Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
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? O God, you know my folly;
the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
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.
For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.
I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons.
Comment: David starts this moderately long psalm with a series of dramatic pictures. If you watch the news you can readily view the scenes as they pour out of his distressed mouth. People in Kenya or China or South America being swept away in floods with just their heads and a waving arm crying out for help; People slipping and sliding in the mud from a landslide which has swept their house away; The people in Ukraine pulling out their hair as Russian bombs rain down on them, civilians not soldiers, with no legitimate army site nearby. What have I done they cry – ‘I’ve done nothing – why attack me?’ ‘I’m seeking to live for You, O God, but my family and friends are against me! What should I do???‘
Prayer: The sky sometimes seems to fall on me, O Lord. Help, Oh help me to stay resolutely for You.
As I read it! 