Out of the depths I cry to You!
In your Mercy, hear my voice!
May you be attentive to the voice of my supplications!
If You should number the times we stray from You, O Beloved,
who could face You?
Yet You are ever-ready to forgive, that we might be healed.
I wait for You, my soul waits, for in you Love I would live;
My soul awaits the Beloved as one awaits the birth of a child, or
as one awaits the fulfillment of their destiny.
O sons and daughters of the Light, welcome the Heart of your Heart!
Then you will climb the Sacred Mountain of Truth;
You will know mercy and love in abundance.
Then will your transgressions be forgiven; and you will know the Oneness of All.
Nan C. Merrill Psalms for Praying
Reflection:
Forgiveness and healing are gifts from a loving God. For some of us, however, it may seem that these gifts do not come soon enough. Yet the witness of the psalmist reminds us that these gifts are available to everyone—even to those in the depths of despair, where hope feels all but gone.
We are all beloved of God. Like the psalmist, we do not earn this love or prove ourselves worthy of it—we are simply beloved. It is the assurance of our belovedness that gives us hope, and it is hope that makes waiting bearable. If we trust that a new day is coming, we can align our actions to meet it.
Keeping watch is more than simply watching time pass; it is looking expectantly for what we know is coming. It is taking hopeful steps toward the future we anticipate.
The night watch keeps a light on and prepares for the day shift to take up the watch, because morning is coming. Growing up, my parents worked shifts, so I have always been aware that while I am asleep, others are awake—serving and protecting, checking on patients, delivering important mail, ensuring safe passage while precious cargo sleeps, and carrying out countless other tasks that keep our communities running smoothly.
Nan Merrill likens the psalmist’s waiting to the anticipation surrounding the birth of a child. Families, friends, and entire communities prepare for a new arrival by checking in with soon-to-be guardians, making sure they have what they need—sleep, food, diapers, and the cutest baby clothes. Some even remodel their homes or begin saving for college. In these ways, a community awaits a child by taking steps toward the life they hope that child will live.
In the same way, those of us waiting for God to transform the world are not merely doomscrolling the latest troubling headlines. We are actively working to create the world we anticipate: writing to representatives, voting, participating in peaceful demonstrations, volunteering, checking in with friends and neighbors, planting flowers, picking up trash, and offering countless small gestures of goodness and beauty. These actions bring us closer to the world we are waiting and hoping for.
And if you are unsure what steps to take while you wait, may I suggest this: show mercy in abundance, love intentionally and extravagantly, and fill the world with goodness and truth. Your hope will make the waiting more bearable for all of us.
Check out other psalm reflections in the links below or find more of my writing published in Presbyterian Outlook or listen to my experiments in podcasting on the Period Pastor Podcast. Follow me @periodpastor
Past reflection links:
Our Role in the Next Reformation October 26, 2025
Like One Who Watches for the Morning 2023
Psalm 130 Year B (2023-2024)
Psalm 130 Year B (2020-2021) ordinary time
Psalm 130 Year B (2020-2021) second appearance in ordinary time
I began writing Psalm reflections during Lent of 2020. Shortly after, we decided to close the church building, work from home, and worship via zoom. Many churches use the Revised Common Lectionary (RLC) that rotates scripture on a three-year cycle (A, B, and C). Starting in Advent 2019, the church decided to worship with the texts from Year D, which is still not circulated as are years A, B, and C. Year D was created with the goal of including scriptures that were left out or not used as frequently as others. While we were using Psalms in year D, most other lectionary followers were using Year A. In Advent of 2020 we rejoined those who use the lectionary in year B. Advent of 2021 year C. When we returned to in person worship, we took the psalm reflections out of the order of worship. I continued to write them for the blog. Advent of 2022 year A. I left church work in July of 2023 but continued the practice of writing psalm reflections. Advent of 2023 year B. Advent of 2024 year C. I finished year C early, so I began work on psalms I missed: Psalm 119, Year D and others not in the lectionary. By the end of 2025, I have written a reflection for each psalm.
Advent of 2025 year A.
I use the Vanderbilt Divinity Library’s resource for lectionary readings and the PCUSA planning calendar to make text selections.
Year A Psalms
1st Sunday in Advent Psalm 122, 2nd Sunday in Advent Psalm 72, 3rd Sunday in Advent Psalm 146, 4th Sunday in Advent Psalm 80, Christmas Psalm 96, Psalm 97, Psalm 98, 1st Sunday after Christmas Psalm 148, 2nd Sunday after Christmas Psalm 147, 1st Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 29, 2nd Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 40, 3rd Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 27, 4th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 15, 5th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 112, Transfiguration Sunday Psalm 2 or Psalm 99.
1st Sunday in Lent Psalm 32, 2nd Sunday in Lent Psalm 121, 3rdSunday in Lent Psalm 95, 4th Sunday in Lent Psalm 23, 5th Sunday in Lent Psalm 130, 6th Sunday in Lent Psalm 118 or Psalm 31.Holy Week: Monday Psalm 36, Tuesday Psalm 71, Wednesday Psalm 70, Thursday Psalm 116, Friday Psalm 22, Saturday Psalm 31.
Easter Psalm 118 or Psalm 114, 2nd Sunday of Easter Psalm 16, 3rd Sunday of Easter Psalm 116, 4th Sunday of Easter Psalm 23, 5th Sunday of Easter Psalm 31, 6th Sunday of Easter Psalm 66, Ascension of the Lord Psalm 47 or Psalm 93, 7th Sunday of Easter Psalm 68, Pentecost Psalm 104.
1st Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 8, 2nd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 33 or Psalm 50, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 116 or Psalm 100, 4th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 86 or Psalm 69, 5th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 13 or Psalm 89, 6th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 45 or Psalm 145, 7th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 119 or Psalm 65, 8th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 139 or Psalm 86, 9th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 105 or Psalm 119, 10th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 17 or Psalm 145, 11th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 105 or Psalm 85, 12th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 133 or Psalm 67, 13th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 124 or Psalm 138, 14th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 105 or Psalm 26, 15thSunday after Pentecost Psalm 149 or Psalm 119, 16th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 114 or Psalm 103, 17th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 105 or Psalm 145, 18th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 78 or Psalm 25, 19th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 19 or Psalm 80, 20th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 106 or Psalm 23, 21st Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 99 or Psalm 96, 22nd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 90 or Psalm 1, 23rd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 107 or Psalm 43, 24th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 78 or Psalm 70, 25th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 123 or Psalm 90, 26th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 100 or Psalm 95.
Sources and notes:
Psalm 130 is a “succinct but powerful expression of the theme that is the heart of Scripture: the human predicament and its dependence on divine grace.” Mays p. 405
“In the eleventh of the Song of the Ascents an individual psalm singer calls on God for deliverance from what seems to be some threatening situation in life.” W p. 209
Verse 6 watching for the morning: “Sentinels often stood guard on city walls, as did soldiers in camps during times of war, watching in the darkness for danger and waiting expectantly for the safety of daylight, when the possibility of attack from enemies was lessened.” W p. 212
“This psalm invites the faithful who embrace God’s “steadfast love” to help turn the tide of our world’s and our own selfish iniquity–our self-seeking turning and twisting.” W p. 213
Jennifer Garrison Browenell “Sophia” in Spong, M. (Ed.). (2020). The words of her mouth: Psalms for the struggle. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press. “Sometimes Patriarchy has me in a choke hold, a hand over my mouth. I struggle against him, suffocating, my nose clogged with his odor. Always Sophia cradles me, her embrace soothing and strengthening. I sink into her arms as into the bed of my lover. Sometimes Patriarchy stands at a distance his fingers in his ears. I sort at him until my throat is tattered, while he pretends not to listen. Always Sophia leans in. Her face alight with curiosity and compassion. I speak, one word or a thousand. She hearkens. She hears. Sophia, hear my petition: remind me that I have the strength to break free from that which binds–to break that which binds. Remind me that I have the voice to speak words that bring down and build up whenever necessary.”
Austin Channing Brown’s I’m still Here: Black Dignity in a World made for Whiteness “This is the shadow of hope. Knowing that we may never see the relation of our dreams, and yet still showing up. I do not believe that I or my children or grandchildren will live in an America that has achieved racial equality. I do not believe this is a problem that America will fix within any soon-coming generation. And so I stand in the legacy of all that black Americans have already accomplished–in their resistance, in their teachings, in their voices, in their faith–and I work toward a world unseen, currently unimaginable. I am not enslaved, and yet I look back and see centuries of creative evolution of ht hatred for Black bodies. I look at the present–police brutality, racial disparities, backlash against being “politically correct,” the Voting Rights Act, and the election of a chief executive who stoked the fire of racial animosity to win–and I ask myself, Where is your hope, Austin? The answer: It is but a shadow. It is working in the dark, not knowing if anything I do will ever make a difference. It is speaking anyway, writing anyway, loving anyway. It is enduring disappointment and then getting back to work. It is knowing this book may be read only by my Momma, and writing it anyway. It is pushing back, even though my words will never be big enough, powerful enough, weighty enough to change everything. It is knowing that God is God and I am not. This is the cool place from where I demand a love that matters. In this place, I see the sun setting behind me, its light as far away as the stars, and I let the limitations of hope settle over me. I possess not the strength of hope but its weakness, its fragility, its ability to die. Because I must demand anyway. It is my birthright. It is the culmination of everything my ancestors endured, of all that my parents taught me, of the Blackness that rescued me. How dare I consider surrender simply because I want the warmth of the sun? This warmth has not been promised to me. My faith does not require it. When the sun happens to shine, I bask in the rays. But I know I cannot stay there. That is not my place to stand. So I abide in the shadows, and let hope have its day and its death. It is my duty to live anyway.” pp. 180-182
“The basic address of verses 1-2 is standard for a complaint, an address to Yahweh in trouble. yet the placement of the voice in the depths adds to the power of prayer. In fact, the prayer is an act of inordinate boldness. In one sweeping rhetorical move it proposes to make a link between the ruler of reality enthroned and the most extreme, remote circumstance of human need (cf. Isa. 57:15; Debt. 10:14). The psalm thereby strikes one of the most poignant evangelical notes in all the Psalter. From where should the ruler of reality be addressed? One might think it should be from a posture of obedience, or at least from a situation of prosperity and success, indicating conformity to the blessed order of creation. One ought to address the king suitably dressed, properly positioned, with a discipline, well-modulated voice.” Brueggemann The Message of the Psalms p. 104
“But this psalm is the miserable cry of a nobody from nowhere. The cry penetrates the veil of heaven! It is heard and received.” Brueggemann The Message of the Psalms p. 104
“One might imagine that forgiveness serves to open things up to joy and to freedom, that forgiveness is the key intent of the transaction, the pivot on which everything in the future depends. But it is not. Forgiveness is instrumental to the real purpose: “That thou mayest be feared.” One might have expected things in reverse sequence. One might have though fearing Yahweh would be a ground for forgiveness. But this psalm scandalizes all our calculating notions of religion. The move comes the other way; the gift goes before the obedience. The result is that the heard beggar fears the king. The psalm surely suggests that as a the relationship is transformed, so the depths are transformed as well.” Brueggemann The Message of the Psalms p. 105
“The terms wait and hope are rough synonyms. The waiting-hoping is like a watchman at night, waiting early and expectantly for the relief that comes with daybreak. Fear of Yahweh means to have confidence that things as they are (in depth), are not as they will be. Life will be transformed. Forgiveness leads to liberation from life as it is present organized.” Brueggemann The Message of the Psalms p. 106
“The last two verse of the psalm (vv. 7-8) are perhaps tracked on at a later time, around the catchword hope. The function of these verses is to generalize the new situation from a speaker in the depth to the whole community of Israel. the rescue and forgiveness of one “feared” permit the whole community to have new life. Now, because of that bold cry from the Pit, all Israel waits for reception, for liberation from sin and all that blocks new life. The single speaker enacts how it is for all Israel. That single speaker might be any one in the depth who risks enough to cry. The news is that the cry is answered by forgiveness, which sets a new life in motion.” Brueggemann The Message of the Psalms p. 106
Alter, Robert. 2007. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary New York: W. W. Norton & Company
WBC Allen, Leslie C. 1983. Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 101-150. Vol. 21. Waco, TX: Word Books, Publisher.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 1974. Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible. 8th ed. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Press.
Bourgeault, C. (2006). Chanting the psalms: A practical guide Audio Book. New Seeds.
Brueggemann, Walter. 2007. Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit. 2nd ed. Eugene, OR: Cascade.
Brueggemann, Walter. 2014. From Whom No Secrets Are Hid: Introducing the Psalms. Edited by Brent A. Strawn. 1st ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
Brueggemann, Walter. Davis Hanskins, Editor. 2022. Our Hearts Wait: Worshiping Through Praise and Lament in the Psalms Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville KY.
Brueggemann, Walter. (2002). Spirituality of the psalms. Augsburg Pub. House.
Brueggemann, Walter. (1984). The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg.
Chilson, Richard, ed. You Shall Not Want: A Spiritual Journey Based on the Psalms. Ave Maria Press, 2009.
Chittister, Joan. (2011). Songs of the heart: reflections on the psalms. John Garratt Publishing.
Cudjoe-Wilkes and Wilkes Cudjoe-Wilkes, G., Wilkes, A. J., & Moss, O. (2022). Psalms for black lives: Reflections for the work of Liberation. Upper Room Books.
WBC Craigie, Peter C. 1983. Psalms 1-50–Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 19. Waco, TX: Word Books.
Creach, Jerome Frederick Davis. 1998. Psalms: Interpretation Bible Studies. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
DAFLER, J. (2021). PSOBRIETY: A journey of recovery through the psalms. Louisville, KY: WESTMINSTER JOHN KNOX.
W de Claisse-Walford, Nancy L. WISDOM COMMENTARY: Psalms Bks. 4-5. Edited by Barbara E. Reid. Vol. 22. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2020.
Green, Barbara. 1997. Like a Tree Planted: An Exploration of Psalms and Parables Through Metaphor. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.
W Hopkins, Denise Dombkowski. WISDOM COMMENTARY: Psalms Bks. 2-3. Edited by Barbara E. Reid. Vol. 21. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2016.
NIB Keck, Leander E. 2015. The New Interpreters Bible Commentary. Vol. 3. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
Lewis, C. S. (2017). Reflections on the Psalms. Harper One, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers.
Mays, James Luther. 1994. Psalms. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press.
McCann, J. C. (1993). A theological introduction to the book of Psalms: The Psalms as Torah. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
McCann, J. C., & Howell, J. C. 2001. Preaching the Psalms. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
Merrill, N. C. (2020). Psalms for praying an invitation to wholeness (10th Anniversary Edition ed.). London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Miller, Patrick D. 1986. Interpreting the Psalms. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press.
Morgan, Michael. 2010. The Psalter for Christian Worship Revised Edition. Westminster John Knox Press.
Schlimm, Matthew Richard. 2018. 70 Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know. Nashville, TN: Abington Press.
Spong, M. (Ed.). (2020). The words of her mouth: Psalms for the struggle. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press.
WBC Tate, Marvin E. 1990. Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 51-100. Edited by David Allan. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker. Vol. 20. Waco, TX: Word.
Weems, Ann. 1995. Psalm of Lament. Westminster John Knox Pres
OTL Weiser, Artur. 1998. Old Testament Library: Psalms. Translated by Herbert Hartwell. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Manchester University Press.
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