Psalm 69

My Old Testament reading for today was Psalm 69.
Truth. Hope. Comfort. 

 Answer me, O Lord. Save me. Deliver me. Humble me.

In times of great despair and pain, I often think of Jonah 2:5-6:

Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, BUT YOU have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

Salvation!  

O Father, help me trust in You alone. Fix my heart on Christ Jesus.
 Let Your Word speak . . .

Save me, O God, for the waters have threatened my life.
I have sunk in deep mire, and there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me.

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

Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head;
Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies;
What I did not steal, I then have to restore.

O God, it is You who knows my folly,
And my wrongs are not hidden from You. ...

Those who sit in the gate talk about me,
And I am the song of the drunkards.

But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, at an acceptable time;

O God, in the greatness of Your lovingkindness,
Answer me with Your saving truth.
Deliver me from the mire and do not let me sink;
May I be delivered from my foes and from the deep waters.
May the flood of water not overflow me
Nor the deep swallow me up,
Nor the pit shut its mouth on me.
Answer me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good;
According to the greatness of Your compassion, turn to me,
And do not hide Your face from Your servant,
For I am in distress; answer me quickly.
Oh draw near to my soul and redeem it;
Ransom me because of my enemies!

You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor;
All my adversaries are before You.

Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick.
And I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
And for comforters, but I found none. . . .

But I am afflicted and in pain;
May Your salvation, O God, set me securely on high.
I will praise the name of God with song
And magnify Him with thanksgiving. . . .

Let heaven and earth praise Him,
The seas and everything that moves in them.
For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah,
That they may dwell there and possess it.
The descendants of His servants will inherit it,
And those who love His name will dwell in it.