Psalm 69 - overcomer - The Zeal for Your House

This Psalm, like Psalm 22, gives details about the Lord's crucifixion. Psalm 22 is totally about the Lord Jesus, and much of it cannot be David's experience. This psalm, however, seems to be all be David's experience, but some of the verses apply more literally to the Messiah. Verse 5 cannot apply to the Messiah.

Verse	David	Messiah
1	yes	yes
2	yes	possibly
3	yes	yes
4	probably	yes
5	yes	no
6	yes	yes
7	probably	yes
8	possibly	yes
9	possibly	quoted in NT
10	yes	yes
11	yes	probably no
12	yes	yes
13	yes	yes
14	yes	yes
15	yes	yes
16	yes	yes
17	yes	yes
18	yes	yes
19	yes	yes
20	yes	yes
21	maybe figuratively	quoted in NT
22	yes	quoted in NT
23	yes	quoted in NT
24	yes	yes
25	yes	quoted in NT
26	yes	yes
27	yes	yes
28	yes	yes
29	yes	yes
30	yes	yes
31	yes	yes
32	yes	yes
33	yes	yes
34	yes	yes
35	yes	yes
36	yes	yes

Structure:

1. David's complaint - vv 1-12

a. Overwhelmed by waters of death - vv 1-2

b. Sunk in deep mire of confusion - v2

c. Weary in calling for God's help - v3

d. Hated by multitudes for no reason - v4

e. I have confessed my sin to You - v5

f. Prayer that others not be ashamed because of me - v6

g. I have borne scorn for God's sake, for my zeal for God's house. - v7-12

2. Turning point - David's prayer for himself - vv 13-18

a. In time of God's favor - v 13

b. In Your great mercy - v 13

c. In the truth of Your salvation - v13

d. Deliver me - vv14-15

1) from the mire - v14

2) from sinking - v14

3) from those who hate me - v14

4) from the flood of waters - v15

5) from the pit - v15

e. Because Your mercy is good - v16

f. Turn to me according to Your great compassions - v16

g. Do not hide Your face from Your servant - v17

h. Answer me speedily - v17

i. Draw near to my soul - v18

j. Redeem my soul and ransom me because of my enemies - v18

3. My reproach, shame, dishonor and foes - vv 19-21

a. Reproach has broken my heart - v20

b. No sympathy from others - v20

c. They gave me gall and vinegar - v21

4. Prayer for judgment upon the persecutors - vv 22-28

a. Let their welfare become a trap to them - v 22

b. Their eyes be blinded - v 23

c. Their backs be bent - v 23

d. Pour out Your wrath on them - v24

e. Their camp be desolate - v25

f. The reason for the curse - they persecute and slander the one ones God has smitten - v26

g. Do not let them enter into Your righteousness - v27

h. Blot them out of the book of life - v28

5. Concluding prayer and praise - vv29-36

a. Let Your salvation set me on high - v29

b. I'll praise God's name in a song with thanksgiving - v30

1) It shall please the Lord - v31

c. The meek will rejoice - v32

d. Those seeking God shall live. - v32

e. For the Lord hears the needy. - v33

f. Let all creation praise Him - v34

g. For God will save Zion - vv35-36

Tune: See Psalm 45 for the tune and "Upon the water-lillies". I had chosen the tune "Joys are flowing like a river" for Psalm 45 for the reasons given in that Psalm. Since this Psalm is also "Upon the water-lillies", I tried to use the same tune for this Psalm, but it did not work.

I searched for a tune that would go with "water-lillies" and also work for both Psalm 45 and this Psalm, and I tried the lively beautiful tune "When thou wakest in the morning". This worked for both at first, but I found it is too complex for a long psalm like Psalm 69.

I tried "Let us contemplate the grape vine", which seemed to work for both. But when I would try to sing Ps 69 from memory using that tune, I kept falling into the simpler tune, Jesus, I my cross have taken (Alternate Tune). Now I am experimenting with the current tune. If this tune works I will try to convert Psalm 45 to use this tune.

Thus for the second time we have a Psalm entitled "upon the lilies." In the forty-fifth 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. - C. H. Spurgeon

v1 - 1st request: Save me.

1st suffering: David is drowning in deep waters, which are deep troubles.

This was the Messiah's experience when He was overwhelmed at Gethsemane because all the sins of mankind were placed on His shoulders. (Mark 14:33-34)

"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 (Prov. 18:14). Our Lord in this verse is seen before us as a Jonah, crying, "The waters compassed me about, even to the soul" (Jonah 2:5). 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 succor us when we, like Peter, beginning to sink, cry to him, "Lord, save, or we perish." - Spurgeon

v2- 2nd suffering: David is sunk in deep mire, which is a deeply confused state. I can't go forward to follow the Lord.

I feel this way when I have too much too do, and I am afraid to do it.

"I sink in deep mire." In water one might swim, but in mud and mire all struggling is hopeless; the mire sucks down its victim.

"Where there is no standing." Everything gave way under the Sufferer; he could not get foothold for support—this is a worse fate than drowning. ... Let our hearts feel the emotions, both of contrition and gratitude, as we see in this simile the deep humiliation of our Lord. I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. The sorrow gathers even greater force; he is as one cast into the sea, the waters go over his head. His sorrows were first within, then around, and now above him. ... His sufferings were unlike all others in degree, the waters were such as soaked into the soul; the mire was the mire of the abyss itself, and the floods were deep and overflowing. To us the promise is, "the rivers shall not overflow thee" (Isa. 43:2), but no such word of consolation was vouchsafed to him. My soul, thy Well beloved endured all this for thee. Many waters could not quench his love, neither could the floods drown it (SoS 8:7); and, because of this, thou hast the rich benefit of that covenant assurance, "as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee" (Isa. 54:9). He stemmed the torrent of almighty wrath, that we might for ever rest in Jehovah's love. - Spurgeon

v3- 3rd suffering: God is not answering me. This goes along with the confused state of deep mire in v2.

I think David's eyes fail him because he is looking and looking for God's answer, and it does not come. He sees something happen, and he thinks that is God's answer, but it is not.

v 4- lit. what I took not away I then return

ref. John 15:25

4th suffering: Many strong enemies are trying to put an end to me. This is in addition to the deep waters in vv1-2 because of v14.

v5 - lit. and my trespasses from You are not hidden.

See Psalm 38:5 and note.

1st possible reason for my suffering.

This tells me that David wrote this psalm some time after his terrible and utterly foolish sin against Uriah the Hittite. I think David wrote this during Absalom's rebellion.

David had committed a terrible folly, and throughout his life after that he suffered terribly because of it.

The Messiah committed no folly or sin. But He bore the sins of all mankind.

v6 - 2nd request.

I pray that God's seekers not be ashamed or confused.

He addresses God as the God of hosts, that is the God of armies, who is actively fighting, and then as the God of Israel, the God whose concern is for His people, and not just me.

ref. Psalm 25:3

v7 - lit. Shame covered my face.

v8 - lit. and an alien to my mother's sons.

ref. John 1:11; 7:5

5th suffering: My relatives are distant from me.

v9 - lit. and the reproaches of them that reproach Thee

David had a great zeal for God's house, but I don't know that he was persecuted for it. But the verse does not actually say that David was reproached because of his zeal for God's house. Jesus was persecuted because of His zeal for God's house.

ref. John 2:17; Rom 15:3

6th suffering: I am being reproached.

2nd reason for my suffering. The first reason in v5 was a possible reason. This is a definite one.

v10 - lit. and insults to me it became.

David's excessive weeping over his son, Absalom's, death did become to him insults from his commander, Joab. Joab was right in his rebuke, but he was also insulting, when he could have been comforting (2Sam 18:33-19:7).

This verse through v12 give details of the reproaches upon me in v9.

v11 - lit. a proverb I became to them

"I made sackcloth also my garment." This David did literally (2Sam 3:31;etc), but we have no reason to believe that Jesus did. In a spiritual sense he, as one filled with grief, was always a sackcloth wearer. - Spurgeon

The 2 times where David wore sackcloth recorded in the Bible did not result, as far as we know, in him being ridiculed. I expect that David wore sackcloth over the death of his son, Absalom, and Joab would likely have insultingly rebuked him for this as he did for David's weeping.

v12 - I am thinking of replying with this verse in response to people that make fun of me or someone else on social media. But I have to be true to the following verse also.

"And I was the song of the drunkard." The ungodly know no merrier jest than that in which the name of the holy is traduced. ... The character of the man of Nazareth was so far above the appreciation of the men of strength to mingle strong drink, it was so much out of their way and above their thoughts, that it is no wonder it seemed to them ridiculous, and therefore well adapted to create laughter over their cups. The saints are ever choice subjects for satire. ... What a wonder of condescension is here that he who is the adoration of angels should stoop to be the song of drunkards! What amazing sin that he whom seraphs worship with veiled faces should be a scornful proverb among the most abandoned of men. - Spurgeon

ref. Mat 27:41-2; Mark 15:17-20

v13 - 3rd request. first praise

Ref. 2Cor 6:2; Isa 49:8

This is the best way to answer reproach.

This is the turning point in the Psalm from looking at my situation to God's mercy.

O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me. Even the perfect one makes his appeal to the rich mercy of God, much more should we. To misery no attribute is more sweet than mercy, and when sorrows multiply, the multitude of mercy is much prized. When enemies are more than the hairs of our head, they are yet to be numbered, but God's mercies are altogether innumerable, and let it never be forgotten that every one of them is an available and powerful argument in the hand of faith. - Spurgeon

v14 - Lit. Deliver me from the mud, and do not let me sink. Let me be delivered from my haters and from depths of waters.

3rd request continued through v18

I pray regarding my sufferings: suffering #2 sinking in the mire (v2), #4 those who hate me (v4), and #1 depths of waters (v1). The "and" connecting "my haters" with "depths of waters" indicates that these are 2 different sufferings.

v16 - My favorite verse in this psalm.

2nd praise

The reason for God to answer me.

This builds on the turning point in v13. I know Your mercy is good.

v17 - Our Lord was the perfection of patience, yet he cried urgently for speedy mercy; and therein he gives us liberty to do the same, so long as we add, "nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." - Spurgeon

v18 - Deliver me because of mine enemies, lest they should, in their vaunting, blaspheme thy name, and boast that thou art not able to rescue those who put their trust in thee. - Spurgeon

v20 - Showing sympathy and comfort to others in their affliction is no small thing. I did not realize that until my son went to be with the Lord, and I am so grateful for the people who came to his funeral. Now I always try to go to the funerals involving people I know.

v21 - ref John 19:28-30

This may have happened to David figuratively, but to his descendant, Jesus, literally.

In vv 21 to 28 there are 4 things in 2 pairs that the Jewish people did to their Messiah:

1. Gave Jesus gall for food. v21

2. Gave Jesus vinegar to drink. v21

3. Persecuted the one smitten by God. v26

4. Published reports which caused those pierced by God to suffer more. v26

There are 12 resulting judgments in pairs:

1. Their table would become a snare. v22

2. Their welfare would become a stumbling block. v22

3. They would be blinded. v23

4. They could not stand up straight but waver continually. v23

5. God would pour out His wrath on them. v24

6. God's fierce anger would take hold of them. v24

7. Their holy city would be desolate. v25

8. No one would dwell in their religious fold. v25

9. God would add iniquity to their iniquity. v27

10. They would not enter into God's righteousness. v27

11. They would lose eternal life. v28

12. They would not be included with the righteous. v28

v22 - 4th request through v29

ref. Romans 11:9

This judgment on the Messiah's people is the result of them giving Jesus gall for His food and vinegar for His thirst in the previous verse.

This judgment is that the Jewish people would be materially prosperous, but this prosperity would be a trap and stumbling block to them. It would cause them to forget God and not seek God (Prov 30:8-9).

It also caused evil people to be jealous of them and to slander and persecute them, for which those slanderers and persecutors will be judged.

v23 - ref. Rom 11:7,10,25

This is God's judgment on the Jewish people for rejecting their Messiah. It is not permanent. When the church age, the times of the gentiles are fulfilled, God will cause events to let all Israel who seek the truth to see that Jesus is their Messiah. (Rom 11:25-29; Luke 21:24; Rev 11:13); see notes on v25.

v24 - This has happened to the Jewish people.

1Thes 2:15-16. It could happen to us to if we slander others (Rom 11:17-21).

v25 - Ref. Mat 23:38; Acts 1:20

The Jewish people as God's chosen were and are to be a blessing to all nations to be the means by which all races would have the God of Israel as their God (Gen 9:27; 12:3; Gal 3:14). The Jews who do not believe in the Messiah have lost this wonderful blessing, but they will regain it in the last days when through much tribulation they realize that Jesus is their promised Messiah (Rom 11:25; Hos 3:3-5; 5:14-6:3; Micah 5:1b-3).

In Acts 1:20, Peter quotes this verse and changes the plural pronoun "their" to the singular "his", applying it to Judas. I think Ps 69:25 speaks about Judas and the 3 Jewish shepherds, the high priests, elders and scribes (Matt 16:21, etc), whom the Lord caused to perish in Zec 11:8.

Ps 69:22-24 are not as serious as Ps 69:25-28. Ps 69:22-24 seem to refer to the unbelieving Jews in general according to Rom 11:9-10. But vv 25-28 are much more serious and seem to refer to eternal perdition. In Acts, Peter quoted Ps 69:25 to refer to Judas, but it also applied to others, such as those that held down the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18) by bribing the Roman soldiers to say that Jesus was not resurrected.

v26 - lit. for they persecute him whom You have smitten, and they talk for the sorrow of those whom You have wounded.

I see some Christians publish unproven anti-Israel accusations. They don't verify if what they have read is true. This causes Israel to suffer. Adding to people's suffering when they are already suffering will be judged by the God of Israel. (Rom 11:21)

v27 - lit. Give iniquity upon their iniquity, and do not let them enter Your righteousness.

As they have added suffering to those suffering, God will add iniquity to their iniquity. This is very serious.

v28 - This is to lose eternal life. (Rev 3:5; etc)

v31 - ref Ps 40:6; Hos 6:6

v32 - "Your heart shall live" is to be given a new heart and a new spirit. (Eze 36:26-27)

v33 2nd praise through the end of the psalm

The Lord's captives are Christians whose lives are given to Him.

v35 Why does David say, cities of Judah instead of Israel? "Judah" refers to the Jewish people specifically, and "Israel" refers to God's chosen people, both Old Testament saints and Christians. I think this refers to the millennium and the physical land of Israel.

v36 I think "the seed of His servants" are the Jewish people. "They that love His name" are Christians who are grafted into Israel.