Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday after Pentecost

Out of the depths
I have cried to You, O Lord;
O Lord, hear my voice;
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplication.
If You, O Lord, should mark transgression,
O Lord, who would stand?
For there is forgiveness with You.
Because of Your law, O Lord, I waited for You;
My soul waited for Your word.
My soul hopes in the Lord,
From the morning watch until night;
From the morning watch until night,
Let Israel hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption;
And He shall redeem Israel
From all his transgressions. (Psalm 130)

The choir of the righteous beseeches the Lord not to measure punishments against sins. In this way those of the company of blessed Hananiah attributed the transgressions of the people to their own person: If You were to impose the yoke of judgment as justice requires, who would be in a position to sustain the sentence laid down by it? Everyone, in fact, would have to face ruin. You have loving-kindness joined with righteousness, and You are in the habit of employing the former rather than the latter.

He means: Aware of this Your goodness (You employed mercy like some law), I do not renounce firm hope as I await the promise of good things. He called the good promise here word; however, He promised loving-kindness to the repentant. My soul hoped in the Lord, from morning watch until night, that is, all day; morning watch is, in fact, the last hour of the night: the last watchers keep watch until that time. The righteous are not satisfied only to have the wealth of hope in God; instead, they urge all others to a like possession, and declare the advantage stemming from it. Full of pity and loving-kindness is the Lord, who furnishes salvation to the repentant.

He it is who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities. The verse directs its prophecy to the Lord: He is the Lamb of God in person, who takes away the sin of the world. This was also the way the divine Gabriel spoke to the holy Virgin: “You will have a Son, and you will give him the name Jesus, because He is the one who will save His people from their sins.”

Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms 130