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Out of the Depths

Deacon Jon M. Leiseth

Psalm 130

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
2     Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
    to the voice of my supplications!

3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
    Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with you,
    so that you may be revered.

5 I wait for the Lord; my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
    more than those who watch for the morning,
    more than those who watch for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
    For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
    and with him is great power to redeem.
8 It is he who will redeem Israel
    from all its iniquities.

In the past, when I read the phrase “out of the depths” in a psalm, I imagined the depths of despair and suffering, the depths or lows of depression, low spirits and the like. 

In writing this devotion, though, it finally dawned on me that there is also a physical topography of lows and highs at work in Psalm 130. Jerusalem is hilly, after all. Sometimes Jerusalem is referred to as Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives, the hill which is Golgotha and other physically high places are part of Jerusalem. Sure enough, I found a few commentaries on the Psalms of Ascent (120-134) and read of these psalms as pilgrimage songs, sung while going up to the hills of Jerusalem from the surrounding valleys.

Uphill climbs are simply part of being human though, right? They are definitely a part of my life and the lives of those I know best. 

Sinning can make for an uphill climb, but not all uphill climbs are caused by sin! Several people I love most dearly are currently climbing some particularly rocky hills; hills which they did not choose and which they did nothing to deserve; hills which have no summit in sight. 

What do we do when there is very little or even nothing to be done and hope is wearing thin? 

In Psalm 130 we find the sentence, “I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” 

Do you feel a sense of longing in this sentence? Perhaps longing is simply another form of hoping, and perhaps this is what we are called into together, not only in life’s uphill climbs, but in the season of Lent.

 

Prayer

O God,

we long for you.

We long for your forgiveness, 

your mercy,

your love.

We long for you as watchmen wait for the morning. 

When living our lives feels like stumbling uphill in the middle of the night,

send your Spirit to awaken us to your presence

in these and all the steps we travel in life.

We pray in the name of Jesus Christ,

who traveled to crucifixion and resurrection in Jerusalem.

Amen.

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