502_Clinging to God in desperation

Psalm 69 Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
3 I am weary with my crying out;
my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
with waiting for my God.

4 More in number than the hairs of my head
are those who hate me without cause;
mighty are those who would destroy me,
those who attack me with lies.
What I did not steal
must I now restore?
5 O God, you know my folly;
the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

6 Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,
O Lord God of hosts;
let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,
O God of Israel.
7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
that dishonor has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s sons.

9 For zeal for your house has consumed me,
and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,
it became my reproach.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them.
12 I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
and the drunkards make songs about me.

13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.
At an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
14 Deliver me
from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
and from the deep waters.
15 Let not the flood sweep over me,
or the deep swallow me up,
or the pit close its mouth over me.

Years ago, during a massive earthquake in Armenia, a school collapsed on the children inside. One father whose little son was in the school rushed to the site. Rescue workers and the people around him assured him there were no survivors. But he refused to leave. He’d often promised his son: “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.”

He began digging, carefully pulling away debris piece by piece. Hours passed, then a day, then two. Many called him foolish and stubborn. After thirty-eight hours, he heard a faint voice—his son calling, “Dad, it’s me!” Beneath the rubble, a pocket had formed where his son and several classmates were huddled together. “I told them,” the boy said, “If my dad is alive, he will find me.”

Psalm 69 paints this kind of picture—of a God who hears and rescues, of a child of God who refuses to stop believing. This heartfelt psalm is also prophetic in its portrayal of one who believes against all hope that God will never abandon him. For it was fulfilled in the earthly life of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who said, “My Father never leaves me alone.”

Psalm 69 opens with no formal preamble—just the gasp of a drowning man: “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold.” This man is overwhelmed by the hate of his innumerable enemies. He has devoted himself to the will of God, in deep delight in Gods holiness. He takes God’s love for righteousness personally. He has identified himself with his Maker. But this draws down insults and reproaches on him from those who despise true religion.

In this persecution, the psalmist cannot find solid ground. Worn down by injustice, the silence of heaven seems unbearable. But this is also the cry of every sinner aware of his sin, unable to save himself.

David speaks of being worn out from crying, his throat parched, his eyes failing as he waits for God. He speaks of being hated without cause, as the Lord himself was, for doing nothing but good. The night before His crucifixion, the Lord said: “They hated Me without a cause” (John 15:25). David was in good company.

In verses 5–12, David reveals the sting of public scorn. He believed in God’s promise and in God’s sovereignty. He would not raise his hand against God’s anointed king. He would not deliver himself from Saul’s persecution by killing him.

When the Lord came down to earth, His passion for God’s house made him a target for the rebellious. But his zeal was not for bricks and mortar. As he pursued the moneychangers out of the temple, he burned with zeal for God whose glory filled the holy place. “For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.”

We are God’s temple, and His Spirit dwells in us. Let Christ’s zeal burn in us—not to drive out sellers of livestock, but to expel everything in our hearts that defiles His dwelling place.

In verses 13–18, David pleads with God: “Hide not your face from your servant, for I am in distress; make haste to answer me. Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies!” Desperate but not in despair, he still believes that God hears and will come near.

And then he writes, “Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” Centuries later, on the cross, the Roman soldiers offered the Lord Jesus sour wine (John 19:28–29). The Son of God knew utter loneliness—abandoned by friends, mocked by enemies, and bearing the sin of the world.

Verses 22–28 call for God’s justice. “Let their dwelling place become desolate.” The Lord Jesus echoed these words in His lament over Jerusalem (Matthew 23:38), and Peter applied it to Judas in Acts 1:20. David doesn’t seek revenge, instead, he places his case in the hands of God, the righteous Judge. In his eyes, justice entails the consequences of rebellion being visited on the unrepentant-being blotted out from the book of the living.

And yet, the psalm ends with a song: “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify Him with thanksgiving.” Amidst grim opposition, David’s faith takes hold of God’s promises. They assure him that the humble has taken hold of God’s promises. They will be glad, the seekers of God will be revived, and the needy will be heard.

The final verses rise from the pit of despair to the heights of hope. Heaven and earth, the seas and all that moves in them, will join in praise. David looks beyond his own lifetime to the restoration of Zion, when God’s people will dwell securely in His presence. Those who love His name, he says, will live there forever.

This is a prophetic glimpse of the ultimate restoration described in Zechariah and Revelation, when all nations will come to worship the living God. David’s confidence rests not in his own strength, but in God’s unchanging faithfulness.

Psalm 69 teaches us that clinging to God in desperation is not weakness—it’s just faith. Desperation says, “If You don’t save me, I am lost.” Faith says, “And I believe You will.” Jacob wrestled with the angel throughout the night, refusing to let go until he received the blessing. The widow in Jesus’ parable kept pleading in court until the judge acted. The father at the earthquake site kept digging in the rubble until he found his child.

We live in a world that prizes self-reliance and despises neediness. But in God’s kingdom, neediness is the doorway to strength. When we come to Him with empty hands, He fills them. When we call to Him from the deep, He pulls us out. And when we cling to Him in desperation, we discover that He has been holding on to us all along.

So if we find ourselves today in water up to your neck, if the mire of injustice and oppression and misunderstanding is pulling us down, let us take the words of Psalm 69 as your own prayer. Don’t polish them up or make them sound religious—pray them as David did, with the honesty of a drowning man calling for rescue. And believe that the God who heard David, who raised Jesus from the dead, will also hear you.

We can let our desperation drive us to despair, or we can let it drive us to God. The first choice ends in hopelessness; the second ends in praise. But those who love His name will dwell with Him forever. Let us cling to him. The Father is digging through the rubble even now—and when He comes, we will all see that he never stopped seeking us.