Are you ever down in the dumps? Life's the pits? Feelin' low? In over your head? That's all what the psalmist calls “the depths.” The “depths” are the deep places where the devil, the world and our sinful nature overwhelm us. The depths are where you are when your parents are mad at you, your friends stab you in the back, and you're troubled by something you said or did or thought and think that God is mad at you and won't forgive you. Yep. The depths. Not a fun place to be. So what do you do when you're there? Whine? Complain? Cry? Sob? Get in a foul mood? The Psalmist gives us some help: Cry out to the Lord! “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Lord, I'm sinking in the depths! I'm drowning! Going down! Help!”
Look around. Not here. I mean look around those depths. See who else is there? No, not just pretty much every other kid you know. Jesus is there. In the depths. That's right. Right there in the depths with you. Because Jesus knows all about the depths. He knows that down there in the depths, the Devil is swimming around like shark waiting to gobble you up with despair and sadness. So that's where Jesus is. In the depths. To save you. And He can do that because He's been in even deeper depths than you. First of all, even though He's the sinless Son of God, god Himself, He came down to this world, to the depths of where sin lives here among sinners. Then He went even lower. He went to the cross and even though He was lifted up on the cross, He was sunk down in the depths. Our sins were like a great block of concrete or some other weight chained to Jesus dragging Him down into the depths of our sins and God's judgment and finally into death. He went even lower, but this time not to suffer. He descended into the depths of Hell itself to let the Devil know that he has no claim on you. Then He came bursting out of the depths of the grave and was alive again. The depths aren't so deep now, because Jesus has been through them.
So what about your depths? The psalmist says that with the Lord there is forgiveness. With the Lord is abundant redemption. Jesus has pulled you from the depths once. He pulled you out from the depths of sin and death on the day you were baptized and pulled, as it were, from the water. On that day, with water and the Word, your Savior has rescued you from the depths so that even when you think life is the pits, Jesus is right there with you by His Word and your Baptism to rescue you from despair and unbelief and everything else that seems like it's going to completely overwhelm you. Remember what we sang just a bit ago? “The deep places of the earth are in His hands.” Remember that: when you are down in the dumps, the pits, the water's over your head and you are in the depths, the Lord has those in His hand. And that means you in His hand. And that is the hand that was pierced with a nail for you and the hand that splashed the water and Word upon you. It is the hand of Jesus that lifts you up out of the depths and puts you at the highest place alongside Him, where sin, death, devil and hell can't touch you. So when you're in the depths, make the sign of the cross and remember you Baptism and cry out to the Lord. He'll save you. He already has! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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