28911951 psalm-130-commentary

PSALM 130 COMME TARYWritten and edited by Glenn Pease

PREFACE

The object of this commentary is to bring together the comments of a number ofauthors in one place to make the study of this Psalm easier for the Bible student.Sometimes I do not have the author's name, and if it is known and told to me, I willgive credit where it is due. If there is any author who does not wish his wisdom to beincluded in this study, I will remove it when that author expresses his wish to have itremoved. My e-mail is [email protected]

I TRODUCTIO

1. “Whether the Prophet in this Psalm prays in his own name in particular, orrepresents the whole Church, it is manifest, that finding himself overwhelmed withadversities, he supplicates deliverance with passionate ardor. And whileacknowledging that he is justly chastised by the hand of God, he encourages himselfand all genuine believers to cherish good hope, since God is the everlasting delivererof his people, and has always in readiness the means of effecting their rescue fromdeath.” author unknown

2. Barnes, “This psalm also is entitled “A Song of Degrees.” See the notes atIntroduction to Psa_120:1-7. The author and the occasion on which it was composedare unknown, as is also the reason why it was included in this group of psalms.Thelanguage of the psalm seems to be that of an individual; but most interpreterssuppose that it is an individual speaking in the name of the nation, and representingits calamities and its penitence. Some have imagined that the person represented asspeaking in Psa_130:7-8, is a different individual from the one speaking in the otherpart of the psalm, but there seems to be no ground for this opinion. It is commonlysupposed that the psalm had reference to the state of the Jews in the Babyloniancaptivity, but there is no necessity for limiting it to that period, if indeed it has anyreference to the people of Israel. There were many occasions in their history whenthe language of the psalm would not be less appropriate than at that time. But thereis no necessity at all for supposing that it refers to the nation as such. It may be thelanguage of an individual, mourning over his sins, and pleading for mercy,expressing deep conviction of sin, and humble trust in God as the only hope for aconvinced, condemned, and penitent sinner. As such, it would represent what hasoccurred in thousands of cases when sinners have been brought to conviction of sin,

and have cried for mercy. Understood in this manner, it is one of the mostinstructive and touching of the psalms. I know of no reason why it may not be soregarded.”

3. Spurgeon, “A Song of Degrees. It would be hard to see any upward step from thepreceding to the present Psalm, and therefore it is possible that the steps or ascentsare in the song itself: certainly it does rise rapidly out of the depths of anguish to theheights of assurance. It follows well upon 129: when we have overcome the trialswhich arise from man we are the better prepared to meet those sharper sorrowswhich arise out of our matters towards God. He who has borne the scourges of thewicked is trained in all patience to wait the dealings of the Holy Lord. We name thisthe DE PROFU DIS PSALM: "Out of the depths" is the leading word of it: out ofthose depths we cry, wait, watch, and hope. In this Psalm we hear of the pearl ofredemption, Psalms 130:7- 8: perhaps the sweet singer would never have found thatprecious thing had he not been cast into the depths. "Pearls lie deep."

Division. The first two verses (Psalms 130:1-2) reveal an intense desire; and the nexttwo are a humble confession of repentance and faith, Psalms 130:3-4. In Psalms130:5-6 waiting watchfulness is declared and resolved upon; and in Psalms 130:7-8joyful expectation, both for himself and all Israel, finds expression.”

4. The Psalm is the eleventh in the order of the gradual Psalms, and treats of theeleventh step in the spiritual ascent, viz., penitential prayer. --H. T. Armfield.

5. Of the Psalms which are called Penitential this is the chiefest. But, as it is the mostexcellent, 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 sepulchralvigils for their liberation of souls from purgatory: as if David were here treating ofthe 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 dothe same. But leaving the buffooneries of the Papists we will rather consider the truemeaning and use of the Psalm. It contains the most ardent prayer of a mangrievously distressed by a sense of the Divine anger against sin: by earnest turningto God and penitence, he is seeking the forgiveness of his iniquities. --SolomonGesner.

6. The Holy Ghost layeth out here two opposite passions most plainly -- fear, inrespect of evil deserving sins, and hope, in regard of undeserved mercies.--Alexander Roberts. 1610.

7. The passionate earnestness of the Psalm is enhanced by the repetition eight timesin it of the Divine ame. --The Speaker's Commentary, 1873.

8. 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 theweather, 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 spiritualgauge. --James Vaughan, in "Steps to Heaven", 1878.

9. Whosoever he was that wrote this Psalm, he maketh mention and rehearsal ofthat prayer that he made to his God in the time of his great danger, and this he dothto the fifth verse; then finding in experience a comfortable answer, and how good athing it was to pray to God, and to wait on him, he professes, that, as before, he hadawaited on him, so still in time coming he would await on him, and this he doeth tothe 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 andredemption from all their iniquities if they would await on him. --Robert Rollock,1555-1599.

10. Octavius Winslow (1808-1878) “Psalm 130 is perhaps the best known of all thePenitential Psalms. It contains the ardent prayer of a man who is distressed by asense of God’s anger against sin: by an earnest, penitent turning to God, he longsfor the forgiveness of his iniquities. But this Psalm, perhaps more than any other, isalso marked by a steady upward progression: depth; prayer; conviction; light;hope; waiting; watching; longing; confidence; assurance; universal happiness andjoy. Just as the barometer marks the rising of the weather, so each sentence of thisPsalm records the progress of the soul.”

1. Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;

1. Spurgeon, “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. This is thePsalmist's statement and plea: he had never ceased to pray even when brought intothe lowest state. The depths usually silence all they engulf, but they could not closethe mouth of this servant of the Lord; on the contrary, it was in the abyss itself thathe cried unto Jehovah. Beneath the floods prayer lived and struggled; yea, above theroar 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 worstplaces. Deep places beget deep devotion. Depths of earnestness are stirred by depthsof tribulation. Diamonds sparkle most amid the darkness. Prayer de profundis givesto God gloria in excelsis. The more distressed we are, the more excellent is the faithwhich 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 insuch cases look only to their God, and they stir themselves up to be more instant andearnest in prayer than at other times. The depth of their distress moves the depthsof their being; and from the bottom of their hearts an exceeding great and bitter cryrises unto the one living and true God. David had often been in the deep, and asoften had he pleaded with Jehovah, his God, in whose hand are all deep places. Heprayed, 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 mostcomforting 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. Hethat cries out of the depths shall soon sing in the heights.”

1B. Spurgeon goes on, “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Is there nota depth of sin, and a depth of misery by reason Of sin, and a depth of sorrow byreason of misery? In all which, both David was, and I, God help me, am deeplyplunged; and are not these depths enough out of which to cry? And yet, perhaps,none of these depths is that which David means; but there are depths of danger -- adanger of body and a danger of soul, and out of these it seems that David cried; forthe danger of his body was so deep that it had brought him to death's door, and thedanger 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, OGod"? And yet there is a depth besides these that must help to lift us out of these --a depth of devotion, without which depth our crying out of other depths will neverbe heard. For devotion is a fire that puts a heat into out' crying, and carries it upinto coelum empyroeum -- the heaven of fire, where God himself is. And now join allthese 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 justcause 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 Godto hear: it acknowledgeth his infinite power when no distance can hinder hisassistance; it presents our own faith when no extremity can weaken our hope; itmagnifies God's goodness when he, the Most High, regards the most low; itexpresses our own earnestness, seeing crying out of depths must needs be a deepcry; and if each of these singly, and by itself, be motive sufficient to move God tohear, how strong must the motive needs be when they are all united? and unitedthey are all in crying out of the depths; and therefore now that I cry to thee out ofthe depths, be moved, O God, in thy great mercy to "hear my voice."

1C. J. Hunter, “ Out of the depths have come the finest poetry, the finest music, thefinest speech of the world. " The Bible owes its place in literature," said Emerson, "not to miracles, but to the fact that it comes from a profounder depth of life thanany other book." Out of the depths have come the most inspired and inspiring ofthe psalms of faith, both ancient and modern. Out of the depths men have broughtblessings which are rarely found in green pastures and by still waters. We neverknow how much God is the one great need of the soul till we go down to thedepths.”

1D. The poet Fenner expressed the experience:

Up from the deeps, God, I cry to Thee, Hear my soul's prayer, hear Thou her litany, Thou who sayest, " Come, wanderer, home to Me."

Up from the deeps of sorrow, wherein lie Dark secrets veiled from earth's unpitying eye, My prayers, like star-crowned angels, Godward fly.

ot from life's shallows where the waters sleep, A dull, low marsh where stagnant waters sleep, But ocean- voiced, deep calling unto deep.

2. Calvin, “It is to be noticed that the Prophet speaks of himself as sending forth hisvoice, as it were from out of a deep gulf,1 feeling himself overwhelmed withcalamities. As the miseries to which there is no prospect of a termination commonlybring despair in their train, nothing is more difficult than for persons, wheninvolved in grievous and deep sorrow, to stir up their minds to the exercise ofprayer. And it is wonderful, considering that whilst we enjoy peace and prosperitywe are cold in prayer, (because then our hearts are in a state of infatuated security,how in adversities, which ought to quicken us, we are still more stupefied. But theProphet derives confidence in coming to the time one of grace from the verytroubles, cares, dangers and sorrow into which he was plunged. He expresses hisperplexity and the earnestness of his desire both by the word cry, and by therepetition continued in the second verse. So much the more detestable then is thebarbarous ignorance of the Papist's, in shamefully profaning this Psalm bywresting; it to a purpose wholly foreign to its genuine application. To what intent dothey mumble it over for the dead, if it; is not that, in consequence of Satan havingbewitched them, they may by their profanity extinguish a doctrine of singularutility? From the time that this Psalm was, by, a forced interpretation, applied tothe souls of the dead, it is very generally believed to be of no use whatever to theliving, and thus the world has lost an inestimable treasure.”

3. Clarke, “of the depths - captives in Babylon represent their condition like thosewho are in a prison - an abyss or deep ditch, ready to be swallowed up.”

4. Gill, “Out of deep waters, out of the depths of the sea; not literally, as Jonah, whoreally 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, asall men are: they are brought into debt by it, and so to a prison, the prison of thelaw, to be under its sentence of curse and condemnation; to a ditch, a horrible pit, apit wherein is no water, and out of which men cannot extricate themselves; to adunghill, to the most extrem poverty and beggary; to a dungeon, a state ofthraldom, bondage, and captivity; into an hopeless and helpless condition. Thedepths the psalmist was now in were a deep sense of sin, under which he lay, andwhich brought him low; as every man is low in his own eyes, when he has athorough 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 andabominable; as wretched and undone in himself; as the chief of sinners, morebrutish than any man, and as a beast before the Lord: but then, though the psalmistwas in the depths of distress for sin, yet not in the depths of despair; he cried toGod, 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 overflowand overwhelm, but shall not; see Psa_42:7; and in such circumstances the psalmistcried 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 understandsthis of the psalmist's crying to God from the bottom of his heart, in the sincerity ofhis soul; and so his cry is opposed to feigned and hypocritical prayers.”

5. Spurgeon adds this comment: “, dear friends, that the Psalm begins with thisremarkable expression, “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord,” and Icall your special attention to that utterance of the psalmist because there are manywho are afraid to pray when they are in the depths of soul-despair. It iscomparatively easy to think you are praying when you have a fine notion of yourown excellence. At such a time, you can stand up in the temple, with the boastingPharisee, and pour out, as glibly as possible, expressions which you call prayer, butwhich God will never accept. But the very best prayer in all the world is that whichcomes from a broken heart and a contrite spirit,-when, away in the corner there,beside the conscience-stricken publican, we smite upon our breast, and cry, “God bemerciful to me a sinner.” Do not, I beg you, think that your prayer will not succeedbecause you are in the depths. There is no place for praying like that; if ever a manis more sure to succeed with God at one time than at another, it is when he is in hisgreatest straits. You know those men, who are wisely generous, when they are aboutto distribute their alms, like to give to the most necessitous cases. The plea withthem is the greatness of need, the urgency of distress; and it is just so with God andyours selves. It is not your goodness that will ensure an answer to your prayer; it isthe greatness of your need. Even if you have sunk very low in your own esteem, tillnot a ray of hope seems left to you, and you are shut up in the blackest darkness ofdespair, now is the very time for you to pray, even as the psalmist said, “Out of thedepths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.” o prayers are more true, more real, and,consequently, more acceptable, and no prayers are so likely to be quickly answered,as those that come up from the very depths of soul-distress. I begin my discoursewith this observation, because I want to cheer some of you who at present hardlydare to pray. Yet you are the very people who may pray; you who think that theLord will never hear you are the people whom he is certain to hear and answer.When you are cleaned right out, when even the last rusty counterfeit farthing hasbeen emptied out of your pocket, and you stand before your God as a wretched,starving, and bankrupt beggar, your abject poverty and dire need will commendyou to his mercy and love. ow,-if never before,-now that you have come to yourworst, dart up to heaven your prayer; and the Lord, who heard Jonah when he wasin the whale’s belly, and Manasseh when he was in captivity in Babylon, will hearyou, and send you a speedy answer of peace to your supplication.”

6. “It is cause enough for God not to hear some because they do not cry -- causeenough not to hear some that cry because not out of the depths; but when cryingand out of the depths are joined together, it was never known that God refused tohear; 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 andDisquisitions upon the Three last Psalmes of David", 1639.

7. Out of the depths. By the deep places (as all the ancients consent) is meant thedeep places of afflictions, and the deep places of the heart troubled for sin.Afflictions are compared to deep waters. Psalms 18:16: "He drew me out of manywaters." "Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul." And surelyGod's children are often cast into very desperate cases, and plunged into deepmiseries, to the end that they may send out of a contrite and feeling heart suchprayers as may mount aloft and pierce the heavens. When we are in prosperity ourprayers come from our lips; and therefore the Lord is forced to cast us down, thatour prayers may come from our hearts, and that our senses may be wakened fromthe security in which they are lying. Albeit the throne of God be most high, yet hedelighteth to hear the petition of hearts that are most low, that are most cast downby the sight of sin. There is no affliction, neither any place so low (yea, if as low asthe belly of the whale wherein Jonah lay) which can separate us from the love of theLord, or stay our prayers from coming before him. Those that are farthest castdown are not farthest from God, but are nearest unto him. God is near to a contriteheart, and it is the proper seat where his Spirit dwelleth: Isaiah 66:2. And thus Goddealeth with us, as men do with such houses that they are minded to buildsumptuously and on high; for then they dig deep grounds for the foundation. ThusGod purposing to make a fair show of Daniel, and the three children in Babel; ofJoseph in Egypt; of David in Israel; he first threw them into the deep waters ofaffliction. Daniel is cast into the den of lions; the three children are thrown into thefiery furnace; Joseph is imprisoned; David exiled. Yet all those he exalted and madeglorious 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 theship, when the tempest of God's wrath was pursuing him: God therefore threw himirate the belly of the whale, and the bottom of the deep, that from those deep placeshe might cry to him. When, therefore, we are troubled by heavy sickness, orpoverty, 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 ofvanity playing. --Archibald Symson, in "A Sacred Septenarie", 1638.

8. Out of the depths. "Depths!" oh! into what "depths" men can sink! How far fromhappiness, glory, and goodness men can fall. There is the depth of poverty. A mancan become utterly stripped of all earthly possessions and worldly friends!Sometimes we come upon a man, still living, but in such abject circumstances, that itstrikes 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, friendafter friend departs, lover and friend are put into darkness. All the fountains of hisnature are broken up. He is like a water logged ship, from the top waves plungingdown as if into the bottom of the sea. So often in such depths, sometimes like Jonahin 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 andmore sorrowful, down to that very depth which is just this side of despair. Earthhollow, heaven empty, the air heavy, every form a deformity, all sounds discord, thepast a gloom, the present a puzzle, the future a horror. One more step down, and theman will stand in the chamber of despair, the floor of which is blistering hot, whilethe air is biting cold as the polar atmosphere. To what depths the spirit of a manmay fall!

But the most horrible depth into which a man's soul can descend is sin. Sometimeswe 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, normental depression. It is sin, it is an outrage against God and ourselves. We feel thatthere is no bottom. Each opening depth reveals a greater deep. This is really tilebottomless pit, with everlasting accumulations of speed, and perpetual lacerations aswe descend. Oh, depths below depths! Oh, falls from light to gloom, from gloom todarkness! 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 ofimpotency, or protests against imaginary fate. But the cry of the spirit to the MostHigh is a manful cry. Out of the depths of all poverty, all sorrow, all mentaldepression, all sin, cry unto God! --From "The Study and the Pulpit", 1877.

9. 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 lieDark secrets veil'd from earth's unpitying eye,My prayers, like star crown'd angels, Godward fly.

From the calm bosom when in quiet hourGod's Holy Spirit reigns with largest power,Then shall each thought in prayer's white blossom flower. ot 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.

10. 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, "untothee"; reverent, "O LORD"; awed, "LORD", a solemn title, is again used; one'svery own, "hear my voice." -- eale and Littledale.

11. Have I cried. There are many kinds and degrees of prayer in the world; from thecoldest 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. Ilearnt it there. I often prayed before; but never -- till I was carried down very deep-- did I cry." "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord." It is well worthwhile to go down into any "depth" to be taught to "cry." It is not too much to saythat we do not know what prayer may be till we have "cried." And we seldom risetill we have gone very deep. "I die! I perish! I am lost! Help, Lord! Help me! Saveme 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 aretaken from the bright and sunny scenes of light, and go down into the bottom of apit you may see the stars, which were invisible to you in the upper air. And howmany could say that things they knew not in life's noon, they have found in life'smidnight, and that they owe their glimpses of glory, and their best avenues ofthought, and the importunacy of prayer, and the victories of faith, to seasons whenthey walked in very dark places. "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, OLord." --James Vaughan.

12. Ken Gehrels gives us a picture of a nation of people facing endless types of stressand crisis that calls for calling out of the depths to God. He wrote, “In 1975, poodleswere the most popular purebred dog in America, with 139,750 registered. Therewere only 952 registered Rottweilers, a fierce breed often used as a guard dog. By1994, the poodle population had been cut in half to 61,775, while Rottweilers hadincreased 100 times to 102,596. Do you think that tells you something about wherepeople are at?

Or get this ―Membership in American Counseling Association has gone from45,000 in 1967 to over 200,000 in the mid 90's. “Out of the depths I cry to you, OLord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.....”

When you’re caught in storm season, there’s nothing you can do, but call out andreach up ---- to God. Often rude and sometimes crude comedian Richard Pryor wascritically burned in an accident in 1980. Interviewed later by Johnny Carson, heinsisted that when he was seriously ill, there wasn’t much that gave him help - manyof his life props had been kicked out from under him. He is quoted as saying: "Allthat I could think of was to call on God. I didn't call the Bank of America once."Peter Graystone, Ready Salted (Scripture Union, 1998),

13. Henry on verses 1-4, “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 troubleand affliction, and utterly at a loss what to do, in the depths of distress and almost inthe depths of despair, the spirit low and dark, sinking and drooping, cast down anddisquieted. But, in the greatest depths, it is our privilege that we may cry unto Godand be heard. A prayer may reach the heights of heaven, though not out of thedepths 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'sbelly. It is our duty and interest to cry unto God, for that is the likeliest way both toprevent our sinking lower and to recover us out of the horrible pit and miry

clay,Psa_40:1, Psa_40:2.

II. While we continue calling upon God to assure ourselves of an answer of peacefrom 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 attentiveto the voice both of myafflictions and of my supplications.

III. We are taught to humble ourselves before the justice of God as guilty in hissight, 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 GodLordtwice, in so few words, Jahand Adonai,is very emphatic, and intimates a veryawful 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 ot guilty. There is that which is remarkable in our iniquities and is liable to beanimadverted upon. 2. To own the power and justice of God, which are such that, ifhe 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, butshall certainly be cast. If God deal with us in strict justice, we are undone; if hemake remarks upon our iniquities, he will find them to be many and great, greatlyaggravated and very provoking; and then, if he should proceed accordingly, hewould shut us out from all hope of his favour and shut us up under his wrath; andwhat could we do to help ourselves? We could not make our escape, nor resist notbear 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 thereforebears with us. It is of his mercy that we are not consumedby his wrath.IV. We are taught to cast ourselves upon the pardoning mercy of God, and tocomfort 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 penitentsinner: But there is forgiveness with thee.It is our unspeakable comfort, in all ourapproaches to God, that there is forgiveness with him, for that is what we need. Hehas put himself into a capacity to pardon sin; he has declared himself gracious andmerciful, and ready to forgive, Exo_34:6, Exo_34:7. He has promised to forgive thesins of those that do repent. ever any that dealt with him found him implacable,but easy to be entreated, and swift to show mercy. With us there is iniquity, andtherefore 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 whichGod has found; he is ever with him, as advocate for us, and through him we hope toobtain 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 andpresumed upon, but that thou mayest be feared- in general, that thou mayest beworshiped and served by the children of men, who, being sinners, could have nodealings 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 forevery misdemeanor; 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, thathe 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'spardoning mercy (Hos_3:5, They shall fear the Lord, and his goodness); and thenwemay expect the benefit of the forgiveness that is with God when we make it theobject of our holy fear.”

14. “Literally, the Psalmist felt like he was in the "deep waters." We might saytoday, "Man, this is the pits!" otice the Hebrew parallelism in the first two verses."Lord, hear my voice ... Let your ears be attentive to my cry." Despair makes us feeldistant from God just when we need him most. When despair sets in, we have threechoices: (1) We can SEEK TO DULL THE PAI . Many do this through drugs andalcohol, parties, a busy social life, hobbies, travel, vacationing, just anything to keepthe good times going so they don't have to think about the pain. In the end, thisbecomes a dead end. (2) We can SURRE DER TO THE PAI - and sink intodepression, and shut ourselves off from any help we could have either directly fromGod or indirectly from others he sends into our lives. (3) We can CRY OUT TOGOD - obviously, the best option. Please note that there is no attempt here to bribeGod or to make a vow. o, "I promise if you get me out of this, I'll never misschurch again!" etc. There is only a desire to be restored. This is what pleases God.As David said in Psalm 51, it is a "broken and contrite heart," and nothing else. Youcannot coerce God into anything. You can only accept his hand of rescue as a freegift of grace.” author unknown

2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

1. Barnes, “Lord, hear my voice - This is the prayer; this is what he cried. It is thelanguage of earnest pleading. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of mysupplications - Do not turn away from me; do not disregard my cry.

1B. Spurgeon, “ ote, also, how intensely the psalmist pleads. In the second verse ofthe Psalm, he says, “Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice ofmy supplications.” So, when you pray out of the depths, mind that you plead withall your might. Cold prayers ask God to refuse our requests; but the red-hot petitionof a soul on fire with agony after grace is certain to be heard. If thou hast hithertoknocked in vain at mercy’s door, knock again, only knock more loudly than before;

and if one blow of the hammer of prayer has not sufficed to make that portal open,knock, and knock, and knock again, determined that, if thou dost perish, thou wiltperish praying and pleading; but thou shalt not perish if thou wilt but ask, and seek,and knock with that importunity which will take no denial. he who has this holyresolve strongly wrought within him by the blessed Spirit of God shall soon comeinto the morning light of gracious acceptance, and his heart shall be glad becausethe Lord has granted his petition.”

2. Gill, “His prayer, which was vocal: God is a God hearing prayer; sometimes hispeople think he does not hear them; but he always does, and in his own timeanswers; for to hear prayer with him is to answer it; which he does likewise in hisown way as well as time; and not always in the way and at the time his people wouldhave him; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications; his prayersput up in an humble suppliant manner, for grace and mercy; not pleading merit andrighteousness: these he desires God would hearken to and hear, listen unto, bow andincline his ears, as he is sometimes said to do; which is a wonderful instance of hiscondescension.

3. Spurgeon, “Lord, hear my voice. It is all we ask; but nothing less will content us.If the Lord will but hear us we will leave it to his superior wisdom to decide whetherhe will answer us or no. It is better for our prayer to be heard than answered. If theLord were to make an absolute promise to answer all our requests it might berather a curse than a blessing, for it would be casting the responsibility of our livesupon ourselves, and we should be placed in a very anxious position: but now theLord hears our desires, and that is enough; we only wish him to grant them if hisinfinite wisdom sees that it would be for our good and for his glory. ote that thePsalmist spoke audibly in prayer: this is not at all needful, but it is exceedinglyhelpful; for the use of the voice assists the thoughts. Still, there is a voice in silentsupplication, a voice in our weeping, a voice in that sorrow which cannot find atongue: that voice the Lord will hear if its cry is meant for his ear. Let thine ears beattentive to the voice of my supplication. The Psalmist's cry is a beggar's petition; hebegs the great King and Lord to lend an ear to it. He has supplicated many times,but always with one voice, or for one purpose; and he begs to be noticed in the onematter which he has pressed with so much importunity. He would have the Kinghearken, consider, remember, and weigh his request. He is confused, and his prayermay therefore be broken, and difficult to understand; he begs therefore that hisLord will give the more earnest and compassionate heed to the voice of his manyand painful pleadings. When we have already prayed over our troubles it is well topray over our prayers. If we can find no more words, let us entreat the Lord to hearthose petitions which we have already presented. If we have faithfully obeyed theprecept by praying without ceasing, we may be confident that the Lord willfaithfully fulfil the promise by helping us without fall. Though the Psalmist wasunder a painful sense of sin, and so was in the depth, his faith pleaded in the teeth ofconscious unworthiness; for well he knew that the Lord's keeping his promisedepends upon his own character and not upon that of his erring creatures.

4. Lord, hear my voice, etc. Every prayer should have its reverent invocation, asevery temple its porch. The two greatest prayers in the Old Testament -- Solomon'sprayer and Daniel's prayer -- both have it very emphatically. And it is a verydistinct part of our own perfect model: "Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowedbe thy name." On our part it is deferential, and puts the mind into its proper form;while it places the great God, whom it addresses, where he ought to be, -- in the aweof his glory; in the magnitude of his power; in the infinitude of his wisdom and love. ever think little of that part of your prayer: never omit, never hurry over theopening address. Do not go into his presence without a pause, or some devoutascription. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of mysupplications. True, he is always listening and waiting for his children's "cry", -- farmore prepared to answer, than we are to ask. And the very fact that we are prayingis a proof of his attention, -- for who but he put it into our hearts to make thatprayer? evertheless, it becomes us, and honours him, to establish, at the outset, theright relationship between a creature and his Creator; between a child and hisFather: "Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of mysupplication." - -James Vaughan.

5. Lord, hear my voice, etc. The expressions are metaphorical, and borrowed fromthe carriage of a parent to a child, and upon the matter his suit is this, -- Lord,notice me when I pray, as a parent will notice his distressed child's cry when he islike to ruin. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications; that goes alittle further; that as a parent knowing a child to be in hazard, he will listen andhearken attentively if he can hear him cry, and notice and ponder that cry, andwhat he cries for; so he pleaded with God, that he would be waiting on andattentive, to see and hear if a cry should come from him, and that he wouldaffectionately ponder and notice it when he hears it.” -- George Hutcheson, 1678.

3. If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

1. We all know that we sin in secret by our lusts and envy, and nobody knows of theinner thoughts we have that are not pleasing to God. On top of this there are themany sins of omission where we do not do what we know is the right thing to do.The point is, we are all far more sinful than anyone can possibly know, but Goddoes know all about our inner life and thoughts. If God looked at us only in terms ofwhat he knows of our inner and secret life and thought, we would be outcasts fromhis kingdom. Fortunately for us, God does not deal with us on that basis as if hehad a record of all our sins, and he then goes by that list to determine how he willrelate to us. He is our heavenly Father, and he will be ever open to our seeking hisforgiveness. He will love it when the Prodigals come home. He will love us no less forour sinful nature, for he knows our weaknesses. However, he also knows our

potential for obedience and faithfulness to his will, and he deals with us based on theatonement of his Son for our sins, and our potential to resist and overcome thetemptations to act on all of the inner impulses to violate his will. He loves us in spiteof our fallen nature, for had he not such love for us, there would be no hope ofsalvation. All our hope is based on the fact that God does not deal with us accordingto any list of sins, but according to his grace and love, which was expressed mostcompletely in the sacrifice of his Son for the forgiveness of sin.

2. Calvin, “Here the Prophet acknowledges that although grievously afflicted he hadjustly deserved such punishment, as had been inflicted upon him. As by his ownexample he gives a rule which the whole Church ought to observe, let no manpresume to intrude himself into the presence of God, but in the way of humblydeprecating his wrath; and especially when God exercises severity in his dealingstowards us, let us know that we are required to make the same confession which ishere uttered. Whoever either flatters himself or buries his sins by inattention tothem, deserves to pine away in his miseries; at least he is unworthy of obtainingfrom God the smallest alleviation. Whenever God then exhibits the tokens of hiswrath, let even the man who seems to others to be the holies of all his fellows,descend to make this confession, that should God determine to deal with usaccording to the strict demands of his law, and to summon us before his tribunal,not one of the whole human race would be able to stand. We grant that it is one manonly who here prays, but he at once pronounces sentence upon the whole humanrace. "All the children of Adam," he substantially says, "from the first to the last,are lost and condemned, should God require them to render up an account of theirlife." It is therefore necessary that even the holiest of men should pass under thiscondemnation, that they may betake themselves to the mercy of God as their onlyrefuge. The Prophet does not however mean to extenuate his own fault by thusinvolving others with himself, as we see hypocrites do, who when they dare notaltogether justify themselves, resort to this subterfuge, "Am I the first or the onlyman who has offended?" and thus, mingling themselves with a multitude of others,they think themselves half absolved from their guilt. But the Prophet, instead ofseeking to shelter himself under such a subterfuge, rather confesses, after havingthoroughly examined himself, that if of the whole human race not even one canescape eternal perdition, this instead of lessening rather increased his obnoxiousnessto punishment. Whoever, as if he had said, shall come into the presence of God,whatever may be his eminence for sanctity, he must succumb and standconfounded,3 what then will be the case as to me, who am not one of the best? Theright application of this doctrine is, for every man to examine in good earnest hisown life by the perfection which is enjoined upon us in the law. In this way he willbe forced to confess that all men without exception have deserved everlastingdamnation; and each will acknowledge in respect to himself that he is a thousandtimes undone. Farther, this passage teaches us that, since no man can stand by hisown works, all such as are accounted righteous before God, are righteous inconsequence of the pardon and remission of their sins. In no other manner can anyman be righteous in the sight of God. Very differently do the Papists think. Theyindeed confess that the deficiencies of our works are supplied by the lenity which

God exercises towards us; but at the same time they dream of a partialrighteousness, on the ground of which men may stand before God. In entertainingsuch an idea they go very far astray from the sense of the Prophet, as will appearmore plainly from the sequel.”

3. Barnes, “thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities - If thou shouldst observe, note,attend to, regard all the evil that I have done. The Hebrew word means properly tokeep, to watch, to guard. The word, as used here, refers to that kind of vigilance orwatchfulness which one is expected to manifest who is on guard; who keeps watch ina city or camp by night. The idea is, If God should thus look with a scrutinizing eye;if he should try to see all that he could see; if he should suffer nothing to escape hisobservation; if he should deal with us exactly as we are; if he should overlooknothing, forgive nothing, we could have no hope.

Who shall stand? - Who shall stand upright? Who could stand before thee? Whocould hope to be acquitted? This implies

(1) that the petitioner was conscious of guilt, or knew that he was a sinner;

(2) that he felt there was a depth of depravity in his heart which God could see, butwhich he did not - as every man must be certain that there is in his own soul;(3) that God had the power of bringing that to light if he chose to do it, so that theguilty man would be entirely overwhelmed;(4) that he who urged the prayer rested his only hope on the fact that God would notmark iniquity; would not develop what was in him; would not judge him by what hesaw in his heart; but would deal with him otherwise, and show him mercy andcompassion.Every man must feel that if God should “mark iniquity” as it is - if he should judgeus as we are - we could have no hope. It is only on the ground that we may beforgiven, that we eau hope to come before him.”

4. Clarke, “If thou - shouldest mark iniquities - thou shouldst set down everydeviation in thought, word, and deed from thy holy law; and if thou shouldst call usinto judgment for all our infidelities, both of heart and life; O Lord, who couldstand? Who could stand such a trial, and who could stand acquitted in thejudgment? This is a most solemn saying; and if we had not the doctrine that is in thenext verse, who could be saved?

5. Gill, “Or "observe" (f) them. ot but that God does observe the sins of men: hesees all the evil actions of bad men done in the dark, which cannot hide them fromhim; and all the iniquities of good men, so as to correct and chastise for them, butnot with his eye of vindictive justice. Or "keep" (g) them; should he keep a watchfuleye over them, make strict inspection into them, enter into a critical examination ofthem, and of all their aggravated circumstances; should he keep them in mind andmemory, retain them in the book of his remembrance; should he lay them up, andkeep them sealed among his stores, in order to be brought to light, and brought outas charges another day, and to the condemnation of men; should he set them beforehim in the light of his countenance, and not cast them behind his back and into the

depths of the sea; should he visit for them in a way of wrath, or enter into judgmenton account of them, with men in their own persons; demanding satisfaction for themat their own hands, without any regard to the sacrifice and satisfaction of his Son;all a man's righteousness, repentance, humiliation and tears, would stand him in nostead, would not answer for him, or atone for his sins; still his iniquities wouldremain marked before God; the consequence of which would be eternal damnation,Jer_2:22;

O Lord, who shall stand? ot one; since all are sinners. The Arabic version adds,"before thee"; in his presence; in the house and courts of God, there to ministerbefore him; to pray and praise, to preach and hear: or at his bar hereafter, with anyboldness and confidence; so as to litigate the point with him in his court ofjudicature, before angels and men, and so as to carry the cause; the wicked shall notstand in judgment, Psa_1:5. Or who can stand before his vindictive justice, or bearhis wrath and vengeance? o one can. See ah_1:6, Mal_3:2.”

6. Spurgeon, “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand. IfJAH, the all seeing, should in strict justice call every man to account for every wantof conformity to righteousness, where would any one of us be? Truly, he does recordall our transgressions; but as yet he does not act upon the record, but lays it asidetill another day. If men were to be judged upon no system but that of works, whoamong us could answer for himself at the Lord's bar, and hope to stand clear andaccepted? This verse shows that the Psalmist was Under a sense of sin, and felt itimperative upon him not only to cry as a suppliant but to confess as a sinner. Herehe owns that he cannot stand before the great King in his own righteousness, and heis so struck with a sense of the holiness of God, and the rectitude of the law that he isconvinced that no man of mortal race can answer for himself before a Judge soperfect, concerning a law so divine. Well does he cry, "O Lord, who shall stand?" one can do so: there is none that doeth good; no, not one. Iniquities are matterswhich are not according to equity: what a multitude we have of these! Jehovah, whosees all, and is also our Adonai, or Lord, will assuredly bring us into judgmentconcerning those thoughts, and words, and works which are not in exact conformityto his law. Were it not for the Lord Jesus, could we hope to stand? Dare we meethim in the dread day of account on the footing of law and equity? What a mercy it isthat we need not do so, for the next verse sets forth another way of acceptance towhich we flee.”

7. “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, etc. But doth not the Lord markiniquity? Doth not he take notice of every sin acted by any of the children of men,especially by his own children? Why, then, doth the Psalmist put it upon an if? "Ifthou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquity." 'Tis true, the Lord marks all iniquity toknow it, but he doth not mark any iniquity in his children to condemn them for it:so the meaning of the Psalm is, that if the Lord should mark sin with a strict andsevere eye, as a judge, to charge it upon the person sinning, no man could bear it.

The word rendered to mark notes, first, to watch, or to observe with strictestdiligence, and is therefore in the noun rendered a watch tower, upon which a man isplaced to take observation of all things that are done, and of all persons that passby, or approach and come near. A watchman placed upon a high tower is boundindustriously and critically to observe all passengers and passages, all that his eyecan reach. So saith the text, -- If thou shouldest mark as a watchman, and eye withrigour everything that passeth from us, "who shall stand?" that is, make good hiscause in the day of his judgment and trial before thee.

Secondly, the word signifieth to keep in mind, to lay up, to have, as it were, a storeand stock, a memorial or record, of such and such things by us. In that sense it issaid (Ge 37:11), "Joseph's brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying":he marked what Joseph spake about his dreams, he laid it up, and did not let it passaway as a dream, or as a vision of the night. Thus, by "If the Lord should markiniquity", we understand -- if he should treasure up our sins in his memory, andkeep them by him, "who were able to stand when accounted with?" The Lord, in away of grace, seeth as if he saw, not, and winks at us oftentimes when we do amiss.”-- Joseph Caryl.

8. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication, but let not thine eyes beintentive to the stains of my sin; for If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, OLord, who shall stand? or who shall be able to abide it? Did not the angels fall whenthou markest their follies? Can flesh, which is but dust, be clean before thee, whenthe stars, which are of a far purer substance, are not? Can anything be clean in thysight which is not as clean as thy sight? and can any cleanness be equal to thine!Alas! O Lord, we are neither angels nor stars, and how then can we stand whenthose fell? how can we be clean when these be impure? If thou shouldest mark whatis done amiss, there would be marking work enough for thee as long as the worldlasts; for what action of man is free from stain of sin, or from defect ofrighteousness? Therefore, mark not anything in me, O God, that I have done, butmark that only in me which thou hast done thyself. Mark in me thine own image;and then thou mayest look upon me, and yet say still, as once thou saidst, Et erantomnia valde bona "And all things were very good". --Sir Richard Baker.

9. We are introduced at once into all the solemnities of a criminal court. The judge isseated on the bench: the culprit is standing at the bar, charged with a capitaloffence, the witnesses are giving their evidence against him. The judge is listeningattentively to everything which is said; and in order to assist his memory, he takesnotes of the more important parts. If the Lord were to try us after this fashion, whatwould be the result? Suppose him seated on his throne of inflexible righteousness,taking notes, with a pen in his hand, of the transgressions which are proven againstus. othing is omitted. Every sin is marked down with its peculiar aggravations.There is no possibility of escape from the deserved condemnation. The evidenceagainst us is clear, and copious, and overwhelming. A thousandth part of it issufficient to determine our doom. The Judge has no alternative but to pronouncethe awful sentence. We must die a felon's death. If thou, LORD, shouldest markiniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? --M. M'Michael.

10. “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark. If thou shouldest inquire and scrutinize, andthen shouldest retain and impute: (for the Hebrew word imports both:) if thoushouldest inquire, thou wouldst find something of iniquity in the most righteous ofmankind; and when thou hast found it, if thou shouldest retain it, and call him to anaccount for it, he could by no means free himself of the charge, or expiate the crime.Inquiring, thou wouldst easily find iniquity; but the sinner by the most diligentinquiry will not be able to discover a ransom, and therefore will be unable to stand,will have no place on which to rest his foot, but will fall by the irresistible judgmentsof thy law, and the sentence of thy justice.” --Robert Leighton.

11. “Iniquities. The literal meaning of the word "iniquity" is "a thing which is notequal", or "not fair." Whatever breaks a command of God is "not equal." It doesnot match with what man is, nor with what God is. It does not keep the high level ofthe law. It is altogether out of proportion to all that God has done. It destroys theharmony of creation. It does not rise even to the height of conscience. Still more, itmars and makes a flaw in the divine government. Therefore sin is an unequal thing,fitting nothing, disarranging everything. And it is not fair. It is not fair to that Godupon whose empire it is a trespass. It is not fair to your fellow creatures, to whom itmay be a very great injury. It is not fair to yourself, for your happiness lies inobedience. Therefore we call sin "iniquity." Or, as the Prayer Book Versionexpresses the same idea, "a thing amiss", missing its proper mark. "If thoushouldest be extreme to mark what is done amiss." --James Vaughan.

12. “O Lord, who shall stand? As soon as God manifests signs of anger, even thosewho appear to be the most holy adopt this language. If God should determine todeal with them according to justice, and call them to his tribunal, not one would beable to stand; but would be compelled to fly for refuge to the mercy of God. See theconfessions of Moses, Job, David, ehemiah, Isaiah, Daniel, Paul, and others of theapostles. Hear Christ teaching his disciples to cry to the Father who is in heaven,"Forgive us our trespasses!" If before God the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles,although possessing unusual holiness, nevertheless fell down, and as suppliantsprayed for forgiveness, what shall be done with those who add sin to sin?” --D. H.Mollerus.

13. “These two verses contain the sum of all the Scriptures. In the third is the form ofrepentance, and in the fourth the mercies of the Lord. These are the two mountains,Gerizim and Ebal, mentioned in Deuteronomy 27:12-13. These are the pillars inSolomon's temple (1 Kings 7:21 ), called Jachin and Boaz. We must, with Paul,persuade ourselves that we are come from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion, where mercyis, although some sour grapes must be eaten by the way. Jeremy tasted in his visionfirst a bitter fig out of one basket, then a sweet fig out of the other. In the days ofMoses the waters were first bitter, then sweetened by the sweet wood. And Elishacast in salt into the pottage of the sons of the prophets, then it became wholesome.”--Archibald Symson.

14. “As I was thus in musing and in my studies, considering how to love the LORD,and to express my love to him, that saying came in upon me: If thou, LORD,shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with

thee, that thou mayest be feared. These were good words to me, especially the latterpart thereof; to wit, that there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared;that is, as then I understood it, that he might be loved and had in reverence; for itwas thus made out to me, that the great God did set so high an esteem upon the loveof his poor creatures, that rather than he would go without their love he wouldpardon their transgressions.” --John Bunyan.

4. But with you there is forgiveness;4. But with you there is forgiveness;4. But with you there is forgiveness;4. But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

1. Calvin, “This verse leads us farther. Though all men confess with the mouth thatthere is no human being in the world whom God may not justly adjudge toeverlasting death, should it so please him, yet how few are persuaded of the truthwhich the Prophet now adds, that the grace of which they stand in need shall notbe denied them? They either sleep in their sins through stupidity, or fluctuateamidst a variety of doubts, and, at length, are overwhelmed with despair. Thismaxim, "that no man is free from sin," is, as I have said, received among all menwithout dispute, and yet the majority shut their eyes to their own faults, andsettle securely in hiding places to which, in their ignorance, they have betakenthemselves, if they are not forcibly roused out of them, and then, when pursuedclose by the judgments of God, they are overwhelmed with alarm, or so greatlytormented as to fall into despair. The consequence of this want of hope in men,that God will be favorable to them, is an indifference about coming into theDivine presence to supplicate for pardon. When a man is awakened with a livelysense of the judgment of God, lie cannot fail to be humbled with shame and fear.Such self-dissatisfaction would not however suffice, unless at the same time therewere added faith, whose office it is to raise up the hearts which were cast downwith fear, and to encourage them to pray for forgiveness. David then acted as heought to have done when, in order to his attaining genuine repentance, he firstsummons himself before God's judgment seat; but, to preserve his confidencefrom failing under the overpowering influence of fear, he presently adds thehope which there was of obtaining pardon. It is, indeed, a matter which comesunder our daily observation, that those who proceed not beyond the step ofthinking themselves deserving of endless death, rush, like frenzied men, withgreat impetuosity against God. The better, therefore, to confirm himself andothers, the Prophet declares that God's mercy cannot be separated or torn awayfrom himself. "As soon as I think upon thee," he says in amount, "thy clemencyalso presents itself to my mind, so that I have no doubt that thou wilt be mercifulto me, it being impossible for thee to divest thyself of thy own nature: the veryfact that thou art God is to me a sure guarantee that thou wilt be merciful."

2. Barnes, “there is forgiveness with thee - Septuagint renders this ἱλασµός hilasmos,propitiation, reconciliation; the Latin Vulgate “propitiatio,” propitiation. TheHebrew word means “pardon.” The idea is, that sin may be forgiven; or, that God isa Being who does pardon sin, and that this is the only ground of hope. When wecome before God, the ground of our hope is not that we can justify ourselves; notthat we can prove we have not sinned; not that we can explain our sins away; notthat we can offer an apology for them; it is only in a frank and full confession, andin a hope that God will forgive them. He who does not come in this manner can haveno hope of acceptance with God.

That thou mayest be feared - That thou mayest be reverenced; or, that men maybe brought to serve and worship thee - may be brought to a proper reverence forthy name. The idea is, not that pardon produces fear or terror - for the very reverseis true - but that God, by forgiving the sinner, brings him to reverence him, toworship him, to serve him: that is, the sinner is truly reconciled to God, andbecomes a sincere worshiper. The offendcr is so pardoned that he is disposed toworship and honor God, for God has revealed himself as one who forgives sin, inorder that the sinner may be encouraged to come to him, and be his true worshiper.

3. Clarke, “But there is forgiveness with thee - canst forgive; mercy belongs to thee,as well as judgment. The doctrine here is the doctrine of St. John: “If any man sin,we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is thepropitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the wholeworld.” “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken!” Jesushas died for our sins; therefore God can be just, and yet the justifier of him whobelieveth in Jesus.

4. Gill, “And with God only; not with angels, nor any of the sons of men; and whichflows from his grace and mercy, through the blood of his Son. It appears to be withhim by his promise of it in covenant; by appointing his Son to shed his blood for it,and exalting him as a Saviour to give it; by proclaiming it in the Gospel; and by thenumerous instances of it, both under the Old and under the ew Testament. Or,there is "a propitiation with thee"; as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versionsrender it: God had found out Christ to be the propitiatory sacrifice for sin, and theransom of his people; and set him forth in his purposes and decrees for that end;and which was made known by the sacrifices of the law, typical of it; and in thefulness of time he sent him to be the propitiation for it, and he is become so; and hasmade reconciliation for sin, and reconciled his people to God by the sufferings ofdeath; and reconciled all the divine perfections of justice and holiness, grace andmercy, together, in the salvation of men; and is now an advocate the Father forthem, pleading the propitiatory sacrifice of himself before him;

that thou mayest be feared; were it not for pardon, and the hope of it, men would bedesperate; and, having no hope, would resolve upon taking their swing of sin, and be

entirely negligent of the worship and service of God: was there no forgiveness of sin,there would be no more fear of God among men than there is among devils, forwhom there is no forgiveness; there might be dread and trembling, as among them,but no godly fear: yea, if God was strictly to mark iniquity, and not pardon it, therewould be none to fear him, all must be condemned and cut off by him; but, in orderto secure and preserve his fear among men, he has taken the step he has to pardonsin through the propitiatory sacrifice of his Son; and a discovery, and an applicationof his grace, teaches men to fear to offend him; influences them to serve himacceptably with reverence and godly fear, and engages them to fear him and hisgoodness, and him for his goodness's sake, Tit_2:11, Hos_3:5.”

5. Spurgeon,”But there is forgiveness with thee. Blessed but. Free, full, sovereign pardon isin the hand of the great King: it is his prerogative to forgive, and he delights to exercise it.Because his nature is mercy, and because he has provided a sacrifice for sin, thereforeforgiveness is with him for all that come to him confessing their sins. The power of pardonis permanently resident with God: he has forgiveness ready to his hand at this instant."That thou mayest be feared." This is the fruitful root of piety. one fear the Lord likethose who have experienced his forgiving love. Gratitude for pardon produces far more fearand reverence of God than all the dread which is inspired by punishment. If the Lord wereto execute justice upon all, there would be none left to fear him; if all were underapprehension of his deserved wrath, despair would harden them against fearing him: it isgrace which leads the way to a holy regard of God, and a fear of grieving him.”

6. “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. One would thinkthat punishment should procure fear, and forgiveness love; but nemo majus diligit,quam qui maxime veretur offendere -- no man more truly loves God than he that ismost fearful to offend him. "Thy mercy reacheth to the heavens, and thyfaithfulness to the clouds" -- that is, above all sublimities. God is glorious in all hisworks, but most glorious in his works of mercy; and this may be one reason why St.Paul calls the gospel of Christ a "glorious gospel": 1 Timothy 1:11 . Solomon tells us,"It lathe glory of a man to pass by an offence." Herein is God most glorious, in thathe passeth by all the offences of his children. Lord, who can know thee and not lovethee, know thee and not fear thee? We fear thee for thy justice, and love thee for thymercy; yea, fear thee for thy mercy, and love thee for thy justice; for thou artinfinitely good in both.” --Thomas Adams.

7. “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. But is this not amistaking in David to say, There is mercy with God, that he may be feared; all asone to say, There is severity with him, that he may be loved for if we cannot love onefor being severe, how should we fear him for being merciful I Should it not,therefore, have been rather said, There is justice with thee, that thou mayest befeared? seeing it is justice that strikes a terror and keeps in awe; mercy breeds aboldness, and boldness cannot stand with fear, and therefore not fear with mercy.But is there not, I may say, an active fear, not to offend God, as well as a passivefear for having offended him? and with God's mercy may well stand the active fear,though not so well, perhaps, the passive fear which is incident properly to his

justice.

There is a common error in the world, to think we may be the bolder to sin becauseGod is merciful; but, O my soul, take heed of this error, for God's mercy is to nosuch purpose; it is not to make us bold, but to make us fear: the greater his mercyis, the greater ought our fear to be, for there is mercy with him that he may befeared. Unless we fear, he may choose whether he will be merciful or no; or rather,we maybe sure he will not be merciful, seeing he hath mercy for none but for themthat fear him; and there is great reason for this, for to whom should mercy showitself but to them that need it? and if we think we need it we will certainly fear. Oh,therefore, most gracious God, make me to fear thee; for as thou wilt not be mercifulto me unless I fear thee, so I cannot fear thee unless thou first be merciful unto me.”--Sir Richard Baker.

8. “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Even Saul himselfwill lift up his voice and weep when he seeth a clear testimony of the love andundeserved kindness of David. Hast thou never beheld a condemned prisonerdissolved in tears upon the unexpected and unmerited receipt of a pardon, who allthe time before was as hard as a flint? The hammer of the law may break the icyheart of man with terrors and horrors, and yet it may remain ice still, unchanged;but when the fire of love kindly thaws its ice, it is changed and dissolved into water-- it is no longer ice, but of another nature. --George Swinnock.

9. “But there is forgiveness with thee, etc. His judgments and his wrath may make usastonished and stupefied; but, if there be no more they will never make us to cometo God. Then if this be not sufficient, what more is requisite? Even a sight of theLord's mercy, for that is most forcible to allure, as the prophet saith here, and as thechurch of God says (Song of Solomon 1:3), "Because of the savour of thy goodointments, therefore the virgins love thee." This only is forcible to allure the sinner:for all the judgments of God, and curses of the law, will never allure him. What wasthe chief thing that moved the prodigal son to return home to his father? Was itchiefly the distress, the disgrace and poverty where with he was burdened, or thefamine that almost caused him to starve? o, but the chief thing was this, heremembered that he had a loving father. That maketh him to resolve with anhumble confession to go home Luke 15:1-32 Even so is it with the sinner; it is notterrors and threatenings that chiefly will move him to come to God, but theconsideration of his manifold and great mercies. --Robert Rollock.

10. “That thou mayest be feared. This forgiveness, this smile of God, binds the soul toGod with a beautiful fear. Fear to lose one glance of love. Fear to lose one work ofkindness. Fear to be carried away from the heaven of his presence by an insidiouscurrent of worldliness. Fear of slumber. Fear of error. Fear of not enough pleasinghim. Our duty, then, is to drink deep of God's forgiving love. To be filled with it is tobe filled with purity, fervency, and faith. Our sins have to hide their diminishedheads, and slink away through crevices, when forgiveness -- when Christ -- entersthe soul.” --George Bowen, in "Daily Meditations", 1873.

11. Verses 4-5,7-8. David puts his soul out of all fear of God's taking this course

reckoning strictly with poor penitent souls, by laying down this comfortableconclusion, as an indubitable truth: "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thoumayest be feared." That is, there is forgiveness in thy nature, thou carriest apardoning heart in thy bosom; yea, there is forgiveness in thy promise; thy mercifulheart doth not only incline thee to thoughts of forgiving; but thy faithful promisebinds thee to draw forth the same unto all that humbly and seasonably lay claimthereunto. ow, this foundation laid, see what superstructure this holy man raiseth(Psalms 130:5): "I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do Ihope." As if he had said, Lord, I take thee at thy word, and am resolved by thygrace to wait at the door of thy promise, never to stir thence till I have my promiseddole (forgiveness of my sins) sent out unto me. And this is so sweet a morsel, that heis loath to eat it alone, and therefore he sends down the dish, even to the lower endof the table, that every godly person may taste with him of it (Psalms 130:7-8): "LetIsrael hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him isplenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." As if hehad said, That which is a ground of hope to me, notwithstanding the clamor of mysins, affords as solid and firm a bottom to any true Israelite or sincere soul in theworld, did he but rightly understand himself, and the mind of God in his promise.Yea, I have as strong a faith for such as for my own soul, and I durst pawn theeternity of my happiness upon this principle, -- that God should redeem everysincere Israelite from all his iniquities.” -- William Gurnall.

12. Spurgeon adds, “How significant is that word “but” in our text! It is as if youheard justice clamoring, “Let the sinner die,” and the fiends in hell howling, “Casthim down into the fires,” and conscience shrieking, “Let him perish,” and natureitself groaning beneath his weight, the earth weary with carrying him, the sun tiredwith shining upon the traitor, the very air sick with finding breath for one who onlyspends it in disobedience to God. The man is about to be destroyed, to be swallowedup quick, when suddenly there comes this thrice blessed “but,” which stops thereckless course of ruin, puts its strong hand, bearing a golden shield, between thesinner and destruction, and pronounces these words, “But there is forgiveness withGod, that he may be feared.”

Suppose the question had been left open, — forgiveness or no forgiveness? We knowthat we have offended God; but suppose it had been left a moot point for us to findout; if possible, whether there was any forgiveness, Where could we find it? Wemight turn to the works of God in nature, and say, “Well, he is good, who loads thetrees with fruit, and bids the fields yield so plenteous a harvest;” but when weremember how his lightnings sometimes strike the oak, and how his hurricanesswallow up whole navies in the deep, we shall be ready to say that he is terrible aswell as tender; and we might be puzzled to know whether he would or would notforgive sin, more especially as we see all creatures die, and no exception made tothat rule. If we knew that death was a punishment for sin, we should be led to fearthat the was no forgiveness to be had from the hand of God; but when we turn tothis open page, which God has so graciously written for our instruction, we are leftin doubt no longer, for hereto we have it positively declared, “There is forgiveness

with thee, that thou mayest be feared,” Exclusively in the Bible is this revelationmade; but the words of my text are not exclusive. The page is but one among athousand echoes from the throne of God which proclaim his willingness to savesinners.”

“Round the altar priests confessIf their robes are white as snow,

‘Twas the Savior’s righteousness,

And his blood that made them so.

“Who were these? on earth they dwelt;

Sinners once of Adam’s race;

Guilt, and fear, and suffering felt;

But were saved by sovereign grace.”

13. The circumstances in which Dr. John Owen's Exposition of Psalm 130 originatedare peculiarly interesting. Dr. Owen himself, in a statement made to Mr. RichardDavis, who ultimately became pastor of a church in Rowel, orthamptonshire,explains the occasion which led him to a very careful examination of the fourthverse in the Psalm. Mr. Davis, being under religious impressions, had sought aconference 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 theMediator, sir", answered Mr. Davis. "That is easily said", replied the doctor, "but Iassure you it is another thing to go to God through the Mediator than many whomake 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 withaccess to God through Christ; until the Lord was pleased to visit me with soreaffliction, whereby I was brought to the mouth of the grave, and under which mysoul was oppressed with horror and darkness; but God graciously relieved my spiritby a powerful application of Psalms 130:4, But there is forgiveness with thee, thatthou mayest be feared, from whence I received special instruction, peace andcomfort, in drawing near to God through the Mediator, and preached thereuponimmediately after my recovery." --William H. Goold, editor of Owen's CollectedWorks, 1851.

14. Great Texts, “This was one of the favourite psalms of Luther one he paraphrased and had set to music ; in it, he said he saw the gate of heaven opening wide to him. His paraphrase of it became one of the favourite hymns of the German Keformers. And the song returned into Luther s own heart. During the Augsburg Diet, when he was at the Castle of Coburg, and had to suffer much from inward and outward trials, he fell into a swoon. On awak ing from it, he said, " Come and let us, in defiance of the devil, sing the Psalm, Lord, from the depths to thee I cry. Let us sing it in full chorus and extol and praise God." Being asked on one occasion which were the best Psalms, he replied, "The Pauline Psalms" (Psalmi Paulini), and being pressed to say

which they were, he answered: "The 32nd, the 51st, the 130th, and the 143rd. For they teach us that the forgiveness of sins is vouchsafed to them that believe without the law and without works ; therefore are they Pauline Psalms ; and when David sings, With thee is forgiveness, that thou mayest be feared/ so Paul likewise saith, God hath concluded all under sin that he may have mercy on all. Therefore none can boast of his own righteousness, but the words, That thou mayest be feared, thrust away all self-merit, teach us to take off our hat before God and confess, gratia est, non meritum, remissio non satisfactio it is all forgiveness, and no merit. "

5. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,

and in his word I put my hope.

1. Calvin, “After having testified in general that God is ready to show mercy to poorsinners who betake themselves to him, the Psalmist concludes that he is therebyencouraged to entertain good hope. The past tense in the verbs wait and trust is putfor the present. I have waited for I wait; I have hoped for I hope. The repetitionoccurring in the first part of the verse is emphatic; and the word soul givesadditional emphasis, implying, as it does, that the Prophet trusted in God even withthe deepest affections of his heart. From this we also gather that he was not onlypatient and constant in the sight. of men, but that even in the inward feelings of hisheart he had maintained quietness and patience before God; which is a very evidentproof of faith. Many, no doubt, are restrained by vain glory from openlymurmuring against God or betraying their distrust, but there is hardly one in tenwho, when removed from the inspection of his fellow-men, and in his own heart,waits for God with a quiet mind. The Psalmist adds, in the concluding clause, thatwhat supported his patience was the confidence which he reposed in the divinepromises. Were these promises taken away, the grace of God would necessarilyvanish from our sight, and thus our hearts would fail and be overwhelmed withdespair. Besides, he teaches us, that our being contented with the word of God aloneaffords a genuine proof of our hope. When a man, embracing the word, becomesassured of having his welfare attended to by God, this assurance will be the motherof waiting or patience. Although the Prophet here speaks to himself for the purposeof confirming his faith, yet there is no doubt that he suggests to all the children ofGod like matter of confidence in reference to themselves. In the first place he setsbefore them the word, that they may depend entirely upon it; and next he warnsthem that faith is vain and ineffectual unless it frame us to patience.”

2. Barnes, “wait for the Lord - is, in this state of distress and trouble - from these“depths” of woe, and sorrow, and conviction of sin. This implies two things:

(1) that he had no other dependence;

(2) that his soul was actually in a waiting posture, or that he actually looked to theLord for his interposition.

My soul doth wait - I wait, with all my soul and heart.

And in his word do I hope - In his promise. I believe that he will fulfill that promise,and that I shall find a gracious answer to my prayers. Under conviction for sin,under deep sorrow and distress of any kind, this is the only hope of man. If Goddoes not interpose, there is no deliverer; that he will interpose we may feel assured,if we come to him with a humble, a believing, and a penitent heart.”

3. Clarke, “I wait for the Lord - word קוה kavah, which we translate to wait,properly signifies the extension of a cord from one point to another. This is a finemetaphor: God is one point, the human heart is the other; and the extended cordbetween both is the earnest believing desire of the soul. This desire, stronglyextended from the heart to God, in every mean of grace, and when there is none, isthe active, energetic waiting which God requires, and which will be successful.

4. Gill, “For his gracious presence and the light of his countenance, being indarkness, as well as in the deep; for his salvation and deliverance out of the depthsof distress; for an answer of prayer, having cried unto him for application ofpardoning grace he had some view and hopes of; and for the performance ofpromises the Lord had made to him; and for eternal glory and happiness: all whichare to be patiently and quietly waited for, God having his set time to do them; andmay be confidently expected, since he is gracious and merciful, wise and powerful,faithful and immutable. David might also be waiting for the coming of Christ, as allthe Old Testament saints did; through whom all the above are enjoyed;

my soul doth wait; which shows that this was not mere bodily service or waitingupon God and for him in an external way; but expresses the intenseness of his mind,the earnest desires of his heart after God, his affection for him, and the exercise ofall other graces on him; his whole soul, and all the powers of it, were engaged in thiswork;

and in his word do I hope: both in his essential Word the Messiah, who was theHope of Israel as well as the Saviour of them; the object, ground, and foundation ofhope, of all blessings, of grace and of glory: and in his word of promise concerningthe coming of Christ, and salvation by him; concerning the pardon of sin throughhim, and eternal life by him; as well as in many other special and particularpromises made to David, concerning himself, his family, and his kingdom. Aramaand Kimchi interpret it of the promise of deliverance from captivity made to theJews.”

5. Henry, “Here, I. The psalmist engages himself to trust in God and to wait forhim, Psa_130:5, Psa_130:6. Observe, 1. His dependence upon God, expressed in aclimax, it being a a song of degrees, or ascents: “I wait for the Lord; from him Iexpect relief and comfort, believing it will come, longing till it does come, butpatiently bearing the delay of it, and resolving to look for it from no other hand. My

soul doth wait; I wait for him in sincerity, and not in profession only. I am anexpectant, and it is for the Lord that my soul waits, for the gifts of his grace and theoperations of his power.” 2. The ground of that dependence: In his word do I hope.

We must hope for that only which he has promised in his word, and not for thecreatures of our own fancy and imagination; we must hope for it because he haspromised it, and not from any opinion of our own merit. 3. The degree of thatdependence - “more than those that watch for the morning, who are, (1.) Well-assured that the morning will come; and so am I that God will return in mercy tome, according to his promise; for God's covenant is more firm than the ordinancesof day and night, for they shall come to an end, but that is everlasting.” (2.) Verydesirous that it would come. Sentinels that keep guard upon the walls, those thatwatch with sick people, and travelers that are abroad upon their journey, longbefore day wish to see the dawning of the day; but more earnestly does this goodman long for the tokens of God's favor and the visits of his grace, and more readilywill he be aware of his first appearances than they are of day. Dr. Hammond readsit thus, My soul hastens to the Lord, from the guards in the morning, the guards in the

morning, and gives this sense of it, “To thee I daily betake myself, early in themorning, addressing my prayers, and my very soul, before thee, at the time that thepriests offer their morning sacrifice.”

6. Keil, “Therefore the sinner need not, therefore too the poet will not, despair. HeinJahve (acc. obj.as in Psa_25:5, Psa_25:21; Psa_40:2), his soul hopes; hopinginwaiting upon God is the mood of his inmost and of his whole being. He waits uponGod's word, the word of His salvation (Psa_119:81), which, ifpenetrates into the souland cleaves there, calms all unrest, and by theconsolation of forgiveness transformsand enlightens for itin it and outside of it. His soul is לאדני, i.e., stedfastly anddirected towards Him; as Chr. A. Crusius when on his death-bed, with hands andeyes uplifted to heaven, joyfully exclaimed: “My soulfull of the mercy of JesusChrist. My whole soul is towards God.” Theaning of לאדני becomes at once clear initself from Psa_143:6, and ismoreover, without supplying ׁשמרת (Hitzig), accordingto the לּבקר. Towards the Lord he is expectantly turned, like those who in the night-time wait for the morning. The repetition of the expression “those who for themorning” (cf. Isa_21:11) gives the impression of protracted,waiting. The wrath, inthe sphere of which the poet now finds, is a nightly darkness, out of which he wishesto be removed intosunny realm of love (Mal_4:2); not he alone, however, but atthetime all Israel, whose need is the same, and for whom thereforewaiting is likewisethe way to salvation.”

7. Spurgeon, “I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait. Expecting him to come to mein love, I quietly wait for his appearing; I wait upon him in service, and for him infaith. For God I wait and for him only: if he will manifest himself I shall have

nothing more to wait for; but until he shall appear for my help I must wait on,hoping even in the depths. This waiting of mine is no mere formal act, my very soulis in it, -- "my soul doth wait." I wait and I wait -- mark the repetition! "My soulwaits", and then again, "My soul waits"; to make sure work of the waiting. It is wellto deal with the Lord intensely. Such repetitions are the reverse of vain repetitions.If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessedare all they that wait for him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficialto us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessingwhen it comes. The Lord's people have always been a waiting people: they waitedfor the First Advent, and now they wait for the Second. They waited for a sense ofpardon, and now they wait for perfect sanctification. They waited in the depths, andthey are not now wearied with waiting in a happier condition. They have cried andthey do wait; probably their past prayer sustains their present patience.

And in his word do I hope. This is the source, strength, and sweetness of waiting.Those who do not hope cannot wait; but if we hope for that we see not, then do wewith patience wait for it. God's word is a true word, but at times it tarries; if ours istrue faith it will wait the Lord's time. A word from the Lord is as bread to the soulof the believer; and, refreshed thereby, it holds out through the night of sorrowexpecting the dawn of deliverance and delight. Waiting, we study the word, believethe word, hope in the word, and live on the word; and all because it is "his word," --the word of him who never speaks in vain. Jehovah's word is a firm ground for awaiting soul to rest upon.”

8. “I wait for the LORD, etc. We pronounce this a most blessed posture of thebeliever. It runs counter to everything that is natural, and, therefore, it is all themore a supernatural grace of the gracious soul. In the first place it is the posture offaith. Here is the gracious soul hanging in faith upon God in Christ Jesus; upon theveracity of God to fulfil his promise, upon the power of God to help him indifficulty, upon the wisdom of God to counsel him in perplexity, upon the love ofGod to shield him in danger, upon the omniscience of God to guide him with his eye,and upon the omnipresence of God to cheer him with his presence, at all times andin all places, his sun and shield. Oh, have faith in God.

It is also a prayerful posture. The soul waiting for God, is the soul waiting uponGod. The Lord often shuts us up to this waiting for his interposition on our behalf,that he may keep us waiting and watching at the foot of his cross, in earnest,believing, importunate prayer. Oh, it is the waiting for the Lord that keeps the soulwaiting upon the Lord!

It is also the posture of a patient waiting for the Lord. There is not a more Godhonoring grace of the Christian character than patience -- a patient waiting on andfor the Lord. It is that Christian grace, the fruit of the Spirit, which will enable youto bear with dignity, calmness, and submission the afflictive dealings of yourHeavenly Father, the rebuke of the world, and the wounding of the saints.

It is the posture of rest. A soul waiting for the Lord is a soul resting in the Lord.Waiting and resting! Wearied with traversing in vain the wide circle of human

expedients; coming to the end of all your own wisdom, strength, and resources; youruneasy, jaded spirit is brought into this resting posture of waiting on, and waitingfor, the Lord; and thus folds its drooping wings upon the very bosom of God. Oh,how real and instant is the rest found in Jesus! Reposing in him, however profoundthe depth of the soul, however dark the clouds that drape it, or surging the watersthat overwhelm it, all is sunshine and serenity within. --Condensed from "SoulDepths and Soul Heights", by Octavius Winslow, 1874.

9. “I wait for the LORD. Waiting is a great part of life's discipline, and thereforeGod often exercises the grace of waiting. Waiting has four purposes. It practises thepatience of faith. It gives time for preparation for the coming gift. It makes theblessing the sweeter when it arrives. And it shows the sovereignty of God, -- to givejust when and just as he pleases. It may be difficult to define exactly what thePsalmist had in his mind when he said, "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, andin his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch forthe morning." It may have been the Messiah, whose coming was a thing close athand to the mind of the ancient Jews, just as the Second Advent is to us.

It may have been some special interposition of Divine Providence. But moreprobably, looking at the place which it occupies, and at the whole tenor of thePsalm, and its line of thought, "The Lord" he waited for so intently was that fullsense of safety, peace, and love which God's felt presence gives, and which is, indeed,nothing else but the coming of the Lord most sensibly and palpably into an anxiousand longing heart.

The picture of the waiting man is a striking one. It is as of one on the ridge of ajourney, looking onward on his way, standing on tiptoe, and therefore needingsomething to lean on, and to support him. "I wait for the Lord", -- spiritually, withmy deepest thoughts -- in the very centre of my being -- "I wait for the Lord, mysoul doth wait." And I rest, I stay myself on what thou, O Lord, hast said. "My souldoth wait, and in his word do I hope."

In all your waitings remember two things: Let it not be so much the event which youwait for, as the Lord of the event; the Lord in the event. And take care that you havea promise underneath you, -- "In his word do I hope", -- else "waiting" will be toomuch for you, and after all it may be in vain. --James Vaughan.

10. “I wait ... I hope. Waiting and hoping ever attend the same thing. o man willwait at all for that which he hath no hope of, and he who hath hope will wait always.He gives not over waiting, till he gives over hoping. The object of hope is somefuture good, but the act of hoping is at present good, and that is present pay to bearour charges in waiting. The word implies both a patient waiting and a hopefultrusting. So Christ expounds it (Mt 12:21), rendering that of the prophet (Isaiah42:1-4), "The isles shall wait for his law", thus, "In his name shall the Gentilestrust." --Joseph Caryl.

11. “In these two verses he doth four times make mention of his hope, and attendanceupon God and his word, to let us see how sure a hold we should take on God, and

with how many temptations our faith is assaulted, when we can see no reasonthereof. othing will bear us up but hope. Spero meliora. What encourageshusbandmen and mariners against the surges and waves of the sea, and evilweather, but hope of better times? What comforteth a sick man in time of sickness,but hope of health? or a poor man in his distress, but hope of riches? or a prisoner,but hope of liberty? or a banished man, but hope to come home? All these hopesmay fail, as oftentimes wanting a warrant. Albeit a physician may encourage a sickman by his fair words, yet he cannot give him an assurance of his recovery, for hishealth depends on God: friends and courtiers may promise poor men relief, but allmen are liars; only God is faithful who hath promised. Therefore let us fix our faithon God, and our hope in God; for he will stand by his promise. o man hath hopedin him in vain, neither was ever any disappointed of his hope. --Archibald Symson.

12. Faith doth ultimately centre in the Deity. God himself in his glorious nature, is theultimate object where unto our faith is resolved. The promise, simply considered, isnot the object of trust, but God in the promise; and from the consideration of thatwe ascend to the Deity, and cast our anchor there. "Hope in the word" is the firstact, but succeeded by hoping in the Lord: "In his word do I hope": that is not all;but, "Let Israel hope in the Lord." That is the ultimate object of faith, wherein theessence of our happiness consists, and that is God. God himself is the true and fullportion of the soul. --Stephen Charnock, 1628-1680.

13. William G. Heslop, “is a hymn of faith, hope, and love. The key word is the wordhope.

(1) "In his word do I hope."(2) "Let Israel hope."Three times in eight verses the poet is found waiting.(1) "I wait for the LORD."(2) "My soul doth wait."(3) "My soul waiteth for the Lord."As an anchor thrown to the bottom of the sea holds the ship fast amid storms andtempests; so the Christian's hope penetrates the waves of this troublesome world,and reaches the eternal shore, holding fast his soul amid the waves of sin.

Let the winds blow, and billows roll.Hope is the anchor of the soul.But can I by so slight a tie,An unseen Hope, on GOD rely?Steadfast and sure, it cannot fail,It enters deep within the evil,It fastens on a land unknown,And moors me to my Father's throne.- Charles Wesley

14. is hope? The beauteous sun,

Which colors all it shines upon!

The beacon of life's dreary sea;The star of immortality!Fountain of feeling, young and warm,A day-beam bursting through the storm!A tone of melody, whose birthIs, oh! too sweet, too pure, for earth!A blossom of that radiant treeWhose fruit the angels only see!A beauty and a charm, whose powerIs seen, enjoy'd, confess'd, each hour!A portion of that world to come.When earth and ocean meet-the lastO'erwhelming doom. Charles Swain

15. John Schmidt gives us this great illustration of waiting in hope. “In January1995, Debbie and I were in the middle of one of the worst earthquakes of the 20thcentury. We were in Kobe at the time. During that period of time 6,000 people died,80,000 buildings were destroyed and 300,000 people were homeless. It was ahopeless time. These pictures were taken around our neighborhood, not far fromour house. This church was one where I worked with the pastor of that church. Thechurch was not like this destroyed and the pastor of that church within a year or soafter this picture was taken had died from heart complications from all the stress ofall the rebuilding and everything else that was happening in the city. Houses were inthe middle of the streets. This is areas where we would walk through and houseshad been moved out. Whole streets were closed. 80,000 buildings had beendestroyed. As the time went, some of the houses were cleared away and by this timea few months after the earthquake a lot of the houses had been cleared off. Thedebris was gone. There were open lots where there used to be houses. It was adepressing sight. And weeds and trash and all were accumulating where there usedto be dwellings for people that we knew. But there was one house that we would passwhere there was a garden that used to be inside of a wall, but the house was gonenow and the wall was gone now, but that garden week after week, month aftermonth didn't get weedy. All the plants were well cared for. It was watered. And wesaw why it was like that because one day Debbie went by and saw the couple thatowned the property. They were sitting there. They had brought a lunch and hadbrought their gardening tools and they were working in their garden, what used tobe their home. ow it would be months, maybe years before all the insurance stuffcame through. When all the paperwork was done, when they could get a loan andfind a contractor. All of that was out there somewhere, far in the future and rightnow they had to wait because there were thousands upon thousands of people tryingto get their homes built. But while they waited they tended their garden. They madeit beautiful in hope that one day that house was going to be back, that wall would beback and inside of that new home, that new future, there would be this beautifulgarden that they had planted in the past.

That's what it means to wait in hope. To do what you can right now, while you waitfor the thing that you can't do, the one thing that has to come in the future, the thingthat is rooted in the character and promise of God and not in our power to work itall out. Right now, it's not going well for some of you here and you are in thatposition where you've got to wait, and what we need to hear at a time like that is ourconception of God is going to affect our experience as we wait. So if we expect Godto be like a waiter at a restaurant at our beck and call, then what's going to happenis you are going to ask God for an answer and when it doesn't come the way youwant, when you want, as fast as you want, you are going to get upset. If you don'texpect God to be interested at all you are going to despair. But if you believe thatGod is like we see it here in Scripture, that God is deeply interested in us, lovinglyinvolved in our lives, then we don't have to deny the problem. We can admit thatthese problems, these sufferings are real. We don't have to explain it all away, butthen we have to wait. We have to learn how to wait in hope, that God because ofwho God is, is going to be concerned, is going to bring some good, some direction,some conclusion, some strength, whatever it is we need, that God is going to be thereto provide that.”

6. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

1. Calvin, “My soul hath waited for the Lord before the watchers of the morning. Inthis verse he expresses both the ardor and the perseverance of his desire. In sayingthat he anticipated the watchmen, he shows by this similitude with what diligenceand alacrity he breathed after God. And the repetition is a proof of hisperseverance; for there is no doubt that thereby he intended to express anuninterrupted continuance of the same course, and consequently perseverance. Boththese qualities in his exercise, are worthy of attention; for it is too manifest how slowand cold we are in elevating our minds to God, and also how easily we are shakenand even fall at every little blast of wind. Farther, as the watches of the night werein ancient times usually divided into four parts, this passage may be explained asimplying that as the watchmen of the night, who keep watch by turns, are careful inlooking when the morning will dawn, so the Prophet looked to God with the greatestattention of mind. But the more natural sense seems to be, that as in the morningthe warders of the gates are more wakeful than all other people, and are the earliestin rising, that they may appear at the posts assigned them, so the mind of theProphet hastened with all speed to seek God. The repetition, as I have alreadyobserved:, shows that he stood keeping his gaze perseveringly fixed upon its object.We must always beware of allowing our fervor to languish through the weariness ofdelay, should the Lord for any length of time keep us in suspense.1

2. “Some, as Street, Mant, Dr. Adam Clarke, French and Skinner, and Phillips,suppose that the allusion in this verse is to the watchings which the Priests andLevites in their turns exercised during the night in the Temple, (see Psalm 34:1,) andespecially to those officers of theirs who were appointed to watch for the first dawnof day, in order that the morning sacrifice might be offered. "In the TalmudicalTract Tamid it is related, 'The prefect said to them, Go and see if the time ofslaying; have arrived; if it had arrived, the watcher calls out, yaqrb, Coruscations.'Agreeably to this explanation of the verse is the rendering of the Chaldee, which isas follows: ' My soul waits for the Lord, more than the keepers of the morning vigils,which they observe for offering of the morning oblation.' " Phillips. "The customalluded to by the Targumist," [or Chaldee,] says Street, "is mentioned in Exodus30:7. 'And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseththe lamps he shall burn incense upon it.'" "The similitude," observes Mant, "isbeautifully expressive of the eager impatience of the Psalmist; which is still furtheraugmented by the repetition." author unknown

3. Warren Wiersbe, “The next time you feel at rock bottom, read Psalm 130. "Outof the depths I have cried to You, O Lord" (v. 1). Three basic requests in this psalmecho the concerns in our hearts today. First, the psalmist says, "Lord, hear myvoice!" (v. 2). Why? "I can't swim; I am in the deep waters, and they are comingover my head. I am drowning, and I'm afraid I can't make it." o matter how fardown you may go or feel, God always hears you.

Then he says, "If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? Butthere is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared" (vv. 3,4). We can't standbefore God in the courtroom of His justice; we are helpless. Only Jesus Christ canstand there, because only He is perfect. But He stands with us, He's our Savior. Godnot only hears us when we are down, but He holds us. He says, "I forgive you.You've trusted my Son; you've confessed your sin; and now you can stand beforeMe." The psalmist expresses his confidence in this truth: "I wait for the Lord, mysoul waits, and in His word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than thosewho watch for the morning" (vv. 5,6).

ext he asks, "O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and withHim is abundant redemption" (v. 7). We are sometimes like soldiers in thewatchtower, waiting for the light. We can't see, but God can see, and there is afuture hope for His people. Place your confidence in the promises of God's Word. o matter how down you may feel, God hears you, holds you and helps you. Turn toHim; He'll see you through.”

4. Barnes, “soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning -intently; more anxiously. The Septuagint and Latin Vulgate render this, “My soulhopeth in the Lord from the morning watch until night.” The idea is that ofwatchers - night guards - who look anxiously for the break of day that they may berelieved. It is not that of persons who simply look for the return of day, but of thosewho are on guard - or it may be who watch beside the sick or the dying - and who

look out on the east to mark the first indications of returning light. To them thenight seems long; they are weary, and want repose; all around is cheerless, gloomy,and still; and they long for the first signs that light will again visit the world. Thus inaffliction - the long, dark, dreary, gloomy night of sorrow - the sufferer looks for thefirst indication, the first faint ray of comfort to the soul. Thus under deep convictionfor sin, and deep apprehension of the wrath of God - that night, dark, dreary,gloomy, often long - the soul looks for some ray of comfort, some intimation thatGod will be merciful, and will speak peace and pardon.

I say, more than they that watch for the morning - Margin, which watch unto themorning. The translation in the text best expresses the sense. There is somethingexceedingly beautiful and touching in this language of repetition, though it is muchenfeebled by the words which our translators have inserted, “I say, more than.” TheHebrew is, “more than they that watch for the morning - watch for the morning,” asif the mind dwelt upon the words as better expressing its own anxious state than anyother words could do. Everyone who has been afflicted will feel the force of this;every one who has been under conviction of sin, and who has felt himself in dangerof suffering the wrath of God, will remember how anxiously he longed for mercy,for light, for peace, for some indication, even the most faint, like the first ray whichbreaks in the east, that his soul would find mercy and peace.

5. Clarke, “More than they that watch for the morning - believe the original shouldbe read differently from what it is here. The Chaldee has, “More than they whoobserve the morning watches, that they may offer the morning oblation.” This givesa good sense, and is, perhaps, the true meaning. Most of the Versions have “Fromthe morning to the night watches.” Or the passage may be rendered, “My soulwaiteth for the Lord from the morning watches to the morning watches.” That is, “Iwait both day and night.”

6. Gill, “This is repeated for the confirmation of it, and to show the vehement andconstant disposition of his mind towards the Lord; as well as for the sake of whatfollows: more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for themorning; or, "more than the morning watchers, that watch for or until themorning" (h); than watchmen of cities, or the keepers of the wails, as Aben Ezra;those who are upon the last morning watch, and are looking out for the morninglight; that they may go off from duty, and lie down and sleep: or than those that situp with sick persons; who, being solitary and melancholy, as well as want sleep, longfor the morning, that they may have some refreshment: or rather than the priestsand Levites that watched in the temple, that waited for the morning, that they mightbe relieved by others; or else than those of that function, who were very diligent toobserve the break of day, that they might enter upon their morning sacrifices; ofwhich are many instances in the Misnah (i). So the Targum, "more than they thatobserve the morning watches, which they observe to offer up the morningsacrifice:'' and Kimchi's paraphrase is, "who rise in the morning watches to pray.''

The coming of Christ is said to be as the morning; and the light of God'scountenance is comparable to the morning light; the discoveries of pardoning graceare through the bright shining of the sun of righteousness, and is the healing that isin his wings; and salvation and deliverance from any distress Is light that breaksforth as the morning: all and each of these are more desirable, and more to bewaited for, than the natural light of the morning; see 2Sa_23:4, Hos_6:3.”

7. Spurgeon, “My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for themorning. Men who guard a city, and women who wait by the sick, long for daylight.Worshipers tarrying for the morning sacrifice, the kindling of the incense and thelighting of the lamps, mingle fervent prayers with their holy vigils, and pine for thehour when the lamb shall smoke upon the altar. David, however, waited more thanthese, waited longer, waited more longingly, waited more expectantly. He was notafraid of the great Adonai before whom none can stand in their own righteousness,for he had put on the righteousness of faith, and therefore longed for graciousaudience with the Holy One. God was no more dreaded by him than light is dreadedby those engaged in a lawful calling. He pined and yearned after his God. I say,more than they that watch for the morning. The figure was not strong enough,though one can hardly think of anything more vigorous: he felt that his owneagerness was unique and unrivaled. Oh to be thus hungry and thirsty after God!Our version spoils the abruptness of the language; the original runs thus -- "Mysoul for the Lord more than those watching for the morning -- watching for themorning." This is a fine poetical repeat. We long for the favor of the Lord morethan weary sentinels long for the morning light which will release them from theirtedious watch. Indeed this is true. He that has once rejoiced in communion with Godis sore tried by the hidings of his face, and grows faint with strong desire for theLord's appearing,

"When wilt thou come unto me, Lord?Until thou dost appear,I count each moment for a day,Each minute for a year."

8. My soul waiteth for the LORD. And now, my soul, what do I live for but only towait upon God, and to wait for God? To wait upon him, to do him service, to waitfor him, to be enabled to do him better service; to wait upon him, as being Lord ofall; and to wait for him, as being the rewarder of all; to wait upon him whose serviceis better than any other command, and to wait for him whose expectation is betterthan any other possession. Let others, therefore, wait upon the world, wait for theworld; I, O God, will wait upon thee, for thee, seeing I find more true contentmentin this waiting than all the world can give me in enjoying; for how can I doubt ofreceiving reward by my waiting for thee when my waiting for thee is itself thereward of my waiting upon thee? And therefore my soul waiteth; for if my soul didnot wait, what were my waiting worth no more than I were worth myself, if I hadnot a soul; but my soul puts a life into my waiting, and makes it become a livingsacrifice. Alas, my frail body is very unfit to make a waiter: it rather needs to be

waited upon itself: it must have so much resting, so often leave to be excused fromwaiting, that if God should have no other waiters than bodies, he would be leftoftentimes to wait upon himself; but my soul is Divinoe particula auroe a portion ofthe Divine breath, endued with all qualities fit for a waiter; and hath it not receivedits abilities, O God, from thee?] And therefore my soul waiteth, and is so intent inthe service that it waits "more than they that watch for the morning." --Sir RichardBaker.

9. More than they that watch for the morning. Look, as the weary sentinel that is wetand stiff with cold and the dews of the night, or as the porters that watched in theTemple, the Levites, were waiting for the daylight, so "more than they that watchfor the morning" was he waiting for some glimpse of God's favour. Though he donot presently ease us of our smart or gratify our desires, yet we are to wait uponGod. In time we shall have a good answer. God's delays are not denials. Day willcome at length, though the weary sentinel or watchman counts it long first; so Godwill come at length; he will not be at our beck. We have deserved nothing, but mustwait for him in the diligent use of means; as Benhadad's servants watched for theword "brother", or anything of kindness to drop from the king of Israel. --ThomasManton.

10, “I say, more than they that watch for the morning, for must there not be aproportion between the cause and effect? If my cause of watching be more thantheirs, should not my watching be more than theirs? They that watch for themorning have good cause, no doubt, to watch for it, that it may bring them the lightof day; but have not I more cause to watch, who wait for the light that lighteth everyone that comes into the world? They that watch for the morning wait but for therising of the sun to free them from darkness, that hinders their sight; but I wait forthe rising of the Sun of righteousness to dispel the horrors of darkness that affrightmy soul. They watch for the morning that they may have light to walk by; but I waitfor the Dayspring from on High to give light to them that sit in darkness and in theshadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. But though there maybe question made of the intentness of our watching, yet of the extensiveness therecan be none, for they that watch for the morning watch at most but a piece of thenight; but I have watched whole days and whole nights, and may I not then justlysay, I wait more than they that watch for the morning? --Sir Richard Baker.

11.”Holy men like Simeon, and devout priests like Zacharias, there were, amidst thisseething people, who, brooding, longing, waiting, chanted to themselves day by daythe words of the Psalmist, "My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch

for the morning." As lovers that watch for the appointed coming, and start at thequivering of a leaf, the flight of a bird, or the humming of a bee, and grow weary ofthe tense strain, so did the Jews watch for their Deliverer. It is one of the mostpiteous sights of history, especially when we reflect that he came, -- and they knewhim not. -- Henry Ward Beechef, in his "Life of Jesus the Christ."

12. “Watch. We do injustice to that good and happy word, "watch", when we take itas watching against; against a danger; against a coming evil. It will bear thatinterpretation; but it is a far higher, and better, and more filial thing to watch for acoming good than to watch against an approaching evil. So, "watching for", we sendup our arrows of prayer, and then look trustingly to see where they are comingdown again. So, "watching for", we listen, in silence, for the familiar voice we love.So, "watching for", we expect the Bridegroom! Take care, that as one alwaysstanding on the eve, -- not of danger, but of happiness, - - your "watch" be the"watch" of love, and confidence, and cheerful hope. --James Vaughan.

13. Peter Blackburn Roller-Coaster

The roller-coaster

draws a crowd,

and, as it races

up and down,

the air is filled

with shouts

and screams,

and screams

and shouts!

Is there

some kind of fun,

exhilaration,

in being scared

out of our wits?

In real life

there is no fun

in the roller-coaster

of circumstance

and emotion –

when dark dread

falls on human souls,

when disappointment

and despair

hold us

in their vice,

pin us down

with no escape…

Yet not alone!

God knows –

he reaches down

to pluck us

from the depths

of our despair

into the depths

of his love

and care!

7. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.

1. Calvin, “After having spoken of himself, and exhibited in his own person anexample for all to follow, he now applies the doctrine to the whole body of theChurch. It is to be noticed that the foundation upon which he would have the hopeof all the godly to rest is the mercy of God, the source from which redemptionsprings. In the first clause he reminds them that although they bring with them noworth or merits of their own, it ought to suffice them that God is merciful. Thismutual relation between the faith of the Church and the free goodness of God is to

be attentively marked, to the end we may know that all those who, depending upontheir own merits, persuade themselves that God will be their rewarder, have nottheir hope regulated according to the rule of Scripture. From this mercy, as from afountain, the Prophet derives redemption; for there is no other cause which movesGod to manifest himself as the redeemer of his people but his mercy. He describesthis redemption as plenteous, that the faithful, even when reduced to the lastextremity, may sustain themselves from the consideration that there are in the handof God many and incredible means by which to save them. This Psalm may havebeen composed at a time when the Church was in so very afflicted a condition asmight have discouraged one and all, had not the infinite greatness of the power ofGod served as a buckler to defend them. The true use of the present doctrine is,first, that the faithful, even when plunged in the deepest gulfs, should not doubt oftheir deliverance being in the hand of God, who, whenever necessity shall require,will be able to find means, which are now hidden and unknown to us; and, secondly,that they should hold it as certain, that as often as the Church shall be afflicted hewill manifest himself to be her deliverer. To this truth the sentence immediatelyfollowing refers.

2. Barnes, “Israel hope in the Lord - such circumstances of affliction and distress, letnot the people of God despair. In the darkest night, in calamities deep andprolonged, let not those who love God despair. The morning will dawn; the light willbreak in the east; deliverance and joy will come. The Hebrew here is, “Trust, OIsrael, in the Lord.” The design of the Psalmist seems to be, from his ownexperience, to persuade others - the afflicted people of God - to put their trust inHim in whom he had himself hoped. From the very depths of affliction, guilt, andalmost despair, he had looked to the Lord: encouraged and persuaded by hisexample, he would now entreat the people of God everywhere and always, in likemanner, to trust him.

For with the Lord there is mercy - He is merciful, and in his mercy we may trust.

And with him is plenteous redemption - It is ample; it is full; it abounds. It is notlimited; it is not exhausted; it cannot be exhausted. So we may always feel when wecome before God, that his mercy is ample for all the needs of all the sinful and thesuffering; that the provisions of his grace are unexhausted and inexhaustible.Applying this, as we may, to the work of the Savior, we may feel that the redemptionwhich is in him is adequate to the needs of a world, and that although numberlessmillion have been saved by it, yet that it is still as rich, as full, and as free as it was inthe beginning; as the ocean, though from the beginning of the world it has suppliedthe materials for rain and dew to water the hills, the vales, the continents, and theislands, is still full; as the light of the sun, though for thousands of ages it has pouredits light on the planets, and on all the vast space between itself and those orbs, andhas sent out its light into the vast regions beyond, still shines with undiminishedsplendor, and pours its floods of day and of glory on all those worlds.

3. Clarke, “Let Israel hope in the Lord - , to hope for salvation, is their duty andtheir interest. But what reason is there for this hope? A twofold reason: -

1. With the Lord there is mercy - החסד hachesed, That mercy, the fund, the

essence of mercy.

2. And with him is plenteous redemption - והרבה עמו פדות veharabbah immopeduth; and that abundant redemption, that to which there is none like, theFountain of redemption, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of theworld. The article ה, both in הרבה harabbah and החסד hachesed, is veryemphatic.

4. Gill, “The psalmist having himself hope in the Lord and in his word, through aview of forgiveness with him, exhorts and encourages others to do so likewise, evenevery Israelite indeed; and such may comfortably hope in him for salvation, whichwas designed, contrived, promised, and now wrought out for sinners, the chief ofsinners, and to be had freely; and the Gospel declaration is, that whosoever believesin Christ shall be saved; as well as for the remission of sin, which God has promisedin covenant; proclaimed in Christ, whom he has sent to obtain it, and exalted to giveit; and has declared in the Gospel that whoever believes in him shall have it; andalso for eternal life and happiness, which is the gift of God through Christ; is in thehands of Christ, and of which the Spirit of God is the earnest and pledge.Arguments encouraging hope follow:

for with the Lord there is mercy; which is natural and essential to him; as displayed,is either general, and over all his works, and towards all his creatures; or special,only shown to whom he will: this flows through Christ, and is very large andabundant; and appears in various instances, in the covenant, in the mission ofChrist, and redemption by him; in regeneration, the forgiveness of sins, and insalvation; as well as it is bestowed on innumerable objects: and this nerves much toencourage hope, since there is plenty of it, and God is plenteous in it; and it is keptfor many, for thousands, and even the vilest of sinners, share in it; God has set up athrone of grace and mercy for men to apply to, and he delights in showing mercy,and in those that hope in it: or, there is "grace" (k) with him; an abundance of it inhis heart; a fulness of it in his son; and large aboundings of it through Christ, inconversion, pardon, and other things;

and with him is plenteous redemption; the purpose of it was in him; the scheme of itwas drawn by him; the covenant of it was made with Christ; the promise of it waspublished, and now the thing itself is done, and is with Christ the author of it: andthis is "plenteous", if we consider the number of persons redeemed from amongmen, being such as no man can number; what of them is redeemed, even all of them,their souls and bodies; what they are redeemed from, from all sin, the law, its curseand condemnation, from death and hell, from Satan and all enemies; the severalblessings included in it, or connected with it, pardon of sin, justification of persons,adoption, sanctification, and eternal life; the great price paid for it, the blood, thelife of Christ, yea, himself: and the large display of love, grace, and mercy, wisdom,power, justice, and holiness, made in it. Kimchi interprets this of redemption fromEgypt, Babylon, &c. “

5. Spurgeon, “Let Israel hope in the LORD. Or, "Hope thou, Israel, in Jehovah."Jehovah is Israel's God; therefore, let Israel hope in him. What one Israelite does hewishes all Israel to do. That man has a just right to exhort others who is himselfsetting the example. Israel of old waited upon Jehovah and wrestled all the nightlong, and at last he went his way succored by the Hope of Israel: the like shallhappen to all his seed. God has great things in store for his people, they ought tohave large expectations. For with the LORD there is mercy. This is in his verynature, and by the light of nature it may be seen. But we have also the light of grace,and therefore we see still more of his mercy. With us there is sin; but hope is ours,because "with the Lord there is mercy." Our comfort lies not in that which is withus, but in that which is with our God. Let us look out of self and its poverty toJehovah and his riches of mercy. And with him is plenteous redemption. He can andwill redeem all his people out of their many and great troubles; nay, theirredemption is already wrought out and laid up with him, so that he can at any timegive his waiting ones the full benefit thereof. The attribute of mercy, and the fact ofredemption, are two most sufficient reasons for hoping in Jehovah; and the fact thatthere is no mercy or deliverance elsewhere should effectually wean the soul from allidolatry. Are not these deep things of God a grand comfort for those who are cryingout of the depths? Is it not better to be in the deeps with David, hoping in God'smercy, than up on the mountain tops, boasting in our own fancied righteousness?”

6. “Let Israel hope in the LORD. This title is applied to all the Lord's people; it setsforth their dignity -- they are PRI CES; it refers to their experience -- they wrestlewith God in prayer, and they prevail. Despondency does not become a prince, muchless a Christian. Our God is "THE GOD OF HOPE"; and we should hope in him.Israel should hope in his mercy, in his patience, in his provision, in his plenteousredemption. They should hope for light in darkness; for strength in weakness; fordirection in perplexity; for deliverance in danger; for victory in conflict; and fortriumph in death. They should hope in God confidently, because he hath promised;prayerfully, for he loves to hear from us; obediently, for his precepts are to beobserved by us; and constantly, for he is always the same. --James Smith (1802-1862), in "The Believer's Daily Remembrancer,"

7. “Let Israel hope in the LORD. Whereas, in all preceding verses of the Psalm, thethoughts, the sorrows, the prayer, the penitence, the awe, the waiting, the watching,were all personal and confined to himself; here a great change has taken place, andit is no longer "I", but "Israel"; all Israel. "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with theLord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeemIsrael from all his iniquities." This is as it always ought to be ... It is the genius ofour religion to go forth to multitudes. --James Vaughan.

8. “For with the LORD there is mercy. Mercy has been shown to us, but it dwells inGod. It is one of his perfections. The exercise of it is his delight. There is mercy withthe Lord in all its fulness; he never was more merciful than now, neither will he everbe. There is mercy with the Lord in all its tenderness, he is full of compassion, hisbowels are troubled for us, his tender mercies are over us. There is mercy with himin all its variety, it suits every case.

Here is mercy that receives sinners, mercy that restores backsliders, mercy thatkeeps believers. Here is the mercy that pardons sin, that introduces to theenjoyment of all gospel privileges, and that blesses the praying soul far beyond itsexpectations. With the Lord there is mercy, and he loves to display it, he is ready toimpart it, he has determined to exalt and glorify it.

There is mercy with the Lord; this should encourage the miserable to approachhim; this informs the fearful that they need bring nothing to induce him to blessthem; this calls upon backsliders to return to him; and this is calculated to cheer thetried Christian, under all his troubles and distresses. Remember, mercy is like God,it is infinite and eternal. Mercy is always on the throne. Mercy may be obtained byany sinner. --James Smith.

9. With him is plenteous redemption. This plenteous redemption leaves behind it nomore relies of sin than Moses left hoofs of beasts behind him in Egypt. It redeemsnot only from the fault, but from the punishment; not only a tanto, but a toto notonly from such, but also from all sin and penalty; not only from the sense but fromthe fear of pain; and in the fault, not only from the guilt, but front the stain; notonly from being censured, but from being questioned. Or is it meant by a plenteousredemption that not only he leads captivity captive, but gives gifts unto men? Forwhat good is it to a prisoner to have his pardon, if he be kept in prison still for notpaying his fees? but if the prince, together with the pardon, sends also a largess thatmay maintain him when he is set at liberty, this, indeed, is a plenteous redemption;and such is the redemption that God's mercy procures unto us. It not only deliversus from a dungeon, but puts us in possession of a palace; it not only frees us fromeating bread in the sweat of our brows, but it restores us to Paradise, where allfruits are growing of their own accord; it not only clears us from being captives, butendears us to be children; and not only children, but heirs; and not only heirs, butco- heirs with Christ; and who can deny this to be a plenteous redemption Or is itsaid a plenteous redemption in regard of the price that was paid to redeem us? forwe are redeemed with a price, not of gold or precious stones, but with the preciousblood of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. For God so loved theworld that he gave his only Son to be a ransom for us, and this I am sure is aplenteous redemption. -- Sir Richard Baker.

10. Plenteous redemption, or more literally, "redemption plenteously." He calls itplenteous, as Luther says, because such is the straitness of our heart, the slendernessof our hopes, the weakness of our faith, that it far exceeds all our capacity, all ourpetitions and all our desires. --J. J. Stewart Perowne.

11. “This Psalm containeth an evident prophecy of the Messias; in setting forth his

plentiful redemption, and that he should redeem Israel, that is, the Church, from alltheir sins. Which words in their full sense were used by an angel to Joseph, in tellinghim that the child's name should be JESUS, "because he should save his peoplefrom their sins": Matthew 1:21. --Sir John Hayward (1560-1627), in "David'sTears," 1623.

8. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

1. Henry, “He encourages all the people of God in like manner to depend upon himand trust in him: Let Israel hope in the Lord and wait for him; not only the bodyof the people, but every good man, who surnames himself by the name of Israel,

Isa_44:5. Let all that devote themselves to God cheerfully stay themselves uponhim (Psa_130:7, Psa_130:8), for two reasons: - 1. Because the light of naturediscovers to us that there is mercy with him, that the God of Israel is a mercifulGod and the Father of mercies. Mercy is with him; not only inherent in hisnature, but it is his delight, it is his darling attribute; it is with him in all hisworks, in all his counsels. 2. Because the light of the gospel discovers to us thatthere is redemption with him, contrived by him, and to be wrought out in the

fulness of time; it was in the beginning hidden in God. See here, (1.) The natureof this redemption; it is redemption from sin, from all sin, and therefore can beno other than that eternal redemption which Jesus Christ became the author of;for it is he that saves his people from their sins (Mat_1:21), that redeems them

from all iniquity (Tit_2:14), and turns away ungodliness from Jacob, Rom_11:26.It is he that redeems us both from the condemning and from the commandingpower of sin. (2.) The riches of this redemption; it is plenteous redemption; thereis an all-sufficient fulness of merit and grace in the Redeemer, enough for all,enough for each; enough for me, says the believer. Redemption from sin includesredemption from all other evils, and therefore is a plenteous redemption. (3.)The persons to whom the benefits of this redemption belong: He shall redeem

Israel, Israel according to the spirit, all those who are in covenant with God, asIsrael was, and who are Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile.

2. Spurgeon, “And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Our iniquities areour worst dangers: if saved from these, we are saved altogether; but there is nosalvation from them except by redemption. What a blessing that this is herepromised in terms which remove it out of the region of question: the Lord shallcertainly redeem his believing people from all their sins. Well may the redemptionbe plenteous since it concerns all Israel and all iniquities! Truly, our Psalm hasascended to a great height in this verse: this is no cry out of the depths, but a choralein the heights. Redemption is the top of covenant blessings. When it shall beexperienced by all Israel, the latter day glory shall have come, and the Lord's peopleshall say, " ow, Lord, what wait we for?" Is not this a clear prophecy of the comingof our Lord Jesus the first time? and may we not now regard it as the promise of hissecond and more glorious coming for the redemption of the body? For this our souldoth wait: yea, our heart and our flesh cry out for it with joyful expectation.”

3. “From his iniquities. ot only from the punishment (as Ewald and Hupfeld). The

redemption includes the forgiveness of sins, the breaking of the power and dominionof sin, and the setting free from all the consequences of sin. --J. J. Stewart Perowne.

4. Iniquities. Iniquities of eye -- has conscience no voice there? Is no iniquity everpractised by your eye? Let conscience speak. Iniquity of ear -- is there no iniquitythat enters into your heart through the ear? You cannot listen to a conversation inthe street without iniquity entering into your heart through what Bunyan calls "Eargate." Iniquity of lip -- do you always keep your tongue as with a bridle? Do yourlips never drop anything unbecoming the gospel? Is there no carnal conversation, noangry word at home, no expression that you would not like the saints of God tohear? What! your lips always kept so strictly that there is never a single expressiondropped from them which you would be ashamed to utter before an assembly ofGod's people? Iniquity of thought -- if your eyes, ears, and lips are clean, is there noiniquity of thought? What! in that workshop within, no iniquitous suggestions, noevil workings? Oh, how ignorant must we be of ourselves, if we feel that we have noiniquity of thought! Iniquity of imagination -- does not fancy sometimes bringbefore you scenes of sensuality in which your carnal nature is vile enough to revel?Iniquity of memory -- does not memory sometimes bring back sins you formerlycommitted, and your evil nature is perhaps base enough to desire they had beengreater Iniquity of feeling -- no enmity against God's people ever working? no prideof heart? no covetousness? no hypocrisy? no self righteousness? no sensuality? nobase thought that you cannot disclose even to your bosom friend? But here is theblessed promise -- a promise only suited to Israel: for all but Israel lose sight of theiriniquities, and justify themselves in self righteousness. one but Israel feel andconfess their iniquities, and therefore to Israel is the promise of redemption limited:"He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." What! all? Yes, ot one left? o,not a trace, not a shade, not the shadow of a shade; all buried, all gone, allswallowed up, all blotted out, all freely pardoned, all cast behind God's back.--Joseph C. Philpot, 1802-1869.

5. What a graceful and appropriate conclusion of this comprehensive and instructive

Psalm! Like the sun, it dawns veiled in cloud, it sets bathed in splendour; it openswith soul depth, it closes with soul height. Redemption from all iniquity! It bafflesthe most descriptive language, and distances the highest measurement. The mostvivid imagination faints in conceiving it, the most glowing image fails in portrayingit, and faith droops her wing in the bold attempt to scale its summit. "He shallredeem Israel from all his iniquities." The verse is a word painting of man restored,and of Paradise regained. --Octavius Winslow.

6. Calvin, “And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Here the Psalmistapplies more closely to the Church what he has said in the preceding verse. Heconcludes that it is not to be doubted that God, who has it in his power to save bymultiplied means, will prove himself the deliverer of the people whom he has

chosen. By these words he teaches us, that when we have evidence of our beingadopted by God, we ought also to regard our salvation as certain. His meaningmight be explained more familiarly in this way: As to redeem is the continualoffice of God, and as he is not the redeemer of all men indiscriminately, but onlyof his chosen people, there is no reason for apprehending that the faithful willnot emerge from all calamities; for were it otherwise, God would cease to executethe office which he claims to himself. He repeats the sentiment of the precedingverse, that, provided Israel with all humility draw near to God to plead forpardon, his sins will not be an obstacle in the way of God's showing himself hisredeemer. Although the Hebrew word, we , avon, is often put for thepunishment of sin, yet it also contains a tacit reference to the fault. Whenever,then, God promises a mitigation of the punishment, he at the same time givesassurance that he will pardon the sins; or rather in offering to sinners agratuitous reconciliation, he promises them forgiveness. According to thisexposition it is here said that he will redeem his Church, not from the captivityof Babylon, or from the tyranny and oppression of enemies, or from penury, or,in short, from any other disasters but from sin; for until God pardon the sins ofthe men whom he afflicts, deliverance is not to be hoped for. Let us then learnfrom this passage in what way we are to expect deliverance from all calamities,or the order which it becomes us to observe in seeking it. Remission of sinsalways goes first, without which nothing will come to a favorable issue. Thosewho only desire to shake off the punishment are like silly invalids, who arecareless about the disease itself with which they are afflicted, provided thesymptoms which occasion them trouble for a time are removed. In order, then,that God may deliver us from our miseries, we must chiefly endeavor to bebrought to a state of favor with him by obtaining the remission of our sins. If thisis not obtained, it will avail us little to have the temporal punishment remitted;for that often happens even to the reprobate themselves. This is true andsubstantial deliverance, when God, by blotting out our sins, shows himselfmerciful towards us. Whence, also, we gather, that having once obtainedforgiveness, we have no reason to be afraid of our being excluded from freeaccess to, and from enjoying the ready exercise of, the lovingkindness and mercyof God; for to redeem from iniquity is equivalent to moderating punishments orchastisements.

7. Barnes, “he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities - people. He will completelydeliver them from the power and the pollution of sin. This will ultimately beaccomplished in reference to his whole church, and to every true member of thatchurch. This was the highest object before the mind of the psalmist - that withwhich the psalm appropriately closes. And this is the highest object before the mindof every true child of God - that he may be completely and forever delivered fromthe power and the dominion of sin. This will be perfectly accomplished in heavenonly; but there and then the bliss will be complete. The psalm begins with an earnestcry from the “depths;” it closes with the triumphant hope of complete and eternal

deliverance. There is one world where there is no occasion to cry to God from the“depths” of sorrow and of sin.”

8. Clarke, “He shall redeem Israel - Και αυτος υτρωσει, “He will make a ransom forIsrael,” He will provide a great price for Israel, and by it will take away all hisiniquities. I would not restrict this to Israel in Babylon. Every believer may take it tohimself. God perfectly justifies and perfectly sanctifies all that come unto himthrough the Son of his love.

9. Gill, “The Lord shall do it; in whom Israel is encouraged to hope; with whomgrace and redemption were; or who was appointed to be the Redeemer. Redemptionwas then future, when these words were said, but certain, by the promise of Godand agreement of Christ; and would be of the whole Israel, or elect of God; and thatfrom "all" their iniquities, original and actual; sins, secret and open, of heart, lip,and life: and which is no small encouragement for Israel to hope in the Lord, for thesake of which this is added; as well as for the further illustration of the nature ofredemption by Christ; which is complete, and now obtained, and is an eternal one.”

10. The hymn version of this Psalm by Isaac Watts.

Out of the depths of long distress, the borders of despair,

I sent my cries to seek thy grace, my groans to move thine ear.

Great God, should they severer eye, and thine impartial hand

Mark and revenge iniquity, no mortal flesh could stand.

But there are pardons with my God for crimes of high degree;

Thy Son has bought them with his blood to draw us near to thee.

I wait for thy salvation, Lord, with strong desires I wait;

My, soul, invited by thy Word, stands watching at thy gate.

Just as the guards that keep the night long for the morning skies

With the first beams of breaking light, and meet the with their eyes.

So waits my soul to see thy face, and more intent than they,

Meets the fresh openings of thy grace, and finds a brighter day.

Then in the Lord let Israel trust, let Israel seek his face;

The Lord is good as well as just, and plenteous in his grace.

There's full redemption at his throne for sinners long enslaved;

The great Redeemer is his Son, and Israel shall be saved.