"...therefore you are to be feared" Psalm 130.4
I have a new favourite children's song. It can be found here:
It is a song all about how we don't, as Christians, need to hide. There is nothing to fear. In particular there is nothing to fear from the things we have done wrong. Why is that? The answer is in the chorus:
And admits his sin
Blessed is the one who trusts the Lord
Who alone forgives
Jesus died so I don’t have to hide anymore.
I like it because it sums up one of the most surprising verses in the Bible. When you read the verse above "...therefore you are to be feared" what did you think came before?
The answer is this: "With you there is forgiveness of sins... therefore you are to be feared".
The psalmist when he thinks about God's great mercy and forgiveness, which I surely don't deserve, he trembles. But what a wonderful trembling. So wonderful that as the children's song says, we don't have to hide, we don't have to be ashamed. So incredible that it gives us hope.
Why is that? God has promised it.
In the psalm, the psalmist says, "in his word I put my hope". How do I know I am forgiven? Because I don't think my sin is that bad? No. Because I feel forgiven? No. Because someone else tells me I'm forgiven? No. Because I persuade myself it wasn't wrong in the first place? No.
The reason I know I am forgiven is because God has said he will forgive me - "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". The God who knows just how badly wrong I've gone, forgives me - and at such cost. The Psalm finishes with - "He himself will redeem Israel (which includes all of God's people) from all their sins." When the psalmist said that God himself would redeem us, did he know that God would use himself as the price for our redemption? That is something so wonderful that it makes me tremble.
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