The Watchman's Hope: Redemption Abundant Text: Psalm 130:5-8
Introduction: The Logic of Hope
We come now to the hinge of this psalm. The first four verses have taken us down into the depths of our own sin and failure. The psalmist has cried out from that place, acknowledging that if the Lord were to keep a meticulous record of our iniquities, no one could possibly stand. But then comes the great turning point, the glorious "but": "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." This is the foundation upon which everything else is built. Forgiveness is not a divine shrug; it is a purchased pardon that produces a glad and holy fear.
Having established the ground of his standing before God, which is forgiveness alone, the psalmist now pivots to the posture that this forgiveness creates. He moves from the crisis of guilt to the confidence of waiting. This is crucial. Many Christians get stuck in the depths. They know their sin, they cry out, but they don't know how to move forward. They live in a state of perpetual spiritual anxiety, always looking over their shoulder, never quite sure if the pardon has taken. But true, biblical repentance leads not to morbid introspection, but to expectant hope. It moves from the courtroom where we are justly condemned to the watchtower where we eagerly await the arrival of our King.
These final verses are the logic of that hope. They teach us what it means to wait for the Lord, what that waiting feels like, and why that waiting is the most reasonable thing in the world. This is not a vague, sentimental optimism. It is not crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. This is a hope with bone and sinew, a hope anchored to the character of God and the finished work of His Son. It is a hope that can stare into the darkness of the long night and know, with absolute certainty, that the dawn is coming.
The Text
I hope for Yahweh, my soul does hope,
And for His word do I wait.
My soul waits for the Lord
More than the watchmen for the morning,
The watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, wait for Yahweh;
For with Yahweh there is lovingkindness,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
And it is He who will redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.
(Psalm 130:5-8 LSB)
The Anchor of the Word (v. 5)
The psalmist begins by declaring the object and basis of his hope.
"I hope for Yahweh, my soul does hope, And for His word do I wait." (Psalm 130:5)
Notice the progression. He has confessed his sin and acknowledged God's forgiveness. What now? He waits. But this is not a passive, empty waiting. It is an active, hope-filled waiting. And it is directed at a specific person: "I hope for Yahweh." He is not waiting for circumstances to change, or for his feelings to improve. He is waiting for God Himself to act, to show up.
But on what basis does he wait? He tells us plainly: "And for His word do I wait." This is the anchor. His hope is not tethered to a subjective feeling or a pious wish. It is fastened to the objective, rock-solid promise of God. God has spoken. God has promised to forgive. God has promised to redeem. Therefore, the psalmist waits on the basis of that word of promise. This is the difference between true faith and wishful thinking. Wishful thinking says, "I hope it all works out." Faith says, "God has promised it will work out, and therefore I wait for Him to do it."
This is why daily immersion in the Scriptures is not some optional add-on for the Christian life. It is the fuel for our hope. If you do not know what God has promised, you will have no reason to wait for Him. Your hope will be free-floating, tossed about by every wave of circumstance and emotion. But when your hope is grounded in the specific promises of God's Word, you can stand firm. You can say, "God said He would do this, and so I will wait right here until He does."
The Watchman's Eagerness (v. 6)
In verse 6, the psalmist gives us a vivid picture of what this waiting feels like. It is not a dull, drowsy waiting; it is a keen, eager anticipation.
"My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning, The watchmen for the morning." (Psalm 130:6)
Imagine a watchman on the city wall. His shift began at sunset. He has stood there for hours in the cold and the dark. He is tired. He is straining his eyes, looking toward the eastern horizon. He is not wondering if the sun will rise. The dawn is not a possibility; it is an inevitability. He knows it is coming. His entire being is oriented toward that event. Every fiber of his being longs for that first glimmer of light that signals the end of his watch and the coming of a new day.
The psalmist says his soul waits for the Lord more than that. The repetition, "The watchmen for the morning," adds emphasis, like a man nodding his head for certainty. This is an intense, focused longing. This is the posture of a soul that has tasted the bitterness of the depths and now yearns for the light of God's presence. This is not the waiting of a man in a dentist's office, idly flipping through a magazine. This is the waiting of a soldier in a trench, desperate for the dawn that means relief is coming.
This is what our hope in Christ should look like. We are not waiting for a vague maybe. We are waiting for an inevitable certainty. Christ has promised to return. He has promised to make all things new. He has promised to wipe every tear from our eyes. And so we wait, not with our heads down in despair, but with our heads up, scanning the horizon, more eager for His appearing than the night watchman is for the sunrise.
The Corporate Invitation (v. 7)
Having described his own personal hope, the psalmist now turns and extends the invitation to the entire covenant community. This is not a private devotion; it is a corporate call to worship.
"O Israel, wait for Yahweh; For with Yahweh there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption." (Psalm 130:7)
He says, "O Israel, wait for Yahweh." This experience of forgiveness and hope is not just for him. It is for all of God's people. This psalm was written to be sung by the congregation. It is a way for us to corporately express our shared condition and our shared hope. We are all in the depths together, and we all wait for the Lord together.
And then he gives the reason, the foundation for this corporate hope. "For with Yahweh there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption." He gives us two unshakable truths about the character of God. First, with Him is lovingkindness. This is the great Hebrew word hesed. It is covenant loyalty, steadfast love, unending mercy. It is God's unbreakable commitment to His people, not because of what we have done, but because of who He is. He has bound Himself to us by a covenant of grace, and He will not break His word.
Second, with Him is abundant redemption. The word is plenteous. There is more than enough. God does not have a limited supply of grace. His redemption is not rationed. It is a gushing, overflowing fountain. No matter how deep the depths of your sin, His redemption is more than sufficient to pull you out. It is an ocean of grace that can swallow up a mountain of sin. This is not a stingy God we serve. He is a God of lavish, extravagant, abundant redemption.
The Final Purchase (v. 8)
The psalm concludes with the ultimate promise, the final declaration of what this abundant redemption accomplishes.
"And it is He who will redeem Israel From all his iniquities." (Psalm 130:8)
Notice the certainty. "It is He who will redeem Israel." This is a future certainty grounded in a present reality. And what is the object of this redemption? It is not redemption from political oppression or economic hardship, though God's salvation certainly touches those things. The ultimate redemption is "from all his iniquities."
This is the heart of the matter. Our fundamental problem is not our circumstances; it is our sin. And redemption is not God simply deciding to let bygones be bygones. Redemption is a purchase. To redeem means to buy back. We were slaves in the dungeon of sin, and the price to set us free was a steep one. Peter tells us we were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, "but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19).
This is why the forgiveness in verse 4 leads to fear. When you realize the price that was paid to cover your iniquities, when you realize that the Son of God was crushed so that you could be forgiven, the only sane response is a holy, grateful awe. God did not sweep our sin under the rug. He dealt with it. He paid for it. He redeemed us from it, from all of it, through the cross of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion: The Dawn Has Broken
The watchman waits for a morning that is sure to come. But for us, the new creation has already dawned. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the sun has already risen on a new world. The apostle Paul says that God "has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). For the believer, Day One of the new creation has already happened inside of us.
And yet, we still wait. We live in the "already, but not yet." The sun is up, but the full heat of the day has not yet arrived. We still battle the lingering shadows of our old iniquities. We still live in a world that is groaning. And so we wait, like the watchmen, for the final sunrise, for the day when Christ returns to redeem not just our souls, but our bodies and all of creation from the last vestiges of sin and death.
Our waiting is not in vain. It is grounded in His Word. It is fueled by His hesed. And it is guaranteed by His abundant redemption, purchased by the blood of His Son. Therefore, let Israel hope in the Lord. Let the church hope in the Lord. For with Him is steadfast love, and with Him is a redemption so abundant it can cover all our sins. He has done it, and He will do it again.