Read & explore together
The Waters Are up to My Neck
Psalm 69 is a prayer-song from overwhelming trouble. The singer uses water and sinking images, speaks about shame and enemies, pleads for God’s rescue, and finally turns toward praise and shared hope.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
Within this psalm, the speaker cries to God, admits that God knows his foolishness and sins, and asks that other seekers of God not be shamed through him. The poem moves from lament and reproach, to urgent requests for help, to severe judgement prayers, and then to praise and hope.
Psalms 69:1–36Main takeaway
This psalm shows that a sufferer may speak honestly to God about distress, ask for rescue, and still turn toward praise because Yahweh hears the needy.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Overwhelmed, hated, yet honest before GodThe psalm opens with drowning and sinking pictures: waters up to the neck, deep mire, and overflowing floods.
Explanation
The psalm opens with drowning and sinking pictures: waters up to the neck, deep mire, and overflowing floods. These are poetic images of crushing trouble. The singer is worn out from crying and says enemies hate him wrongfully, yet he also admits that God knows his foolishness and sins.
02Reproach for God’s sake and urgent rescueThe singer asks that others who wait for God not be shamed through him. He bears reproach for God’s sake, becomes estranged from family, and is mocked for zeal, fasting, and mourning.
Explanation
The singer asks that others who wait for God not be shamed through him. He bears reproach for God’s sake, becomes estranged from family, and is mocked for zeal, fasting, and mourning. So he prays for God to answer, draw near, redeem, and rescue him from the mire and deep waters.
03No comfort, severe judgement, then praiseGod sees the singer’s shame. He finds no comforters, and even receives poison for food and vinegar for thirst.
Explanation
God sees the singer’s shame. He finds no comforters, and even receives poison for food and vinegar for thirst. Then the prayer asks for judgement: a snare, darkened eyes, indignation, desolation, added guilt, and removal from the book of life. Still in pain, the singer turns to song and thanksgiving.
04The needy, creation, and ZionThe ending widens beyond one sufferer. The humble are glad, seekers of God are told to let their hearts live, and Yahweh hears the needy and does not despise his captive people.
Explanation
The ending widens beyond one sufferer. The humble are glad, seekers of God are told to let their hearts live, and Yahweh hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. Heaven, earth, and sea are called to praise, and the psalm closes with hope for Zion, Judah, God’s servants, and those who love his name.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01Which word pictures at the start show how desperate the singer feels?
Look for the repeated images of waters, mire, floods, weariness, and a dry throat.
02How does the psalm connect the singer’s suffering with his devotion to God?
Notice the lines about reproach for God’s sake, zeal for God’s house, and mockery connected with fasting and mourning.
03Where does the turn toward praise begin, even before circumstances change?
Watch for the move from pain and distress into song, thanksgiving, and encouragement for the humble and needy.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Psalms 69:1–36
1Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!
2I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.
4Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.
5God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you.
6Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
7Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.
8I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.
9For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.
11When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
12Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
13But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.
14Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
16Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
17Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!
18Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.
19You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.
20Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.
21They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
22Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.
23Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.
24Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
25Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.
26For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
27Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness.
28Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
29But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.
30I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
32The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live.
33For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.
34Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein!
35For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it.
36The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.