Save me, O God!

June 18, 2019

Psalm 69:1-2

“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.”

As I began to read Psalm 69, it reminded me of the time as a teenager hunting for ducks in what was called the Salt Flats or Mud Flats in Corpus Christi, Texas.  My friends and I were having a good day hunting and for some reason, not sure the reason at this stage I may have gone after a duck we shot, I went out in the water.  At first, the bottom was just a little muddy then it was like the bottom fell out and I was up to my waist in mud, and as I tried to get back to my friends the deeper I sank.  I recall I used the shotgun like an oar to help me keep from sinking deeper and one of my friends found a dead limb and walked out in the water till I could reach it and he hauled me out.

At that time, I was a Baptist but had no personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and I was not looking to God for help, no I was counting on Bob and a friend, not Jesus.  But that only gives me a picture of what the Psalmist is referring in the physical but there was a time in my thirties and I had entered into Christ and He had entered into me, I was blessed in so many ways that I became prideful and sin greatly against God.

  

I also prayed but for a while it was all about me, but over about six months, I came to the understanding that many young people and even couples were being affected by my desire to get my needs met outside of Christ, and that when I asked that God would not allow my sinful life to cause others to stumble and forgive me and restore me.

“But as for me, afflicted and in pain—may your salvation, God, protect me.  I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.  This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hooves. The poor will see and be glad—you who seek God, may your hearts live!  The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people.  Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them, for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it; the children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.”

The Psalmist understood what many in Church do not, that affliction and pain or because we are living in a world in rebellion against God and His authority.  This reminds me of a godly Lady named Marty, who for about 12 years fought cancer, and  ask if she got angry because she had cancer, her answer was; “why not me.”  As we had the privilege of seeing God do amazing things over many years with this saint, we knew this; Marty was finishing strong.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice