Psalms 130King James Version
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait. More than they that watch for the morning.
De Profundis: out of the depths. Out of the depths I have cried unto thee, O LORD. If thou shouldest mark iniquities, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the LORD; my soul waits; in his word do I hope. More than the night watchmen wait for morning, my soul waits for the Lord. Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with him is plenteous redemption. He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
The depths are not a place from which prayer cannot reach God; they are the specific location from which this prayer originates, and the reaching out from the depths is itself a form of hope.
verse: "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD." The opening is the defining image of the whole psalm and of the entire tradition of penitential prayer it founded.
Superscription: 'A Song of degrees.' One of the most theologically concentrated of the ascent psalms. The depths (meamaqim) in Hebrew suggest not merely sorrow but the abyss, the primordial deep, the place of maximum distance from God. The three movements (cry from depths, waiting, communal hope) create a complete arc.
An anonymous petitioner in the depths; God addressed as the one who hears and who forgives; the night watchmen as the comparative image for waiting; Israel as the communal hope-holder in the closing.
Psalm 130 is the sixth of the seven penitential psalms and one of the most influential in the Western tradition. Luther said this psalm and Psalms 32, 51, and 143 were his 'Pauline psalms.' The Latin title 'De Profundis' made it the standard Western funeral and penitential prayer. The waiting-for-morning image (v6) is one of the most vivid in the Psalter.
For the experience of being in the depths, where the floor of emotion has dropped out entirely. The psalm does not require you to be anywhere but there; it starts exactly there.
1[A Song of degrees.] Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
2Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
4But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
5I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
6My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
7Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
8And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.