[Music]
Welcome to our look at Psalm 69. Psalm 69 talks to us about what to do when you're in over your
head. And we all know what that feels like. And when you get in a circumstance, you get in a place,
you get in a relationship, and you just don't know what to do next. You just don't have any idea where
to turn. You feel like I don't have the resources, I don't know what direction to go, I feel like I'm
sinking faster and faster. You're in over your head. And this Psalm is very specific about those
places and times in life when we feel like we're in over our head. It talks, in the first few
verses, about being in over your head with your circumstances, in over your head with other people,
and in over your head sometimes even with yourself. First, in over your head with your circumstances,
verses one to three. "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the
miry depths where there is no foothold. I've come into the deep waters. The floods engulf me. I'm
worn out calling for help. My throat is parched. My eyes fail looking for my God." That's in over
your head with your circumstances. You feel all alone. You don't know where to turn. He also talks
about being in over your head with people. Verse four, "Those who hate me without reason outnumber
the hairs of my head. Many are my enemies without cause. Those who seek to destroy me. I am forced
to restore what I did not steal." Sometimes you're in over your head with the people that are around
you. You just can't make it right. You can't make people understand, or you can't keep the people
that are against you out of your life. He also talks about being in over your head with yourself.
Verse five, "You know my folly, O God. My guilt is not hidden from you."
You don't know how to escape your guilt. You don't know how to get to a different place in life from
letting the sense of unforgiveness, maybe for yourself and what you've done, overwhelm you
day after day. When you're in over your head, what do you do? This psalm tells us when you're in over
your head, ask God to do four things. Rescue me, deliver me, answer me, come near to me.
Let's look at those four. First, rescue me. You're in over your head. You say, "God,
rescue me." Verses 13 and 14, "But I pray to you, O Lord, in the time of your favor, in your great
love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. Rescue me from the mire. Do not let me sink."
He talks about the mire here. He's actually focusing on the circumstances that sometimes
cause us to feel like we're in over our head. The circumstances that are keeping you stuck,
the mire. When you're in over your head with a circumstance, when you're stuck,
you can't swim your way out. It's too thick. Your feet are stuck. You need a rescue. That's why you
pray, "Rescue me, God, I need your rescue." You're drowning. You're drowning right now.
You're drowning in busyness, or you're drowning in debt, or you're drowning in problems. You don't
need a plan or a strategy right now. You're about to go under. You have seconds before you feel like
it's all done. What you need is a hand of rescue. You need immediate help to get you out of the
waters that you're drowning in, to draw you up and out to a different place. When you're drowning
in your circumstances, you're living under your circumstances. You need Jesus' hand to lift you
above those circumstances to a place of safety where you can see your way out. Now, your question
is, "Well, how can I do that when my circumstances are still the same?" You're lifted above your
circumstances when you're lifted into the presence of God. When you're lifted into the
place of realizing that no circumstance can make God stop loving you. No circumstance can steal God's
grace from you. No circumstance can prevent God's eternal promises for you. In that place,
that place of rescue, you can begin to see your way out. Right now, if you feel like, "I'm sinking
in circumstances," you might want to just close your eyes and just sense, spiritually sense,
that Jesus is lifting you out to that place of safety that is greater than any circumstance in
this world. Psalm 69 13 in the Living Bible says, "But I keep right on praying to you, Lord, for now
is the time. You are bending down to here. You're ready with a plentiful supply of love and kindness.
Now answer my prayer and rescue me as you promised." So rescue me, particularly from
your circumstances. And then when you're in over your head, you also need to ask God,
"Deliver me. God, deliver me. Set me free from this." Verse 14, the last half says,
"Deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters." Then verse 15, "Do not let the flood
waters engulf me, or the depths swallow me, or the pit close its mouth over me." You get a
strong idea, this guy's in trouble, and you feel it maybe in your life right now, too.
And he particularly says, "Deliver me from those who hate me." You might be facing people who hate
you right now. They hate you because you're different from them, maybe culturally different,
maybe racially different. Maybe they hate you because you have faith in Jesus Christ.
"God, deliver me," you pray. And behind that simple request is a question. Who are you going
to trust? Who are you going to trust in this battle that you're having with this person,
with these people? Are you going to deliver yourself, or are you trusting God to deliver you?
You see, the real question is, whose battle is it? If it's just your battle, all you have is your
battle, all you have is your strength in the battle. But when you recognize it's his battle,
then you look to God to fight his battles in your life. That's one of the keys, by the way,
to loving your enemies, trusting God to fight your battles with those enemies.
Then you can love them because then you realize God is greater than them. They have no power over
you ultimately. They might for a brief time on this earth, but ultimately God will be the one who
has the last word, so then you can love even your enemies. Now, God may have something that
he wants you to do in this battle that he's fighting. He may not. The key is recognizing
that it's his battle, that it's his work that will truly deliver you, especially from those
around you who are causing you to feel like, "I'm in over my head in these relationships. I
can't make it right." Third thing we're encouraged to do in this psalm is to pray the simple prayer,
"Answer me." He says this a couple times, verse 16 and 17, "Answer me, O Lord, out of your goodness
and your love, and your great mercy turn to me. Do not hide your face from your servant.
Answer me quickly, for I am in trouble." When you're in over your head because of your own
sin and selfishness, you need God's answer, not your answer. It does no good to condemn yourself.
It does no good to embark on some kind of self-improvement program. That only results
in self-condemnation or self-righteousness, and you're lost with both of those. You just sink
deeper and deeper. The answer you and I need is the two truths in these verses, God's goodness
and God's mercy. That's where you look. "In your great mercy," he says, "stop trying to make up
for your sin." That's called self-righteousness. You trust in God's mercy for forgiveness. He may
have never done that, or you're not sure that you've done that. By the power of the cross,
what Jesus did on the cross, you can do that right now. You can say, "Jesus Christ, I trust
you for your forgiveness. He has given you that gift." You may need to remind yourself right now
that you trust in God's mercy alone to forgive. You may have prayed a prayer like I just said
many years ago, but you've forgotten the meaning of that prayer in your life. You may need to
remind yourself, "It's only through the mercy of God that I have forgiveness. It's not for how good
I have been today. It's by the mercy he's shown you." Then he says, "Out of the goodness of your
love, remember that God loves you, and remember how good it is that God loves you." Now, notice
he says here, "Answer me quickly in this." We're going to come back to look at this more closely
in Psalm 70. It's a reminder to us today, don't wait one second to throw yourself on the mercy
of God, to look to the goodness of God's love. Every second we spend on self-condemnation
is wasted. Every moment we look to God's grace is blessed. There's one final request in this prayer
for when you're in over your head. Number four, come near to me. Verse 18, "Come near and rescue
me. Redeem me because of my foes." Well, you see all of it in that one verse. You got rescue and
redeem and also come near. It's a sum up verse, a summation. This prayer, "Come near to me," sums up
our need in all the other requests. We need the closeness of God's presence. You need the closeness
of God's presence today to remind you that he's the one who will rescue you, redeem you, answer you.
Now, how do we know, "Come near to me"? God, come near to me. How do we know that he will answer us
when we ask? Well, I want you to notice verse 21. This psalm that we're looking at today,
it's the third most frequently quoted psalm in the New Testament, after Psalm 22 and 110.
And it's because parts of this psalm point to Jesus and the cross, and they're picked up in the
New Testament as reminders of the fact that Jesus was going to give his life for us on the cross.
Verse 21 says, "They put gall in my food and they gave me vinegar for my thirst." Well,
you remember if you read the gospels, that the writers of the gospels picked up on those words
from the book of Psalms as a reminder of the fact that Jesus was going to give his life for us.
And so this experience of David as he writes here is also a prophecy of what would happen to Jesus.
And that's the power of this, "Come near to me." Then we're reminded of the cross. Jesus did come
near to you, and you can see that with clarity at the cross. He stretched out his arms for you,
he gave his life for you, and he invites you into his presence today. Let's pray together.
And in prayer, just say, "Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord, that no matter how bad it gets,
you will always be there. You will always show yourself to be great in the end.
You will always love and protect and save me." What David faced in these battles, it was so much
worse than what I'll probably have to face, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm facing some
battles, some struggles. That doesn't change the fact that these truths are for me today.
You are always there. David, part of what he faced was his fault.
It came out of his own selfishness and jealousy, but that doesn't overwhelm the truth that you will
always still be there. You will always save. And so, God, today, I ask you to show up in my life
and be near to me. Remind me that you are the God who answers me, who redeems me. You are the God
who shows your grace to me in the most powerful way and rescues me. Thank you for who you are.
Tomorrow, we're going to look together at Psalm 70 and what to do when you need an answer right now.