Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh.
Parallel Translations
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Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh.
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Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
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A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths have I called Thee, O LORD.
Cross-references (22)
Passages linked to Psalms 130:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 42:7 Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
- Hebrews 5:7 He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,
- Psalms 69:14-15 Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
- Jonah 2:2-4 He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice. For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
- Psalms 25:16-18 Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins.
- Psalms 69:1-2 Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
- Psalms 71:20 You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
- Psalms 116:3-4 The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called on Yahweh’s name: “Yahweh, I beg you, deliver my soul.”
- Lamentations 3:53-55 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.” I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
- Psalms 18:16 He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.
- Psalms 40:2 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.
- Psalms 18:4-6 The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me. In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
- Psalms 88:6-7 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves.
- Psalms 121:1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from?
- Psalms 122:1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let’s go to Yahweh’s house!”
- Psalms 123:1 I lift up my eyes to you, you who sit in the heavens.
- Psalms 124:1 If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, let Israel now say,
- Psalms 125:1 Those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion, which can’t be moved, but remains forever.
- Psalms 127:1 Unless Yahweh builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain.
- Psalms 128:1 Blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh, who walks in his ways.
- Psalms 129:1 Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say,
- Psalms 126:1 When Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion, we were like those who dream.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1. Out of the deep places have I cried…
1. Out of the deep places have I cried to thee, O Jehovah! It is to be noticed that the Prophet speaks of himself as sending forth his voice, as it were from out of a deep gulf, The depths or deep gulfs are used in Scripture as an emblem of extreme danger or calamity, whether of body or of mind. See Psalm 69:2, 15. “The Papists, taking the deep as a type of purgatory, recite this Psalm in the persons of those who have died in their communion.” — Cresswell. To this Calvin afterwards adverts.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Being in great distress and sorrow.
Being in great distress and sorrow.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 130:1 « A Song of degrees. » Out…
Psa 130:1 « A Song of degrees. » Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
Ver. 1. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee] i.e. Ex portis ipsis desperationis, from the very bosom and bottom of despair, caused through deepest sense of sin and fear of wrath. One deep calleth to another, the depth of misery to the depth of mercy. Basil and Beza interpret it, Ex intimis cordis penetralibus, from the bottom of my heart, with all earnestness and humility. He that is in the low pits and caves of the earth seeth the stars in the firmament; so he who is most low and lowly seeth most of God, and is in best case to call upon him. As spices smell best when beaten, and as frankincense maxime fragrat cum flagrat, is most odoriferous when cast into the fire; so do God’s afflicted pray best when at the greatest under, Isa 19:22; Isa 26:16; Isa 27:6. Luther, when he was buffeted by the devil at Coburg, and in great affliction, said to those about him, Venite, in contemptum diaboli Psalmum, de profundis, quatuor vocibus cantemus, Come, let us sing that psalm, "Out of the depths," &c., in derision of the devil (Joh. Manl. loc. com. 43). And surely this psalm is a treasury of great comfort to all in distress (reckoned, therefore, of old among the seven penitentials), and is, therefore, sacrilegiously by the Papists taken away from the living and applied only to the dead; for no other reason, I think, saith Beza, but because it beginneth with "Out of the depths have I cried"; a poor ground for purgatory, or for praying for the souls that are there, as Bellarmine makes it.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Being overwhelmed with deep distresses and terrors, and ready…
Being overwhelmed with deep distresses and terrors, and ready to despair.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain In these verses we are taught,
In these verses we are taught,
I. Whatever condition we are in, though ever so deplorable, to continue calling upon God, Psa 130:1. The best men may sometimes be in the depths, in great trouble and affliction, and utterly at a loss what to do, in the depths of distress and almost in the depths of despair, the spirit low and dark, sinking and drooping, cast down and disquieted. But, in the greatest depths, it is our privilege that we may cry unto God and be heard. A prayer may reach the heights of heaven, though not out of the depths of hell, yet out of the depths of the greatest trouble we can be in in this world, Jeremiah's out of the dungeon, Daniel's out of the den, and Jonah's out of the fish's belly. It is our duty and interest to cry unto God, for that is the likeliest way both to prevent our sinking lower and to recover us out of the horrible pit and miry clay, Psa 40:1, Psa 40:2.
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II. While we continue calling upon God to assure ourselves of an answer of peace from him; for this is that which David in faith prays for (Psa 130:2): Lord, hear my voice, my complaint and prayer, and let thy ears be attentive to the voice both of my afflictions and of my supplications.
III. We are taught to humble ourselves before the justice of God as guilty in his sight, and unable to answer him for one of a thousand of our offences (Psa 130:3): If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord! who shall stand? His calling God Lord twice, in so few words, Jah and Adonai, is very emphatic, and intimates a very awful sense of God's glorious majesty and a dread of his wrath. Let us learn here, 1. To acknowledge our iniquities, that we cannot justify ourselves before God, or plead Not guilty. There is that which is remarkable in our iniquities and is liable to be animadverted upon. 2. To own the power and justice of God, which are such that, if he were extreme to mark what we do amiss, there would be no hopes of coming off. His eye can discover enough in the best man to ground a condemnation upon; and, if he proceed against us, we have no way to help ourselves, we cannot stand, but shall certainly be cast. If God deal with us in strict justice, we are undone; if he make remarks upon our iniquities, he will find them to be many and great, greatly aggravated and very provoking; and then, if he should proceed accordingly, he would shut us out from all hope of his favour and shut us up under his wrath; and what could we do to help ourselves? We could not make our escape, nor resist not bear up under his avenging hand. 3. Let us admire God's patience and forbearance; we should be undone if he were to mark iniquities, and he knows it, and therefore bears with us. It is of his mercy that we are not consumed by his wrath.
IV. We are taught to cast ourselves upon the pardoning mercy of God, and to comfort ourselves with that when we see ourselves obnoxious to his justice, Psa 130:4. Here is, 1. God's grace discovered, and pleaded with him, by a penitent sinner: But there is forgiveness with thee. It is our unspeakable comfort, in all our approaches to God, that there is forgiveness with him, for that is what we need. He has put himself into a capacity to pardon sin; he has declared himself gracious and merciful, and ready to forgive, Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7. He has promised to forgive the sins of those that do repent. Never any that dealt with him found him implacable, but easy to be entreated, and swift to show mercy. With us there is iniquity, and therefore it is well for us that with him there is forgiveness. There is a propitiation with thee, so some read it. Jesus Christ is the great propitiation, the ransom which God has found; he is ever with him, as advocate for us, and through him we hope to obtain forgiveness. 2. Our duty designed in that discovery, and inferred from it: "There is forgiveness with thee, not that thou mayest be made bold with and presumed upon, but that thou mayest be feared - in general, that thou mayest be worshipped and served by the children of men, who, being sinners, could have no dealings with God, if he were not a Master that could pass by a great many faults." But this encourages us to come into his service that we shall not be turned off for every misdemeanour; no, nor for any, if we truly repent. This does in a special manner invite those who have sinned to repent, and return to the fear of God, that he is gracious and merciful, and will receive them upon their repentance, Joe 2:13; Mat 3:2. And, particularly, we are to have a holy awe and reverence of God's pardoning mercy (Hos 3:5, They shall fear the Lord, and his goodness); and then we may expect the benefit of the forgiveness that is with God when we make it the object of our holy fear.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Out of the depths have I cried unto thee,…
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Out of deep waters, out of the depths of the sea; not literally, as Jonah, who really was there, and from thence cried unto the Lord, Jon 2:2; but figuratively; meaning that he had been in the depths of sin, or brought into a low estate by it, as all men are: they are brought into debt by it, and so to a prison, the prison of the law, to be under its sentence of curse and condemnation; to a ditch, a horrible pit, a pit wherein is no water, and out of which men cannot extricate themselves; to a dunghill, to the most extrem poverty and beggary; to a dungeon, a state of thraldom, bondage, and captivity; into an hopeless and helpless condition. The depths the psalmist was now in were a deep sense of sin, under which he lay, and which brought him low; as every man is low in his own eyes, when he has a thorough sense of sin; then he sees himself unworthy of any favour from God, deserving of his wrath and displeasure; as a polluted guilty creature, loathsome and abominable; as wretched and undone in himself; as the chief of sinners, more brutish than any man, and as a beast before the Lord: but then, though the psalmist was in the depths of distress for sin, yet not in the depths of despair; he cried to God, he hoped in him, and believed there was pardon with him: or he might be in the depths of afflictions; which are sometimes, because of the greatness of them, compared to deep waters; to the deep waters of the sea, which threaten to overflow and overwhelm, but shall not; see Psa 42:7; and in such circumstances the psalmist cried to God for help and deliverance; not to man, whose help is vain; but to God, who is able to save, and is a present help in time of need. Theodoret understands this of the psalmist's crying to God from the bottom of his heart, in the sincerity of his soul; and so his cry is opposed to feigned and hypocritical prayers.
; and in such circumstances the psalmist cried to God for help and deliverance; not to man, whose help is vain; but to God, who is able to save, and is a present help in time of need. Theodoret understands this of the psalmist's crying to God from the bottom of his heart, in the sincerity of his soul; and so his cry is opposed to feigned and hypocritical prayers.
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Psalms 130:2
psa 130:2
psa 130:2
psa 130:2Lord, hear my voice,.... His prayer, which was vocal: God is a God hearing prayer; sometimes his people think he does not hear them; but he always does, and in his own time answers; for to hear prayer with him is to answer it; which he does likewise in his own way as well as time; and not always in the way and at the time his people would have him;
let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications; his prayers put up in an humble suppliant manner, for grace and mercy; not pleading merit and righteousness: these he desires God would hearken to and hear, listen unto, bow and incline his ears, as he is sometimes said to do; which is a wonderful instance of his condescension.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The psalmist confessing his sins, expresses his hope in…
The psalmist confessing his sins, expresses his hope in God, ver. 1-6. And exhorts Israel to hope in him, ver.7, 8. A song of degrees.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The prayer of a penitent to God, with confession…
PSALM CXXX
The prayer of a penitent to God, with confession of sin, 1-3.
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Confidence in God's mercy, and waiting upon him, 4-6.
Israel is encouraged to hope in the Lord, because of his
willingness to save, 7, 8.
NOTES ON PSALM CXXX
This Psalm has no title nor author's name, either in the Hebrew, or in any of the Versions; though the Syriac says it was spoken of Nehemiah the priest. It was most probably composed during the captivity; and contains the complaint of the afflicted Jews, with their hopes of the remission of those sins which were the cause of their sufferings, and their restoration from captivity to their own land. This is one of those called penitential Psalms.
Verse 1. Out of the depths] The captives in Babylon represent their condition like those who are in a prison-an abyss or deep ditch, ready to be swallowed up.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 130:1-2. Out of the depths — Being overwhelmed…
Psa 130:1-2. Out of the depths — Being overwhelmed with deep distresses and terrors, and ready to despair; have I cried unto thee — “Like another Jonas, entombed in the whale’s belly, and surrounded by all the waves of the ocean.” Observe, reader, “Fervent prayer will find its way through every obstruction to the ears of him who sitteth upon his holy hill.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Out of the depths - The word rendered “depths”…
Out of the depths - The word rendered “depths” is from a verb - עמק ‛âmaq - which means to be deep; then, to be unsearchable; then, to make deep; and it would apply to anything low, deep, or profound, as the ocean, a pit, or a valley. The word used here occurs elsewhere only in the following places: Psa 69:2, Psa 69:14, where it is rendered “deep,” applied to waters; and Isa 51:10; Eze 27:34, where it is rendered “depths.” The word, as used here, would be applicable to deep affliction, dejection, or distress. It would be applicable
(a) to affliction - the depths of sorrow from loss of friends, property, or bodily suffering;
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(b) sin - the depths into which the soul is plunged under the consciousness of guilt;
(c) mental trouble - low spirits - melancholy - darkness of mind - loss of comfort in religion - powerful temptation - disappointment - the anguish caused by ingratitude - or sadness of heart in view of the crimes and the sorrows of people - or grief at the coldness, the hardness, the insensibility of our friends to their spiritual condition.
From all these depths of sorrow it is our privilege to call upon the Lord; in those depths of sorrow it is proper thus to implore his help. Often he brings us into these “depths” that we may be led to call upon him; always when we are brought there, we should call upon him.
Have I cried unto thee, O Lord - Or rather, “do I now invoke thee,” or call earnestly upon thee. The language does not refer so much to the past as the present. I now cry for mercy; I now implore thy blessing. The condition is that of one who in deep sorrow, or under deep conviction for sin, pleads earnestly that God would have compassion on him.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Psalms 130
Psalms 130
A Song of degrees
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Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice:
Let thine ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.
3 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities,
O Lord, who shall stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with thee,
That thou mayest be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait,
And in his word do I hope.
6 My soul waiteth for the Lord
More than they that watch for the morning:
I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
7 Let Israel hope in the Lord:
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with him is plenteous redemption.
8 And he shall redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—The distress out of which the Psalmist cries to Jehovah is very deep, and as he feels himself sinking, he sends forth an urgent cry to God that He would hear him (Psa_130:1-2). This supplication rests upon the power to forgive, which is possessed by God alone, and is indispensable to the sinner’s deliverance (Psa_130:3-4). It flows from the hope cherished in his soul, which turns with longing to God and His word (Psa_130:5-6). It also sympathizingly remembers the need which all Israel has of redemption, and therefore points, on the one hand, with exhortation, to the indispensable waiting upon Jehovah, and, on the other, to the mercy of God which is ready to be imparted (Psa_130:7-8).
It is easily understood how the Church has regarded this as the sixth of the seven Penitential Psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) and how Luther reckoned it as one of the Pauline Psalms, which he specified, when asked which were the best of all the Psalms. When asked further which were the Pauline Psalms, he named Psalms 32, 51, 130, 143,
Several expressions which are found besides only in Nehemiah, Daniel, and Chronicles indicate that the Psalm was composed at a late period Yet it preceded the Books of the Chronicles; for the addition to the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple, 2Ch_6:40-42, is composed of Psa_130:2 and Psa_132:8-10. [As additional evidence of a late origin, it may be remarked that the word meaning: attentive, in Psa_130:2, is found besides only in 2Ch_6:40; 2Ch_7:15, and that rendered: forgiveness, Psa_130:4, only in Dan_9:9; Neh_9:17.—J. F. M.]. The conjecture that this Psalm was first sung on the day of general humiliation, Ezr_9:5 f. (Rosenmüller) has no support more definite than this. There are many points of similarity with Psalms 86. Does it indicate design that God is named Jehovah four times, Adonai three times, and Jah once?
Psa_130:1. Out of the depths.—These are not the depths of the soul, specially those of sorrow on account of the greatness of its sins (Amyrald, J. H. Mich.). Nor are they the depths of sin (Geier); but depths of distress, calamity and peril, represented by the image of deep waters (Psa_69:3; Psa_69:15; Isa_51:10), whose waves (Psa_88:8), have passed over him (Psa_42:8), so that he is pressed down very deep, sunk even unto the gates of death (Psa_9:4; Psa_107:18).
Psa_130:3-4. God regards and marks human iniquities (Psa_90:8; Job_10:14; Job_10:14), but retains them also in remembrance (Gen_37:11), and, as it were, seals them up, keeping them (Job_14:17,) bearing them in mind (Amo_1:11; Jer_3:5); He remembers them in the sense of imputing them (Psa_32:2). The destruction of the sinner would thence follow, if the Divine punitive righteousness, which in its exercise nothing can resist (Isa_51:16; Nah_1:6; Mal_3:2; Ezr_9:15) were not by the mercy of God Himself manifested in such a way that the forgiveness of sins, effected thereby, should serve, on the one hand, to glorify His name as the only Redeemer and Author of salvation (Psa_79:9), and, on the other, to quicken the true fear of Him.
Psa_130:6 ff. the reference is not to those who wait from one watch to another (Sept., Syr., Luther), or to the watchers who hold the morning watch, that is, the last one (Chald., J. H. Mich., Rosenmüller). It is the watch, more generally, the morning dawn, when they shall be released from their tedious duty (Aben Ezra, Geier, and most.) [Delitzsch: “The repetition of the words gives the impression of painful and long-continued waiting. The anger beneath whose influence the Poet now lies, is the darkness of night, from which he would be transferred to the sunny influence of love (Mal. 3:20); and not he alone, but all Israel also, whose needs are the same, and for whom, as for him, faithful waiting is the way of salvation. With Jehovah, with Him exclusively, and with Him in all its fulness, is the mercy which releases from the guilt of sin and its consequences, and gives freedom, peace, and joy to the heart. And redemption is plenteous with Him, i.e., he possesses in abundant measure the willingness, power, and wisdom, needed in order to effect the redemption, which, like a wall of separation, (Exo_8:19) is placed between the imperilled and ruin. To Him therefore must each one look, if he would obtain mercy; to Him must His people look; and this hope fixed upon Him will not be put to shame. He in the mighty fulness of His free grace, will redeem Israel from all his iniquities, in forgiving them and removing all baleful consequences within and without. The Poet comforts himself with this promise (comp. Psa_25:22). He means complete and final spiritual deliverance from all that holds in bondage, just as in the New Testament.”—J. F. M.].
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
From the depths of thy distress send thy cry upward to God; from the depths of His compassion He will send help down.—A change in our situation would avail nothing without the forgiveness of sins; but the mercy of God effects our redemption.—He who waits for the Lord and His deliverance, must know how to wait in faith and patience, with watching and prayer, and learn to strengthen his hope in God’s word.—God possesses in fullest measure all that is necessary to our redemption, and from the fulness of His grace He imparts richly what serves to accomplish it. But the fulness of faith is only too often wanting in us.
Starke: The deeper men sink in the waters of temptation, tribulation, and distress, the stronger support do they find in the fathomless mercy of God.—Blessed is he who feels the depths of sin in a season of grace, and by cries of repentance to the Lord, is delivered from them; raised above them, he need not feel the depths of hell. The cry of supplication has no greater hindrance than the cries of sin, until they are removed by sincere repentance.—No man is so willing to pray to God as He is willing to be entreated; He will give us His benefits and forgive our sins.—Right views of God’s mercy do not lead to carnal security, but to a childlike fear and service of Him.—Justification is a source of sanctification; before a soul is justified it can have no childlike fear of God.—All the reasons which bind us to love God, constrain us also to hope in Him.—The Christian’s hope must be founded upon the word of God’s mercy. For to hope and believe without God’s word, is to tempt God.—The best consolation in the night of trial and sorrow is the promise of God that it will be followed by a clear day of rejoicing.—The many promises of the conversion of the Jewish people in the last time, urge the true Christian to pray the more fervently for this poor people.
Frisch: There are many depths into which sin plunges us. But, as Luther says, it is well for us, that, though we are all in deep distress, we do not feel it where we are.—The grace, long-suffering, and mercy of God, should incite us not to sin, but from sin, not to fall, but from falling, to repentance and conversion.—Rieger: It is the nature of the new man ever to manifest a constant waiting, hoping, trusting, and believing in God. But to the natural man such an attachment to God’s word is more difficult than the greatest work of any other kind.—Guenther: The distressed believer, in trusting, rises upward from the abyss, and the suppliant draws the Almighty down to him in his compassion. The greater the need the greater the assurance.—Engelhardt: The path of sincere repentance leads (1) into the depth of our hearts and is, a) knowledge of sin, b) prayer for gracious aid, c) distrust of our own righteousness; (2) to the paternal heart of God: there alone are to be found, a) compassion and forgiveness, b) certain help even when long delayed, c) final redemption from all sin.—Taube: The royal road from the depths of the misery of sin to the Heights of the consolation of redemption.
[Matt. Henry: There is an all sufficient fulness of merit and grace in the Redeemer, enough for all, enough for each; enough for me, saith the believer.—Bp. Horne: True repentance is founded upon a sense of our own wretchedness and faith in the Divine mercy. Without the former we should never seek for pardon and grace; without the latter we should despair of finding them.—Scott: Faith in His faithful testimony and sure promise, confirmed by experience, form the soul to a holy fear and love of the Lord our God.—J. F. M.].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. Out of the depths—A figure denoting great sorrow…
1. Out of the depths—A figure denoting great sorrow and mental dejection, as in Psa_69:2; Psa_69:14. In this case the affliction connects with remembered sin as its moral cause.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. Out of the depths] Deep waters are a…
1. Out of the depths] Deep waters are a common figure for distress and danger. Cp. Psa_69:1-2; Psa_69:14. It is not merely personal suffering that is meant, but national suffering, the burden of which the Psalmist feels intensely. Israel is in a danger of being overwhelmed by a sea of trouble.
have I called] He has long been praying and still continues to pray.
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1–4. A cry of penitence from the depths of trouble to the God of pardon.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Out of the depths.—A recurrent image for overwhelming…
(1) Out of the depths.—A recurrent image for overwhelming distress (Psa_18:16; Psa_88:7; also Psa_69:2, where the same Hebrew word occurs). It is used literally in Isa_51:10 for the sea.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain THE cry of Israel in extreme distress apparently a…
THE cry of Israel in extreme distress apparently a Captivity song. Israel has sinned and been punished; it now acknowledges its sins, and prays for mercy and forgiveness. Towards the end (vers. 7, 8) the prayer rises into confident hope. Metrically, the psalm consists of four stanzas, each of two verses.
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. (comp. Psa_69:2, 14 Isa_51:10 Eze_27:34) "The depths" are the lowest abysses of calamity. They have not, however, separated Israel from God, but have rather brought him to God.
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Vers. 1-8. Penitence and hope.
We have the psalmist hero in
I THE DEPTH OF SOME GREAT DISTRESS. It may be some severe loss he has sustained, and consequent loneliness of soul; or it may be some great disappointment of his hopes or defeat by the enemy; or it may be the persecution of those who reproach him for serious inconsistency; or it may be peril in which his cause or his life is threatened; or it may be a sad sense of personal unworthiness. Bat, whatever it may have been, it calls forth
II AN APPEAL TO GOD. When we are in any great distress, we look up to heaven; our appeal is instinctive; even the unbelieving and the profane cry to God "out of the depths." It may be inarticulate, with little or no foundation of intelligence; it may be nothing more than the outburst of a suffering spirit, making its appeal to Divine power and pity. But it is a relief even to the undevout. It usually and naturally takes the form of
III A HUMBLE CONFESSION OF SIN.
1. Sometimes the trouble is the direct and palpable consequence of sin, as when vice ends in sickness, or extravagance in straits, or crime in conviction.
2. Sometimes the sorrow is the painful and piercing conviction of moral guilt, of transgression against God, and condemnation by him it may be the publican in the temple bowed down with a sense of sin.
3. Sometimes it is the deep and general conviction that all sorrow is ultimately due to sin, and that when we are in a very pitiful condition it is both proof and reminder that we have sinned against the Lord, and that we deserve whatever kind of distress we may be experiencing. Sorrow proceeds from sin and points to it.
IV THE HOPE OF THE PENITENT. This is not in God"s justice, but in his mercy. If God were to "mark iniquities," i.e. to mark them for immediate punishment, according to their desert, no man could "stand in his sight". (Psa_76:7) There must be withdrawal from his presence, banishment from his hand. But our God is a God of patience, of forgiveness; he gives opportunity to the penitent. While unqualified severity would drive us into abject terror and hopeless exile, Divine mercy draws us near in true and manly confession, in hope of restoration, in return to his service. There is forgiveness with him, that he may be feared, that he may be approached, and that we may be restored.
1. With God, as he is revealed to us in Jesus Christ, there is "plenteous redemption." No guilty man, however deep his stain, need remain in the distance; he may draw nigh with a strong assurance of forgiveness and restoration.
2. The hope of the penitent rests on the sure basis of God"s inviolable Word (ver. 5). Heaven and earth may pass away, but not the word of Christ"s promise. "Come unto me, all ye that labor... I will give you rest;" "Him that cometh... I will in no wise cast out; these assurances constitute an immovable rock on which the troubled soul may build.
3. The true attitude of the penitent and believing spirit is that of confident expectation. As surely as the morning comes after the night, so surely will God"s delivering grace follow the earnest prayer of the penitent. Let there be the earnestness of the watching sentinel, or of the shipwrecked sailor as he longs for the light of the morning, and there may be perfect confidence that he will not seek or wait in vain.
V THE BLESSED ISSUE. Not merely recovery from sickness, or removal of trouble, but "redemption from all iniquity". (ver. 8 Tit_2:14)
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-8. De profundis.
This psalm, whose date, authorship, and special reference no one certainly knows, nevertheless presents to us three marked stages in the experience of the writer of the psalm.
I IN THE DEPTHS. (Vers. 1-3) Undoubtedly he knew what these were; and very deep depths they appear to have been.
1. His sad condition seems to have been brought about, not so much by any outward circumstances of his life, as by some inward spiritual distress. His soul was consciously separated from God; some great gulf, into which he had fallen, had opened between him and the God who had once been his delight and exceeding joy. It may have been that the sense of guilt and condemnation lay heavily on him, or that he was in dread of some approaching calamity, or that he was plunged in grief and shame by the might and mastery of some sin. Sin had undoubtedly to do with it, as it has to do with like distressing experiences in our own lives.
2. And it is a matter for deep thankfulness when sin does cast us into such depths. Too many people regard sin as a mere trifle; it never troubles them seriously at all. And the cause of the vapid, feeble, and ineffectual Christian life which so many professed Christians lead is that they have never had any real conviction of sin; they have never been in any "depths" about it. Would to God all had I; for there seems no hope of a real, earnest, and devoted Christian life without it. But the psalmist was in the depths, and this explains the heights to which he afterwards rose.
3. He cries unto the.Lord. It is an earnest, self-abasing, yet passionate, appeal. He implores the Lord to be attentive to his supplication. It is only people in such depths that thus cry unto the Lord. Others may say prayers; but these men "cry.
4. He is filled with fear, lest the Lord should mark his iniquities. If the Lord did that, there could be no hope for him; and, remembering this, he seems to sink down deeper than ever. It is a vivid instance of the Holy Spirit"s conviction of sin.
II RISING OUT OF THEM. (Vers. 4-6)
1. The upward ascent begins by his laying hold of the truth that there is forgiveness with God. Faith has come; and as he believes, he sees that God"s forgiveness can alone ensure that state of heart in him, that fear, which God desires to see in us all. He feels that he will never get right, save as he believes in God"s forgiveness. And this is undoubtedly true.
2. Then he proceeds to put that faith in practice, and to wait on the Lord. And this he does in no half-hearted way. He says, "I wait;" then, "My soul waiteth;" then he stays himself on God"s word of forgiveness, and hopes therein; then he likens his faith to the eager expectation of those who are anxiously, but believingly, watching for the morning yea, with more than their desire and confidence does he wait! Of course, there can be but one response to faith like this the man rises out of the depths, as such men ever will.
III CLEAR ABOVE THEM. (Vers. 7, 8)
1. He has got what he desires the assurance of God"s forgiveness.
2. In the joy of it he turns to others, and exhorts them to hope in the Lord, and testifies that "with the Lord there is," etc. (ver. 7).
3. And then, in the conviction that the love which has so blessed him cannot fail for Israel, he confidently predicts that the Lord "will redeem," etc. (ver. 8). All this earnest witnessing for God is the sure sign that he is now clear up above, and right out of those depths in which he at first was. In the depths we cannot thus witness, but out of them we must and shall. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. The cry of the humbled.
The psalm belongs to the age of true national contrition, when nothing would satisfy but deliverance from sin, as well as from its punishment. (comp. Lam_3:55 Jon_2:2) When men are disheartened and depressed, overwhelmed with anxieties and troubles, we familiarly speak of them as "down in the depths." It is a natural and universal figure. On the hills" represents excitement and joy; "in the depths" represents depression and anxiety. "This psalm is distinctly a song of ascent, in that it starts from the very lowest point of sell: abasement and consciousness of evil, and rises steadily, and, though it may be slowly, yet surely, up to the tranquil summit, led by a consciousness of the Divine presence and grace." "The psalmist thinks of himself as of a man at the bottom of a pit, sending up to the surface a faint call, which may easily be unheard. He does not merely mean to express his sense of human insignificance, nor even his sorrows, nor his despondency. There are deeper depths than these. They are the depths into which the spirit feels itself going down, sick and giddy, when there comes the thought, "I am a sinful man, O Lord, in the presence of thy great purity." Out of these depths does he cry to God.
I THE DEPTHS ARE THE PLACE FOR US ALL. Every man amongst us has to go down there, if we take the place that belongs to us.
II UNLESS YOU HAVE CRIED TO GOD OUT OF THOSE DEPTHS, YOU HAVE NEVER CRIED TO HIM AT ALL. Unless you come to him as a penitent, sinful man, with the consciousness of transgression awakened within you, your prayers are shallow. The beginning of all true personal religion lies in the sense of my own sin and my lost condition. Whenever you find men and women with a Christianity that sits very lightly upon them, that does not impel them to any acts of service and devotion, and never rises into the heights of communion with God, depend upon it the man has never been down into the abyss, and never sent his voice up from it. "Out of the depths" he has not cried unto God.
III YOU WANT NOTHING MORE THAN A CRY TO DRAW YOU FROM THE PIT. It is not that your crying will lift you out; it is that your crying will bring you help. The "infant crying in the night" does nothing for itself by its crying; but the cry brings its mother. And the cry means that hope of self-help is altogether abandoned, the soul having to say, "Myself I cannot save," cries after Christ, saying, "Jesu, have mercy on me!" (part Maclaren). R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-8. A cry to God for the forgiveness of sin.
I THE PROFOUND MISERY WHICH THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN PRODUCES. (Vers. 1-3) "Out of the depths. If thou shouldest mark," etc., iniquities, other "depths" than the depths of poverty or bodily affliction.
II THE STRONGEST MOTIVE TO THE REVERENT FEAR OF GOD. (Ver. 4) "God freely forgives sin not that men may think lightly of sin, but that they may magnify his grace and mercy in its forgiveness. "For thy Name"s sake pardon mine iniquity." This a more powerful motive than any other to call forth holy fear and love and self-sacrifice.
III HIS FAITH WAITS IN THE EXPECTATION OF GOD"S FORGIVENESS. (Vers. 5, 6)
1. His faith is full of hope is expectant, opposed to unbelieving despondency. Hope supposes difficulties and uncertainties melting away or triumphed over.
2. But it is patient and anxious at the same time. More than those who watch for the morning in the sick-room whether the sick or those who watch with them. The faith, therefore, is connected with anxious exercises of mind battling with the delay.
IV HE WHO IS CONSCIOUS OF FORGIVENESS CAN INSPIRE OTHERS WITH HOPE AND TRUST. (Vers. 7, 8) "Hope redemption redeem Israel not this or that favored man, but Israel, the nation all his iniquities." Not merely from the punishment, but from the iniquities themselves. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Title. A Song of Degrees. It would be hard…
Title. A Song of Degrees. It would be hard to see any upward step from the preceding to the present Psalm, and therefore it is possible that the steps or ascents are in the song itself: certainly it does rise rapidly out of the depths of anguish to the heights of assurance. It follows well upon 129: when we have overcome the trials which arise from man we are the better prepared to meet those sharper sorrows which arise out of our matters towards God. He who has borne the scourges of the wicked is trained in all patience to wait the dealings of the Holy Lord. We name this the DE PROFUNDIS PSALM: "Out of the depths" is the leading word of it: out of those depths we cry, wait, watch, and hope. In this Psalm we hear of the pearl of redemption, Ps 130:7-8: perhaps the sweet singer would never have found that precious thing had he not been cast into the depths. "Pearls lie deep."
Division. The first two verses (Ps 130:1-2) reveal an intense desire; and the next two are a humble confession of repentance and faith, Ps 130:3-4. In Ps 130:5-6 waiting watchfulness is declared and resolved upon; and in Ps 130:7-8 joyful expectation, both for himself and all Israel, finds expression.
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Ver. 1. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. This is the Psalmist's statement and plea: he had never ceased to pray even when brought into the lowest state. The depths usually silence all they engulf, but they could not close the mouth of this servant of the Lord; on the contrary, it was in the abyss itself that he cried unto Jehovah. Beneath the floods prayer lived and struggled; yea, above the roar of the billows rose the cry of faith. 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. Prayer de profundis gives to God gloria in excelsis. The more distressed we are, the more excellent is the faith which trusts bravely in the Lord, and therefore appeals to him, and to him alone. Good men may be in the depths of temporal and spiritual trouble; but good men in such cases look only to their God, and they stir themselves up to be more instant and earnest in prayer than at other times. The depth of their distress moves the depths of their being; and from the bottom of their hearts an exceeding great and bitter cry rises unto the one living and true God. David had often been in the deep, and as often had he pleaded with Jehovah, his God, in whose hand are all deep places. He prayed, and remembered that he had prayed, and pleaded that he had prayed; hoping ere long to receive an answer. It would be dreadful to look back on trouble and feel forced to own that we did not cry unto the Lord in it; but it is most comforting to know that whatever we did not do, or could not do, yet we did pray, even in our worst times. He that prays in the depth will not sink out of his depth. He that cries out of the depths shall soon sing in the heights.
Whole Psalm. The Psalm is the eleventh in the order of the gradual Psalms, and treats of the eleventh step in the spiritual ascent, viz., penitential prayer. H. T. Armfield.
Whole Psalm. Of the Psalms which are called Penitential this is the chiefest. But, as it is the most excellent, so it has been perverted to the most disgraceful abuse in the Popedom: e.g., that it should be mumbled in the lowest voice by slow bellies, in the sepulchral vigils for their liberation of souls from purgatory: as if David were here treating of the dead, when he has not even spoken a word about them; but says that he himself, a living man, was calling upon God; and exhorts the Israelites, living men also, to do the same. But leaving the buffooneries of the Papists we will rather consider the true meaning and use of the Psalm. It contains the most ardent prayer of a man grievously distressed by a sense of the Divine anger against sin: by earnest turning to God and penitence, he is seeking the forgiveness of his iniquities. Solomon Gesner.
Whole Psalm. The Holy Ghost layeth out here two opposite passions most plainlyfear, in respect of evil deserving sins, and hope, in regard of undeserved mercies. Alexander Roberts. 1610.
Whole Psalm. The passionate earnestness of the Psalm is enhanced by the repetition eight times in it of the Divine Name. The Speaker's Commentary, 1873.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm, perhaps more than any other, is marked by its mountains: depth; prayer; conviction; light; hope; waiting; watching; longing; confidence; assurance; universal happiness and joy...Just as the barometer marks the rising of the weather, so does this Psalm, sentence by sentence, record the progress of the soul. And you may test yourself by it, as by a rule or measure, and ask yourself at each line, "Have I reached to this? Have I reached to this?" and so take your spiritual gauge. James Vaughan, in "Steps to Heaven", 1878.
Whole Psalm. Whosoever he was that wrote this Psalm, he maketh mention and rehearsal of that prayer that he made to his God in the time of his great danger, and this he doth to the fifth verse; then finding in experience a comfortable answer, and how good a thing it was to pray to God, and to wait on him, he professes, that, as before, he had awaited on him, so still in time coming he would await on him, and this he doeth to the seventh verse. In the third and last part, he turneth him to Israel, to the church, and exhorteth them to await on God, as he had done, promising them mercy and redemption from all their iniquities if they would await on him. Robert Rollock, 1555-1599.
Whole Psalm. Luther being once asked which were the best Psalms, replied, Psalmi Paulini;and when his companions at table pressed him to say which these were, he answered: Psalms 32, 51, 130, and 143. Franz Delitzsch.
Whole Psalm. Luther, when he was buffeted by the devil at Coburg, and in great affliction, said to those about him, Venite, in conternptum Disboll, Psalmnum, De Profundis, quatuor vocibus cantemus;"Come, let us sing that Psalm, `Out of the depths, ' etc., in derision of the devil." John Trapp.
Whole Psalm. The circumstances in which Dr. John Owen's Exposition of Psalm 130 originated are peculiarly interesting. Dr. Owen himself, in a statement made to Mr. Richard Davis, who ultimately became pastor of a church in Rowel, Northamptonshire, explains the occasion which led him to a very careful examination of the fourth verse in the Psalm. Mr. Davis, being under religious impressions, had sought a conference with Owen. In the course of the conversation, Dr. Owen put the question, "Young man, pray in what manner do you think to go to God?" "Through the Mediator, sir", answered Mr. Davis. "That is easily said", replied the doctor, "but I assure you it is another thing to go to God through the Mediator than many who make use of the expression are aware of. I myself preached Christ", he continued, "some years, when I had but very little, if any, experimental acquaintance with access to God through Christ; until the Lord was pleased to visit me with sore affliction, whereby I was brought to the mouth of the grave, and under which my soul was oppressed with horror and darkness; but God graciously relieved my spirit by a powerful application of Ps 130:4, But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared, from whence I received special instruction, peace and comfort, in drawing near to God through the Mediator, and preached thereupon immediately after my recovery." William H. Goold, editor of Owen's Collected Works, 1851.
Ver. 1. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Is there not a depth of sin, and a depth of misery by reason Of sin, and a depth of sorrow by reason of misery? In all which, both David was, and I, God help me, am deeply plunged; and are not these depths enough out of which to cry? And vet, perhaps, none of these depths is that which David means; but there are depths of dangera danger of body and a danger of soul, and out of these it seems that David cried; for the danger of his body was so deep that it had brought him to death's door, and the danger of his soul so deep that it had almost brought him to the gates of despair; and had he not just cause then to say, "Out of the depths have cried to thee, O God"? And yet there is a depth besides these that must help to lift us out of thesea depth of devotion, without which depth our crying out of other depths will never be heard. For devotion is a fire that puts a heat into out' crying, and carries it up into coelum empyroeum the heaven of fire, where God himself is. And now join all these depths together the depth of sin, of misery, of sorrow, the depth of danger, and the depth of devotion, and then tell me if David had not, if I have not, as just cause as ever Jonah had to say, "Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O God." Indeed, to cry out of the depths hath many considerable circumstances to move God to hear: it acknowledgeth his infinite power when no distance can hinder his assistance; it presents our own faith when no extremity can weaken our hope; it magnifies God's goodness when he, the Most High, regards the most low; it expresses our own earnestness, seeing crying out of depths must needs be a deep cry; and if each of these singly, and by itself, be motive sufficient to move God to hear, how strong must the motive needs be when they are all united? and united they are all in crying out of the depths; and therefore now that I cry to thee out of the depths, be moved, O God, in thy great mercy to "hear my voice."
It is cause enough for God not to hear some because they do not crycause enough not to hear some that cry because not out of the depths; but when crying and out of the depths are joined together, it was never known that God refused to hear; and therefore now that I cry to thee out of the depths, be pleased, O God, in thy great mercy to hear my voice. Sir Richard Baker, in "Meditations and Disquisitions upon the Three last Psalmes of David", 1639.
Ver. 1. Out of the depths. By the deep places (as all the ancients consent) is meant the deep places of afflictions, and the deep places of the heart troubled for sin. Afflictions are compared to deep waters. Ps 18:16: "He drew me out of many waters." "Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul." And surely God's children are often cast into very desperate cases, and plunged into deep miseries, to the end that they may send out of a contrite and feeling heart such prayers as may mount aloft and pierce the heavens. When we are in prosperity our prayers come from our lips; and therefore the Lord is forced to cast us down, that our prayers may come from our hearts, and that our senses may be wakened from the security in which they are lying. Albeit the throne of God be most high, yet he delighteth to hear the petition of hearts that are most low, that are most cast down by the sight of sin. There is no affliction, neither any place so low (yea, if as low as the belly of the whale wherein Jonah lay) which can separate us from the love of the Lord, or stay our prayers from coming before him. Those that are farthest cast down are not farthest from God, but are nearest unto him. God is near to a contrite heart, and it is the proper seat where his Spirit dwelleth: Isa 66:2. And thus God dealeth with us, as men do with such houses that they are minded to build sumptuously and on high; for then they dig deep grounds for the foundation. Thus God purposing to make a fair show of Daniel, and the three children in Babel; of Joseph in Egypt; of David in Israel; he first threw them into the deep waters of affliction. Daniel is cast into the den of lions; the three children are thrown into the fiery furnace; Joseph is imprisoned; David exiled. Yet all those he exalted and made glorious temples to himself. Mark hereby the dulness of our nature, that is such, that God is forced to use sharp remedies to awaken us. Jonah lay sleeping in the ship, when the tempest of God's wrath was pursuing him: God therefore threw him irate the belly of the whale, and the bottom of the deep, that from those deep places he might cry to him.
When, therefore, we are troubled by heavy sickness, or poverty, or oppressed by the tyranny of men, let us make profit and use thereof, considering that God hath cast his best children into such dangers for their profit; and that it is better to be in deep dangers praying, than on the high mountains of vanity playing. Archibald Symson, in "A Sacred Septenarie", 1638.
Ver. 1. Out of the depths. "Depths!" oh! into what "depths" men can sink! How far from happiness, glory, and goodness men can fall.
There is the depth of poverty. A man can become utterly stripped of all earthly possessions and worldly friends! Sometimes we come upon a man, still living, but in such abject circumstances, that it strikes us as a marvel that a human being can sink lower than the beasts of the field.
Then there is the depth of sorrow. Billow after billow breaks over the man, friend after friend departs, lover and friend are put into darkness. All the fountains of his nature are broken up. He is like a water logged ship, from the top waves plunging down as if into the bottom of the sea. So often in such depths, sometimes like Jonah in the whale's belly, the monster carrying him down, down, down, into darkness.
There are depths after depths of mental darkness, when the soul becomes more and more sorrowful, down to that very depth which is just this side of despair. Earth hollow, heaven empty, the air heavy, every form a deformity, all sounds discord, the past a gloom, the present a puzzle, the future a horror. One more step down, and the man will stand in the chamber of despair, the floor of which is blistering hot, while the air is biting cold as the polar atmosphere. To what depths the spirit of a man may fall!
But the most horrible depth into which a man's soul can descend is sin. Sometimes we begin on gradual slopes, and slide so swiftly that we soon reach great depths; depths in which there are horrors that are neither in poverty, nor sorrow, nor mental depression. It is sin, it is an outrage against God and ourselves. We feel that there is no bottom. Each opening depth reveals a greater deep. This is really tile bottomless pit, with everlasting accumulations of speed, and perpetual lacerations as we descend. Oh, depths below depths! Oh, falls from light to gloom, from gloom to darkness! Oh, the hell of sin!
What can we do? We can simply cry, CRY, CRY! But, let us cry to God. Useless, injurious are other cries. They are mere expressions of impotency, or protests against imaginary fate. But the cry of the spirit to the Most High is a manful cry. Out of the depths of all poverty, all sorrow, all mental depression, all sin, cry unto God! From "The Study and the Pulpit", 1877.
Ver. 1. Out of the depths have I cried.
Up from the deeps, O God, I cry to thee!
Hear my soul's prayer, hear thou her litany,
O thou who sayest, "Come, wanderer, home to me."
Up from the deeps of sorrow, wherein lie
Dark secrets veil'd from earth's unpitying eye,
My prayers, like star crown'd angels, Godward fly.
From the calm bosom when in quiet hour
God's Holy Spirit reigns with largest power,
Then shall each thought in prayer's white blossom flower.
Not from life's shallows, where the waters sleep,
A dull, low marsh where stagnant vapours creep,
But ocean voiced, deep calling unto deep.
As he of old, King David, call'd to thee,
As cries the heart of poor humanity,
"Clamavi, Domine, exaudi me!" C. S. Fenner.
Ver. 1. But when he crieth from the deep, he riseth from the deep, and his very cry suffereth him not to be long at the bottom. Augustine.
Ver. 1. It has been well said that the verse puts before us six conditions of true prayer: it is lowly, "out of the deep"; fervent, "have I called"; direct to God himself, "unto thee"; reverent, "O LORD"; awed, "LORD", a solemn title, is again used; one's very own, "hear my voice." Neale and Littledale.
Ver. 1. Have I cried. There are many kinds and degrees of prayer in the world; from the coldest form to the most intense agony. Every one prays; but very few "cry." But of those who do "cry to God", the majority would say, "I owe it to the depths. I learnt it there. I often prayed before; but nevertill I was carried down very deepdid I cry." "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord." It is well worth while to go down into any "depth" to be taught to "cry."
It is not too much to say that we do not know what prayer may be till we have "cried." And we seldom rise till we have gone very deep. "I die! I perish! I am lost! Help, Lord! Help me! Save me now! Do it now, Lord, or I am lost. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God!"
In mid day, if you are taken from the bright and sunny scenes of light, and go down into the bottom of a pit you may see the stars, which were invisible to you in the upper air. And how many could say that things they knew not in life's noon, they have found in life's midnight, and that they owe their glimpses of glory, and their best avenues of thought, and the importunacy of prayer, and the victories of faith, to seasons when they walked in very dark places. "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord." James Vaughan.
Ver. 1. Have I cried unto thee, Jehovah. God gave out that name Jehovah to his people to confirm their faith in the stability of his promises: Ex 3:1-22 He who is Being himself will assuredly give being and subsistence to his promises. Being to deal with God about the promises of grace, he makes his application to him under this name: "I call upon thee, Jehovah." John Owen, in "A Practical Exposition upon Psalm 130."
Ver. 1. The assertion of an experienced believer.
1. I have criedthat is, I have earnestly, constantly, truthfully prayed.
2. I have cried only unto thee. Nothing could draw me to other confidences, or make me despair of thee.
3. I have cried in distress. At my worst, temporally or spiritually, I have cried out of the depths.
4. I therefore inferthat I am thy child, no hypocrite, no apostate; and that thou hast heard and wilt hear me evermore.
Ver. 1.
1. What we are to understand by "the depths." Great misery and distress.
2. How men get into "the depths." By sin and unbelief.
3. What gracious souls do when in "the depths." Cry unto the Lord.
4. How the Lord lifts praying souls out of "the depths"; "He shall redeem, "etc., Ps 130:8. W. H. J. P.
Ver. 1.
1. In the pit.
2. The morning star seen: "Thee, O Lord."
3. Prayer flutters up "out of the depths." W. B. H.
Ver. 1-2.
1. The depths from which prayer may rise.
a) Of affliction.
b) Of conviction.
c) Of desertion.
2. The height to which it may ascend.
a) To the hearing of God.
b) To a patient hearing. "Hear my voice."
c) To an attentive hearing.
Or,
1. We should pray at all times.
2. We should pray that our prayers may be heard.
3. We should pray until we know we are heard.
4. We should pray in faith that when heard we have the thing we have asked. "That which thou hast prayed to me against the King of Assyria I have heard." God had heard. That was enough. It was the death of Sennacherib and the overthrow of his host. G. R.
Ver. 1-2. Consider,
1. The Psalmist's condition in the light of a warning. Evidently, through sin, he came into the depths; see Ps 130:3-4. Learn,
a) The need of watchfulness on the part of all.
b) That backsliding will, sooner or later, bring great trouble of soul.
2. His sometime continuance in that condition, in the light of a Divine judgment: "I have cried." Certainly his first cry had not brought deliverance.
a) The realization of pardon is a Divine work, dependent upon God's pleasure. Ps 85:8.
b) But he will not always nor often speak pardon at the first asking; for He will make His people reverence his holiness, feel the bitterness of sinning, learn caution, etc.
3. His conduct while in that condition in the light of a direction. He,
a) Seeks deliverance only of God.
b) Is intensely earnest in his application: "I cried."
c) Is inopportunate in his pleading: "Hear my voice, "etc. J. F.
Psalms 130:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee.
Psa_130:1-8
Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee.
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A prayer for deliverance
The psalm should probably be regarded as antiphonal; it is composed of several stanzas which were sung responsively by different voices.
1. In the first stanza (verses 1, 2) the speaker is a devout Israelite, who is feeling keenly the misery of his circumstances. The metaphor appears to be taken from a shipwreck; and, on the lips of a Hebrew, the picture would be one of unutterable horror. We Britons love the sea. But to the Jews the sea was an object of terror, a cruel and devouring monster, greedy of its prey, and smiling only to deceive; the symbol of treachery, unrest, and desolation. What were those depths out of which the psalmist cried to God? Were they the calamities which beset him and his countrymen? Or were they his overwhelming sins? To a Hebrew mind these were indistinguishable. It was an inveterate belief among the Israelites that, just as prosperity was the reward of goodness, adversity was the punishment of sin; and, wherever adversity alighted, sin must have been there before. This theory added to the sufferings of the Exiles an element of distress which we can hardly appreciate. It appears very plainly in our psalm. Here is a devout Israelite plunged, like the rest of his countrymen, into the depths of disaster. As a Hebrew this could only have one meaning for him, namely, that God was visiting their sins upon him and them.
2. The second stanza (verses 3, 4) is the response of a neighbour--probably an old man, who had lived into a calmer and stronger faith than the other had yet attained to. Though his words are addressed to God, they are a reply to his companion. First he glances at the vexing problem which, as we have seen, was at the bottom of his companions trouble--why righteous men should suffer so terribly. His answer is the rough-and-ready one, that in Gods sight no one is righteous, and beneath His pure and searching scrutiny the fairest lives show very foul. This is just the theological commonplace, so shallow and irreverent, that all men alike are sinful and deserve equal condemnation at Gods hands. It is quite true indeed that we are all sinners; but we are not all sinners to the same extent, and God will not blindly treat us all alike. The man speaks more truly when he leaves off theorizing and testifies to his own experience of God. Thou dost not watch for iniquities, but with Thee is the forgiveness. God, he means, is not a stern tyrant, never satisfied with our efforts to serve Him, ever watching for mistakes and searching them out. He is right willing to forgive us even at our worst. The closing line of this stanza is a surprise. We should have expected, with Thee is forgiveness that Thou mayest be loved; but we read instead, that Thou mayest be feared. On the lips of a Hebrew the fear of God meant very nearly devout reverence. It is the Old Testament phrase for the true worship, and our psalmist means that, were there no forgiveness in the heart of God, there would be no worship in the heart of man. Religion would be impossible were God a relentless and merciless avenger.
3. In the third stanza (verses 5, 6) the first speaker replies, You tell me God forgives! Have I not besought His forgiveness till I am weary? But all to no purpose. For His word have I hoped--for some assurance of His forgiveness; but not a whisper has broken the pitiless silence. The figure in verse 6 would go home to the Exiles. How often, as they camped outside Babylon and sat sleepless and tearful through the watches of the night, had they seen the sentries pacing the ramparts of the city and hailing the flush of dawn in the eastern horizon which told them their weary vigil was near its close! No figure could more pathetically express the psalmists eager expectation of the dawning of Gods mercy on his long night of sorrow.
4. In the concluding stanza (verses 7, 8) the bystanders chime in. My soul hath hoped in Adonai, the despondent man had said; and the chorus echoes, Hope, Israel, in Jehovah. The second speaker had declared his faith that with Jehovah is the forgiveness; but, ere it closes, the psalm reaches a still grander assurance. Hope in Jehovah, for with Jehovah is the lovingkindness, and plentifully with Him is redemption. It is a great belief that God forgives, but an unspeakable greater that, in spite of all that seems to prove the contrary, He has in His heart towards us an infinite lovingkindness and a purpose of final and complete redemption. The psalm ends with a prophecy of great salvation and boundless peace in store for Israel. To the Hebrews redemption from iniquities would mean not merely a spiritual deliverance, but the removal of all the disasters and sufferings which sin entailed. And this triumphant assurance of a future unstained by sin and unvexed by sorrow is born of that twofold faith, so simple yet so grand, that there is in the hears of God a boundless lovingkindness, and that He is working out, by means of all our varied experiences, our ultimate and eternal redemption. (D. Smith, M. A.)
The commendable conduct of man under trial
I. Imploring heaven (verses 1, 2).
1. Heaven alone can deliver.
2. From the greatest depths Heaven can hear the cries. This appeal, therefore, is--
(1) Commendable.
(2) Wise.
(3) Right.
(4) Necessary.
II. Confessing sin (verses 3, 4).
1. He identifies suffering with sin. All evils, physical, intellectual, social, religious, and political, spring from moral evil.
2. He identifies deliverance with Gods mercy.
(1) God is so merciful that He does not mark iniquities, that is, He does not keep; regain them. Malign natures never forget injuries, benevolent natures cannot retain them.
(2) God is so merciful that He forgives men their iniquities. The highest form of love is the forgiving love.
(3) Because He is thus so merciful, men can trust Him. That Thou mayest be feared. Not servilely, but trustfully, lovingly, loyally, cheerfully. Had He not forgiveness in His nature, what rational soul could reverence Him?
III. Waiting on God (Psa_130:5-8).
1. This implies--
(1) Trusting in God. Trusting in His wisdom, goodness, and rectitude.
(2) Expecting from God. Expecting that He will interpose in mercy, and grant the necessary relief.
(3) Vigilance of soul. It is not a passive state of mind, it is watchful and earnest.
2. He exhorts Israel to trust in the Lord--
(1) Because there is mercy with Him. The mercy which the sufferer requires, mercy to succour and deliver.
(2) Because there is plenteous redemption with Him. There is no limit to His redemptive willingness and ability. Where sin abounded grace doth much more abound.
(3) Because all Israel will one day be redeemed. The author, undoubtedly, had the belief that all evil will one day be swept from the face of the earth. (Homilist.)
From the depths to The heights
I. The cry from the depths.
1. The depths are the place for us all.
2. Unless you have cried to God out of these depths, you have never cried to Him at all. The beginning of all true personal religion lies in the sense of my own sin and my lost condition. If a man does not think much about sin, he does not think much about a Divine Saviour.
3. You want nothing more than a cry to get you out of the depths. There is no way for you up out of the pit but to cry to God, and that will bring a rope down. Nay, rather, the rope is there. Your grasping the rope and your cry are one. Ask, and ye shall receive! God has let down the fulness of His forgiving love in Jesus Christ our Lord, and all that we need is the call, which is likewise faith, which accepts while it desires, and desires in its acceptance; and then we are lifted up out of the horrible pit and the miry clay, and our feet are set upon a rock, and our goings established.
II. A dark fear and a bright assurance. The mans prayer is, as it were, blown back into his throat by the thought, If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord t who shall stand? And then--as if he would not be swept away from his confidence even by this great blast of cold air from out of the north, that comes like ice and threatens to chill his hope to death--But, says he, there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mightest be feared. So these two halves represent the struggle in the mans mind. They are like a sky, one half of which is piled with thunder-clouds, and the other serenely blue. It needs, first of all, that the heart should have tremblingly entertained the contrary hypothesis, in order that the heart should spring to the relief and the gladness of the counter truth. It must first have felt the shudder of the thought, If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities in order to come to the gladness of the thought, But there is forgiveness with Thee! And that forgiveness lies at the root of all true godliness. No man reverences, and loves, and draws near to God so rapturously, so humbly, as the man that has learned pardon through Jesus Christ.
III. The permanent, peaceful attitude of the spirit that has tasted the consciousness of forgiving love--a continual dependence upon God, Like a man that has just recovered from some illness, but still leans upon the care, and feels his need of seeing the face of that skilful physician that has helped him through, there will be still, and always, the necessity for the continual application of that pardoning love. But they that have tasted that the Lord is gracious can sit very quietly at His feet and trust themselves to His kindly dealings, resting their souls upon His strong word, and looking for the fuller communication of light from Himself. More than they that watch for the morning. That is beautiful! The consciousness of sin was the dark night. The coming of His forgiving love flushed all the eastern heaven with diffused brightness that grew into perfect day. And so the man waits quietly for the dawn, and his whole soul is one absorbing desire that God may dwell with him, and brighten and gladden him.
IV. The personal experience becomes general, and an evangel, a call upon the mans lips to all his brethren. Let Israel hope in the Lord. There was no room for anything in his heart when he began this psalm except his own self in his misery, and that Great One high above him there. There is nothing which isolates a man so awfully as a consciousness of sin and of his relation to God. But there is nothing that so knits him to all his fellows, and brings him into such wide-reaching bonds of amity and benevolence, as the sense of Gods forgiving mercy for his own soul. So the call bursts from the lips of the pardoned man, inviting all to taste the experience and exercise the trust which have made him glad: Let Israel hope in the Lord. And then look at the broad Gospel that he has attained to know and to preach. For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is redemption. Not only forgiveness, but redemption--and that from every form of sin. It is plenteous--multiplied. Our Lord has taught us to what a sum that Divine multiplication amounts. Net once, nor twice, but seventy times seven is the prescribed measure of human forgiveness, and shall men be more placable than God! (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
A cry out of mental distress
I. Soul-depths.
1. Darkness.
2. Doubt.
3. Sorrow.
4. Sin.
II. Soul-crying. As spices smell best, says Trapp, when beaten, and as frankincense is most odoriferous when cast into the fire, so do men pray most and best out of the depths of trouble.
1. The cry of self-helplessness appealing to Omnipotence.
2. The cry of earnest entreaty.
III. Soul-apprehensions (verses 3, 4). Jehovah is strict to mark, but slow to execute judgment. No sin escapes His eye: His entry against us is correct, but His mercy restrains hasty justice and holds back the due deserts of our iniquities.
IV. Soul-waiting (verses 5, 6).
1. Patient hopefulness.
2. Eager expectation, begotten of strong faith.
Waiting, hoping, expecting, never can be disappointed: through it the cry of distress becomes changed into the chorus of victory. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
Encouragement for the penitent
I. Davids distressing condition (verses 1, 2). Before God fills a soul, He empties it.
II. Davids penitential confession (verse 3).
III. Davids ground of hope (verse 4). We are told that when Darius heard that the Athenians had captured Sardis, he was indignant, and vowed vengeance on the city. He went out into the open air, and sending an arrow towards the heavens, he appealed to the god, Jove, and vowed that he would destroy the city, and at the same time commanded one of his servants to enter into his presence every noon, and cry, Remember Sardis. Is it thus that God deals with us? No! He waits not to smite, but to heal; not to punish, but to pardon; not to ruin, but to regenerate. Consider--
1. The promise of God (Exo_34:6-7; Psa_86:5; Rom_10:12; 2Pe_1:4; Jam_5:2).
2. The death of Christ.
3. Gods acts. Manasseh, David, Saul of Tarsus, Zaccheus, Bunyan, all obtained forgiveness, and so may you.
IV. Davids attitude towards God (verses 5, 6). Seasons of spiritual depression, though painful, are profitable. They excite earnest desires, and prepare the mind for the reception of richer blessings.
V. Davids encouraging exhortation (verse 7). Some tell us that a man must tumble into the Slough of Despond before he can become a rejoicing believer. David thought it better policy to try to prevent them falling into that slough. Despair paralyzes. Hope invigorates.
VI. The encouraging promise (verse 8).
1. Sinner, are you in the depths? Looking on your past life, do you see little else but sin? Looking beyond the grave you see no light. No ray of hope lights up your impenetrable gloom. The stars shine brightest at night, and the promise of pardon beams with the brightest lustre when we are on the borders of despair. Hear it, and rejoice. He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
2. Believer, do you pray for grace to destroy sin, and fill your heart with love? The blessing you desire shall be granted. This is no doubtful speculation, no untried theory. Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, have obtained pardon and purity through faith in Christ. (H. Woodcock.)
The pilgrim song of penitence
I. The cry (verses 1, 2). He needs an entire renovation; only the Creator can bestow that. He needs absolution; only the Being offended can grant this. To Him, therefore, to Jehovah he addresses himself. He prays earnestly and perseveringly.
II. The indirect confession (verses 3, 4). If Jehovah should take the matter in hand, no escape would be possible. For He is the all-seeing God, from whom nothing can be hid. Other standards are deflected and partial; this is uniform and steadfast. Its Author cannot be deceived, and will not be mocked. Who, then, shall stand when He rises up? The question answers itself. None; no, not one.
III. Expressions of longing and hope. (verses 5, 6). President Edwards, during a long sickness, observed that those watching with him often looked out for the morning eagerly. It reminded him of this psalm; and when the dawn came it seemed to him to be an image of the sweet light of Gods glory. For such longing is not unsatisfied. They who have it experience the Beatitude, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Longings for earthly goods are often disappointed, but never the conviction which leads a man to say, My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
IV. The exhortation (verses 7, 8). Divine grace is not easily exhausted. There is enough and to spare. With Jehovah is the lovingkindness, shown in creations fulness, the array of fruits and flowers, the song of birds, brilliant skies, all that pleases in air, earth, and sea, the countless blessings that come upon the just and the unjust. Nay, with Him is abundant redemption, deliverance for the lost and undone. It is not a scant provision, but liberal. There is no end to its riches, no limit to its efficacy. It extends to all vices, crimes, and shortcomings of heart, speech, or behaviour--can make sins of scarlet as white as snow, such as are red like crimson to be as wool. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.)
Pardoning mercy
I. The prayer.
1. The blessed Object to whom he repaired. He well knew that vain is the help of man.
2. The earnest spirit which he manifested (verses 1, 2). The repetition is very emphatic, and shows how extreme was his need, and how anxiously he implored the Divine Being to interpose on his behalf.
II. The musings in which he indulged (verses 3, 4).
1. Solemn. If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, etc. On such a supposition we must all perish, and that for ever.
2. Joyful. But there is forgiveness with Thee, etc. This is evident from--
(1) The titles He assumes (Exo_34:6).
(2) The rites He has instituted (Lev_16:21-22).
(3) The scheme of redemption He has provided. Gethsemane and Calvary.
(4) The commands He has given (Isa_55:7; Act_17:30).
(5) The longsuffering He manifests.
(6) The many instances in which His pardoning mercy has been exercised,
III. The course pursued (verses 5, 6). His waiting was--
1. Sincere. My soul doth wait.
(1) Diligence in use of means.
(2) Expectation of blessing.
2. Intelligent. In His Word do I hope.
3. Ardent (verse 6). (Expository Outlines.)
Thy depth of repentance
This psalm is the outpouring of a broken heart, crushed because of sin.
I. The simile--Out of the depths. A fitting image of intensity of grief. We cast about ordinarily in the shallows and level plains. We rise to the mountains to sing. Are they not nearer heaven? We sink to the depths to weep. The depths and cavities of the rocky Palestine were inaccessible and filled with noisomeness and pestilence. Thank God, life is not all depths. Thank God that even in the depths He can hear--from the gloom, the bewilderment, the despair. The depths indicate a fall. It is natural to get lower. It is not a natural place of resort. The depths also indicate carelessness. The circumspect will take heed to his ways. All sin leads to despair.
II. The action--I cried. No word could more fitly express the souls action when in the depths. It indicates--
1. Consciousness of danger. Some are engulphed and unconscious.
2. Absence of formality. There is no time for a well-ordered prayer. The circumstances are too tragic to permit of the consideration of grammar or propriety. Deliverance is life.
3. Sense of helplessness. The strong man can do nothing. At the same time there is a sense of hope. There is one thing which the most convicted sinner can do--he can cry.
III. The helper--To Thee, O Lord.
1. Here is some one at hand. He is able to hear.
2. Here is some one of ability. The depths are Gods kingdom as well as the heights. He is a strong deliverer.
3. Here is one of willingness. He is ready to save, waiting to be gracious. Oh, it is good for a sinner to be in the depths. He would not cry unless he felt their mortal woe. (Homilist.)
In the depths
I. The children of God do fall into depths. In this plight we find David often, though a man after Gods own heart (Psa_6:2-3; Psa_88:2, etc.; 40:12; and Jonah, a prophet, Jon_2:2, etc.; and Hezekiah, Isa_38:13; and Job especially, Job_6:4). But why is this thus, seeing our Head, Christ Jesus, hath suffered for us?
1. That we may know what Christ suffered for us by our own experience, without which we should but lightly esteem of our redemption, not knowing how to value Christs sufferings sufficiently, which is a horrible sin (Heb_2:3).
2. By our sufferings we know what a bitter thing sin is.
3. By our afflictions and depths we manifest Gods power and glory the more in our deliverance: for the greater the trouble is, the greater is the deliverance; as the greater the cure is, the greater credit the physician gets.
4. Many times, by less evils, it is Gods manner to cure greater; and thus He suffers us to feel wrath, to cure us of security, which is as a grave to the soul; as also to cure spiritual pride, that robs us of grace (2Co_12:7).
5. These depths are left to us to make us more desirous of heaven; else great men, that are compassed about with earthly comforts, alas, with what zeal could they pray, Thy kingdom come, etc.? No; with Peter they would rather say, Master, it is good for us to be here (Mar_9:5).
6. God works by these afflictions in us a more gentleness of spirit, making us meek and pitiful towards those that are in depths, which was one cause of Christs afflictions: He suffered that He might help and comfort others. He suffered Peter to stumble, that, when he was converted, he should strengthen his brethren (Luk_22:32).
II. Though Christians fall into depths, yet God upholds them that they sink not down into them without recovery.
1. For the Spirit of God is in them, and where it is it is stronger than hell, yea, though the grace be but as a grain of mustard seed.
2. As there are depths of misery in a Christian, so in God there are depths of love and of wisdom.
3. Faith, where it is, unites the soul to Christ, and to God through Him, and draws down Divine power--to lay hold on the almighty power of God by true and fervent prayer,--at whose rebuke the waters of affliction flee away (Psa_77:16); and so the stronger the faith is, the stronger is the delivery, for it is of a mighty power, enabling us to wrestle with God, as Jacob did. Thus when we lay hold on God, and God on us, what can drown us?
4. It is the nature of Gods working to be by contraries: in His works of creation, making all things of nothing; in His works of providence He saves by little means from greatest dangers.
III. Afflictions stir up devotions.
1. Let us interpret Gods dealings with a sanctified judgment. He is a wise physician, and knows when strong or gentle physic is most requisite. Sometimes God by great afflictions doth manifest great graces, but so as notwithstanding they may be mingled with a deal of corruption; and it is Gods use that hereby His graces may be increased, and the corruption allayed, to bring down the greatest cedars, and to eclipse the greatest lights.
2. Let us oppose desperations by all means, by prayer, by crying; and if we cannot speak, by sighing; if not so, yet by gesture, especially at the time of death, for God knows the heart. For then it stands upon eternal comfort. And therefore let us do anything to show our faith fails not. We must know that every one shall meet with these enemies, that would cause us to despair if they could, for this life is a warring and striving life. We shall have enemies without and within us that will fight against us.
IV. Observe by the example of this holy man that prayers are to be made only to God, who knows our wants, supports us and binds us up; and it is only Christ that doth this. None can love us more than He that gave Himself for us. He is our eye whereby we see, our mouth whereby we speak, our arms whereby we lay hold on God; and therefore it is an intolerable unthankfulness to leave this fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and to dig to ourselves cisterns that will hold no water (Jer_2:13). (R. Sibbes.)
Deep places
1. By the deep places is meant the deep places of afflictions, and the deep places of the heart troubled for sin. Afflictions are compared go deep waters (Psa_18:17; Psa_69:1). And surely Gods children are often cast into very desperate cases, and plunged into deep miseries. To the end they may send out of a contrite and feeling heart such prayers as may mount aloft and pierce the heavens. Those that are furthest cast down are not furthest from God, but nearest unto Him. God is near to a contrite heart, and it is the proper seat where His Spirit dwelleth (Isa_66:2). And thus God dealeth with us, as men do with such houses that they are minded to build sumptuously and on high, for then they dig deep grounds for the foundation. Mark hereby the dulness of our nature, that is such, that God is forced to use sharp remedies to awaken us. When, therefore, we are troubled either by heavy sickness, or poverty, or oppressed by the tyranny of men, let us make profit and use thereof, considering that God hath cast His best children in such dangers for their profit; and that it is better to be in deep dangers praying, than on the high mountains of vanity playing.
2. By the deep places may be understood also a heart deeply wounded with the considerations of sin and Gods justice, for God will not accept such superficial and scurvy prayers, which come only from the lips, and not from a contrite and broken heart. Let not men think to find mines of gold or silver in the streets; no, they must dig into the bowels of the earth for them. So, let us not deceive ourselves thinking Gods favour may be gotten everywhere, for in the deep places it is to be found. (A. Symson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Psalms 130
Psalms 130
IN a very emphatic sense this is a song of ascents, for it climbs steadily from the abyss of penitence to the summits of hope. It falls into two divisions of four verses each, of which the former breathes the prayer of a soul penetrated by the consciousness of sin, and the latter the peaceful expectance of one that has tasted Gods forgiving mercy. These two parts are again divided into two groups of two verses, so that there are four stages in the psalmists progress from the depths to the sunny heights.
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In the first group we have the psalmists cry. He has called, and still calls. He reiterates in Psa_130:2 the prayer that he had long offered and still presents. It is not only quotation, but is the cry of present need. What are these "depths" from which his voice sounds, as that of a man fallen into a pit and sending up a faint call? The expression does not merely refer to his creatural lowliness, nor even to his troubles, nor even to his depression of spirit. There are deeper pits than these-those into which the spirit feels itself going down, sick and giddy, when it realises its sinfulness. Unless a man has been down in that black abyss, he has scarcely cried to God as he should do. The beginning of true personal religion is the sense of personal sin. A slight conception of the gravity of that fact underlies inadequate conceptions of Christs nature and work, and is the mother of heresies in creed and superficialities and deadnesses in practice. A religion that sits lightly upon its professor, impelling to no acts of devotion, flashing out in no heroisms, rising to no heights of communion-that is to say, the average Christianity of great masses of so called Christians-bears proof, in its languor, that the man knows nothing about the depths, and has never cried to God from them. Further, if out of the depths we cry, we shall cry ourselves out of the depths. What can a man do who finds himself at the foot of a beetling cliff, the sea in front, the wall of rock at his back, without foothold for a mouse, between the tide at the bottom and the grass at the top? He can do but one thing: he can shout, and perhaps may be heard, and a rope may come dangling down that he can spring at and clutch. For sinful men in the miry pit the rope is already let down. and their grasping it is the same act as the psalmists cry. God has let down His forgiving love in Christ, and we need but the faith which accepts while it asks, and then we are swung up into the light and our feet set on a rock.
Psa_130:3-4 are the second stage. A dark fear shadows the singers soul, and is swept away by a joyful assurance. The word rendered above "mark" is literally keep or watch, as in Psa_130:6, and here seems to mean to take account of, or retain in remembrance, in order to punish. If God should take mans sin into account in His dispositions and dealings, "O Lord, who shall stand?" No man could sustain that righteous judgment. He must go down before it like a flimsy but before a whirlwind, or a weak enemy before a fierce charge. That thought comes to the psalmist like a blast of icy air from the north, and threatens to chill his hope to death and to blow his cry back into his throat. But its very hypothetical form holds a negation concealed in it. Such an implied negative is needed in order to explain the "for" of Psa_130:4. The singer springs, as it were, to that confidence by a rebound from the other darker thought. We must have tremblingly entertained the contrary dread possibility before we can experience the relief and gladness of its counter truth. The word rendered "forgiveness" is a late form, being found only in two other late passages. {Neh_9:17; Dan_9:9} It literally means cutting off, and so suggests the merciful surgery by which the cancerous tumour is taken out of the soul. Such forgiveness is "with God," inherent in His nature. And that forgiveness lies at the root of true godliness. No man reverences, loves, and draws near to God so rapturously and so humbly as he who has made experience of His pardoning mercy, lifting a soul from its abysses of sin and misery. Therefore the psalmist taught by what pardon has done for him in drawing him lovingly near to God, declares that its great purpose is "that Thou mayest be feared," and that not only by the recipient, but by beholders. Strangely enough, many commentators have found a difficulty in this idea, which seems sun-clear to those whose own history explains it to them. Gratz, for instance, calls it "completely unintelligible." It has been very intelligible to many a penitent who has been by pardon transformed into a reverent lover of God.
The next stage in the ascent from the depths is in Psa_130:5-6, which breathe peaceful, patient hope. It may be doubtful whether the psalmist means to represent that attitude of expectance as prior to and securing forgiveness or as consequent upon it. The latter seems the more probable. A soul which has received Gods forgiveness is thereby led into tranquil, continuous, ever-rewarded waiting on Him, and hope of new gifts springs ever fresh in it. Such a soul sits quietly at His feet, trusting to His love, and looking for light and all else needed, to flow from Him. The singleness of the object of devout hope, the yearning which is not impatience, characterising that hope at its noblest, are beautifully painted in the simile of the watchers for morning. As they who have out watched the long night look eagerly to the flush that creeps up in the east, telling that their vigil is past, and heralding the stir and life of a new day with its wakening birds and fresh morning airs, so this singers eyes had turned to God and to Him only. Psa_130:6 does not absolutely require the supplement "hopes." It may read simply "My soul is towards Jehovah"; and that translation gives still more emphatically the notion of complete turning of the whole being to God. Consciousness of sin was as a dark night; forgiveness flushed the Eastern heaven with prophetic twilight. So the psalmist waits for the light, and his soul is one aspiration towards God.
In Psa_130:7-8 the psalmist becomes an evangelist, inviting Israel to unite in his hope, that they may share in his pardon. In the depths he was alone, and felt as if the only beings in the universe were God and himself. The consciousness of sin isolates, and the sense of forgiveness unites. Whoever has known that "with Jehovah is pardon" is impelled thereby to invite others to learn the same lesson in the same sweet way. The psalmist has a broad gospel to preach, the generalisation of his own history. He had said in Psa_130:4 that "with Jehovah is forgiveness" (lit. the forgiveness, possibly meaning the needed forgiveness), and he thereby had animated his own hope. Now he repeats the form of expression, only that he substitutes for "forgiveness" the lovingkindness which is its spring, and the redemption which is its result; and these he presses upon his fellows as reasons and encouragements for their hope. It is "abundant redemption," or "multiplied," as the word might be rendered. "Seventy times seven"-the perfect numbers seven and ten being multiplied together and their sum increased seven-fold-make a numerical symbol for the unfailing pardons which we are to bestow; and the sum of the Divine pardon is surely greater than that of the human. Gods forgiving grace is mightier than all sins, and able to conquer them all.
"He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities"; not only from their consequences in punishment, but from their power, as well as from their guilt and their penalty. The psalmist means something a great deal deeper than deliverance from calamities which conscience declared to be the chastisement of sin. He speaks New Testament language. He was sure that God would redeem from all iniquity; but he lived in the twilight dawn, and had to watch for the morning. The sun is risen for us; but the light is the same in quality, though more in degree: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain The Psalm before us, like the other pilgrim-songs, implies…
INTRODUCTION
The Psalm before us, like the other pilgrim-songs, implies circumstances of bitterness; but it is, as in truth is each of them, more than a cry occasioned by outward hardship and danger. The sixth of the seven penitential Psalms, so styled by way of eminence, and not with a meaning that there are no other Psalms of penitence—this is intensely spiritual. It is at once a soliloquy, a petition, a statement, and an exhortation, a hymn for private use and public service, the voice of the soul and of the congregation. The former half is an address to the Lord: the latter is, first a profession of hope and expectation in His mercy, and then an argued invitation to the mind and course described as happily adopted. Throughout it is the language of deep distress on account of sin, a prayer for compassion and forgiveness, and an expression of trust in the promises and provisions of God’s love.—The Caravan and Temple.
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DE PROFUNDIS
(Psa_130:1-4)
I. That a consciousness of sin sinks the soul into depths of penitential sorrow. The Psalmist is penetrated with a sense of personal defilement, and measuring sin according to the standard of Divine purity, is plunged as into an abyss of humiliation and despair. “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” The light makes manifest the darkness, the beautiful in nature reveals by contrast the ugly and repulsive; so an exalted purity brings out the loathsomeness and deformity of sin. Better to be overwhelmed with a genuine sorrow for sin than with the wrath of God that will certainly overtake the impenitent (2Th_1:7-9).
II. That from the depths of penitential sorrow the soul cries earnestly for pardon. “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications” (Psa_130:1-2). The distressed soul finds relief in cries and tears. The heart would break if it found no outlet for its pent-up grief. In the darkest, deepest sorrow, it is our privilege to cry to God and to be heard. To cry to God in sorrow for sin is to pray to be delivered from it: it is an appeal for mercy. It is only when we taste the bitterness of sin, only when we are surrounded by its black horrors and the terrible vengeance it merits, that we are truly in earnest in pleading for forgiveness. The wail of despair is transformed into a song of hope when assured that pardon is attainable. “There is forgiveness with Thee.” But for this, the soul might cry in vain: answered only by its own mocking eche; despair recoiling upon yet deeper despair.
III. That the penitent soul seeks pardon in order to serve God acceptably. “But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared” (Psa_130:4). True religion is justly defined as the fear of God. Not the cowering terror of the slave, not the sullen, pouting fear of the culprit, not the half-hope and half-dread of the awakened sinner, but the loving, reverential, obedient fear of the forgiven and accepted child. Pardon is absolutely necessary for acceptable and useful Christian work. God forgives, not simply to deliver from the depths of penitence, not to give license for indulgence in wickedness; but to create a moral fitness for exalted and extensive service (Psa_51:12-13).
LESSONS:—
1. From the deepest depths of misery the cry of penitence reaches the heights of heaven.
2. The more vivid our sense of sin, the more appreciative are we of the blessing of forgiveness.
3. The Lord delivers from sin that we may serve Him with loving fear.
THE HOPE OF REDEMPTION
(Psa_130:5-8)
I. Is based on the revelation of the Divine Word. “I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His Word do I hope” (Psa_130:5). Hope must have a solid foundation to rest upon, else it is mere dreamy conjecture, the rosy bloom of fancy that is shrivelled up by the first rude blast of trial. The Word of God is the foundation of the soul’s hope of redemption; and that redemption is the theme which pervades every page of revelation. The word translated to wait, properly signifies the extension of a cord from one point to another. The Word of God is one point, the soul the other; and the extended cord between both is the earnest believing desire of the soul. This desire, this hope, strongly extended from the heart to God, is the active energetic waiting which God requires and which will be successful. God never disappoints: His Word never fails. Myriads have looked to Him for redemption, and not in vain.
II. Rouses the most passionate longings of the human soul. “My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning” (Psa_130:6). It is an emphatic repetition, indicating that the whole soul is waiting and watching for redemption. “The priest staying in the temple for the moment of the early oblation, the warder on the tower looking for the first streak of day, the benighted traveller unable to take another step till the long darkness shall be over, the sick man sleeplessly longing for the family to be astir, the mariner wanting the light that he may examine the doubtful coast,—not one of them so earnestly hopes for the morning which will end his watch as my soul waits for the Lord, who forgives repented iniquity.” The nearer a great blessing appears to us the more eager are we to possess it. The blessing of redemption is worthy of the most ardent and patient hope.
III. Is encouraged by reflecting on the amplitude of the Divine mercy. “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption” (Psa_130:7). The first conception of redemption was the offspring of the Divine pity and compassion. The Lord yearns to deliver man from sin: He delighteth in mercy. (Compare Jer_31:20; Jas_5:11; Exo_34:6-7). There can be no true peace, no moral safety, without pardon. How great and condescending is that act of Divine mercy by which the sinner is pardoned, and his soul, wearied and distracted with long and anxious waiting, is set at rest and filled with unutterable peace!
IV. Is strengthened by the assurance of the completeness of redemptive blessings. “And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psa_130:8). It is no temporary, or indistinct, blessing that is so anxiously sought; it is nothing less than a complete deliverance from all iniquity. Redemption from sin includes redemption from all other evils: it is the greatest and most perfect work of God, and bestows the most exalted blessings on man. “A sacred presence in this Psalm asks the conscience a succession of important questions. Have you been in depths of distress on account of sin? Did you cry to the Lord to deliver you from the deep waters? Have you given up all thought of escaping by your own righteousness? Is all your appeal to God’s redeeming mercy? Are you contentedly waiting and watching till He shall give you His promised blessing? Is your heart set upon the full daylight of holiness to the Lord?”
LESSONS:—
1. Redemption is a Divine work.
2. The most degraded soul is not beyond the hope of recovery.
3. Redemption must be eagerly and prayerfully sought.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain I. That deep was not merely the deep of…
Psa 130:1
I. That deep was not merely the deep of affliction. You may see men with every comfort which wealth and home can give who are tormented day and night in that deep pit in the midst of all their prosperity, calling for a drop of water to cool their tongue and finding none. That deep pit is a far worse place, an utterly bad place, and yet it may be good for a man to have fallen into it; and strangely enough, if he do fall in, the lower he sinks in it the better for him at last. There is another strange contradiction in that pit, which David found: that though it was a bottomless pit, the deeper he sank in it the more likely he was to find his feet set on a rock; the further down in the nethermost hell he was the nearer he was to being delivered from the nethermost hell.
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II. The fire of that pit hardens a man and softens him at the same time; and he comes out of it hardened to the hardness of which it is written, "Do thou endure hardness, like a good soldier of Jesus Christ," yet softened to that softness of which it is written, "Be ye tender-hearted, compassionate, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you."
III. How shall we learn this? How shall the bottomless pit, if we fall into it, be but a pathway to the everlasting Rock? David tells us: "Out of the deep have I cried unto Thee, O Lord." He was face to face with God, alone, in utter weakness, in utter nakedness of soul. He cried to God Himself. There was the lesson. God took him up and cast him down; and there he sat alone, astonished and confounded, like Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, when she sat alone upon the parching rock. But it was told David what Rizpah had done. And it is told to One greater than David, even to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, what the poor soul does when it sits alone in its despair. It shall be with that poor soul as it was with Moses when he went up alone into the mount of God and fasted forty days and forty nights, amid the earthquake, and the thunderstorm, and the rocks which melted before the Lord. "And, behold, when it was past, he talked face to face with God, as a man talketh with his friend;" and his countenance shone with heavenly light when he came down triumphant out of the mount of God.
C. Kingsley, The Good News of God, p. 68.
Reference: Psa 130:1.— Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 83.
Psa 130:1-2
There are deep soul-utterances here: there are the trouble and the darkness that often precede or accompany the coming to life again of the soul; there are the cries of pain and anguish which usher back the soul from the world of outer darkness to the blessed light.
I. To the majority there comes a time of awakening. The time of awakening is a critical time; it is a period of jeopardy to the soul. There are mistakes sometimes made which, like wrong turnings on a road, bring us to unforeseen issues. There is the danger of mistaking a first fervour for a completed conversion; there is the danger of mistaking flowing tears for true repentance, dissatisfaction with self for deep contrition, fear of earthly consequences for hatred of sin.
II. But if there be this abounding weakness of human nature shown in the course of the awakening soul, far more is the abounding strength of God here made manifest, the strength of Him whose strength is made perfect in weakness. God never yet deserted a soul in whom, however faintly, true penitence was shown. Christ’s blood is sufficient; the aid of the Holy Ghost is all-powerful. God goes out to meet the soul; He clothes, adorns, renews, and welcomes back that soul, telling it of Himself in language which as time goes on He teaches it to interpret and understand more and more fully.
III. Only let us not resist His grace; let us seek it, be on the watch for it, pray for it. "Sorrow may endure for a night"—yea, even for a long night—"but joy cometh in the morning," the longer morning of an unending life of peace.
Bishop E. R. Wilberforce, The Awaking Soul, p. 1.
Psa 130:1-2, Psa 130:7
I. The first thing that occurs to us in glancing over the Psalms is the great variety of circumstances under which they seem to have been composed. These circumstances embrace the whole range of human life, its joys and its sorrows, its successes and its reverses; while the emotions which they express include all the corresponding feelings of the human heart.
II. Another striking feature is their unity, their agreement or oneness. (1) Manifold as they are, they all speak to one Person: God. All meet in Him as the one centre towards which they are directed. (2) In their various utterances to God there is the same spirit; the same principle seems to dictate each. They all speak the language of faith in God.
III. If you search through the Psalms, you will find this faith in God unfolding itself into: (1) faith in God as the Creator and Preserver of the world; (2) faith in God as the living King and Ruler of men; (3) faith in God as the righteous Judge; (4) faith in God as having compassion upon all who suffer; (5) faith in God as One who will not reject the penitent.
G. Formes, The Voice of God in the Psalms, p. 80.
References: Psa 130:1-3.—M. R.Vincent, Old Testament Outlines, p. 149. Psa 130:2.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 84.
Psa 130:3
We have here the second stage in the journey of the soul from the abyss to God.
I. Consider the state itself. "If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (1) There has been distinct progress here, yet the eyes are still dim with past slumber; the heart is still hardened by former sin; the vision is not clear. The soul is beginning to understand that to make any real progress it must know two things alone at first: itself and its wants, Christ and His redeeming blood; yet it cannot now shut all else out. Other men are still included in its view—others, with their measure of guilt. The eyes are but opening to spiritual things; the soul is not yet alone with God. (2) Mark how this verse discloses all the conflict that rages in the soul. It is as though the shipwrecked man had been thrown upon a rock, bruised, stunned, bewildered; as if he could just hold on there, and no more; as if the roar of the angry waters was still in his ear; nay, as if he saw those waters almost sweeping up to him again, almost enfolding him in their fearsome embrace once more, and yet was powerless to move: only in his heart there is a reaching out to One who alone is powerful to save.
II. Consider the peculiar dangers of this time: (1) despair; (2.) a want of thoroughness and reality; (3) impatience; (4) the haunting of old temptations.
III. This stage is also one of hope, and one on which there rests an especial blessing from our God. If Satan be busy round us then, yet is not the heaven opened above us? Is not One watching us who Himself once suffered in the attack of the thronging temptations? He will never mark iniquities if you deal truly and honestly with Him. Yes, it is a time of hope, of joy in the presence of God, when the repentant sinner seeks the homeward way.
Bishop E. R. Wilberforce, The Awaking Soul, p. 16.
Reference: Psa 130:3.— Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 84.
Psa 130:3-4
I. It is when the sinner feels his weakness and his utter inability to deliver himself from the clinging guilt of the past, to shake off by the mere exercise of his will the evil habits and unruly tempers that have got strong hold over him, and to keep himself free from falls for the time to come, that the concluding words of the text come home to him with their full power: "There is mercy with Thee; therefore shalt Thou be feared." If there were no mercy, there would be little fear. Men would grow reckless, desperate. All experience, the experience of all ages and countries, has shown this. Where mercy is never shown, crimes multiply; men grow bolder, take their chance more recklessly, and meet their fate more doggedly, than when there is an occasional pardon and reprieve.
II. If God were extreme to mark what is done amiss, there would be no hope for any of us. But He has a prerogative of mercy, which He exercises in favour of those whom He deems worthy of it. Because, therefore, He holds the prerogative of mercy, let us fear Him—fear lest we should render ourselves unworthy of it; fear lest we should compel Him to withhold it; fear lest we should miss it.
F. E. Paget, Helps and Hindrances to the Christian Life, vol. ii., p. 28.
I. As St. Paul urged the goodness of God as a motive not, as some might expect, for hope and confidence, but for repentance—"The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance"—so here the same doctrine is taught us by the Holy Spirit; because God is merciful, therefore we ought to fear Him. We might have expected that the psalmist would have said, There is mercy with Thee; therefore shalt Thou be trusted. There is mercy with Thee; therefore shalt Thou be loved and adored: and so of course it might; nevertheless the word is, "Therefore shalt Thou be feared," or "that Thou mayest be feared."
II. We should all endeavour more and more to feel and acknowledge our own deficiencies, our sins, negligences, and ignorances, and then to set in earnest about leading a new life, because to go on as we have been, without trying to grow better, may indeed satisfy other people and ourselves too; but still the awful question remains whether we are indeed such as our Lord, Master, and Redeemer will acknowledge as His in the day when He makes up His jewels.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. iv., p. 250.
Reference: Psa 130:3, Psa 130:4.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 367.
Psa 130:4
Surely it is a time known to most of us when we have, in our self-abasement, felt the mercy of God to be the sole warrant for our return to Him; and with that feeling there have come light and hope. There is the birth of a new love in the heart; and before it all the old loves pale, and finally die out. God has met the returning soul half-way, and has whispered His pardon in its ear. It is one of the very few times in the spiritual life when something of its actual progress is made known to the awakening soul; it has got within the sure mercies of God, and it cannot but feel the touch of the embrace of God. If to us Christ has made known His mercy, and has broken up our hearts with its penetrating sweetness, then it behoves us to think how we may guard this treasure so that none shall ever snatch it from us, so that in life it may be our stay, in death it may be our comfort, and in the judgment it may be our shield.
I. First, let us be careful that we have the reality, and no mere counterfeit, invented by the craft of a juggling Satan. If the psalmist’s words are to be truth for us, we must be careful to avoid putting any confidence in mere feeling. This would be to make the soul a sport for the winds, a prey to deceit; no sense of uplifting must be alone trusted to, any more than any mere sense of depression need be feared.
II. The half-repentant soul is in deeper danger almost than the soul which has never yet awakened; half-repentance lulls the soul to sleep even while it sins: it is the devil’s way of giving an anodyne whilst he is destroying the soul for ever. The half-repentant soul has never made the one great decision between God and sin; it seeks to know God and yet bow down in the house of Rimmon; it would serve God and mammon.
III. Let us be most especially upon our guard as to any shallow half-heartedness in repentance because of the present feeling of relief that a contemplation of God’s mercy brings. Let us never be content till in the will, the actions, the temper, the desires, in short till in the life, the expression of thankfulness for that forgiveness be seen, till we know repentance is growing with our life.
Bishop E. R. Wilberforce, The Awaking Soul, p. 32.
I. There must be something peculiar about God’s forgiveness that it leads to fear. How is it that, while the parents who constantly forgive are not feared, God, with whom is forgiveness, is? Why is it that forgiveness does not in His case, as in theirs, breed insolent presumption? What is that strange and potent element in Divine forgiveness which makes the forgiven fear, making me more afraid to sin beside the Cross of Calvary, with its quiet, pale, dead, bleeding burden, than if I stood at the foot of Sinai, amid the thunders, lightnings, and trumpet-peals that made Moses himself exceedingly fear and quake?
II. Let me explain those peculiar characters in the forgiveness of God which breed fear, not presumption, in the forgiven. (1) The manner of the forgiveness sets forth the holiness of God and the evils of sin in the strongest light. It is by an altar and through a victim that there is forgiveness with God; pardon flows to men in a stream of blood. But here the altar is a cross, and its Victim is the Son of the Highest. There is forgiveness, but after a fashion that should teach us to fear, and in life’s lightest hours to join trembling with our mirth. If God did not spare His only-begotten and well-beloved Son when He took our sins on Him, how shall He spare those who prefer their sins to their Saviour, neglecting this great salvation? (2) The manner of forgiveness sets forth not only God’s hatred of sin, but His love to sinners, in the strongest light. It costs man nothing to forgive, but it cost God His Son. How must He have loved you for whom He gave a Son so loved! and how will the love this breeds in you make you fear to dishonour or displease One who has so loved you, securing your forgiveness on such an immovable foundation and at so great a price!
T. Guthrie, Sneaking to the Heart, p. 20.
Psa 130:4
(with Psa 85:8)
I. The particle "but" in these verses indicates the contrast of one truth to another. In Psa 130:4 the contrast is between Divine holiness, the strictness of Divine justice, and the amplitude and freedom of Divine grace.
II. Psa 85:8. When God speaks peace, Hewill accompany it with solemn warning, not without good cause and need. The fear of apostasy is set before believers, and is one of the means by which God creates and maintains that holy caution, self-distrust, and confiding trust in Him by which His people are kept from apostasy and, short of apostasy, from return to folly. There is forgiveness with Him, but it is that He may be feared.
III. With these two "buts," what is left: (1) for despair; (2) for presumption?
J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table, p. 276.
References: Psa 130:4.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 80, and vol. xii., p. 84. Psa 130:5.—Ibid., vol. ii., p. 27.
Psa 130:5-6
In Dr. Kay’s translation of the Psalms, these verses are rendered thus:—
"I waited for the Lord; my soul waited,
And for His word I looked earnestly."
Mark that past tense, and now the transition:—
"My soul is to the Lord,
More than sentries for the morning, than sentries for the morning."
Here are two more steps marked put upon the homeward way: the past waiting and the present result of that waiting. The waiting may have been very painful, very long, very discouraging at times; but it was persevered in, and the earnest watch was kept. Mark the result: the turning of the soul to the Lord; completed conversion. Never did tired sentinel look more eagerly for the first ray of morning light than does that soul look for the signs of the presence of God with it.
I. It is a state of armed expectation, then, that is here described; one that is full of a hope based on past favours; one, however, that it needs much manhood to maintain, much fortitude to endure; one that has its own peculiar trials, and yet one that has its own uplifting helps. Most souls who know aught of Christ and His wealth of love, aught of sin and its misery, are somewhere about the region here described by the psalmist.
II. Consider some of the dangers of the state before us. (1) The time which we are considering is especially a time for building up the spiritual house, though now, as of old, the sword must be in one hand while the trowel is in the other. Guard at this stage against an emotional form of Christianity, against any mere hysterical approaches to Christ. (2) We should mistrust mere quiet, at least if that quiet mean only the absence of temptation. This is an armed wakeful quiet, if quiet it be. (3) Never let us be cast down by mere temptation, so long as, by God’s help, we are able to resist the temptation; it will humble us to be tempted: that is good; it will warn us: that is helpful; it will teach us to rely only on Christ: that is what we want to learn. (4) Beware of spiritual idleness at this stage.
III. Notice some of the marks whereby we may know whether we have reached this stage of the spiritual life or no. (1) We shall have cut ourselves adrift from all old associations with sin. (2) There will be an abiding sorrow for sin, which will have an increasing gentleness of manner as one of its chief characteristics. (3) There will be a growing love of the word of God. (4) The growth of patience. The spiritual life is full of sweetest surprises to the patient looker-out on God; the eye grows to be instructed where to look for signs of His presence and to see them where others cannot, just as experienced mountaineers ever look to the westward hills for the reflection of the first faint flush of dawn, while tyros are still gazing up at the eastern hills, which only hinder signs. Let us be patient in our armed watch, and the morning will come. "My soul is to the Lord, more than sentries for the morning."
Bishop E. R. Wilberforce, The Awaking Soul, p. 48.
Reference: Psa 130:5, Psa 130:6.—W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 340.
Psa 130:6
No one can read the Psalms and doubt that David knew and loved the Second Advent. And therefore I am inclined to believe that it was of this he spoke in the text.
I. Who but a very bad man thinks of the morning with any other than a happy feeling? The man of ardent enterprise chafes at the hindrances of the darkness, and longs for the morning. The timid child is afraid of the loneliness, and wishes it were day. The weary sentry treads his rounds, and listens for the early notes that herald his release. The solitary mourner wails that the night is long. The expectant bride looks out upon the horizon, and sighs for the dawn. And just so it is with the whole Church; all, with one consent, watch for the morning. That morning shall roll back the uncertainties and the hindrances, the terrors and the regrets, the sins and the sufferings of the old, and let in a new existence.
II. There are four things which especially go to make up that one little, comprehensive command "Watch." (1) Whoever would watch for Christ must have some intelligent conception of the nature of His coming. (2) To watch for the Second Advent is to be always regarding it as David did, and Peter: as the great antidote and cure for all present evil. (3) You must place the thought of the Second Advent as the crown of all your happiness. It will be like the bloom of the morning upon the mountain-top. (4) If you would watch for Christ, all life must be in harmony with the watch. The light must be in that heart that looks for light.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 12th series, p. 189.
I. What is the true idea of the phrase "waiting upon God"? "Waiting" expresses a state or habit which is the result of a combination of desire, expectation, and patient submission. "Waiting on God" is thus the patient expectation of results which God has promised to secure, results which are in themselves desirable, and which God has given us reason to believe will be realised. It implies the exercise of self-control, a meek acquiescence in the Divine arrangements, a confident assurance that God will do what He has promised and show Himself in full accordance with all that He has revealed Himself to be.
II. As practically exemplifying this Divine principle, (1) we may take the case of a Christian man engaged in the business of life. Here waiting upon God will be exhibited not in the neglect of means or in any fanatical expectation that God will send down success apart from diligent and wise endeavours on the part of the individual to secure it, but in the pious, devout, and patient expectation of God’s blessing to give effect to exertion wisely and perseveringly put forth. (2) The same principle applies to our spiritual business. We are to use the means; and when we have done what God has commanded us to do, true piety teaches us to wait on Him for that grace without which no effort of ours after spiritual attainment will succeed. (3) Take the case of a Christian man under the discipline of affliction. He who has learned to "wait" commits himself to God, assured that He will not afflict His people willingly or lay on them more than they are able to bear, but, in the infinitude of His love, wisdom, and power, will make all things work together for good to those that love Him and are the called according to His purpose.
W. Lindsay Alexander, Christian Thought and Work, p. 62 (see also Good Words, 1861, p. 191).
Reference: Psa 130:6.— Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 84.
Psa 130:7
I. This redemption cancels all sin. God brings a plenteous redemption from the sin of the past and from the sin which, through the infirmity of our flesh, will surely come; from the sin we can remember and from that which we sinned but never knew; from bold transgressions and from those which struggled timorously, yet persistently, through the light of conscience, into birth; from the first sin which struck with strange pain our childish heart and from the last which will shadow our dying bed and then sink into oblivion, "whilst that we withal escape."
II. This redemption satisfies all law. The universe is full of law; it has never been invaded by chaos; it has never been ruled by chance. We are born into a world which is "established that it cannot be moved." There is a moral fixedness corresponding with, although transcending, all the regularities of nature. Our God is "not the Author of confusion, but of order;" in the plenteous redemption He brings to us, He makes void no law. His "grace reigns, but through righteousness." And no redemption can be called plenteous that does not satisfy law, because law is truth; moral law is the highest kind of truth: it is the transcript and expression of the Divine nature, and unless that nature can change, the law cannot change.
III. This redemption is deliverance for the whole man. As the whole human being sinks and withers under sin, so the whole rises and flourishes again in Christ.
IV. This redemption lasts through all time. "For ever" is the last and highest inscription written on it, and it sheds down a wondrous light on all its other qualities.
A. Raleigh, Sermon, preached April 11th, 1860.
Psa 130:7
I. The soul has been led upward by degrees, till it now seems almost lost in the idea of the "plenteous redemption." One figure alone stands out distinct and clear; namely, the figure of the great Redeemer. All else is merged in the idea of the redemption.
II. The dangers of this state are: (1) lukewarmness; (2) unconscious hypocrisy, or self-deceit; (3) familiarity with tilings spiritual rather than deep love for Jesus Christ.
III. What are the safeguards? Let the text answer. Like some golden thread woven in throughout the full length of a cloth, mercy and hope have gone hand in hand as yet; now the Holy Ghost speaks further of a "plenteous redemption." These three will fortify the soul that possesses them against attacks from without or betrayal from within.
IV. One of the outward marks which will help us to decide if we are accepted with God is our attitude to others. If we arc constantly judging others, we have not got into that precious redemption ourselves yet. If our souls are "to the Lord," we shall strengthen others, we shall bring others to Christ. (1) Our reality in prayer will bring many to Christ. (2) We preach Christ by our behaviour. (3) We may bring others to Christ by our silence, by that government of the tongue which issues in a silence that is as "a loud cry in the ear of God." At this stage we must watch the tongue. Men on Alpine heights must often speak in whispers, lest they bring down the avalanche.
Bishop E. R. Wilberforce, The Awaking Soul, p. 67.
Psa 130:7
We may conclude from these words:—
I. That the redemption purchased by the Saviour’s death is ample and unlimited. It is the plain sense of Holy Scripture that Jesus shed His blood for Jew and Gentile, for bond and free; that by His death He put all into such a state that they may, if they will, come unto Him and be saved.
II. The redemption cannot be exhausted; provision has been made for each one of us. "Plenteous redemption" has been provided for each one of us; but the question for us to ask ourselves is this: Have we taken the needful steps for securing it?
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 278.
References: Psa 130:7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 351; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 367; W. Baird, The Hallowing of our Common Life, p. 47. Psa 130:7, Psa 130:8.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 84.
Psa 130:8
I. These words speak to us, first, of a Person. Do we know that Person? We are all well acquainted with His history; we believe it, no doubt: but does that faith colour our lives and shape our deeds? That is the question. Is the soul, in its separate individuality, reaching out to a personal God, whom even now it can touch by virtue of a sacramental union, and to whom it can even now speak in prayer and be certain of an audience?
II. How careful our blessed Lord is to teach us the truth; how often that tremendous "I am" confronts us at the very outset of much of His teaching; and in His one person all truth is seen to be summed up. He teaches us no doctrine about Himself. From first to last, His teaching is Himself; He is the expression of all He taught. From the first "I am" far away back in the pages of the old world history down to the "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end," of the book of Revelation, it is so.
III. Redemption implies both the bringing back by One who shed His blood for us, and it implies as well the victory of One who is our King. In Christianity we are led through obedience to the kingdom, through the sufferings to the crown. If Christ be King, He calls for our personal surrender; if Christ be the Redeemer, He calls to us to come to Him for cleansing: but as He Himself is truth, He looks for reality in all our approaches to Him. Let us strive to know our God by personal access to Him, and knowing Him, strive to serve Him ever better. Let us labour on towards the goal, till we learn to know Him perfectly, who can alone "redeem Israel from all his iniquities," who alone is "King of kings and Lord of lords."
Bishop E. R. Wilberforce, The Awaking Soul, p. 88.
Psalm 130
This Psalm gives us what we may call the ascent of the soul from the depths to the heights.
I. We have the cry from the depths. The depths which the psalmist means are those into which the spirit feels itself going down, sick and giddy, when there comes the thought," I am a sinful man, O Lord, in the presence of Thy great purity." Out of these depths does he cry to God. (1) The depths are the place for us all. (2) Unless you have cried to God out of these depths, you have never cried to Him at all. (3) You want nothing more than a cry to draw you from the pit.
II. We have, next, a dark fear and a bright assurance (Psa 130:3-4). These two halves represent the struggle in the man’s mind. They are like a sky one half of which is piled with thunder-clouds and the other serenely blue. (1) To "mark" iniquities is to impute them to us. Here we have expressed the profound sense of the impossibility of any man’s sustaining the righteous judgment of God. (2) "There is forgiveness with Thee," etc. No man ever comes to that confidence that has not sprung to it, as it were, by a rebound from the other thought. He must first have felt the shudder of the thought, "If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities," in order to come to the gladness of the thought, "But there is forgiveness with Thee."
III. "My soul waiteth for the Lord," etc. There is the permanent, peaceful attitude of the spirit that has tasted the consciousness of forgiving love—a continual dependence upon God. The consciousness of sin was the dark night. The coming of God’s forgiving love flushed all the eastern heaven with diffused brightness that grew into perfect day. And so the man waits quietly for the dawn, and his whole soul is one absorbing desire that God may dwell with him and brighten and gladden him.
IV. "Let Israel hope in the Lord." There is nothing which isolates a man so awfully as a consciousness of sin and of his relation to God; but there is nothing that so knits him to all his fellows, and brings him into such wide-reaching bonds of amity and benevolence, as the sense of God’s forgiving mercy for his own soul. So the call bursts from the lips of the pardoned man, inviting all to taste the experience and exercise the trust which have made him glad.
A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, 2nd series, p. 31 (see also Contemporary Pulpit, vol. i., p. 25, and Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 122).
References: Psalm 130—S. Cox, The Pilgrim Psalms, p. 217; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 83; H. C. G. Moule, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 87; C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 262. Psa 131:1.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 100.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Redemption from sin.
Redemption from sin.
A song of the ascents.
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We go on to see what the plowing has effected. We had it in fact in the series of remnant-psalms in the first book of psalms (3 -7). The troubles of the remnant in the latter days, though at the hand of godless enemies, are used to bring them to realize the sins, which cast them entirely on the mercy of God alone. This is expressed here very similarly, and in words that show more than there that it is the effect of the disciplinary process. The humbled soul has learned to wait on Jehovah, the impatience of self-will set aside, patience having its perfect work; and this leads on to the closing psalm; where the full result in this way is seen.
"Out of the depths" -the extreme of distress, hopeless save to God -the soul cries to Him; the sole possible Helper. It seeks answer to its lowly complaint. It realizes in Him a holiness which, if He should act simply in view of it, no one could stand. But with Him there is forgiveness also; and the mercy that He shows is the very thing that produces in the recipients of it that reverent fear in which lies the beginning of all true wisdom. This makes Him to the soul its one expectancy: it waits in hope on Him. His word sustains and directs this hope, waiting for the Lord more than the anxious watchers for the morning light.
So may Israel wait in hope then. The bounty of His love will justify it. For with Him is plenteous redemption; and He will redeem Israel from all his perversities. The new covenant number fitly closes here the lowly and chastened strain of the psalm.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The De Profundis—a song of redemption from trouble through…
The De Profundis—a song of redemption from trouble through faith in God. Probably a very late Ps. The Ps. is antiphonal. First voice (Psa_130:1-2), Second voice (3, 4), First voice (5, 6), Chorus (7, 8).
1. Out of the depths] i.e. from sore trouble.
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4. Feared] Rather a startling statement. But the fear of God means true, earnest religion: cp. Psa_19:10; Gen_20:11.
6. RV 'more than watchmen look for the morning,' i.e. impatiently.
7. Plenteous redemption] i.e. abundant means of effecting salvation for His people.
8. Redeem, etc.] i.e. deliver not only from the consequences of sin, but from sin itself.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain A Song of degrees
A Song of degrees
See title note; (See Scofield "Psa 120:1").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Prayer for Forgiveness of Sins.
Prayer for Forgiveness of Sins.
A song of degrees, known of old as De Profundis, from its opening words in the Latin version, a sinner’s cry to Jehovah for forgiveness and mercy.
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v. 1. Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord, these depths being those of sin with its resulting distress, calamity, and peril, represented by an abyss of deep waters, whose waves have passed over the writer.
v. 2. Lord, hear my voice, the appeal being to the All-powerful to grant deliverance; let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications, in a careful and merciful attention to his pleading.
v. 3. If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, observing them, bearing them in mind, imputing them to the sinner, O Lord, who shall stand? No human being could stand up fearlessly before the all-seeing eye of the All-powerful, the great Judge of all the earth, the consciousness of guilt rather causing every person in the world to sink to the ground before the Lord in the most severe self-condemnation. The verse expresses in the strongest possible manner the utter impossibility of any man to stand before Jehovah in his own merit and righteousness.
v. 4. But there is forgiveness with Thee, the unmerited grace and mercy of the Lord being the only hope of sinful mortals, their only chance of deliverance and salvation, that Thou mayest be feared, for the assurance of God’s mercy, far from producing a feeling of smug satisfaction and licentious leanings, rather makes for holiness. It is not that the believers who are assured of the forgiveness of the Lord presume upon His mercy, but that they walk before Him with all the greater awe.
v. 5. I wait for the Lord, in confident expectation of His deliverance and assistance, my soul doth wait, with all the intensity of a painful longing, and in His Word do I hope, relying upon the promises there set forth.
v. 6. My soul waiteth for the Lord, turned in longing toward the All-powerful, more than they that watch for the morning, those unable to rest on account of illness or misery, in whose case the rising of the dawn will be a release from pain; I say, more than they that watch for the morning, the repetition again emphasizing the eager longing of the heart anxious to see the deliverance of the Lord. The psalmist is sure that redemption will be forthcoming, not only for him, but for all the faithful.
v. 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord, waiting for salvation from Him; for with the Lord there is mercy, He is the only One able to dispense redemption, and with Him is plenteous redemption, mercy in all its fullness, enough for the sins of the whole world. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Rom 3:20.
v. 8. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities, the prophet here looking forward to the propitiation of Christ, whereby He earned and obtained eternal redemption for us, Heb 9:12. Cf Luk 1:68-75; 2Ti 4:18, this redemption being transmitted to us by faith.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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song of ascents
Possible meanings are 1) "song people sang while going up to Jerusalem for a celebration" or 2) "song people sang while going up the steps into the temple" or 3) "song whose words are like steps." See how you translated this in Psalms 120:1
Out of the depths I
The author's sadness is spoken of as if it were a container. His sadness comes from the bottom of the container. Sadness is often spoken of as being a container that fills from the top to the bottom. AT: "Because I am very sad, I" (See: Metaphor)
let your ears be attentive
The ears represent Yahweh, but because the author knows that Yahweh hears everything, he is really asking for Yahweh to respond. AT: "please listen" or "please respond" (See: Synecdoche)
to my pleas for mercy
The abstract noun "mercy" can be stated as "merciful." AT: "to my pleas and be merciful to me" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
Yahweh
lord
voice
mercy
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Ps 130 Beginning with himself as a representative of…
Ps 130 Beginning with himself as a representative of the community, the psalmist cries for God’s mercy (130:1-3) out of deep distress. He places his hope in the Lord (130:4-6), knowing that the Lord will rescue when and as he chooses. Based on this confidence, the psalmist invites Israel to wait for the Lord (130:7-8).
130:1-3 A cry from the depths is from a place of deep distress (cp. 69:2, 14; Isa 51:10; Ezek 27:34). Out of the frailty of his being, the psalmist prays for divine favor.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.