Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.
Parallel Translations
-
Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.
-
Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Show all 3 translations
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(69-1) For the Leader; upon Shoshannim. A Psalm of David. (69-2) Save me, O God; for the waters are come in even unto the soul.
(69-3) I am sunk in deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, and the flood overwhelmeth me.
(69-4) I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried; mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Cross-references (38)
- Psalms 40:2 (v2) He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.
- Psalms 69:14-15 (v1) Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Don’t let the…
- Isaiah 43:2 (v1) When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire,…
- Psalms 6:6 (v3) I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.
- Matthew 7:25 (v2) The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock.
Show all 37 cross-references
- Psalms 32:6 (vv1–2) For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not…
- Psalms 88:6-7 (v2) You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves.
- Psalms 119:82 (v3) My eyes fail for your word. I say, “When will you comfort me?”
- Psalms 119:123 (v3) My eyes fail looking for your salvation, for your righteous word.
- Isaiah 38:14 (v3) I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
- Jeremiah 38:6 (v2) Then they took Jeremiah and threw him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king’s son, that was in the court of the guard. They let down…
- Deuteronomy 28:32 (v3) Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will…
- Psalms 25:21 (v3) Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
- Jeremiah 38:22 (v2) ‘Behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah’s house will be brought out to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women will…
- Lamentations 3:54 (v1) Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
- Genesis 7:17-23 (v2) The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth. The waters rose,…
- Psalms 42:7 (v1) Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
- Psalms 69:2 (v1) I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
- Jonah 2:3-5 (v1) For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. I…
- Matthew 26:37-38 (v2) He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is…
- Revelation 12:15-16 (v1) The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. The earth…
- Revelation 17:15 (v1) He said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.
- Job 11:20 (v3) But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.”
- Job 16:16 (v3) My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids.
- Psalms 13:1-3 (v3) How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having…
- Psalms 18:4 (v1) The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
- Psalms 22:2 (v3) My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.
- Psalms 22:15 (v3) My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
- Psalms 39:7 (v3) Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.
- Psalms 69:21 (v3) They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
- Lamentations 2:11 (v3) My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,…
- John 19:28 (v3) After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.”
- Hebrews 5:7 (v3) He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from…
- Job 22:11 (v1) or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
- Psalms 45:1 (v1) My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.
- Psalms 60:1 (v1) God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.
- Isaiah 28:17 (v1) I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will…
37 distinct cross-references across this passage (38 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (28 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. Save me, O God! for the waters, etc.…
1. Save me, O God! for the waters, etc. Under the figure of waters, the Psalmist represents his condition as so extremely distressing that it brought him even to the brink of despair; and yet we know that, so far from being a soft and an effeminate person, he was one who encountered and overcame dreadful temptations with extraordinary courage. Whence we may infer the bitterness of the distress with which he was at that time afflicted. Some understand the word soul as denoting life; but this gives a very cold and unsatisfactory meaning. It rather signifies the heart. A man when he falls into an abyss of waters, may prevent for some time the water from entering his body, by stopping his mouth and his nostrils, but at length, from its being impossible for a human being to live without respiration, suffocation will compel him to let in the waters, and they will penetrate even to the heart. David by this metaphor would intimate, not only that the waters had covered and overwhelmed him, but also that he had been forced to draw them into his body.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Of Shoshannim, read Ps. 45.
Of Shoshannim, read Ps. 45.
David signifieth by the waters, in what great dangers he was, out of the which God did deliver him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Psa 69:1 « To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim,…
Psa 69:1 « To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, [A Psalm] of David. » Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto [my] soul.
A Psalm of David] Quando rebellabat Sheba, saith the Syriac, made upon the occasion of Sheba’s rebellion presently after Absalom’s. Hence he cries out, as one almost overwhelmed,
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Ver. 1. Save me, O God] Thou, who delightest to save such as are forsaken of their hopes. The Fathers generally take this psalm to be prophetic touching the passion of Christ, and his praying then to the Father. David had his troubles which gave occasion to the penning of this psalm, but those were all but as a picture and prelude of Christ’s far greater sorrows, Spiritus autem sanctus manifeste se prodit in hoc psalmo.
For the waters are come in unto my soul] Ever after Noah’s flood, that dismal destruction, great and grievous afflictions were set forth by the rushing in of waters, and overwhelming therewith. God’swrath was poured upon Christ as a mighty torrent of waters, and, therefore, this expression applied to him hath a special emphasis; his soul was heavy even to the death. Fluctus fluctum trudebat, One deep called upon another, &c. Oh the soul of sufferings which his soul then suffered!
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Waters, i.e. tribulations, which are oft expressed by waters;…
Waters, i.e. tribulations, which are oft expressed by waters; as hath been observed.
Unto my soul, i.e. to my vital parts; so that I am ready to be choked with them. My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 In these verses David complains of his troubles, intermixing…
In these verses David complains of his troubles, intermixing with those complaints some requests for relief.
I. His complaints are very sad, and he pours them out before the Lord, as one that hoped thus to ease himself of a burden that lay very heaven upon him.
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1. He complains of the deep impressions that his troubles made upon his spirit (Psa 69:1, Psa 69:2): "The waters of affliction, those bitter waters, have come unto my soul, not only threaten my life, but disquiet my mind; they fill my head with perplexing cares and my heart with oppressive grief, so that I cannot enjoy God and myself as I used to do." We shall bear up under our troubles if we can but keep them from our hearts; but, when they put us out of the possession of our own souls, our case is bad. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but what shall we do when the spirit is wounded? That was David's case here. His thoughts sought for something to confide in, and with which to support his hope, but he found nothing: He sunk in keep mire, where there was no standing, no firm footing; the considerations that used to support and encourage him now failed him, or were out of the way, and he was ready to give himself up for gone. He sought for something to comfort himself with, but found himself in deep waters that overflowed him, overwhelmed him; he was like a sinking drowning man, in such confusion and consternation. This points at Christ's sufferings in his soul, and the inward agony he was in when he said, Now is my soul troubled; and, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful; for it was his soul that he made an offering for sin. And it instructs us, when we are in affliction, to commit the keeping of our souls to God, that we may be neither soured with discontent nor sink into despair.
2. He complains of the long continuance of his troubles (Psa 69:3): I am weary of my crying. Though he could not keep his head above water, yet he cried to his God, and the more death was in his view the more life was in his prayers; yet he had not immediately an answer of peace given in, no, nor so much of that support and comfort in praying which God's people used to have; so that he was almost weary of crying, grew hoarse, and his throat so dried that he could cry no more. Nor had he his wonted satisfaction in believing, hoping, and expecting relief: My eyes fail while I wait for my God; he had almost looked his eyes out, in expectation of deliverance. Yet his pleading this with God is an indication that he is resolved not to give up believing and praying. His throat is dried, but his heart is not; his eyes fail, but his faith does not. Thus our Lord Jesus, on the cross, cried out, Why hast thou forsaken me? yet, at the same time, he kept hold of his relation to him: My God, my God.
3. He complains of the malice and multitude of his enemies, their injustice and cruelty, and the hardships they put upon him, Psa 69:4. They hated him, they would destroy him, for hatred aims at the destruction of the person hated; but what was his iniquity, what was his sin, what provocation had he given them, that they were so spiteful towards him? None at all: "They hate me without a cause; I never did them the least injury, that they should bear me such ill-will." Our Saviour applies this to himself (Joh 15:25): They hated me without a cause. We are apt to use this in justification of our passion against those that hate us, that we never gave them cause to hate us. But it is rather an argument why we should bear it patiently, because then we suffer as Christ did, and may then expect that God will give us redress. "They are my enemies wrongfully, for I have been no enemy to them." In a world where unrighteousness reigns so much we must not wonder if we meet with those that are our enemies wrongfully. Let us take care that we never do wrong and then we may the better bear it if we receive wrong. These enemies were not to be despised, but were very formidable both for their number - They are more than the hairs of my head (Christ's enemies were numerous; those that came to seize him were a great multitude; how were those increased that troubled him!) and for their strength - They are mighty in authority and power. We are weak, but our enemies are strong; for we wrestle against principalities and powers. Then I restored that which I took not away. Applying this to David, it was what his enemies compelled him to (they made him suffer for that offence which he had never been guilty of); and it was what he consented to, that, if possible, he might pacify them and make them to be at peace with him. He might have insisted upon the laws of justice and honour, the former not requiring and the latter commonly thought to forbid the restoring of that which we took not away, for that is to wrong ourselves both in our wealth and in our reputation. Yet the case may be such sometimes that it may become our duty. Blessed Paul, though free from all men, yet, for the honour of Christ and the edification of the church, made himself a servant to all. But, applying it to Christ, it is an observable description of the satisfaction which he made to God for our sin by his blood: Then he restored that which he took not away; he underwent the punishment that was due to us, paid our debt, suffered for our offence. God's glory, in some instances of it, was taken away by the sin of man; man's honour, and peace, and happiness, were taken away; it was not he that took them away, and yet by the merit of his death he restored them.
4. He complains of the unkindness of his friends and relations, and this is a grievance which with an ingenuous mind cuts as deeply as any (Psa 69:8): "I have become a stranger to my brethren; they make themselves strange to me and use me as a stranger, are shy of conversing with me and ashamed to own me." This was fulfilled in Christ, whose brethren did not believe on him (Joh 7:5), who came to his own and his own received him not (Joh 1:11), and who was forsaken by his disciples, whom he had been free with as his brethren.
5. He complains of the contempt that was put upon him and the reproach with which he was continually loaded. And in this especially his complaint points at Christ, who for our sakes submitted to the greatest disgrace and made himself of no reputation. We having by sin injured God in his honour, Christ made him satisfaction, not only by divesting himself of the honours due to an incarnate deity, but by submitting to the greatest dishonours that could be done to any man. Two things David here takes notice of as aggravations of the indignities done him: - (1.) The ground and matter of the reproach, Psa 69:10, Psa 69:11. They ridiculed him for that by which he both humbled himself and honoured God. When men lift up themselves in pride and vain glory they are justly laughed at for their folly; but David chastened his soul, and clothed himself with sackcloth, and from his abasing himself they took occasion to trample upon him. When men dishonour God it is just that their so doing should turn to their dishonour; but when David, purely in devotion to God and to testify his respect to him, wept, and chastened his soul with fasting, and made sackcloth his garment, as humble penitents used to do, instead of commending his devotion and recommending it as a great example of piety, they did all they could both to discourage him in it and to prevent others from following his good example; for that was to his reproach. They laughed at him as a fool for mortifying himself thus; and even for this he became a proverb to them; they made him the common subject of their banter. We must not think it strange if we be ill spoken of for that which is well done, and in which we have reason to hope that we are accepted of God. Our Lord Jesus was stoned for his good works (Joh 10:32), and when he cried, Eli, Eli - My God, my God, was bantered, as if he called for Elias. (2.) The persons that reproached him, Psa 69:12. [1.] Even the gravest and the most honourable, from whom better was expected: Those that sit in the gate speak against me, and their reproaches pass for the dictates of senators and the decrees of judges, and are credited accordingly. [2.] The meanest, and the most despicable, the abjects (Psa 35:15), and scum of the country, the children of fools, yea, the children of base men, Job 30:8. Such drunkards as these make themselves vile, and he was the song of the drunkards; they made themselves and their companions merry with him. See the bad consequences of the sin of drunkenness; it makes men despisers of those that are good, Ti2 3:3. When the king was made sick with bottles of wine he stretched out his hand with scorners, Hos 7:5. The bench of the drunkards is the seat of the scornful. See what is commonly the lot of the best of men: those that are the praise of the wise are the song of fools. But it is easy to those that rightly judge of things to despise being thus despised.
II. His confessions of sin are very serious (Psa 69:5): "O God! thou knowest my foolishness, what is and what is not; my sins that I am guilty of are not hidden from thee, and therefore thou knowest how innocent I am of those crimes which they charge upon me." Note, Even when, as to men's unjust accusations, we plead Not guilty, yet, before God, we must acknowledge ourselves to have deserved all that is brought upon us, and much worse. This is the genuine confession of a penitent, who knows that he cannot prosper in covering his sin, and that therefore it is his wisdom to acknowledge it, because it is naked and open before God. 1. He knows the corruption of our nature: Thou knowest the foolishness that is bound up in my heart. All our sins take rise from our foolishness. 2. He knows the transgressions of our lives; they are not hidden from him, no, not our heart-sins, no, not those that are committed most secretly. They are all done in his sight, and are never cast behind his back till they are repented of and pardoned. This may aptly be applied to Christ, for he knew no sin, yet he was made sin for us; and God knew it, nor was it hidden from him, when it pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief.
III. His supplications are very earnest. 1. For himself (Psa 69:1): "Save me, O God! save me from sinking, from despairing." Thus Christ was heard in that he feared, for he was saved from letting fall his undertaking, Heb 5:7. 2. For his friends (Psa 69:6): Let not those that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts! and that seek thee, O God of Israel! (under these two characters we ought to seek God, and in seeking him to wait on him, as the God of hosts, who has all power to help, and as the God of Israel in covenant with his people, whom therefore he is engaged in honour and truth to help) be ashamed and confounded for my sake. This intimates his fear that if God did not appear for him it would be a discouragement to all other good people and would give their enemies occasion to triumph over them, and his earnest desire that whatever became of him all that seek God, and wait upon him, might be kept in heart and kept in countenance, and might neither be discouraged in themselves nor exposed to contempt from others. If Jesus Christ had not been owned and accepted of his Father in his sufferings, all that seek God, and wait for him, would have been ashamed and confounded; but they have confidence towards God, and in his name come boldly to the throne of grace.
IV. His plea is very powerful, Psa 69:7, Psa 69:9. Reproach was one of the greatest of his burdens: "Lord, roll away the reproach, and plead my cause, for, 1. It is for thee that I am reproached, for serving thee and trusting in thee: For thy sake I have borne reproach." Those that are evil spoken of for well-doing may with a humble confidence leave it to God to bring forth their righteousness as the light. 2. "It is with thee that I am reproached: The zeal of thy house has eaten me up, that is, has made me forget myself, and do that which they wickedly turn to my reproach. Those that hate thee and thy house for that reason hate me, because they know how zealously affected I am to it. It is this that has made them ready to eat me up and has eaten up all the love and respect I had among them." Those that blasphemed God, and spoke ill of his word and ways, did therefore reproach David for believing in his word and walking in his ways. Or it may be construed as an instance of David's zeal for God's house, that he resented all the indignities done to God's name as if they had been done to his own name. He laid to heart all the dishonour done to God and the contempt cast upon religion; these he laid nearer to his heart than any outward troubles of his own. And therefore he had reason to hope God would interest himself in the reproaches cast upon him, because he had always interested himself in the reproaches cast upon God. Both the parts of this verse are applied to Christ. (1.) It was an instance of his love to his Father that the zeal of his house did even eat him up when he whipped the buyers and sellers out of the temple, which reminded his disciples of this text, Joh 2:17. (2.) It was an instance of his self-denial, and that he pleased not himself, that the reproaches of those that reproached God fell upon him (Rom 15:3), and therein he set us an example.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Save me, O God,.... The petitioner is Christ; not…
Save me, O God,.... The petitioner is Christ; not as a divine Person, as such he is blessed for ever, and stands in no need of help and assistance; but as man, and in distressed and suffering circumstances. As a priest, it was part of his work to intercede, as well as to offer sacrifice; and though he did not offer a sin offering for himself, yet he offered up supplications, with strong cryings and tears; and, as the surety of his people, he prayed, in point of right and justice, both for himself and them; see Joh 17:4. The person petitioned is God the Father, who was able to save him, and always heard him; and did in this petition, Heb 5:7; which perfectly agrees with some petitions of Christ, recorded in the New Testament, Joh 12:27. These show the weakness of the human nature, the weight of sin upon him, and his sense of the wrath of God; and which, notwithstanding, were made with limitations and restrictions, and even with a correction. Moreover, this may also design help and assistance from his divine Father, which was promised him, and he expected and had, in the acceptable time, in the day of salvation: and he was so saved in death, as that he abolished that, and destroyed him that had the power of it; and was quickly raised from the grave, and thereby saved out of it. And this he could have done himself, but he would be saved in a legal way, in a way of justice; and as a point of honour, when he had done the work, he, as a surety, engaged to do. The reasons enforcing this petition follow:
for the waters are come in unto my soul: the Messiah represents his case, in these words, and in Psa 69:2, as like to that of a man standing up to his chin in water, and the waters running into his mouth, just suffocating him; and that in a miry place, where he could not set his feet firm, nor get himself out; and even overflowed with the floods, and immersed in the deep waters, and so in the most imminent danger. These overwhelming waters may signify the floods of ungodly men that encompassed him, the assembly of the wicked that enclosed him; and the proud waters that went over his soul, the Gentiles and people of Israel, that were gathered against him to destroy him; and so the Targum interprets it of the camp of sinners, that pressed him on every side, as water: the whole posse of devils may also be designed, for now was the hour and power of darkness; Satan, and his principalities and powers, came in like a flood upon him, to swallow him up; innumerable evils, the sins of his people, came upon him from every quarter, and pressed him sore; the curses of the law fell upon him, which may be compared to the bitter water of jealousy that caused the curse. These entered into him, when he was made a curse for his people; and the wrath of God went over him, and lay hard upon him, and came about him like water, into his very soul, which made him exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v1 David complains of his troubles, and begs help from…
David complains of his troubles, and begs help from God, ver. 1-21. Foretells the judgments of God upon his persecutors, ver. 22-29. Concludes with praise and thanksgiving, ver. 30-36. In all this David was a type of Christ, and several passages of this psalm are applied to him in the New Testament. So that, like the 22nd psalm, it begins with the humiliation, and ends with the exaltation of Christ. To the chief musician upon Shofhannim, a psalm of David.
Waters - Tribulations.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 The psalmist describes his afflicted state, and the wickedness
PSALM LXIX
The psalmist describes his afflicted state, and the wickedness
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of his adversaries, 1-21;
he declares the miseries that should come upon his enemies,
22-28;
enlarges on his afflicted state, and expresses his confidence
in God, 29-34;
prophesies the restoration of the Jews to their own land and
temple, 35, 36.
NOTES ON PSALM LXIX
The title is: "To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David." See this title explained on Ps 45:1.
The Psalm is supposed to have been written during the captivity, and to have been the work of some Levite Divinely inspired. It is a very fine composition, equal to most in the Psalter. Several portions of it seem to have a reference to our Lord; to his advent passion, resurrection, the vocation of the Gentiles, the establishment of the Christian Church, and the reprobation of the Jews. The ninth verse is quoted by St. John, Joh 2:17. The twenty-first verse is quoted by St. Matthew, Mt 27:34; Mt 27:48; by St. Mark, Mr 15:23; by St. John, Joh 19:29; and applied to the sufferings of our Lord, in the treatment he received from the Jews. St. Paul quotes the twenty-second as a prophecy of the wickedness of the Jews, and the punishment they were to receive. He quotes the twenty-third verse in the same way. See the marginal references [Isa 6:9-10 (note); Joh 12:39-40 (note); Ro 11:10 (note); 2Co 3:14 (note)]. Those portions which the writers of the New Testament apply to our Lord, we may apply also; of others we should be careful.
Verse 1. The waters are come in unto my soul.] I am in the deepest distress. The waters have broken their dikes, and are just ready to sweep me away! Save me, Lord! In such circumstances I can have no other help.
In the first, second, third, fourteenth, and fifteenth verses, the psalmist, speaking in the person of the captives in Babylon, compares their captivity to an abyss of waters, breaking all bounds, and ready to swallow them up; to a deep mire, in which there was no solid bottom, and no standing; and to a pit, in which they were about to be inclosed for ever. This is strongly figurative, and very expressive.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Psa 69:1-2. Save me, O God — O most…
Psa 69:1-2. Save me, O God — O most mighty God, in whom alone I trust for safety, deliver me from these distresses; for the waters — Of tribulation; are come unto my soul — Have reached my vital parts, so that I am ready to expire, and my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. I sink in deep mire — Hebrew, ביון מצולה, in the mud of the deep. I am not in the shallows, or nigh the bank, but in the middle and deepest parts, and sinking in the very mire which is at the bottom of the waters. Where there is no standing — No firm and sure footing, but I sink deeper and deeper, and without thy speedy and almighty help I shall be overwhelmed and perish.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Save me, O God - That is, Interpose and…
Save me, O God - That is, Interpose and deliver me from the dangers which have come upon me.
For the waters are come in unto my soul - So as to endanger my life. Waters, deep, raging, overwhelming, are images of calamity or danger. See the notes at Psa 32:6. Compare Psa 42:7.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 69
Psalms 69
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David
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Save me, O God;
For the waters are come in unto my soul.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing:
I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried:
Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head:
They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty:
Then I restored that which I took not away.
5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness;
And my sins are not hid from thee.
6 Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake:
Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach;
Shame hath covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren,
And an alien unto my mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up;
And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
10 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting,
That was to my reproach.
11 I made sackcloth also my garment;
And I became a proverb to them.
12 They that sit in the gate speak against me;
And I was the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord,
In an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy
Hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink:
Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the waterflood overflow me,
Neither let the deep swallow me up,
And let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
16 Hear me, O Lord; for thy loving-kindness is good:
Turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies,
17 And hide not thy face from thy servant;
For I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it:
Deliver me because of mine enemies.
19 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour
Mine adversaries are all before thee.
20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness:
And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
And for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall for my meat;
And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them:
And that which should have been for their welfare let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not;
And make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out thine indignation upon them,
And let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate;
And let none dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten;
And they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity:
And let them not come into thy righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,
And not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful:
Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song,
And will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This also shall please the Lord better than an ox
Or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this, and be glad:
And your heart shall live that seek God.
33 For the Lord heareth the poor,
And despiseth not his prisoners.
34 Let the heaven and earth praise him,
The seas, and everything that moveth therein.
35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah:
That they may dwell there, and have it in possession.
36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it:
And they that love his name shall dwell therein.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition.—A cry of prayer for help (Psa_69:1 a) is based upon the greatness of the danger of his ruin (Psa_69:1 b, 2), the exhaustive duration of this peril (Psa_69:3) and the number and power of those who are his enemies without cause (Psa_69:4). It is true he is not innocent before God (Psa_69:5), but he may hope that those who trust in God may not be ashamed or brought to shame in him (Psa_69:6), for he bears the reproach for God’s cause (Psa_69:7). Even his nearest relatives are estranged from him (Psa_69:8) for his burning zeal for the house of God has brought him into such a position that the reproaches of the enemies of God fall on him, (Psa_69:9), even his weeping, fasting and mourning serve to increase the scorn, (Psa_69:10-12). This, however, intensifies his supplication (Psa_69:13-15) for deliverance from great dangers, whilst God hears the prayer and graciously turns His countenance (Psa_69:16-18) to the sufferer, whose miserable condition He knows as well as the cruel scorn of the enemies (Psa_69:19-21). They are given over to the recompensing judgment of God in a double row of imprecations (Psa_69:22-28), whilst the singer who has been lifted up by Divine help from the depths of his misery and pain, promises his song of thanksgiving, which is more acceptable to God than offerings (Psa_69:29-31). He finally refers to the truth, which springs forth from these facts, to the refreshment and comfort of all the oppressed pious (Psa_69:32-33) and which forms the foundation in part for calling upon the whole world to praise God, in part for the promises to Zion and those who love the word of God (Psa_69:34-36).—This Psalm is next to Psalms 22. the most frequently cited in the New Testament. The remark, Joh_19:29 sq., respecting the restorative (comp. Mat_27:34; Mat_27:48) refers alike to Psa_22:15, and Psa_69:21, their hatred without cause (Joh_15:25) refers to Psa_35:19, and Psa_69:4. Moreover the zeal of Jesus for God’s house in expelling the traders from the temple is according to Joh_2:17 a fulfilment of Psa_69:9 a. His willing and representative bearing of reproach is according to Rom_15:3 the fulfilment of Psa_69:9 b; the imprecations of Psalms 69. Psa_69:25 a have, according to Act_1:20, been fulfilled in the traitor Judas; those of Psa_69:22 sq., according to Rom_11:9 sq. in the rejection of Israel for a season. All these citations, however, are of such a character that they do not force us to a direct Messianic interpretation of the Psalm (most of the older interpreters). This, moreover, is at once excluded by the admission of folly and guilt (Psa_69:5). The typical interpretation (Clauss., Stier) takes the true position, yet it is too general. It is best to regard the Psalm as typically prophetic ” in so far as it is a statement of a history of life and sufferings which have been made by God into a prophecy in fact of Jesus the Christ, and in so far as the spirit of prophecy has made this statement itself into a word of prophecy of the future sufferer,” (Delitzsch). Accordingly we are justified in putting Psa_69:26 in the same connection with Isaiah 53. and Zec_13:7, and to think in connection with Psa_69:12 of the derision of Jesus by the soldiers, Mat_27:27 sq. This interpretation holds fast to the historical foundation of the Psalm, and is more in accordance with its peculiar character than if we should suppose that David wrote this Psalm not so much in his own name as in the person of the entire Church, as a mirror, in which the common lot of all the pious should be set before us (Calvin), or in the ideal person of the suffering righteous (Hengst.), the features which occur separately in individual sufferers being brought together in a great representative martyr. Respecting the historical person of the Psalmist we can derive no safe results from the text alone; yet, on account of the reference mentioned above we must direct our view to a prominent and well-known person. If it is thought necessary to put this Psalm in a later period, it is easier to think of the prophet Jeremiah (Hitzig, Delitzsch is doubtful), than of some prophet at the time of the exile (Ewald) or indeed during the period of the Syrian persecution (Gurlitt in Pott. syll. Comment. 1:330 sq.) to which period Olsh. pushes it down. For the mention of the mire and the well may be taken historically in accordance with Jeremiah 38., and then other features may be applied very well. But these expressions may likewise be regarded as figurative; the time of the exile (Chald., Theod., Flam , Cleric. Rosenm., De Wette, Maurer, Hupf.) is not plainly and undoubtedly shown by the final clause, Psa_69:35 sq., or the expression ‘ ‘prisoners,” Psa_69:33 (Vid. exegesis of the verse); moreover, objections may be made to the supposition of its composition by Jeremiah, which cannot be removed (Keil, Kurtz). If now we inquire with which Psalms the present Psalm is most closely related, it is unquestionably with Psalms 40; and then with Psalms 22, 31, 35, 109; thus constantly with Psalms of David of the time of his persecution by Saul. This is very much in favor of the statement of the title. In connection with the translation of the ancients ” of the roses ” with their Messianic interpretation of the Psalm it was natural to suppose that this part of the title originated from this reason, because the Psalm of the white rose treats of the holy innocence of Christ, and that of the red rose of His most precious blood. Moreover there are many red lilies in Palestine, comp. Introduct., § 12, No. 13.
Str. I. [Psa_69:1-2. The waters are come even to my soul.—A flood is represented as coming upon the Psalmist, surrounding him unawares, rising up about him, even to his mouth, almost to take away his breath (life—soul) and fill his throat and nostrils. This figure is frequent in the Psalms. Comp. Psa_18:4; Psa_18:16; Psa_32:6; Psa_42:7. He has sunk in the mire of the depth, his feet cannot find a firm standing place in this miry bed of the flood, he has come into depths of water, the water becomes deeper and deeper about him, the flood has overwhelmed him (Shibboleth, Isa_27:12). From this extreme peril he cries out: Help me, God.
Psa_69:3. The figure changes from the external to the internal peril. He has cried out so long that he is weary of calling, his throat is parched by excessive exertion of voice (comp. Psa_22:15). His eyes, which have looked so long to God, melting in tears, have failed, become exhausted, worn out (comp. Psa_6:7; Psa_31:9; Psa_38:10; Psa_119:82; Psa_119:123).
Psa_69:4. More than the hairs of my head.—This comparison used here with reference to those who hate him is used in Psa_40:12, with reference to his iniquities.—C. A. B.]—Strong are my destroyers, mine enemies without reason.—Since the idea of this noun is elsewhere of entire extermination, many interpreters have found it objectionable, and have proposed alterations of the reading in order to translate, numerous instead of strong, and to get a stronger parallelism by not regarding the מ as a letter of the noun, but the preposition מִן, and thus getting the comparative, more numerous than. But then more numerous than what? Than my bones (Syr., Olsh.), than my looks (Venema, Munting., Ewald), than my head, properly: my foliage (Hupf.); thus they guess this and that. We prefer to abide by the text. At first the number of the enemies is mentioned, and then their terribleness (Hitzig).—What I did not rob I am then to restore.—This clause shows the groundlessness of their accusations in a different specification from that used in Psa_35:10, but with a corresponding proverbial form. The ”then,” which is not to be changed into ”yet,” (Rosenm., Ewald), expresses the temporal and legal consequences (Hupf.) of the proposed robbery.
Str. II. Psa_69:5 sq. Thou knowest about my folly and my faults,etc.—We would expect here, in connection with his appeal to God’s omniscience, a protestation of personal innocence. Many interpreters have artificially put this into the words of the text. The words are then either regarded as ironical (Calvin) or hypothetical (Dathe, similarly Aben Ezra), or are limited either with reference to those undertaken in order to the atonement, and not his own sins (the Messianic interpreters), or limited to others than those charged by his enemies (Venema, De Wette). But it is very evident that the reference is without doubt to his own folly and guilt. So likewise it is clear and without doubt from Psa_69:26 that the speaker regards himself as one stricken by God, and in the class of those who are pierced through by God, that is, painfully smitten by His arrows (Lam_3:12 sq.), and internally wounded (Jer_8:18; Psa_109:22). Accordingly he finds in the necessities that have come upon him, and threaten him with peril of death, not only the abuse of cruel enemies, but at the same time Divine visitation. Since however he resigns himself humbly, penitently, and in faith to God; he may hope in God’s favor and help (Psa_69:13 sq.) the more confidently, as on the one side many of the pious look upon him and his fate as typical and instructive, on the other side the enemies show by their conduct that they are least of all servants of God. However it does not follow from this, that folly and guilt are here to be taken as ideas which can be interchanged with sufferings (Hupf.) The state of the case is rather this, that his sufferings awaken and strengthen in the Psalmist the feeling of his sinfulness and punishableness, his feelings of penitence and desire for salvation, involve likewise the corresponding expressions of these feelings, and thus characterize the sufferer as a pious martyr, whose very piety makes him the butt of the scoffings, and the assaults of the ungodly.
Str. III. [Psa_69:8. Mothers’ children.—Barnes: ” In families where a man had many wives, as was common among the Hebrews, the nearest relationship would be denoted by being of the same mother rather than of the same father.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_69:9. The house of Jehovah does not mean at once the congregation, but this at the same time with the sanctuary, Num_12:7; Hos_8:1. The zeal which consumes the Psalmist as burning fire, is not the external fire, the persecutions and injuries that have come upon him on this account, but the internal flame, Jer_20:9; Jer_23:9; Psa_119:139.
Str. IV. Psa_69:10. And I wept, in fasting(was)my soul.—It is easy to give this verse by a simple correction in accordance with Psa_35:13, the sense: I humbled my soul by fasting (Sept., Olsh., Hupf., Böttcher). With the present reading it is necessary to accept, in accordance with the accents, two parallel clauses, and to regard the expression “ my soul ” as identical with “ I.” Leaving the accents out of view we could hardly translate: I wept in fasting, in my soul (J. D. Mich.), but rather: as regards my soul, or: my soul, as a second object explains the I, expressing the heartfelt weeping of deep fasting (Ewald), or: I wept in the fasting of my soul, that is, whilst my soul was in fasting (Chald., Isaki, Hitzig). An accusative of the object is inadmissible in connection with this verb, hence we cannot translate: I made weep, or I wept away my soul.
[Psa_69:11-12. Sackcloth.—Delitzsch: “The garment of sorrow as the fasting is an expression of sorrow for the public necessities, not as Psa_35:13, for private injury. On account of this Sorrow, reproach upon reproach comes over him, and scornful words are coined upon him; above all he is satirized in the gates, the places of judgment and business, as in the drinking bouts (Lam_3:14. Comp. Lam_5:14; Job_30:9.”—C. A. B.]
[Str. V. Psa_69:13. But as for me.—The pronoun is emphatic contrasting himself with the unrighteous scorner. The next clause is very differently divided. Ewald, followed by Riehm: connects the “ time of good pleasure, ”etc., with the “answer me.” Hupfeld, Moll, Perowne, et al., connect it with the prayer, Delitzsch making the first clause close with “ at the time of good pleasure,” Hupf., Moll, and Perowne, putting these words in the second clause.
Psa_69:14-15. As the same figure recurs here from Psa_69:1-2, no further explanation is necessary.—Let not the well shut its mouth to me.—He passes over from the figure of the flood to that of a well, the connecting idea being deep water. These wells were dug deep and covered with a large stone (Gen_29:2-3. Vid. Thomson, the Land and the Book, p. 589). The mouth was sometimes sealed up with a stone and mortar, for use in the dry season.—C. A. B.]
[Str. VI. Psa_69:16. Thy lovingkindness is good.—Perowne: ”Good, i.e., either sweet, comforting, as in Psa_63:3, or gracious, χρηστός. Comp. Psa_119:21. This appeal to God’s tender mercy, remarks Calvin, ‘ shows how great was the strait of the holy Prophet . . . and of a truth it is a very difficult matter to be sure that God is gracious while He is angry, and near while He is far off.’ ”—C. A. B.]
Str. VII. [Psa_69:19. Thou knowest.—He appeals to the knowledge of God as in Psa_69:5. This is followed by an enumeration of his severe distresses, and this is the basis for the imprecation which follows.
Psa_69:20. Reproach hath broken my heart.—Barnes: “The reproaches, the calumnies, the aspersions, the slanders of others have crushed me. I am not able to bear up under them; I fail under the burden. Distress may become so great that life may sink under it, for many die of what is called ‘ a broken heart.’ Undeserved reproaches will be as likely to produce this result in a sensitive heart as any form of suffering, and there are thousands who are crushed to the earth by such reproaches.”—And I waited for sympathy, and there was none.—Perowne: “ This is the only place in the Psalter where the word translated sympathy is found. Properly speaking it is not a noun but a verb in the infin. Hence the periphrasis in the A. V., ‘ I looked for some to take pity,’ or, as in the margin ‘to lament with.’ The word sympathy has nowhere been employed by our translators, but it exactly conveys the force of the Hebrew word, inasmuch as it is used of sympathy in joy as well as in sorrow. See Job_42:11; Jer_15:5; Jer_16:5; Jer_48:17.”4—C. A. B.]
Psa_69:21. Gall.—The word רֹאשׁ means a poisonous plant (Hos_10:4), and is parallel with wormwood (Jer_8:14; Jer_9:14; Jer_23:15) with a figurative meaning of the addition and intensification of bitter and severe sufferings. There are no sufficient reasons for thinking particularly of water hemlock (Celsius) darnel (Michael.) colocynth (Œdmann), poppy (Gesenius), we are merely led to a plant with a fruit in the form of a head or umbrella. On this account the word may likewise mean the gall (Sept.) and the more as poison and bitterness appear to be interchanged, Deu_32:32 sq.; Rev_8:11.—Vinegar is in this connection not a cooling drink which quenches the thirst, but a synonym of sour wine.5
Str. VIII. Psa_69:22. Their table before them.—The table standing before them, spread, is to become a net and snare for them. This figurative designation of ruin is in favor of the view that, the meaning is not, the poisoned dish is to poison those who have prepared it (Chald.), but the dish prepared for their own enjoyment is to prove the ruin of those who made it impossible for the Psalmist to enjoy the food necessary to sustain life, by their making it
bitter and sour (Calvin), and indeed at the very time when they were prepared to enjoy it, that is unexpectedly. They thus receive a judicial recompense, it is true, but the translation: and for a recompense (Sept. and other ancient versions, according to Rom_11:9, and therefore Geier, J. H. Mich., et al.) instead of “and to the careless a snare ” may be obtained by changing the vocalization of the Hebrew word, but is against the parallelism. A reference to the Lord’s table (Luther, Melanchthon, Stier), is even with a limitation to devotional use, the less admissible, as there is here not a threatening or warning proclamation of the Divine judgment, but an imprecation bringing it about with increased excitement finally passing over into direct cursing. This may be conceived in the soil of the Old Covenant and explained in accordance with the canon of the retaliation of the Old Testament: eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and finds likewise its connection with David, e.g.1Sa_26:19; 2Sa_3:29; but it cannot be justified as a disposition and finds no place for a typical representation “ in the behaviour of the suffering Saviour on the cross who prayed for his enemies.6
[Psa_69:23. Perowne: “The darkening of the eyes denotes weakness and perplexity, as the enlightening of the eyes (see Psa_19:8) denotes renewed vigor and strength. Similarly, the shaking of the loins is expressive of terror and dismay and feebleness (Nah_2:10; Dan_5:6.) Or the first may mean the depriving of reason and understanding; the second, the taking away of all strength for action.”—C. A. B.]
Str. IX. [Psa_69:25. Their encampment.—Perowne: “This is properly ‘the movable village of nomadic tribes,’ who usually pitch their tents in a circle. See Gen_25:16, where terah is joined with chatsar, the former being the movable and the latter the stationary village, as Tuch (in loco) rightly explains. The expression is of course used here figuratively, in accordance with ‘ tents ’ in the parallelism.”7
Psa_69:26. For him whom Thou hast smitten they persecute, and of the pain of Thy pierced ones do they tell.—Perowne: ” The reason of the imprecation is given because of the unpitying cruelty which delighted in adding to the pain and affliction of one whom God had already brought low,—they tell as if they counted one by one every blow that fell upon Him, every cry that He had uttered, only to turn it into mockery (comp. Psa_59:12; Psa_44:5).”8
Psa_69:27. Add iniquity,etc.—Perowne: “Let it all stand against them in Thy book, one sin after another, as committed, not being blotted out, but only swelling the fearful reckoning. Comp. Jer_18:23. This swelling of the catalogue of guilt is in fact swelling the punishment, but there is no need to render (as French and Skinner do): ‘Give them punishment upon punishment.’ ”—C. A. B.]
Psa_69:28. From the book of the living.—Usage and the context show that the blotting out from the book of the living not only denotes ruin in general or death (De Wette, Hengst.), but exclusion from the kingdom and people of God. For the reference is to the book of God (Exo_32:32), in which God Himself registers every one (Psa_87:4-6), who is appointed to life (Isa_4:3), and in this book (Dan_12:2), as the citizens of Israel in the genealogical tables, Jer_22:30; Eze_13:9; comp. Luk_10:20; Php_4:3; Rev_3:5; Rev_13:8; Rev_17:8; Rev_21:27.
[Str. X. Psa_69:29-31. The Psalmist is poor and miserable but he implores God to set him on high, in a place of safety, beyond the reach of his enemies and then he will praise God with songs of thanksgiving, which will be more acceptable to God than formal offerings.—Better than an ox, a bullock with horns and hoofs.—Perowne: “ The epithets are not merely otiose, as Hupfeld asserts. The first is mentioned in order to mark that the animal was not under three years old, and therefore of the proper age according to the Law; the last as intimating that it belonged to the class of clean four-footed animals, parting the hoof, Leviticus 11; and the meaning is, that the most perfect and valuable of the sacrifices ordained by the law was not to be compared to the sacrifice of a grateful heart. See Pss. 50:51 ”—C. A. B.].
Str. XI. [Psa_69:32. Seekers after God-may your heart live.—Alexander: “May you be revived and cheered by witnessing this exhibition of God’s power and goodness ! The wish that it may be so includes a promise that it shall be, as in Psa_22:26, where the form of expression is the same.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_69:33. And His prisoners He doth not despise.—These might very well be bound with the cords of misery (Job_36:8), or chained in torture and iron in general, Psa_107:10; it is here rather to be regarded as parallel with the expression (Psa_69:26): Thy smitten ones, Thy pierced ones. There is nothing to show a reference to the exiles. It would be easier to find a reference to these in the closing clause since there are real points of contact with Jeremiah 32.
Str. XII. Psa_69:35. Build the cities of Judah,etc.—This does not expressly state a restoration of Zion and a repeopling of the cities of Judah. The words admit of being understood generally on the basis of the promise contained in the Law, of continuance and growth (Calvin et al.) and of our supposing that there is a prophetic glance at the fate of the land and people in individual experience, as Psa_14:7; Psa_22:30; Psa_51:19. This is justified not only by the typical prophetical character of this Psalm in general, but by the position of the Psalmist in the redemptive economy so strongly employed in Psa_69:6. The supposition that the closing words contain a later addition (Venema, Seiler, Dathe, Munting., Rosenm., I. Köster, Tholuck), is therefore as unnecessary as it is arbitrary.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The necessity of a pious man may be so great on earth that he is about to sink, and the Divine help may be postponed so long that the afflicted has cried himself hoarse in prayer and his eyes have become dull and fixed from long and uninterrupted looking in the strain of waiting. In this case the power of faith is proved and attested by taking ground in God, when the earthly ground slips from under his feet, and then when the waves of trouble beat together over his head, he struggles forth on high with a cry of prayer.
2. Fall and exaltation, ruin and redemption, sufferings and how they are received, endured and overcome—all this has to the congregation of God not only the significance of personal experience, but at the same time of Divine guidance and of typical history and is intensified in proportion to the importance of the person with reference to the history of the kingdom of God. The sufferer may apply this to himself to comfort him and to strengthen his faith. It serves as an exhortation and instruction to others when they perceive it and hear of it. He is heard moreover not because he prays, but because God is merciful and His omnipotence is effective in accordance with His faithfulness to the covenant on behalf of His suffering servants.
3. There is no inconsistency in the fact that one who has been attacked by men without cause and persecuted though innocent, should yet be reminded by his sufferings, of his guilt before God and awakened to confession of sin, and at the same time that this sinful man should be filled with a true and burning zeal for the house of the Lord and should be persecuted on account of his zeal and made sport of for his godly sorrow, so that he suffers for God’s sake and at the same time feels that he is smitten by God as well as by men. With the more fervency he turns to the mercy of God whilst the period of grace lasts and trusts in the truth of salvation.
4. It is certainly better to suffer as an innocent man than as guilty; yet it is a very severe cross to which most men cannot accommodate themselves. Even the Psalmist thus gets into such a carnal excitement that whilst he does not contend with God or murmur against Him, but on the contrary relies upon God and calls upon Him, yet in hungry zeal he calls down the power of God to the judgment and ruin of those enemies who ignore it. This belongs to that folly and guilt, of which the Psalmist is conscious, and is neither to be extenuated nor recommended. For there is a very great difference between obligatory proclamation of the Divine judgment, morally justifiable assent to the unavoidable consequences of this judgment and holy joy in the victory of righteousness on the one side, and passionate imprecation, revengeful cursing and an evilly disposed supplication for Divine judgment in order to the temporal ruin and everlasting destruction of certain persons, on the other side. In the latter case man does not give over retribution to the all-wise and holy God, but of his own will and power interferes with the course of the just government of God, yes really anticipates the final judgment. For this reason it is at least a zeal for God without knowledge even when no revengeful motives come in play and no personal interests are involved, but when the reference is to such men as put themselves in hostility to God and His word, sacraments, house, glory and congregation. Even Jesus has not anticipated for individual cases the condemnatory decisions of the final Judgment, but has merely proclaimed it as future, and indeed with the pain of love and in connection with the purpose of His coming not to destroy the souls of men but to save them. Accordingly He censured His disciples for wishing to call down fire from heaven upon those who refused to receive Him. Luk_9:53-55. The zeal which consumed him was very different even from Elias, and it is not well to confound the ideas of the Old and New Testament. Moreover it is not the same thing whether the wish for the ruin and the damnation of all those who rise up against God is expressed as a prayer and as the counterpart of the blessing implored for all those who turn to God, as it was used by Luther and the Reformers, or whether imprecations of particular persons are expressed.
5. Even the ritual offerings brought in the perfect legal manner, have not the same value with God as the offering of thanks and the spreading abroad of God’s praise in the proclamation of His holy name, comp. Pss. 50:51. The latter on the basis of the blessed experience of God, acts of deliverance, which are of grace, of truth and of salvation gain constantly fuller recognition and greater compass (Psa_22:24 sq.) in accordance with the tendency of the theocracy to become universal, for which cause God will never let land or people fail.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
When prayer is as earnest as the necessity, then God’s help will not fail, though it be delayed.—He who prays without ceasing must not put his trust in his own worthiness, but in his need and God’s grace.—In patient looking to God, the man’s senses may pass away if only his faith does not give way.—How is it consistent that one should be persecuted as innocent and yet punished as a sinner ? All the pious are interested in what concerns one of them.—It is better to suffer for God’s cause; then to be punished for sins but it is not easier.—Man may act strangely to us and our neighbors become our enemies if only God remains our friend.—To be on God’s side and to suffer persecution are for the most part combined.—Piety has nothing to expect from the world but hate and scorn.—The best answer of the pious to the scorn of the ungodly is to resign their persons to the mercy of God and their cause to His judgment.—The hostility of the world can-not injure us, if it increase our zeal for God’s house and urge us to deeper personal humility, patience and trust in God.—We have reason to examine ourselves earnestly, whether in our zeal for God there is more wrath against our enemies, than love to His person and care for the glory of His house.—He who relies in prayer upon the mercy and truth of God, has the surest foundation for His salvation and the best pledges of the hearing of his prayer.—As comforting as it is for the pious to put themselves in the gracious hands of God, it is as terrible for the ungodly to fall into the hands of the living God.—To be deprived of communion with God is the most fearful judgment.—To be accepted or rejected by God, in this consists the decision for time and for eternity: it is important above all to use this time of grace.—To offer thanks is an offering well pleasing to God.
Augustine: No punishment is more severe than when sin makes up the punishment of sin.—Calvin: To suffer shame is harder for a noble man than to suffer a hundred deaths.—It is certainly very hard to imagine God as gracious when He is angry and near when He is afar off.
Starke: The greater the necessity and anxiety of soul into which a Christian has fallen, the more fervently should he call upon God in accordance with the example of his Saviour.—If Christ who deserved so much of the world has been hated by it to the uttermost, then learn to bear the hate and unthankfulness of the world patiently after His example.—Sin is the greatest folly, because man by it has preferred the friendship of Satan to the friendship of God.—A Christian must never leave out of view the glory of God, but rather be ready to endure all kinds of reproach than that any reproach should come upon God.—The favor and friendship of God make up for all things else.—Who has known better how to avoid necessities than Jesus and see, He prays; follow Him.—Those are not blessings in appearance which are promised to the righteous; but as truly as they fear and love God, they will likewise share in the blessings of salvation purchased by Christ.
Arndt: Although distress of water is very lamentable, and distress of fire is pitiable and distress of war deplorable and great; yet these only affect the body......But there are other waters which would drown the soul, these are waters of hell, such as fear, anxiety, terror, despair, which affect the soul; from this we should recognise the majesty and greatness of the sufferings of Christ which transcend all the sufferings of all men.—Tholuck: Men who cannot weep over their own sins, how can they, understand the tears shed for the sins of others!—It is the curse of sin, that it begets new sins.—Taube: Zion, however much she must pass through the assaults of all times, has the promise of endurance because of the constant help of God.
[Matt. Henry: Though we may be jeered for well doing, we must never be jeered out of it.—We cannot expect too little from men,—miserable comforters are they all,—nor can we expect too much from God, for He is “ the Father of Mercy, and the God of all comfort and consolation.”—It is a great comfort for us that humble thankful praises are more pleasing to God than the most costly pompous sacrifices are and ever were.—Barnes: We may feel that we have not wronged our fellow-men; yet even the treatment which we receive from them, however unjust so far as they are concerned, may be regarded as deserved by us at the hand of God, and as proper on His part as an expression of His displeasure for our transgressions against Him, and as a proof that we are Sinners.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[4][These words fitly express the feelings of tbe Messiah upon the cross who bore the shame of an ignominious death, the reproaches of violating the Liw, and the slanders of wicked enemies, who died broken-hearted, with no one to pity, alone in his shame and woe.—C. A. B.]
[5][Alexander: “Gall and vinegar are here put together to denote the most unpalatable torms of food and drink. The passion of our Lord was providentially so ordered as to furnish a remarkable coincidence with this verse. The Romans were accustomed to give sour wine with an infusion of myrrh to convicts on the cross for the purpose of deadening the pain. This practice was adhered to in our Saviour’s case (Mar_15:23). Though in itself not cruel, but the contrary, it formed part of the great process of murderous persecution. On the part of the Roman soldiery, it may have been an act of kindness; but considered as an act of the unbelieving Jews, it was giving gall and vinegar to one already overwhelmed with anguish. And so Matthew, in accordance with bis general method, represents it as a verification of this passage (Mat_27:3). He does not contradict Mark’s account before referred to; but merely intimates that the wine and myrrh thus offered were to be regarded as identical with the gall and vinegar of this prediction. And in order to prevent the coincidence from being overlooked, our Lord, before He died, complained of thirst, and vinegar was admin-istered (Mat_27:48; Joh_19:28),”—C. A. B.]
[6][Alexander: “’The imprecations in this verse and those following it are revolting only when considered as the expression of malignant selfishness. If uttered by God they shock no reader’s sensibilities, nor should they when considered as the language of an ideal person, representing the whole class of righteous sufferers, and particularly Him, who though He prayed for His murderers while dying (Luk_23:34), had before applied the words of this very passage to the unbelieving Jews (Mat_23:38), as Paul did afterwards (Rom_11:9-10). The general doctrine of providential retribution, far from being confined to the Old Test., is distinctly taught in many of our Saviour’s parables. See Mat_21:41; Mat_22:7; Mat_24:51.”—C. A. B.]
[7][Wordsworth: “St. Peter applies this prophecy to the traitor Judas (Act_1:20), who was instar omnium, an embodiment and incarnation of those sins which brought misery on the Jews and who was like a personal representative of the Jewish nation in wickedness and punishment.’ ’—C. A. B.]
[8][Wordsworth: “How much light is shed upon these words as applied to Christ, when they are compared with Isa_53:4; ‘ Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried out orrows; yet we did . steeru Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted;’ and Isa_51:6. ‘I gave thy back to the smiters;’ and Zec_13:6 : ‘ I was wounded (smitten) in the house of my friends;’ and Zec_13:7 : Smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.’—In all these passages the tame word (nacah) is used.’ ’—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v3 (Compare Psa 6:6).
(Compare Psa 6:6).
mine eyes fail--in watching (Psa 119:82).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. Waters—Great “waters” are a common emblem of extreme…
1. Waters—Great “waters” are a common emblem of extreme distress and danger. Psa_18:4; Psa_32:6.
Unto my soul—I am as one upon the point of strangulation by drowning. The waters are rushing into me, even to my heart. See Lam_3:54; Jon_2:4
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. the waters &c.] He is like a drowning…
1. the waters &c.] He is like a drowning man. The flood of calamity has risen till it threatens his life. For the metaphor cp. Psa_18:16; Psa_32:6; Psa_66:12; Psa_124:4; Lam_3:54; and for unto my soul see Jer_4:10; Jer_4:18; Jon_2:5.
1–6. The Psalmist appeals to God for help, pleading the extremity of his plight.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 (1) The waters . . .—For this common and…
(1) The waters . . .—For this common and obvious figure of a “sea of troubles” comp. Psa_18:4; Psa_18:16; Psa_32:6; Psa_42:7.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–3 THIS is the cry of one suffering severely from…
THIS is the cry of one suffering severely from men, partly on account of his own sins (ver. 5), but mainly for the sake of God (vers. 7-9). It is said to be "written in the style of Jeremiah" (Cheyne); but the resemblance to several Davidical psalms, especially Ps 22,ps 25, and Ps 40, is admitted; and the expression, "Al Shoshannim," in the "title," connects it also with Psa 45: Moreover, the "title" distinctly assigns it to David, as does St. Paul; (Rom_11:9) and there are no arguments of any weight to set against these testimonies. As for the time in David"s life to which it belongs, there is no very distinct evidence; but Dr. Kay"s conjecture, that it was written at the time of Adonijah"s rebellion, is not improbable.
The psalm divides into five unequal portions, consisting respectively of four, eight, nine, eight, and seven verses.
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Vers. 1-4 contain a pathetic complaint, expressed first in figurative language (vers. 1-3), but (in ver. 4) plainly connected with the wicked designs of human enemies.
Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. This is a common, perhaps, we may say, a proverbial, expression for any great distress. (comp. Psa_18:4 Psa_42:7 Psa_88:7, Psa_88:17; and Job_22:11 Job_27:20)
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-13. The psalmist in three aspects.
I AS A MAN TO BE PITIED. The sufferings described are many and great. They threatened to be overwhelming. Without, there was no escape; within, there was no peace. Crying for help brought no rescue, and waiting upon God brought no deliverance. Hope deferred made the heart sick. Disappointment only called forth more bitter scorn from enemies, and made the ills that multiplied more and more hard to bear. Besides, there was the distressful feeling that the evils that had come were in large part unmerited, and that the hate of enemies was as unjust as it was unprovoked. When we find a man in such a case, we cannot but sympathize with him. He may be too magnanimous to crave our pity, but all the more our heart goes out to him in compassion, and our prayers are joined with his for deliverance. (Job_6:14 Job_19:21 1Pe_3:8) It is one of the advantages of suffering that, while it may be a salutary discipline to the sufferer, it becomes a means of calling forth brotherly kindness and manly help from beholders.
II AS A SINNER TO BE CONDEMNED. There are some who resent any condemnation of the psalmist. They say he was inspired, that he was one of the "holy men who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." This is true, but all the same, he speaks of himself as a sinner, and we are more likely to deal truly with him by taking him on his own judgment than by setting him up as if he were perfect, and as if his confessions of sin and folly were made in some non-natural sense. Besides, there are evident proofs here of the working of sin, of the flesh lusting against the spirit, of the struggle which all good men have to make against the rise of unholy passions in time of temptation. If we are to take the language (in vers. 22-28) just as we find it, and if we are to understand it as used by a man of undoubted but of imperfect piety, we cannot but regard it as highly culpable. There is more here than just indignation. The life of the psalmist had been made bitter by the rancour and hate of his enemies, and he seems to give way to wrath, and to hurl back upon his foes the curses which they had so cruelly heaped upon himself. But be this as it may, it is plain that we should guard against indulgence in such language. It is not for us to judge others; it is not for us to return evil for evil. Christ has taught us that they greatly erred who said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour, but hate thine enemy". (Mat_5:43-45) Rather we are to love our enemies. And what our Lord taught us by word he illustrated in his life. Even of those whose hands were red with his blood, he said, "Father, forgive them;" and his return for all the hate and malice and cruelty of the wicked Jews was to send them first of all the gospel of peace. (Luk_23:24 Luk_24:47) If we indulge in resentment, we not only hurt ourselves, but we wrong our brother, for, however badly a man may use us, he is still our brother, and we should not put a greater barrier between him and us by wrath, but rather try to bring him to a better mind by love and mercy. (Rom_12:19-21)
III AS A SAINT TO BE IMITATED. The very fact that we cannot and dare not follow the psalmist in all that we find here, is evidence of his imperfection. We are bound to use our reason to examine things by the standard of God"s Law and the Spirit of Christ. We should only imitate what is good, and what commends itself to our consciences and hearts as good. (1Co_11:1 Eph_5:1, Eph_5:2) But if we consider, we shall find much here to admire, and therefore to imitate. It would be well for us, like the psalmist, to call upon God in the day of trouble. We may be in straits, but he can help. We may be repulsed on all sides, and lonely, but he will not cast us off. We should also learn from the psalmist not to plead our own merits, but to cast ourselves on God"s mercy. God knows what is best. Above all, we should do what the psalmist could only do imperfectly, in the dim light of the days before the gospel we should look to Christ, and learn of him how to behave ourselves in times of suffering. W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-18. Suffering and prayer.
"The psalm is a prayer and complaint of one suffering severely from men for the sake of God.
I GREAT SUFFERING. (Vers. 1-4)
1. Exposing him to great danger. (Vers. 1, 2) He is in peril of his life. "The floods overwhelm him.
2. Entailing great bodily exhaustion. (Ver. 3) Weary of crying, parched throat, failing eyes.
3. Arising from the unjust hatred of his enemies, who are numerous and strong. (Ver. 4) They that hate him without a just cause and wrongfully, are numberless and mighty.
II GREAT SUFFERING FOR THE SAKE OF GOD AND THE RIGHTEOUS CAUSE, (Vers. 5-12)
1. Awakens a sense of personal unworthiness. (Ver. 5) All suffering tends to this.
2. The sin of his enemies was sin against God. (Vers. 7-9)
3. Intimate relatives and friends as well as strangers join in the persecution of his enemies. (Vers. 8-12)
III THE GROUNDS OF HIS PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE. (Vers. 13-18)
1. Others who trust in God will be put to shame if he is left to perish. Go back to ver. 6 for this. Faith in God is at stake.
2. His great misery is his argument for salvation. (Vers. 14, 15-17) We may well use this plea.
3. The greatness of the Divine loving kindness and mercy. (Vers. 13-16) This is the argument which is fullest of hope to those who have known God in all ages, but especially to those who have known God in Christ. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Title. To the Chief Musician upon Shoshannim. Thus for…
Title. To the Chief Musician upon Shoshannim. Thus for the second time we have a Psalm entitled "upon the lilies." In the forty-first they were golden lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh, and blooming in the fair gardens which skirt the ivory palaces: in this we have the lily among thorns, the lily of the valley, fair and beautiful, blooming in the garden of Gethsemane. A Psalm of David. If any enquire, "of whom speaketh the psalmist this? of himself, or of some other man?" we would reply, "of himself, and of some other man." Who that other is, we need not be long in discovering; it is the Crucified alone who can say, "in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." His footprints all through this sorrowful song have been pointed out by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, and therefore we believe, and are sure, that the Son of Man is here. Yet is seems to be the intention of the Spirit, while he gives us personal types, and so shows the likeness to the firstborn which exists in the heirs of salvation, to set forth the disparities between the best of the sons of men, and the Son of God, for there are verses here which we dare not apply to our Lord; we almost shudder when we see our brethren attempting to do so, as for instance Ps 69:5. Especially do we note the difference between David and the Son of David in the imprecations of the one against his enemies, and the prayers of the other for them. We commence our exposition of this Psalm with much trembling, for we feel that we are entering with our Great High Priest into the most holy place.
Divisions. This Psalm consists of two portions of 18 verses each. These again may each be sub divided into three parts. Under the first head, from Ps 69:1-4, the sufferer spreads his complaint before God; then he pleads that his zeal for God is the cause of his sufferings, in Ps 69:5-12: and this encourages him to plead for help and deliverance, from Ps 69:13-18. In the second half of the Psalm he details the injurious conduct of his adversaries, from Ps 69:19-21; calls for their punishment, Ps 69:22-28, and then returns to prayer, and to a joyful anticipation of divine interposition and its results, Ps 69:29-36.
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Ver. 1. Save me, O God. "He saved others, himself he cannot save." With strong cries and tears he offered up prayers and supplications unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared (Heb 5:7). Thus David had prayed, and here his Son and Lord utters the same cry. This is the second Psalm which begins with a "Save me, O God, "and the former (Psalm 54) is but a short summary of this more lengthened complaint. It is remarkable that such a scene of woe should be presented to us immediately after the jubilant ascension hymn of the last Psalm, but this only shows how interwoven are the glories and the sorrows of our ever blessed Redeemer. The head which now is crowned with glory is the same which wore the thorns; he to whom we pray, "Save us, O God, "is the selfsame person who cried, "Save me, O God."
For the waters are come in unto my soul. Sorrows, deep, abounding, deadly, had penetrated his inner nature. Bodily anguish is not his first complaint; he begins not with the gall which embittered his lips, but with the mighty griefs which broke into his heart. All the sea outside a vessel is less to be feared than that which finds its way into the hold. A wounded spirit who can bear. Our Lord in this verse is seen before us as a Jonah, crying, "The waters compassed me about, even to the soul." He was doing business for us on the great waters, at his Father's command; the stormy wind was lifting up the waves thereof, and he went down to the depths till his soul was melted because of trouble. In all this he has sympathy with us, and is able to succour us when we, like Peter, beginning to sink, cry to him, "Lord, save, or we perish."
Title. To the Chief Musician, on the lilies, of David. On the lilies, points to the beauty of the subject treated of. D. W. Hengstenberg.
Whole Psalm. The subject of the Psalm is an ideal person, representing the whole class of religious sufferers. The only individual in whom the various traits meet is Christ. That he is not, however, the exclusive, or even the immediate subject, is clear from the confession in Ps 69:5. There is no Psalm, except for the twenty-second, more distinctly applied to him in the New Testament. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Whole Psalm. This has usually been regarded as a Messianic Psalm. No portion of the Old Testament Scriptures is more frequently quoted in the New, with the exception of Psalm 22. When Jesus drives the buyers and sellers from the temple (Joh 2:17), his disciples are reminded of the words of Ps 69:9 (first clause). When it is said (Joh 15:25) that the enemies of Jesus hated him without a cause, and this is looked upon as the fulfilment of Scripture, the reference is probably to verse 4, though it may be also to Ps 35:18. To him, and the reproach which he endured for the sake of God, St. Paul refers the words of this Psalm, Ps 69:9 (second clause): The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. In Ps 69:12 we have a foreshadowing of the mockery of our Lord by the soldiers in the praetorium (Mt 27:27-30); in Ps 69:21, the giving of the vinegar and the gall found their counterpart in the scenes of the crucifixion, Mt 27:34. In Joh 19:28, there is an allusion, probably to verse 21 of this Psalm, and to Ps 32:15. The imprecation in Ps 69:25 is said, in Ac 1:20, to have been fulfilled in the case of Judas Iscariot, though, as the words of the Psalm are plural, the citation is evidently made with some freedom. According to Ro 11:9-10, the rejection of Israel may best be described in the words of Ps 69:22-23. J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm follows in striking connection with the preceding, and in contrast with the glory of his kingdom. The two have been compared to the transfiguration on the mount, where, after the manifestation of Christ in glory, there appeared, also, Moses and Elias, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. The clearest anticipation of future glory must not shut out the conviction, that it is through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom. W. Wilson.
Whole Psalm. Remember this is the fourth Psalm which declares at length the passion and resurrection of our Lord. Through the whole Psalm Christ speaks in person. He prays for deliverance by the Father, because he has suffered by the Jews, without cause, many afflictions and persecutions. He supplicates on behalf of his members, that the hope of the faithful, resting on his resurrection, may not be disappointed. By the power of his prescience he declares the future events which should occur to his enemies. Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, circa 468-560.
Whole Psalm. In this Psalm the whole Christ speaks; now in his own person, now crying with the voice of his members to God his Father. Gerhohus.
Ver. 1. Save me, O God. Let his distances be never so great, he is resolved to cry after the Lord; and if he get but his head never so little above water, the Lord shall hear of him. One would think his discouragements such as he were past crying any more; the waters entered into his soul, in deep waters, the streams running over him: he sticketh fast in the mire where is no standing (he is at the very bottom, and there fast in the mire), he is weary of crying; yet, Ps 69:6, 13: But, Lord, I make my prayers to thee: and as he recovers breath, so breathes out fresh supplications to the Lord. If men or devils would be forbidding to pray, as the multitude sometimes did the poor blind man to cry after Jesus; yet, as he, so an importunate suppliant "will cry so much the more, Jesus thou Son of David, have mercy on me." Mr 10:47-48. Thomas Cobbet.
Ver. 1. The waters are come in unto my soul. What means he by coming in unto his soul? Surely no other than this: --that they oppressed his spirit, and, as it were, penetrated into his conscience, raising fears and perplexities there, by reason of his sins, which at present put his faith and hope to some disorder; so that he could not for a while see to the comfortable end of his affliction, but was as one under water, covered with his fears, as appears by what follows (Ps 69:2): I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing. He compares himself to one in a quagmire that can feel no ground to bear him up; and, observe whence his trouble rose, and where the waters made their entrance (Ps 69:5): O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. This holy man lay under some fresh guilt, and this made him so uncomfortable under his affliction, because he saw his sin in the face of that, and tasted some displeasure from God for it in his outward trouble, which made it so bitter in the going down; and, therefore, when once he had humbled himself by confessing his sin, and was able to see the coast clear between heaven and him, so as to believe the pardon of his sin, and hope for good news from God again, he then returns to his sweet temper, and sings in the same affliction, where before he sunk. William Gurnall.
Ver. 1. Our trials like waters.
I. They should be kept out of the heart.
II. There are, however, leaks which admit them.
III. Take note when the hold is filling.
IV. Use the pumps, and cry for help.
Psalms 69:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come…
Psa_69:1-12
Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
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Human suffering
I. Mans sufferings are sometimes overwhelmingly great. This shows--
1. The abnormal state of man. Was man made to suffer thus? No; man suffers because he has transgressed.
2. The blessedness of Christs mission. He came to heal the broken-hearted, and to wipe away all tears from off all faces.
II. Mans sufferings are often inflicted by his fellow-creatures. The sufferer here ascribes his sufferings, not to God, or accident, or fate, but to men.
1. To the malice, the multitude, and the might of his enemies. These enemies, he says--
(1) Compelled him to restore what he took not away. They extorted from him by violence that which was his, not theirs. He does not say what it was, whether it was his time, his labour, or his property. Men are often doing this, taking from others that to which they have no right.
(2) Persecuted him on account of his religion. For Thy sake I have borne reproach, etc. How often in the history of the world do we find men inflicting sufferings upon their fellows in consequence of their religious convictions!
2. To the alienation of his most intimate relations and friends.
3. To the contempt he received from all on account of his religious zeal.
III. Mans sufferings often reveal the moral weakness of his character. If, as here, you find a man parading his sufferings, moaning and groaning about his afflictions, he is not a man of strong moral character. Christ, instead of parading His sufferings, seldom even mentioned them.
IV. Mans sufferings occasionally lead him to God. They did so now in the case of David. (Homilist.)
The good mans foes
I. The good man has foes.
1. The devil.
2. Wicked men readily learn the craft of their master.
II. The good mans foes are pertinacious.
1. They act in concert--take counsel how they may best succeed in their designs; encourage one another, to make their plans most effective.
2. They are never satisfied. Satan, not content to rob Job of his property, must needs seek to destroy his children. The trouble of the Christian, so far from moving his enemies to compassion, do but instigate to fresh deeds of iniquity.
III. The good mans enemies are cowardly.
1. Slander is one of the commonest weapons by which they seek to destroy. It is referred to several times by David. It is the sharp sword, the poisoned arrow, the bitter words.
2. Misrepresentation is another very common mode of attacking the godly. They Search out iniquities. This seems to suggest that when faults cannot readily be found, they are sought diligently, until some trivial defect is discovered that may be magnified into a deadly sin. Instead of setting a watch upon themselves, they watch others, and looking for faults they will invent them rather than be disappointed.
IV. The good mans enemies are laborious. They are workers of iniquity. Men who are too idle to do any good thing will toil at an evil one. Many men work far harder to go to hell than would suffice, humanly speaking, to carry them to heaven. If half the diligence devoted to works of evil were but given to the service of God, how greatly would the aspect of the world be changed. (Joseph S. Exell, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 69
Psalms 69
THE Davidic authorship of this psalm is evidently untenable, if for no other reason, yet because of the state of things presupposed in Psa_69:35. The supposition that Jeremiah was the author has more in its favour than in the case of many of the modern attributions of psalms to him, even if, as seems most probable, the references to sinking in deep mire and the like are metaphorical. Cheyne fixes on the period preceding Nehemiahs first journey to Jerusalem as the earliest possible date for this psalm and its kindred ones. {Psalms 22, Psalms 35, and Psa_40:13-18} Baethgen follows Olshausen in assigning the psalm to the Maccabean period. The one point which seems absolutely certain is that David was not its author.
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It falls into two equal parts (Psa_69:1-18 and Psa_69:19-36). In the former part three turns of thought or feeling may be traced: Psa_69:1-6 being mainly a cry for Divine help, with plaintive spreading out of the psalmists extremity of need; Psa_69:7-12 basing the prayer on the fact that his sufferings flow from his religion; and Psa_69:13-18 being a stream of petitions for deliverance, with continuous allusion to the description of his trials in Psa_69:1-6. The second part (Psa_69:19-36), begins with renewed description of the psalmists affliction (Psa_69:19-21), and thence passes to invocation of Gods justice on his foes (Psa_69:22-28), which takes the place of the direct petitions for deliverance in the first part. The whole closes with trustful anticipation of answers to prayer, which will call forth praise from ever-widening circles, - first from the psalmist himself; then from the oppressed righteous; and, finally, from heaven, earth, and sea.
The numerous citations of this psalm in the New Testament have led many commentators to maintain its directly Messianic character. But its confessions of sin and imprecations of vengeance are equally incompatible with that view. It as Messianic as typical rather than as prophetic, exhibiting a history, whether of king, prophet, righteous man, or personified nation, in which the same principles are at work as are manifest in their supreme energy and highest form in the Prince of righteous sufferers. But the correspondence of such a detail as giving gall and vinegar, with the history of Jesus, carries us beyond the region of types, and is a witness that Gods Spirit shaped the utterances of the psalmist for a purpose unknown to himself, and worked in like manner on the rude soldiers, whose clumsy mockery and clumsy kindness fulfilled ancient words. There is surely something more here than coincidence or similarity between the experience of one righteous sufferer and another. If Jesus cried "I thirst" in order to bring about the "fulfilment" of one verse of our psalm, His doing so is of a piece with some other acts of His which were distinct claims to be the Messiah of prophecy; but His wish could not influence the soldiers to fulfil the psalm.
The first note is petition and spreading out of the piteous story of the psalmists need. The burdened heart finds some ease in describing how heavy its burden is and the devout heart receives some foretaste of longed for help in the act of telling God how sorely His help is needed. He who knows all our trouble is glad to have us tell it to Him, since it is thereby lightened, and our faith in Him is thereby increased. Sins confessed are wholly cancelled, and troubles spoken to God are more than half calmed. The psalmist begins with metaphors in Psa_69:1-2, and translates these into grim prose in Psa_69:3-4, and then, with acknowledgment of sinfulness, cries for Gods intervention in Psa_69:5-6. It is flat and prosaic to take the expressions in Psa_69:1-2, literally, as if they described an experience like Jeremiahs in the miry pit. Nor can the literal application be carried through; for the image of "waters coming in unto the soul" brings up an entirely different set of circumstances from that of sinking in mud in a pit. The one describes trouble as rushing in upon a man, like a deluge which has burst its banks and overwhelms him; the other paints it as yielding and tenacious, affording no firm spot to stand on, but sucking him up in its filthy, stifling slime. No water was in Jeremiahs pit. The two figures are incompatible in reality, and can only be blended in imagination. What they mean is put without metaphor in Psa_69:3-4. The psalmist is "weary with calling" on God; his throat is dry with much prayer; his eyes ache and are dim with upward gazing for help which lingers. Yet he does not cease to call, and still prays with his parched throat, and keeps the weary eyes steadfastly fixed, as the psalm shows. It is no small triumph of patient faith to wait for tarrying help. Psa_69:4 tells why he thus cries. He is compassed by a crowd of enemies. Two things especially characterise these-their numbers, and their gratuitous hatred. As to the former, they are described as more numerous than the hairs of the psalmists head. The parallelism of clauses recommends the textual alteration which substitutes for the unnecessary word "my destroyers" the appropriate expression "more than my bones," which is found in some old versions. Causeless hatred is the portion of the righteous in all ages; and our Lord points to Himself as experiencing it in utmost measure, {Joh_15:25} inasmuch as He, the perfectly righteous One, must take into His own history all the bitterness which is infused into the cup of those who fear God and love the right, by a generation who are out of sympathy with them.
The same experience, in forms varying according to the spirit of the times, is realised still in all who have the mind of Christ in them. As long as the world is a world, it will have some contempt mingling with its constrained respect for goodness, some hostility, now expressed by light shafts of mockery and ridicule, now by heavier and more hurtful missiles, for Christs true servants. The ancient "Woe" for those of whom all men speak well is in force today. The "hatred" is "without a cause," in so far as its cherishers have received no hurt, and its objects desire only their enemies good; but its cause lies deep in the irreconcilable antagonism of life principles and aims between those who follow Christ and those who do not.
The psalmist had to bear unjust charges, and to make restitution of what he had never taken. Causeless hatred justified itself by false accusations, and innocence had but to bear silently and to save life at the expense of being robbed in the name of justice.
He turns from enemies to God. But his profession of innocence assumes a touching and unusual form. He does not, as might be expected, say, "Thou knowest my guiltlessness," but, "Thou knowest my foolishness." A true heart, while conscious of innocence in regard to men, and of having done nothing to evoke their enmity, is, even in the act of searching itself, arrested by the consciousness of its many sins in Gods sight, and will confess these the more penitently, because it stands upright before men, and asserts its freedom from all crime against them. In so far as mens hatred is Gods instrument, it inflicts merited chastisement. That does not excuse men; but it needs to be acknowledged by the sufferer, if things are to be right between him and God. Then, after such confession, he can pray, as this psalmist does, that Gods mercy may deliver him, so that others who, like him, wait on God may not be disheartened or swept from their confidence, by the spectacle of his vain hopes and unanswered cries. The psalmist has a strong consciousness of his representative character, and, as in so many other psalms, thinks that his experience is of wide significance as a witness for God. This consciousness points to something special in his position, whether we find the specialty in his office, or in the supposed personification of the nation, or in poetic consciousness heightened by the sense of being an organ of Gods Spirit. In a much inferior degree, the lowliest devout man may feel the same; for there are none whose experiences of God as answering prayer may not be a light of hope to some souls sitting in the dark. In Psa_69:7-12 the prayer for deliverance is urged on the ground that the singers sufferings are the result of his devotion. Psa_44:13-22 may be compared, and Jer_15:15 is an even closer parallel. Fasting and sackcloth are mentioned again together in Psa_35:13; and Lam_3:14 and Job_30:9 resemble Psa_69:12 b. Surrounded by a godless generation, the psalmists earnestness of faith and concern for Gods honour made him an object of dislike, a target for drunken ridicule. These broke the strong ties of kindred, and acted as separating forces more strongly than brotherhood did, as a uniting one. "Zeal for Gods house" presupposes the existence of the Temple, and also either its neglect or its desecration. That sunken condition of the sanctuary distressed the psalmist more than personal calamity, and it was the departure of Israel from God that made him clothe himself in sackcloth and fast and weep. But so far had deterioration gone that his mourning and its cause supplied materials for tipsy mirth, and his name became a by word and a butt for malicious gossip. The whole picture is that of the standing experience of the godly among the godless. The Perfect Example of devotion and communion had to pass through these waters where they ran deepest and chilliest, but all who have His Spirit have their share of the same fate.
The last division of this first part (Psa_69:13-18) begins by setting in strong contrast the psalmists prayer and the drunkards song. He is sure that his cry will be heard, and so he calls the present time "a time of favour," and appeals, as often in the Psalter, to the multitude of Gods lovingkindnesses and the faithfulness of His promise of salvation. Such a pleading with God on the ground of His manifested character is heard in Psa_69:13-16, thus inclosing, as it were, the prayer for deliverance in a wrapping of reminders to God of His own name. The petitions here echo the description of peril in the former part-mire and watery depths-and add another kindred image in that of the "pit shutting her mouth" over the suppliant. He is plunged in a deep dungeon, well-shaped; and if a stone is rolled on to its opening, his last gleam of daylight will be gone, and he will be buried alive. Beautifully do the pleas from Gods character and those from the petitioners sore need alternate, the latter predominating in Psa_69:17-18. His thoughts pass from his own desperate condition to Gods mercy, and from Gods mercy to his own condition, and he has the reward of faith, in that he finds in his straits reasons for his assurance that this is a time of favour, as well as pleas to urge with God. They make the black backing which turns his soul into a mirror, reflecting Gods promises in its trust.
The second part of the psalm (Psa_69:19-36) has, like the former, three main divisions. The first of these, like Psa_69:1-6, is mainly a renewed spreading before God of the psalmists trouble (Psa_69:19-21). Rooted sorrows are not plucked up by one effort. This recrudescence of fear breaking in upon the newly won serenity of faith is true to nature. On some parts of our coasts, where a narrow outlet binders the free run of the tide, a second high water follows the first after an hour or so; and often a similar bar to the flowing away of fears brings them back in full rush after they had begun to sink. The psalmist had appealed to Gods knowledge of His "foolishness" as indorsing his protestations of innocence towards men. He now (Psa_69:19) appeals to His knowledge of his distresses, as indorsing his pitiful plaints. His soul is too deeply moved now to use metaphors, He speaks no more of mire and flood, but we hear the moan of a broken heart, and that wail which sounds sad across the centuries and wakes echoes in many solitary hearts. The psalmists eyes had failed, while he looked upwards for a God whose coming seemed slow; but they had looked yet more wearily and vainly for human pity and comforters, and found none. Instead of pity He had received only aggravation of misery. Such seems to be the force of giving gall for food, and vinegar to His thirst. The precise meaning of the word rendered "gall" is uncertain, but the general idea of something bitter is sufficient. That was all that His foes would give Him when hungry; and vinegar, which would make Him more thirsty still, was all that they proffered for His thirst. Such was their sympathy and comforting. According to Matthew, the potion of "wine (or vinegar) mingled with gall" was offered to and rejected by Jesus, before being fastened to the cross. He does not expressly quote the psalm, but probably refers to it. John, on the other hand, does tell us that Jesus, "that the scripture might be accomplished, said, I thirst," and sees its fulfilment in the kindly act of moistening the parched lips. The evangelists expression does not necessarily imply that a desire to fulfil the scripture was our Lords motive. Crucifixion was accompanied with torturing thirst, which wrung that last complaint from Jesus. But the evangelist discerns a Divine purpose behind the utterance of Jesus human weakness: and it is surely less difficult, for anyone who believes in supernatural revelation at all to believe that the words of the psalmist were shaped by a higher power, and the hands of the Roman soldiers moved by another impulse than their own, than to believe that this minute correspondence of psalm and gospel is merely accidental.
But the immediately succeeding section warns us against pushing the Messianic character of the psalm too far, for these fearful imprecations cannot have any analogies in Christs words (Psa_69:22-28). The form of the wish in "Let their table become a snare" is explained by remembering that the Eastern table was often a leather flap laid on the ground, which the psalmist desires may start up as a snare, and close upon the feasters as they sit round it secure. Disease, continual terror, dimmed eyes, paralysed or quaking loins, ruin falling on their homes, and desolation round their encampment, so that they have no descendants, are the least of the evils invoked. The psalmists desires go further than all this corporeal and material disaster. He prays that iniquity may be added to their iniquity-i.e., that they may be held guilty of sin after sin; and that they may have no portion in Gods righteousness-i.e., in the gifts which flow from His adherence to His covenant.
The climax of all these maledictions is that awful wish that the persecutors may be blotted out of the book of life or of the living. True, the high New Testament conception of that book, according to which it is the burgess roll of the citizens of the New Jerusalem, the possessors of eternal life, does not plainly belong to it in Old Testament usage, in which it means apparently the register of those living on earth. But to blot names therefrom is not only to kill, but to exclude from the national community, and so from all the privileges of the people of God. The psalmist desires for his foes the accumulation of all the ills that flesh is heir to, the extirpation of their families and their absolute exclusion from the company of the living and the righteous. It is impossible to bring such utterances into harmony with the teachings of Jesus, and the attempt to vindicate them ignores plain facts and does violence to plain words. Better far to let them stand as a monument of the earlier stage of Gods progressive revelation, and discern clearly the advance which Christian ethics has made on them.
The psalm ends with glad anticipations of deliverance and vows of thanksgiving. The psalmist is sure that Gods salvation will lift him high above his enemies, and as sure that then he will be as grateful as he is now earnest in prayer, and surest of all that his thankful voice will sound sweeter in Gods ear than any sacrifice would smell in His nostrils. There is no contempt of sacrifices expressed in "horned and hoofed," but simply the idea of maturity which fits the animal to be offered.
The single voice of praise will be caught up, the singer thinks, by a great chorus of those who would have been struck dumb with confusion if his prayer had not been answered (Psa_69:6), and who, in like manner, are gladdened by seeing his deliverance. The grace bestowed on one brings thanksgivings from many, which redound to the glory of God. The sudden transition in Psa_69:32 b to direct address to the seekers after God, as if they stood beside the solitary singer, gives vividness to the anticipation. The insertion of "behold" is warranted, and tells what revives the beholders hearts. The seekers after God feel the pulse of a quicker life throbbing, when they see the wonders wrought through prayer. The singers thoughts go beyond his own deliverance to that of Israel. "His captives" is most naturally understood as referring to the exiled nation. And this wider manifestation of Gods restoring power will evoke praise from a wider circle, even from heaven, earth, and sea. The circumstances contemplated in Psa_69:33-36 are evidently those of a captivity. Gods people are in bondage, the cities of Judah are in ruins, the inhabitants scattered far from their homes. The only reason for taking the closing verses as being a liturgical addition is unwillingness to admit exilic or post-exilic psalms. But these verses cannot be fairly interpreted without recognising that they presuppose that Israel is in bondage, or at least on the verge of it. The circumstances of Jeremiahs life and times coincide closely with those of the psalmist.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Superscription.—“To the chief musician upon Shoshannim, a Psalm of…
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.—“To the chief musician upon Shoshannim, a Psalm of David.”
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“To the chief musician.” See the introduction to Psalms 57. “Upon Shoshannim. See the introduction to Psalms 45. “A Psalm of David.” The Davidic authorship of this Psalm is strongly supported by its close resemblance to other Psalms which are ascribed to David. Both in thought and language it is nearly related to Psalms 6, 22, 31, 35, 38, 40, 109. Ewald: “Our Psalm manifests such a strong similarity, not in the least proceeding from imitation, to Psalms 35, 38, , 40, that it must have been composed by the same author.” And Hitzig: “The author of the 40th Psalm, whoever he was, must be identically the same with the author of the 69th.” And again: “The similarity between Psa_69:32 and Psa_22:26, can only be explained by the assumption, that they have been the product of the same mind.”
We are unable to determine on what occasion in the life of David the Psalm was composed. Probably it belongs to the time of the rebellion of Absalom. With the exception of the 22d, there is no Psalm which is so frequently quoted and applied to Jesus Christ in the New Testament as this one. But the quotations are not of such a character as to require us to adopt a direct Messianic interpretation. They are, as Barnes points out, “of so general a character that they do not seem to have been designed to refer exclusively to the Messiah, or even to have had any original reference to Him. The language is such that it would accurately describe the events to which it is applied; and the fact that the language is quoted in this manner in the New Testament history does not prove that the Psalm had any original reference to the Messiah.” A most formidable ojection against the direct Messianic exposition is found in the confession of folly and guilt in Psa_69:5. Hengstenberg interprets the Psalm as referring not to any individual sufferer, but to the ideal person of the suffering righteous man.
Homiletically we view the psalm as presenting to us, The cry of the righteous in extreme suffering, Psa_69:1-21; The imperfection of the righteous in extreme suffering, Psa_69:22-28; and The hope of the righteous in extreme suffering, Psa_69:29-36.
THE CRY OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN EXTREME SUFFERING
(Psa_69:1-21.)
The burden of this cry is twofold. We have—
I. A cry of suffering. In this wail of the Psalmist we discover—
1. The nature of his sufferings. He represents them as arising from
(1) The persecution of his enemies. “They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.” We see here (α) Their multitude. “They are more than the hairs of mine head.” His foes were an innumerable host. Countless are the enemies of the good. (β) Their malice. “They hate me; they would destroy me.” They hated him so fiercely that they sought his utter destruction. “The devil was a murderer from the beginning.” (γ) Their might. “Mine enemies are mighty.” The foes of David were great in authority and power. The righteous have to contend “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (δ) Their injustice. They hated him “without a cause;” they were his “enemies wrongfully.” The Psalmist had done nothing to provoke them to anger. They compelled him to give up his own possessions as though he had no right to them, or had gotten them by fraud or violence. Malice is always unjust. It is better to suffer the worst from unjust enemies than by wrong-doing to give to any one reason to be to us an enemy. Such were the enemies who persecuted the Psalmist. And the form of persecution of which he complains most is slander. “I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.… I became a proverb” (byword) “to them. They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.… Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour.… Reproach hath broken my heart.” David suffered much from the wicked aspersions and calumnies of his enemies. (See “The Hom. Com.” on Psa_41:5-9; Psa_42:2; Psa_42:10, &c) To an honourable man nothing is more bitter and painful than reproach and slander. At this time the Psalmist was smarting severely beneath it. It seemed to assail him in every form and from every quarter. The men of business and the magistrates, who assembled in the gates, spake evil of him. And the drunkard in his degrading revels sang in derision of him. Reproach, shame, dishonour covered and crushed him. And still the good are exposed to the assaults of the slanderer. “Virtue itself ’scapes not calumnious strokes.”
“Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow,
Thou shalt not escape calumny.”
—Shakespeare.
And still slander assumes many forms, and has many methods; and of these the most subtle are the most perilous.
“The hint malevolent, the look oblique,
The obvious satire, or implied dislike,
The sneer equivocal, the harsh reply,
And all the cruel language of the eye;
The artful injury, whose venomed dart
Scarce wounds the hearing, while it stabs the heart;
The guarded phrase whose meaning kills, yet told,
The list’ner wonders how you thought it cold.”—Hannah More.
Such are some of the forms and methods of slander. But the sufferings of the Psalmist arose also from
(2) The desertion of his nearest relatives. “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.” The expression, “my mother’s children,” denotes the most intimate relationship. Barnes: “In families where a man had many wives, as was common among the Hebrews, the nearest relationship would be denoted by being of the same mother rather than of the same father. The idea of the Psalmist here, therefore, is, that his nearest relatives treated him as if he were a stranger and a foreigner.” (Com. Job_19:13-19.) It is probable that in the time of Saul David passed through this painful experience. (Comp. 1Sa_17:28; Psa_27:10; and Psa_38:11.) And still a man may be forsaken by the nearest relatives and friends because he follows truth and righteousness; or he may have to forsake them that he might cleave to Christ. (See Mat_10:34-39.) The Psalmist was suffering also because of
(3) The failure of human sympathy. “I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” Hengstenberg: “I wait for sympathy, and there is none.” “The word sympathy,” says Perowne, “has nowhere been employed by our translators, but it exactly conveys the force of the Hebrew word, inasmuch as it is used of sympathy in joy as well as in sorrow.” (See Job_42:11; Jer_15:5; Jer_16:5; Jer_48:17.) No heart was moved with compassion for the suffering poet. He felt himself to be utterly forsaken by mankind. Terrible was his sense of desolation. Worse even than this did men treat him. When he was hungry and thirsty they mocked him by giving him for food a bitter and poisonous herb, and for drink vinegar. By this figure the Psalmist expresses the addition and intensification of his already severe sufferings. The inhumanity of men towards him aggravates his misery. The words of Psa_69:20-21 might have been used by “the Messiah upon the cross, who bore the shame of an ignominious death, the reproaches of violating the law, and the slanders of wicked enemies, who died broken-hearted, with no one to pity, alone in His shame and woe,” and to whom upon the cross was given sour wine with an infusion of myrrh, and afterwards vinegar, when He had cried, “I thirst.” Let no one place much dependence upon human sympathy or support, or bitter will be his disappointment. But “there is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” “I will be with thee; I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Let us trust Him always and fully.
2. The severity of his sufferings. This is seen in at least four things—
(1) The various figures by which they are expressed. “The waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.” (For remarks on the figures here employed see “The Hom. Com.” on Psa_40:2; and Psa_42:7.) In this psalm the Poet represents the waters as “having come even to his soul,” thereby placing his very life in imminent peril. Trouble was not only without him, but within him. His soul was suffering. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” The Psalmist also speaks of himself as heart-broken. “Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.” Barnes: “Distress may become so great that life may sink under it, for many die of what is called ‘a broken heart.’ Undeserved reproaches will be as likely to produce this result on a sensitive heart as any form of suffering; and there are thousands who are crushed to the earth by such reproaches.”
(2) The extremity of his peril. The waters having come even to his soul, his rapid sinking in the mire of the depth, the floods which are overwhelming him, and his broken heart, all indicate the extremity of peril and need. If God do not speedily interpose for him, his sufferings will utterly crush him. If the Divine help come not quickly, it will come too late.
(3) The long-continued duration of his sufferings. “I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.” He had called upon God so long and earnestly that his strength was exhausted and his throat was parched. He had waited and watched for God so long that his eyes were worn out and dim. Hengstenberg: “The eyes fail: lose their power of vision, when a person keeps them long on the stretch, fixed upon a distant object, in hope of its coming nearer, till the outlines become better defined.” M. Henry: “His throat is dried, but his heart is not; his eyes fail, but his faith does not.”
(4) The connection of his sufferings with his religion. “Because for Thy sake I have borne reproach,” &c., Psa_69:7-12. He was reproached for his fidelity to truth and to God. His interest in the cause of God was deep and ardent. “The seal of Thine house hath eaten me up.” The house of God is not the mere temple; but “the temple, as the centre of the whole Israelitish religion.” “The true and godly zeal,” says Bishop Jewell, “eateth and devoureth up the heart, even as the thing that is eaten is turned into the substance of him that eateth it; and as iron, while it is burning hot, is turned into the nature of the fire, so great and so just is the grief that they which have this zeal conceive when they see God’s house spoiled, or His holy name dishonoured.” Such was David’s zeal for the cause and kingdom of God; and because of it he was ridiculed by the drunkards, reviled by his enemies, and forsaken by his nearest friends and relatives. When he penitently mourned with fasting and sackcloth on account of sin, he was assailed with more bitter reproaches and scorn and satire. All this greatly aggravated his sufferings. Moll: “It is better to suffer for God’s cause than to be punished for sins, but it is not easier.” Such were the sufferings that called forth this sharp and bitter cry from David. Let not the good man think it strange if he is called to experience severe suffering because of his attachment to Christ and His cause. In such sufferings we join the highest fellowship, and receive the most tender and strong support (See 1Pe_4:12-16.)
II. A cry of supplication. In the prayer of the Psalmist we have—
1. A confession. “O God, Thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Thee.” Moll: “How is it consistent that one should be persecuted as innocent and yet punished as a sinner?” Hengstenberg: “The words are to be taken in their obvious sense, as an acknowledgment of guilt on the part of the Psalmist, which, according to the just judgment of God, had brought upon him the unjust persecution of his enemies.” Barnes: “Though conscious of innocence in this case—though he felt that his enemies hated him without cause, yet he was not insensible to the fact that he was a sinner, and he was not unwilling to confess before God, that, however conscious of uprightness he might be in his dealings towards men, yet towards God he was a sinful man. From Him he deserved all that had come upon him.… Trial never comes to us from any quarter except as founded on the fact that we are sinners; and even where there is entire innocence towards our fellow-men, God may make use of their passions to rebuke and discipline us for our sins towards Himself.”
2. Petitions. Of these there are several, but the great object of them all is expressed in the first line of the Psalm—“Save me, O God.” He supplicates—
(1.) Complete deliverance. “Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.” Thus he seeks deliverance from all the perils and miseries of which he had previously complained.
(2.) Speedy deliverance. “Hear me speedily.” Margin: “Make haste to hear me.” Conant: “Make haste to answer me.” The peril of his situation was extreme. His need of salvation was urgent. If the Divine interposition were delayed, he felt that he should perish. There are times when such urgency of entreaty is not only admissible, but natural and commendable.
(3.) Representative deliverance. “Let none that wait on Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake; let not those that seek Thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.” Hengstenberg: “Comp. on Psa_25:3, ‘Those who wait on Thee shall not be ashamed, those shall be put to shame who act perfidiously without a cause.’ This position would be annihilated were the sufferer to be destroyed. For in him as their representative, or in his case, through his fate, all who wait on God would at the same time be put to shame.” Moll: “He may hope in God’s favour and help the more confidently as many of the pious look upon him and his fate as typical and instructive.… All the pious are interested in what concerns one of them.” If he were left to perish the faith of the godly would receive a terrible shock; but if he were delivered it would be confirmed and invigorated.
3. Encouragements. The Psalmist encourages himself in his prayer by several inspiring considerations.
(1.) The knowledge of God. “Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour; mine adversaries are all before Thee.” (a.) He knew the Psalmist—his distress, helplessness, extremity, need. Blessed be His name, suffering and persecution can never drive us beyond the region of His perfect knowledge. (b.) He knew the adversaries of the Psalmist—their multitude, might, malice, machinations. In circumstances like those of the Psalmist reflection on the omniscience of God is most comforting and faith-inspiring to the godly.
(2.) The power of God. “Lord God of hosts.” The title indicates His omnipotence. He is the sovereign of countless and invincible armies. “They that be with us are more than they that be with them.” “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
(3.) The fidelity of God in His relation to His people. “O God of Israel.” He has engaged in solemn covenant to succour and save His own people. So David pleads, “Hear me in the truth of Thy salvation.” The promises of salvation which He has made to those who wait upon Him are charged with encouragement to His people in time of trial.
(4.) The mercy of God. His kindness is abundantly calculated to quicken and strengthen confidence in Him. The Psalmist makes mention of (a.) Its excellence. “Thy loving-kindness is good.” Perowne: “ ‘Good,’ i.e., either sweet, comforting, as in Psa_63:3, or gracious, χρηστός (comp. Psa_119:21).” His kindnesses are loving kindnesses; His mercies are tender mercies. “How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God!” (b.) Its abundance. Twice the poet pleads “the multitude of God’s mercies. His mercy is rich and plenteous and free. M. Henry: “There is mercy in God, a multitude of mercies, all kinds of mercy, inexhaustible mercy, mercy enough for all, enough for each; and hence we must take our encouragement in praying.” Moll: “He who relies in prayer upon the mercy and truth of God, has the surest foundation for his salvation, and the best pledges of the hearing of his prayer.”
THE OBJECT, SEASON, AND HOPE OF PRAYER
(Psa_69:13.)
The godly man is not turned aside from his prayers because of the reproaches and scoffs of men. Men reviled and ridiculed David because of his religious exercises; but be was not driven from them. “But as for me,” he says, “my prayer is unto Thee, O Lord,” &c. “Though we may be jeered for well-doing, we must never be jeered out of it.” By reason of the scoffings of his enemies, the Psalmist is impelled to seek help in prayer the more persistently and earnestly. As persecution and trials increase, the frequency and fervour of our prayers should also increase. Our text brings before us,
I. The one true object of prayer. “My prayer is unto Thee, O Lord.” It is essential that the true object of the prayers of men should be—
1. Infinite in intelligence. He must be able to hear the whispers and perceive the desires of all men everywhere. Such intelligence has the Lord God. (See Psa_139:1-5; Eze_11:5, et al.) He hears prayer.
2. Approachable. Not far removed from His creatures; but accessible to every one of them. Not repulsive, but attractive. Such is God as revealed in Jesus Christ. (See Joh_14:6; Eph_2:18; Eph_3:12.)
3. Entreatable. Man needs not only to be heard, but to be answered also. God can and does answer prayer. Prayer has a real place and function in the Divine economy. “I have a sphere in which,” says Dr. Robert Vaughan, “I can use natural law so that good shall come out of it. By an act of my will, giving command to my muscular skill and force, I can wrest a dagger from the hand of an assassin, or can save a drowning man from his apparent doom. The things of this sort which I can do are numberless; and am I thus free to act in relation to these laws, and has the Almighty no freedom to act in His relation to them? Has He so constructed this great system that it has become His tomb, in which He sleeps the sleep of death, while man lays his living hand upon law everywhere, and makes it do his bidding? The instinct of man through all lands and all time is on the side of prayer, and that instinct cannot be a falsehood—it must embody a truth.” Prayer and answers to prayer are great facts in the experience of godly men. (See Psa_34:17; Pro_15:29; Isa_65:24; Mic_7:7; Mat_7:7-11; 1Jn_5:14-15.)
II. The season of prayer. “An acceptable time.” Conant: “A time of acceptance.” Moll: “A time of good pleasure.” Hengstenberg: “A time of grace.” He presented his prayer to God at a favourable season.
1. When we suffer wrongfully is such a season. The Psalmist felt this at this time. No time for prayer can be more acceptable to God, than when we are suffering persecution for righteousness’ sake.
2. When our need is great and greatly felt. M. Henry: “God will not drive us from Him, though it is need that drives us to Him; nay, it is the more acceptable, because the misery and distress of God’s people make them so much the more the objects of His pity: it is seasonable for Him to help them when all other helps fail, and they are undone, and feel that they are undone, if He do not help them.”
3. When our desire for spiritual blessings is intense. At such seasons God is very near to us to enrich us with the treasures of His grace. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.”
4. While the overtures of Divine grace are made to us. The time of acceptance is that in which God makes His grace known in the offer of His salvation. “Thus saith the Lord in an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee.” “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,” &c. “Behold, now is the accepted time,” &c. The time of acceptance may pass away, and be succeeded by the time of rejection. “Then they shall call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me.” Therefore, “seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.”
III. The great encouragements in prayer. “O God, in the multitude of Thy mercy, hear me, in the truth of Thy salvation.” The Psalmist here pleads—
1. The abounding mercy of God. Our hope is in God’s mercy.
(1.) Because we have no merit which we can plead in prayer.
(2.) Because of the essential nature of mercy. Mercy is that in God which disposes Him to save the sinful and succour the suffering. “Mercy hath but its name from misery and is no other thing than to lay another’s misery to heart.” And
(3.) Because of the fulness of the mercy of God. It is inexhaustible, infinite. He “is rich in mercy.”
2. The saving truth of God. “Hear me, in the truth of Thy salvation.” He has promised salvation to all who trust in Him. He is unchangeable. He will fulfil His promises.
In our prayers to God let us hopefully plead His rich mercy and firm truth, and gracious answers shall be ours.
THE IMPERFECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN EXTREME SUFFERING
(Psa_69:22-28.)
Let us hear what others have to say concerning the terrible utterances of this section of the psalm. Professor Alexander says: “The imprecations in this verse
(22), and those following it, are revolting only when considered as the expression of malignant selfishness. If uttered by God they shock no reader’s sensibilities, nor should they when considered as the language of an ideal person, representing the whole class of righteous sufferers, and particularly Him, who though He prayed for His murderers while dying (Luk_23:34), had before applied the words of this very passage to the unbelieving Jews (Mat_23:38), as Paul did afterwards (Rom_11:9-10). The general doctrine of providential retribution, far from being confined to the Old Testament, is distinctly taught in many of our Saviour’s parables. (See Mat_21:41; Mat_22:7; Mat_24:51).” And Professor Stuart; “Great difficulty is found in such passages by many minds, inasmuch as they seem to be so opposed to the tenor of those passages in the New Testament, which require us ‘to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who despitefully use and persecute us.’ If indeed these passages in the Psalms are to be viewed as the mere utterance of private and personal wishes and feelings, it would be utterly impossible to reconcile them with the spirit of the gospel. But is this so? Is David, for example, when he utters such things, to be viewed as doing it merely in the way of giving utterance to his own private personal wishes? It seems to me not; but David, as king and magistrate, might wish the punishment of the seditious and rebellious; nay, it would be an imperious duty for him to punish them. Now, was it lawful for him to pray that the same thing might be done, which it was his duty to do? Could he not express desires of this nature without the spirit of revenge? Cannot we wish the robber and the assassin to be apprehended and punished, yea, with capital punishment, and this without being actuated by a spirit of vengeance and a thirst for blood? I trust such wishes are not only consistent with benevolence, but prompted by it. If so, then it may be true that David and other Psalmists had the like views and feelings. And if this may be so, is it not probable that it was so? is not the general character and spirit of their writings a pledge for this?”
We do not regard these statements as satisfactory. They certainly fail to remove the difficulties which many reverent and earnest students of the Sacred Scriptures find in these dread imprecations. Much more helpful, in our opinion, is the statement of Canon Perowne quoted on pp. 163 and 164 of this work.
Let us briefly consider—
I. The imprecations urged. We say imprecations, not predictions; because, as Perowne points out, “the Hebrew optative, which is distinct enough from the simple future, absolutely forbids” our regarding them as predictions.
1. That the pleasures of life may become a curse to them. “Let their table become a snare to them; and that which should have been for their welfare, a trap.” Conant: “And to the secure for a trap.” Hengstenberg: “And their peace, their fall.” They had given to the Psalmist gall for his meat, and in his thirst vinegar for his drink; and he now prays that their season of refreshment, when they feel secure and look for pleasure, may be made a snare and a curse to them—” that the blessings of life may become fraught with death to” them.
2. That they may be deprived of understanding and strength. “Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.” Perowne: “The darkening of the eyes denotes weakness and perplexity, as the enlightening of the eyes (see Psa_19:8) denotes renewed vigour and strength. Similarly the shaking of the loins is expressive of terror and dismay and feebleness (Nah_2:10; Dan_5:6). Or the first may mean the depriving of reason and understanding; the second, the taking away of all strength for action.”
3. That they and theirs should be rooted out of the land. “Let their habitation be desolate; let none dwell in their tents.” Let them and theirs perish from the earth.
4. That they may be confirmed in sin. “Add iniquity unto their iniquity; and let them not come into Thy righteousness.” Perowne: “Let it all stand against them in Thy book, one sin after another, as committed, not being blotted out, but only swelling the fearful reckoning.” (Comp. Jer_18:23.)
5. That they may be excluded from the kingdom and people of God. “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.” Moll: “The reference is to the book of God (Exo_32:32), in which God Himself registers every one (Psa_87:4-6), who is appointed to life (Isa_4:3), and in this book (Dan_12:1), as the citizens of Israel in the genealogical tables” (Jer_22:30; Eze_13:9; comp. Luk_10:20; Php_4:3; Rev_3:5; Rev_13:8; Rev_17:8; Rev_21:27).
6. That God would pour upon them His severest wrath. “Pour out Thine indignation upon them, and let Thy wrathful anger take hold of them.”
Such are the things that God is entreated to do to the wicked enemies of the Psalmist.
II. The reason assigned. “For they persecute him whom Thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom Thou hast wounded.” Perowne: “The reason of the imprecation is given, because of the unpitying cruelty which delighted in adding to the pain and affliction of one whom God had already brought low—they tell as if they counted one by one every blow that fell upon him, every cry that he had uttered, only to turn it into mocking” (comp. Psa_59:12; Psa_64:5). They persecuted when they should have pitied. Somewhat similar conduct greatly aggravated the sufferings of Job. “Have pity upon me, have pity upon me; O ye, my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?”
This section of the Psalm impresses us with,
First—The imperfection of the best men. David was unquestionably one of the best of men; but his life has some foul stains upon it. And this Psalm shows that he was not a perfect man; for he here, as Moll says, “gets into such a carnal excitement, that while he does not contend with God or murmur against Him, but on the contrary, relies upon God, and calls upon Him, yet in hungry zeal he calls down the power of God to the judgment and ruin of those enemies who ignore it. This belongs to that folly and guilt, of which the Psalmist is conscious, and is neither to be extenuated nor recommended. For there is a very great difference between obligatory proclamation of the Divine judgment, morally justifiable assent to the unavoidable consequences of this judgment and holy joy in the victory of righteousness on the one side, and passionate imprecation, revengeful cursing, and an evilly disposed supplication for Divine judgment in order to the temporal ruin and everlasting destruction of certain persons, on the other side. In the latter case, man does not give over retribution to the all-wise and holy God, but of his own will and power interferes with the course of the just government of God, yes, really anticipates the final judgment. For this reason it is at least a zeal for God without knowledge, even when no revengeful motives come into play, and no personal interests are involved, but when the reference is to such men as put themselves in hostility to God and His word, sacraments, house, glory, and congregation. Even Jesus has not anticipated for individual cases the condemnatory decisions of the final judgment, but has merely proclaimed it as future, and indeed with the pain of love, and in connection with the purpose of His coming not to destroy the souls of men, but to save them. Accordingly, He censured His disciples for wishing to call down fire from heaven upon those who refused to receive Him (Luk_9:53-55).… We have reason to examine ourselves earnestly, whether, in our zeal for God, there is more wrath against our enemies, than love to His person and care for the glory of His house.” In estimating these imprecatory utterances of David, we are bound to remember the age in which they were penned. But when every allowance has been made it seems to us only too painfully clear, that the spirit which breathes in them is not good, but evil; not commendable, but reprehensible. In these terrible cursings of his enemies the Psalmist stands before us not as a pattern, but as a beacon; his example in this is not to be imitated, but shunned by us.
Second—The gradualness of the education of mankind. God has revealed His will and ways to men slowly, as they have been able to receive the revelation. It took long ages of teaching and experience before men were able to understand such precepts as, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,” &c. In the time of David men were by no means prepared to receive such teaching. In more than one way “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” Legislation such as this—“life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, strife for strife,” had an important place and work in educating humanity for higher things. The Mosaic legislation helped to prepare man for the Sermon on the Mount. The Jewish Temple was indispensable as a preparation for the Christian Church.
Third—The truth of the Sacred Scriptures. The fact that we find utterances like these imprecations in the Bible, so far from militating against its inspiration, is to our mind rather an evidence of such inspiration. Both in historic record and religious poem it faithfully sets forth the sayings and doings of men. When Abraham, “the friend of God,” manifests a strange want of faith in Him, and is not strictly truthful, such failures are impartially recorded. When David, “the man after God’s own heart,” commits both adultery and murder, the perpetration of these crimes is set down against him, without any attempt to extenuate his guilt. And when the Hebrew religious poets manifest improper feelings and utter improper sentiments; when they give expression to unworthy doubts and fears, or to sinful anger and passionate revenge, such passages are not pruned off the poems, nor are the poems themselves excluded from the volume. This appears to us an evidence of the truth and trustworthiness of the Bible. And so in these ancient Psalms we have the real utterances of holy men, setting forth their joys and sorrows, their doubts and confidences, their triumphs and temporary defeats, their sinful passions and holy aspirations. Such a book meets a great need of the heart and life of the religious man. And as a fact, this Book of Psalms, giving utterance to these various feelings of the religious heart, has been for long ages and still is one of the choicest and most helpful treasures of all godly souls.
THE HOPE OF THE RIGHTEOUS IS EXTREME SUFFERING
(Psa_69:29-36.)
The Psalmist passes from terrible imprecations to triumphant anticipations, from passionate revenge to pious hope. Notice—
I. The object of this hope, or what it was that he hoped for.
1. As regards himself. “But I am poor and sorrowful; let Thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.” He looks in confidence to God for deliverance from his afflicted and mournful condition, and for exaltation to a condition of safety above the reach of his enemies, and the fury of the floods of trial. All righteous sufferers shall certainly in due time be delivered from all their sorrows, &c.
2. As regards the Church. “For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also of His servants shall inherit it; and they that love His name shall dwell therein.” We regard Zion as an illustration of the Church of God. In his great and assured hope, the Psalmist announces
(1) Its preservation. “God will save Zion.” The Church may be threatened and opposed, but it shall not be overcome; “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
(2) Its progress. “And will build the cities of Judah.” David looked forward to the success and prosperity of the chosen people. The Church of God has a glorious future—a future of prosperity and increase in purity, possessions, power, &c. Its past history, its present position, and the Divine promises unite to assure the Church of increasing progress, and of complete triumph ultimately.
(3) Its perpetuity. “That they may dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also,” &c. God will protect His people from generation to generation. Empires once powerful have passed away; heathen religions which once inspired the reverence or awakened the dread of countless multitudes of souls, have perished from amongst men; scientific and philosophical systems which for a long time appeared to be indisputable and permanent, have departed for ever. But the Church of God shall never pass away; for its life of truth and righteousness and love is by its very nature imperishable and immortal.
II. The ground of this hope. The Psalmist rests his assured expectation of salvation on the fact that “the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.” “The poor” are those who are in circumstances of distress and want. The “prisoners” are either those whom He has visited with severe suffering, as in Psa_69:26, or those who are suffering for His sake, as in Psa_69:7. David doubtless includes himself as at this time amongst the needy and the prisoners. God regards such sufferers with pity, and sends them help when they cry unto Him. A hope of salvation which is based, as this is, on the gracious regard of God for His afflicted people shall surely be fulfilled in the case of every righteous sufferer.
III. The influence of this hope.
1. It enables him to anticipate his own salvation. In the midst of his suffering he looks forward to it with assured and joyous confidence; and resolves, as though it were already enjoyed, “I will praise the name of God with a song,” &c. Very great and blessed is the power of such a hope. “We are saved by hope.”
2. It impels him to summon the universe to praise God. “Let the heaven and earth praise Him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein.” The Psalmist feels his own utter insufficiency worthily to set forth the praise of God, and, therefore, he calls upon all things everywhere, animate and inanimate, to unite in the celebration.
IV. The anticipated result of the fulfilment of this hope. This is twofold—
1. The Psalmist will worship God, Psa_69:30-31.
(1) With spiritual offerings. “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.” Barnes: “As the result of my deliverance, I will compose a song or a psalm especially adapted to the occasion, and fitted to express and perpetuate my feelings. It was in such circumstances that a large part of the psalms were composed; and since others besides the Psalmist are often in such circumstances, the Book of Psalms becomes permanently useful in the Church.” The worship resolved upon by the Psalmist is (α) Joyful—“praise.… with a song.” (β) Grateful—“with thanksgiving.”
(2) Such worship is more acceptable to God than the most costly material sacrifices. “This also shall please the Lord better than ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.” Perowne: “The epithets are not merely otiose. The first is mentioned in order to mark that the animal was not under three years old, and therefore of the proper age according to the law; the last as intimating that it belonged to the class of clean four-footed animals, parting the hoof (Leviticus 11); and the meaning is, that the most perfect and valuable of the sacrifices ordained by the law was not to be compared to the sacrifice of a grateful heart.” (See “The Hom. Com.” on Psa_40:6-8; Psa_50:7-15; Psa_51:15-17.)
2. The pious will be encouraged. “The humble shall see this, and be glad; and your heart shall live that seek God.” The exhibition of the power and faithfulness and goodness of God in delivering His suffering servant, would strengthen the faith, revive the courage, and promote the joy of all godly souls. The deliverance of one is an earnest of the full salvation of all.
Let the suffering righteous seek for and exercise a hope like this of the Psalmist.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 We are familiar with the comments that are often…
Psa 69:23
We are familiar with the comments that are often made on inspired words like these. "What a spirit," men say, "is here! How unlike the mild, tender, charitable spirit of our Master, Christ! How unfit to be repeated by Christians who have been taught in the school of Christ!" This, and the like of this, is what is said, and it proceeds upon two leading mistakes. (1) The first is that the New Testament was meant somehow to abrogate the Old. (2) The second is that God’s love is in some kind of way the antagonist of His justice; that He cannot be really just without ceasing to love; that He cannot love without trifling with His instinct of justice. Let us remember that, in the verse before us, we are listening, not to David, but to the perfectly righteous Being in whose person David sings. Here we have a sentence which has nothing to do with human passion, which is based on the most certain laws which govern the moral world. The sentence is a penal judgment uttered against those who have been sinners against the light vouchsafed to them.
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I. God does under certain circumstances make the very blessings which He bestows instruments of punishment. A time comes when long unfaithfulness provokes this sentence on a nation, a Church, a soul. By the figure of "a table" is meant a supply of necessary nourishment, whether of soul or body. The table which God prepared before David in the presence of his enemies was the food which sustained his physical life, the grace which sustained the life of his spirit. The table which is spread out before associations of men—before nations, before Churches—is the sum total of material, moral, mental, and spiritual nourishment which God sets before them in the course of their history. The table becomes a snare when the blessings which God gives become sources of corruption and of demoralisation, when that which was intended to raise and to invigorate does really, through the faithlessness or perverseness of the man or the society, serve only to weaken or depress.
II. This is exactly what happened to the great majority of the Jewish people in the days of our Lord and Hi’s Apostles. One by one the spiritual senses which should have led Israel to recognise the Christ were numbed or destroyed. A perverse insensibility to the voice of God made God’s best gifts the instruments of Israel’s ruin.
III. This verse applies to the religious life of the individual Christian. Every Christian has a certain endowment of blessings, what the Psalmist calls a "table." Every Christian has to fulfil a certain predestined course. He has a work to do—a work which God’s gifts enable him to do—before he dies. Resistance to truth, to duty, may bring upon us this penal judgment. In the life of the soul, not to go forward is to go back. Unknown to ourselves, our religious life may be tainted with half-heartedness and insincerity. The dread sentence may have gone forth in heaven, "Let the things that should have been for his wealth be made to him an occasion of falling." It need not be so with any for whom Jesus Christ has died.
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 894.
References: Psa 69:23.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 3rd series, p. 88. Psa 69:33.—J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 265. Psalm 69—J. Hammond, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 225. Psa 70:4.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1013. Psa 70:5.—Ibid., No. 1018. Psa 70:2-4.—G. G. Bradley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 241. Psa 71:3.—Sermons for Boys and Girls, p. 107; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1858. Psa 71:9.—J. Baldwin Brown, Old Testament Outlines, p. 121, and Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 241; F. E. Paget, Helps and Hindrances to the Christian Life, vol. ii., p. 45. Psa 71:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, No. 998. Psa 71:15.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 198.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 The Source of salvation.
The Source of salvation.
To the chief musician, upon Shoshannim: [a psalm] of David.
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The sixty-ninth psalm is more frequently referred to in the New Testament than any other, except the twenty-second; and always as fulfilled in relation to the Lord Himself or in the fruits and consequences of His rejection. And it is plain, as Delitzsch says, that "The whole psalm is typically prophetic, in as far as it is a declaration of a history of life and suffering, moulded by God into a factual prediction concerning Jesus Christ, whether it be the story of a king or a prophet; and in as far as the Spirit of prophecy has even moulded the declaration itself into the language of prophecy concerning the future One."
It will not be strange, however, to find, according to the title which we have had already in connection with the forty-fifth psalm; al-shoshannim, "the lilies," (so different as these are,) Christ is not seen alone, but with those for whom He suffered. There is not merely "a lily," but "lilies." For a moment -and it is one of the difficulties of the psalm, -in the twenty-sixth verse, "Thy wounded ones"* are seen, as it were, side by side with "Him whom Thou hast smitten;" and this, with the judgment denounced upon the human persecutors, has been a difficulty in the minds of some in seeing the work of atonement in it at all, though the cross is certainly here, for nowhere else could Christ be smitten of God. But there is no forsaking of God, and "though the fact of smiting is referred to, its expiatory power is not at all treated!"
{*One Hebrew MS. is referred to by Coleman, as well as the Syriac version, (which is perhaps as old as the first century A.D.), as having the singular "him," in both places.}
Now, it is surely true that the deepest suffering of the Cross, and absolutely necessary for atonement, was the forsaking of God (see Lev 4:1-35 notes); yet not all the sacrifices speak of this, but only the sin-offering; and that too, only in its first and highest grades. Yet atonement is said to be made by the lower grades also, as well as by the burnt- and trespass-offerings.
Then, the burnt-offering psalm closes, as has been already mentioned with the denunciation of judgment upon the rejectors of Christ, which is here appended, as the seventieth psalm. So that the present one may be as well the trespass- as the fortieth, the burnt-offering. Two things are plainly in accordance with this, that the One who here suffers, owns, not "sins," as in the common version, but "trespasses" and that He restores that which He took not away. This is not simply vicarious penalty, but that restitutive form of it which the trespass-offering presents.
Moreover the association of others with the Unique Sufferer here comes not, in what may be called the body of the psalm; but late in it, among the denunciations of the persecutors.
Admitting thus in the most distinct way that we have neither the full presentation of atonement, nor the fullness of divine grace flowing forth through this, and that these things are connected together as cause and effect, yet this seems not inconsistent with the character of offering set forth; while the governmental aspect of atonement which it expresses (see Lev 5:14 sq., notes) prepares us to find here, more strongly emphasized than elsewhere, the judgment upon rejectors.
1. In the first section we have that identification of Christ with His people which is necessarily involved in vicarious suffering. He is heard in His distress, as the waters of affliction penetrate even to the soul. He is sinking beneath the floods, and into the deep mire where there is no standing ground. The "strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him out of death," of which the epistle to the Hebrews speaks, is emphasized in what follows; and then the countless enemies, with their causeless enmity, while He is paying the debt due by others, not by Himself, -restoring what He took not away.
And here, in the light before God, He sees the awful reality of the evil He has taken upon Him, -hating it, the folly (or impiety) and the trespasses which spring out of this, -with the hatred with which God hates it; even while He owns it His, and bears in His soul the anguish of it.
But to this, then, there must be a limit, that those who wait on God in faith and in desire seek Him -Jehovah, God of hosts and God of Israel, their covenant-God through the sacrifice that He is offering -be not put to shame and confusion, in Him in whom are centred all their hopes. For upon His acceptance depends their salvation for whom He stands, their Representative before God. The work accomplished, righteousness in Him can safely appeal to divine righteousness, -and to righteousness in their behalf.
2. In the next section we go back to His previous life among men, to see Him in the constant strife between good and evil in the world, taking His part with God and therefore suffering. "For Thy sake," He says, "I have borne reproach: shame hath covered my face." And that not only among strangers; for here was the true Joseph, separated from His brethren, a stranger and an alien, refused as Israel’s Messiah, and to become the Gentiles’ Christ. And yet that dwelling-place of God in Israel, and which His work is to secure for them in a time near at hand, was that for which His zeal devoured Him. Twice He vindicated the holiness of what, until His last decisive rejection by them; He spoke of as His Father’s house, and which He would have cleansed from the abominations which were driving Him away from them. In fact, through evils such as these, that house was already empty; and they well knew it, yet repented not of the evil, nor recognized the Deliverer who would have restored all, but was rejected: "the reproaches of them that reproached Thee," He says, "fell on Me." Thus it was then that He became a reproach, because He felt the misery of their condition, wept and fasted in His soul because of it. They looked for power simply to be used on their behalf: they found weakness, for in fact the power that He had He could not use for them. Yet in that weakness which they found in Him He could serve them better, and He did -"crucified through weakness." Yet they understood not this sin which He so lamented; and His sackcloth made Him a "proverb"* to them. They reckoned as ways of men merely, and indeed of evil men, the ways of divine holiness in love which mourned for them. And this contemptuous misunderstanding of Him was found among the elders sitting in the gate, and with the drunkards who made music out of Him: all far from God alike.
{*Notice how the "proverb" has to do with divine government, the moral of God’s ways with men: to which" I suppose" every proverb can be referred. The book of Proverbs thus comes under the number five" as the verse does here.}
3. From these therefore He turns to God; and though in sorrow, yet with the assurance of acceptance. He is in distress, yet doubts not His goodness nor faithfulness; in view of which last He can expect and claim deliverance at His hand. He prays, therefore, for deliverance from that in which He is sinking, and from the enemies that surround Him. He seeks that the flood may not overflow Him; which, as this has already taken place (ver. 2) must mean, not continuously overflow Him, but give place again. So, "let not the deep swallow me up," implies irrecoverable disaster; and "let not the pit shut her mouth upon me" is similar again in this respect. The expressions therefore correspond well with that in Hebrews, "to Him that was able to save Him," not "from," but "out of death: that is, by resurrection (Heb 5:7. Gk.). This was how the Lord was actually answered.
He appeals to experience: He has tasted that "loving-kindness" which "is good," and the "tender mercies," of which He knows that there are a multitude. And He beseeches that God hide not His face from One who is His servant, in this the hour of His strait: an appeal indeed, when we know what this service that He is fulfilling is.
The last verse of this section shows us the extreme point reached. Indeed the two words for redemption used here may seem to present difficulty in any application to the Lord. But there is a redemption by power, as well as by blood, and the application of the first word to the "avenger" (goel from Baal) shows that the latter conception of it is not necessary to the word. It has as its root-thought the demanding back of what has got away from one, and here (as the soul is the life) it is urged that God should intervene in power to restore the life which was His, and had yet passed, or was passing, away. Its restoration would be its "redemption."
The second word also is used for rescuing, setting free, as when it is said that the "people rescued Jonathan, that he died not" (1Sa 14:45). In both cases, therefore, it is the kind of redemption we are to consider, rather than the word simply.
4. There are now three verses which as a fourth section speak briefly of His human feelings under the pressure on Him. The reproach, the shame, the dishonor, are all felt and referred to God, as known to Him. His oppressors are before Him. Around there are none to sympathize with or minister comfort to the Sufferer. Yea, "they gave Me gall for My food," He says; "and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink." This was, as we know, the last indignity before He died: and this was the last scripture that the dying Saviour saw to be unaccomplished, and to fulfill which He uttered aloud His need. These verses, which evidently stand by themselves bring to an end the account of His sufferings, which now manifestly close in death.
5. The solemn denunciation follows, of retribution upon the enemies of Christ and of His people. It will be realized in an entirely different manner according to our conception of the speaker, and of the spirit which breathes in it. If these are the words of mere personal feeling, we shall naturally put them in contrast with the words of Him who at the cross itself prayed for His murderers. This was what was in His heart, and the plea He makes for them, that they knew not what they did, was the sanction of such a prayer. But then there would be those for whom plainly it could no more be uttered. Divine love itself would have to affirm the righteous doom of those who respond to it but with hatred, and this is the character of those before us* here. Hence there is nothing incongruous in this being the language of the Saviour Himself, though not historically His utterance; nay, it is its being His that makes it all so perfectly and manifestly right. In the words of no other is the truth of retribution so strongly emphasized as in His own. Who so competent to speak of it as He who had come down to save men from it? Who could warn so solemnly as He who is the incarnation of divine love itself? Does not that same love speak here when it is heard saying, Let that be, which as the sentence of the Throne at last will actually be?
There is this difference, however, which may be pleaded: that the judgment is in fact that which overtakes men here, and (except by implication) it does not reach into eternity. This is, as we know, the character of Old Testament judgments generally. They are such as come upon men here, the visible witnesses of that which is invisible and eternal. But that alters nothing as to their essential nature, while it gives an additional reason why it should be brought before us in this manner. The visible government of God on earth, even though clouds and darkness are about it, has its attestations and evidences as that which (to use the words of a noted unbeliever) "makes for righteousness." And the dealings of God with Israel in their disobedience and rejection of Christ are a special example of this kind. Thus God’s dealings with men on earth are fitly to be put before us as anticipations and pledges of what in a coming day will come out more manifestly.
Thus we cannot put the Christ of the Old Testament in contrast with the Christ of the New. The grace of the gospel itself exhibits its glory against a background of "eternal judgment." And we need no apology for the language of the psalm, though we may need an explanation of it. If it were not a judgment Christ Himself could affirm; then there could be no justification of it at all, from any lower platform. It would be but the language of human passion and infirmity, susceptible of no further interpretation than as that, and to be left to the condemnation of the enlightened conscience.
The snare of peace and prosperity is what is first insisted on: not, of course, the mere well-filled table of a glutton or an epicure, but this as the image of that enjoyment of present things which for the carnal shuts out what is spiritual and eternal. Thus it is indeed a trap and a snare. How busy, even among Christians, is Satan in shutting out the things of God just by the occupation with and pressure of things which in themselves may not be evil, but which we have not learned to connect with God and to use for God. Alas for the secular part of our lives which in the stealthiest fashion filches away from us so much of "what is really life" (1Ti 6:19: "the life which is life indeed," R.V.). And for the man whose heart is set on earthly things, what a silken snare is their possession! We murmur at the evils and miseries that face us everywhere; but what would it be if men were fed to the full! Judgment may come as well in the smiling abundance which fattens and narrows the heart, as in the rougher fashion in which it is easier to discern it.
The time yet comes in which the eyes darken, and that in which was men’s confidence is removed. Then the "loins" begin to "shake." The dread of the unseen, never anything else but a dread, comes upon them. God begins to be manifested, but in wrath which lays hold upon the guilty. Presently a desolate camp in the desert, a "wall," as the idea is, -a mockery of protection for the feebleness that sought once to it for shelter, but is gone; the tents there, but empty; -becomes the figure of their doom: themselves, where are they?
These four verses bring us to the natural pause in a septenary series, as this is. The last three unveil, as usual, the spiritual meaning. The fifth gives the reason according to divine government; and here alone it is -in a most fitting place, surely, -we see that there are other sufferers than the One great figure here. The part of the guilty ones whose judgment is here detailed, -their part in the Cross was only persecution: with the divine mystery of it, to which we owe all our blessing, they had naught to do. Yet that "they have persecuted Him whom Thou hast smitten," adds surely to the horror of their crime, -a crime for which they would in this very fact seek its justification rather. Why should they not persecute where God had smitten? When that cry that God had forsaken Him reached the ears of those who stood round the cross, would it not indeed seem like such a justification? They had done as they would, and no intervention of God had come in for Him: God had not smitten them, but Him! Just so do things conspire often to seal the delusion of those who invite delusion. Is it not a sign of such a judicial sentence recorded against them as the next verse speaks of, -their iniquity imputed as iniquity, so that they are given over to what they have chosen? All divine grace is to them now but as the utterance of parables which may have more than one interpretation, and be fatally misconstrued.
The association of others with the Lord in this respect, or the mention of them side by side with Him, need not, as I think, be of any special difficulty here. They are not associated with Him in that which was His atoning work, but only in the persecution by His enemies, which could not possibly have wrought this. It was important, on the other hand, to bring them in, just because the actual persecution of the Lord Himself belonged to one generation only by the necessity of the case, but the persecution of His people is, in one way or other, repeated through all generations. In convicting of this guilt, it was important to show that these things are by the Lord Himself classed together: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME?"
Moreover, there is a difference in the experiences: "Thy wounded ones" is not just the same as "whom Thou hast smitten"; and nothing but the parallelism found in the poetry of Scripture could have suggested the rendering of the former as the common version has given it. But the parallel does not require to be carried to this extent.
"Add iniquity to their iniquity" is not also the necessary rendering of the twenty-seventh verse and the moral argument seems against it in any way that this can be explained. The word is not "add," but literally "give," which may be rendered "put," and which in Jon 1:14 is used for, "lay not upon us innocent blood," that is, "impute" it not. We may safely translate it here, "impute iniquity according to their iniquity," -reckon it for what it is. They have reached in fact the limit of forbearance: let the judgment now proceed. In the next verse, therefore, it is argued that the death-penalty is their desert: "let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written (enrolled) among the righteous."
The victory of Christ and righteousness is now briefly celebrated. It is the victory of God, and His Name is declared and glorified in it. The One who was just now the poor and sorrowful One is set on high; and the song of praise begins with the voice of Christ Himself, filled with the joy of God being magnified in the testimony of this deliverance. What does it not imply of joy that shall never end, that work accepted, sin put away, death annulled, Satan overcome! Now has come the substance of the past shadows. The sacrifices are replaced by that which pleases God better than all these. Balm for the afflicted is here; the seekers of God have a heart-reviving message: for the poor are not neglected by Him, and the prisoners -though justly suffering -are not despised by His grace, when they turn to Him. It is the gospel already beginning to be heard in the synagogue of Nazareth (Luk 4:18-19).
Heaven and earth, with the seas and all that are therein, are bidden therefore to praise the Lord together: for Zion shall be saved, the throne of His kingdom upon earth, and the witness of its salvation. Judah too (the worshiper) shall have his cities rebuilt, and dwell in them. And the inheritance shall be for the seed of Jehovah’s servants, and for the lovers of His Name. Amen.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 This whole Ps. should be compared with Psalms 22,…
This whole Ps. should be compared with Psalms 22, 31, 35, 38, , 40. It is the prayer of one who is in deep distress, wrongfully persecuted by enemies, and conscious that, though he is sinful, his sufferings are due to his fidelity to God (Psa_69:1-12). He pleads for deliverance (Psa_69:13-20) and calls upon God to take the severest vengeance on his adversaries (Psa_69:21-28). The Ps. closes with a triumphant strain of praise (Psa_69:29-36). Psa_69:35 points to a date long after the age of David—either during the exile, or, more probably, in the last years of the Jewish monarchy (see Jer_33:10; Jer_34:7).
The situation of the writer closely resembles that of Jeremiah, and the numerous parallels between the Ps. and his prophecies give colour to the conjecture that he may have been its author. This Ps. is more frequently quoted in the NT. than any other, except Psalms 22.
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Title.—Shoshannim] see on Psalms 45.
1. Are come in unto my soul] threaten my very life.
2. Mire.. deep waters] to be understood figuratively of danger and distress.
3. Weary of] RV 'weary with.'
4. I restored, etc.] RM 'I had to restore,' etc., possibly a proverbial phrase for unjust treatment.
7. Cp. Jer_15:15.
8. Cp. Jer_12:6.
9. The zeal, etc.] The Psalmist was consumed by his devotion to God's cause. Thine house] either the actual Temple, profaned by idolatry, or the Jewish nation, fallen from its high ideal. For the latter sense, see Jer_11:15; Jer_12:7; Jer_23:11. The clause is quoted in Joh_2:17.
The reproaches, etc.] see Jer_6:10; Jer_20:8. The words are applied to Christ in Rom_15:3.
11. Sackcloth] the sign of mourning. A proverb] or byword.
12. The gate] the open space beside the city gate where worthless loafers gathered.
13. In an acceptable time] lit. 'in a time of good pleasure,' i.e. at the time thou pleasest.
The truth of thy salvation] the faithfulness of Thy saving grace.
15. The pit] may be, like the waters, a general metaphor for trouble, but it is more likely that the grave is meant.
18. Cp. Jer_15:21.
19. Thou hast known] RV 'thou knowest': cp. Jer_12:3; Jer_15:15; Jer_18:23.
20. Hath broken my heart] cp. Jer_23:9.
21. Gall] some bitter and poisonous plant, perhaps the poppy. Vinegar] wine become sour and undrinkable. The language is figurative, and perhaps proverbial, for cruel mockery of one in trouble. In spite of the verbal coincidence in Mat_27:34, the treatment of Christ by the soldiers had not this character, but was intended to allay His sufferings; and, except as to the fact of His thirst (Joh_19:28), there is no direct reference in the Gospels to this v.
22. And that which.. welfare] RV 'and when they are in peace.' This v. is quoted freely along with Psa_69:23 in Rom_11:9.
23. A prayer that blindness and paralysis may fall upon the Psalmist's enemies.
25. This v. is quoted freely (from LXX) in Act_1:20.
26. Talk to the grief] RV 'tell of the sorrow.' LXX 'add to the sorrow.'
27. Add iniquity, etc.] cause their guilt to be filled up, rather than forgiven. Into thy righteousness] into the salvation which God's righteousness secures for His people.
28. The book of the living] RV 'of life,' the list of the righteous who are to be preserved alive. The reference is not to the future but to the present life.
31. Praise is the truest sacrifice: cp. Psa_50:13, Psa_50:14. Hath horns and hoofs] is full grown as well as ceremonially clean (Lev_11:3).
33. His prisoners] perhaps an allusion to the victims of the first captivity (2Ki_24:10-16).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 Shoshannim (See Scofield "Psa 45:1").
Shoshannim (See Scofield "Psa 45:1").
Save me, O God
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The N.T. quotations from, and references to, this Psalm indicate in what way it adumbrates Christ. It is the psalm of His humiliation and rejection Psa 69:4; Psa 69:7; Psa 69:8; Psa 69:10-12. Psa 69:14-20 may well describe the exercises of His holy soul in Gethsemane Mat 26:36-45 while Psa 69:21 is a direct reference to the cross; Mat 27:34; Mat 27:48; Joh 19:28. The imprecatory verses Psa 69:22-28 are connected Rom 11:9; Rom 11:10 with the present judicial blindness of Israel, Psa 69:25 having special reference to Judas. Act 1:20 who is thus made typical of his generation, which shared his guilt.
See Psalms 72, next in order of the Messianic Psalms.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 69-72
Psalm 69-72
Psalm 69
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The Suffering and Rejected Christ
1. Hated without a cause (Psa 69:1-6)
2. Bearing reproach (Psa 69:7-12)
3. His own prayer (Psa 69:13-21)
4. The retribution (Psa 69:22-28)
5. His exaltation and the glory (Psa 69:29-36)
Psalm 69-72 go together and lead us prophetically from the suffering and rejected Christ to the glory of His kingdom in the Seventy-second Psalm. The Sixty-ninth Psalm, like the Forty-fifth, bears the inscription, “upon Shoshanim” (lilies). It concerns Christ and indirectly also the people who suffer for His sake. The Spirit of God in the New Testament quotes this Psalm repeatedly. See Psa 69:4 and Joh 15:25; Psa 69:9 and Joh 2:17 and Rom 15:3; Psa 69:22-23 and Rom 11:9-10; Psa 69:25 and Act 1:20. Psa 69:21 was literally fulfilled as we find from the Gospels, Mat 27:34; Mat 27:48; Mar 15:23; Mar 15:36; Luk 23:36 and Joh 19:28-30. No further evidence is needed that the Lord Jesus Christ in His suffering and rejection is here described. Yet the critical school attempts to deny the prophetic aspect. Referring to Psa 69:21 and what the Gospels say about our Lord’s words, “I thirst” that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, Prof. Davidson saith in the Century Bible “the fulfilment of Scripture referred to must not be understood as the accomplishment of a direct prophecy.” And again in commenting on Psa 69:22-23, quoted by the Spirit of God in Rom 11:1-36, the same professor declares, “These imprecations are among the darkest and fiercest in the Psalter. The gulf which separates these verses from ‘Father forgive them,’ marks the impassable limits of typology.” But it does not in the least. The words apply to the nation as righteous retribution from the side of God after they rejected His Son. In His heart there is still the same love, for they are still beloved for the Father’s sake. But these imprecations also belong rightly into the lips of the remnant against the antichristian oppressors of the last days. Well may we read the Psalm and think of all His suffering and sorrow in our behalf. The Psalm ends with His praise, the exaltation and victory of the Christ who died for the ungodly.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Messiah’s Vicarious Suffering.
The Messiah’s Vicarious Suffering.
To the chief musician, for use in the public assembly of the congregation, upon Shoshannim, to be sung to the melody "On the Lilies. " The psalm is referred to seven times in the New Testament, either by quotation or by unmistakable implication, as prophetical of Christ and the Messianic period. Cf Joh 15:25; Joh 2:17; Mat 27:34; Joh 19:29.
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Lament and Prayer
v. 1. Save Me, O God; for the waters are come in unto My soul, the Messiah crying in the agony and distress, in the anguish of His sufferings, their flood threatening His very life.
v. 2. I sink in deep mire, into the abyss of a swamp’s sink-hole, where there is no standing, where He has lost His foothold; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow Me, overwhelming and submerging Him.
v. 3. I am weary of My crying, with His calling for sympathy and help in His great trouble; My throat is dried, burned or scorched, parched and raw, by the excessive use of His voice; Mine eyes fail while I wait for My God, melting in tears, His eyes have become exhausted, worn out with straining in the unfulfilled hoping and longing for rescue at the hands of God. The Messiah now pictures the nature of His misery, the reason for His bitter complaint.
v. 4. They that hate Me without a cause, while He is innocent of any wrong-doing, are more than the hairs of Mine head, having increased at such a rate that they outnumber the hairs which are commonly considered beyond numbering; they that would destroy Me, desiring to cut Him off from the land of the living, being Mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty, they make use of falsehood and deceit in trying to gain their object. Then I restored that which I took not away, literally, "What not I robbed, then I restored," that is, the Messiah not only alleges His personal innocence and sinlessness with great emphasis, but also states that He is being held to pay, to give compensation for, something which He did not rob, of which He did not despoil those seeking redress. The entire paragraph pictures the climax of Christ’s sufferings. Both in Gethsemane and on Calvary the anguish of soul with which He was battling was of a nature exceeding all human experience and understanding. All His calling at that time availed Him nothing; He was obliged to drink the cup of God’s wrath to the very dregs. His enemies, operating with the meanest falsehoods, set upon Him without reason, to take His life. But the supreme secret is found in the fact that He was called upon to replace, by means of this suffering, what He had not robbed. He bore the punishment of the sins of mankind; the guilt of transgressions as committed by countless human beings was charged to His account. It was a vicarious suffering which Jesus Christ endured, a vicarious satisfaction which He was called upon to render. God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, 2Co 5:21. It is as the Substitute of mankind that the Messiah now laments.
v. 5. O God, Thou knowest My foolishness, the folly of the trespasses which He here ascribes to Himself; and My sins are not hid from Thee; for so fully did He enter into His role as the Substitute of mankind that He stood before God in the nakedness of the guilt imputed to Him, as though it were really His own.
v. 6. Let not them that wait on Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for My sake, His prayer being that those who were depending upon Him for their salvation and thus putting their trust in the true God alone should not be disappointed in their hope; let not those that seek Thee, namely, by looking to the Messiah for their only deliverance, be confounded for My sake, O God of Israel. In the midst of His great offering our great High Priest did not neglect His intercession for the believers; while He was suffering as the greatest sinner who ever lived on earth, His one thought was for those whose transgressions He had taken upon Himself.
v. 7. Because for Thy sake, by God’s predetermined foreknowledge and counsel, I have borne reproach, Isa 53:4-10; shame hath covered My face, the full disgrace of the guilt of all mankind.
v. 8. I am become a stranger unto My brethren, the members of His own nation regarding Him with aversion in His great Passion, and an alien unto My mother’s children, His very relatives being among those who refused to accept Him as the promised Savior, Joh 1:11; Joh 7:5.
v. 9. For the zeal of Thine house, not only the outward building of the Temple, Joh 2:17, but especially for the spiritual temple of Jehovah, for His holy Church, hath eaten Me up, consuming Him with anxiety; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon Me, whatever objections were raised by the enemies to take away the honor of God, struck Him, the Messiah, with full force.
v. 10. When I wept, in every bitter experience of His ministry, and chastened My soul with fasting, keeping under restraint, aloof from all wickedness, that was to My reproach; no matter what His behavior, some critic arose to condemn Him, Mat 11:19.
v. 11. I made sackcloth also My garment, as one in deep mourning, abstaining from even the appearance of evil; and I became a proverb to them, His name and acts being bandied about jestingly.
v. 12. They that sit in the gate, the nobles, the leaders of the people, speak against Me; and I was the song of drunkards, of drinkers of strong drink, the rabble of the taverns and streets joining in making mockery of Him, not only during His ministry, but especially when He hung on the cross. The Messiah now returns to the situation as pictured in the beginning of the psalm.
v. 13. But as for Me, placing His own person in extreme opposition to that of His mocking enemies, My prayer is unto Thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time; He knew that the Father is well pleased with Him in spite of the degradation of His sufferings. O God, in the multitude of Thy mercy hear Me, answering Him favorably, in the truth of Thy salvation, since it was the will of God that not a single soul of the great host of sinners should be lost, but that salvation should be gained for all men.
v. 14. Deliver Me out of the mire, the swamp of the evils which had been laid upon Him,and let Me not sink; let Me be delivered from them that hate Me, and out of the deep waters, the floods of His misery and anguish which threatened to engulf Him.
v. 15. Let not the water-flood overflow Me, neither let the deep, the abyss of death, swallow Me up, and let not the pit, the cistern, or well, shut her mouth upon Me, the picture being that of a receptacle for rain-water in the steppe, whose opening was shut with a large stone.
v. 16. Hear Me, O Lord, answering Him favorable; for Thy loving-kindness is good, comforting and gracious; turn unto Me according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, drawing near to Him in unmerited favor; for He was not merely playing a part, but was actually laboring under the burden of sins placed upon Him.
v. 17. And hide not Thy face from Thy servant, in unforgiving anger; for I am in trouble, in the distress and anguish of the guilt tormenting Him; hear Me speedily, an urgent cry for early deliverance, Psa 22:1.
v. 18. Draw nigh unto My soul, for the purpose of rendering His divine assistance, and redeem it; deliver Me because of Mine enemies, who were upon Him to take His life.
v. 19. Thou hast known My reproach and My shame and My dishonor, the result of the sin imputed to Him according to the divine counsel of love for the salvation of mankind; Mine adversaries are all before Thee, no one being more familiar with the enemies and their plans, with the devil and his host, than the omniscient God. The Messiah’s lament grows in urgency as His distress increases.
v. 20. Reproach hath broken My heart, the jeering slanders which struck Him from all sides crushed His soul; and I am full of heaviness, weak, failing under the burden; and I looked for some to take pity, waiting for sympathy and condolence in His unexampled misery, but there was none; and for comforters, men whose show of understanding kindness might serve to alleviate His anguish, but I found none. He had to tread the wine-press of God’s wrath all alone.
v. 21. They gave Me also gall for My meat, for food in the midst of His sufferings; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink, offering Him this astringent liquid when His body was racked with the most unbearable thirst. Such was the awful misery, the untold agony; the immeasurable anguish of Christ’s suffering, in His capacity as the Substitute of mankind, as the Redeemer of the world.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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General Information:
This psalm is a prayer for help.
For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship"
set to Shoshannim
This may refer to a style of music. See how you translated this in Psalms 45:1.
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
for the waters have put my life in danger
The writer describes the troubles in his life as if he were drowning in a flood of water. AT: "for it feels like I am drowning in the waters" (See: Metaphor)
I sink in deep mire
The writer describes the troubles in his life as if he were sinking in deep mud. AT: "For it feels like I am sinking in deep mud and will die" (See: Metaphor)
mire
thick mud
there is no place to stand
The writer uses a negative statement to stress how unstable and uncertain his condition is. (See: Litotes)
I have come into deep waters, where the floods flow over me
The writer describes his problems as if he was drowning in a deep, raging river. AT: "t feels like I am in deep waters, and the floodwaters flow over me" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
psalm
David
save
God
water
flood
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 Pss 69–72 These last four psalms of Book Two…
Pss 69–72 These last four psalms of Book Two contrast with the psalms describing God’s mighty acts in creation and in redemption, capped by God’s march to Zion (Pss 65–68). Psalms 69–71 portray the king’s anguish, and Ps 72 responds with a prayer for God to bless the king.
Ps 69 In this individual lament, the poet expresses his vulnerability, humiliation, and overwhelming pain, asking God to vindicate him for the sake of the righteous.
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69:title to the tune “Lilies”: Psalm 45 also notes this tune, but Ps 45 celebrates the glory of kingship, whereas Ps 69 is the cry of a tired king who feels abandoned by the Lord.
69:1-2 The psalmist sees himself as almost drowning but still surviving chaotic forces and alienation from God (see 42:7; 69:14, 15; Isa 8:8).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.