Sermon Notes

130 1-2 Help, God—I’ve hit rock bottom! Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy. 3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped. 5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer— and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.

In 2014, Erica Campbell—one half of the Contemporary Gospel singing duo “Mary Mary—released a heartfelt and achingly vulnerable song entitled “Help” which poignantly explored her recent struggles in life and love. Like the biblical psalmist(s), Campbell pours out her heart to God as she seeks help in navigating the trials and tribulations of life. The first verse and the recurring hook lament:
[Verse 1]
I been in the fire so long
I can't get burned no mo'
I thought you was puttin' out the flame
But it was rain from the storm
Thoughts all in my head
Makin' me stressed
All day long
They won't let me rest
"S" on my chest
I ain't that strong

[Hook]
I need a life line right now
911 won't do
My back's against the wall now
I've done all that I can do
I prayed every prayer
Went to every service
Like I know how
Just a ship without a sail
I'm lost without your help
Like the psalmists of ancient Israel, Campbell understands she cannot successfully traverse the dangerous waters of life without the Lord. “Like a ship without a sail,” she is lost without God’s help!
Although it is as much as 3000 years removed from this century, Psalm 130 provides a similar window into the musical, liturgical, and penitential life of ancient Israel. Like, Campbell, the poet who wrote Psalm 130 seeks God’s deliverance as they as look up from the bottom of despair to seek God’s mercy and kesed or steadfast love. Refusing to quickly move from pain to praise, the psalmist lingers in the “depths,” taking time to fully describe their predicament listeners may understand that trouble does not remove their trust in God. From rock bottom they yet express hope in the God of their salvation with Expectant Watchfulness as they wait for Divine deliverance.

Psalm 130 is a prayer of petition and the eleventh song of ascent. The Psalms of Ascent are comprised of fourteen psalms (Psalms 120 –134) which are related to the songs that ancient Israelites sang as they made the journey up to Jerusalem for three annual pilgrimage festivals. Psalm 130, like Psalm 51, and employs the individual lament genre to encourage ancient Israel to collectively keep their hope in the Lord despite their current circumstances.
Psalm 129, which precedes the lesson text, offers communal thanksgiving to God for preserving ancient Israel in its collective past and for vanquishing their enemies who “hate Zion.” This thanks is both historical and aspirational. Because God has preserved ancient Israel previously, there is a hopeful expectation that God will continue to do so. Thus, Psalm 130 continues the theme of hope in God’s ability to save, deliver, forgive, and redeem. Although this is a short lesson in terms of verses, it plumbs the depths of lament to explore the depths of God’s love for us.

1-2 Help, God—I’ve hit rock bottom! Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
In the opening verse of the lesson, the psalmist invokes the individual lament genre to express how far they have descended into despair and suffering. In typical form, the psalmist begins this lament with a petition for assistance which comes “out of the depths”(as translated in the NRSVue) of the psalmists present condition, which mirrors the depths of suffering that humans often find themselves in individually and collectively. In verse 2, when the psalmist asks God to “Let your voice be attentive to the voice of my supplications” (NRSVue), they are invoking God’s revelation and instruction at Sinai.
Like last week’s lesson, in Psalm 130, the Psalmist remembers God’s mercy after the golden calf incident of Exodus 32. After the people sin in worshipping the golden calf, God wishes to abandon them in the wilderness. However, Moses intercedes on behalf of the people, and God agrees to continue in covenant relationship with ancient Israel. In Exodus 34, God reveals the Divine Name which describes God as merciful and gracious. Thus, the psalmist is also appealing to God to be merciful to him or her in their time of distress.
3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.
While the previous verses petition for God’s mercy, verse 3-4 indicate the psalmist’s present sufferings are related to their sin. In referring to God’s record concerning wrongdoing or sin, the psalmist makes it clear that they have ignored Divine instruction concerning proper behavior. Thus, she or he is suffering for their own mistakes. Further, the individual sin is representative of the collective sin of the entire community. As a commentary on the history of ancient Israel’s violation of the covenant relationship with the Lord, the psalmist indicts both individual ancient Israelites and ancient Israel as whole for their idolatry, apostacy, and failure to keep the commandments.
However, because the psalmist recalls how God forgave the ancient Israelites after the golden calf idolatry, they hope that God’s forgiveness is yet at work in their life and the life of ancient Israel. The psalmist says God’s forgiveness is at the core of Divine identity—that’s why she or he worships God! Therefore, the psalmist leans on God’s proclivity for forgiveness as the basis for expressing hope in Israel’s redemption from their dire circumstance. Because God’s nature is to forgive, the psalmist hopes God will forgive again.
5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer—and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.
In the final verses of the lesson, the psalmist says they wait for God—literally their soul (nephesh in Hebrew) or entirety of their being—waits for God to hear, forgive, and act to deliver them from distress. Theologically speaking, the psalmist astutely asserts that waiting for God is an act of actively expressing hope. In Hebrew the word for wait, yachal (יַחֵ֥ל), is essentially synonymous with the word hope. By employing the word wait/hope, the psalmist asserts a profound unwavering trust in God that is expressed in Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:24-26 and Psalm 119:43. To wait/hope demands actively expecting God’s imminent action on behalf of the distressed lamenter and proclaims anticipation of God’s deliverance in the future. Waiting on God is like watching for the morning; you know the morning is coming, you just have to endure until it comes.