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Psalm 130 · a question people ask

"Out of the depths I have cried to you, LORD" (130:1). What are the depths?

In the text

The psalm doesn't say. Here is what the text shows. The Hebrew word comes five times in the Hebrew Bible, and in the other four it is joined to water or to the sea. Psalm 69 prays from deep water: "I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me" (Psalm 69:2), and "Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters" (Psalm 69:14). Isaiah has "the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over" (Isaiah 51:10), and Ezekiel "broken by the seas, in the depths of the waters" (Ezekiel 27:34). Psalm 130 names no water. The verses that follow speak of sins (Psalm 130:3) and of waiting (Psalm 130:5-6). The psalm doesn't say what its depths are, and these notes don't say it for it.

The verses

“A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I have cried to you, LORD.”
Psalm 130:1 · World English Bible
“If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?”
Psalm 130:3 · World English Bible
“I wait for the LORD. My soul waits. I hope in his word. My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”
Psalm 130:5-6 · World English Bible
“I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.”
Psalm 69:2 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 130

Psalm 130: Out of the depths

Psalm 130's word for depths comes five times in the Hebrew Bible, and only here without water or sea (130:1). Its kept a record of (130:3) and its watchmen (130:6) are one Hebrew verb, and its forgiveness (130:4) is a noun the Hebrew Bible has only three times. It ends, "He will redeem Israel from all their sins" (130:8).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions