The Emotions of Psalms Part 10: Psalm 130 – Feeling Bitter

The Emotions of Psalms Part 10: Psalm 130 – Feeling Bitter

The Emotions of Psalms, Part 10 – Psalm 130: Feeling Bitter

Psalm 130        August 23, 2026

Introduction

  • A young man – we’re going to call him Bitter, because the journal that reported this didn’t give his name – was on a scuba dive with 10 other divers in about 50 ft of water. Bitter was experienced in scuba diving, having done so for many years and having several certifications. The dive team had been taken to a shipwreck, and the team was scouring the bottom seeking lost treasures.
  • After some time, Bitter made a significant find, a sizable amount of treasure to return with. One can only imagine how hopeful this must have made Bitter, how he imagined his life might be with this treasure that he found. Bitter gathered as much as he could and filled his treasure bag to overflowing. Bitter was so taken in by searching and gathering this treasure, that he stopped paying attention to his oxygen until he was alerted to it being dangerously low.
  • He quickly realized the danger he was in and signaled to his diving buddies for help. One of them – we’re going to call him Hope – immediately came over and offered his own oxygen supply to Bitter, even though Hope’s oxygen was also running low. But Hope saw that Bitter was almost out and knew he had to help. Hope tried to convince Bitter to surface with him, but Bitter wanted to keep searching. Hope shared his tank for 5 more minutes trying to surface with Bitter before Bitter was finally convinced to end his dive and surface; so the two tried to make an ascent. Hope led the way and got about 10 feet off the bottom of the floor, but could go no further….for Bitter was unable to climb after Hope because the bag of treasure that Bitter had gathered was too heavy to allow him to ascend.
  • Bitterness (much like impatience) can emerge from almost any negative emotional trigger as the situation or circumstance remains held onto by the one who has been hurt.
  • 3 points today – Psalmist’s Pathos, Psalmist’s Processing, Psalmist’s Pointing

Psalmist’s Primary Pathos: Bitterness

  • Psalm 130 
  • Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
  • 2     O Lord, hear my voice!
  • Let your ears be attentive
  •     to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
  •  
  • 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
  •     O Lord, who could stand?
  • 4 But with you there is forgiveness,
  •     that you may be feared.
  •  
  • 5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
  •     and in his word I hope;
  • 6 my soul waits for the Lord
  •     more than watchmen for the morning,
  •     more than watchmen for the morning.
  •  
  • 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
  •     For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
  •     and with him is plentiful redemption.
  • 8 And he will redeem Israel
  •     from all his iniquities.
  • This Psalm starts off in the depths of sin and ends in the heights of forgiveness
    • In between the Psalmist processes his own sin and recognizes the forgiveness the Lord extends in his mercy and steadfast love 
    • Pathos pathway everyone knows so well: Hurt > anger > resentment > bitterness > unforgiveness = sin
      • Hebrews 12:14-15 “14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled”
        • Note that bitterness emerges when 1) I lack peace with others, 2) I myself do not walk in holiness, and 3) therefore I do not obtain grace for myself and do not extend it to others.
          • Will always be focused on someone who hurt you
            • A) others
            • B) yourself
            • C) [if deceived], God
        • Comparison (my sin not as bad), rejection (my sin too bad), or  deception (God is not just)
  • So how do we overcome bitterness? Confession/repentance of our own sin (salvation), confession and repentance of others sin (release of need to judge to God)

Psalmist’s Processing

  • V1-2 = depths of sin
    • Sin and bitterness always place us in a hole, in darkness, in depths
      • Similar thoughts in Psalm 69:1 (waters up to my neck), 71:20 (depths of earth), and 86:13 (depths of death)
  • V 3-4 = confession of sin
    • The Lord sees our sin…but he does not “watch” or “keep account” (“mark”) it
      • “Who could stand” = legal term of standing innocent or acquitted in court 
      • There is a standard of righteousness that He calls us to – he isn’t dismissing sin without a just response
        • But if we cry out to the Lord for forgiveness His mercy will reign….yet this is why we continue to fear Him (v4) – reverent awe toward who He is and His love is so great that the more deeply we comprehend it the more deeply we would ever want to offend it, the more deeply we would fear sinning and displeasing our loving God
  • Only the Lord can allow us to stand – praise God that He is a just judge and that He forgives because of what Jesus has done for us
    • J. M. Boice “You may not find forgiveness with other people. Your husband or your wife may not forgive you, if you have wronged him or her. Your children may not forgive you. Your coworkers may not forgive you. You may not even be able to forgive yourself. There is one who will, and that one is God. Write down where you can see and reflect on it often: Our God is a forgiving God.”
  • V 5-6 = hope in the Lord
    • I wait for the judgment and forgiveness of the Lord: patiently, expectantly, undistractedly, and diligently/intentionally (like a watchman)
    • 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 “3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
    • I let him be the judge of others and of myself….and I acknowledge that He is my hope – my only hope
      • My waiting is not passive or inactive…it is filled with hope. In fact, my waiting reveals in what I have placed my hope
      • And here is where bitterness is exposed
        • At the root of bitterness is misplaced hope
          • Bitterness reveals that we are placing our hope in the things that we believe brokenness took from us….and therefore we cannot receive the hope that our merciful God offers us
            • Our bitterness reveals that we believe the thing we lost is better than that which is offered by God, His promises, His hope, His future, His love, the identity He offers as His children through faith in Jesus
      • Bitterness related to shame
        • Guilt is a feeling we have over what we’ve done
        • Shame is a feeling over who we believe we are because of what we’ve done or because of what has been done to us
          • No shame in the Lord because He gives us a new identity
          • No bitterness in the Lord because He gives us a transcendent hope that nothing else can compare with
  • V 7-8 = Heights of Hope
    • Steadfast love & plentiful redemption (no shame and a new hope)
    • C.H. Spurgeon “In this Psalm we hear of the pearl of redemption in verses 7 and 8: perhaps the sweet singer would never have found that precious thing had he not been cast into the depths. ‘Pearls lie deep.’”
      • The Lord will redeem our sin, just as He will redeem our shame and our bitterness – in fact He has ALREADY done it.

Psalmist’s Pointing

  • He HAS redeemed Israel from all its iniquities through the person and work of Jesus
    • Forgiveness through faith in Christ alone. 
      • Did you know that God forgives us because the penalty for our sin has been paid? He loves us of course – this is why He sent His son, to pay our sins – and it is because of this payment, that we can be forgiven.
        • God doesn’t forgive us merely because He loves us. This would be love without justice and our God is just. He loves us and therefore sent His son so that we can be forgiven. This is why we need NEVER doubt God’s forgiveness – Jesus has already won it for us! 
    • The work of the cross was an act of forgiveness on the macro level – lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29) – and micro level – Father, forgive (aphiemi – to let go/release from debt) them, they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Some of His last words on the cross were a conscious release of his will for his Father’s will – Father, into your hands I commit (takes aphiemi a step further – paratithemi – to put/deposit/entrust which implies letting go first) my spirit.
  • Ultimately, forgiveness is an act of obedience to our God who has forgiven us, but it is also removing ourselves from the judgment seat, taking ourselves off of the throne, and trusting in God
    • James 4:12 “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?”
      • We have no right to withhold forgiveness and remain in our bitterness
      • We entrench ourselves in sin, even when we have been greatly sinned against, when we do not let God be God – when we make ourselves to be God – just as we formerly made ourselves to be god before asking the Lord to forgive us of our sin.
        • Thus forgiveness, is not actually about releasing the other person from the wrong they have done – God will deal with them
          • It is releasing ourselves from the job of being the judge; 
          • It is releasing ourselves from the bonds of anger;
          • It is releasing ourselves from the defilement of bitterness;
          • It is releasing ourselves from continuing in our own sin, which separates us from the mercy and grace of God as we refuse to let go of the thing we think we must hold on to in order to prove we were right all along.
            • God knows, He is the righteous judge, and He will vindicate us through His justice, mercy, and grace.
  • So the reality is that if we are not releasing our hurt, anger, resentment, or bitterness, and remain in unforgiveness then we are in our own sin and we must seek the mercy of God to help us be delivered from the bondage that we are keeping ourselves in by not letting God be God. 
  • Note that this is Psalm of Ascents – would have been sung by the people as they were traveling to Jerusalem to worship
    • One of the greatest causes for our worship is that our God has forgiven us – you want to have the fire that you had when you were first saved? Be reminded that our God saves, that he forgave your sin and my sin, and that we would be dead and doomed for hell without his mercy and steadfast love manifested in his forgiveness of us. Alternatively, one of the greatest hindrances to our worship is a spirit of unforgiveness and bitterness. (see Mark 11:25, Matthew 6:14-16).
  • He will teach us to trust/hope in Him. We must release the false hopes that we have been clinging to into the hands of the Father, the false entitlements in which we placed our identity and our trust
    • Instead, we release those things and find our identity, our forgiveness, our hope, our delight – in the Lord above all else. 

Conclusion

  • Hope pleaded with Bitter to release his treasure bag, but Bitter would not let go. We don’t know why – but for whatever reason he was willing to risk his life to continue to cling to his treasures. Hope dropped his weight belt, and made a free ascent, breaking through the waves gasping for air, but safe.
  • Hope immediately signaled to the crew that Bitter was still in the depths below, with little to no air and needed to be rescued. The crew quickly sought to mobilize and send a rescuer down to the depths. Just as the rescuer was about to descend a diver surfaced, having cut free his treasure bag so he could quickly ascend. Except it wasn’t Bitter, it was a third diver who had found Bitter’s lifeless body drifting on the ocean floor tangled in his bag of treasure. The third diver dropped what he had and cut Bitter free to get him to the surface. They tried everything they could to revive Bitter, but tragically he was gone.
  • This is a terribly sad, true story of a scuba dive gone horribly wrong. If only that young man Bitter had let go of what he thought was important, if only he had let go of what was keeping him from life. But he wouldn’t, he was deceived into thinking it was too important, too meaningful to release.
  • Friends, let this not be us because we collect things too: hurts, offenses, betrayals, tragedies….and you would think that we would want to release these things to let them go – but sadly we can hold onto them like treasure because we think we have a right to them, that the things that were taken from us should be held onto – and there is the lie. We think these things are worth hanging onto, that we were entitled to what was taken from us.
    • But the question isn’t whether those things are worth holding onto, the question is whether those things are worth dying for? And the answer is a resounding no. They are a false hope. They are a false identity, they are a false promise. And Jesus is calling to you and urging you to receive His hope, His steadfast love, His forgiveness, His plentiful redemption. Will you receive?
    • Forgiveness isn’t saying the thing you’re carrying has no weight. Forgiveness is admitting that it has so much weight that you can no longer carry it. Release to the Lord that which holds you down, and Let Him lift you up.
  • Amen. Amen. – Prayer through Psalm.
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