PSALM  130

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for today is, “Psalm 130.”

Today is one of the 2 times in the Sunday Mass liturgies we use Psalm 130 - so for that reason and a few others, I want to preach on it today.

Do you want some good prayers?  Try the Psalms.  There are 150 of them in the Bible. They are the Book of Psalms.  They are the song book of Israel in the Bible - but without the music. It’s been my experience that if you read the psalms you’ll find at least 7 that will grab you - because of their words and images. Every funeral we hear The Lord Is My Shepherd - Psalm 23.  Today I’m featuring Psalm 130.  Pray Psalm 130 all through life - especially in the last third of our life.

We have heard of it with its Latin title: “De Profundis.” “Out of the depths …. Out of the pits ….  Out of the bottom of my dirty bird cage - with old newspapers and you know what on its bottom, I cry to you oh God.”

LET ME REPEAT THE PRAYER - PSALM 130

Let me recite the prayer in full once again. It’s only 89 words in the translation from the Hebrew that we have here in our Missalette. Psalms sort of slide by us without much mention - especially by preachers.

PSALM 130 - OUT OF THE DEPTHS

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication. 

If you, O LORD, mark iniquities [sins],
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered. 

I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD.

For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.

There it is:  a profound prayer.

In some synagogues it’s recited every weekday. Shir HaMa’alot. Those are the first two words of the psalm in Hebrew - as “De profundis”  are the first two words in the Latin translation.

And De Profundis in Gregorian chant is powerful. Just type into Google, “De Profundis - YouTube” - and you can hear renditions by the greats:  Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Salieri.  Leonard Bernstein has it in his Mass.

DEATH IN TODAY’S READINGS

Did you notice the theme of death in today’s readings?

In the first reading from Ezekiel he has the Lord saying two times, “I will open your graves and have you rise from them.”

In the second reading from Romans, Paul says even if we are dead - if we have the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead in us - we will receive life in our mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in us.

And the gospel has the great story of Jesus calling Lazarus back from the dead - even though he was in the grave 4 days.

And then there is Psalm 130, “Out of the Depths,”  “De Profundis,” “Shir HaMa’alot” - which I’m commenting on today.

THE INGREDIENTS IN PSALM 130

First Psalm 130 is a scream. The psalms as prayer are often  cries - screeches - shrieks - shouts. The psalms teach us how to yell at God and to God. The psalms teach us how to scream.

In preaching I have said several times,  the loudest scream I ever heard in my life was from my sister Mary. It was at Lutheran hospital in Brooklyn - just outside of surgery. My mother was hit by a car while walking across a street on her way to church and then to work. It was a hit and run. She was flipped in the air and came down on her head. I got to the hospital and went upstairs to surgery. They were working on her brain. She died. It was April 7, 1987.   The doctors came out and told my sister Mary and me they couldn’t save her. The family was downstairs in the waiting room. I said to Mary, “Let’s suck it in and go downstairs and tell everyone.” She yelled, “Suck it in yourself!” And she screamed the loudest scream I ever heard.  It stopped everyone. So many of the psalms are screams.  When was the last time you screamed to God or at God?

And God hears screams from this planet every day - from Syria, Iraq, Baltimore, Chicago, North Korea, the Sudan and right now, Colombia. As of this morning the death today in Colombia is over 230 in those mud slides.

Next Psalm 130 is all about worrying about our mistakes, our sins, our iniquities. It gets us in touch with what every human being that I have ever talked to me as priest - what they worry about.  People have and hold onto memories of mistakes. And this psalm says, “Who can stand up if the Lord has a ledger, a book, a list on which God marks down when we were naughty.”  We don’t worry about when we were nice.

I already mentioned that Mozart and Salieri wrote music for Psalm 130 - De Profundis.  If you remember the movie Amadeus - about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri - I would dare say that Mozart didn’t feel the depths of Psalm 130 - especially dying at the age of 35 - and being a genius and a spoiled child all through is life. Salieri however, needed Psalm 130.  He dies at 74. In the movie and play, he’s looking back in his old age and talks about his life, his mediocrity, his jealousy, his envy - especially towards Mozart. He calls himself  the patron saint and the champion of mediocrity. He could pray Psalm 130 I’m sure with great depth. He cries near his death about his life, “Mediocrities everywhere... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you all.”

Thirdly Psalm 130 says with the Lord there is forgiveness.  Couple that with the memories of our sins.  That’s a big act of faith. There is forgiveness with the Lord. Everyone over 65 worries about their life.  We drive alone at times with the hope that God is a forgiving God - who doesn’t have a score sheet.

Fourthly, there is the issue of trust - which goes along with remembering and forgiveness. Hopefully, we trust in that statement from the Lord that there is forgiveness. Trust is not only a child’s issue - the first stage of life according to Eric Ericson. It’s also the last stage in life - as we move into our second childhood.

Fifthly, we have to learn to wait for the Lord before we can experience this statement from the Lord.

We know about the experience of waiting. It’s like the military or police or people who work night shifts waiting  for the dawn.  We all experience waiting every day: waiting for that slow clock to get to 4 PM or whenever time is up. We wait for kids to get home. We wait up for spouses. We wait for kids or spouses to come back to the faith. So we know waiting.

Sixthly, the Lord is kind and he is filled with plenty of redemption. We Redemptorists have as our motto and meaning those words from this Psalm130. “With him there is fullness of redemption.” In Latin it’s “Copiosa apud eum redemptio.”  That’s our motto.  That’s our mission. We  preach trust in God. We preach “not to worry” when we look at our past. With the Lord there is fullness of redemption.”

CONCLUSION

Every one of us will die.

Every one of us hopes, Jesus is going to stand there at our grave or our remains and just as he stood at Lazarus grave - 4 days after he died, Jesus is going to scream out our name,  “______ come out!”