Five-minute study · Day 309 · Psalms 130
Psalm 130:5
A word worth stopping on: wait קָוָה qavah
'I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.' The Hebrew verb is qavah. To wait. The root meaning is to bind together, to twist, to collect into a cord. A rope is made by twisting individual fibers together until they become strong enough to bear weight. Qavah says: waiting is not empty. Waiting is being twisted into something with tensile strength. The psalmist wrote from the depths (verse 1: 'Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD'). Psalm 130 is one of the Songs of Ascents, sung by pilgrims climbing the road from the Judean lowlands up to Jerusalem. The psalmist was going up. He was also in the depths. Both were true at the same time. And in that tension, he was qavah. Bound to hope like fiber twisted into rope.
Word study: wait
- Hebrew
- קָוָה
- Pronounced
- qavah
- Strong's
- H6960
- Definition
- To wait, to look for, to hope, to expect. The root meaning involves binding together, twisting, collecting. Related to qav (a line, a cord, a measuring line). Waiting in Hebrew is being bound to the object of hope.
Qavah appears 49 times in the Hebrew Bible. BDB provides two related senses: (1) to wait for, to look eagerly for, to hope; (2) to collect, to bind together. The connection between the two senses is the image of twisted cord. Fibers are collected and twisted into rope; the person who qavah gathers their expectation and binds it to a fixed point. The noun qav (a line, a cord) shares the root. Isaiah 28:10 uses qav laqav ('line upon line'). Isaiah 34:11 uses qav tohu ('the line of confusion,' a measuring line). The same root that describes a measuring cord describes the interior posture of hope.
Allen's commentary on Psalms 101-150 (WBC) examines Psalm 130 as one of the fifteen Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134). These psalms were sung by pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for the three annual festivals (Passover, Weeks, Tabernacles). The journey from the coastal plain or the Jordan Valley up to Jerusalem involved a significant climb (Jerusalem sits at roughly 2,500 feet above sea level). Allen notes that the 'depths' (ma'amaqqim) of verse 1 create a double image: the pilgrim in a low valley and the psalmist in spiritual distress. The ascent is both geographical and spiritual.
Allen observes the repetition in verse 5: 'I wait (qivviti) for the LORD, my soul waits (hochilah).' Two different Hebrew verbs for waiting appear in the same verse. Qavah (to wait as binding, twisting) and yachal (to wait as enduring pain, from a root meaning to writhe). The psalmist layers the two images. Qavah: I am bound to my hope. Yachal: the binding hurts. Verse 6 extends the image: 'My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.' The night watchman knows the morning will come. His certainty does not eliminate the darkness. He watches through it. Qavah is waiting that holds on because the rope connecting you to the promise has tensile strength.
Historical context · Pre-exilic and post-exilic periods (the collection spans centuries of use)
The Songs of Ascents and the Pilgrim Road to Jerusalem
The Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134) form a coherent collection within the Psalter, bound by their shared superscription: shir hamma'alot (a song of ascents, or a song of the steps). The most common interpretation is that these psalms were sung by pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem for the three required festivals: Passover (Pesach), the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). Deuteronomy 16:16 required every Israelite male to appear before the LORD three times a year. The journey to Jerusalem was an ascent in both terrain and theological significance.
The pilgrim roads to Jerusalem have been partially mapped through archaeological survey. The main route from the coastal plain climbed through the Shephelah (the foothills) and up through the Judean hills. From Jericho and the Jordan Valley, the road rose over 3,400 feet in roughly 15 miles, passing through the wilderness of Judah. The terrain was steep, dry, and dangerous (the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 is set on the Jericho-to-Jerusalem road). Pilgrims traveled in groups for safety.
Psalm 130 sits near the end of the Ascents collection. Its language of 'depths' and waiting suggests it may have been sung during the most difficult part of the climb, when the Temple was still out of sight and the road was long. The Mishnah (Sukkah 5:4) describes a ceremony during the Feast of Tabernacles where Levites stood on the fifteen steps between the Court of Women and the Court of Israel, singing the fifteen Songs of Ascents. If this tradition reflects historical practice, Psalm 130 would have been sung on the eleventh step. The pilgrim who sang 'out of the depths' on the road could hear the same psalm sung on the Temple steps. The depths and the heights shared the same song.
For reflection
Where are you waiting right now? Name it. Then picture a rope connecting you to the thing you are waiting for. Qavah says the waiting itself is making the rope stronger. What would change if you believed the tension was producing something?
The psalmist waited from the depths. He did not wait from a comfortable observation point.
Sources: BDB; Allen, 'Psalms 101-150' (WBC)