Psalm 69 (68)
The waters reach up to my neck. God’s servant almost submerged by the waters of suffering and death calls to the Lord for help. Christ has applied to himself several terms of this prayer. After having been saved from death, he will be the happiness of all who seek God.
2 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
3 I am sunk in the miry depths where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, swept and engulfed by the
flood.
4 I am weary from calling for help; my throat is hoarse and parched. My eyes have grown dim looking for my God.
5 More than the hairs of my head are those who hate me for no reason; mighty are those who attack me, many are my enemies without cause. What I did not steal I am forced to restore.
6 Had I done wrong, O God, you would know it; my faults would not be hidden from you.
7 Let me not bring disgrace to those who hope in you, O Lord God of hosts; may I cause no dishonor to those who seek you, O God of Israel
7 – 8 since I am held in contempt for your sake, and shame has covered my face.
9 I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s sons.
10 Zeal for your house consumes me as fire and those who insult you insult me as well.
11 When I humbled myself with fasting, I was scorned for it.
12 When I put on sackcloth, I was made a laughingstock.
13 I have become the talk of those who sit at the gates, the topic of the drunkards’ songs.
14 But I pray to you, O Lord, at a time most favorable to you. In your great love, O God, answer me with your unfailing help.
15 Rescue me, lest I sink in the mire; deliver me from the storm and the deep waters.
16 Let not the flood engulf me, nor the deep suck me in, let not the pit close its mouth upon me.
17 In your mercy, O Lord, give me a good answer; in your great compassion, turn to me.
18 Hide not your face from your servant; answer me at once for I am in distress.
19 Come and rescue me; set me free from my enemies.
20 You know the disgrace I suffer, and you know my oppressors and my humiliations.
21 Dishonor has driven me to despair; I looked for sympathy and there was none, for comforters and there was no one.
22 They gave me poison for food and vinegar to drink.
23 May snares be set for them in their banquets and traps in their sacred feasts.
24 May their eyes grow dim, so that they will not see; may their loins be stricken with palsy.
25 Pour out your fury upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.
26 Make their camp desolate; may no one dwell in their tents,
27 for they persecute the one you have wounded, and increased the pain of the one you have struck.
28 Charge them with crime upon crime, and do not acquit them.
29 Blot them out of the book of life, and do not enroll them among the upright.
30 But I myself am humbled and wounded; your salvation, O God, will lift me up.
31 I will praise the name of God in song; I will glorify him with thanks giving.
32 This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and divided hoofs.
33 Let the lowly witness this and be glad. You who seek God, may your hearts be revived.
34 For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise those in captivity.
35 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and whatever moves in them.
36 For God will save Zion and re build the cities of Judah. His people shall dwell in the land and possess it;
37 the children of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell in it.