Psalm 130 - One week Later. Oneish.

I’m late, so this will be short.
(Post-Revision: Ha.)

Though the psalm does talk about hope, I don’t think that’s what caused the resonance when I first read it. I think what set this psalm apart is that the speaker seems culpable in his predicament. So many psalms deal with an external struggle: They want deliverance from persecution, they want protection from evil men, they don’t understand how they can live as upright men and yet have the Lord feel so far away. Good for them, but that’s not me.

Here the Psalmist speaks from the depths (v1), crying for mercy, because apparently he or she (A) sucks at not sinning (v3). He (B) has backed himself into a corner, and can do nothing but wait with the exhaustion (maybe desperation?) of someone at the end of their rope, waiting for any kind of relief.

He talks about hope because his current situation sucks, and he talks about redemption, because he knows that he is to blame for his failures. At the same time he knows that God has unfailing love, will not turn His back on him, and will redeem not only the psalmist, but all of Israel from all of their sins (v8). Where so many psalmists seem almost alien in their righteousness, here is someone who I feel I might have met, or more likely, might be me.

Like me, the speaker is skeptical of that which he has a hard time understanding. That might be the best sense that I can make of the cryptic fourth verse (C). God in his very mercy is terrifying, because he is like nothing we have ever seen before. Not only that, but by showing Himself as forgiving, he forces us to realize how unforgiving we are. Though we are grateful for his forgiveness and his love, those are the traits which set Him apart, those are the traits that establish Him as ‘not one of us,’ and because we fear that which is different, those are the traits which cause fear within us.

I wonder if we have become so familiar with God, or at least with the God that we have created through an amalgamation of His traits that we are most comfortable with, that we fail to see Him for who He is. Were He to once again become incarnate, would we be thankful even for His kinder traits, or would he be so terrible (D) in His otherness that we would rather see him dead than be brought face to face with our own shortcomings?

Perhaps my life is simply too easy. Snide remarks about Christian ignorance hardly count as persecution. I have never been hunted, never had my life put in danger. The Bible talks a lot about evil men, but I don’t even know who those would be. I’ve met a lot of sinners, but no one who I would define as being characterized by their wickedness. I know that some people would say that the world has just become so wicked as a whole that no one stands out, but the people who say that tend to quarantine themselves off in their churches and their homeschools, tisk-tisking as the world passes them by, so blinded by the sex, violence, and greed of others that they never see their own pride and calloused selfishness.



Either way, the tangible enemies have all melted away until there is only me staring at myself, realizing that my greatest threat comes from within. That is why this psalm speaks to me. As the psalmist distinguishes himself from the others, stepping out in guilt and grief, waiting patiently – desperately – for the Lord he knows will forgive, I see myself stepping out with him, both of us waiting like watchmen wait for the morning.



(A) My internet is being problematic now and I apparently can’t get to any website that would be useful for finding background information. Government conspiracy or Sucky Chinese Internet? Probably B.
(B) I’m going with he because ‘he/she’ sounds like a transvestite. Sorry to be a misogynistic pig. Deal with it. Oink.
(C) Sketchy internet = no online commentaries = me being stuck with my own opinions on what verses mean. Erg.
(D) I’m a sucker for etymology, and I love that one of the more obscure meanings of terrible is “formidably great.” This was once again brought to my attention when I heard someone talking about the sometimes polemic Russian view of Ivan the Terrible / Ivan the Great.