Out of the Depths
1 A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh. 2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my petitions. 3 If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared. 5 I wait for Yahweh. My soul waits. I hope in his word. 6 My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 7 Israel, hope in Yahweh, for there is loving kindness with Yahweh. Abundant redemption is with him. 8 He will redeem Israel from all their sins.
The reason God is feared is not that he keeps records but that he does not.
A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh.
Eight verses, and among the most concentrated in the collection. The depths are the deep water of the drowning psalms, and no other detail of the situation is given.
If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
The question has one answer and the psalm does not bother to give it. The verb means to watch or keep — to hold a ledger — and standing is what a defendant does when the verdict is read.
But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared.
The most surprising therefore in Scripture. The expected conclusion is the opposite: forgiveness available, therefore God is taken lightly. The psalm says the reverse, and it is right about how people work. A God who merely punished could be resented, evaded, or bargained with; one who forgives cannot be dealt with at arm's length, and being forgiven is the experience that produces awe rather than dissolving it.
I wait for Yahweh. My soul waits. I hope in his word.
Waiting, twice, and then the object of it. What he is waiting on is not a change in circumstances but a word.
My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
The comparison is repeated exactly, which is what the last watch of the night feels like. A sentry on a wall wants the light more than he wants anything, and there is nothing he can do to bring it — and it is certain. That combination is the psalm's picture of waiting on God: powerless, and not in doubt.
Israel, hope in Yahweh, for there is loving kindness with Yahweh. Abundant redemption is with him.
The psalm turns outward at the end and hands the congregation what it has just found.
He will redeem Israel from all their sins.
The last verse names what the depths actually were.
settled What this mark means