“From the deep water I cry out to you, O Lord. O Lord, listen to me! Pay attention to my plea for mercy! If you, O Lord, were to keep track of sins, O Lord, who could stand before you? But you are willing to forgive, so that you might be honored. I rely on the Lord, I rely on him with my whole being; I wait for his assuring word. I yearn for the Lord, more than watchmen do for the morning, yes, more than watchmen do for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord, for the Lord exhibits loyal love, and is more than willing to deliver. He will deliver Israel from all the consequences of their sins.”
— Psalms 130:1-8
Song of ascents most likely sung annually en route to Jerusalem during one of the feasts. Context of this one seems more like national forgiveness, and sounds like even post exile, though the individual element can’t be ignored.
NET has a lot of “Hebrew” notes in here that make it sound like the original phrases are difficult to represent. The translation makes sense, though based on context and stylistic choices.
Point of Psalm is that God is merciful and without His forgiveness, the psalmist and the nation would be left in their (self-made) chaos “consequences of their sins”.
Why? So He may be honored. Interesting. Paul will make the similar point later. What we think of as salvation is also for God’s glory.
Such a dichotomy of God being the just Judge and the merciful, eager to forgive One. “Who can stand before You” and “willing to forgive” “more than willing to deliver”. I didn’t put vs between those phrases, because God doesn’t contradict Himself. Maybe it’s our feeble minds that can’t hold those together. Maybe it’s our own experiences that don’t only comprehend God as we want to and not as He is.
Israel needed to hope in the Lord. As do I.
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