Psalms · psalm 69 of 150
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Psalm 69 is the lament of David, sunk in deep waters, hated without cause and put to shame because of his zeal for God. He cries out to be rescued, describes the scorn he suffers and says he was given vinegar for his thirst. He asks for justice against his enemies and ends with a promise to praise God, who will save Zion and those who love his name.
The title attributes it to David and addresses it to the choirmaster, to the tune of Lilies. It belongs to Book II. After Psalm 22, it is one of the psalms most quoted in the New Testament: the Gospels and the letters apply it to Jesus and to the church. It is a long and raw lament, with a part of prayer for rescue, a part of prayer against enemies and a part of final praise.
David begins with an urgent plea: save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my soul. He is sinking in deep mire where there is no foothold, and he is weary with crying out, his throat parched and his eyes failing as he waits for God. Those who hate him without cause are more than the hairs of his head, and they make him restore what he did not steal. He admits that God knows his folly, yet asks that those who wait for God not be put to shame because of him.
Verses 7 to 12 explain his suffering: for God's sake he has borne reproach. He has become a stranger to his brothers and an alien to his mother's sons. Zeal for God's house has consumed him, and the insults of those who insult God have fallen on him. He wept and fasted, put on sackcloth, and they mocked him; he became the talk of those who sit in the gate and the song of drunkards.
Verses 13 to 21 are the prayer proper: at an acceptable time, may God answer in the abundance of his steadfast love and rescue him from the mire. He asks not to be swept away or swallowed by the deep. God knows his reproach, his shame and his dishonor. Reproach has broken his heart. He looked for comforters and found none. They gave him poison for food and vinegar for his thirst.
Verses 22 to 28 ask that his enemies reap the consequences of their wickedness: that their table become a snare, their eyes grow dark and their camp be desolate. May they be blotted out of the book of the living and not be enrolled with the righteous. Finally, in verses 29 to 36, David declares himself afflicted and in pain, yet he will praise God's name with song, which will please the Lord more than an ox. The humble will see it and be glad. Heaven, earth and the seas will praise him, for God will save Zion, rebuild the cities of Judah, and those who love his name will dwell in it.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
David asks God to save him because the waters have come up to his soul and he is sinking in deep mire with no foothold. It is a vivid picture of distress that he cannot solve by his own strength.
Zeal for God's house has consumed him, and the insults of those who insult God have fallen on him. The New Testament quotes the first part in John 2:17 and the second in Romans 15:3, applied to Jesus.
David prays to the Lord at an acceptable time and asks to be heard in the abundance of his steadfast love. His prayer does not rest on his merit but on God's faithful love.
Instead of comfort, they gave him poison for food and vinegar for his thirst. The Gospels take up this picture when Jesus is offered vinegar on the cross, in Matthew 27:34, 48 and John 19:28-29.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: That he is sinking in deep mire with no foothold and that the waters have come up to his soul. — Psalm 69:1-2
Answer: That they are more than the hairs of his head and hate him without cause. — Psalm 69:4
Answer: Zeal for God's house. — Psalm 69:9
Answer: To rescue him from the mud so that he does not sink. — Psalm 69:14
Answer: Vinegar. — Psalm 69:21
Answer: To praise God's name with a song and magnify him with thanksgiving. — Psalm 69:30
Psalm 69 gives words to those who suffer for doing right or for defending God and his people. David does not hide his pain or spiritualize it too quickly. In a Sunday school class you can talk about how to accompany someone who is rejected for their faith and about how the church can be the comfort David did not find.
For Christians the psalm also points to Jesus, who bore reproach and was given vinegar, and who was zealous for his Father's house. That allows us to read it with hope: the righteous sufferer is not abandoned, and God's last word is salvation. Someone going through a dark time can pray with the psalm and follow David's path toward praise.
Psalm 69 ends with the certainty that God will save Zion and that those who love his name will dwell in it. Psalm 70 is a very short prayer for help, which repeats in other words the cry that God not delay.
It quotes it several times. John 2:17 applies verse 9 to Jesus' zeal in the temple; John 15:25 recalls that they hated him without cause; Romans 15:3 takes the second half of verse 9; and the Gospels take up the vinegar of verse 21 at the crucifixion. In Acts 1:20 Peter quotes verse 25 to speak of Judas.
The so-called imprecatory psalms ask God for justice, not for personal revenge. David leaves the punishment in the Lord's hands instead of taking it himself. Christians read them in the light of Jesus, who commands us to love our enemies, but they also use them to remember that God is just and that evil does not go unanswered.