Year 8, Day 273: Psalms 129-130

Theological Commentary: Click Here

This pair of psalms for today give us insight into the relationship between God and His followers.  In each psalmist we hear about their position and the current position of God.  In each case, there is a plea for response.

In the first case, we have a victim.  The psalmist feels persecuted and asks God to intervene.  The psalmist longs for when it will be said that the Lord has cut the strings of the oppressors.  The psalmist knows that his salvation resides in the Lord.

The psalmist goes further, though.  He asks that the wicked be put to shame.  He longs for the time when they will wither up and die.  I can really understand the psalmist here and know what it is like to long for the destruction of those who persecute me.  I give the psalmist credit, too.  The psalmist knows that such a judgment is best handed out by a righteous God and not an emotional human being.  That’s an important lesson to learn.

In the second psalm, we have a psalmist who gives us the feeling of knowing some guilt.  I love the phrase in Psalm 130:3.  If the Lord should mark our iniquities, who could stand?  If the Lord only cared for punishing our guilt, we would all feel the weight of such judgment.  Who among us is not guilty?

Our hope is in the fact that God cares about forgiveness more than He cares about judgment.  He knows that we must be held responsible, but He also realizes that we should be given the option of not being crushed under the weight of such judgment.  Our hope, as the psalmist says, in in the forgiveness of the Lord.

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