We are unsure of the provenance of most of today’s psalms. The title of only one of them even claims to come from David (Psalm 124), and there is no obvious reason to suppose that this ascription – added to the text perhaps two or three centuries later – is correct. These are all “songs of ascents,” sung in later generations by pilgrims making their way up the hills on their way to Jerusalem – and perhaps composed somewhat closer to those later generations. We simply cannot tell.

These psalms recount various situations in the experience of God’s people: times when we have experienced contempt (123:3), personal attacks from people who hold grudges (129:2), overwhelming attacks from our enemies (124:3-5), happiness in the home (128:2), trust in the surrounding love of the Lord (125:1-2). That’s quite a range! Yet through all this variety, we have the confidence that our “help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (121:2).

We should note this particularly interesting couplet: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities – Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered” (130:3-4). The NRSV correctly translates the last word as “revered,” where many other versions propose “feared” – the most literal rendering of the Hebrew yare’. Yet ‘fear’ carries varied nuances in English; the waiter who says, “I fear we won’t be able to seat you for another half hour” is expressing mild regret rather than terror. The same thing happens in Hebrew, where it can express terror or reverence or awe or trembling.

If God kept marking our sins down in a ledger, we would indeed be afraid of the inescapable judgment of God, with the accounts for each one of us showing our great guilt. But instead, God provides grace and forgiveness: and so we tremble not with desperate panic but with awe, with astonishment at how beloved we are. Again: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities – Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered” (130:3-4).

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In all the rough-and-tumble of life – when we are assailed by enemies, when we are happy at home, when contempt or meanness comes our way – and especially when our own sin threatens to overwhelm us – we trust in you, O Lord. We are so grateful for your steadfast love: and our hearts tremble before you with deep reverence and love.

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