2023 Lenten Guide: Fifth Sunday in Lent

Excerpted from 2023 Lenten Guide: A Season of Renewal, a Lenten Guide for Lectionary Year A from the North Carolina Council of Churches.

Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
    Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
    to the voice of my supplications!

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
    Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
    so that you may be revered.

I wait for the Lord; my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
    more than those who watch for the morning,
    more than those who watch for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord!
    For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
    and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
    from all its iniquities.

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In Psalm 130, the psalmist is in a low place. Not just physically low, but it could be likened to an emotional or spiritual abyss. For some of us, a low place might be when the relationship you hoped for didn’t work out, illness, learning during a deepening recession that your retirement investments were mismanaged, or any concerns on your prayer list.

Sometimes life gets so rough that our voices, once strong and commanding the attention of others, may become muffled as we find ourselves whispering: “Hello, God can you hear me? Nobody will pick up their phones. I tweeted about it, but I ran out of characters; I tried to tell my friends I needed help via Instagram, but no image could convey the depth of my pain.”

Often we can’t even name the pain, but all we can do is cry. Yet, despite all this, the psalmist suggests we can find inward rest despite outward circumstances. God not only listens to our prayers and responds to not only our lament but also to the community’s needs. Therefore, as we continue our journey to the cross, we do so as “an Easter people” who live daily in the hope of resurrection.