they can do because of what he or she has done. What the prisoner may not factor in is God's ability to come within the confines of those very bars and set his captive soul freer than he has ever been.

When we cry out to God from the depths, taking full responsibility for our sins, our Champion will show up. If we put our hope in what His Word says is true, we can pray with absolute - if tearful - expectation that our God is coming. He will do more than save the day. He will save His child. We need not shrink back from God to soften His hard blows. God never comes to a truly repentant child with anger. He comes with unbridled affection. You see, we may have failed God but He will not fail us, "for with the Lord is unfailing love" (Ps. 130:7). Psalm 130:7 has become part of my life message and I'll likely share what it has come to mean to me as long as I live.

Glance back at verse 7. What else is with the Lord besides unfailing love? (Full Redemption)

To redeem something is to ransom it or buy it back if it originally belonged to you. The Hebrew padhah is certainly not limited to matters involving sin. What you need redeemed most may have resulted from someone else's sin.

Psalm 130 tells us that our covenant God not only redeems but also He redeems in full. What does that mean to you today?

Keith's parents did not sign up for what they got in a daughter-in-law. They knew nothing about religious backgrounds like mine or vocations like mine. They'd never known a woman Bible teacher, and they certainly didn't expect to see their daughter-in-law on TV talking about things that their generation feels are better kept private. I've nearly scared them to death, but they have been patient, loving, and gradually accepting through the years.

I had the sweetest conversation with them a few days ago. The first copy of my book Get Out of That Pit had just rolled off the press and into my hands. I sat on the ottoman in their den and asked them if I could read the foreword their son had written for it. I knew it would sting because it made reference to the tragic and painful death of their firstborn. But the foreword was beautiful and I wanted them to see what God had done in the life of their secondborn.

I explained, "I don't know if you realize what God did when He brough Keith and me and the pain of our pasts together; but I believe with all my heart that, if you did, you would be so glad. Just think: Keith has a background of terrible loss through the death of a brother and later a sister. I have a background of child abuse. People out there can't think of anything worse than the death of a child and the abuse of a child. Yet together your son and I are proof that God can heal the worst of hurts and also use them to help other people." They both nodded lovingly and called us the next day to say they loved the foreword...and loved me.

Full redemption is what I decscribed to my beloved in-laws who have loved me so lavishly without fully understanding me. Full redemption happens when God buys up or back everything that has happened to us and every sin we've committed.

Remember Jeremiah 29:11? Read it again; then consider the three verses that follow it carefully:

" 'You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you' - the Lord's declaration - 'and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you' - the Lord's declaration. 'I will restore you to the place I deported you from. ' "

What does the Lord declare He will restore, and how might the concept related to you in spiritual terms?

Allowed to do so through our confession, invitation, and cooperation, God can restore our identity, our purity, our ability, and our sanity! He not only diffuses our past of all power to harm and haunt us but He infuses it with power to help others. Redemption is incomplete if our negative past is only diffused. Satan won't be completely sorry and God won't get all the glory until the bad is used for good.

Did you stop too soon in the process, Beloved? Did you think God only wanted to diffuse your past? You may have stumbled onto the reason why you feel you can't get over it. The surrendered ground is not yet under your feet. Don't think you have to tell every detail of your personal past for God to use it. Your absolute authenticity and humility in ministry is often enough to turn the agony into glory.

As you conclude, put your own name in the blank and hear the voice of the Lord:

"O ______________, put your hope in Me, the Lord, for with Me is unfailing love and with Me is full redemption."