The Waters Have Come Up to My Neck!

(Matthew 27:32-44; Mark 15:21-32; Luke 23:26-43; John 19:16-27)

1Unto the end, for them that shall be changed; for David. Save me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul.

2I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.

3I have laboured with crying; my jaws are become hoarse: my eyes have failed, whilst I hope in my God.

4They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, who hate me without cause. My enemies are grown strong who have wrongfully persecuted me: then did I pay that which I took not away.

5O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my offences are not hidden from thee:

6Let not them be ashamed for me, who look for thee, O Lord, the Lord of hosts. Let them not be confounded on my account, who seek thee, O God of Israel.

7Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

8I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to the sons of my mother.

9For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

10And I covered my soul in fasting: and it was made a reproach to me.

11And I made haircloth my garment: and I became a byword to them.

12They that sat in the gate spoke against me: and they that drank wine made me their song.

13But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord; for the time of thy good pleasure, O God. In the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

14Draw me out of the mire, that I may not stick fast: deliver me from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

15Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up: and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

16Hear me, O Lord, for thy mercy is kind; look upon me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

17And turn not away thy face from thy servant: for I am in trouble, hear me speedily.

18Attend to my soul, and deliver it: save me because of my enemies.

19Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame.

20In thy sight are all they that afflict me; my heart hath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none.

21And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

22Let their table become as a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumblingblock.

23Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and their back bend thou down always.

24Pour out thy indignation upon them: and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

25Let their habitation be made desolate: and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles.

26Because they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.

27Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity: and let them not come into thy justice.

28Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.

29But I am poor and sorrowful: thy salvation, O God, hath set me up.

30I will praise the name of God with a canticle: and I will magnify him with praise.

31And it shall please God better than a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.

32Let the poor see and rejoice: seek ye God, and your soul shall live.

33For the Lord hath heard the poor: and hath not despised his prisoners.

34Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.

35For God will save Sion, and the cities of Juda shall be built up. And they shall dwell there, and acquire it by inheritance.

36And the seed of his servants shall possess it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.