I. EXPRESSION OF ISRAEL'S REPENTANCE (1-4). CONFESSION. 1. Woeful Request (1-2). 2. Wise Remark (3). 3. Weighty Reason (4). "For.'
II. EXPECTATION OF ISRAEL'S REDEMPTION (s-8). CONFIDENCE. r. Watchful Regard (s-6). 2. W ise Recommendation (7a). 3. Weighty Reason (7b-8). "For." SUPERSCRIPT.-A Song of the Degrees (or, Ascents). PRIMARY AssocIATION.-Written probably by Hezekiah who alludes to Solomon's prayer (2 Chron. vi. 40-42). Lying at the gates of death his prayer is heard and he is raised up. Last of the seven "Penitential Psalms," so-called by the early Christian Church. P ROPHETIC ANTICIPATION.-Points to the fulfilment of Israel's Day of Atonement. We see here the effect of the "ploughing" the disciplinary process mentioned in the preceding psalm. The nation longs for the end of the long night of trouble and the dawn of the promised millennial day. PERSONAL APPLICATION.-Wistful waiting and watching. Ex perience rises from the depths of sinfulness ( r) to the heights of salvation (8) by four steps. All are guilty bµfore the bar of divine justice, cf .. Rom. iii. The 'realisation of personal sin casts the soul upon the mercy of God alone. Forgiveness is a "cutting off" (so Heb. word)-a spiritual "surgery," the significance of which is worth pondering. VERSE NOTES r. Deep waters symbolise distress and danger; "cried" = called. 2. "Lord"= Adonai, so 3b. 3. "mark" s.H.w. (6) watch; here= to take account qf; "stand," i.e. before God in judgment and maintain innocence. 4. Heb. is "the forgiveness/' i.e. not only that pledged to the nation upon repentance, but that for which Hezekiah himself gives thanks, Isa. xxxviii. 17. "feared" = devoutly reverenced; c£ 1 Pet. i. 17. 5. Patient hope consequent upon a sense of Jehovah's readiness to forgive; "word," rf. doubtless to the message sent by Jehovah to Hezekiah through Isaiah, 2 Kings xix. 6. 6. Lit. "My soul is towards Jehovah," signifies a complete turning of the whole being to God; a fundamental attitude in all true repentance. ( b) "More than watchers for ... " 7. "plentious redemption." Hezekiah was delivered not only from the king of Assyria (Isa. xxxvii.), but also from the King of Terrors-death (Isa. xxxviii). 8. I.e. from both the penalty and the power of them; "iniquities" = perversities; "He" (emph.).
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