We come to Psalm 130 in our journey through the Psalms of Ascent.

• Help, GOD—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
• If you, GOD, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.
• I pray to GOD—my life a prayer— and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.
• O Israel, wait and watch for GOD— with GOD’s arrival comes love, with GOD’s arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin. (1 – 8)

“Wait and watch for GOD.” A fitting introduction to Advent, which starts tomorrow.

Peterson opens with the observation that “To be human is to be in trouble.”

Help, GOD—the bottom has fallen out of my life! (Psalm 130.1, MSG)

…man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5.7, ESV)

He writes:

We live in a culture that wants to do away with suffering or pretend that it doesn’t exist. But Psalm 130 is an affirmation that “…suffering is real; God is real.” But Peterson continues:

Peterson talks about “waiting and watching” in terms of being a night watchman. He worked as one for a year…

But I never did anything, never constructed anything, never made anything happen. I waited and watched. I hoped…The psalmist’s and the Christian’s waiting and watching—that is, hoping—is based on the conviction that God is actively involved in his creation and vigorously at work in redemption.

Hoping does not mean doing nothing…It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions…

And hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain. It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what what he said he will do…in his way and in his time.

Tomorrow begins Advent Season, and the First Sunday of Advent has been designated “Hope.” It gives new meaning to Psalm 130’s nearly last words:

O Israel, wait and watch for GOD— with GOD’s arrival comes love, with GOD’s arrival comes generous redemption. (Psalm 130.7, MSG)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4.4, 5, ESV)