Psalm 130: Hope for the Patient Penitent
Have you felt a deep sense of despair, from which you see no escape route? Gripped by a fear or dread or guilt that seems unshakable? Utterly hopeless?
Psalm 130 puts this feeling into words, however, with a twist that gives us insight as worshipers of the Triune God when we are in the aforementioned pit: there is always hope. There is forgiveness. This psalm intricately weaves the paradox of dread and sin with hope and trust through the promised forgiveness of Yahweh.
Psalm 130
A Song of Ascents.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.
In times of despair, a penitent believer cries out to God,
with confidence that there is forgiveness for his sins.
The believer anticipates eagerly a word from the Lord,
and from that testimony of patience, he encourages his brothers and sisters to keep hoping in the Lord —
the ultimate eradication of sin is coming!
Overview
Psalm 130 expresses lament over wrongdoing and a strong desire for a word of forgiveness from the Lord. This prayer compares with the prayers found in Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9.
This psalm is one of the fifteen psalms titled “Psalms of Ascents,” meaning that they were sung by the Israelites as they journeyed three times yearly to Jerusalem to worship God. It is also one of the seven penitential psalms within the psalter, which include Pss. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.
As early as the first-century treatise known as the Didache or the “teaching of the twelve apostles,” there is indicated within a demand for the public confession of sins prior to the prayer in the church service: “In church, confess your sins, and do not come to your prayer with a guilty conscience” (Waltke, 447). A penitential psalm would have been employed in the liturgy to aid the believers in confession through Scripture with assurance of the forgiveness of sins attained through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Stott argues that this guilty conscience of the psalmist brings him “into the darkness, but he longs and waits expectantly for the dawn of God’s pardoning grace . . . . [and] he urges Israel to do the same.” By first examining the structure and theological meaning of this psalm, we can understand more clearly how the same vertical (confident prayer to God) and horizontal (exhortation to fellow believers) aspects of this psalm can be used in corporate worship.
Structure and Poetic Devices:
Psalm 130 is structured in two communicative units: first, (1–4) addressing God, and second (5–8) addressing the people. It is further divided into four sections, demonstrating the petition, confidence, testimony, and exhortation of the psalmist.
Metaphor:
A clear use of metaphor appears in the first cola — out of the “depths.” Obviously the psalmist isn’t in deep waters, however, he expresses through this imagery what his pain in sin feels like. This is the power of metaphor. Another clear example is found in verse 6, where he describes his waiting like a watchman (or guard) on a night shift looking for break of morning.
Parallelism:
In verse 2, the synonymous parallelism in the bicolon is apparent — “hear my voice”/”let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy.” This type of parallelism is often described as saying the same thing twice in different words; what is the point of doing this? The psalmist shows desperation — the reiteration of his need to be heard and his need for response from his covenant God is reflected in these parallel lines.
In verses 4 and 7, parallelism is evident in the description of pardon (forgiveness) as “with” Yahweh in v. 4, and it is paralleled in the description of commitment and redemption as “with” Yahweh in v. 7.
Goldingay describes the way that the multiple usages of parallelism is a binding effect of the psalm “in dense and intricate fashion” (524). This effect of density portrays the weight of the sin, and that of the nation of Israel, pressing down heavily onto the psalmist as he cries out for relief. For one without confidence in the steadfast love of the covenant God, this pressure could prove too weighty; however, for this psalmist, his expectant plea is bolstered with confidence and trust in his Deliverer.
Repetition:
As regards the intricate fashion, some scholars see the parallelism in this poem as simply repetitive, climactic parallelism; however, others argue that the repetition allows a poem to “cohere, linking the several parts of the poem together into a united whole.” Further, critics argue that this “repetition produces an interplay between sequence and simultaneity,” which creates a web of actions happening simultaneously in the present, dependent upon one another, integrated as one whole unit. This is especially important within this psalm, as we see that the psalmist is not crying out without hope — he has confidence in his time of waiting for the answer from the Lord; this testimony is a clear and present witness for the rest of the nation of Israel who is also awaiting restoration with Yahweh — their covenant and sovereign God.
In a 13-part series on this Psalm, Scott Aniol describes this repetition as evocative; it does not only tell us the same sentiment over and over — it evokes a feeling of anticipation, allowing us to join in with the psalmist in this sense of waiting, waiting, waiting. For me, it reminds me of waiting for college acceptance letters in the mail. I clearly remember standing there, at the end of my driveway every day, whispering with clinched fists and excited anticipation, “please let it be in the mailbox, please let it be in there, please let it be in there.” I know you’ve experienced this same sentiment in some fashion. However, one of the main differences here is that my waiting was dependent on chance. Maybe they mailed it, maybe it was delivered to another home, or maybe it is in a mud puddle having fallen from the mailbag. But the psalmist knew with confidence that on the other side of his pleading was a Word from the Lord.
Theological Analysis
Verses 1–2:
Petition: In times of despair, a penitent believer can only cry out to God,
Within these first two verses, the psalmist makes a very bold call to God; he doesn’t approach slowly or with reservation, nor does he offer platitudes or vain enticements. This type of cry serves to show the relationship between the psalmist and the covenant God, who will hear out of his steadfast love for his covenant people.
Verses 3–4:
Confidence: with confidence that there is forgiveness for his sins.
Whereas the first two verses exhibit the bond within this covenantal relationship, verses 3 and 4 reveal the equal identity of this God as one of Sovereign over all, worthy of reverence and worship. The psalmist knew that God had the almighty power to deliver him, as well as the commitment within the covenant relationship to forgive and save.
This confidence comes from the cyclical pattern of transgress→confess→forgiveness that he’d experienced time and time again, which further allowed him to “urge Israel to trust God for redemption” (Stott, 148).
Verses 5–6:
Testimony: The believer anticipates eagerly a word from the Lord, and from that testimony of patience,
Goldingay describes this tension tied up in the waiting and hoping in this way: In the context of the psalm and for us today, there must come a recognition both individually and corporately that “we may have little control over our lives; we cannot control whether we get better from an illness, nor can we control our political destiny . . . . [Israel’s] vocation is to live life in the expectation that Yahweh is going to act and to live straining its eyes to see that act.”
Verses 7–8:
Exhortation: he encourages his brothers and sisters to keep hoping in the Lord — the ultimate eradication of sin is coming!
The psalmist uses an imperative verb — “Hope in the LORD!” (v7) Ross suggests that this implies encouragement as well as exhortation, as he truly hopes they will find hope in the LORD, because if they do they will find complete redemption in the end. The Lord will remove their iniquities and set them free. Ross states, “once again the emphasis is that there is forgiveness with God, a forgiveness that will be realized through redemption from all sin and its effects.”
Use in Corporate Worship
Martin Luther, “Out of the Depths I Cry to Thee,” trans. by Catherine Winkworth (1524) Tune: AUS TIEFER NOT
This hymn is a beautiful setting of this psalm, and as mentioned earlier, Aniol describes the necessity for singing this song in particular, as well as songs of confession and repentance in general. He describes how this singing forms our affections, and “shapes a rhythm of repentance in our lives.” This setting and translation of Psalm 130 in particular retains most of the artistic imagery from the Scripture itself, creating an opportunity for us to join with believers past and present in confession and forgiveness out of the steadfast love of our great God.
This psalm can also be used as a corporate prayer of confession, or adapted as a prayer on behalf of the congregation as well. However used, praying, singing, and joining in the action of confessing sin together through the Word of God is vitally important to the spiritual life of the church.
Conclusion
History tells us that this psalm in the form of Martin Luther’s chorale impacted John Wesley’s spiritual life, insomuch as he thereafter was awakened to the grace of God and his mercy in forgiveness of sins. If we as believers embrace the posture of penitence with our eyes fixed upward on God, and wait . . . wait . . . and wait . . . in the morning, we can expect the gracious gift of forgiveness and restoration God indeed has for us.
As I am no Hebrew scholar nor extensive Old Testament theologian, I would highly recommend these sources for further study if some of these concepts have piqued your interest:
Aniol, Scott. “Series: Out of the Depths.” Religious Affections Ministries. http://religiousaffections.org/series/out-of-the-depths/.
deClaissé-Walford, Nancy L. Introduction to the Psalms: Song from Ancient Israel. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2004.
Futato, Mark D. Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007.
Goldingay, John. Psalms 90–150. Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Wisdom and Psalms. Vol 3. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic 2008.
Longman III, Tremper. How to Read the Psalms. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1988.
Ross, Allen P. A Commentary on the Psalms: 90–150. Vol 3. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2016.
Stott, John. The Canticles and Selected Psalms. London: Hoddard and Stoughton, 1966.
Walsh, Jerome T. Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001.
Waltke, Bruce K. and James M. Houston. The Psalms as Christian Worship: A Historical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010.
