Psalms · Psalm 130

'A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths' — the sense of 'out of the depths' is on account of Israel being in exile, poverty, disgrace, and lowliness.

"A song" — he compares the exile to the depths of the waters.

"Out of the depths" — from within the depth of troubles have I called to You, Hashem.

'A Song of Ascents' — a prayer for the forgiveness of sin. 'Out of the depths have I called You, Hashem' — 'depth' is said of an actual [physical] depth, the opposite of a high place, such as [the condition of] the poor, the weak, the exile, and the like; and it is also said of a depth of soul — one who through his sin has become distanced from Hashem, who is high above the highest, so that his soul stands in a low and depressed place, even though in the affairs of his body he may stand in success and worldly eminence. Concerning this he says: I have called You out of two depths in which I find myself — the depth and lowliness of the body, together with the depth and lowliness of the soul.

'Lord' — because he is in the depths, he cries out, 'hearken to my voice.'

"Let Your ears be attentive" [קשובות] — in the pattern (mishkal) of shekulam, [namely] shekulot ("bereaved [women]").

"Attentive" — an expression of hearing/listening.

'Hashem, hearken to my voice' — this is the acceptance of his prayer, to fulfill his request; and also, 'let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications' — that is, to the quality of my voice and the presentation of my words and my just arguments.

'If' — the sense is: save me quickly, and do not remember against me the iniquities that have passed, for I shall not be able to answer or reply.

"Who could stand?" — we would nearly be consumed and lost, if You should keep [a record of] our iniquities against us.

"If You should mark iniquities" — if You do not forgive, but instead keep them in order to exact retribution for them, who could stand and endure? For they are indeed very many.

'If You, Hashem, should mark iniquities' — if You should wish to keep [account of] iniquities and not to forgive, 'Hashem, who could stand' — no one will be found who can stand and endure. For since Hashem is without limit, it follows that the service due to Him must likewise be without limit, and that even the lightest sin becomes very great; for it cannot be conceived that one could fulfill the obligation imposed upon him to serve the One who is without limit, except one who is himself without limit like Him. If so, who could stand, seeing that even a small sin is a rebellion without limit, and there is no difference between one thing that is without limit and another thing that is without limit.

"For forgiveness is with You" — You did not give permission to an agent to forgive, as it is said (Exod. 23:21): “for he will not forgive your transgression.” "in order that You be feared" — for this, so that no man will rely on the forgiveness of another. (I found this.)

'For' — the sense is: when You forgive my iniquity, sinners will hear and they too will repent and abandon their sin; but if You do not forgive, they will not fear You, and they will do as they please, according to every desire of their soul.

"For with You" — my father, of blessed memory, explains: God, blessed be He, gave dominion to the celestial beings to carry out His will on earth, but forgiveness does not reside with them, but only with Him — so that people should not say in their hearts, "If we sin, the angels will be appeased toward us and bear our transgressions." But there is no forgiveness in them, so that people will fear God, blessed be He, because forgiveness is with Him [alone] and not with any other besides Him.

"For with You there is forgiveness" — You did not hand over the forgiveness of sin to any of the angels, as it says, "for he will not pardon your transgression" (Exodus 23). "That You may be feared" — for had He handed forgiveness over to an angel, man would have been enticed to say, "the angel will be appeased toward us, since it is not against him that we sinned," and would think the angel would bear the sin; and this would diminish the fear of the Omnipresent.

"Feared" — from the language of "mora" (fear/awe).

'For with You there is forgiveness' — that is to say, there is a difference between flesh and blood who forgives and pardons one who has sinned against him: he does so on account of some factor he finds in the sinner — whether because the sinner regretted [his deed] and sought forgiveness, or because he had mercy on him, or because [the sinner] found favor in his eyes. If so, the cause of the forgiveness is not found with the one forgiving, but rather with the one who is being forgiven. This is not so with You: the cause of the forgiveness is found within You, for it is impossible to conceive of a God who creates and sustains His creatures if He were not to forgive forever — as is said in the Midrash, that Abraham our father, peace be upon him, said to the Holy One, blessed be He: 'If it is [strict] judgment that You seek, there can be no world; and if it is a world that You seek, there can be no [strict] judgment.' If so, the cause of the forgiveness is found with You. Moreover, the nature of forgiveness is that it removes the sin as though it had never existed at all in reality — and this a person cannot do, to make something that existed in reality as though it had never existed. Therefore forgiveness of one person by another is never found anywhere in Scripture, only forgiveness from Hashem. And to this he says, 'for only with You is there forgiveness.' 'That You may be feared' — that is, flesh and blood, because he wants people to fear him, will not forgive a sin; for if he forgives iniquities, people will not fear him, since the fear of him stems only from [fear of] his punishment, and if he does not punish, there is no cause for fear. This is not so with You: the cause of the fear that people have of You is Your greatness and Your exaltedness, and this is revealed through forgiveness — for by it they see that You are too exalted for their sins to blemish Your honor, as it is said, 'If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him?' — and [You are] too exalted for a righteous man to be found before You [without sin], such that the forgiveness itself brings about that You may be feared.

"I hoped, O Lord; yea, my soul hoped" — one hope after another hope, similar to (above 27:14): “Hope for the Lord, be strong and He will give your heart courage, and hope,” and similar to “among those who await the morning, those who await the morning.”

'I wait' — to hearken to His voice. 'And in His word' — [i.e.,] in His decrees.

"I wait for Hashem" — I have hoped in Him in this world, that He show me salvation; and my soul has hoped for this also at my death, that He gather my glory to Himself. "And in His word do I hope" — for He has promised me to bring me out of exile.

"I have hoped for Hashem" — I have hoped in Hashem. "My soul does wait" — the matter is repeated to express its constancy.

'I wait for Hashem' — there is a difference between hope [tikvah] and expectation [yichul]. The cause of hope lies within the soul of the one who hopes — that even though the matter has not been clearly promised, his soul hopes for it. And the cause of expectation stems from the thing itself that is expected, and it comes through a promise — that one has been promised help, and he does not doubt that [the promiser] will fulfill his word and his promise. Accordingly, he says that regarding Hashem one may speak both of hope and of expectation. 'I wait for Hashem' — on account of the fact that 'my soul does wait,' for there is found in my soul hope that Hashem will save me even had there been no promise about this; his soul trusts in His salvation, for Hashem will not forsake His people. And besides this, 'in His word' and His promise 'do I hope' — I have an expectation, since He has promised me to save me.

"My soul is to the Lord among those who await the morning" — I am among those who look forward to the redemption. "those who await the morning" — They look forward and repeatedly look forward for one end after another end. (I found this.)

'My soul' — waits for Hashem more than watchmen of the walls [wait] for the morning; and the reason it is mentioned twice is that they strengthen themselves and comfort their heart, for [they know] that morning will come.

"My soul" yearns "for Hashem" — at night, [longing] to be among those people who watch for the morning, that is, who rise at the morning watch to pray. And he says "watchmen for the morning" a second time, meaning that it is their custom to be watchful and awake every morning to pray to God. And this psalm is the words of every pious person in exile.

"Than watchmen" — from the language of "shomer" (a watchman); or, it is an expression of hope and waiting, as in "and his father watched over/kept the matter [in mind]" (Genesis 37).

'My soul [waits] for Hashem' more than 'watchmen' and those who wait 'for the morning' — for one who watches and waits for a man to come and save him is not certain [of it], since it is possible that the man might die or fall ill and not come; but one who waits for the morning — the morning certainly comes at its [appointed] time. Even so, my soul that hopes for Hashem — this hope is greater than [that of] watchmen for the morning. And he explains: they are 'watchmen for the morning' in that, since their hope is bound to a [fixed] time, it will arrive only at its [proper] time, after the passing of the twelve hours of the night, and the morning cannot come before then. But—

'Hope' — [is] in the imperative form, from the heavy conjugation [binyan]; and these are the words of the poet, who exhorts Israel — and how many people has He redeemed!

"Hope" — an imperative of the intensive verb-pattern (with a strengthening dagesh). He is saying: Israel, hope in Hashem to redeem you from the exile, for with Him there is always mercy for His creatures, and He will deal kindly with you; for with Him there is abundant redemption, since He has already redeemed you many times, for redemption is never lacking with Him — for it is abundant with Him.

"Let Israel hope" — you, Israel, hope in Hashem, for with Him is lovingkindness. "And plenteous [redemption]" — has He not redeemed you many times already? So too will He redeem you now as well, for redemption is not lacking to Him, since plenteous redemption is with Him.

"O Israel, hope in Hashem" — their hope does not depend on a fixed time, but only on Hashem. "For with Hashem there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption" — for through the attribute of mercy that is His, He is able to redeem him before the time appointed for the redemption, in that "He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities." And through this, the darkness of night will depart even before morning, and He will redeem them before the dawn rises — that is, before the appointed time, as it is written: "If they are worthy, I will hasten it."

'And He will redeem' — you from all your iniquities, corresponding to [what was said above]: 'If You, Hashem, should mark iniquities' (v. 3).

"And He" — And if you should say: how will He redeem me when I am full of iniquity? [The answer is:] He will redeem Israel from all its iniquities. First He will redeem it from its iniquities — meaning that He will forgive it its past iniquities and put it into their hearts to return to Him with all their heart — and afterward He will restore their captivity.

"And He will redeem Israel," etc. — meaning, behold, even sin will not hold back the redemption, for He will redeem Israel from its iniquities, since the sin has already been purged and has gone away, and Israel is redeemed from the sin.