Psalm CXXX
Pardon and
peace.
A Song of degrees.
1 OoT of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of ray supplications.
3 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
6 I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
7 Let Israel hope in the Lord:
For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
A NEW series begins here. Though Horsley suggests the occasion of this Psalm to be “Upon bringing a sin-offering,” there is nothing to fix it specially to this occasion. The costume of it is taken from a Levite, says the Targum, waiting for the first intimation of the hour of morning sacrifice; but it may just as well be said to be taken from the case of any watchman on his watch-tower, wearying for the dawn of day. It reminds us of Hab. ii. 2.
The worshipper relates his former earnest cry (ver. 1, 2) from troubles and darkness that were to him like Jonah’s deep waters, or the water-deeps of Psa. lxix. 1 4. The Lord of Pilgrims, as well as each of his band, became familiar with such deeps. He cried the cry of verse 1, feeling intense agony all the while, under his load of imputed guilt,
“Iftlwu, Lord (Jah), loert to mark (Job x. 14, IG) iniquity, lolio, Lord, coidd stand 1” (Ver. 3.)
But he cried in expectation of being heard, being able to point to satisfaction given to the law for that guilt.
“For ivitli thee the forgiveness is” (nnvDn) — Se2)t., 6 iXasfj-og 6ti-The forgiveness spoken of in the law of sacrifice, such as Lev. iv. 20, 26, 31, verses 10, 13, and proclaimed at Horeb, Exod. xxxiv. 9, and in the Temple, 1 Kings viii. 34, 36, 39. This being so, the worshipper learns there ‘’the fear of the Lord” and goes on his way, waiting for further light and teaching, waiting for the opening out of the Lord’s hid treasures from day to day, waiting for these discoveries with intenser interest than watchman wait for morning. With intense desire Israel waited for Christ’s coming in the flesh, and for the offering up of the “one sacrifice for ever,” that was to make the worshipper “perfect as pertaining to the conscience.” Yet still he sees only a part; he waits for more of “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” And if the Lord’s Second Coming be the chief time for the unfolding of all that the worshipper desires, then the waiting for that day is not one of the least intense of his feelings. And so, “0 Israel, hope thou in the Lord;” for who knoweth the flood of mercies that shall yet burst on them and on earth, when Jacob’s redeeming God (Gen. lxviii. 17) brings “plenteous redemption,” or, as it is literally, “shall multiply to his people redemptions,” as he “multiplied pardons” (Isa. Iv. 6), at their first return to him. To all of them he fulfils the name “Jesus,” saving from all transgressions. In such strains we find The Lord’s servant relating his earnest cry and its results.
The theme.
Holiness.
400 PSALM CXXXr. — THE HEART CONTENTED WITH JEHOVAH.