Psalm 130 - More than watchmen

Read: Psalm 130 vs 1-8

I have a sore tooth. It’s sore in a not good way and last night I didn’t sleep very well. I smiled this morning when I opened my Bible to find these words in Psalm 130, today’s Daily Psalm:

‘I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,

more than watchmen wait for the morning.’ 

This Song of Ascents pictures someone who is up during the night. They don’t have a sore tooth (!) but they do have a job that means they are tasked with not only staying up, but also intently watching, as each moment and hour go by; they are a watchman. In the time when these Psalms were written being a watchman wasn’t just an intense job, it was a job fraught with dangers. There were many threats that could come in the middle of the night and so a watchman watched longing for the morning to come.

Like so many of the psalms this psalm takes an everyday image (the watchman) and turns it round to communicate a truth about what it means to long and wait for God. Calling out from ‘the depths’ (vs 1) the voice behind this psalm cries out for mercy. They remind God that He is merciful and forgiving (vs 4) and that it is on this basis that they claim a relationship with Him. 

So even though this person feels shut out by God, they come to Him, not on the basis of what they deserve but in the hope that they will receive what they don’t deserve, named in vs 7 as ‘the LORD’s unfailing love.’ 

The final image in this psalm is the picture of ‘redemption’, a word that talks about someone being bought back, set free, restored. This psalm looks to a God who brings ‘full redemption’ to those who, in spite of their sins, wait for Him. The awareness of this promise and truth breaks like the sunlight on the horizon. Morning has come we start a new day, with our hope fully in the LORD.

Prayer: Lord Jesus thank You that You do not keep a record of our sins. Thank You that Your love and mercy rise to meet us each morning. May I live each day with all my hope placed in You. Amen.