Psalms 69:14

Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink.

The believer sinking in the mire

Many rivers, and especially the Nile, have on their banks deep deposits of black mud, and it is most perilous for any who have the misfortune to fall into it. The more they struggle to get out the deeper they sink. Travellers tell of such incidents. Had David really witnessed such a scene, that speaking of his spiritual sorrows, he said, “I sink in deep mire where there is no standing”? Now, the prayer of our text suggests--

I. That the true believer may be. In the mire and very near sinking.

1. In the mire of unbelief. Even the firmest in faith lose their foothold at times. All manner of doubts crowd into the mind. They are compelled to pray this prayer.

2. Through lack of full assurance of his own interest in Christ.

3. The mire of temporal trouble.

4. Of inward corruption.

5. Of Satanic temptations.

6. Various are the causes of this sad condition. Sometimes it is through our own sin. It is a chastisement upon us. Sometimes to try our faith; or that we may the better glorify God, or to show the natural weakness of the creature, that no flesh may glory in man; or to make heaven sweeter when we enter its pearly gates. But all the while, these sinking ones are really God’s people, for if they were not, they would have no such trouble. The sinner whose element is sin laughs at the weight by which the believer is borne down. The best of God’s saints have known such trouble. Luther did, and John Knox, and many more.

II. But when in such a state they know that their only help is in God. The Bible cannot help, for unbelief bars you off from all its precious promises. Other believers cannot aid you. God alone can.

III. Prayer is the Christian’s never-failing resort. When you cannot use your sword, you may take the weapon of “all-prayer.” That is never forbidden. And it is never futile, it ever has true power. Oh, never let us cease to pray. In asthma you say, “I cannot breathe”; but you must breathe if you would live. And so in the condition told of here you must, though you think you cannot, pray. But let us walk carefully, lest we fall into the mire. (C. H. Spurgeon.)