"Out of the depths have I called unto thee, O Lord" (Ps. 130:1, 2). Because it stands without name of author, all men of all generations can take this Psalm for their very own. It is incumbent on any man praying before the holy King to pray from the depths of his soul, for then will his heart be entirely directed to God and his mind entirely bent on his prayer.
David had already said, "With my whole heart have I sought thee" (Ps. 119:10). Why, we may ask, need he go beyond this, and say "out of the depths"? It is on this account, that a man must needs give his mind and heart exclusively to the thought of the source of all sources when he prays before the King, so that he may draw up benediction from (the spheres called) "the depth of the well," the source of all life, the "stream coming out of Eden" (Gen. 2:10), which "maketh glad the city of God" (Ps. 46:5).
Prayer is the drawing of this blessing from above to below: when the Ancient One, the All-hidden, desires to bless the world, he causes to come together in the heavenly depth his bounties of grace, from where human prayer will draw them into the "well," thereby making it possible for all the streams and brooks to be filled.
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