Sep-01-0502-Clinging to God in desperation
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