By Lewis Hogan

*This blog is part of our weekly, virtual Bible Study through the book of Psalms. For information on how to participate, please visit this page.

When life overwhelms you,  it’s normal to look for comfort. As Christians, we should  search in two places: God’s presence and God’s word.

Trials will require you to shift your focus. Instead of looking all around you, or living in fear of your circumstances, you can look to the God who holds you. That begins with recognizing who God is.

There are so many places you can go in God’s Word to find His comfort and peace in any storm. His Word is given to us as the rock to build our lives upon. We can turn to it when life happens and seek relief.  The place that many turn to the most is the Psalms.  

In the Psalms every emotion is given honest expression.   Psalm 69 does this especially well.

This psalm describes the common human experience of suffering and feeling overwhelmed.   It begins with an urgent cry for salvation.   David uses imagery of drowning in his despair.  We see in verses 6-12 that the psalmist is experiencing suffering at least in part due to his faithful obedience to God. Throughout this psalm, the author raises his lament to God and asks God to help him, to save him. “But I pray to you, Lord” the psalmist promises. He asks God to “come near and rescue me” (verse 16) and closes the psalm with great praise and worship to God.

Prayer leads to praise

How can the psalmist close such a lengthy lament and desperation with praise? He can praise God because He knows that God has heard his prayers. “The Lord hears the poor” (verse 33) the psalmist confirms in the midst of his final stanza of praise and worship.

The Lord hears His people. The Lord restores and strengthens as prayer moves us from looking in despair at the situation to seeing the goodness of God who not only will deliver David from his enemies but will restore Zion and “build the cities of Judah… (so that) the descendants of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His Name may dwell there and possess it” (verses 35 and 36).

The power of prayer

Prayer acknowledges who God is, His character and His worth. It acknowledges who we are, sinners desperate for His grace. And it draws us close to God, the source of our comfort, our strength, and our peace.

If you are suffering today, go to God in prayer. He is listening, and He hears His people.

Psalm 69 powerfully demonstrates what calling out to God does.   It transforms a man who feels himself “sink(ing) in deep mire” (verse 2) to a man who proclaims the promises of God for not only himself but for future generations. This is what being in the presence of God does.   It lifts our eyes and fills our hearts with praise. 

Near the end of the psalm, David is no longer overwhelmed by the severity of his circumstances.   He is overwhelmed with the promises of God.   Joy has replaced his despair so much so that he proclaims those  “ who seek God, your hearts shall live” (verse32).  

As you read through Psalm 69, may your heart be filled with the assurance that God is near  when we are overwhelmed.  Our honest cries of despair do not distance us from God; they draw us near to God.   May your heart rejoice that scripture is filled with men and women of God who in their brokenness cried out to God and God always heard and responded to their cries.   In the midst of it all, Psalm 69 reminds us of the power of praise to transform our hearts and gives us perspective to trust and see beyond the present reality.

Join with me in praying:

Heavenly Father, 

Thank you for Psalm 69.   What an honest assessment of how life can overwhelm.   What an honest cry of how it feels when justice is thwarted or delayed.   What a picture of the power of praise to turn our eyes to You.   Lord, I ask that as we pray and meditate on Your word in Psalm 69, that You will speak comfort and joy to broken hearts.   Keep our eyes turned to You.

We love You and give You all the glory!

In Jesus Name

Amen.

David’s plight (Psalm 69:1-6)

1 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.

2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

3 I am weary with my crying; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God.

4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; they are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully; though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it.

5 O God, You know my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from You.

6 Let not those who wait for You, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me; let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.

Suffering on Behalf of God (vv. 7-12)

7 Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face.

8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children;

9 Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.

10 When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that became my reproach.

11 I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a byword to them.

12 Those who sit in the gate speak against me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

Prayer for Deliverance (vv. 13-18)

13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord, in the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, hear me in the truth of Your salvation.

14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.

15 Let not the floodwater overflow me, nor let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut its mouth on me.

16 Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good; turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.

17 And do not hide Your face from Your servant, for I am in trouble; Hear me speedily.

18 Draw near to my soul, and redeem it; deliver me because of my enemies.

Suffering at the Hands of Adversaries (vv. 19-21)

19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor; my adversaries are all before You.

20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

21 They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

A Prayer for Judgment upon the Enemy (vv. 22-28)

22 Let their table become a snare before them, and their well-being a trap.

23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see; and make their loins shake continually.

24 Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let Your wrathful anger take hold of them.

25 Let their dwelling place be desolate; let no one live in their tents.

26 For they persecute the ones You have struck, and talk of the grief of those You have wounded.

27 Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not come into Your righteousness.

28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

The Hopeful Future of Zion (vv. 29-36)

29 But I am poor and sorrowful; let Your 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 bull, which has horns and hooves.

32 The humble shall see this and be glad; and you who seek God, your hearts shall live.

33 For the Lord hears the poor, and does not despise His prisoners.

34 Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.

35 For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it.

36 Also, the descendants of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His name shall dwell in it.

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