Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 130:6

"My soul [waiteth] for the Lord More than watchmen [wait] for the morning; [Yea, more than] watchmen for the morning." — Psalms 130:6 (ASV)

My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning - More intently; more anxiously. The Septuagint and Latin Vulgate render this, My soul hopes in the Lord from the morning watch until night.

The idea is that of watchers—night guards—who look anxiously for the break of day so that they may be relieved. It is not that of persons who simply look for the return of day, but of those who are on guard—or it may be, who watch beside the sick or the dying—and who look out to the east to mark the first indications of returning light.

To them the night seems long; they are weary and want rest; all around is cheerless, gloomy, and still; and they long for the first signs that light will again visit the world.

Thus in affliction—the long, dark, dreary, gloomy night of sorrow—the sufferer looks for the first indication, the first faint ray of comfort to the soul. Thus under deep conviction for sin and deep apprehension of the wrath of God—that night, dark, dreary, gloomy, often long—the soul looks for some ray of comfort, some intimation that God will be merciful and will speak peace and pardon.

I say, more than those who watch for the morning - The margin reads, which watch until the morning. The translation in the text best expresses the sense. There is something exceedingly beautiful and touching in this language of repetition, though it is much weakened by the words our translators have inserted, “I say, more than.” The Hebrew is, more than those who watch for the morning—watch for the morning, as if the mind dwelt upon the words as better expressing its own anxious state than any other words could.

Everyone who has been afflicted will feel the force of this; everyone who has been under conviction of sin, and who has felt himself in danger of suffering the wrath of God, will remember how anxiously he longed for mercy, for light, for peace—for some indication, even the faintest, like the first ray that breaks in the east, that his soul would find mercy and peace.