There are quite a number of terrifying experiences that a person could have. It seems to me that one of the most terrifying would be the experience of drowning! Apparently, King David thought so as well! He likened a terrible experience that he was going through to the experience of drowning in Psalm 69.
So how does a person pray when they feel like they’re drowning? Here’s how David prayed…
“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… But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness! Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters! Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me!”
What a prayer! What passion! What an expression of faith in a terrible circumstance! And the response?
“I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving… For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people… Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion [His people]!
I don’t know what terrifying situation you may be facing! It may feel like you’re drowning! If that’s the way you feel right now I’d make David’s prayer, my prayer! I’d pray it passionately and sincerely… and I’d depend on the Lord in his steadfast love and faithfulness to rescue me!
The Lord’s blessing is rich, wonderful and GOOD! Oh, and better yet, it overflows – it’s profuse and abundant! The tragedy is, if we’re not careful, it gets heavily seasoned with the sad sauce of selfishness… it becomes all about us!
