Ps 130 is a psalm which talks of hoping and waiting. It begins ‘out of the depths I cry to you, Lord’ (Ps 130:1), and there will always be times when we feel out of our depth and in danger of despairing. The key in these times is to keep the channels of communication with God open, aware that He is always listening and is attentive to us (Ps 130:2) and is both merciful and forgiving, even if we feel abandoned and forsaken by Him (see Ps 77:7-9).
Learning to trust God in the difficult times is rather like treading water when we are out of our depth. We have to hold on to all we know to be true of God’s character; in this psalm, mercy, unfailing love, forgiveness and redemption are all mentioned. God is the God of second chances who picks us up from failures and forgives our sins. His love does not end or fail (see Ps 32:10, Ps 44:26, Ps 33:5). The challenge for us is to hold on to our knowledge of God’s character even when we feel we are alone, for as Eugene Peterson says, ‘Suffering can never be ultimate. It can never constitute the bottom line. God is at the foundation and God is at the boundaries. God seeks the hurt, maimed, wandering and lost. God woos the rebellious and confused. Because of who God is, we stand in confident awe before Him, not in terrorised despair.’ (‘The Journey’, P 127)
Our response is to hope and wait, words which are from the Hebrew qavah, meaning ‘to bind together strands as in making a rope.’ Making a rope involves taking several strands and binding them into something which is strong and tough:
As we learn to wait and hope in God, our faith is strengthened, for we see that ‘our place in the depths is not out of bounds from God.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Journey, P 131) and ‘hope fortifies faith.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Praying With the Psalms’). Waiting is not a waste of time; hoping is an act of faith.