Single lesson
Psalm 69: The Waters Are up to My Neck
Psalms 69:1–36
Psalm 69 is a prayer-poem from deep trouble. Students will follow its pictures, requests, hard middle section, and final praise so they can explain how the psalm moves from distress to hope.
Before you teach
Throughout Psalm 69, the speaker talks directly to God. He describes being overwhelmed, hated, shamed, and mocked. He asks God to answer and rescue him. In the middle, he speaks severe words of judgement against enemies. The psalm then turns to praise, encouragement for the needy, and hope for Zion and Judah.
Students will identify the speaker, key images, and the movement of Psalm 69 from distress and pleading, through judgement language, to praise and hope.
Welcome: Hear the opening cry
6 minBegin by reading Psalms 69:1-2 aloud twice. Ask students to listen for the strongest picture words. Briefly explain that this is poetry, so rising waters, deep mire, and floods are images the speaker uses to describe being overwhelmed and unable to stand securely as he cries to God for help.
Psalms 69:1, Psalms 69:2
Read and explain: Trouble, confession, and shame
10 minRead Psalms 69:3-12. Work through the verses in order. The speaker is weary from crying and waiting for God, surrounded by wrongful hatred, and open before God about his own foolishness and sins. He also describes reproach, family distance, zeal for God’s house, fasting, sackcloth, and public mockery.
Psalms 69:3, Psalms 69:4, Psalms 69:5, Psalms 69:6, Psalms 69:7, Psalms 69:8, Psalms 69:9, Psalms 69:10, Psalms 69:11, Psalms 69:12
Discuss: What does the speaker ask God to do?
8 minRead Psalms 69:13-20. Invite students to list each request they hear: answer me, deliver me, do not let me sink, do not let the flood overwhelm me, turn to me, answer speedily, draw near, redeem, and ransom. Point out that these requests appeal to God’s loving kindness and tender mercies while the speaker remains in pain and without comfort.
Psalms 69:13, Psalms 69:14, Psalms 69:15, Psalms 69:16, Psalms 69:17, Psalms 69:18, Psalms 69:19, Psalms 69:20
Make and respond: Map the psalm’s movement
10 minRead Psalms 69:21-36 carefully. Explain soberly that Psalms 69:22-28 are strong requests for God’s judgement and should be observed truthfully as part of the psalm. Students then make a four-part prayer map labelled distress, rescue plea, judgement, and praise and hope, using short phrases from the psalm and simple symbols to show the movement in order.
Psalms 69:21, Psalms 69:22, Psalms 69:24, Psalms 69:28, Psalms 69:29, Psalms 69:30, Psalms 69:32, Psalms 69:33, Psalms 69:34, Psalms 69:35, Psalms 69:36
Closing: Summarise the ending hope
6 minFinish by rereading Psalms 69:29-36. Ask students to state in one or two sentences how the psalm ends differently from how it begins. Summarise that the closing moves to praise, gladness for the humble, assurance that Yahweh hears the needy, and hope centred on Zion, Judah, and those who love God’s name.
Psalms 69:29, Psalms 69:30, Psalms 69:32, Psalms 69:33, Psalms 69:34, Psalms 69:35, Psalms 69:36
Questions to explore
What picture in the first two verses helps you understand how serious the speaker’s trouble feels?
Look for the repeated words about waters, mire, floods, and having no foothold, then connect those images with the cry for God to save him.
Psalms 69:1, Psalms 69:2
How does the speaker speak truthfully both about himself and about the way others treat him?
Compare his confession that God knows his foolishness and sins with the verses about hatred, reproach, shame, and mockery.
Psalms 69:5, Psalms 69:7, Psalms 69:11, Psalms 69:12
Where does the psalm change tone most sharply, and what comes after that change?
Notice the severe judgement requests in Psalms 69:22-28, then trace how the psalm moves into pain, praise, and hope in the closing verses.
Psalms 69:22, Psalms 69:24, Psalms 69:28, Psalms 69:29, Psalms 69:30, Psalms 69:33
Make, think or respond
Psalm 69 Prayer Map
What you’ll need
- plain paper
- pencils or pens
- coloured pencils or markers
- Bible text
Try it together
- Divide a page into four sections labelled distress, plea, judgement, and praise and hope.
- Write one short phrase from Psalm 69 in each section.
- Add a simple symbol or small drawing that matches each part, such as waves, a hand reaching up, a dark cloud, or a music note.
- Draw arrows to show how the psalm moves from one part to the next.
- Share your map with a partner and explain which verses helped you choose your symbols.
This activity helps students see the ordered movement of Psalm 69 from overwhelming trouble to praise and hope, while honestly including its difficult judgement section.
Adapt for your group
- For students who need simpler work, choose one key verse for each section of the psalm and let them illustrate only those four verses.
- For students ready for deeper study, ask them to explain how the requests in Psalms 69:13-18 differ in tone from the requests in Psalms 69:22-28 while both remain directed to God.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us read this psalm carefully. Teach us to notice its sorrow, its cries for help, its hard words, and its praise, and help us speak truthfully to you.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Psalms 69
1 Save me, 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, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.
4 Those 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.
5 God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you.
6 Don’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.
7 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
13 But 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.
14 Deliver 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.
15 Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
16 Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
17 Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!
18 Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.
19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.
20 Reproach 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.
21 They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.
24 Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
27 Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
32 The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live.
33 For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.
34 Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein!
35 For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it.
36 The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.