The Pulpit Commentaries Psalms (Vol .7) (Joseph S. Exell)
《The Pulpit Commentaries – Psalms (Vol .7)》(Joseph S. Exell)
130 Psalm 130
Verses 1-8
EXPOSITION
THE cry of Israel in extreme distress—apparently a Captivity song. Israel has sinned and been punished; it now acknowledges its sins, and prays for mercy and forgiveness. Towards the end (Psalms 130:7, Psalms 130:8)the prayer rises into confident hope. Metrically, the psalm consists of four stanzas, each of two verses.
Psalms 130:1
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord (comp. Psalms 69:2, Psalms 69:14; Isaiah 51:10; Ezekiel 27:34). "The depths" are the lowest abysses of calamity. They have not, however, separated Israel from God, but have rather brought him to God.
Psalms 130:2
Lord, hear my voice; i.e."hear and grant my request;" or, as explained in the next clause, let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
Psalms 130:3
If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities. The Prayer-book paraphrase gives the true sense, "If thou, Lord, shouldest be extreme to mark what is done miss." If thou didst not "hide our transgressions" and "cover up" half our sins—then, O Lord, who shall stand?.
Psalms 130:4
But there is forgiveness with thee (comp. Exodus 34:7; 1 Kings 8:30, 1 Kings 8:34, 1 Kings 8:36, 1 Kings 8:39. etc.; Psalms 25:13; Psalms 32:1, etc.; Daniel 9:9; 1 John 1:9, etc.). That thou mayest be feared. Milton makes his Satan say, "Then farewell hope, and, with hope, farewell fear!" ('Paradise Lost,' canto 1.). And certainly the true fear of God, which Scripture requires in us—a reverential, loving fear—could not exist, unless we had a confident hope in God's mercy and willingness to forgive us our trespasses, if we turn to him.
Psalms 130:5
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait. "Waiting for the Lord" is patiently bearing our affliction, whatever it may be, and confidently looking forward to deliverance from it in God's good time. The expression, "my soul doth wait," is stronger than "I wait;" it implies heart-felt trust and confidence. And in his word do I hope; i.e. his word of promise.
Psalms 130:6
My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning; i.e. more eagerly, more anxiously, than even the night watchman, tired with his long vigil. Again the repetition adds force.
Psalms 130:7
Let Israel hope in the Lord; or, "O Israel, hope in the Lord;" i.e.continue to hope, even though in the "depths" of calamity (see Psalms 130:1). For with the Lord there is mercy (see above, Psalms 130:4, and the comment ad loc). And with him is plenteous redemption (comp. Psalms 111:9). Enough and to spare for all (see Isaiah 55:1).
Psalms 130:8
And he shall redeem Israel from all his sins (comp. Psalms 25:22; Psalms 103:3, Psalms 103:4).
HOMILETICS
Psalms 130:1-8
Penitence and hope.
We have the psalmist hero in—
I.THEDEPTHOFSOMEGREATDISTRESS. It may be some severe loss he has sustained, and consequent loneliness of soul; or it may be some great disappointment of his hopes or defeat by the enemy; or it may be the persecution of those who reproach him for serious inconsistency; or it may be peril in which his cause or his life is threatened; or it may be a sad sense of personal unworthiness. Bat, whatever it may have been, it calls forth—
II.ANAPPEALTOGOD. When we are in any great distress, we look up to heaven; our appeal is instinctive; even the unbelieving and the profane cry to God "out of the depths." It may be inarticulate, with little or no foundation of intelligence; it may be nothing more than the outburst of a suffering spirit, making its appeal to Divine power and pity. But it is a relief even to the undevout. It usually and naturally takes the form of—
III. A HUMBLECONFESSIONOFSIN.
1. Sometimes the trouble is the direct and palpable consequence of sin, as when vice ends in sickness, or extravagance in straits, or crime in conviction.
2. Sometimes the sorrow is the painful and piercing conviction of moral guilt, of transgression against God, and condemnation by him—it may be the publican in the temple bowed down with a sense of sin.
3. Sometimes it is the deep and general conviction that all sorrow is ultimately due to sin, and that when we are in a very pitiful condition it is both proof and reminder that we have sinned against the Lord, and that we deserve whatever kind of distress we may be experiencing. Sorrow proceeds from sin and points to it.
IV.THEHOPEOFTHEPENITENT. This is not in God's justice, but in his mercy. If God were to "mark iniquities," i.e. to mark them for immediate punishment, according to their desert, no man could "stand in his sight" (Psalms 76:7). There must be withdrawal from his presence, banishment from his hand. But our God is a God of patience, of forgiveness; he gives opportunity to the penitent. While unqualified severity would drive us into abject terror and hopeless exile, Divine mercy draws us near in true and manly confession, in hope of restoration, in return to his service. There is forgiveness with him, that he may be feared, that he may be approached, and that we may be restored.
1. With God, as he is revealed to us in Jesus Christ, there is "plenteous redemption." No guilty man, however deep his stain, need remain in the distance; he may draw nigh with a strong assurance of forgiveness and restoration.
2. The hope of the penitent rests on the sure basis of God's inviolable Word (Psalms 130:5). Heaven and earth may pass away, but not the word of Christ's promise. "Come unto me, all ye that labor … I will give you rest;" "Him that cometh … I will in no wise cast out;"—these assurances constitute an immovable rock on which the troubled soul may build.
3. The true attitude of the penitent and believing spirit is that of confident expectation. As surely as the morning comes after the night, so surely will God's delivering grace follow the earnest prayer of the penitent. Let there be the earnestness of the watching sentinel, or of the shipwrecked sailor as he longs for the light of the morning, and there may be perfect confidence that he will not seek or wait in vain.
V.THEBLESSEDISSUE. Not merely recovery from sickness, or removal of trouble, but "redemption from all iniquity" (Psalms 130:8; Titus 2:14).
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psalms 130:1-8
De profundis.
This psalm, whose date, authorship, and special reference no one certainly knows, nevertheless presents to us three marked stages in the experience of the writer of the psalm.
I.INTHEDEPTHS. (Psalms 130:1-3.) Undoubtedly he knew what these were; and very deep depths they appear to have been.
1.His sad condition seems to have been brought about, not so much by any outward circumstances of his life, as by some inward spiritual distress.His soul was consciously separated from God; some great gulf, into which he had fallen, had opened between him and the God who had once been his delight and exceeding joy. It may have been that the sense of guilt and condemnation lay heavily on him, or that he was in dread of some approaching calamity, or that he was plunged in grief and shame by the might and mastery of some sin. Sin had undoubtedly to do with it, as it has to do with like distressing experiences in our own lives.
2.And it is a matter for deep thankfulness when sin does cast us into such depths.Too many people regard sin as a mere trifle; it never troubles them seriously at all. And the cause of the vapid, feeble, and ineffectual Christian life which so many professed Christians lead is that they have never had any real conviction of sin; they have never been in any "depths" about it. Would to God all had I for there seems no hope of a real, earnest, and devoted Christian life without it. But the psalmist was in the depths, and this explains the heights to which he afterwards rose.
3. He cries unto the Lord.It is an earnest, self-abasing, yet passionate, appeal. He implores the Lord to be attentive to his supplication. It is only people in such depths that thus cry unto the Lord. Others may say prayers; but these men "cry."
4.He is filled with fear, lest the Lord should mark his iniquities.If the Lord did that, there could be no hope for him; and, remembering this, he seems to sink down deeper than ever. It is a vivid instance of the Holy Spirit's conviction of sin.
II.RISINGOUTOFTHEM. (Psalms 130:4-6.)
1.Theupward ascent begins by his laying hold of the truth that there is forgiveness with God.Faith has come; and as he believes, he sees that God's forgiveness can alone ensure that state of heart in him, that fear, which God desires to see in us all. He feels that he will never get right, save as he believes in God's forgiveness. And this is undoubtedly true.
2.Then he proceeds to put that faith in practice,and to wait on the Lord. And this he does in no half-hearted way. He says, "I wait;" then, "My soul waiteth;" then he stays himself on God's word of forgiveness, and hopes therein; then he likens his faith to the eager expectation of those who are anxiously, but believingly, watching for the morning—yea, with more than their desire and confidence does he wait! Of course, there can be but one response to faith like this—the man rises out of the depths, as such men ever will.
III.CLEARABOVETHEM. (Psalms 130:7, Psalms 130:8.)
1.He has got what he desires—theassurance of God's forgiveness.
2.In the joy of it he turns to others,and exhorts them to hope in the Lord, and testifies that "with the Lord there is,"etc. (Psalms 130:7).
3. And then, in the conviction that the love which has so blessed him cannot fail for Israel, he confidently predicts that the Lord "will redeem,"etc. (Psalms 130:8). All this earnest witnessing for God is the sure sign that he is now clear up above, and right out of those depths in which he at first was. In the depths we cannot thus witness, but out of them we must and shall.—S.C.
Psalms 130:4
The assurance of God's forgiveness.
The psalmist had this, and his history is recorded for our help—for the help of all those who desire this assurance.
I.NOTETOWHOMTHISBLESSEDASSURANCEISGIVEN.
1.Notto every one.For many do not care for it—they think there is no need; they persuade themselves that God is easy, and will readily forgive. But this presumption is not God's assurance, for it gives them no settled rest; they have awful misgivings at times. It lasts only so long as their light notions of sin last. When they wake up to the reality of sin, then they are in despair. It awakes no love to God (cf. Luke 7:47); it produces no hatred of sin; if it did, it would lead to that which St. John says, "He that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure." Others there are who will not believe. How hard it is to persuade distressed souls that God does forgive!
2.But this assurance is given to such as are described in this psalm.
II.THEEVIDENCEONWHICHITRESTS.
1.It needs evidence;for conscience is against it; God's love is against it; the testimony of nature and science is against it; earthly governments do not forgive; we ourselves do not thus forgive. Therefore evidence for it is needed.
2.Such evidence is furnished by many fasts.
III.THERESULTSTHATFOLLOW. God will be feared, that is, with the fear which love begets in a dear child. Such fear springs from no other source, but ever from this.—S.C.
Psalms 130:7
Plenteous redemption.
The text declares that with the Lord there is this, and we observe—
I.ITISUNDOUBTEDLYTRUE.
1.TheScriptures affirm it.It is not alone the declaration of this Scripture, but of many more besides.
2.And experience,that of myriads of believers in all ages, attests the same truth. They will tell us with one accord that they have found it so.
3.And it is plenteous because it is redemption from all evil.
4. And it is accessible to all.(Isaiah 55:1.) It is the free gift of God.
II.BUTMANYDONOTCAREFORIT. They would like a redemption from pain and distress; but they do not care for a redemption from sin—they love and hold on to it too much; holiness excites no desire in their hearts; they love sin.
III.ANDMANYOFTHOSEWHODODARECANHARDLYBEGOTTOBELIEVEINIT. They cannot realize that it is a free gift. For:
1.They keep thinking that they must do something in the way of righteousness and holiness if they are to be saved. They want to bring something of their own to God, in return for which they shall be saved.
2. And there is much to foster this unbelief.
3.But such unbelief cannot be true.
IV.BUTTHISGRACEOFGOD, INBESTOWINGONUSFREELYTHISPLENTEOUSREDEMPTION, ISJUSTIFIEDBYITSRESULTS.
1. It wakes up in the recipient an overwhelming gratitude.But this is a mighty incentive to all holy obedience.
2.It enables us to go to the vilest of men and proclaim God's mercy waiting for them.We could not do this were it not all of grace.
3.It forbids alike both boasting and despair.
4. It shows a dear path to the fullest salvation the world can know.I can be holy as he is holy, because of this free gift received through faith.
5.It redounds to the glory of God.—S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psalms 130:1
The cry of the humbled.
The psalm belongs to the age of true national contrition, when nothing would satisfy but deliverance from sin, as well as from its punishment (comp. Lamentations 3:55; Jonah 2:2). When men are disheartened and depressed, overwhelmed with anxieties and troubles, we familiarly speak of them as "down in the depths." It is a natural and universal figure. "On the hills" represents excitement and joy; "in the depths" represents depression and anxiety. "This psalm is distinctly a song of ascent, in that it starts from the very lowest point of sell: abasement and consciousness of evil, and rises steadily, and, though it may be slowly, yet surely, up to the tranquil summit, led by a consciousness of the Divine presence and grace." "The psalmist thinks of himself as of a man at the bottom of a pit, sending up to the surface a faint call, which may easily be unheard. He does not merely mean to express his sense of human insignificance, nor even his sorrows, nor his despondency. There are deeper depths than these. They are the depths into which the spirit feels itself going down, sick and giddy, when there comes the thought, 'I am a sinful man, O Lord, in the presence of thy great purity.' Out of these depths does he cry to God."
I.THEDEPTHSARETHEPLACEFORUSALL. Every man amongst us has to go down there, if we take the place that belongs to us.
II.UNLESSYOUHAVECRIEDTOGODOUTOFTHOSEDEPTHS, YOUHAVENEVERCRIEDTOHIMATALL. Unless you come to him as a penitent, sinful man, with the consciousness of transgression awakened within you, your prayers are shallow. The beginning of all true personal religion lies in the sense of my own sin and my lost condition. Whenever you find men and women with a Christianity that sits very lightly upon them, that does not impel them to any acts of service and devotion, and never rises into the heights of communion with God, depend upon it the man has never been down into the abyss, and never sent his voice up from it. "Out of the depths" he has not cried unto God.
III.YOUWANTNOTHINGMORETHAN A CRYTODRAWYOUFROMTHEPIT. It is not that your crying will lift you out; it is that your crying will bring you help. The "infant crying in the night" does nothing for itself by its crying; but the cry brings its mother. And the cry means that hope of self-help is altogether abandoned, the soul having to say, "Myself I cannot save," cries after Christ, saying, "Jesu, have mercy on me!" (part Maclaren).—R.T.
Psalms 130:3
The fears of conscience.
In pleading for her father's life before the first Napoleon, a poor girl said, "Sire, I do not ask for justice; I implore pardon." The inward sense of our sin will never permit us to make a claim for anything before God. His love of forgiving, and triumph over all hindrances in the way of forgiving, are our only pleas, and our only grounds of hope. The searching character of the Divine inspection is indicated in Psalms 139:1-24, and in Hebrews 4:12, Hebrews 4:13. Conscience freely admits that the Divine examination of the life cannot be endured. "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" There need be no difficulty in understanding what conscience is. Some, indeed, regard it as a separate and independent power, which acts in a man as a sort of sentinel, giving notice of the approach or presence of evil. But it is altogether simpler to regard it as the ordinary faculty of judgment exercised by a man concerning the quality of his own actions. That self-judgment inevitably brings a man into fears.
I.CONSCIENCETESTIFIESBOTHTHEGOODANDTHEBAD. This is often missed from view. Usually conscience is thought of as concerned only with the evil; and so its power and witness are only dreaded. Conscience ought to be the cheer of life. A man knows when he has done right. Appraising his life, he can sometimes approve. "Conscience makes cowards of us all;" but it is equally true that "Conscience can make brave men of us all."