Psalms 130

A Song of degrees.

The psalmist speaks in the first person singular in behalf of all Israel, and his cry is that of penitence and hope out of deep outward distress. The De Profundis “ Out of the Depths,” with which it opens, is a fitting title. Psalms 130:3-4 are a confession of sin as the cause of his misery, from which not human merit but the forgiving mercy of God alone can save him. Psalms 130:5-6, express his steadfast hope and waiting faith in that mercy to which also, in Psalms 130:7, he exhorts all Israel, closing, in Psalms 130:8, with a confident expectation that Israel shall yet be redeemed from present sin and its consequent punishment. The psalm is tenderly plaintive and hopeful, and breathes an evangelical spirit and doctrine worthy of New Testament times. The plaintive strain is in sympathy with Psalms 86:0. Everything points to a late date of the psalm, which in spirit might harmonize with the circumstances of Israel recorded Ezra 9:10. The word rendered attentive, (Psalms 130:2,) occurs elsewhere only in 2 Chronicles 6:40; 2 Chronicles 7:15; and the word forgiveness, Psalms 130:4, only in Nehemiah 9:9; Nehemiah 9:17, and Daniel 9:9. The psalm is the sixth of the so-called seven Penitential Psalms, namely, Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51" class="scriptRef">51, 102, 130, 143" class="scriptRef">143. Luther ranked it among the best of the psalms, and denominated it and Psalms 32, 51, 143, “Pauline Psalms.”