Save
me, God,
for
the waters have come up to my neck!
I
sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold.
I
have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
I
am weary with my crying.
My
throat is dry.
My
eyes fail looking for my God.
Those
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.
God,
you know my foolishness.
My
sins aren’t hidden from you.
Don’t
let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord.
Don’t
let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
Because
for your sake, I have borne reproach.
Shame
has covered my face.
I
have become a stranger to my brothers,
an
alien to my mother’s children.
For
the zeal of your house consumes me.
The
reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
When
I wept and I fasted,
that
was to my reproach.
When
I made sackcloth my clothing,
I
became a byword to them.
Those
who sit in the gate talk about me.
I
am the song of the drunkards.
But
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.
Deliver
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.
Don’t
let the flood waters overwhelm me,
neither
let the deep swallow me up.
Don’t
let the pit shut its mouth on me.
Answer
me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good.
According
to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
Don’t
hide your face from your servant,
for
I am in distress.
Answer
me speedily!
Draw
near to my soul and redeem it.
Ransom
me because of my enemies.
You
know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor.
My
adversaries are all before you.
Reproach
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.
They
also gave me poison for my food.
In
my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
Let
your salvation, God, protect me.
I
will praise the name of God with a song,
and
will magnify him with thanksgiving.
For
Yahweh hears the needy,
and
doesn’t despise his captive people.
Let
heaven and earth praise him;
the
seas, and everything that moves therein!
For
God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah.
They
shall settle there, and own it.
The
children also of his servants shall inherit it.
Those
who love his name shall dwell therein.
Psalm
69:1-21,29, 30, 33-36
The
Gospel writers associated Jesus very closely with this psalm. When he overturned the money-changers’ tables
in the Temple, his apostles remembered a line from this psalm:
For
the zeal of your house consumes me
And
as he hung on the Cross, they noted that Jesus was given only vinegar to drink.
This
words of this psalm are beautiful in their promise of God’s attention and
sympathy. But it is made even more
beautiful in his connections to the story of Jesus. God is not only aware of our suffering, but
experiences it first-hand.
