Five Minute Meditation: Psalm 130:1,3

TRASH ERADICATION MANEUVERS

My wife and I are pushing toward 40 years of marriage come the end of this year, Lord willing. We have learned a lot about marriage in these four decades. Some of the lessons came through great pain, others through great joy, and most when great pain was turned to great joy.

But, perhaps the most "practical" lesson I've learned in forty years of marriage is this: "The trash doesn't take itself out!"

If someone doesn't do something about that trashcan, it will overflow and stink to high heaven. So, trash eradication maneuvers have been my domestic specialty in our marriage. I don't cook. I don't even know how to turn on the washer. I do trash.

Now, I've learned in life that every "practical" lesson has a spiritual lesson attached to it. We preachers are sensitive this phenomenon. It's called, an "illustration." Or, an application.

I see this application as appropriate for Psalm 130, particularly verses 1 and 3. In verse 1 the Psalmist laments his utter despair beneath the trash of his life. In verse 3 he declares that this trash in his life is the "record of his sins." In the depths of despair he realizes the only way out is to "cry out" to Yahweh. Only the Lord can take the trash of our life to curb of grace and burn it in the fire of His mercy.

Fire is a destructive thing. Fire can literally melt the skin off a body. But, fire is also a "purifying" thing (Isa. 48:10). The fire of God's mercy refines our lives as literal fire refines gold locked in the crust of useless ore.

It's good to be cleaned. It's nice to get the trash of sin hauled out of our lives by the grace of Yahweh. You can cry out right now and Yahweh, the One True God, will hear you and respond with mercy and grace. He will will clean your life up. Only He can.