Psalms 130 - Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Bible Comments
  • Psalms 130:1-5 open_in_new

    Psalms 130:1. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

    «Sinking, sinking, sinking, drowning, dying, hope all but gone, almost everything gone, yet I have cried unto thee; with much fear, and little hope, ‘Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.'»

    Psalms 130:2-19. 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?

    Judged by ourselves, on the ground of absolute justice, none of us can hope to stand before his judgment seat without being condemned. I trust that we all know and feel that this is true.

    Psalms 130:4-19. 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.

    Never yet has, any poor soul perished that could use such language as this. It may be a long while before you get the full comfort of all the Lord's promises; but you are sure to have it sooner or later, if you can but hope «in his Word.» Well did good John Newton sing,

    «Rejoice, believer, in the Lord,

    Who makes your cause his own.

    The hope that's, built upon his Word

    Can ne'er be overthrown.»

    Psalms 130:6-19. 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 her iniquities.

    Children of God, plead that precious, promise: «He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities;» and never rest till you are fully freed from the bondage of sin; for God will work a perfect work in you, and then he will take you home to be with himself for evermore.

    This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 32, 130.

  • Psalms 130:1-6 open_in_new

    Psalms 130:1. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

    The most eminent of God's saints have been in the depths; wherefore, then, should I murmur if I have to endure trials? What am I that I should be exempt from warfare? How can I expect to win the crown without first carrying the cross? David saw the depths, and so must you and I. But David learned to cry to God out of the depths. Learn hence that there is no place so deep but prayer can reach from the bottom of it up to God's ear, and then God's long arm can reach to the bottom and bring us up. out of the depth. «Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.» Do not say, «Out of the depths have I talked to my neighbours, and sought consolation from my friends.»

    «Were half the breath thus vainly spent, To heaven in supplication sent,

    Your cheerful song would often be Hear what the Lord hath done for me.»

    Psalms 130:2. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

    Now a main part of prayer must be occupied by confession, and the Psalmist proceeds therefore:

    Psalms 130:3. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

    That is to say, apart from Christ, if God exercises his justice to its utmost severity, the best of men must fall, for the best of man, being men at the best, are sinners even at their best estate.

    Psalms 130:4. But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

    If there were no mercy, there would be no love in any human heart, and there would be an end to religion if there were an end to forgiveness. Here let us observe that the best of men dare not stand before an absolute God, that the holiest of God's saints need to be accepted on the footing of a Mediator and to receive forgiveness of sins.

    Psalms 130:5. I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

    There is a waiting of expectancy; we believe that he is about to give us the mercy, and hold out the hand for it. There is a waiting of resignation; we know not what God may do, nor when he may appear, but we wait. Aaron held his peace. Tis a great virtue to wait for God when we know not What he does, but to wait his own explanations, and be content to go without explanations if he does not choose to give them.

    Psalms 130:6. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

    And many a mariner has watched, for the morning with an awful anxiety, for he could not know where his vessel was until the day should break. Many a weary patient, tossed upon the bed of pain, has waited for the morning, saying, «Would God it were morning, for then, perhaps, I might find ease.» And you know that sometimes the watchers upon the castle-top, who have to be guarding the ramparts against the adversary by night, watch for the morning. So does David's soul watch. Lord, if I may not have thee, permit me to watch for thee. Oh! there is some happiness even in waiting for an absent God. I recollect that Rutherford says, «I do not see how I can be unhappy, for if Christ will not love me, if he will but permit me to love him, and I feel I cannot help doing that, the loving of him will be heaven enough for me.» Waiting for God is sweet, inexpressibly delightful.

    «To those who call, how kind thou art, how good to those who seek;

    But what to those who find? Ah! this, nor tongue nor pen can show,

    The love of Jesus, what it is, none but his loved ones know.»

    Happy are they who, having waited patiently, at last behold their God.

    Psalms 130:7-19. 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.

    He shall do this in a double and perfect way; he shall redeem us from the effect of all our iniquities through the atoning sacrifice, and from the power of all iniquity by his sanctifying Spirit. They are without fault before the throne of God. I will purge their blood that I have not cleansed, saith the Lord that dwelleth in Zion. May my soul have a part and lot in this precious promise!

    This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 130:1; 1 John 1:4-7.

  • Psalms 130:1-7 open_in_new

    Psalms 130:1. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

    God's people have to go into the depths, and God's people pray in the depths, and often they pray best in the depths. The rarest pearls lie deepest in the sea; and the most precious prayers come out of the depths of affliction: «Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.» Cannot many of you say the same? Looking back upon your past afflictions and trials, yet you can feel that you did pray in them. He that can pray in the depths will soon sing in the heights. If thou canst pray, thou canst not be drowned by all the seas that roll over thee. God who brought thee into them will bring thee out of them if thou canst pray.

    Psalms 130:2. Lord,

    Or, « Adonai,» Sovereign Lord,-

    Psalms 130:2. Hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

    «Do hear me, Lord!» What is the use of prayer if God does not hear it? It is said to be a profitable spiritual exercise. So it is, because we believe that God hears it; but apart from that, it would be an idle waste of words. «Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.»

    Psalms 130:3. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

    Not one of us, surely. If God were now to deal with us according to our sins, who among us could stand in his presence?

    Psalms 130:4-19. 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.

    See, this is all in the first person. Dear friend, can you use it in the first person? Can you say, «I wait for Jehovah»? Blessed are they that are content to wait his will, but yet with holy eagerness are prepared to do that will or to suffer it, as he pleases. «My soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.» All my hope is there. If it were not for his promises I should have no confidence, but one word of God is better than all the things that can be seen. It is better to trust in God's declaration than in man's oath. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

    Psalms 130:6. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

    Those on the sick bed, who long for their weary waiting to be over, those afflicted ones who cry in the night of pain, «Would God it were morning! « Those, too, that stand as sentinels the night before the battle, or after the fight, watch and long to see the morning light. There are many such weary waiters, and my soul is one of them, waiting for the Lord «more than they that watch for the morning.»

    Psalms 130:7. Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

    Enough to buy us back from all our slavery, and to buy back our inheritance as well. Our Redeemer is the redeemer of the inheritance that has been mortgaged, and now is burdened by the enormous debt of sin: «with him is plenteous redemption.»

    Psalms 130:8. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

    That is our worst slavery, our in-equities, our want of equity, our having acted unfairly to God and unfairly to man. He will redeem us from all that evil; yea, he has redeemed us by price, and he will redeem us by power.

    This exposition consisted of readings from PSALMS 129, 130, and 131.

  • Psalms 130:1-8 open_in_new

    I will first read the Psalm through, and afterwards say a few words by way of exposition.

    Psalms 130:1-19. 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.

    You notice that this is one of the Songs of Degrees; that is, Psalms ascending by steps, and it begins at the very bottom: «Out of the depths.» But it gradually climbs up to the heights: «He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.» May your experience and mine, beloved, be like a ladder, upward, always upward, step by step, ever rising, and getting nearer to our God!

    The Psalm begins very low: «Out of the depths.» The psalmist is in the depths of sorrow and conscious sin, the depths of weakness, the depths of doubt and fear; yet, though he is in those depths, he does not leave off praying: «Out of the depths have I cried.» Some of the best prayers that were ever prayed have been offered in the depths. There are some men who never prayed at all until they came into the depths of sorrow, and those sorrows pressed their prayers out of them. The psalmist's prayer was a cry. That is a child's prayer; it cries to its mother or its father: «Out of the depths have I cried.» But it was not like a child's cries sometimes are, cries to itself, or cries to nobody: «Out of the depths have I cried unto THEE, O Jehovah.» That is the right kind of prayer which is directed to God as an arrow is aimed at the target.

    In looking back over his past experience, the psalmist tells the Lord that he has prayed. Sometimes, it is a good thing to pray over your prayers. «I have prayed, Lord; now I present one more petition, ‘I pray thee to remember that I have prayed. I pray thee to hear me. Lord, hear my voice.'» What is the good of prayer if God does not hear it? Sometimes we ask God to answer our supplication. That is right, but, at the same time, remember that it may be a greater blessing for God to hear our prayers than to answer them; for if he were to make it an absolute rule that he would grant all our requests, it might be a curse rather than a blessing. At any rate, I should feel it a very dreadful responsibility to have cast upon me; for then, after all, I should have to depend upon my own prayers, and therefore have to order my own way. But when I read that God will hear my prayer, that is much better, for he can do as he likes about answering it; and if I pray an improper prayer, what is better for me than for God to hear it, and then to set it on one side? And, often, mine are such poor feeble prayers that it is much better for me that he should hear them, and then do for me exceeding abundantly above what I have asked or thought. I used to think that we ought to say that he is a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God; but I do not say that now. It is enough that he hears, enough that you have presented your petition, and that God has heard it. «Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.» That is, «Lord, consider my prayer; have respect unto it.

    Answer it according to thy wise consideration of it; ‘let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.'» Our prayers must usually be supplications; that is the word for a beggar's pleading when he supplicates and asks for favors. That is what we do when we plead with God; and even if we do not speak, yet there is a voice in our supplications. In the sixth Psalm, David speaks of the voice of his weeping; and there is often a voice in that sorrow which cannot find a voice. God hears the grief that cannot itself speak to him: «Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.»

    And now, having put up his petition, notice his confession: «If thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquities, O Adonai, who shall stand?» So it should run. If God were to sit like a judge taking notes of the evidence, and putting down against his people all their errors, who would be able to stand in that court? We should all be condemned. Then, does not God mark iniquities? Yes, he does in one sense, but not in another; and, through his infinite love and mercy, he does not deal with us after our sins, nor reward us according to our iniquities. «If he did,» David seems to say, «I could not stand.» But he says more, «Who shall stand?» Whatever pretensions to perfection any persons may make, they are false. There is no man who can stand in God's sight when he comes to mark our iniquities; and if we are taught of God's Spirit, we shall know it to be so. In fact, the more holy a man becomes, the more conscious he is of unholiness.

    «But» and what a blessed «but» this is! one of the most blessed «buts» in the Word of God: «But there is forgiveness with thee;» or, «There is a propitiation with thee.» There is a readiness to deal with men, not according to their just deserts, but according to free grace and the infinite mercy of God. «There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.» Is not that a very strange expression? One would have thought that it would have said, «There is judgment with thee, that thou mayest be feared.» But no, brethren, if there were judgment with God, and no forgiveness, then men would grow despairing, and they would be hardened and rebellious; or else all would be swept away in God's wrath, and there would be nobody left to fear him. It is mercy that softens the heart, it is the forgiveness of God that leads men to love him and to fear him. The true fear of God the holy filial fear never rises out of judgment, but springs out of forgiving love. I hope, beloved, you feel that, because you are forgiven, you fear to offend God; because of so much love, you fear to grieve the blessed Spirit of God.

    «I wait for Jehovah, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for Adonai,» the King, the Sovereign Lord, «more than they that watch for the morning, they that watch for the morning.» Our translators put in the words, «I say more than,» I suppose, to make the sense more clear; but, by doing so, they spoiled the beautiful poetic simplicity of the original. «Let Israel hope in the Lord.» Until this verse, the psalmist has been talking about himself; now he speaks about all the people of God. True religion is expansive; as your own heart gets warmed, you begin to call others in to share your felicity. «Let Israel hope in the Lord.» Did not their father Jacob do so? When all night he wrestled at the brook Jabbok, he hoped in the Lord, and so he gained his name Israel, and went away triumphant because he hoped in Jehovah.

    «For with Jehovah there is mercy.» Believe that, O seeking sinner! «With Jehovah there is mercy.» Believe this, O backslider! «With Jehovah there is mercy.» Believe this, downcast child of God; «and with him is plenteous redemption.» There is enough for you, and there is enough for all who come to him. There is not a slave of sin whom God cannot redeem, for «with him is plenteous redemption.»

    «And he shall redeem.» There is the comfort of it; he not only has the redemption, but he will make use of it. «He shall redeem Israel» the whole of his Israel, all his people «He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.» Oh, come to him, then, with all your iniquities, and pray to be redeemed from them; and as surely as Jehovah lives, he will fulfill this promise, and redeem you from all your iniquities.