Blogging the Psalms

Blogging the Psalms -- Psalm 130

Psalm 130

De profundis! Out of the depths!! It is often difficult to cry out hopefully to God out of the depths. The depths tend to silence a person. The mind becomes paralyzed. The heart wants to cry but hopelessness and oppression silences it. Being in the depths is all very paralyzing...but one should cry out. One has to cry out. Sometimes one has to cry out.

The psalmist then says: "Oh Lord, if you mark iniquities, who will stand?" A very scary question. And one of the byproducts of calling out of the profound depths is self-examination. Inside the depths of one's soul, one sees one's own dark sins and one's own unforgiveness toward others.

But we hope in God's word. Sometimes there's nothing else to hope in. All one can do is lippin' to God's word, lippin' to Jesus, hold on to the Holy Spirit desperately as a drowning man would hold onto a straw for dear life. At such times, one is aware that one is hoping. One can only think: God has said this, therefore God will do it because God is not a man that He should lie. Has he promised something and not been able to accomplish it? Is His hand straitened that it cannot save?

In such a position, we wait for the Lord more than those who wait for the morning. We wait for the morning of our lives to begin at last.

1Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

2Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

3If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

4But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

5I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

6My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

7Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

8And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.