Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. – Psalm 69:1

Today's Scripture Reading (August 31, 2025): Psalm 69

Many years ago, I was visiting Ontario, Canada. My paternal grandmother was approaching her hundredth birthday, and the family had made a trip to the Canadian province for what might have been a final visit. While we were there, we visited a beach that I fondly remembered from my youth. Wasaga Beach is located on Georgian Bay, a large bay that is almost totally cut off from Lake Huron. There are two prominent features of Wasaga Beach. One is that Wasaga is the longest freshwater beach in the world. It also possesses several sandbars, meaning that swimmers can walk out a significant distance into the lake without the water being over the swimmer's head. When I was young, I had an aunt and uncle who lived in the Town of Wasaga Beach; my uncle was the Pastor of the local United Missionary Church. It was a place that I loved to visit whenever my parents would take me. Uncle Ed has been gone for many years, and my Aunt Norma passed away just recently. But I am left with my childhood memories of my aunt and uncle and one of their homes.

On this visit, we spent some time swimming at the Beach. It was a great day, but I think there was a storm brewing somewhere out on the water, so the waves seemed to be larger than usual as they swept across the sandbars. I had walked quite a distance out into the lake, and as a result, I was in a spot where the water was almost up to my neck, which meant that essentially, I was bouncing with the large waves. I was having a great time, and my daughter and son-in-law were standing a few feet away, but higher up on the sandbar where the water was significantly shallower. But then it happened. I was bouncing with the waves, and then for some reason I wasn't. My timing had changed, and I was spending more and more of my time underwater. I tried to swim, but the current was making it hard to navigate the waves.

Then my son-in-law, Greg, reached out and helped me get up on the sandbar. It is a moment that I have thought of often over the years. It was the help that I needed at precisely the right moment. Emotionally, I quickly traversed from a state of almost panic to the calm of knowing that my feet were now on solid ground. The waves were still huge, but the water was shallow enough that the waves no longer threatened to draw me under.

As David prays for salvation, he recognizes that what was literally true for me on that day at Wasaga was figuratively true for him. The water was up to his neck, the waves were large, and he needed someone to reach out a hand and at least lift him up to a sandbar where the waves no longer threatened to destroy him. He also knew that, at this moment, no hand could help him except for God's. He needed God to reach down and lift him up. And so he prays that God will save him, as He had before, and David trusted that He would again.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 70