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Please speak to each of us through your Word today. Help us understand how deep your love is for us, especially when we go through tough times. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Good evening everyone. Tonight, we’re going to hear the stories of several people. But we begin with the American singer, Britney Spears. I know that despite being a very gifted singer, she’s a controversial character for a range of reasons. But let’s just set those things aside. I’m not going to go into the rights and wrongs about her or her situation, that’s not my point. Let’s just pay attention to how she describes her journey. And we can do that because she has been very public about her struggle with mental health, the years she was put under the control of court appointed legal guardians and the legal battles that led to that situation ending. Perhaps you’ve seen the documentary from a few years ago (Framing Britney Spears) or read her recent book. She talks there about the depths of her despair. In her 2021 court testimony, she described the intense desperation she felt. She felt trapped and overwhelmed by her situation. She felt like she was in a cage. She was in a dark place. She also talks about the injustice of her suffering and how she felt badly let down by all those who should have loved her. She was under the control of her father and legal team despite her wishes. Spears felt wronged and misrepresented. What was said about her was full of lies. This led to her cry for help. She turned to the public and to the courts for help to change her situation. She wanted to regain control of her life and have a say in her future but she needed help from those who had the power to take action on her behalf. Here is a quote from her book, The Woman in me:

You have to speak the thing that you're feeling, even if it scares you. You have to tell your story. You have to raise your voice.

She did eventually win her legal battle and was given back the freedom to manage her own affairs. Her story is perhaps summed up by the two hashtags that traced her story; #BritneySpeaks and #FreeBritney

I started there because her journey echoes the themes, and the journey, of Psalm 69, which was read for us earlier. You’ll find it a real help to turn to that now, and follow it with me. This is a song. It was written by the Israelite, King David. It has a simple structure. It divides into two halves. The first half (Psalm 69.1-18) which was read earlier has three ideas and we’ll look at them now. They are basically repeated in the second half, Psalm 69.19-36.

David begins by talking about the depths of his despair. That is Psalm 69.1-5. Listen to how he describes his situation. This is how he is feeling. The key image is of drowning in despair. His trials seem to engulf him, threatening his life. Psalm 69.1-3:

Save me, O God!For the waters have come up to my neck.I sink in deep mire,where there is no foothold;I have come into deep waters,and the flood sweeps over me.I am weary with my crying out;my throat is parched.My eyes grow dimwith waiting for my God.

He feels like he is sinking, and he cries out, “Where is God in all of this?” What is this? What is the trouble he faces? Psalm 69.4-5:

More in number than the hairs of my headare those who hate me without cause;mighty are those who would destroy me,those who attack me with lies.What I did not stealmust I now restore?O God, you know my folly;the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

David has many enemies. They seek to destroy him. What is said about him is full of lies. These verses show the depths of his despair. But notice what David does: he brings his anguish before God. He doesn’t hide his pain or pretend everything is fine. He is brutally honest with God about his suffering. This teaches us that God invites us to bring our deepest hurts and fears to Him. He is not distant or indifferent to our pain; He listens, He cares, and He is present with us, even in the darkest moments.

Next, David talks about the injustice of his suffering. This is Psalm 69.6-12. He knows that he is not innocent, but what is happening to him is unjust. This is what we call a lament. He is mocked by drunks, gossiped about by the whole city and let down even by his family, who should have loved him. Why? Because of his zeal for God (Psalm 69.9), because he fasted (Psalm 69.10), because he confessed his sin (Psalm 69.11). In short, simply because of his faith in God. That’s not just. Psalm 69.6-12:

Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,O Lord God of hosts;let not those who seek you be brought to dishonour through me,O God of Israel.For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,that dishonour has covered my face.I have become a stranger to my brothers,an alien to my mother's sons.For zeal for your house has consumed me,and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,it became my reproach.When I made sackcloth my clothing,I became a byword to them.I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,and the drunkards make songs about me.

But even in this, David continues to turn to God. He prays that his suffering would not cause others to stumble in their faith. This shows a deep love for God’s people and a desire to honour God even in the midst of personal pain.

Finally, he cries out to God for help. This is verses Psalm 69.13-18. Despite his despair, he believes in the unfailing love of God and trusts that God will deliver him in His perfect timing. Psalm 69.13-14 sums it up well:

But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.At an acceptable time, O God,in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.Deliver mefrom sinking in the mire;let me be delivered from my enemiesand from the deep waters.

So that is David. #DavidSpeaks and #FreeDavid

But here is a thing about Psalm 69. It is one of the most quoted of all the Psalms in the New Testament. And that shows us that this Psalm is not just about King David. It is also about Jesus, and so we turn to hear his story next. Jesus suffered more than we can ever know. His suffering was undeserved. But he took it on, willingly, for our sake. This Psalm talks about enemies or foes. Whoever David’s enemies were, they point to our ultimate enemies. As we saw last week they are: the enemies of sin, Satan and death. Jesus took them all on. He was totally innocent. He had never done anything wrong. Yet he took on our sin, and with it the shame and punishment and anger that belongs to those who do sin. He did this when he died in our place on the cross. He did that to defeat sin, Satan and death but to do so he had to endure the deepest place of despair you can possibly imagine. He did all that for us, to offer us live with God and in order to save us. Psalm 69.19-21:

You know my reproach,and my shame and my dishonour;my foes are all known to you.Reproaches have broken my heart,so that I am in despair.I looked for pity, but there was none,and for comforters, but I found none.They gave me poison for food,and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

Do those last verses ring bells for you? When Jesus hung on the cross, thirsty and asking for pity he found none. Instead, he was mocked. And as Matthew says in Matthew 27.48:

And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.

Jumping back to David, what happened to him was unjust. So he understandably wanted those who had made him suffer unjustly, face justice. In this psalm, he doesn’t hold back. He calls on God to bring judgment and even destruction on his enemies, who are also God’s enemies. This happens in Psalm 69.22-28. Let me just read one of those verses (Psalm 69.24):

Pour out your indignation upon them,and let your burning anger overtake them.

This whole section (Psalm 69.22-28) is tough to read. In these verses, David curses his enemies repeatedly, asking God to bring on them the same evil they’re doing to him. This doesn’t seem very Christian. Didn’t Jesus teach us to love our neighbours and pray for those who hurt us? Two keys things will help us make sense of them, as we live this side of Jesus first coming. First, this is still a prayer to God. David isn’t taking personal revenge or calling for violence; he’s praying. Second, David’s motivation is a deep desire for justice, which is a God-given feeling. God is holy, good, and worthy, and he must set things right. If God doesn’t punish those who oppose Him and His people, it would mean He isn’t truly holy, good, or worthy. It’s brutally honest, and raw, (and we can be both those things with God), but it also reflects a Christian desire for justice. What then about Jesus? With Psalm 69 as Jesus’s journey, we are among his enemies. We, in the words of Psalm 69.4, hate him without reason. And we, in the words of Psalm 69.22-28, deserve punishment. But Jesus prayed a very different prayer when He was being crucified. He said (Luke 23.34):

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

Instead of asking for punishment, Jesus asked for forgiveness. This is an extraordinary prayer, one only the Son of God could make. That is because only in Jesus could God both bring salvation and justice. And so, we find in Jesus the help we cried out for, as Psalm 69.29-36 declare. Again, let me read one verse from that section (Psalm 69.33):

For the Lord hears the needyAnd does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

The last story I want to share is about John Bunyan, a man from the 1600s who wrote the famous book The Pilgrim's Progress. His journey also echoes the themes, and the journey, of Psalm 69. John Bunyan was born into a poor family in England. As he grew up, he felt very guilty and believed he was a terrible sinner. He was always worried that God would punish him. Bunyan thought his sins were too big to be forgiven, and this left him in a profound spiritual crisis. He felt trapped in a deep, dark place, like he was sinking in quicksand. This kind of sadness is what he later called the “Slough of Despond” in his book. It was as if he was drowning in his feelings, just like the writer of Psalm 69 who says (Psalm 69.1-2):

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.

After some time, Bunyan had a life-changing experience. He realised that God could forgive him because of what Jesus had done by dying on the cross in his place. He became a powerful preacher, giving his life to sharing the message of God’s love with others. But this got him into trouble. Back then, it was against the law to preach without a special license. In 1660, Bunyan was arrested and sent to jail for 12 years. This was a very hard time for him, especially because he was separated from his family. His daughter, who was blind, needed him, but he couldn’t be there for her. Bunyan’s time in prison was unfair. He hadn’t done anything wrong; his only crime was continuing to preaching the Gospel—the message of hope and salvation he had found in Christ. Like David in Psalm 69, Bunyan was treated badly even though he didn’t deserve it. He suffered because he wouldn’t stop preaching about God.

Interestingly, Bunyan’s books don’t ask God to punish his enemies. But they do show how much he wanted God’s justice. He wrote much of the spiritual battle between good and evil, and he firmly believed that in the end, God’s justice would win. Bunyan kept trusting that God would make things right, just like the psalmist trusted God to bring justice. Despite being in prison and away from his family, Bunyan didn’t give up on his faith. He prayed to God, asking for help and strength to keep going. He didn’t just pray for himself, but also that the Gospel would be preached and for his family. He trusted that God would rescue him, even when it didn’t seem like there was any hope.

God did answer Bunyan’s prayers. After 12 years, he was released from prison, and he continued his work. But even while he was in jail, God helped him keep going. During this time, Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, which became one of the most influential Christian books ever written. In the story, the main character, Christian, falls into the “Slough of Despond,” a muddy bog that almost pulls him under. This was Bunyan’s powerful metaphor for the deep despair he had faced in his own life. But just like Christian in the story, Bunyan believed that God would eventually pull him out of the darkness and save him, even if it wasn’t right away.

So now to end we come to you, and to me. In the first instance this Psalm was written by David and about David's journey and circumstances. He gave it to his people, the Israelites, to use in their own times of trouble. But it’s given by God to us as well. The Psalms are not only God's Word to us but also our words to God. Are you in the depths of despair right now? No matter who you are or what you've gone through—whether it's pain, false accusations, betrayal, mockery, or attacks, especially because you're a Christian—Jesus has known it all, and even more. Jesus understands your pain and can comfort you, as he has experienced the deepest suffering described in this Psalm. And Psalm 69 provides for you words that you can make your own as you talk to God. You can express the depts of your despair. You can lament the injustice of your suffering. You can cry out to God. David’s prayer is a model for us. It is not a demand for immediate relief but a humble request for God’s will to be done. He acknowledges God’s sovereignty and timing, recognizing that deliverance will come according to God’s plan, not his own. This is a powerful reminder that while we may not always understand God’s timing, we can trust His love and His wisdom.

If you’re not in that place right now, then store this Psalm away for when you feel like you’re sinking and come back to it. It’s a kind of roadmap for our prayers when we face trials. It might be that you feel just like David in this Psalm (despairing, overwhelmed, and treated unfairly), but maybe you’ve never thought to ask God for help. You might understand these feelings and this journey, but you haven’t yet turned to the One who can truly help you.
Here’s the good news: Jesus knows your pain and offers a way out. Jesus took on all the suffering to bring us out of darkness and into the light of God’s love and forgiveness. He has already walked this the path of suffering, so you don’t have to walk it alone. If you haven’t yet trusted Jesus, I encourage you to do so tonight. He understands your pain, knows what it means to suffer, and offers the comfort, peace, and salvation that nothing else can give. Don’t wait. Bring your pain, fears, and struggles to Him. Cry out to Him, just like David did. Jesus is ready to forgive, to comfort, and to save you. Put your trust in him, and let him lead you from the depths of despair to the heights of His love and grace. Tonight, take that step. Talk to Him in prayer. Ask Jesus into your life, and experience the hope and healing that only He can give. Your journey, like David’s, can lead to peace and deliverance—if you trust in the One who has already walked this road for you.

Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. Amen

Two songs now: Words that help us praise God in good and in tough times, as we remember Jesus who suffered and died so that his enemies might be set free.