“Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.”
This opening lament that the waters have come up to the psalmist's neck articulates the sense of being overwhelmed and drowning in suffering. The imagery of deep waters suggests both literal danger and the metaphorical experience of being submerged by difficulties. The reference to the psalmist's feet sinking in the miry depths indicates that there is no firm footing; security has been lost. This verse establishes the psalm as a lament of one in extreme distress, using water imagery to convey the totality of the affliction.
Church Fathers on Psalms 69:1
1. We have been born into this world, and added to the people of God, at that period wherein already the herb from a grain of mustard seed has spread out its branches; wherein already the leaven, which at first was contemptible, has leavened three measures, that is, the whole round world repeopled by the three sons of Noe: Genesis 9:19 for from East and West and North and South shall come they that shall sit down with the Patriarchs, Matthew 8:11 while those shall have been…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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