Psalms 69
Big idea: After Psalm 22, the psalm the New Testament quotes most about the cross — and it starts with a man going under. Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. What sank him is named in verse 9 and John quotes it when Jesus clears the temple: the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. He is suffering someone else's insults. Verse 21 supplies the vinegar. And then the psalm turns and asks for something the Gospels never repeat, in some of the harshest lines in Scripture — before ending, remarkably, with heaven and earth and the seas praising.
Psalm 69 is a long drowning. Psalm 70 is five verses of the same emergency, stripped to the words that matter.
69:1–12 — The zeal of your house consumes me
After Psalm 22, the psalm the Gospel writers quote most, and its trouble is entirely social. He is drowning, but what is drowning him is reputation — a stranger to his own brothers, gossip at the city gate, the subject of drinking songs. And it does not claim innocence: verse 5 hands God his own foolishness before asking for anything. Verse 9 is quoted twice in the New Testament, of the temple and of Christ.
1 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David. Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God. 4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away. 5 God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you. 6 Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel. 7 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face. 8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children. 9 For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. 10 When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach. 11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. 12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
69:13–21 — They gave me vinegar to drink
The middle movement asks not to be swallowed — by flood, by deep, by a pit that shuts its mouth — and then names what has actually broken him. It is not the water. 'Reproach has broken my heart', and the wound is the search that came back empty: he looked for pity and comforters and found none. Verse 21's vinegar is offered at the crucifixion in all four Gospels.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation. 14 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. 15 Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me. 16 Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me. 17 Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily! 18 Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies. 19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you. 20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none. 21 They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
69:22–29 — Let their table become a snare
The passage readers most want to skip, and Paul quotes the first two verses of it in Romans 11 — applied, uncomfortably, to Israel's temporary blindness. What is asked for is reversal rather than pain: the table that fed them becomes the snare, the eyes that watched go dark. Verse 26 gives the psalm's stated reason, and it is a specific charge — they persecute someone God has already wounded.
22 Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap. 23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent. 24 Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them. 25 Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt. 27 Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness. 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous. 29 But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.
69:30–36 — Better than an ox
The psalm turns, and its first act is to price a song above an ox. That is not sentiment — it is the same argument Psalm 50 and Psalm 51 make, and coming from a man with nothing left it is also all he can afford. Then the audience widens to heaven, earth and the seas, and the ending is architectural: cities rebuilt, and children inheriting them.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31 It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs. 32 The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live. 33 For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people. 34 Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein! 35 For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it. 36 The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).