Watchmen
Today's beautiful hungry prayer comes from Psalm 130 which Martin Luther called a "Pauline Psalm" because it's an Old Testament expression of the Gospel in typical Paul-terms.The Hebrew Poetry is beautiful too:
- there are clever word plays - the word for "kept record of my sins" is the same as the word for "watchman"
- the word for wait is "qavah" - which means to wait, to hope, while God weaves the tangled ends together.
- The poet changes standard word order around, where the convention in Hebrew is to put the verbs first, he puts God's Name or "My Soul" first.
- In some cases he even leaves the verb out - leaving us to insert it. You see this in vs.6 where the word "wait" doesn't occur in the Hebrew text, but you automatically want to insert it and it makes the passage more poignant, more passionate and more hungry.
v1-2: Despair over our brokenness.
v3-4: Good News because God doesn't guard our sins: He forgives them
v5-6: Hunger for Intimacy with God
v7-8: Message of love and rescue for the world
In the first two parts the Psalm briefly and eloquently expresses our brokenness and the beautiful truth that God forgives us instead of auditing us.
But it's the beautiful part three that grabs me today...
When we have truly been forgiven, we come to that place of being able to sing "I was there when they crucified my Lord, I was there when they crucified my Lord, ooooh sometimes, it causes me to tremble, tremble tremble, for I was there when they crucified my Lord"
The fear-reverence that the Psalmist expresses in v4 leads him to the longing expressed in v5. "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope."
And then comes v.6 with the verbs left out but implied:
"My Soul ... for the Lord, like watchmen ... for the morning, like watchmen ... for the morning."
Can you feel the hunger? The longing? He knows that He needs God more than anything! He's a watchman longing for the dawn - He's a soul longing for God.
This hunger (satisfied) then leads him from first person singular to third person plural - O Israel hope in the Lord for with Him is unfailing love and full redemption.
Read this Old Testament Gospel Presentation and let its aroma make you hungry too...
| 1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 My soul [waits] for the Lord more than watchmen [wait] for the morning, more than watchmen [wait] for the morning. 7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. (Psalms130:1-8) |
