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Psalm 129 (130) is more familiarly known by its Latin title, "De profundis", the first line of its Vulgate translation. It is one of the penitential psalms and is often used at burials. But the liturgy of the Church also employs it in Advent, the Christmas season and Easter, apart from Lent. A Filipino translation I prepared for this psalm is found here.
It can be divided in two parts, the first of which is constituted by vv. 1-6. Here the petitioner pleads to the Lord expressing his desire for the answer to his prayer. In vv. 7-8, the petitioner after accepting the response to his prayer concludes by inviting the whole of Israel to trust in the Lord and hope in Him as he had.
The petitioner addresses God "from the depths", crying out to Him in the way the Israelites had when they were slaves in Egypt. He asks the Lord to be attentive to his pleading, literally "to incline your ears to the sound of my-begging-for-mercy." The appeal to God's mercy is expressed in a question: "If you only looked at sins, then who'd be left standing?" God does not keep count of sins for isn't His name "Merciful and Compassionate?" The fear and reverence owed to Yahweh is due to his mercy and compassion. In his catechism on this psalm Pope Benedict XVI says:
Significant is the fact that what generates respect, an attitude of fear mixed with love, is not punishment but forgiveness. More than the anger of God, his generous and disarming magnanimity must arouse a holy fear in us. God, in fact, is not an inexorable sovereign who condemns the guilty, but a loving Father, whom we must love not out of fear of punishment, but because of his goodness ready to forgive. 1Finally, the appeal to God's mercy is grounded in the confidence that God is true to Himself.
In verses 5-6, the petitioner expresses with sighs and longing his hope in the Lord.
I yearn, O Lord
my soul sighs with longing
Upon his word, I hope
my soul waits for the Lord
more than the watchman for daybreak
more than the watchman for daybreak
The image here is that of one who is waiting for his Lord through the watches of the night. The Septuagint version renders this line "from the watches of the morning until the night." The Alexandrian translation does not suppose a nocturnal vigil in a shrine as is the case of the Hebrew. Instead, the image is that of one who suspends his daily existence in waiting for the one thing that really matters. The Hebrew original has the petitioner waiting until daybreak for the answer to his prayers because the dawning of the day is the moment when God bestows His graces2.
The petitioner then does not sleep, as a servant who waits for his Master's return. He searches the horizon for some sign of the arrival of the awaited one. He even declares that his waiting is more intense than is displayed by professionals who wait for the dawn.
In conclusion, the petitioner invites Israel to continue pinning its hopes in the Lord. His fate is ultimately tied up with a whole nation that awaits the visitation of the Lord. "The personal salvation, first implored by the psalmist" says the Pope, "is now extended to the whole community. The psalmist's faith is inserted in the historic faith of the People of the Covenant". He repeats what He has declared before, i.e. the confidence that with God there is mercy, adding "the abundance of redemption." Yahweh is the "Go'el", the family member who will not rest until he has ransomed the relative in captivity. The imagery is similar to the one found in Isaiah 43:3-4
I give Egypt as your ransom
Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my eyes
and honored
and I love you.
The petitioner is confident that the peduth, the "ransom" will be more than enough. The prayer actually looks to a time when Yahweh will once more be WITH His people, and Israel is finally ransomed and taken away from the depths of its guilt.
1 Pope Benedict on Psalm 129 (130)
2 In the Enarrations, Augustine links "daybreak" to the Resurrection of Christ.
