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Psalm 130:3-4  If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand.  But with you there is forgiveness – so that we can, with reverence, serve you  (NIV 2011); Or  therefore you are feared (NIV 1984).

I am surprised that the NIV translators altered verse 4 in 2011 in the way they did.  It seems to me that the same point is made much more poignantly and powerfully in 1984!
The amazing claim on the part of the psalmist in verse 4 is really one of the defining characteristics of the Christian Gospel, that put it in stark contrast with every competing humanly-devised ‘religion’.  Most people, when they try to devise a way to explain the empty ‘God’-hole that exists in each and every one of us, make one of two errors.
A Moslem, for instance, would say to Allah: ‘With you there is no forgiveness, therefore you  are feared’.
Many Australians, on the other hand, with a wrong understanding of biblical truth, but attempting to preserve something of the ‘Christian’ heritage that characterised the British settlement here 237 years ago, live lives based on the assumption: ‘With you there is forgiveness, therefore you are not feared’!  In other words, they happily go through life without giving much thought to God and his Word, because if there does happen, by chance, to come a ‘Day of Judgement’ at the end of their earthly pilgrimage, everything will be OK. ‘There aint nothing to fear’, because God is a forgiving god.  The typical Moslem must strive to please Allah and to minimise the ‘sinfulness’ of sin; and because there is no forgiveness with Allah, forgiveness is not a big thing in his own life, which is more characterised by pay-back and revenge than by forgiveness.  The typical Aussie can live as he pleases because if there does turn out to be a Supreme Being to face at death he can count on a love that forgives anything and everything – nothing to fear.
The truth at the heart of the Psalmist’s divinely inspired statement, on the other hand, is clear: Yes, God does forgive.  But that forgiveness is based on a very costly act of God’s grace. Although the Psalmist doesn’t know the details, he does know about the need for redemption (see verses 7-8: “Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.  He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”) – and redemption is always costly.
We know that the cost of our redemption was even greater than anything we could ever have imagined or dreamt up ourselves – the cruel, sacrificial death of God’s own Son.  Once we understand this, what other possible response could there be than to bow before him in ‘fear and trembling’ in the face of such amazing love, amazing grace?  How could we continue with our careless, self-centred lives that ignore God and his Word and then expect to benefit from such forgiveness?  The spin-off from this truth is that we don’t have to try to convince ourselves that we are not really sinners!  As John says: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).  That is why the Psalmist can freely admit: “If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared”.
– Bruce Christian