"Save Me, O God"
Psalm sixty-nine turns to tell again of the earthly sorrows of the righteous. Of all the psalms of personal suffering, it is perhaps the most widely known. It opens with a picture of the human soul alone amid the flood waters of sorrow. “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
“I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me."
“I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.”
The sufferer confesses to both folly and sin, “O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee,” yet clings earnestly to hope in the infinite mercy of God, “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.” Again and again comes that picture of the rising flood. “Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.” Then the form of the Deliverer is seen approaching, and confidence returns. “Hear me, O Lord; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.”
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