Psalm 69

Drowning: waters up to the neck, no footing, eyes failing from looking for God. The psalmist admits his own folly (verse 5) and also suffers for God's sake. The New Testament quotes this psalm often of Jesus: "zeal for Your house" (John 2:17), "hated Me without reason" (John 15:25), and gall and sour wine (Matthew 27:34, 48). Then come some of the harshest curses in the Psalter (verses 22-28), of which Paul cites verses 22-23 in Romans 11:9-10. The same Jesus who fulfilled verse 21 prayed "Father, forgive them" from the cross, and that's the tension a careful reader has to hold.

"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." (Psalm 69:20)