Side by side
Psalm 130
Our plain-language guide next to the Bible text. Each row lines up one section with the verses it explains.
Section 1: Out of the DepthsVerses 1 to 2
"Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD" (130:1).
Four words that became a title: De Profundis — "from the depths." The pit, the waters of chaos, the lowest place.
"O Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy." (130:2).
The prayer is for attention. Not that God is absent — but that the psalmist needs to know He is listening.
1A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD! 2O Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy.
Section 2: With You Is ForgivenessVerses 3 to 4
"If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?" (130:3).
The rhetorical question answers itself: no one. Not one person could survive a full accounting.
"But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared" (130:4).
Forgiveness is where God is. It is His possession, His giving. And this is what produces the fear of God — not terror, but awe at a God who forgives.
3If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand? 4But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.
Section 3: I Wait for the LORDVerses 5 to 8
"I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait, and in His word I put my hope." (130:5).
The waiting is active — the soul is engaged, hope is placed in His word. Not passive despair.
"My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning— more than watchmen wait for the morning." (130:6).
The repetition — more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning — is in the Hebrew. The longing is double-said.
"O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is loving devotion, and with Him is redemption in abundance." (130:7).
The psalm expands from one person to all Israel. What the psalmist has found — God's steadfast love, His full redemption — is available to the whole community.
"And He will redeem Israel from all iniquity." (130:8).
Full redemption. Not partial, not conditional — all their iniquities.
5I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait, and in His word I put my hope. 6My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning— more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is loving devotion, and with Him is redemption in abundance. 8And He will redeem Israel from all iniquity.
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