I love Psalm 130. The first verse just jumps right in. The Pslamist doesn’t waste time figuring out the “correct” way to approach his Creator. There is no flowery, formal address. No adulations. It is almost as if we have caught the Psalmist in mid prayer, a prayer that he has been praying for a very, very long time.
“Out of the depths have I called to you, O LORD…” (Ps. 130:1)
Well, now that we know where it all stands…
The Psalmist is in desperate need and it would seem he has been bringing this need before his God for a long time.
Pslam 130 aches with the longing for deliverance. (Vs 4&5)
The Psalmist’s readiness to face this longing honestly is a gift to those of us who live in a world that seems obsessed with photoshopped perfection. A world, as Henri Nowen would point out, that doesn’t want to face the fact that each of us is empoverished in one way or another. For some of us, that poverty is truly material but others suffer poverty emotionally, relationally…the possibilities are as endless as humanity is unique, I suppose.
But what Nowen points out for us, and that the Psalmist here proclaims, is that our poverty is the very place we meet God.
In verses 6&7, the Psamist comes full circle, proclaiming to all of his household of faith the truth that gives him anchor in the aching realm of loss:
“O Israel,wait for the LORD,
For with him there is mercy;
With him there is plenteous redemption,
And he shall redeem Israel from all her sins.”
Amen and amen.
May all glory, honor, and praise be to the One Who redeems us…
Who enters our suffering….
Who walks through the vast wastelands of loss beside us…
Turning our deserts into places of abundance.
Amen
(references to Henri Nowen, Bread for the Journey)
I love that psalm, thanks so much for sharing 🙂