Charles Spurgeon

I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.

“I sink in deep mire. In water one might swim, but in mud and mire all struggling is hopeless; the mire sucks down its victim. Where there is no standing.”

I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

“I am weary of my crying. Not of it, but by it, with it. He had prayed till he sweat great drops of blood, and well might physical weariness intervene. My throat is dried, parched, and inflamed.”

Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me— my enemies for no reason.

“They that hate me. Surprising sin that men should hate the altogether lovely one, truly is it added, without a cause, for reason there was none for this senseless enmity. He neither blasphemed God, nor injured man. As Samuel said: "Whose ox have I taken?”

You know my folly, O God, and my guilt is not hidden from You.

“O God, thou knowest my foolishness. David might well say this, but not David's Lord; unless it be understood as an appeal to God as to his freedom from the folly which men imputed to him when they said he was mad.”

For I have endured scorn for Your sake, and shame has covered my face.

“Because for thy sake I have borne reproach. Because he undertook to do the Father's will, and teach his truth, the people were angry; because he declared himself to be the Son of God, the priesthood raved.”

I have become a stranger to my brothers and a foreigner to my mother’s sons,

“I am become a stranger unto my brethren. The Jews his brethren in race rejected him, his family his brethren by blood were offended at him, his disciples his brethren in spirit forsook him and fled; one of them sold him, and another denied him…”

because zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult You have fallen on me.

“For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. His burning ardour, like the flame of a candle, fed on his strength and consumed it. His heart, like a sharp sword, cut through the scabbard.”

I wept and fasted, but it brought me reproach.

“When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. Having resolved to hate him, everything he did was made a fresh reason for reviling.”

I made sackcloth my clothing, and I was sport to them.

“I made sackcloth also my garment. This David did literally, but we have no reason to believe that Jesus did. In a spiritual sense he, as one filled with grief, was always a sackcloth wearer. And I became a proverb to them.”

Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of drunkards.

“They that sit in the gate speak against me. The ordinary gossips who meet at the city gates for idle talk make me their theme, the business men who there resort for trade forget their merchandise to slander me, and even the beggars who wait…”

But my prayer to You, O LORD, is for a time of favor. In Your abundant loving devotion, O God, answer me with Your sure salvation.

“But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord. He turned to Jehovah in prayer as being the most natural thing for the godly to do in their distress. To whom should a child turn but to his father.”

Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.

“Deliver me out of the mire and let me not sink. He turns into prayer the very words of his complaint; and it is well, if, when we complain, we neither feel nor say anything which we should fear to utter before the Lord as…”

Do not let the floods engulf me or the depths swallow me up; let not the Pit close its mouth over me.

“Let not the waterflood overflow me. He continues to recapitulate the terms of his lament. He is willing to bear suffering, but entreats grace that it may not get the victory over him. He was heard in that he feared.”

Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me quickly!

“And hide not thy face from thy servant. A good servant desires the light of his master's countenance; that servus servorum, who was also rex regium, could not bear to lose the presence of his God.”

Draw near to my soul and redeem me; ransom me because of my foes.

“Draw nigh unto my soul. The near approach of God is all the sufferer needs; one smile of heaven will still the rage of hell. And redeem it. It shall be redemption to me if thou wilt appear to comfort me.”

You know my reproach, my shame and disgrace. All my adversaries are before You.

“Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour. It is no novelty or secret, it has been long continued; thou, O God, hast seen it; and for thee to see the innocent suffer is an assurance of help.”

Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found no one.

“Reproach hath broken my heart. There is no hammer like it. Our Lord died of a broken heart, and reproach had done the deed.”

May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents.

“Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. This may signify that their posterity shall be cut off, and the abode which they occupy shall be left a ruin; or, as our Lord quoted it, it refers to the temple, which…”

Add iniquity to their iniquity; let them not share in Your righteousness.

“Add iniquity unto their iniquity. Unbelievers will add sin to sin, and so, punishment to punishment. This is the severest imprecation, or prophecy, of all.”

May they be blotted out of the Book of Life and not listed with the righteous.

“Let them be blotted out of the book of the living. Though in their conceit they wrote themselves among the people of God, and induced others to regard them under that character, they shall be unmasked and their names removed from the register.”

For the LORD listens to the needy and does not despise His captive people.

“For the Lord heareth the poor. The examples of David and David's Lord, and tens of thousands of the saints, all go to prove this.”

Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.

“Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein. The doxology of a glowing heart.”

The descendants of His servants will inherit it, and those who love His name will settle in it.

“The seed also of his servants shall inherit it. Under this image, which, however, we dare not regard as a mere simile, but as having in itself a literal significance, we have set forth to us the enrichment of the saints, consequent upon the sorrow…”

Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Hurry, O LORD, to help me!

“This is the second Psalm which is a repetition of another, the former being Psalm 53, which was a rehearsal of Psalm 14.”

May those who seek my life be ashamed and confounded; may those who wish me harm be repelled and humiliated.

“Here the words, "together, "and, "to destroy it, "which occur in Psalm 40, are omitted: a man in haste uses no more words than are actually necessary.”