De profundis.
This psalm, whose date, authorship, and special reference no one certainly knows, nevertheless presents to us three marked stages in the experience of the writer of the psalm.
I. IN THE DEPTHS. (Psalms 130:1-3.) Undoubtedly he knew what these were; and very deep depths they appear to have been.
1. His sad condition seems to have been brought about, not so much by any outward circumstances of his life, as by some inward spiritual distress. His soul was consciously separated from God; some great gulf, into which he had fallen, had opened between him and the God who had once been his delight and exceeding joy. It may have been that the sense of guilt and condemnation lay heavily on him, or that he was in dread of some approaching calamity, or that he was plunged in grief and shame by the might and mastery of some sin. Sin had undoubtedly to do with it, as it has to do with like distressing experiences in our own lives.
2. And it is a matter for deep thankfulness when sin does cast us into such depths. Too many people regard sin as a mere trifle; it never troubles them seriously at all. And the cause of the vapid, feeble, and ineffectual Christian life which so many professed Christians lead is that they have never had any real conviction of sin; they have never been in any "depths" about it. Would to God all had I for there seems no hope of a real, earnest, and devoted Christian life without it. But the psalmist was in the depths, and this explains the heights to which he afterwards rose.
3. He cries unto the Lord. It is an earnest, self-abasing, yet passionate, appeal. He implores the Lord to be attentive to his supplication. It is only people in such depths that thus cry unto the Lord. Others may say prayers; but these men "cry."
4. He is filled with fear, lest the Lord should mark his iniquities. If the Lord did that, there could be no hope for him; and, remembering this, he seems to sink down deeper than ever. It is a vivid instance of the Holy Spirit's conviction of sin.
II. RISING OUT OF THEM. (Psalms 130:4-6.)
1. The upward ascent begins by his laying hold of the truth that there is forgiveness with God. Faith has come; and as he believes, he sees that God's forgiveness can alone ensure that state of heart in him, that fear, which God desires to see in us all. He feels that he will never get right, save as he believes in God's forgiveness. And this is undoubtedly true.
2. Then he proceeds to put that faith in practice, and to wait on the Lord. And this he does in no half-hearted way. He says, "I wait;" then, "My soul waiteth;" then he stays himself on God's word of forgiveness, and hopes therein; then he likens his faith to the eager expectation of those who are anxiously, but believingly, watching for the morning—yea, with more than their desire and confidence does he wait! Of course, there can be but one response to faith like this—the man rises out of the depths, as such men ever will.
III. CLEAR ABOVE THEM. (Psalms 130:7, Psalms 130:8.)
1. He has got what he desires—the assurance of God's forgiveness.
2. In the joy of it he turns to others, and exhorts them to hope in the Lord, and testifies that "with the Lord there is," etc. (Psalms 130:7).
3. And then, in the conviction that the love which has so blessed him cannot fail for Israel, he confidently predicts that the Lord "will redeem," etc. (Psalms 130:8). All this earnest witnessing for God is the sure sign that he is now clear up above, and right out of those depths in which he at first was. In the depths we cannot thus witness, but out of them we must and shall.—S.C.