Psalm 130

AM Psalm 119:145-176; PM Psalm 128, 129, 130
2 Samuel 18:19-33; Acts 23:23-35; Mark 12:13-27

Psalm 130 is one of the seven Psalms of Confession. It is marked by an awareness and forgiveness.

Out of the depths I cry to thee, O Lord!
Lord, hear my voice!
Let thy ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!

If thou, O lord, shouldst mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with thee,
that thou mayest be feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plenteous redemption.
And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

I am delighted by the rhythm of words and what they say by repetition or near repetition. However, when a person is writing a poem or a story and the same word used is exactly the same as another, our ear sometimes wants to correct it. For instance, we would not say “There is a bush in the yard in bloom with purplish blooms, but ‘blossoms’ would work. The words are nearly the same, but not quite, so they are pleasing. But, notice when the exact word is repeated it is sometimes extremely effective as in “my soul waits, my soul waits for the Lord.”

This psalm, I think, along with the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm, would be good to say perhaps at night, when the mind is not at rest, because the words are like a mother rocking a child, repeated or almost repeated in each stanza.

Psalm 130 is set to music in various ways. Here is one example:

Written by Rebecca Newth

Rebecca sings in the choir and serves as a lay reader at St. Paul’s.