Category: Psalms (Page 7 of 7)

Psalm 130 teaches us how to cry out to the Lord:

1. I cry to the Lord out of the depths. (1-2)

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy.”

2. I cry to the Lord out of my depravity. (3-4)

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

3. I cry to the Lord out of my darkness. (5-6)

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

When I do so cry to the Lord, I find Him faithful. (7-8)

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

Psalm 131 is a prayer of a person at rest with God, with his world, with himself.  Not a bad place to begin the new year and decade. 

A person at rest prays with …

A humble heart.

“O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things to great and too marvelous for me.” (v.1)

A hushed soul.

“But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” (2)

A hopeful resolve.

“O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.” (3)

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130)

What we require is light.  Darkness will not do.  Death happens in darkness.  Light gives life!  We simply must have light.

God knows this.  For this reason He imparts His light to us through “The unfolding” of His words in the Scriptures.  The Hebrew word for “unfolding,” depending upon either of two possible pronounciations, has the notion of either “door” (thus the KJV’s “the entrance of Thy words”) or to “unfold” (as in ESV and NIV).  The Hebrews were a nomadic people who made their homes in tents.  Thus to “open the door” one “unfolded” the tent flap (Boice, 3:1041).  When the tent flap was “unfolded” light poured into the otherwise darkened tent.  Those things which previously were veiled in darkness were exposed and laid bare to the light of day.

God the Holy Spirit is pleased to use the faithful exposition of His Word to bring light to the otherwise darkened interior of our lives.  What we desperatly need is the “unfolding” of the Scriptures.  The need of the hour is not cleverness, novelty or sensationalism.  The Word of God cannot be improved upon or “made relevant.”  The great essential is the faithful “unfolding” of God’s always-relevant Word by the enablement of God’s Spirit. 

This, the psalmist demands, “gives light.”  Light to see.  Light to live by.