Our Vigil; Waiting for the New Day Psalm 130 meditations pt 3

https://billrandles.wordpress.com/2021/03/13/our-vigil-waiting-for-the-morning-psalm-130-pt-3/ ^ | 03-12-21 | Bill Randles

[pastorbillrandles]

I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. (Psalm 130: 5-6)

The Psalmist cries “out of the depths” to the One who is above and who hears. No matter how deep the abyss, God sees and cares. He wants to hear you cry out to him for mercy and deliverance.

We can cry out in confidence, even though we know that we are sinners, for the simple reason that God forgives sin. He doesn’t “mark iniquity” he is willing and able to clear our slate, and to give any sinner, no matter how vile, a new beginning. Remember that one of the concluding verses of the Bible, has the Creator proclaiming, “Behold I make all things new…”.

God forgives, freely, those who confess their sins to him, and who simply ask Him for forgiveness.

Now the Psalmist, with all of the Saints throughout time and up to the present, is in the position of waiting for the LORD.

Forgiveness is awesome, and is an absolutely astonishing gift. But it is also the open door to the even greater universal purpose of God, for all of his creation. We go From If any man is in Christ is a New Creation…” unto “Behold I make all things new…” God is working out his purposes, in time.

So we wait. Our waiting is not mere idle time passing, we are waiting upon the LORD as servants, taking our place in the purposes of God. This involves seeking the LORD for direction, participation in the life of the local church, and living in a world which we no longer have an affinity to, having been born again, into a New Creation.

We are in between two worlds, passing each other, going a different direction. The Apostles and Prophets knew of two epochs, “This present age” and “The age to come”. which is also called “the regeneration… ” by Jesus.

Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.( Matthew 19:27-28)

This age is ending…The sun is going down upon it, for it is an age of sin, failure, decay and death. The only positive about this age is that men can find Redemption, forgiveness and can be recreated in order to participate in the New Creation. Jesus died in order for this to be granted us.

Thus our problem is that we are children of the Age to come, and yet we are here in this age, waiting.

We are waiting for the dawn of the new age, the day of the LORD and the Messianic Kingdom to come to fully come to the earth. In a way we are part of the vanguard.

We are a lot like Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.

When Jesus called his name, at the graveyard, Lazarus came forth, and stood in the opening of the tomb. For those brief few moments, He stood between two worlds. Behind Lazarus was death, decay, grave clothes, the realm of sorrows and shadows, and of bitter regrets.

Before Lazarus was the land of the Living, fresh clean air, his living loved ones, flowers, hopes, anticipation, etc.

But he stood between those two worlds, waiting for the removal of his grave clothes.

In this Psalm, the God fearer in this world is likened unto a watchman waiting for the dawn of the morning. He longs for the day to break, for the light to arise and for the end of night. But it is still night so he waits.

Paul wrote on this in the eighth chapter of Romans, and He says that the believer is joined in his waiting by all of Creation itself,

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:18-23)

We see in this passage, Paul’s breakdown of the two ages mentioned earlier, Paul talks about “…the sufferings of this present time…”, contrasting our day with the day of Glory, soon to be revealed.

All of Creation itself, (literally, everything, Animals, plants, lands and Seas…all creation!), was subject to vanity, ie ‘futility’, when mankind fell. Things break down, they rot, they rust they die, there is rust and decay and breakdown constantly. Nothing is as it was originally created. God did this when we fell so that man, in his fallen state, could never feel like He can have a complete life in this age. We are to want the age to come.

We groan, as does creation. Paul likens it to the birth of a child. First comes labor, pain, water breakage, blood, transition, then birth. We wait for the baby, and go through all of the above, in hope of the day to come.

The “baby” we all wait for, is the Age of Messiah, the full coming of the Kingdom, the Millenium.