“But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.”
But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. This verse pivots from judgment's possibility to grace's actuality, revealing God's essential character: with Him dwells forgiveness, the capacity and willingness to release captives from guilt's bonds. The purpose clause so that you may be revered suggests that forgiveness itself becomes the basis for reverence; God is feared and honored precisely because He forgives. This overturns a potential misreading of verses 1-3 that might suggest God's judgment is inevitable; instead, the depths cry out in depths because forgiveness makes such crying possible. The connection between forgiveness and reverence establishes that grace, properly understood, produces not presumption but awe.
Church Fathers on Psalms 130:4
1. “Out of the deep have I called unto You, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice” Psalm 129:1. Jonas cried from the deep; from the whale's belly. Jonah 2:2 He was not only beneath the waves, but also in the entrails of the beast; nevertheless, those waves and that body prevented not his prayer from reaching God, and the beast's belly could not contain the voice of his prayer It penetrated all things, it burst through all things, it reached the ears of God: if indeed we ought to say…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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