Psalm 130:1-2

Psalm 130:1-2

1 From the watery depths I called (qara) to you, YHWH
2 My Lord, hear my voice (qol)!
Let your ears be attentive (qashuv)
to the voice (qol) of my plea for grace!                                                          

WAIT EMPOWERED BY PRAYER

Just recently, we attended a training on the AEDs installed in school. “In the event of an emergency, appoint someone to call the ambulance, or else nobody will,” the trainer instructed us. Many a times when things happen, we panic, we seek others for advice, we Instagram our distress… we do everything but reach for the most direct source of help.

Not the psalmist. He opens his plea by appealing to YHWH on the basis of the cries he has made. “My Lord, hear my voice… the voice of my plea for grace!” (130:1-2) The words call (qara), voice (qol), and attentive (qashuv) all begin with the same ‘q’ sound in Hebrew— this repetitive alliteration accentuate the psalmist’s cries to God.

This is a psalm about the long waits we go through in life before God delivers or answers us. But it is not waiting in pouting passivity. Rather, the psalmist continues to actively commune with God in his waiting, even if it were through desperate laments.

I am reminded that in my own valleys of life, I often spend more time thinking about my problems than I spend praying over them. Yet in times when I do remember to pray intentionally about them, the very act of complaining to God in prayer sustains and empowers me. My vision turns from the dry valleys to the high mountains where real hope lies (cf. 130:5).

Waiting wears us out. But even as tribulation and waiting is a fact of life this side of heaven, we are reminded through Psalm 130 that prayer is the power that carries us through such times.

Esther Peh
(M.Div., Yr 2)