Some thoughts on Psalm 130

Irene put together some insights for us on Psalm 130 - here they are.

Hi Wilf. Here are some things I thought were interesting about Psalm 130.

There were 227,000 hits for the psalm on Google!

Here's a use of the Psalm recently in Israel:

While Israelis run for shelters, SMS subscribers are given a choice of options: Recite Psalms Chapter 130; give charity, call the United Nations and/or leading American politicians, or “pause for a moment and pray for the people of Sderot.”
According to Mostofsky, since the inception of Project SMS, participants have recited Psalm Chapter 130 more than 16,000 times during the 15 seconds after a Kassam rocket has been launched at Israel.


This Psalm is said during the yearly memorial service called Yizkor on Yom Kippur for parents who died in the previous year,

It's a Psalm of Assents (not sure how they got degrees since one or two of the translations said a Psalm of Degrees... out of that) meaning it was recited by pilgrims on the 3 pilgrimage feasts going UP to Jerusalem. (BTW...one goes UP to Jerusalem from wherever one lives - and goes down when leaving!)

John Newton recited it when he was on a ship that was caught in a horrible storm...his response after surviving was to write Amazing Grace.

Of course, it's oneof the most musically adapted psalms (watts; Bach; etc.)

In Hebrew, the whole book is called Tehillim...which means Songs of Praise. The individual ones are called Mizmorim. Don't know if anyone will care. However, Tehillim are divided into 5 books just as the Torah is. One author said, “Moses gave the path but David gave directions."

OK - am REALLY sorry I am going to this conference - but my way is being paid and I can't back out! Have a wonderful meeting - will br prayiing for all of you. Bye.