It’s an interesting phenomenon to observe that in the bible people who encountered God or Jesus often said “I am not worthy”. It’s interesting because the more intimately people got to know Jesus the more acutely aware they are they are not worthy of knowing Him or being in His presence. Here are a couple of examples:

But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8)

But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” (Matthew 8:8)

The point I’m trying to make is that we make judgements about ourselves and others based on the standards that we see around us. We look at the world and think “I’m not that bad” or “I’m better than that” and satisfy ourselves that we’re good enough. We consider our moral ambiguity to be something more like holiness when holiness is only something we can aspire to on our own because holiness always lies just beyond us.

The 2 Psalms we have today were written by people who had understood that when we compare ourselves to God we are all pretty awful. Our standards are nowhere near the standards that we should be living to. In fact there is so much humility packed into the total of 11 verses in these 2 that they make quite humbling reading.

In the end we only have the hope of redemption in Jesus to hold onto. Most of us are so far down the slippery slope to condemnation that there is no way back from it except for the saving grace of the one who surrendered his life for us on the cross. The one whose return we await. The one who made all things right again.

 That would be Jesus in case you haven’t worked that out.

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Pray these verses but insert your own name where it refers to Israel:

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
⁶ I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

⁷ Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.