Ps 130:1: “Song of degrees. “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.”
A song of degrees in Hebrew is hama’aloth shir which literally means Song of Ascents. It has also been rendered as Gradual Psalms, Songs of steps or Pilgrim songs. Most scholars believe the fifteen Psalms 120-134 were songs that were sung by those making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for one of its high holidays. I remember years ago when I was in seminary in Denver. A number of students got together and chartered a bus to transport themselves to Champaign, Illinois to the Urbana Missionary Conference sponsored by Inter Varsity. This was in the day of the Jesus movement and there was a lot of excitement in going to a convention to meet with Christians from all over the world. We were really spiritually pumped and on the way we were singing all the Gospel songs and choruses which we could think of. We were worshipping and praising God all the way from Denver to Illinois. It was a beautiful time and one of my most pleasant memories in my spiritual experience. This is likely what the song of ascents was all about. This is just one of the many songs that were sung by people who were taking a journey to Jerusalem to celebrate one of the high holidays. Like our trip to Urban there was much joy, celebration and anticipation of the exciting spiritual times that were ahead.
So we can likely assume that the emotional mood of this Psalm was one that was upbeat and an expression of faith and anticipation of what God is going to accomplish. Thus they sing out of the depths. Commentators vary in their opinion as to what this depth is. Practically all our modern translations render the word ma’amaq from the depths which comes from the root word ‘amaq as depth, leaving it up to the reader to decide just what these depths are. Some commentators say it is the depths of the sea, obviously metaphoric as a call for help like you are drowning in your problems. Some say it is a cry from the depths of sin, Others say it is from the depths of calamity.
The word ‘amaq depth means a trench, deep, and unintelligible. In the Akkadian it has the idea of unsearchable or the very bottom of something. In the Persian the word has the idea of being earnest. The word is spelled Ayin, Mem Qop. The Ayin has a meaning of seeing beneath the surface, the Mem has the idea of mercy and the Qop represents humility. The built in commentary suggest the word means to look beneath the surface to find the mercy of God when you humble yourself before Him. So maybe these pilgrims as asking for mercy.
I put this out to some Christian friends in a text giving the background of this word and the general consensus was that when these pilgrims say they cry to God from the depths, they are not referring to calamity or the depths of a sea of problems, but that they are crying out from the very depths of their soul and being. I believe this is the context and the best way to approach this passage.
A couple weeks ago I attended a prayer meeting. Everyone gathered around holding hands and each took their turn praying. Most were you typical I like God, help us get closer to you type of prayer. Some were pretty prayers with beautiful words, some were attempts to sound heartfelt, but you just could not get over the feeling of business as usual. Then one person shared from the depths of his heart a problem he was facing. Everyone was touched and they began to pray. I sensed an immediate difference in the prayers at that point. The prayers were heartfelt, sincere, prayers from the ‘amaq or depths of their soul.
The Bible tells us in James 5:1: “Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” You know once that individual confessed his fault, his heart to those around us we were drawn to the plight of our brother and our prayers suddenly became real, heart felt or fervent. The word in Greek for faults is harmatia. This is the same word used in the Septuagint for Hebrew word chatah which both means to miss the mark. The word is identical to the Aramaic word meaning the same thing. We traditionally render this as sin but it is not only sin, it is missing the mark, which means a fault and/or failure. It is not just confessing our sins to one another, it is also admitting our failures. That is what happened in this prayer meeting, the man, who happened to be the pastor admitted to the prayer group a failure a harmatia. You know we are a success driven culture and it is very hard to admit to a failure. Yet people are quite forgiving when you fail because we all fail. When the pastor admitted his failure the rest of the prayer group who loved this pastor only felt compassion for him and his sorrow. This drove the group to move from the superficial, look at how spiritual I am prayers to really digging down deep into their souls, their hearts and express ‘amag a prayer from the depths of their soul. Such prayers became fervent prayers which availed much.
Perhaps it is time to step out of our cultural box where we must always appear successful and victorious and share with others brother and sisters the ‘amaq depths of our hearts, our agony, remorse and sorrow when we do hamatia or chatah miss the mark and ask for prayer. If we share with a righteous man we may have a fervent prayer in our behalf. Don’t let that man business throw you. In the Semitic languages there is no neuter, just male and female. Unlike our English language where masculine means a male and feminine means a female that is not always the case in Eastern culture. Feminine does necessarily mean a female or if something is grammatically masculine it does not necessarily mean it is male. A human being in Semitic culture, as it sometimes does in English before we started becoming politically correct, defaults to the masculine gender for convenience sake. But we can correctly render James as saying the prayers of a righteous man or woman can avail much and women tend to pick up on a person’s agony over a failure quicker than we men do and we can count on them for a fervent prayer from the very ‘amaq depths of their heart.
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