Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine

This psalm too is a prayer to God by the Hebrews found in captivity, from which they longed for liberation and about this they urgently besought the Lord.

Psalm 129:1. Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord. “Out of the depths” is understood to mean the misfortunes of the captivity and rejection by God, which it represented.

Psalm 129:3. If You, O Lord, should mark wrongdoings – O Lord! who would stand? The captives beg God for leniency toward their sins. There is not a single sinless man on earth; if the Lord were to punish each person for every deed he has committed, no one would escape His condemnation (“if You, O Lord, should mark wrongdoings, who would stand?”). But the Lord can cleanse from sins and then have mercy, which is what the writer asks for (verse 4).

Psalm 129:5. I hope in the Lord, my soul hopes; and in His word do I trust. Psalm 129:6. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning, more than the watchmen for the morning. “In His word do I trust,” that is, I believe that You, O Lord, will fulfill those promises given by You through the prophets about liberation from captivity; by Your mercy our wrongdoings will be forgiven and we with great desire and strain await liberation, just as the night watchman awaits the coming of morning, the end of his responsible and difficult service.

Psalm 129:7. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is mercy and with Him is much redemption, Psalm 129:8. and He will redeem Israel from all his wrongdoings. Faith in the mercy of the Lord creates in the writer confidence that He will send “much redemption,” that is, complete liberation from captivity, and that He will not impute his wrongdoings to the Hebrew people, and this confidence gives a bold and joyful tone to the entire content of the psalm. The psalm is used at vespers, before the time of nightfall (which can be compared with the times of the Old Testament), when the believer prays to God for the preservation of himself in well-being and for leniency toward the “wrongdoings” he has done during the day.