A song of ascents
130:Title See Ps 120. This psalm takes us from the depths of depression to the heights of assurance and hope. It is indeed a psalm of ascents.⚜
130
📚Out of the depths 📖 I have cried out to you,
O LORD 📖.
2 📚Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications.
3 📚If you, LORD, should watch
for sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 📚But there is forgiveness
with you,
that you may be feared.
130:3-4 See Ps 143:2; 1 Sam 6:20; Ezra 9:15; Nahum 1:6; Rev 6:17. For one sin Adam and Eve lost paradise and all their offspring became sinners. For one sin Achan lost his life, and Saul lost his kingdom. If God took our innumerable sins into account and held them against us, far from standing, we would partake of eternal darkness and destruction. But if we are true believers, if we are in Christ, there is no condemnation (Rom 8:1), our sins are not counted against us (Ps 32:1-2; Rom 4:8; 8:33; 2 Cor 5:19), we are freely and fully forgiven (notes on forgiveness at Matt 6:12, 14, 15; 9:5-7; 12:31; 18:23-35; Eph 1:7; 1 John 1:9).
Some think that God’s grace in forgiving sins will lead to more sin. Their view is that people will not fear so merciful a God, but will do as they please thinking they can always get forgiveness when they want it. This whole view of things is a large error. Verse 4 teaches that God’s forgiveness leads to the fear of God. He forgives only when there is real repentance, and the forgiven sinner rejoices in God’s goodness and learns to honor, love, and reverence God (Rom 2:4-5; 6:1-4; 2 Cor 5:17). The fact is, only those who are forgiven know what the fear of God really is. Notes on this fear at Ps 34:11-14; 111:10.⚜
5 📚I wait 📖 for the LORD;
my soul waits, and in his word
I hope 📖.
6 📚My soul waits for the
Lord more than those who
watch for the morning;
I say, more than those
who watch for the morning.
130:6 The watchman longs for the dawn when the loneliness and possible dangers of the night will be past and he can return to his home for rest and refreshment. Just so the writer longed to come out of the spiritual darkness that he had been experiencing.⚜
7 📚Let Israel hope in the LORD 📖,
for with the LORD there
is mercy,
and with him is abundant
redemption.
8 📚And he will redeem Israel
from all his sins.
130:7-8 Out of the depths the author cried and has now reached the heights of hope and assurance. So may we in any depths we experience if we do as he did.⚜