Death by Drowning

Rescue me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck.  I have sunk in the slime of the deep, and there is no place to stand.  I have entered the watery depths, and the current has swept me away.  Psalm 69:2-3 [Hebrew Bible]  Robert Alter

To stand – “Wade in the water” are the lyrics of a spiritual.  But just wade.  Keep your feet on the ground underneath because if the water gets too high, well then you’re in real trouble.  You might drown.

Death by drowning must be a really terrible way to go.  After all, you’re conscious during the entire death spiral.  Your mind tells you that you can’t breathe but everything about the physiological state demands inhaling.  And when you do, the lungs fill with water while you are still aware.  You know you are going to die before you actually do.  How much easier to have a bullet to the brain or an unexpected heart attack or a tragic, instantaneous accident.  But drowning—no, that’s accompanied by terror and helplessness.

David uses this horrible imagery to describe his present psychological state of mind.  What he desperately needs is moʿŏmād, a foothold, a place to stand.  The word is used only in this psalm, but it’s related to ʿōmed, standing upright.  Of course, one common use of the verb is to stand before God and perhaps David coined this word with that in mind since if he should die his last stand will be before his Creator.

We have a lot of expressions about watery deaths.  “Drowning in my own tears” sings Eric.  “In over your head” is common.  “Dead in the water,” “in deep water,” “uncharted waters,” “jump into the deep end.”  Despite the fact that human life depends on water, there is a natural aversion to too much.  In fact, the aversion isn’t just psychological. Scientists have noted physical reactions as soon as the face encounters water.  No wonder David, a man of desert climes, envisioned water as a threat to life.  I am quite sure we concur.  Certainly you’ve experienced those times when you felt as if you couldn’t breathe, as if your head was sinking below the surface and in the next moment your life would end. Psychological drowning is sometimes more real than the actual physical experience—and more painful because it doesn’t end quickly.  We’re pulled under by forces too powerful to resist.

What is David’s solution?  God!  It’s useless to fight the suction.  Like trying to stand up while the ocean wave is throwing you under its pull.  Like the time I fell out of a boat in the lake before I learned to swim.  The visual experience of seeing the light at the surface, the bottom of the boat, while I was sinking remains as strong today as the day it happened.  “If I don’t reach the surface, I will die,” is all I could think about.  Today I can swim, but the emotional waves still threaten to kill me.  I hear David’s cry.  It’s mine.  “Let the water’s current not sweep me away and let not the deep swallow me.”  But before he gets to this plea, a lot of soul-searching has to happen, as we shall see in the next verses of this song.

Topical Index: drowning, water, foothold, moʿŏmād, Psalm 69:2-3