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Psalm 130 · a question people ask

"If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?" (130:3). What is the answer?

In the text

The psalm doesn't give one in words. It asks, and the next verse begins, "But there is forgiveness with you" (Psalm 130:4). Psalm 76 asks a question with the same Hebrew words for who and stand: "Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?" (Psalm 76:7). Psalm 130 doesn't say who could stand, or what stand means here, and these notes don't answer the question for it.

The verses

“If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared.”
Psalm 130:3-4 · World English Bible
“You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?”
Psalm 76:7 · 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