Psalm 130:1-2 Now Available feat. Aaron Strumpel & Hannah Glavor

Dec 2

Psalm 130:1-2 is now available on all streaming platforms!

THE VERSE

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

This last Sunday marked the beginning of Advent, the first season of the Christian Calendar that begins four Sundays before Christmas. The word Advent comes from the Latin “adventus” meaning “coming” or “arrival” that both looks back to Jesus’ first coming as a humble baby while also teaching us to look forward to and anticipate His second coming when He returns in glory. It’s a season marked by waiting, longing, and even groaning. To help us engage in this season, we’ve put the entirety of Psalm 130 to melody. This psalm is a profound prayer leading us into so much of what the Advent season is all about.

This psalm is a profound prayer leading us into so much of what the Advent season is all about.

“Out of the depths I cry…” Psalm 130’s kick off prayer in these two verses is not birthed next to a warm fireplace with tinsel,soft Christmas tree lights, and decorated cookies, but rather from the depths. This prayer is heard from the shadowlands. Like Psalm 130, Advent doesn’t shy away from the pain and the darkness we experience in the world, but rather invites us to name it in the presence of our God who’s with us. Prayer starts where we actually are, not the places we wish we were.

Psalm 130 reminds us we need not banish our emotions or the urgency we feel, but rather bring the entirety of who and where we are before God!

And so from the depths the psalmist cries out to God! The groanings aren’t a dead end street, but rather are taken like a piece of paper being shaped into an origami crane, folding and creasing pain into prayer. This prayer isn’t neat and tidy though. Note that what’s coming out of the psalmist’s mouth are “pleas for mercy.” A plea is “a request made in an urgent and emotional manner.” The psalmist does stop with one plea, but we’re told there are multiple pleas for mercy! There’s a passionate persistence. Psalm 130 reminds us we need not banish our emotions or the urgency we feel, but rather bring the entirety of who and where we are before God!

May this Advent season be one where we learn to pray like this before God, knowing that Jesus hears your prayers and plea, and one that He will ultimately answer fully in His return.

The Song & The Artist

Written by Aaron Strumpel, Hannah Glavor, and Joel Limpic and sung by Aaron Strumpel and Hannah Glavor as the first installment for our Advent 2022 release where we’ll be memorizing the entirety of Psalm 130. Joel Limpic answered some of our questions about this song and the project:

Was there anything that stood out to you about this verse as you worked on it?

As we considered options for Verses that we’d want to memorize for Advent, immediately my mind ran to this psalm! The haunting imagery the psalmist uses of waiting for God “more than watchmen for the morning” is so striking and as I read the entire psalm, I got more and more excited. Advent isn’t a running from or forgetting our problems but rather a patient waiting holding out before God and asking Him to intervene. While we see glimpses of His intervention in this life as we cry out, that full and final intervention will be celebrated at His return in glory.

What was the writing process like?

Aaron and Hannah are both amazing musicians and just fun hangs. We had a blast writing the songs here in Colorado over a couple days, and then spent two long days in the studio. I have a tendency to write more simple melodies, so having Hannah and Aaron’s melodic sensibilities and variances was a nice change!

Anything else you'd want to share?

What a delightful thing to enjoy singing songs that help me memorize and meditate on God’s Word while doing it. At the end of Advent, I’ll have Psalm 130 memorized completely which is a bonus. :)