What does Psalms Chapter 129 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

A depth cry asks hearing and questions marking iniquities. Forgiveness, law, reliance and hope are named. Israel’s hope is invited from morning watch until night.

Chapter breakdown

De profundis is the incipit; the heading calls this a sinner’s mercy-trusting prayer and sixth penitential psalm, with a gradual-canticle inscription. The speaker cried from depths and asks hearing and attentive ears. He asks who shall stand if the Lord marks iniquities; a new legal theory of acquittal or everyone’s certain destruction is not added.

Merciful forgiveness is with the Lord. By reason of law the speaker waited, his soul relied upon the word and hoped in the Lord. This edition does not give the more-than-watchmen comparison, propitiation term or filial-awe explanation.

Israel is called to hope from morning watch until night because mercy and plentiful redemption are with the Lord, who shall redeem Israel from all iniquities. Future redemption stays attributed, rather than achieved interior liberation, universal individual clearance or a new condition prescribing the exact vigilance necessary for redemption.

The story inside

Opening: A depth cry asks hearing and questions marking iniquities. Development: Forgiveness, law, reliance and hope are named. Conclusion: Israel’s hope is invited from morning watch until night.

Lessons worth keeping

1
A depth cry asks hearing and questions marking iniquities.
2
Forgiveness, law, reliance and hope are named.
3
Israel’s hope is invited from morning watch until night.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 66221–66221
Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord:
Lines 66223–66224
Lord, hear my voice. Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
Lines 66226–66226
If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
Lines 66228–66230
For with thee there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of thy law, I have waited for thee, O Lord. My soul hath relied on his word:
Lines 66234–66235
From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
Lines 66237–66238
Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.
Lines 66240–66240
And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.