Psalm 130--My Soul Waits for the Lord

Psalm 130
English Standard Version

My Soul Waits for the Lord
A Song of Ascents.
130 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
2     O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
    to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

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

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

​7 O Israel, hope in the LORD!
    For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
    and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
    from all his iniquities.

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There are a mixture of names and titles for God here in this Psalm as the name of LORD (I AM/YHWH) is used here as well as Lord (Adonai).  YHWH is His covenant name that He used to reveal Himself to Moses and that weas used even as far back as Genesis as the name of God.  The title of Lord though is that of "ruler" or "master" or "sovereign."  He is the King and Lord of all Creation.  The psalmist cries out to God using both of these titles, but I don't think that the psalmist is trying to cry out to different parts of the Trinity.  I think the psalmist is simply using different attributes and titles for God in the way we often do when we pray.

Instead of focusing on the names and titles, let's focus on the requests that the psalmist is making that only God is able to answer.  He is asking for God to hear his prayers and answer.  This is something only God can do.  Our prayers are directed to God and while others can hear what we pray when we pray out loud, only the LORD knows the cry of our hearts and only He is able to answer our prayers according to His perfect will and design.  It is God's mercy that leads us to repentance.

The psalmist asks God to forgive his sin, because if the psalmist's sins were held against him, there would be nothing but condemnation and judgment for him.  The psalmist said that without forgiveness of sins, no one could stand before God and be declared righteous (except for Jesus).  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  That is in essence what the psalmist is saying here.  We all stand guilty and condemned and there is no way to heaven by our own works as our works miss the mark (that is the meaning of sin).  It is God's forgiveness that leads us to obedience.

The psalmist said that he is waiting for the coming of the Lord (maybe referring to what we know as the First Coming, but almost certainly as what we refer to as His Second Coming when He will judge the wicked).  The psalmist compares it to the darkest time of the night right before the sunrise and he is like a watchman who is eagerly waiting the rising of the sin and for the light to burst forth.  In the same way, the men of old were waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled and for His Kingdom to come--that has happened partially in the person of Christ in His First Coming and the cross but has an even greater fulfillment in the Second Coming of Christ.  We too should be watching and waiting for His return, and eagerly expecting it.  However, we should not be so busy gazing into the skies that we do not do the work that He has commissioned us to do here and now--to be His ambassadors to herald that the King is coming.

The psalmist ends by reminding the people of Israel that the LORD has made an eternal covenant with them that He will never break, and part of the purpose of that covenant is to one day remove the very presence of sin from their lives.  We see this in the Second Coming when there is a New Creation, and there is no more sin, and no more curse of sin.  Those of us adopted into the family/nation of Israel by the work of Jesus also look forward to this promise.