From the De profundis, v. 5-6:
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning.
Why more than the watchman? What increase is involved in this more than?
1.) The watchman – or any of us – counts on sunrise as a certainty, simply because of the trust we have in nature to come through as it’s come through before. But trust in the word in in something more trustworthy than nature.
2a.) The watchman is not by nature or intrinsically a watchman, but by some accidental factor added to his substance. But the soul as such hopes in the word, and waits on the coming of the Lord. Our nature, whether considered in its first birth as an intellect or, more to the point, in its second birth in as part of the Mystical Body, looks for the Lord from a desire that comes out of its roots, and running though all our operations.
2b.) The soul as intellect has an order to the cause of all being, and so it is proper to its life to live in some era where it must trust in the word of the Lord, like a student trusts in the teacher. To live as such a viator belongs both to men and to angels, both of whom need some faith to be saved.
2c.) This text is a support for the angelic evening and morning knowledge. So taken, the soul waits more than even an angel (called a “watcher” in other contexts too) waits by his evening knowledge, or natural knowledge. “A watcher waiting for the dawn” is thus an angel in his angelic nature. The order of grace is therefore greater than anything in nature, even the totality of the angelic universe.
3.) The light the soul waits for is a greater light than the one the watchman waits for, since the greater light casts out the greater darkness. The watchman announces to those who are sleeping, but there is a far deeper sleep on those who need to hear the word of the Lord announced to them.
4.) One who waits for the dawn rests at morning. But there is a greater rest in the arrival of the Lord, promised to the one who hopes in his word.
Just Thomism 