A Day of Rejoicing - A Meditation on Psalm 130

I love Psalm 130 and yet for last night's Christian Expressions, I had a hard time deciding between the NRSV and the NIV.  They're similar, and yet different.  The NIV has plainer language, such as "sins" instead of "iniquities," and a couple other different phrasings, like "so that we can, with reverence, serve you" instead of "so that you can be revered."  The one point I like better in the NRSV is v. 5-6, which say "my soul waits for the Lord" instead of "I wait for the Lord" and I like that better.  It resonates more with me that my soul waits for the Lord and not my ego or my being, but my soul.  "I wait for the Lord" or "my whole being waits for the Lord" doesn't strike as deep a chord as "my soul" does.  "I wait for the Lord" doesn't feel very different from "watchmen waiting for the morning," whereas "my soul waiting for the Lord" feels very different.  "My soul waits" is a different kind of waiting.  It doesn't know when it will happen, although watchmen always know when morning will come.  Watchmen feel like a more resigned waiting, you can't hurry it, but my soul is expectant and longs for it to happen.  My soul feels like more of an active waiting, I know it's coming, I don't know when, I can't wait for the Lord to come, from something deep within me, primeval even.  But watchmen are just doing a job, watching the clock.  They know things will be safe when the sun rises and their job is over, for 12 more hours.  Do I know things will be safe when the Lord comes?  Yes, kinda.  Although I don't know that God is "safe."  Reminds me of the quote from the Chronicles of Narnia where Lucy says something to the effect of "Aslan isn't a tame lion."  And I don't know that things will be safer when the Lord comes than they are now.  "My soul waits for the Lord and in his word I put my hope" - that gives me confidence and security now.  That gives me a feeling of safety now, though "a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, it will not come near you" (Psalm 91:7).  I feel safe, I am safe, now.  I don't know whether things will be safer when the Lord comes.  I'm not really worried about it.  I am safe now, because God has me in his hands.  Yes, I'm still going to lock my doors at night and not drive crazily, but I am safe now.  My soul waits for the Lord, but not in order to feel or be safe.  Safety's got nothing to do with it.  My soul waits for the Lord because "what a day of rejoicing that will be!" (United Methodist Hymnal 701).