Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee.
A prayer for deliverance
The psalm should probably be regarded as antiphonal; it is composed of several stanzas which were sung responsively by different voices.
1. In the first stanza (verses 1, 2) the speaker is a devout Israelite, who is feeling keenly the misery of his circumstances. The metaphor appears to be taken from a shipwreck; and, on the lips of a Hebrew, the picture would be one of unutterable horror. We Britons love the sea. But to the Jews the sea was an object of terror, a cruel and devouring monster, greedy of its prey, and smiling only to deceive; the symbol of treachery, unrest, and desolation. What were those depths out of which the psalmist cried to God? Were they the calamities which beset him and his countrymen? Or were they his overwhelming sins? To a Hebrew mind these were indistinguishable. It was an inveterate belief among the Israelites that, just as prosperity was the reward of goodness, adversity was the punishment of sin; and, wherever adversity alighted, sin must have been there before. This theory added to the sufferings of the Exiles an element of distress which we can hardly appreciate. It appears very plainly in our psalm. Here is a devout Israelite plunged, like the rest of his countrymen, into the depths of disaster. As a Hebrew this could only have one meaning for him, namely, that God was visiting their sins upon him and them.
2. The second stanza (verses 3, 4) is the response of a neighbour--probably an old man, who had lived into a calmer and stronger faith than the other had yet attained to. Though his words are addressed to God, they are a reply to his companion. First he glances at the vexing problem which, as we have seen, was at the bottom of his companion’s trouble--why righteous men should suffer so terribly. His answer is the rough-and-ready one, that in God’s sight no one is righteous, and beneath His pure and searching scrutiny the fairest lives show very foul. This is just the theological commonplace, so shallow and irreverent, that all men alike are sinful and deserve equal condemnation at God’s hands. It is quite true indeed that we are all sinners; but we are not all sinners to the same extent, and God will not blindly treat us all alike. The man speaks more truly when he leaves off theorizing and testifies to his own experience of God. “Thou dost not watch for iniquities, but with Thee is the forgiveness.” God, he means, is not a stern tyrant, never satisfied with our efforts to serve Him, ever watching for mistakes and searching them out. He is right willing to forgive us even at our worst. The closing line of this stanza is a surprise. We should have expected, “with Thee is forgiveness that Thou mayest be loved”; but we read instead, “that Thou mayest be feared.” On the lips of a Hebrew “the fear of God” meant very nearly devout reverence. It is the Old Testament phrase for the true worship, and our psalmist means that, were there no forgiveness in the heart of God, there would be no worship in the heart of man. Religion would be impossible were God a relentless and merciless avenger.
3. In the third stanza (verses 5, 6) the first speaker replies, “You tell me God forgives! Have I not besought His forgiveness till I am weary? But all to no purpose. For His word have I hoped--for some assurance of His forgiveness; but not a whisper has broken the pitiless silence.” The figure in verse 6 would go home to the Exiles. How often, as they camped outside Babylon and sat sleepless and tearful through the watches of the night, had they seen the sentries pacing the ramparts of the city and hailing the flush of dawn in the eastern horizon which told them their weary vigil was near its close! No figure could more pathetically express the psalmist’s eager expectation of the dawning of God’s mercy on his long night of sorrow.
4. In the concluding stanza (verses 7, 8) the bystanders chime in. “My soul hath hoped in Adonai,” the despondent man had said; and the chorus echoes, “Hope, Israel, in Jehovah.” The second speaker had declared his faith that “with Jehovah is the forgiveness”; but, ere it closes, the psalm reaches a still grander assurance. “Hope in Jehovah, for with Jehovah is the lovingkindness, and plentifully with Him is redemption.” It is a great belief that God forgives, but an unspeakable greater that, in spite of all that seems to prove the contrary, He has in His heart towards us an infinite lovingkindness and a purpose of final and complete redemption. The psalm ends with a prophecy of great salvation and boundless peace in store for Israel. To the Hebrews “redemption from iniquities” would mean not merely a spiritual deliverance, but the removal of all the disasters and sufferings which sin entailed. And this triumphant assurance of a future unstained by sin and unvexed by sorrow is born of that twofold faith, so simple yet so grand, that there is in the hears of God a boundless lovingkindness, and that He is working out, by means of all our varied experiences, our ultimate and eternal redemption. (D. Smith, M. A.)
The commendable conduct of man under trial
I. Imploring heaven (verses 1, 2).
1. Heaven alone can deliver.
2. From the greatest depths Heaven can hear the cries. This appeal, therefore, is--
(1) Commendable.
(2) Wise.
(3) Right.
(4) Necessary.
II. Confessing sin (verses 3, 4).
1. He identifies suffering with sin. All evils, physical, intellectual, social, religious, and political, spring from moral evil.
2. He identifies deliverance with God’s mercy.
(1) God is so merciful that He does not “mark iniquities,” that is, He does not keep; regain them. Malign natures never forget injuries, benevolent natures cannot retain them.
(2) God is so merciful that He forgives men their iniquities. The highest form of love is the forgiving love.
(3) Because He is thus so merciful, men can trust Him. “That Thou mayest be feared.” Not servilely, but trustfully, lovingly, loyally, cheerfully. Had He not forgiveness in His nature, what rational soul could reverence Him?
III. Waiting on God (Psalms 130:5-8).
1. This implies--
(1) Trusting in God. Trusting in His wisdom, goodness, and rectitude.
(2) Expecting from God. Expecting that He will interpose in mercy, and grant the necessary relief.
(3) Vigilance of soul. It is not a passive state of mind, it is watchful and earnest.
2. He exhorts Israel to trust in the Lord--
(1) Because there is mercy with Him. The mercy which the sufferer requires, mercy to succour and deliver.
(2) Because there is plenteous redemption with Him. There is no limit to His redemptive willingness and ability. “Where sin abounded grace doth much more abound.”
(3) Because all Israel will one day be redeemed. The author, undoubtedly, had the belief that all evil will one day be swept from the face of the earth. (Homilist.)
From the depths to The heights
I. The cry from the depths.
1. The depths are the place for us all.
2. Unless you have cried to God out of these depths, you have never cried to Him at all. The beginning of all true personal religion lies in the sense of my own sin and my lost condition. If a man does not think much about sin, he does not think much about a Divine Saviour.
3. You want nothing more than a cry to get you out of the depths. There is no way for you up out of the pit but to cry to God, and that will bring a rope down. Nay, rather, the rope is there. Your grasping the rope and your cry are one. “Ask, and ye shall receive!” God has let down the fulness of His forgiving love in Jesus Christ our Lord, and all that we need is the call, which is likewise faith, which accepts while it desires, and desires in its acceptance; and then we are lifted up “out of the horrible pit and the miry clay,” and our feet are set upon a rock, and our goings established.
II. A dark fear and a bright assurance. The man’s prayer is, as it were, blown back into his throat by the thought, “If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord t who shall stand?” And then--as if he would not be swept away from his confidence even by this great blast of cold air from out of the north, that comes like ice and threatens to chill his hope to death--“But,” says he, “there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mightest be feared.” So these two halves represent the struggle in the man’s mind. They are like a sky, one half of which is piled with thunder-clouds, and the other serenely blue. It needs, first of all, that the heart should have tremblingly entertained the contrary hypothesis, in order that the heart should spring to the relief and the gladness of the counter truth. It must first have felt the shudder of the thought, “If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities” in order to come to the gladness of the thought, “But there is forgiveness with Thee!” And that forgiveness lies at the root of all true godliness. No man reverences, and loves, and draws near to God so rapturously, so humbly, as the man that has learned pardon through Jesus Christ.
III. The permanent, peaceful attitude of the spirit that has tasted the consciousness of forgiving love--a continual dependence upon God, Like a man that has just recovered from some illness, but still leans upon the care, and feels his need of seeing the face of that skilful physician that has helped him through, there will be still, and always, the necessity for the continual application of that pardoning love. But they that have tasted that the Lord is gracious can sit very quietly at His feet and trust themselves to His kindly dealings, resting their souls upon His strong word, and looking for the fuller communication of light from Himself. “More than they that watch for the morning.” That is beautiful! The consciousness of sin was the dark night. The coming of His forgiving love flushed all the eastern heaven with diffused brightness that grew into perfect day. And so the man waits quietly for the dawn, and his whole soul is one absorbing desire that God may dwell with him, and brighten and gladden him.
IV. The personal experience becomes general, and an evangel, a call upon the man’s lips to all his brethren. “Let Israel hope in the Lord.” There was no room for anything in his heart when he began this psalm except his own self in his misery, and that Great One high above him there. There is nothing which isolates a man so awfully as a consciousness of sin and of his relation to God. But there is nothing that so knits him to all his fellows, and brings him into such wide-reaching bonds of amity and benevolence, as the sense of God’s forgiving mercy for his own soul. So the call bursts from the lips of the pardoned man, inviting all to taste the experience and exercise the trust which have made him glad: “Let Israel hope in the Lord.” And then look at the broad Gospel that he has attained to know and to preach. “For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is redemption.” Not only forgiveness, but redemption--and that from every form of sin. It is “plenteous”--multiplied. Our Lord has taught us to what a sum that Divine multiplication amounts. Net once, nor twice, but “seventy times seven” is the prescribed measure of human forgiveness, and shall men be more placable than God! (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
A cry out of mental distress
I. Soul-depths.
1. Darkness.
2. Doubt.
3. Sorrow.
4. Sin.
II. Soul-crying. “As spices smell best,” says Trapp, “when beaten, and as frankincense is most odoriferous when cast into the fire, so do men pray most and best out of the depths of trouble.”
1. The cry of self-helplessness appealing to Omnipotence.
2. The cry of earnest entreaty.
III. Soul-apprehensions (verses 3, 4). Jehovah is strict to “mark,” but slow to execute judgment. No sin escapes His eye: His entry against us is correct, but His mercy restrains hasty justice and holds back the due deserts of our iniquities.
IV. Soul-waiting (verses 5, 6).
1. Patient hopefulness.
2. Eager expectation, begotten of strong faith.
Waiting, hoping, expecting, never can be disappointed: through it the “cry” of distress becomes changed into the chorus of victory. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
Encouragement for the penitent
I. David’s distressing condition (verses 1, 2). Before God fills a soul, He empties it.
II. David’s penitential confession (verse 3).
III. David’s ground of hope (verse 4). We are told that when Darius heard that the Athenians had captured Sardis, he was indignant, and vowed vengeance on the city. He went out into the open air, and sending an arrow towards the heavens, he appealed to the god, Jove, and vowed that he would destroy the city, and at the same time commanded one of his servants to enter into his presence every noon, and cry, “Remember Sardis.” Is it thus that God deals with us? No! He waits not to smite, but to heal; not to punish, but to pardon; not to ruin, but to regenerate. Consider--
1. The promise of God (Exodus 34:6-7; Psalms 86:5; Romans 10:12; 2 Peter 1:4; James 5:2).
2. The death of Christ.
3. God’s acts. Manasseh, David, Saul of Tarsus, Zaccheus, Bunyan, all obtained forgiveness, and so may you.
IV. David’s attitude towards God (verses 5, 6). Seasons of spiritual depression, though painful, are profitable. They excite earnest desires, and prepare the mind for the reception of richer blessings.
V. David’s encouraging exhortation (verse 7). Some tell us that a man must tumble into the Slough of Despond before he can become a rejoicing believer. David thought it better policy to try to prevent them falling into that slough. Despair paralyzes. Hope invigorates.
VI. The encouraging promise (verse 8).
1. Sinner, are you in the depths? Looking on your past life, do you see little else but sin? Looking beyond the grave you see no light. No ray of hope lights up your impenetrable gloom. The stars shine brightest at night, and the promise of pardon beams with the brightest lustre when we are on the borders of despair. Hear it, and rejoice. “He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
2. Believer, do you pray for grace to destroy sin, and fill your heart with love? The blessing you desire shall be granted. This is no doubtful speculation, no untried theory. Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, have obtained pardon and purity through faith in Christ. (H. Woodcock.)
The pilgrim song of penitence
I. The cry (verses 1, 2). He needs an entire renovation; only the Creator can bestow that. He needs absolution; only the Being offended can grant this. To Him, therefore, to Jehovah he addresses himself. He prays earnestly and perseveringly.
II. The indirect confession (verses 3, 4). If Jehovah should take the matter in hand, no escape would be possible. For He is the all-seeing God, from whom nothing can be hid. Other standards are deflected and partial; this is uniform and steadfast. Its Author cannot be deceived, and will not be mocked. Who, then, shall stand when He rises up? The question answers itself. None; no, not one.
III. Expressions of longing and hope. (verses 5, 6). President Edwards, during a long sickness, observed that those watching with him often looked out for the morning eagerly. It reminded him of this psalm; and when the dawn came it seemed to him to be an image of the sweet light of God’s glory. For such longing is not unsatisfied. They who have it experience the Beatitude, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Longings for earthly goods are often disappointed, but never the conviction which leads a man to say, “My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”
IV. The exhortation (verses 7, 8). Divine grace is not easily exhausted. There is enough and to spare. With Jehovah is the lovingkindness, shown in creation’s fulness, the array of fruits and flowers, the song of birds, brilliant skies, all that pleases in air, earth, and sea, the countless blessings that come upon the just and the unjust. Nay, with Him is “abundant redemption,” deliverance for the lost and undone. It is not a scant provision, but liberal. There is no end to its riches, no limit to its efficacy. It extends to all vices, crimes, and shortcomings of heart, speech, or behaviour--can make sins of scarlet as white as snow, such as are red like crimson to be as wool. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.)
Pardoning mercy
I. The prayer.
1. The blessed Object to whom he repaired. He well knew that “vain is the help of man.”
2. The earnest spirit which he manifested (verses 1, 2). The repetition is very emphatic, and shows how extreme was his need, and how anxiously he implored the Divine Being to interpose on his behalf.
II. The musings in which he indulged (verses 3, 4).
1. Solemn. “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities,” etc. On such a supposition we must all perish, and that for ever.
2. Joyful. “But there is forgiveness with Thee,” etc. This is evident from--
(1) The titles He assumes (Exodus 34:6).
(2) The rites He has instituted (Leviticus 16:21-22).
(3) The scheme of redemption He has provided. Gethsemane and Calvary.
(4) The commands He has given (Isaiah 55:7; Acts 17:30).
(5) The longsuffering He manifests.
(6) The many instances in which His pardoning mercy has been exercised,
III. The course pursued (verses 5, 6). His waiting was--
1. Sincere. “My soul doth wait.”
(1) Diligence in use of means.
(2) Expectation of blessing.
2. Intelligent. “In His Word do I hope.”
3. Ardent (verse 6). (Expository Outlines.)
Thy depth of repentance
This psalm is the outpouring of a broken heart, crushed because of sin.
I. The simile--“Out of the depths.” A fitting image of intensity of grief. We cast about ordinarily in the shallows and level plains. We rise to the mountains to sing. Are they not nearer heaven? We sink to the depths to weep. The depths and cavities of the rocky Palestine were inaccessible and filled with noisomeness and pestilence. Thank God, life is not all depths. Thank God that even in the depths He can hear--from the gloom, the bewilderment, the despair. The depths indicate a fall. It is natural to get lower. It is not a natural place of resort. The depths also indicate carelessness. The circumspect will take heed to his ways. All sin leads to despair.
II. The action--“I cried.” No word could more fitly express the soul’s action when in the depths. It indicates--
1. Consciousness of danger. Some are engulphed and unconscious.
2. Absence of formality. There is no time for a well-ordered prayer. The circumstances are too tragic to permit of the consideration of grammar or propriety. Deliverance is life.
3. Sense of helplessness. The strong man can do nothing. At the same time there is a sense of hope. There is one thing which the most convicted sinner can do--he can cry.
III. The helper--“To Thee, O Lord.”
1. Here is some one at hand. He is able to hear.
2. Here is some one of ability. The depths are God’s kingdom as well as the heights. He is a strong deliverer.
3. Here is one of willingness. He is ready to save, waiting to be gracious. Oh, it is good for a sinner to be in the “depths.” He would not cry unless he felt their mortal woe. (Homilist.)
In the depths
I. The children of God do fall into depths. In this plight we find David often, though a man after God’s own heart (Psalms 6:2-3; Psalms 88:2, etc.; 40:12; and Jonah, a prophet, John 2:2, etc.; and Hezekiah, Isaiah 38:13; and Job especially, Job 6:4). But why is this thus, seeing our Head, Christ Jesus, hath suffered for us?
1. That we may know what Christ suffered for us by our own experience, without which we should but lightly esteem of our redemption, not knowing how to value Christ’s sufferings sufficiently, which is a horrible sin (Hebrews 2:3).
2. By our sufferings we know what a bitter thing sin is.
3. By our afflictions and depths we manifest God’s power and glory the more in our deliverance: for the greater the trouble is, the greater is the deliverance; as the greater the cure is, the greater credit the physician gets.
4. Many times, by less evils, it is God’s manner to cure greater; and thus He suffers us to feel wrath, to cure us of security, which is as a grave to the soul; as also to cure spiritual pride, that robs us of grace (2 Corinthians 12:7).
5. These depths are left to us to make us more desirous of heaven; else great men, that are compassed about with earthly comforts, alas, with what zeal could they pray, “Thy kingdom come,” etc.? No; with Peter they would rather say, “Master, it is good for us to be here” (Mark 9:5).
6. God works by these afflictions in us a more gentleness of spirit, making us meek and pitiful towards those that are in depths, which was one cause of Christ’s afflictions: He suffered that He might help and comfort others. He suffered Peter to stumble, that, when he was converted, he should “strengthen his brethren” (Luke 22:32).
II. Though Christians fall into depths, yet God upholds them that they sink not down into them without recovery.
1. For the Spirit of God is in them, and where it is it is stronger than hell, yea, though the grace be but as a grain of mustard seed.
2. As there are depths of misery in a Christian, so in God there are depths of love and of wisdom.
3. Faith, where it is, unites the soul to Christ, and to God through Him, and draws down Divine power--to lay hold on the almighty power of God by true and fervent prayer,--at whose rebuke the waters of affliction flee away (Psalms 77:16); and so the stronger the faith is, the stronger is the delivery, for it is of a mighty power, enabling us to wrestle with God, as Jacob did. Thus when we lay hold on God, and God on us, what can drown us?
4. It is the nature of God’s working to be by contraries: in His works of creation, making all things of nothing; in His works of providence He saves by little means from greatest dangers.
III. Afflictions stir up devotions.
1. Let us interpret God’s dealings with a sanctified judgment. He is a wise physician, and knows when strong or gentle physic is most requisite. Sometimes God by great afflictions doth manifest great graces, but so as notwithstanding they may be mingled with a deal of corruption; and it is God’s use that hereby His graces may be increased, and the corruption allayed, to bring down the greatest cedars, and to eclipse the greatest lights.
2. Let us oppose desperations by all means, by prayer, by crying; and if we cannot speak, by sighing; if not so, yet by gesture, especially at the time of death, for God knows the heart. For then it stands upon eternal comfort. And therefore let us do anything to show our faith fails not. We must know that every one shall meet with these enemies, that would cause us to despair if they could, for this life is a warring and striving life. We shall have enemies without and within us that will fight against us.
IV. Observe by the example of this holy man that prayers are to be made only to God, who knows our wants, supports us and binds us up; and it is only Christ that doth this. None can love us more than He that gave Himself for us. He is our eye whereby we see, our mouth whereby we speak, our arms whereby we lay hold on God; and therefore it is an intolerable unthankfulness to leave this “fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and to dig to ourselves cisterns that will hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). (R. Sibbes.)
Deep places
1. By the deep places is meant the deep places of afflictions, and the deep places of the heart troubled for sin. Afflictions are compared go deep waters (Psalms 18:17; Psalms 69:1). And surely God’s children are often cast into very desperate cases, and plunged into deep miseries. To the end they may send out of a contrite and feeling heart such prayers as may mount aloft and pierce the heavens. Those that are furthest cast down are not furthest from God, but nearest unto Him. God is near to a contrite heart, and it is the proper seat where His Spirit dwelleth (Isaiah 66:2). And thus God dealeth with us, as men do with such houses that they are minded to build sumptuously and on high, for then they dig deep grounds for the foundation. Mark hereby the dulness of our nature, that is such, that God is forced to use sharp remedies to awaken us. When, therefore, we are troubled either by heavy sickness, or poverty, or oppressed by the tyranny of men, let us make profit and use thereof, considering that God hath cast His best children in such dangers for their profit; and that it is better to be in deep dangers praying, than on the high mountains of vanity playing.
2. By the deep places may be understood also a heart deeply wounded with the considerations of sin and God’s justice, for God will not accept such superficial and scurvy prayers, which come only from the lips, and not from a contrite and broken heart. Let not men think to find mines of gold or silver in the streets; no, they must dig into the bowels of the earth for them. So, let us not deceive ourselves thinking God’s favour may be gotten everywhere, for in the deep places it is to be found. (A. Symson.)