I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. – Psalm 69:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 7, 2019): Psalm 69

A few summers ago I was out swimming in a large lake. The lake was known for its storms, and the beach I was visiting was known for its long sandbars. And so we were out a distance away from the shore when the wind came up. To be honest, for a while that made the experience even better. The waves grew, and we were able to jump into them and let the waves carry us back toward the shore, and then get up and do it all again. When you are in the water on a sandbar with large waves coming over you, you develop a bit of a rhythm. When the wave reaches you, you can jump up into it and then, as the wave passes, you have a chance to stand and catch your breath before the next wave comes through.

But then it happened. Water can be dangerous, and unpredictable. I lost my footing and moved off of the sandbar. I was suddenly out of rhythm. I can swim, but in the rough water, I was in a bit of trouble. I was spending most of the time underwater just searching for a foothold. It was a scary moment until someone pulled me back onto the sand bar and allowed me to get back into rhythm with the oncoming waves.

It is so easy to get out of rhythm with life and find yourself in trouble. Early 20^th Century theologian G. Campbell Morgan argued that “Perhaps in no psalm in the whole Psalter is the sense of sorrow profounder or more intense than in this. The soul of the singer pours itself out in unrestrained abandonment to the overwhelming and terrible grief which consumes it.” The psalmist is in emotional pain. He feels lost and in danger. He has fallen out of rhythm with life and is in danger of being overwhelmed.

It is likely that he was meeting with resistance in some area of his life. Trials and difficulties are often the cause of our losing our foothold and rhythm in life. Even amid his struggle, the psalmist was assured that God was listening to him. And if there was someone who can pull us back onto the sandbar and restore the rhythm to life, it had to be the Creator of the Earth and everything in it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 70