Three Words for All the Saints

Festival of All Saints
November 2, 2025
Psalm 130

“Three Words for All the Saints”

This past week, I received a phone call from a longtime friend who let me know that her mother passed away after a long battle with cancer. My friend was present with her mother when she left this world, and she fell asleep in Jesus peacefully. Although her passing was not unexpected, it was still hard. Even with that sure and certain resurrection hope that we have in Jesus our risen Savior, we are only human, and the sting of death hurts. Today on this festival of All Saints, we acknowledge the reality of death and the pain that goes with it. But in faith we also acknowledge the greater reality that in our risen Savior Jesus Christ, even when we die, yet shall we live (John 11:25). Together with the whole Church on earth and in heaven, we are joined together with fellow believers of every time and place. We are one in Christ with all the saints. On this All Saints Sunday, the message for today rises up out of the psalm that we read together, Psalm 130, and is entitled “Three Words for All the Saints.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

On the church’s calendar, November 1 is the actual day of All Saints, so that was yesterday. However, the observance of this is often transferred to the first Sunday of November, and that is our focus for worship today. Psalm 130 is not the appointed psalm for All Saints; that is Psalm 149. Psalm 130, one of the penitential psalms, is appointed for what this day would otherwise be: the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost. There are three words that rise up from Psalm 130 and we will focus briefly on each. Those three words are cry, wait, and hope.

The first word for all the saints comes from those opening verses of Psalm 130: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!” (Psalm 130:1-2). I cry to you, O Lord. Since All Saints Day last year, seven members of our congregation have passed away. We will remember them by name during the prayers later in this service. For some of those who died during the last year, their passing was anticipated as signs of the end indicated that their time was near. For others, though, their passing was completely unexpected and came as a terrible shock. Whether expected or unexpected, when a loved one passes, we cry out to God, just as the psalmist wrote. Because we are God’s beloved children now (1 John 3:2), we cry out to God in our pain and anguish, not understanding the why behind it all. But as God’s beloved children, we cry out in faith. Sometimes the grief seems unbearable, and we wonder how we will ever get through it. For many, after a loved one dies, being in church can be difficult. Strong emotions can be triggered and we are fearful of losing control; of breaking down and crying. A hymn, a passage of Scripture, words and music from the liturgy, the kindness of another person – any of these can happen as we struggle with grief. And yet it is exactly here – in the house of the Lord – that we need to be with our grief. We need the support and encouragement of fellow saints who walk with us as we cry out to the Lord and to one another. In the midst of things that we cannot understand this side of heaven, we cry out to the Lord who promises always to hear and to help us as only He can do. We cry out to the Lord, remembering how Jesus himself cried out to his Father and ours on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46). Because the Lord Jesus Christ was forsaken by his Father on the cross, becoming the atoning sacrifice for all our sins, we have confidence that we will never be forsaken by our Father. He has promised to his beloved children, his saints: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). It is in this sure confidence that we come before our God and cry out to him in all our need.

The second word for all the saints comes from verses five and six of Psalm 130: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning” (Psalm 130:5-6). Three times, the psalmist says that he will wait for the Lord. But waiting is not easy, especially when it comes to grief. When will things get better? How long will this take? In our waiting, people can say things like: “Time heals all wounds.” For someone going through grief, that’s not helpful, and it might not even be true. Yes, time does help to shrink the intensity of the grief, but we may well carry this with us for a very long time; perhaps for the rest of our life. This month of November lifts up our calling to wait for the coming of our risen, reigning and returning Savior Jesus Christ. We wait and watch for that great and final day when Christ will come again to make all things new. Until then, we wait with fellow saints whom the world may completely disregard, but whom the Lord Jesus calls blessed: the poor in spirit; those who mourn; the meek; those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; the merciful; the pure in heart; the peacemakers; those who are persecuted for the sake of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 5:1-12).  While we wait, we are built up in faith in the communion of saints. This is the fellowship of believers that unites the church militant here on earth with the church triumphant in heaven. God’s gifts of Word and Sacrament feed us and strengthen us in our waiting, together with “angels, archangels, and the whole company of heaven.”

The third word for all the saints comes from last two verses of Psalm 130: “O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130:7-8). That third and final word is hope, something that is vitally important in life and in faith. At times, it can be all too easy to feel like we are being swallowed up by darkness and despair. Life circumstances can make us feel overwhelmed; like there is no way forward; like we are going down. In the midst of this, our hope is not in ourselves but in the steadfast love of the Lord and the plenteous redemption that come through him alone. Whatever may be going on in life, we hold fast to the truth that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear…” (Psalm 46:1). This is the hope that all the saints have. It is a hope that presses on and perseveres despite frustration, loss, and defeat in life. It is a sure and certain hope that even death cannot destroy. Through our Baptism into Christ’s own death and resurrection (Romans 6:1ff.), we are Christ’s and He is ours, come what may. As God’s saints, his chosen people who are called by his grace and set apart for his gracious purposes, the blessed hope we have is that “nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). And so we look forward in hope to that great day when we will be numbered among that “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9-10).  

Cry, wait, hope – may these three words point us, together with all the saints, to Christ Jesus our Savior now and until the day of his coming. Amen.