Psalm 130 in the Hands of the Great Composers

I recently walked through Psalm 130 with the congregation I pastor.

Psalm 130

My Soul Waits for the Lord

A Song of Ascents.

[1] Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
[2] O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

[3] If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
[4] But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

[5] I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
[6] my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

[7] O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
[8] And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities. (ESV)

This is one of the real gems in the inspired Psalm-book. Martin Luther famously called it the “Pauline Psalm.”

During my introduction (you can listen to the audio of the Sunday School lesson I taught here), I noted that many composers have set this Psalm to music.

For those who might be interested in exploring some of the settings of Psalm 130 in the sacred classical music tradition, I put together this Spotify playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1NooTZ7EBRfvEwkZEQTMPG

This playlist includes selections by Bruhns, Bach, Part, Lassus, Mendelssohn, Rutter, and even Paul Mealor. It’s worth noting that you don’t need to shuffle the playlist. It’s already pretty well mixed together, and entire works are kept together on the playlist. Also, some of the more notable works do appear a couple times.