Psalm | Psalm 69:1-15 (with Nick Locke)

Opening Song:
Draw Near (Psalm 69) by Wendell Kimbrough and Sandra McCracken

Lyrics:
The flood around me is rising
The water’s up to my neck
My voice is worn out from crying
O Lord please send me your help

Draw near to my soul O Lord
Draw near to my soul O Lord

My flesh and blood no more own me
My family’s no more my home
They hide their eyes from my grieving
They stop their ears from my groans

I asked them all for some comfort
I begged but there was no bread
They gave me food that was poison
With wine they left me for dead

Passage:
1 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.
(Psalm 69:1–15 ESV)

Musical Reflection:
O Lord, Hear My Prayer by Jacques Berthier

Reflection Notes:
This song from the Taizé community contains a series of pleas: “O Lord, hear my prayer, O Lord, hear my prayer; when I call, answer me.” The repeated notes emphasize the insistence of the sung prayer, while the descending lines indicate a deep, almost despairing desire to connect.

Prayer:
Lord, you have said that anyone who lives a godly life will be persecuted. Don’t let me be so cowardly that I never take any heat for my faith. But don’t let me actually fall into the self-righteousness and hypocrisy that merits disdain. Amen.
-Tim Keller