When the waters of affliction rise about us,
the only course is to commit the keeping of our souls to God,
that we may be neither soured with discontent nor sink with despair.
Our prospects are as bright as the promises of God.
Psalm 1
1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
6 Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
10 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.
11 I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.
12 They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
16 Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.
17 And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.
19 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.
20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.
33 For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.
34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.
35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.
36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.
Psalm 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Psalm 69:1-17 – A Cry out of Deep Waters
This psalm and the Psalm 22 are quoted most often in the New Testament as referring to our Lord. Psalm 69 is very sad. Throughout we detect a heart-break. There are many grounds on which the sufferer bases his plea for salvation. First, his imminent danger from inrushing waters and the deep mire like that in which Jeremiah sank. There are also failing strength, the dried throat, and the drooping eyes. Mighty foes, too, who hate wrongfully, are plotting his ruin. The consciousness of sin and the dread that others may be made ashamed through his failure, are also bitter ingredients in his cup. And in addition he bore the reproach of those who hated God. What a combination of misery! In some, though not in all, of these sources of grief, our Savior had a share, and therefore He can be a sympathizing High Priest.
But out of his misery the psalmist builds his altar of prayer. His plea is in God’s loving-kindness and tender mercies. Here is the master-argument with God. He can do no other than redeem the soul that clings to Him with such unfaltering faith. It reminds us of the olden resolve, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him”, Job 13:15, and also recalls the persistence of the Syrophenician woman, Mark 7:26. Such souls need not fear that they can be cast away. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Psalm 69:1—Save me, O God: for the waters are come in unto my soul.
Matters sometimes become desperate. For days the waters have been out on the low-lying lands, and slowly rising against the embankment, in the shelter of which some house is situated. Now, however, they have undermined and swept it away. With a crash it has fallen into the yellow foaming waters. A moment’s agitation, and then not a trace of it. There is nothing now to keep back the flood, and it comes into the home, rising stealthily up the walls. In the life of the soul such a crisis comes not infrequently. You have dreaded something, and the cold chill of fear has cast a shudder over you; but surely it could never come to you! There is that protection, that barrier, of position, money, wealthy friends. But one by one these are swept aside, and the waters come ever nearer, till there is nothing between them and the soul. They come in unto the soul.
It is well for a man to be able then to turn to God with the “Save me” of the psalmist. God must have the entire trust of our soul. He takes away all that lies between Him and us, that we may hang on Him, and lie naked and open to Him in our utter helplessness. From the midst of your sorrows, from the deep sin in which you are sinking, from the deep waters that overflow you, cry to God. He knows your foolishness; your sins are not hid from Him. He will stretch out his right hand and catch you, saying, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). Then our crying and tears will be turned to joyous shouts. We shall praise the name of God with a song, and magnify Him with thanksgiving; for the Lord heareth the needy, and despiseth not his prisoners (Psalm 69:30, 33). —Our Daily Homily
Psalm 69:18-36 – “Jehovah Heareth the Needy”
In Psalm 69:19-21 the psalmist again spreads out his griefs before God. He had looked for pity, but his foes only aggravated his sufferings. Both Matthew and John had these verses in mind in describing our Lord’s sufferings on the Cross, Matthew 27:48; John 19:29. The next section, Psalm 69:22-28, is full of imprecations. We cannot bring these terrible words within the scope of our Lord’s teachings. They show, like a pillar which marks the farthest recession of the tide, how great a difference there is between the standard of the Old Testament ethics and that by which we shall be judged.
Psalm 69:29-36 are full of anticipations of deliverance and vows of thanksgiving. The psalmist is sure that God’s salvation will lift him above his enemies, and that his thanks will be sweeter to God than any sacrifice. Notice that sudden address to seekers after God, Psalm 69:32. Let us draw lessons from our own experiences of God that will hearten others. Seekers will certainly be finders where God is concerned! Matthew 7:7. The news of God’s restoring power will circle out in ever-widening waves of glory, till heaven and earth and sea catch up the story and respond. —Through the Bible Day by Day