Pleas From the Riptide

Psalm 69 is a plea, a cry of prayer, like most of the Psalms that are indeed prayers. But David is also, as he is praying to God, telling a story. He is telling of his experiences and what he would like to happen to him in God’s hands. In his doing so, we find a historical testimony. It is his story and through it we find that he believes that God is at work in everything that is happening to him and by him and through him. For the Psalmist, the actual events of life represent what God is making happen. Stuff is happening and God is in it and the Psalmist is talking to God from just that perspective. Moreover, he has written us a Psalm, he has put it upon our lips. God’s Holy Spirit has inspired these words to give them to us. We sing them to God and when we do we are effectively confessing that these events that happened to the Psalmist are going to be very similar to events that will happen to you or me (otherwise we could not sing them). God is a God of order and the world and God is not capricious. David has experienced these things and they really what is common to man. David, by the Holy Spirit, can write us a song to sing because at some time we will have to sing it. It will be true to us as well as him. Through David’s Psalm we learn 10 specific lessons.