Whoever wrote this psalm, the Holy Spirit seems to have dictated, through him, a common form of prayer for the Church in her afflictions, so that even under the most cruel persecutions the faithful might not fail to lift their prayers to heaven. It is not the private grief of a specific individual that is expressed here, but the lamentations and groanings of the chosen people. The faithful celebrate the deliverance that was once wrought for them, a testimony of God’s everlasting grace, to inspire and strengthen themselves to engage in the practice of prayer with greater fervor and earnestness.