Psalm 130: Out of the depths

A psalm prayed from the lowest point. It asks God for mercy, waits for Him the way a watchman waits for morning, and ends in hope.

Picture: Caspar David Friedrich, Morning in the Riesengebirge, 1810–11

Plain English

Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD.Lord, hear my voice.Let Your ears listen closelyto the sound of my pleading.

If You, LORD, kept a record of sins,O Lord, who could stand?But with You there is forgiveness,so that You may be held in awe.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,and in His word I put my hope.My soul waits for the Lordmore than watchmen wait for the morning,more than watchmen for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the LORD,for with the LORD there is mercy,and with Him is abundant redemption.He Himself will redeem Israelfrom all its sins.

Traditional wording, 1611

Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O LORD.Lord, hear my voice: let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

If Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope.My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Hebrew, with the King James Version beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: The King James translators, The King James Version, 1611.

When it is said

Pray it when you feel you have sunk as low as you can go.

In church its verses are sung at the evening service of Vespers, one by one between the short hymns that follow “Lord, I have cried”.

Where it comes from

No author known

A Song of Ascents

In Hebrew the psalm is headed “A Song of Ascents”, one of 15 songs with that title. In his letter on the Psalms, St Athanasius of Alexandria gives these 15 songs to a reader who feels himself making progress, to say at every step forward.

The Hebrew Bible, on Mechon Mamre; St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus, in Greek

In the Greek

The Orthodox Church sings the psalms from the old Greek translation, which numbers this one Psalm 129 and reads two of its lines differently. In the Hebrew, God forgives “so that You may be held in awe”, while the Greek has “for Thy name’s sake have I waited for Thee, O Lord”. The Hebrew waits for the morning, but the Greek hopes in the Lord “from the morning watch till night”.

Brenton’s English of the Greek Old Testament; G. V. Shann, Euchology (1891), Great Vespers

The Scripture in it

Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy. If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.

Psalm 130:1-4 Quoted A cry from the depths that trusts God to forgive, since no one could stand if He kept a record of sins.

I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait, and in His word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning—more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is loving devotion, and with Him is redemption in abundance. And He will redeem Israel from all iniquity.

Psalm 130:5-8 Quoted Waiting for the Lord like watchmen for the dawn, sure that with Him there is mercy.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

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