A heart burdened and troubled with guilt on account of sin is a heavy and pained heart indeed. When John Kennedy, later to become Dr. Kennedy of Dingwall, first saw “the exceeding sinfulness of sin”, he had an “indescribable agony of mind under a sense of sin against God, especially in the neglect of the admonitions, instructions, and example of his father”, now taken away from him by death. John MacDonald, later to become Dr. MacDonald of Ferintosh, began to be convicted of his guilt when reading Jonathan Edwards’s works. It is recorded that “such was his experience of the ‘terrors of the Lord’, that he was at the time persuaded that the agony of his soul was an anticipation of hell”. Robert Murray M Cheyne had “deep and ever-abiding, but not awful or distracting, convictions” of sin, says his biographer.
When guilt gnaws at the conscience, and fear disturbs the mind, to whom can one turn for peace? When someone realises what he deserves from God for breaking His commandments, it is to none other but God Himself that he should turn. The Bible shows us clearly that there is none to whom we can turn but the One whose law we have transgressed. He reveals Himself, in Christ Jesus, as rich in mercy and ready to forgive. Scripture declares that there is no hope of mercy but from God; no hope of peace but through the blessed Saviour, who says, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
But the first inclination of the convicted sinner is either to despair or to think he can improve himself before turning to God. He says, as it were, “I must please God. Only then can I think of going to Him for peace and pardon.” Dugald Buchanan, the renowned writer of beautiful spiritual poems in Gaelic, said that when he was first awakened to realise his guilt he began to feel hopeless. “I became dejected and sad, concluding I was undone, and that to refrain from sin was unavailing.” Later, he thought, “If my life were to begin again, how I should read, and pray, and keep the Sabbath. I then heartily resolved against my sins, but my resolutions were soon at an end.” Even the Lord’s people, who already have had their sins forgiven and have been brought to peace with God, when they go astray, backslide, and are then burdened and distressed by guilt, are sometimes tempted to try to make some kind of amends to God before going to Him with the prayer, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
David the Psalmist had such a profound sense of sin on one occasion that he was overwhelmed in the depths of distress, as we see in Psalm 130. He was convinced that if God were to mark iniquities against him, that is, to deal with him for his sins strictly according to His justice, there would be no standing for him; he would sink into eternal lostness. At the same time he knew that there was no hope of help, or peace, or a renewed sense of pardon, but from the God against whom he had sinned — and so to God he cried: “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.” As someone has said, “Although he was in the depths of distress, he was not in the depths of despair.” And another has said, “He cried to God from under the weight and waves of his sin.”
What was it that encouraged David to cry to the Lord and to look to Him for pardon? It was, of course, the fact that God is actually waiting to be gracious and is prepared to pardon. David, at the time, had received such a view of the mercy of God in the promised Messiah that he could not refrain from declaring, “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” He was enabled to lay hold of this precious truth by faith. Therefore, he went on to say, “I wait on the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.”
Poor, guilt-laden sinner, hope in His word; God is showing you that He does abundantly pardon. Poor, tried, sin-burdened child of God, hope in His word; God is assuring you that He is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy”. Heed not the evil “father of lies” who suggests that your sins are too great or too numerous, but listen to the blessed One who says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” David was very conscious of his just deserts when he acknowledged to God, “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O LORD, who should stand.” But he could also say, but — “But there is forgiveness with thee.” Spurgeon says, “How significant is that word but. As if you heard justice clamouring, ‘Let the sinner die,’ and the fiends in hell howling, ‘Cast him down into the fires,’ and conscience shrieking, ‘Let him perish,’ . . . when suddenly there comes this thrice-blessed but, which puts forth its strong arm bearing a golden shield between the sinner and destruction, and pronounces these words, ‘But there is forgiveness with Him’.”
The term forgiveness has in it the idea of sending away. Therefore it reminds us of the scapegoat on the day of atonement bearing symbolically the sins of the people and being sent away into the wilderness, (Leviticus 16), and so points us to the blessed “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Dr John Owen, whose exposition of Psalm 130 is one of his best known and valued writings, asked a young man who had come to him for spiritual advice, “In what manner do you hope to come to God?” “Through the Mediator, sir,” he answered. “That is easily said,” replied Owen, “but I assure you that it is another thing to go to God through the Mediator than many who make use of the expression are aware of. I myself preached Christ some years, when I had but little, if any, experimental acquaintance with access to God through Christ; until the Lord was pleased to visit me with sore affliction, whereby I was brought to the mouth of the grave, and under which my soul was oppressed with horror and darkness; but God graciously relieved my spirit by a powerful application of Psalm 130, verse four, ‘But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared,’ from whence I received special instruction, peace and comfort, in drawing near to God through the Mediator, and preached thereupon immediately after my recovery.”
Let us then, in our great need as sinners, be directing our cry to God, who says to His people, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” And let us draw near to Him in the name of the blessed Saviour, of whom the apostle Peter said to believers, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed.”
“Lord, who shall stand, if thou, O Lord,
should’st mark iniquity?
But yet with thee forgiveness is,
that feared thou mayest be.”