Psalm 130

Psalm 130

A song of ascents.

Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD;
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

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.

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

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.

This is one of my favorite Psalms, and probably favorite passages of Scripture in all of the Bible. In college, during some of my lowest times in life, I wrote a paper titled "The Riches of His Grace" that was based off of Psalm 130. I often go back and read through it, reminding myself of where I've been, what God's promises are to me, and where He's taking me. It's therapeutic to revisit some of the dark moments, but never good to stay there. He has lifted me from the pit and I choose to live in His forgiveness.

My paper is included below:

 The Riches of His Grace

Exegetical Work on Psalms 130

 Bethany Harrison

Psalms and Wisdom Literature

Dr. Branson

November 9, 2004

  

            In the following pages, we will first discuss the background of the greater collection of Psalms, after which we will look in depth at one Psalm in particular, that of Psalms 130. At this point, a verse by verse analysis will be done in order to further understand the purpose and meaning of this Psalm as well as the author’s intent.

In order to understand any one Psalm in particular it is first of all important to understand the collection of the Psalms as a whole. To look at the development of the book of Psalms is to try and understand a book of the Bible that holds so much importance, not only in the times of the life of Israel, but also for the people of God today. It is a book whose significance in the Christian realm could really never be measured. It is used in Christian “thought, worship, and conduct”(Mays 1). Its contents not only echo the rest of the Old Testament within its very pages, but are also found directly quoted in the New Testament, more than other Old Testament book. The theology that can be found in the book of Psalms “is congruent with the core of Jesus’ preaching and teaching”(McCann 672).

            The question can be asked, and should be asked, as to the origin of this collection of writings. Where did these important writings come from and how do they affect us today in our own Christian lives? The first and most important thing that should be recognized of the Psalms is there historic background; they were written in the context of a particular community, that being the nation of Israel. They can be considered the nation of Israel’s “religious poetry”(Mays 8). If the Psalms are not read in this context, with all of the time and tradition that has been a part of their development, they will begin to lose

their meaning and simply become words to us that we use and “fill with our own meanings”(8).

The nation of Israel used the psalms in many of their community activities. Psalms were written to be part of festivals and times of celebration. Their tone is very uplifting and engaging in the dynamic life of the community. There were also psalms written during periods of devastation and war. These were to bring comfort to the hurting nation. The psalms, therefore, were used in order to bring the community together, to unite the Israelites whether in good times or in bad. They provided a common ground, and a strong one at that, for the people to stand on. They provided a mode of worship, a response to the Creator, no matter the circumstances. The psalms show of the Israelites “celebration of the Lord’s providence in the world and Israel’s destiny”(Mays 10). They placed the Lord as the “Sovereign One” of their lives, for if they were to depend on their own strength, they would not survive.

When attempting to attribute a writer to the psalms, it is David’s name that surfaces the most. His name, specifically, is attached to more than 70 of the written psalms. Recently, however, many commentators have come to believe that this association with David does not necessarily mean that he wrote this number of the Psalms. Though some are thought to be his very prayers, many think that the psalms were automatically connected to David because of his status in the community as “patron and founder of temple music” (Mays 12). At any rate, it is obvious that the psalms were all written by individuals with “brilliant poetic skills and religious learning…”(9).

Just as the psalms were not all written by the same person, it is also believed that they were not all collected at the same time. The psalms were all pieces of literature that were used within the Israelite community, therefore, it is believed that they were collected over time and each psalm was that was selected to be a part of the larger Book of Psalms was chosen because of its importance in that very community. Mays said that, “The preservation of the psalms was not a neutral archival process but involved the selection, reuse, and grouping of the psalms that went with their constant use in Israel’s worship, the devotion of circles of the faithful, and the emergence of Scripture”(9). Just as the community of faith today has specific hymns or readings that are more dominant in their role in the community of faith, so Israel’s community had those that were used more or spoke more to that community in particular. After specific psalms were selected to be a part of the bigger picture, they were then arranged by their various themes which ranged from prayers of individuals, both in times if needed help or in times of praise and thanksgiving, to prayers of help in which the entire community cried out, and even included many of their hymns (Mays 21-27). In an attempt to further categorize the Psalms in the correct time period of which they were written, a man by the name of Herman Gunkel devised a plan. He began the approach to studying and determining the origin of the Psalms called “form criticism.” He would place each of the Psalms in a particular group, genre. Or form, and then date them according to the time that those forms were common within societal worship practices. He would look at the life setting of ancient Israel or Judea, and from there, match up each of the corresponding Psalms.  Gunkel’s approach is still used in the study of Psalms today. The categories that the Psalms can be split into include:

-Lament of an Individual

-Thanksgiving Song of an Individual

-Lament of the Community

-Hymn or Song of Praise

-Royal Psalms

-Wisdom/Torah Psalms

-Entrance Liturgies

-Prophetic Exhortation

-Psalms of Confidence/Trust

-Mixed Types(McCann 644)

It was a collection of pieces meaningful to a particular time and people, a collection that took years to complete and will continue on for years in its influence of the life of Christianity.

Upon providing a background for the entirety of the book of Psalms, the foundation has been laid in order to facilitate digging deeper into one Psalm in particular. Psalm 130, the sixth of the seven penitent songs, is oftentimes placed under the category “Lament of an Individual”(McCann 644). The characteristics that it contains within its verses that justify this categorization would include the complaint within the song and the prayer for help. “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice.” It is a cry of desperation.

Another group that this Psalm is placed in is the Songs of Ascents. “The noun translated ‘ascents’ is from a Hebrew root meaning ‘to go up;’” Regularly, tribes would travel back to their homeland of Jerusalem, and this collection of songs could very well have been used in such a time. Other indications that this collection was used by a group of people traveling to Jerusalem would be the frequent usage of the terms “Jerusalem” and “Zion” as well as the variation from singular to plural and the themes written about which include such topics of daily life as – “a place of residence, routine activities, the importance of spouse and children, as well as larger family and friends.” Also, the

movement through this collection, from beginning to end, suggests a pilgrimage as well. There is evidence of traveling through mountains, protection from natural dangers, language suggesting entrance and departure, as well as arrival (McCann 1177).

If one were to interpret the categorization of the word “ascents” more figuratively, they may decide that this Psalm is titled one of the Songs of Ascents because the individual moves or ascends from the depths of despair to a place of forgiveness and firm foundation. It is as if the psalm “is a song for ‘the way up’, for the ascent to God” (Gibson 286).

The specific Song of Ascent that we will be looking at, Psalms 130, is one in which an individual speaks, first for himself, and then to and for the greater community around him. This is a Psalm in which the writer is crying out to the Lord for mercy. “Luther called Psalm 130 one of the ‘Pauline Psalms’ because he found init the expression of that unmerited grace and forgiveness that are at the heart of the gospel and without which…existence before God is not possible”(Miller 138). The cry that is heard is not one of a person who is begging for the mercy of the Lord in exchange for his life, a vow only to be broken once he is in safe territory again. Instead, it is a confessional plea for mercy. It is saying, “I have sinned. It was my own fault. It was my very own fault. I am my worst enemy”(Gibson 287). “In a nutshell he is describing that awful awarness that there is nothing, just nothing, I can do to put back the clock and so bypass those unforgivable acts of mine which haunt me now and ruin my whole life”(287). The writer of this song recognizes the very pit that he finds himself wallowing in. He is not oblivious to his present situation. He understands that without the help of God, he is doomed. He also understands that he cannot demand God’s help, but he can only ask for

it. His confidence rests alone on his knowledge of the character of God and the concept of forgiveness. “To err is only human and to forgive divine”(Allen 193). As McCann would say, “It is an ‘honest confrontation of sinfulness and the psalmist’s humble professions of dependence on God’s mercy’”(1206).

In order to look further into this Psalm it is necessary to break it apart and look at each verse individually. Beginning with verse one, we automatically see desperation in the voice of the Psalter. He says, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;” The terms “the depths” that is read is this verse is actually a shortened version of the term “the depths of the sea.” Many times, in this day and age, this phrase was used to symbolize being lost or swallowed up (Mays 406). It is a place where destruction is prevalent, where individuals lose control on their lives, their decisions, or even, figuratively, their faith, as they are separated from God (Allen 195). They seem to be spinning out of control, to have reached the bottom, and to be unable to make their way back up. Perhaps this verse is said with panic sensed in the voice of the Psalter. Maybe this is not the first time that this writer is crying out to God for help. It is possible that the plural form of the  “Perhaps at the gates of corporeal  death, perhaps at the bottom of a spiritual abyss into which no light can penetrate, a man shouts again and again his supplications. Not “out of the depth,” but “out of the depths” does his prayer upsurge. Whether the plural word refers to several occurrences and seemingly endless repetitions of the depressive state or to a single access of exorbitant proportion, one impression imposes itself: the psalmist knows the torture of abandon, loneliness, shame, helplessness, and despair” (Terrien 182).

Arthur Weiser says, in his commentary on the Psalms,

“The single word ‘depths’ expresses in all its fullness the poet’s

grievous anguish as he becomes conscious of being separated from

God. It is not so much physical suffering and the fear of death which

torments him, but rather the feeling of being separated from God by

 the unbridgeable chasm of sin. Without God man is lost, and only God

can throw across the gulf the bridge which man has broken off by his

own guilt”(Weiser 773).

            In verse two, the Psalmist asks for the Lord to extend mercy. “O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.” He moves from recognizing that he is in the depths and crying out to the Lord from this place, to specifically asking the Lord to hear him, even from such a state of lowliness as he is in. “…the really striking thing about Psalm 130 is the psalmist’s conviction that God is somehow present in the depths represent the forces of all that oppose God and since the psalmist’s own turning away from God is at least partially responsible for his or her present despair”(McCann 1207). The psalmist, though completely turned upside down and feeling as if he is at the bottom of his rope, still has peace of mind that if he calls on God, he will not only be heard, he will also be answered. He feels that if only his prayer will reach up to heaven, there is no doubt he will be saved. “As Corrie ten Boom learned through the calamity of her imprisonment at the Nazi prison camp of Ravenbruck, ‘No pit is so deep that God is not deeper still’”(Kroll 388).

However, do not be fooled. This confidence in the Father is not a feeling of worthiness of receiving such a gift. He does not even have the ability to ask the Father directly for forgiveness of sins. Instead, he asks only to be heard. (Weiser 773). As Walter Brueggman puts it in The Message of the Psalms,

“The speaker acknowledges he is unqualified to approach the

throne. That is not contested, but that disqualification is countered

and overridden by the statement of verse 4: there is forgiveness with

Yahweh. That is not a derivative act, not a result from some other act.

It is the first act, the base line, the promise for all else…. There is

forgiveness, and from it everything else flows. It is not ‘grounded’ or

reasoned or explained. It is the first fact of new life, of the new age.

This is the center of the entire prayer. It is the ground for such bold

prayer. There is in this One the readiness and capacity to cancel

the iniquity and to begin again” (Brueggman 105).

Not only does he recognize is own unworthiness, he recognizes that this is the effect that sin has on the whole world. The psalmist has asked God to hear him in verse two, and then moves straight to reminding God of his unworthiness in verse three. His confidence, obviously, is not in himself. He asks the question, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” As the psalmist knows, there is no explanation for the grace of God except for the simple, as well as complex fact that He loves in spite of. In spite of our weakness, in spite of our failed attempts, in spite of our unfaithfulness, in spite of our doubt, in spite of our waywardness, and in spite of our lack of trust in his greater plan. He knows, somehow, that Yahweh’s ear is attentive to those voices who cry out in need of his saving grace. “The gospel affirms that the cries from the depth are the voices to which Yahweh is peculiarly attuned” (Brueggman 104-105). However, it is not because of what they have to offer Him, for what they have contains no value in and of itself, but instead because of what He has to offer them, life abundant.

Perhaps at the moment that this question is posed, the psalmist is standing with his head in his hands. Images of his past are racing through his mind. Images that haunt him day and night, that make him cringe at the thought of them, and that leave him dirty and scathed, unwilling to present himself before the Lord. He has nothing to hold onto, at least nothing that he can do for himself. He has failed. He has given in. He has lost sight of his values. He has lost hold on his morals. His choices are not made with the prompting of the Spirit. His life has been one of fulfilling the desires of his flesh, over and over again, until he no longer is able to recognize the tug of the Spirit on his heart. “At the root of the question which the psalmist asks, ‘If thou, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand?’ is the shattering perception of the tremendous power of sin and of the paralyzing powerlessness of man in his bondage to it” (Weiser 774). T.S. Elliot wrote:

            “We are soiled by a filth that we cannot clean,

      united to supernatural vermin,

  It is not we alone, it is not the house,

  It is not the city that is defiled,

  But the world that is wholly foul.”

             

The only thing that he can turn to is the promise that God has made that he will toss his sins “into the sea of forgetfulness.” He remembers hearing that with forgiveness comes healing and a fresh start. It is with the same breath that the writer speaks of the problem and the solution. From one thought to the next he moves from a world that could not stand in the presence of the Lord, to a people that is offered free forgiveness.

With verse four the reader is able to see the first signs of victory! “But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.” Oftentimes in mythical stories we read of people who, after going through a time of trouble, attribute it to the theory that they must have made one of their many gods angry. In contrast to this type of thinking, the God of Israel is not one whose anger we have to fear. He is God, the merciful. He is unlike Baal and Buddha, Zeus or the stars- these gods would wait in anticipation to trap the people in their sins. The God of Israel, the one true God, is one who sees a sinner as just another opportunity for the displaying of grace. One of the most encouraging excerpts to a person who sees no good in themselves was stated by John Gibson in The Daily Study Bible. He says:

“We on our part see only the evil of a situation. God on his sees

that, but he also sees an opportunity to pour on more grace, to forgive,

to bring good out of the evil in question. God does not merely resist evil,

for evil is not a ‘thing’ to be resisted. Evil is an activity that has gone

wrong. And so God seeks to turn such an activity into a creative activity.

He does so by loving the sinner, by forgiving him, and by offering him

fellowship with himself”(Gibson 289).

This concept of God is overwhelming. The love that he offers is far different than any love ever possibly conceived of in the human mind. For human beings, if something goes wrong in a relationship or friendship, if one person betrays another, there is often a rift in that relationship. One person, because of feeling wronged by another, decides that the relationship can no longer continue. God thought process is completely opposite of this thought process. God, when faced with a situation in which one of his children has turned their back on him, only knows to do one thing; to reach out farther to them. He does not hold onto his bucket of grace with white knuckles, thinking that perhaps he should save it for those that have racked up grace points. He pours it out, lavishing it on those heads that are the most undeserved. He covers their iniquity, fully recognizing that it is there, and yet deciding to blot it out anyways. He sees the evil that is worked out in the lives of humans as something that is dysfunctional, or has gone wrong, and he recognizes that he can make that situation functional. Wrongs can be made right!

The fear described at the tail end of this verse can seem to be paradoxical to the beginning of the verse that speaks of the forgiveness of God. However, this is not a fear that leaves us quivering and intimidated, but a fear that leaves us in awe and respect of this God of wonder. It is a fear that comes in response to his forgiveness to us. It is the aftermath of his shower of mercy. “The move comes the other way; the gift goes before the obedience” (Brueggman 105). His gift to us, in spite of our dire situation, the fact that he has saved us from “out of the depths,” means that we cannot “turn your back on the Lord. He has given you a gift that you can never pay for…henceforth no compromise for him is possible, since the completeness of the gift creates in him the completeness of the response” (Terrien 185). His action calls us to a response. It calls us to a deeper commitment. Once we have seen him work in us, he calls us to be faithful.

The next two verses, five and six, show a period of waiting for the Psalmist. “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” The word wait is repeated five times within these two verses. There is obviously intention of the author to place emphasis on this word. “The repetition is a way of intensifying the thought” (Peacock 134). The Psalter wants us to understand the importance of this period of waiting. It is in the waiting where we are silent, listening for a reply. It is in the waiting where we are able to hear his quiet voice, where we are no longer crying out for help, but hoping for his reply. Waiting for the salvation that is sure to come. Hoping in the salvation that we could not earn on our own. “The terms wait and hope are rough synonyms. The waiting-hoping is like a watchman at night, waiting early and expectantly for the relief that comes with daybreak” (Brueggman 106). We see this reference to watchmen in verse six. Another writer paints a picture of city sentinels whose eyes are tired and weary of trying to peer through the darkness in as they man the watchtower, protecting the city from any nightly intruders. They wait longingly for the morning sun to rise up over the horizon, relieving them from their post. It is a sense of eagerness, as if everything is resting on the Lord’s response.  It is “…yearning for the moment when he could come into the presence of God and hear the promise of forgiveness” (Weiser 774). Perhaps the Psalter has lain in bed all night, getting no rest, for his mind has been plagued with feelings of guilt. Therefore, now he waits expectantly, hoping that the Lord will bring him the peace that he longs for.

            It is at this point in Psalm 130 that the focus switches from a singular person to all of Israel. The author has, himself, experienced the forgiveness of the Lord, and he cannot possibly hold it in and keep it to himself. He says, “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.” Notice, he is not afraid to speak out. His knowledge of his sins, and his total unworthiness to be a spokesman for the Lord, is shadowed in the light that the grace of the cross casts down on this forgiven sinner. He wants others to know the same forgiveness. He now sees the world through a different pair of glasses. “What if there is someone out there just like me who thought that they had no hope?” He wants to offer that hope to others. “His personal knowledge of the depths confers on him the ability to know the depths in which his fellow men also lie fallen. His own suffering makes it possible for him to understand the tribulations of society. His hope for a personal salvation merges into a hope for the salvation of the whole. He cannot be saved alone. “Let Israel hope in Yahweh!” (Terrien 186).  He refuses to let his past silence him. As Luther once said, he knows what hope is because he has been “in the midst of trials and temptations” (Terrien 186).

            Also important in this verse is the word “love.” This type of love is a love that exists for the sole reason that God is faithful in keeping his promises. How many times has the nation of Israel experienced this type of undeserved love? God saved them from the grasp of the Egyptians. He opened up the Red Sea for them so they could pass through when the Egyptian army was hot on their tail. He led them through the years in the dessert, providing their sustenance. He brought them to the Promised Land, just as he promised he would. This love that was demonstrated by the Lord was, in no way, deserved. The Israelites doubted him and his plan so many times. They continued to look back on their days in Egypt, “painting pictures…leaving out what it lacked,” remembering only that they had food and forgetting that they had been delivered from the awful bondage of slavery that they had been under for over 400 years. They made a golden calf on Mt. Sinai to worship when they thought that Moses had been on the mountain far too long. God’s faithfulness to them was in no way a mirrored image of their faithfulness to God. They had not been faithful. They had doubted him all along. Yet he continued to provide. His love, as described in this verse, is unfailing, never faltering, always saving. “…and though he has again and again to pass through nights of anguish caused by sin, his life guided by God’s hand is nevertheless a way from redemption to redemption, so that he can testify on his own account: ‘With him is plenteous redemption’” (Weiser 775).

            The final verse in this Psalm reads, “He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” It is a verse of promise. It says God will redeem Israel from their sins. It does not say that he will redeem a few of their sins, or that he will only redeem their sins if they ask several times. He says that he will redeem all their sins. No ifs, ands, or buts. It does not matter how many sins they need redeemed. It does not matter how much grace they use out of the grace bucket. God has enough, and he will use it. The opportunity to pour out grace on those who need it has gone from one individual to a whole nation of Israelites. “Like all great champions of faith this psalmist, too, has had on his mind the concerns of his fellow men as well as his own, and has prayed for them whilst he was engaged in his personal struggle for the assurance of redemption from sin;” (Weiser 775)

After being saved from the depths, the Psalmist can only think of others and how much glory can be given to God by the entire nation of Israel.

            This Psalm is more encouraging to me than words can describe. The description of the Psalter overwhelmed by the sins of his past, the one who is saved by a God who has not listed and marked all of his iniquities down but instead redeemed him from his patterned life of sin, gives me hope. I can relate. I do not know how many times I have felt lower than the dirt, as if I was never going to be able to crawl out of the pit that I had dug for myself. The amazing thing was I never did crawl out of it. It is almost sad to say, but my flesh kept me trapped inside. I was lonely, and I often times felt so alone, as if no one else had ever been down in the pit before. I felt as if it had been dug just for me, for I was the only one that had not resisted temptation when it came knocking at my door. I was wrong. God knew where my pit was. He did not wait for me to find my own way out. He did not grumble and complain when he had to come and rescue me. He did not even remind me that this was the millionth time that he had come to visit my pit, just to lift me out of it. He simply stretched out his arms and saved me.

            Is this the end of the story? I do not know for sure.  “Sanctification is a never-ended undertaking…. After the great storms of the soul are becalmed, there is still need for watchfulness and the discipline of fidelity” (Terrien 187-188). This struggle with sin that we are all facing is definitely an uphill climb. We may face temptations every day. The important thing is to remember that every day he is there to see us through. I think each time that I am lifted out of the pit I learn something new about myself, while also being reminded of his faithfulness to me in spite of my lack of devotion to him. Slowly but surely I think that God and I are filling in my pit so that, sooner or later, I will not fall down into it anymore. Instead of habitually walking in its direction, I’ll start taking the path that God created that leads straight to his home of safety. I have hope for this day because I serve a God who does not condemn. “To mark iniquities would be to fill us with despair. To redeem from all iniquities is to inspire us with hope” (Morgan 260). I am definitely inspired by the greatest Redeemer of all. I can have hope for the future, and I choose to love him, because he first loved me. C.H. Spurgeon speaks words of great encouragement when he says, “It little matters where we are if we can pray; but prayer is never more real and acceptable than when it rises out of the worst places. Deep places beget deep devotion. Depths of earnestness are stirred by depths of tribulation. Diamonds sparkle most amid the darkness.”

Bibliography

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