Psalms 69 · Clearspring

For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of David.

The Waters Are up to My Neck

¹Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!+ ²I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.+ ³I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.+ ⁴Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.+ ⁵God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you.+ ⁶Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.+ ⁷Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.+ ⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.+ ⁹For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.+ ¹⁰When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.+ ¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.+ ¹²Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.+ ¹³But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.+ ¹⁴Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.+ ¹⁵Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.+ ¹⁶Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.+ ¹⁷Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!+ ¹⁸Draw near to my soul, and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.+ ¹⁹You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.+ ²⁰Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.+ ²¹They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.+ ²²Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.+ ²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.+ ²⁴Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.+ ²⁵Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.+ ²⁶For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.+ ²⁷Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness.+ ²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.+ ²⁹But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.+ ³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.+ ³¹It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs.+ ³²The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live.+ ³³For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.+ ³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein!+ ³⁵For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it.+ ³⁶The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.+

The Waters Are up to My Neck

Study Psalm 69