Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 130:8

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 130:8. He shall redeem Israel — Και αυτος υτρωσει, "He will make a ransom for Israel," He will provide a great price for Israel, and by it will take away all his iniquities. I would not restrict this to Israel in Babylon. Every believer may take it to himself. God perfectly justifies and perfectly sanctifies all that come unto him through the Son of his love.

ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH PSALM

In this Psalm the Spirit of God proposes to us the case of a person oppressed with the wrath of God against sin, yet flying to him for comfort, remission, and purification.

I. Acknowledging his miserable condition, he prays to be heard, Psalms 130:1-2.

II. He desires remission of sin, Psalms 130:3-4.

III. He expresses his hope and confidence, Psalms 130:5-6.

IV. He exhorts God's people to trust in him, Psalms 130:7-8.

I. The psalmist likens himself to a man in the bottom of a pit: -

1. "Out of the depths have I cried," c. A true penitent cries out of the depth of his misery, and from the depth of a heart sensible of it.

2. "Lord, hear my voice." Although I be so low, thou canst hear me.

3. "Let thine ears be attentive," c. Or I cry in vain.

II. But there was a reason why God should not hear. He was a grievous sinner but all men are the same therefore,

1. "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity." And I have nothing of my own but it to bring before thee, yet execute not thy just anger on account of my transgressions; for,

2. "There is mercy with thee," c. True repentance requires two things, the recognition of our own misery and the persuasion of God's mercy. Both are needful for if we know not the former, we shall not seek mercy; and if we despair of mercy, we shall never find it.

3. "That thou mayest be feared." Not with a servile but a filial fear, which involves prayer, faith, hope, love, adoration, giving of thanks, c. This fear leads to God's throne as a merciful and pardoning God.

III. The method of God's servants in their addresses to heaven is, that they believe, hope, pray, and expect. Thus did the psalmist.

1. "I expect the Lord." In faith.

2. "My soul doth wait." His expectation was active and real, and proceeded from fervency of heart.

3. His expectation was not presumptive, but grounded upon God's word and promise: "In his word is my hope."

4. "My soul waiteth for the Lord." Which he illustrates by the similitude of a watchman who longs for the morning.

5. "I wait for the Lord more than they," c. It was now night with him, darkness and misery were upon his soul the morning he expected was the remission of his sins, which must come from God's mercy. For this he eagerly waited.

IV. He proposes his own example to God's people: -

1. "Let Israel hope in the Lord," like me, and cry from the depths.

2. "For with the Lord there is mercy." This is the reason and encouragement for the hope. Mercy flows from him.

3. "And with him is redemption." Which we need, being all sold under sin and this redemption was purchased for us by the death of his Son.

4. And this redemption is plentiful; for by it he has redeemed the whole world, 1 John 1:2.

5. And this is to take effect upon Israel: "For he shall redeem Israel," c. It is not, as the Jews expected, a temporal redemption, but a spiritual, as the angel told Joseph: "His name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins."

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalm 129-131 Preparing for worship

Thinking back on the sorrows of Israel’s history, the travellers recall that ever since the days of the nation’s ‘youth’ in Egypt, Israel has had suffering. The backs of the people had been whipped when they were slaves, but God cut the cords that bound them in slavery and set them free (129:1-4). Now again they are troubled by those who hate them. They pray that God will turn back their enemies and make them as useless as stalks of grass that wither and die in the sun (5-7). Left without friends, their enemies will have no one to help them (8).
A sense of their own sinfulness overcomes the travellers as they approach the temple. They know that they need forgiveness, for no person in a sinful condition can stand before the holy God in his temple (130:1-4). They wait for the assurance of God’s forgiveness with the same longing as watch men on night duty wait for the light of dawn (5-6). But all the time they have a quiet confidence that God, in his love, will forgive them (7-8).
Realizing that they are forgiven, the grateful worshippers are now ready to enter God’s temple in holy worship. The importance of the occasion fills them with such a sense of awe that they are genuinely humbled before God. They confess that they cannot understand all about God and his ways, though at the same time they rest in the knowledge of his nearness and comfort (131:1-3).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”

“O Israel, hope in Jehovah” Such a plea as this for Israel to hope in the Lord is the equivalent of reporting that the nation of Israel at that time was certainly not doing so, else the word would have been that, “Israel hopes in Jehovah.”

The revelation here is that the devout, God-fearing psalmist desired that his whole nation would also turn to the Lord and seek his forgiveness.

“He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities” This was not an unconditional promise. No promise of forgiveness and redemption to any person whomsoever, either in the Old Testament or the New Testament, was ever unconditional. The condition here is stated in the first clause. Let Israel hope in Jehovah, instead of hoping in their godless kings, their unbelieving Sanhedrin, their God-robbing priesthood, their hair-splitting Pharisees, and all the rest of the spiritual crutches upon which they attempted to walk. Let Israel hope in Jehovah by trusting his word and obeying it - then, and only then, will God redeem Israel from all of his iniquity.

By extension, God still promises to “Redeem Israel from all his iniquity,” meaning the New Israel of God, which is the Church; but that promise is also conditional. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16).

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities - His people. He will completely deliver them from the power and the pollution of sin. This will ultimately be accomplished in reference to his whole church, and to every true member of that church. This was the highest object before the mind of the psalmist - that with which the psalm appropriately closes. And this is the highest object before the mind of every true child of God - that he may be completely and forever delivered from the power and the dominion of sin. This will be perfectly accomplished in heaven only; but there and then the bliss will be complete. The psalm begins with an earnest cry from the “depths;” it closes with the triumphant hope of complete and eternal deliverance. There is one world where there is no occasion to cry to God from the “depths” of sorrow and of sin.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

8.And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Here the Psalmist applies more closely to the Church what he has said in the preceding verse. He concludes that it is not to be doubted that God, who has it in his power to save by multiplied means, will prove himself the deliverer of the people whom he has chosen. By these words he teaches us, that when we have evidence of our being adopted by God, we ought also to regard our salvation as certain. His meaning might be explained more familiarly in this way: As to redeem is the continual office of God, and as he is not the redeemer of all men indiscriminately, but only of his chosen people, there is no reason for apprehending that the faithful will not emerge from all calamities; for were it otherwise, God would cease to execute the office which he claims to himself. He repeats the sentiment of the preceding verse, that, provided Israel with all humility draw near to God to plead for pardon, his sins will not be an obstacle in the way of God’s showing himself his redeemer. Although the Hebrew word, עון , avon, is often put for the punishment of sin, yet it also contains a tacit reference to the fault. Whenever, then, God promises a mitigation of the punishment, he at the same time gives assurance that he will pardon the sins; or rather in offering to sinners a gratuitious reconciliation, he promises them forgiveness. According to this exposition it is here said that he will redeem his Church, not from the captivity of Babylon, or from the tyranny and oppression of enemies, or from penury, or, in short, from any other disasters but from sin; for until God pardon the sins of the men whom he afflicts, deliverance is not to be hoped for. Let us then learn from this passage in what way we are to expect deliverance from all calamities, or the order which it becomes us to observe in seeking it. Remission of sins always goes first, without which nothing will come to a favorable issue. Those who only desire to shake off the punishment are like silly invalids, who are careless about the disease itself with which they are afflicted, provided the symptoms which occasion them trouble for a time are removed. In order, then, that God may deliver us from our miseries, we must chiefly endeavor to be brought to a state of favor with him by obtaining the remission of our sins. If this is not obtained, it will avail us little to have the temporal punishment remitted; for that often happens even to the reprobate themselves. This is true and substantial deliverance, when God, by blotting out our sins, shows himself merciful towards us. Whence, also, we gather, that having once obtained forgiveness, we have no reason to be afraid of our being excluded from free access to, and from enjoying the ready exercise of, the loving­kindness and mercy of God; for to redeem from iniquity is equivalent to moderating punishments or chastisements. This serves as an argument to disprove the preposterous invention of the Papists respecting satisfactions and purgatory, as if God, in forgiving the fault, still reserved for a future time the execution of the punishment upon the sinner. If it is objected that the Lord sometimes punishes those whom he has already pardoned; in reply, I grant that he does not always, at the very moment in which he reconciles men to himself, show them the tokens of his favor, for he chastises them to render them circumspect for the future, but while he does this, he in the meantime fails not to moderate his rigour. This, however, forms no part of the satisfactions by which the Papists imagine that they present to God the half of the price of their redemption. In innumerable passages of Scripture, where God promises to his people outward blessings, he always begins with a promise of the pardon of sin. It is therefore the grossest ignorance to say, that God does not remit the punishment till they have pacified him by their works. Moreover, while God’s intention in inflicting some punishments or chastisements upon the faithful, is to bring them to yield a more perfect obedience to his law, the Papists are mistaken in extending these punishments beyond death. But it is not wonderful to find them heaping together so many heathenish dreams, seeing they adhere not to the true and only way of reconciliation, which is, that God is merciful only to such as seek the expiation of their sins in the sacrifice of Christ. It is to be noticed that it is said from all iniquities, that poor sinners, although they feel themselves to be guilty in many ways, may not cease to cherish the hope that God will be merciful to them.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 130:1-8

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice: let your ears be attentive to the voice of my [prayers or] supplications. For if you, LORD, should start [making a list] marking iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that you may be reverenced. I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities ( Psalms 130:1-8 ).

So if the Lord should begin to keep an account of iniquities, none of us would make it. Oh, how thankful we are that with God there is mercy; there is forgiveness. Oh, how happy is the man whose sins are forgiven. "With the Lord there is mercy, and plenteous redemption." "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 130

The poet uttered a cry for God to show mercy to His people, and he encouraged his fellow Israelites to wait for the Lord to deliver them. This is one of the penitential psalms, as well as an individual lament and a psalm of ascent.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. A deliberate decision to hope 130:5-8

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

God’s people should put their hope in Yahweh, in their present distress, because He is loyal in His love, and He will finally provide complete redemption. Ultimate deliverance was sure in the future, and this was to be the ground of the Israelites’ confidence.

Today, God’s redeemed saints can call to Him out of the depths of their affliction, too. We can find encouragement in the fact that God has forgiven us all sins past, present, and future. However, we can also look forward to our full, ultimate redemption when we see Him. Until then, we should hope in the Lord, as a watchman waiting for the dawning of our new day, namely: our glorification.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. The Lord shall do it; in whom Israel is encouraged to hope; with whom grace and redemption were; or who was appointed to be the Redeemer. Redemption was then future, when these words were said, but certain, by the promise of God and agreement of Christ; and would be of the whole Israel, or elect of God; and that from "all" their iniquities, original and actual; sins, secret and open, of heart, lip, and life: and which is no small encouragement for Israel to hope in the Lord, for the sake of which this is added; as well as for the further illustration of the nature of redemption by Christ; which is complete, and now obtained, and is an eternal one.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.   6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.   7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.   8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

      Here, I. The psalmist engages himself to trust in God and to wait for him, Psalms 130:5; Psalms 130:6. Observe, 1. His dependence upon God, expressed in a climax, it being a a song of degrees, or ascents: "I wait for the Lord; from him I expect relief and comfort, believing it will come, longing till it does come, but patiently bearing the delay of it, and resolving to look for it from no other hand. My soul doth wait; I wait for him in sincerity, and not in profession only. I am an expectant, and it is for the Lord that my soul waits, for the gifts of his grace and the operations of his power." 2. The ground of that dependence: In his word do I hope. We must hope for that only which he has promised in his word, and not for the creatures of our own fancy and imagination; we must hope for it because he has promised it, and not from any opinion of our own merit. 3. The degree of that dependence--"more than those that watch for the morning, who are, (1.) Well-assured that the morning will come; and so am I that God will return in mercy to me, according to his promise; for God's covenant is more firm than the ordinances of day and night, for they shall come to an end, but that is everlasting." (2.) Very desirous that it would come. Sentinels that keep guard upon the walls, those that watch with sick people, and travellers that are abroad upon their journey, long before day wish to see the dawning of the day; but more earnestly does this good man long for the tokens of God's favour and the visits of his grace, and more readily will he be aware of his first appearances than they are of day. Dr. Hammond reads it thus, My soul hastens to the Lord, from the guards in the morning, the guards in the morning, and gives this sense of it, "To thee I daily betake myself, early in the morning, addressing my prayers, and my very soul, before thee, at the time that the priests offer their morning sacrifice."

      II. He encourages all the people of God in like manner to depend upon him and trust in him: Let Israel hope in the Lord and wait for him; not only the body of the people, but every good man, who surnames himself by the name of Israel,Isaiah 44:5. Let all that devote themselves to God cheerfully stay themselves upon him (Psalms 130:7; Psalms 130:8), for two reasons:-- 1. Because the light of nature discovers to us that there is mercy with him, that the God of Israel is a merciful God and the Father of mercies. Mercy is with him; not only inherent in his nature, but it is his delight, it is his darling attribute; it is with him in all his works, in all his counsels. 2. Because the light of the gospel discovers to us that there is redemption with him, contrived by him, and to be wrought out in the fulness of time; it was in the beginning hidden in God. See here, (1.) The nature of this redemption; it is redemption from sin, from all sin, and therefore can be no other than that eternal redemption which Jesus Christ became the author of; for it is he that saves his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21), that redeems them from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), and turns away ungodliness from Jacob,Romans 11:26. It is he that redeems us both from the condemning and from the commanding power of sin. (2.) The riches of this redemption; it is plenteous redemption; there is an all-sufficient fulness of merit and grace in the Redeemer, enough for all, enough for each; enough for me, says the believer. Redemption from sin includes redemption from all other evils, and therefore is a plenteous redemption. (3.) The persons to whom the benefits of this redemption belong: He shall redeem Israel, Israel according to the spirit, all those who are in covenant with God, as Israel was, and who are Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile.