Daily Word of Grace # 248 (May 25, 2021)
One of the seven penitential psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143) is Psalm 130, De profundis: “Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice; let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication. If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, O Lord, who could stand? For there is forgiveness with you; therefore you shall be feared. I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; in his word is my hope. My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, wait for the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy; with him there is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins” (The Book of Common Prayer 784-785). When we find ourselves somehow in “the depths”—depression, doubt, stress, discouragement, you fill in the blank—there is always at least two things we can do: call out to the Lord and wait for the Lord to work things out. The challenge here is that most of us have high control needs and would rather try to figure out a way out of the depths on our own. In addition, most of us have a hard time waiting for anything, let alone for the Lord to work things out. And yet, when we do call out to the Lord and when we do wait for the Lord to work things out, the Lord always hears us and somehow always works things out—because indeed the Lord treats us with forgiveness, mercy, and “plenteous redemption.”
Love and Prayers,
Dave