Answer
Mud (muck) is water-soaked soil that creates mushy, slippery, messy terrain. Mire is a swampy, low-lying wetland that sinks deep underfoot. Both mud and mire describe ground that is troublesome and difficult to traverse. One can quickly get stuck in mud and mire.
Mud and mire are common metaphors for difficult, embarrassing, or ensnaring circumstances that are hard to extricate oneself from. God rescued King David from one such predicament:
“I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand” (Psalm 40:1–2).
The “mud and mire” of David’s “slimy pit” probably refer to the conditions at the bottom of a cistern. Some in Scripture have had to deal with literal mud and mire: Jeremiah was captured and thrown into a muddy cistern, and “he sank down into the mud” (Jeremiah 38:6). Joseph’s brothers intended to kill Joseph and conceal his body in a deep, dark cistern (Genesis 37:20).
In Psalm 40, David felt trapped in a precariously hopeless situation—one so severe he could not escape on his own. We don’t know the circumstances of his trouble. Maybe he was like the character Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress who, at the very beginning of his journey, tumbled into the Slough of Despond, described as “such a place as cannot be mended.” In Bunyan’s allegory, the mud and mire represent “the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin.” Christian could not get out of the slough on his own, but, thankfully, God sent a man named Help to give him a hand. (Bunyan, J., The Pilgrim’s Progress, New American Library, a div. of Penguin Books, 1981, p. 22–23).
To be caught in a pit of mud and mire corresponds to a time in life when we are so stuck we can’t free ourselves or escape on our own. Borrowing examples from David’s life, it could be the miserable prison of personal sin (see Psalm 40:12; cf. 2 Samuel 11), a deep hole of adversity (1 Samuel 18:10–17; 1 Samuel 23:15–29), family problems (2 Samuel 15—18), grief and emotional turmoil (2 Samuel 18:19–33), or even an actual cistern like the one Jeremiah endured.
David, Job, and many other Bible figures called on God to save them from the mud and mire (see Psalm 18:16; 69:1, 2, 14, 15; 144:7; Job 30:19–28). These events are beautiful illustrations of God rescuing His people from sin and trouble and establishing them instead on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, the Rock of Salvation (see Deuteronomy 32:4; 2 Samuel 22:2; Psalm 62:7; 89:26; Matthew 7:24; 1 Corinthians 3:11; 10:4).
No matter the pit we find ourselves in, our good and gracious God will hear our cries for help. He will reach down into the metaphorical mud and mire of our distress, lift us out, and set our feet on solid bedrock—a place of security and stability. Instead of slipping in mud and sinking in mire, we can step securely in the Lord (Psalm 17:5; 18:36; 94:18).
Some Bible commentators associate David’s deliverance in Psalm 40:1–3 with Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection. Jesus went into a pit of sin to save us; He was made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 2:9). “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right” (1 Peter 2:24, NLT). Imagine how slimy that pit must have been to the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. But Jesus did not stay in the mud and mire. God heard His prayers (see Hebrews 5:7) and raised Him from the dead (Matthew 28:5–6; Acts 2:24, 32; 13:15, 30; Galatians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4).
All who have been redeemed from the mud and mire of sin and troubling circumstances join in David’s joyous praise:
“He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
They will put their trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:2–3, NLT).
