Bible Commentaries

De Profundis

Luther, being once asked which were the best Psalms, replied, Psalmi Pauliniand when his companions at table pressed him to say which thesewere, he answered: Psalm 32:1-11; Ps 51; Psalm 130:1-8, and Psalm 143:1-12. In fact in Psalm 130:1-8 thecondemnability of the natural man, the freeness of mercy, and the spiritualnature of redemption are expressed in a manner thoroughly Pauline. It isthe sixth among the seven Psalmi poenitentiales(Psalm 6:1-10, Psalm 32:1-11, Ps 38, Ps 51, Ps 102, Psalm 130:1-8; Psalm 143:1-12).

Even the chronicler had this Psalm before him in the present classification,which puts it near to Ps 132; for the independent addition with which heenriches Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple, 2 Chronicles 6:40-42, is compiled out of passages of Psalm 130:1-8 (Psalm 130:2, cf. the divineresponse, 2 Chronicles 7:15) and Ps 132 (Psalm 132:8, Psalm 132:16, Psalm 132:10).

The mutual relation of Psalm 130:1-8 to Ps 86 has been already noticed there. The two Psalms are first attempts at adding a third, Adonajic style to theJehovic and Elohimic Psalm-style. There (Adonaj) is repeated seven times,and three times in this Psalm. There are also other indications that thewriter of Psalm 130:1-8 was acquainted with that Ps 86 (compare Psalm 130:2 , שׁמעה בקולי, with Psalm 86:6, והקשׁיבה בּקול; Psalm 130:2 , לקול תּחנוּני, with Psalm 86:6, בּקול תּחנוּנותי; Psalm 130:4, עמּך הסּליחה, with Psalm 86:5,וסלּח; Psalm 130:8, החסד עם ה/ הח, with Psalm 86:5, Psalm 86:15, רב־חסד). The factthat קשּׁוּב (after the form שׁכּוּל), occurs besides only inthose dependent passages of the chronicler, and קשּׁב only inNehemiah 1:6, Nehemiah 1:11, as סליחה besides only in Daniel 9:9; Nehemiah 9:17, bringsour Psalm down into a later period of the language; and moreover Ps 86 isnot Davidic.

The depths (מעמקּים) are not the depths of the soul, but the deep outward and inward distress in which the poet is sunk as in deep waters (Psalm 69:3, Psalm 69:15). Out of these depths he cries to the God of salvation, and importunately prays Him who rules all things and can do all things to grant him a compliant hearing (שׁמע בּ, Genesis 21:12; Genesis 26:13; Genesis 30:6, and other passages). God heard indeed even in Himself, as being the omniscient One, the softest and most secret as well as the loudest utterance; but, as Hilary observes, fides officium suum exsequitur, ut Dei auditionem roget, ut qui per naturam suam audit per orantis precem dignetur audire. In this sense the poet prays that His ears may be turned קשּׁבות (duller collateral form of קשּׁב, to be in the condition of arrectae aures), with strained attention, to his loud and urgent petition (Psalm 28:2). His life hangs upon the thread of the divine compassion. If God preserves iniquities, who can stand before Him?! He preserves them (שׁמר) when He puts them down to one (Psalm 32:2) and keeps them in remembrance (Genesis 37:11), or, as it is figuratively expressed in Job 14:17, sealed up as it were in custody in order to punish them when the measure is full. The inevitable consequence of this is the destruction of the sinner, for nothing can stand against the punitive justice of God (Nahum 1:6; Malachi 3:2; Ezra 9:15). If God should show Himself as (Jāh),

(Note: Eusebius on Ps 68 (67):5 observes that the Logos is called Ἴα as μορφὴν δούλον λαβὼν καὶ τάς ἀκτῖνας τῆς ἑαυτοῦ θεότητος συστείλας καὶ ὥσπερ καταδὺς ἐν τῷ σώματι . There is a similar passage in Vicentius Ciconia (1567), which we introduced into our larger Commentary on the Psalms (1859-60).)

no creature would be able to stand before Him, who is (Adonaj), and can therefore carry out His judicial will or purpose (Isaiah 51:16). He does not, however, act thus. He does not proceed according to the legal stringency of recompensative justice. This thought, which fills up the pause after the question, but is not directly expressed, is confirmed by the following כּי, which therefore, as in Job 22:2; Job 31:18; Job 39:14; Isaiah 28:28 (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:6), introduces the opposite. With the Lord is the willingness to forgive (הסּליחה), in order that He may be feared; i.e., He forgives, as it is expressed elsewhere (e.g., Psalm 79:9), for His Name's sake: He seeks therein the glorifying of His Name. He will, as the sole Author of our salvation, who, putting all vain-glorying to shame, causes mercy instead of justice to take its course with us (cf. Psalm 51:6), be reverenced; and gives the sinner occasion, ground, and material for reverential thanksgiving and praise by bestowing “forgiveness” upon him in the plenitude of absolutely free grace.

Therefore the sinner need not, therefore too the poet will not, despair. Hehopes in Jahve (acc. obj. as in Psalm 25:5, Psalm 25:21; Psalm 40:2), his soul hopes; hoping inand waiting upon God is the mood of his inmost and of his whole being. He waits upon God's word, the word of His salvation (Psalm 119:81), which, ifit penetrates into the soul and cleaves there, calms all unrest, and by theappropriated consolation of forgiveness transforms and enlightens for iteverything in it and outside of it. His soul is לאדני, i.e., stedfastly andcontinually directed towards Him; as Chr. A. Crusius when on his death-bed, with hands and eyes uplifted to heaven, joyfully exclaimed: “My soulis full of the mercy of Jesus Christ. My whole soul is towards God.” Themeaning of לאדני becomes at once clear in itself from Psalm 143:6, and isdefined moreover, without supplying שׁמרת (Hitzig), according to thefollowing לבּקר. Towards the Lord he is expectantly turned, like those who in the night-time wait for the morning. The repetition of the expression “those whowatch for the morning” (cf. Isaiah 21:11) gives the impression of protracted,painful waiting. The wrath, in the sphere of which the poet now findshimself, is a nightly darkness, out of which he wishes to be removed intothe sunny realm of love (Malachi 4:2); not he alone, however, but at thesame time all Israel, whose need is the same, and for whom thereforebelieving waiting is likewise the way to salvation. With Jahve, and withHim exclusively, with Him, however, also in all its fulness, is החסד (contrary to Ps 62:13, without any pausal change in accordance withthe varying of the segolates), the mercy, which removes the guilt of sin andits consequences, and puts freedom, peace, and joy into the heart. Andplenteous (הרבּה, an adverbial infin. absol., used here, as in Ezekiel 21:20, as an adjective) is with Him redemption; i.e., He possesses in therichest measure the willingness, the power, and the wisdom, which are needed to procure redemption, which rises up as a wall of partition (Exodus 8:19) between destruction and those imperilled. To Him, therefore, must the individual, if he will obtain mercy, to Him must His people, look up hopingly; and this hope directed to Him shall not be put to shame: He, in the fulness of the might of His free grace (Isaiah 43:25), will redeem Israel from all its iniquities, by forgiving them and removing their unhappy inward and outward consequences. With this promise (cf. Psalm 25:22) the poet comforts himself. He means complete and final redemption, above all, in the genuinely New Testament manner, spiritual redemption.