תהלים, פרק ס״ט, פסוק ט״ו

A cry for rescue often stems from feeling trapped by multiple threats at once. The psalmist expresses a deep, twofold distress, pleading for divine intervention against both human enemies and overwhelming life circumstances. Sinking in mud and drowning in deep waters serve as powerful metaphors for severe hardships and profound suffering [מאירי, מצודת דוד].

This desperate plea mirrors an earlier moment, where the singer described himself as already submerged in the deep [אבן עזרא, מלבי״ם]. This raises a natural question: if he has already sunk, why is he now asking not to drown? The earlier description reflects how close to death he felt; the danger was so intense that he considered himself as good as dead. His current prayer is a plea to be spared from actual death, total loss, or permanent exile, begging God to ensure he does not sink away completely [רד״ק, מצודת דוד].

Commentators offer different ways to understand the relationship between the threat of the waters and the threat of the enemies. One approach envisions a person physically cornered by two imminent dangers. If he tries to pull himself out of the water, his enemies are waiting on the shore to kill him, but if he stays where he is, he will drown. Therefore, he begs God to rescue him from both traps simultaneously [מלבי״ם]. Another perspective views this as a blend of literal and figurative language. In this reading, the singer asks to be saved from his actual, physical enemies in the exact same way that someone would be pulled to safety from deep, treacherous waters [רד״ק, מצודת דוד].

On a deeper historical and conceptual level, these physical threats represent the exiles and sins of the Jewish people. The mud symbolizes the inappropriate physical enjoyment at King Ahasuerus's feast, a sin that triggered Haman's decree of destruction during the exile in Media. The deep waters, on the other hand, represent the earlier sin of bowing to an idol in Babylon. The prayer unfolds as a request to first be pulled from the mud, meaning to be cleansed from the sin of the feast and spared from the fatal decree. Following this, the plea is to be saved from the enemies acting on their own free will, namely Haman and Ahasuerus, as well as from the lingering effects of the Babylonian idol worship. This earlier sin was ultimately easier to forgive, as the people only bowed outwardly out of fear rather than true belief [אלשיך].