Monday Meditation
November 30, 2015
From the desk of A.J. Higgins
The Waters
“The waters are come in unto My soul … the floods overflow Me.”
Psalm 69:1
We are not sure when David wrote Psalm 69 or what the experience was that led to its writing. But we know, by its frequent citation in the New Testament, that the Spirit of God had something greater than David’s experience, and someone greater than David in mind when it was penned.
The Psalm opens with the imagery of a man being overwhelmed by flood waters. The waters are entering in – not to lungs to suffocate, but into His soul. In the innermost part of His being, He felt the wrath and judgment which the flood waters depict. Like someone measuring the flood waters, He documents their “high-water” mark – His soul. Searching for a footing to be able to rise above the waters, His feet can find no place of standing. Instead, there is mire which draws Him deeper and deeper into the waters. There is no relief, no rescue, no remitting of the onslaught.
Our minds go back to the first instance of divine judgment on the earth – the flood. The waters covered the earth but the ark rose above it all. The flood waters covered even the top most mountain, but the ark moved above the waters. Here however, in this Psalm, we are reminded that the ark of safety which God designed for us was buried beneath the flood waters at Calvary.
If you have ever coped with a leak in a basement, you can begin to appreciate a little the thought of the waters “coming in.” Relentlessly, ceaselessly, the water continues to seep in and increase. Every effort to keep it out seems in vain. The only difference here is that it was a torrent and not a leak; and there was no attempt to keep it out. Willingly and knowingly He allowed the waters to enter in. His was not only an outward physical suffering, but “His soul was made an offering for sin” and felt the full weight of the judgment of God.
Consider:
1. Why do you think one of the metaphors for the judgment of God is water? What other pictures of His judgment against sin are seen in this Psalm?
2. Something of the extremity of His suffering can be felt by the use of the word “deep” (vv 2, 14, 15).
3. The rising flood and the sinking feeling give us a small insight into the feelings of Christ at Calvary as He was engulfed in the judgment we deserved. Compare it to the feeling you have when you read in verse 15 of being shut up in a pit.
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