I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.
Parallel translations
- WEB I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
- KJV I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
- NKJV I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me.
- NASB I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me.
- NLT Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold. I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David feels himself sinking in deep mire with no foothold, engulfed by floods. It vividly expresses the helplessness of overwhelming trouble.
Overview
Continuing the water imagery, David describes a sense of having no solid ground and being swept away by deep waters. The picture conveys utter helplessness apart from God's intervention. As a psalm pointing toward Christ, it anticipates the depths of suffering the Savior would endure to rescue us from sin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 40:2He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.
- Matt 7:25The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
- Jer 38:6So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
- Ps 88:6–7You have laid me in the lowest Pit, in the darkest of the depths.
- Ps 32:6Therefore let all the godly pray to You while You may be found. Surely when great waters rise, they will not come near.
- Jer 38:22All the women who remain in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and those women will say: ‘They misled you and overcame you—those trusted friends of yours. Your feet sank into the mire, and they deserted you.’
- Matt 26:37–38He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.
- Gen 7:17–23For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.
- Ezek 27:26–34Your oarsmen have brought you onto the high seas, but the east wind will shatter you in the heart of the sea.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 69:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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