Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
    Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.
If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel
    from all their sins.

• Psalm 130:1-8

Type of Psalm

Penitential psalms:  Penitential psalms relate to penitence, but more specifically confession.

Matthew Henry’s Summary

“This psalm relates not to any temporal concern, either personal or public, but it is wholly taken up with the affairs of the soul. It is reckoned one of the seven penitential psalms, which have sometimes been made use of by penitents, upon their admission into the church; and, in singing it, we are all concerned to apply it to ourselves. The psalmist here expresses, I. His desire towards God, ver. 1, 2. II. His repentance before God, ver. 3, 4. III. His attendance upon God, ver. 5, 6. IV. His expectations from God, ver. 7, 8. And, as in water face answers to face, so does the heart of one humble penitent to another.”

• Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Psalm 130 “To be human is to be in trouble. Job’s anguish is our epigraph: ‘Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.’ Suffering is a characteristic of the personal. Animals can be hurt, but they do not suffer. The earth can be ravaged, yet it cannot suffer. Man and woman, alone in the creation, suffer. For suffering is pain plus: physical or emotional pain plus the awareness that our own worth as people is threatened, that our own value as creatures made in the dignity of God is called into question, that our own destiny as eternal souls is jeopardized. Are we to be, finally, nothing? Are we to be discarded? Are we to be rejects in the universe and thrown onto the garbage dump of humanity because our bodies degenerate or our emotions malfunction or our minds become confused or our families find fault with us or society avoids us? Any one of these things, or, as is more likely, a combination of them, can put us in the state Psalm 130 describes as ‘the bottom has fallen out of my life!’
“A Christian is a person who decides to face and live through suffering. If we do not make that decision, we are endangered on every side. A man or woman of faith who fails to acknowledge and deal with suffering becomes, at last, either a cynic or a melancholic or a suicide. Psalm 130 grapples mightily with suffering, sings its way through it, and provides usable experience for those who are committed to traveling the way of faith to God through Jesus Christ.”

• Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

My Thoughts

This psalm is not attributed to any author.

This continues the songs of ascent, where the people make their pilgrimage up the mountain to Jerusalem.

The psalmist begs for mercy.

It is good that when God forgives sins of a person, there is no accounting of those sins.  If God kept such accounts, no one could stand up to that scrutiny.

We wait for the Lord, with more earnestness than the watchman.

Note:  Prophets often speak of the watchman being the one that gives you a warning of impending doom or glorious relief.   … unless the watchman is asleep.

Only from the Lord can we have hope, a full redemption, and forgiveness of our sins.

Psalm 131

My heart is not proud, Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord

• Psalm 131:1-3

Type of Psalm

Didactic psalms: These psalms are psalms that are intended to teach.  In most cases the psalm instructs us in moral principles.

Matthew Henry’s Summary

“This psalm is David’s profession of humility, humbly made, with thankfulness to God for his grace, and not in vain-glory. It is probable enough that (as most interpreters suggest) David made this protestation in answer to the calumnies of Saul and his courtiers, who represented David as an ambitious aspiring man, who, under pretence of a divine appointment, sought the kingdom, in the pride of his heart. But he appeals to God, that, on the contrary, I. He aimed at nothing high nor great, ver. 1. II. He was very easy in every condition which God allotted him (ver. 2); and therefore, III. He encourages all good people to trust in God as he did, ver. 3. Some have made it an objection against singing David’s psalms that there are many who cannot say, ‘My heart is not haughty,’ etc. It is true there are; but we may sing it for the same purpose that we read it, to teach and admonish ourselves, and one another, what we ought to be, with repentance that we have come short of being so, and humble prayer to God for his grace to make us so.”

• Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Psalm 131 “Every spring in my neighborhood a number of people prune their bushes and trees. It is an annual practice among people who care about growing things. It is also one of those acts that an outsider, one who does not understand how growth works, almost always misunderstands, for it always looks like an act of mutilation. It appears that you are ruining the plant when, in fact, you are helping it. …
“Psalm 131 is a maintenance psalm. It is functional to the person of faith as pruning is functional to the gardener: it gets rid of that which looks good to those who don’t know any better, and reduces the distance between our hearts and their roots in God.”

• Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

My Thoughts

This psalm is attributed to David.

This continues the songs of ascent, where the people make their pilgrimage up the mountain to Jerusalem.

David is humble.  He is like a weaned child.  He is content.

Psalm 132

Lord, remember David
    and all his self-denial.
He swore an oath to the Lord,
    he made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
“I will not enter my house
    or go to my bed,
I will allow no sleep to my eyes
    or slumber to my eyelids,
till I find a place for the Lord,
    a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
We heard it in Ephrathah,
    we came upon it in the fields of Jaar:
“Let us go to his dwelling place,
    let us worship at his footstool, saying,
‘Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place,
    you and the ark of your might.
May your priests be clothed with your righteousness;
    may your faithful people sing for joy.’”
For the sake of your servant David,
    do not reject your anointed one.
The Lord swore an oath to David,
    a sure oath he will not revoke:
“One of your own descendants
    I will place on your throne.
If your sons keep my covenant
    and the statutes I teach them,
then their sons will sit
    on your throne for ever and ever.”
For the Lord has chosen Zion,
    he has desired it for his dwelling, saying,
“This is my resting place for ever and ever;
    here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.
I will bless her with abundant provisions;
    her poor I will satisfy with food.
I will clothe her priests with salvation,
    and her faithful people will ever sing for joy.
“Here I will make a horn grow for David
    and set up a lamp for my anointed one.
I will clothe his enemies with shame,
    but his head will be adorned with a radiant crown.”

• Psalm 132:1-18

Type of Psalm

Intercessional psalms:  These are psalms where the psalmist intercedes with God for others.

Matthew Henry’s Summary

“It is probable that this psalm was penned by Solomon, to be sung at the dedication of the temple which he built according to the charge his father gave him, 1 Chron. 28:2-21 Having fulfilled his trust, he begs of God to own what he had done. I. He had built this house for the honour and service of God; and when he brings the ark into it, the token of God’s presence, he desires that God himself would come and take possession of it, ver. 8-10. With these words Solomon concluded his prayer, 2 Chron. 6:41, 42. II. He had built it in pursuance of the orders he had received from his father, and therefore his pleas to enforce these petitions refer to David. 1. He pleads David’s piety towards God, ver. 1-7. 2. He pleads God’s promise to David, ver. 11-18. The former introduces his petition: the latter follows it as an answer to it. In singing this psalm we must have a concern for the gospel church as the temple of God, and a dependence upon Christ as David our King, in whom the mercies of God are sure mercies.”

• Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Psalm 132 “After another half an hour he began to hallucinate, and having lost touch with reality began to shout, “Peterson, pray for me; can’t you see I’m dying! Peterson, pray for me!” His shouts brought nurses and doctors and orderlies running. They held him down and quieted him with the injection that I had prescribed earlier.
The parabolic force of the incident is this: when the man was scared he wanted me to pray for him, and when the man was crazy he wanted me to pray for him, but in between, during the hours of so-called normalcy, he didn’t want anything to do with a pastor. What Kelly betrayed in extremis is all many people know of religion: a religion to help them with their fears but that is forgotten when the fears are taken care of; a religion made of moments of craziness but that is remote and shadowy in the clear light of the sun and the routines of every day. The most religious places in the world, as a matter of fact, are not churches but battlefields and mental hospitals. You are much more likely to find passionate prayer in a foxhole than in a church pew; and you will certainly find more otherworldly visions and supernatural voices in a mental hospital than you will in a church.”

• Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

My Thoughts

This psalm is not attributed to any author.

This continues the songs of ascent, where the people make their pilgrimage up the mountain to Jerusalem.

To explain Rev. Peterson’s comment, he spent a couple of days in the hospital after having surgery on his nose.  His roommate joked about Peterson’s black eyes.  But a little later, Rev. Peterson went to set the record straight.  He was not a prize fighter or an alley brawler.  He had broken his nose years before in a basketball game and it took him a long time before he decided to get it fixed.  His roommate asked what Peterson did for a living, and when Eugene Peterson said he was a pastor, his roommate turned away.

Note: Not all “nose jobs” are cosmetic.  My nose has been broken three times.  There is so much scar tissue in my nasal passages that breathing through my nose is often difficult.  My wife, having been a surgical tech, said that the type of surgery to fix my nose was one of the nastiest she ever assisted a surgeon in doing.  She urged for me to avoid it.  But continued blockage and headaches as a result could be why many get the surgery done, not to make the face prettier.

A little later, the roommate begged Peterson to pray for him.  He was afraid about his upcoming surgery.  Then after the surgery, the man started begging for more pain killers.  Rev. Peterson agreed that he must be in excruciating pain.  The nurse ignored them both.  But then when the young man became hysterical and hallucinating from the pain, they gave him something.

The point Rev. Peterson was making is that we turn to God when we are scared or when we are delirious for one reason or another.  When times are good, we turn our back on God, just as his roommate turned his back on Rev. Peterson.

And note how it was “Peterson”, and not Rev. Peterson.  We often do that.  We ignore God all day and then when we pray, it is like we are talking down to God, giving God instructions for the next day.

Last night, I was setting up everything for this Bible study, except this writing.  I had to stop.  I was in pain.  The pain was on my left side, near the bottom of my rib cage.  I may have something herniated or a pulled muscle, but being on the left side, I tried to call my son.  He did not answer.  So, instead of finishing and uploading this post to its scheduled spot, I saved the document and went to bed early.  I did not wish to bother 911 with a triviality.  I did not wish to go to the ER.  They would probably give me a narcotic pain killer and refuse to allow me to drive home.  So, I turned my eyes skyward and simply prayed, “Lord, help me.” I then got in a position on the bed where the pain was the least, and I heard a voice saying, “To help you, there are two options.  You could die in your sleep.  Or, you could awaken tomorrow morning with less pain, a signal that this was not really an emergency anyway.”  My reply was that God is God, and in either case, God had helped me.  Well, it was the latter, or you would not be reading this.  More hysteria than life or death pain.

But that should be the way we go to God.  We acknowledge that He is God and we are not.  And regardless of the answer to our prayer, God answers our prayer in His way rather than the way we wish.

The previous psalm (131) is attributed to David, and this one starts with the psalmist saying that David humbled himself, the basic theme of Psalm 131.

David had sworn an oath that he would not sleep until God had a “resting place” – the temple.  But God swore an oath to David that he would not build such a resting place.  Instead, it would be one of David’s descendants.

But it did not say Solomon, nor did it say one of David’s sons.  The psalm says descendants, and the temple will be God’s dwelling place forever and ever.

Yet, there is a condition for the sons of David to reside on the throne.  They must be faithful to God.  But David’s own son, Solomon, married wives from tribes forbidden to the Israelites and Solomon built altars for their gods to make his wives happy.

Thus, the dwelling place, the “temple” to which this psalm refers is Jesus Christ our Lord.  He is the dwelling place where God resides forever and ever.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Psalm 130

“1. Why do you think this psalm is a standard for Christian funerals?
“2. Has sin ever cut a rift between you and God? Was a closeness restored? How?
“3. Have you been waiting for something a long time? Why don’t you give up? How long will you wait?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Psalm 131

“1. How do you ‘still your soul’?
“2. To what ‘weaning’ has spiritual growth called you?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Psalm 132

“1. What human needs are fulfilled in the building of churches and shrines? In the anointing of human leaders? Should we get beyond such needs?
“2. Do you give yourself deadlines? Is it good to put time limits on goals? What is the relationship between human and divine ‘effort’?
“3. What need does God want you to fill in your church? At home? At work? In the neighborhood? How committed are you to the ‘project(s)’? Have you made so many promises, you can’t fulfill them all?
“4. What do you make of the tact that there is no longer a king in Israel and that Jerusalem was conquered? Is God unable to keep his promises? Or did the people bring it on themselves? How has Israel become the most dangerous place for Jews today?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There is one set of questions for each of these psalms.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.