Sunday, February 5, 2012

Psalm 69


I know I haven’t posted in a while but I have really been struggling trying to decide what to post. Here lately I have been noticing how there seems to be a longer than usual list of prayer requests going around. From car wrecks to suicides to sickness, people are really hurting.
                There is a middle-school-aged boy at my church that has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and in the little over a week since we learned about this, it has rocked our church and community. I live in a rural area where even without Facebook, gossip would still spread like wildfire. This means that any time there is a sickness that comes all of a sudden people know, people care, and people pray. I am so thankful for that.
                However, no matter how close a community is or how many people offer comfort; it ALWAYS pales in comparison to the comfort that God can offer. I started this blog as a way to offer encouragement to those who happened to read it, but a lot of times I am forced to realize that posting a passage of scripture would be better than thousands upon thousands of words that I could write. So here it goes. Below you will find the words to Psalm 69. There is a lot of pain in this psalm, and it may even be hard to read because of that pain. I encourage you to keep reading though. The hope isn’t in the pain. The hope is in the comfort for the pain.
If you are suffering in any way, I urge you to run to the Great Comforter. He is the only one who can really offer the comfort that so many need.

Psalm 69
A Plea for Rescue
    For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.” Davidic.
 1 Save me, God,
for the water has risen to my neck.
2 I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing;
I have come into deep waters,
and a flood sweeps over me.
3 I am weary from my crying;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.
4 Those who hate me without cause
are more numerous than the hairs of my head;
my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me,
are powerful.
Though I did not steal, I must repay.
 5 God, You know my foolishness,
and my guilty acts are not hidden from You.
6 Do not let those who put their hope in You
be disgraced because of me,
Lord GOD of Hosts;
do not let those who seek You
be humiliated because of me,
God of Israel.
7 For I have endured insults because of You,
and shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers
and a foreigner to my mother’s sons
9 because zeal for Your house has consumed me,
and the insults of those who insult You
have fallen on me.
10 I mourned and fasted,
but it brought me insults.
11 I wore sackcloth as my clothing,
and I was a joke to them.
12 Those who sit at the city gate talk about me,
and drunkards make up songs about me.
 13 But as for me, LORD,
my prayer to You is for a time of favor.
In Your abundant, faithful love, God,
answer me with Your sure salvation.
14 Rescue me from the miry mud; don’t let me sink.
Let me be rescued from those who hate me
and from the deep waters.
15 Don’t let the floodwaters sweep over me
or the deep swallow me up;
don’t let the Pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, LORD,
for Your faithful love is good;
in keeping with Your great compassion,
turn to me.
17 Don’t hide Your face from Your servant,
for I am in distress.
Answer me quickly!
18 Draw near to me and redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies.
 19 You know the insults I endure—
my shame and disgrace.
You are aware of all my adversaries.
20 Insults have broken my heart,
and I am in despair.
I waited for sympathy,
but there was none;
for comforters, but found no one.
21 Instead, they gave me gall for my food,
and for my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink.
 22 Let their table set before them be a snare,
and let it be a trap for their allies.
23 Let their eyes grow too dim to see,
and let their loins continually shake.
24 Pour out Your rage on them,
and let Your burning anger overtake them.
25 Make their fortification desolate;
may no one live in their tents.
26 For they persecute the one You struck
and talk about the pain of those You wounded.
27 Add guilt to their guilt;
do not let them share in Your righteousness.
28 Let them be erased from the book of life
and not be recorded with the righteous.
 29 But as for me—poor and in pain—
let Your salvation protect me, God.
30 I will praise God’s name with song
and exalt Him with thanksgiving.
31 That will please Yahweh more than an ox,
more than a bull with horns and hooves.
32 The humble will see it and rejoice.
You who seek God, take heart!
33 For the LORD listens to the needy
and does not despise
His own who are prisoners.
 34 Let heaven and earth praise Him,
the seas and everything that moves in them,
35 for God will save Zion
and build up the cities of Judah.
They will live there and possess it.
36 The descendants of His servants will inherit it,
and those who love His name will live in it.

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