Title: From the Deep / Psalm 130:1-8
Title: From the Deep
Text: Psalm 130:1~8 (Old 898)
I remember when I was in elementary school. One day, my brother comes to the hotel buffet restaurant and brags about it. There is a restaurant called a buffet, and they say you can eat whatever you want if you go there, but I really wanted to go. Then, after a while, the opportunity came and my family and I went together. But my brother tells me that if those people take spoons and forks, I can't eat them anymore, so you should know that. It was the first time I went to a buffet, so I remember the time when I was greedy to eat a lot, so I was holding my spoon and fork with both hands so that the waiter would take my spoon and fork. Because if I take it, I lose the opportunity to eat.
It is truly painful to lose opportunities in our lives. It's really painful to lose what you have. In 1910, our country lost its sovereignty to Japan. lost the word name was stolen It suffered from deprivation for 36 years until liberation on August 15, 1945. Beautiful virgins had to be stripped of their bodies, and young men had to be conscripted and taken away from their youth and lives. Among the poems about the pain of that time, it is a song that says, “A village in the hillside of red flowers/ 12-year-old Soon-i follows the spirit of the Manchurian wilderness/ Uncle who couldn’t marry was taken by bullets and was taken to conscription”.
In 1926, poet Lee Sang-hwa wrote a poem “Does spring come even in the stolen fields?” thinking about the pain of the lost country and sang about the restoration of the land. It is a poem expressing the pain of losing a country. Losing like this is a great pain. Then, on August 15, 1945, the sovereignty of the deprived country was restored, and the name was restored and the faith was restored.
You don't know how great the pain of being taken away like this is. There are times in our lives when we experience such deprivation pains. On Monday of last week, Chairman Chung Mong-heon committed suicide. We do not know exactly why he died, but he must have suffered greatly at the loss of his own honor. As the chairman of Hyundai Group, he must have experienced the pain of losing his honor through the process of being called to the prosecution several times and being investigated.
These deprivation pains also appear in children. A female student in her first year of middle school was robbed of several hundred and several thousand won by her older sister. He suffered greatly through the pain of being taken away. In the end, he could not overcome the pain and committed suicide.
Some people lose their health due to a sudden accident, while others lose their health due to physical illness.
Even the words of the text confess, “From the depths of the depths, O LORD, I have cried out to you” because of the pain that cannot be described. The depths are like being in a bog. Psalm 69 says, “I fall into a deep pit where there is no place to stand; I go into deep waters, and great waters overflow me.” It is a confession of how painful it is to have fallen into a deep bog with nowhere to stand.
There are interesting public service announcements on television these days. Someone writes the card out of control. You can buy clothes to your heart's content and even a car to your heart's content. In the process, this person gradually falls into a quagmire. It is an advertisement that kicks up to the knees, waist, and shoulders, and eventually falls into the abyss even to the head.
In a way, there will be times when we experience “I am in a deep bog with no place to stand” through pain for various reasons. How many people die by suicide because there is nowhere to go and nowhere to stand, and nowhere to go there?
Dear saint! What would you do if we lost our place like this and gradually fell into the bog through the pain we lost and the pain we lost? Would you give up on yourself and organize your life? I can't.
The text tells us clearly. “I, my soul, wait for the Lord, and I wait for the word of the Lord. My soul waits for the Lord more than a watchman waits for the morning; yea, more than a watchman waits for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord.” Here we find the expression to wait for the Lord and to put our hope in the Lord. The two words are the same expression. I have been taken away from my place to stand, but in the midst of this, I am telling you to put your hope in the Lord and wait.
The hope shown in the Old Testament is a stump hope. A stump is the remaining stump of a tree. The leaves fell, the branches fell, the trunks fell, and everything seemed to be lost. But God leaves a stump. It tells the process of sprouting and growing a new shoot there. It seems that everything has been lost, but it is a promise that God leaves a stump of hope for anyone. There is the pain of losing everything and the pain of losing everything, but God certainly leaves a stump of hope.
What is clear is that when we are suffering in the depths of the abyss, we should wait with hope in the Lord. Jonah disobeyed God's command and fled to Tarshish. In the fish boat he had to wait three days. Perhaps the length of time in the fish's belly was equivalent to more than a month in a day. When we fall into the deep and there is no place for us to stand, we need time to wait with hope in the Lord.
Jesus was also crucified. He did not resurrect immediately, but after three days. He showed us waiting in hope. According to the contents of the letter to the Smyrna church in the book of Revelation, “Do not be afraid of what you are going to suffer, behold, the devil is going to throw some of you into prison to be tested, and you will have afflictions for ten days. and I will give you the crown of life.” There is a deadline of ten days. It means to wait for that time of pain in hope.
Jesus told parables. I sown good seeds, but when I saw sprouts sprouting, the weeds came up together. The servant went to the master and we did not sow weeds, so why are these weeds coming up? Shall I take it out right now? The master tells him to leave it alone and wait until the harvest. When we look around us, it seems that evil is winning and it seems that evil is ruling the whole world, but it is not. We need to wait in hope.
In Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea, there is a famous saying left by an old man named Santiago while clenching his teeth during a five-day battle with a storm. “It is a sin to give up hope”. Even if it feels like there is nothing left for me, don't give up hope even when it seems like the place I'm standing in is so deep that I can't stand on my own.
Then who are we waiting for in such hope? Psalm 40 says, “I waited for the Lord, and waited, and he gave ear to my cry; he brought me up out of the miraculous pit and pit, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.” The God who waits in hope is the God who puts my feet on a rock.
A famous theologian named Poltillich describes God as “the ground of existence.” When I am in despair, all my foundations shake and seem to sink into the depths of a pit, but the God we trust and rely on is the foundation for me. God is the foundation of our lives, even in the midst of such suffering that we have lost everything and have nowhere to set our feet. You are the foundation that makes me exist.
“The LORD is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, my horn of salvation, my stronghold.”
Dear saint! Is life power? Do you feel like you are losing everything and sinking deeper and deeper? Let's wait in hope for the Lord who has become the foundation of my life.
Also, the God we are waiting for in hope is the One who makes a way in the sea. It seems to be bogged down in the depths, but God makes a way in the middle of the sea. In the book of Isaiah, “How is it that you are not the one who dried up the sea, the waters that are wide and deep, and made a way in the depths of the sea to pass over the redeemed?” The God we are waiting for in hope is the God who makes a way in the depths of the sea to cross the redeemed. Even if it is painful to say that everything is taken away, God is a God who makes a way through the sea. Look at the history of liberation. It seemed that Japan would usurp all our sovereignty, but God is the One who makes a way in the middle of the sea.
In John 10, Jesus describes the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. The Lord is our Good Shepherd, and the Lord as shepherd said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” It seems that everything has been taken away and there is no more hope, but God has made it clear to us. “No one can snatch it out of my hand.” David contains the image of the good shepherd. David said, "When I was guarding my father's sheep, when a lion or a bear came and took a sheep and asked for its young, I followed him and struck it, and if he wanted to harm me in his mouth, I took his beard and struck it to death." It is the image of a shepherd who is bitten by a lion and is bitten by a bear, but goes back to the end.
God is our Good Shepherd. Even if we have the pain of losing everything, we believe that God will make a way in the midst of it. We believe that He will bring us back to enjoy true joy. It seems that everything is lost, but God is the One who makes a way in the middle of the sea.
The ship was stranded. There was only one survivor. The person was pushed by the waves and arrived at a small, deserted island. I was in a predicament and cried hard to God to save me, and I watched every day to see if I could see another ship. He built a clumsy hut and put some items recovered from the stranded ship. One day, while looking for food, he saw the hut set on fire and smoked. The hut quickly turned to ashes. The worst has happened. But the answer to prayer has come! The next day, a boat arrived early. The man who was isolated on the island asked how he had come to rescue him. The captain replied: "We saw your smoke."
Dear saint! Don't give up on life when I'm deep. Look to the Lord in hope. The Lord we hope for is a strong foundation on which I can stand. I believe that He will make a way in the midst of the sea. I hope that you will live a life of walking with the Lord of hope.