Psalms 69

David cries out from overwhelming trouble. He is hated, mocked and abandoned, and he suffers because of his devotion to God. The psalm moves from desperate plea to fierce prayer against his enemies, and ends in confident praise and hope for Zion. The New Testament sees Jesus in several of its lines.

Psalms 69:1-2

The psalmist uses the picture of drowning. The water is at his neck, the mud gives no footing, and the flood is closing over him. He is not describing a small difficulty. He is describing a danger he cannot escape alone, so he calls on God to save him.

BSA: neck (“soul, very life”): The Hebrew word is nephesh, so the danger is to his whole life, not just his throat.

See also: Psalm 40:2; Jonah 2:5.

Psalms 69:3

Prayer has worn him out. His voice is hoarse, his eyes are tired from watching, and still no answer has come. Yet he keeps looking toward ‘my God’. Faith here is not calm. It is staying turned toward God while exhausted.

BSA: fail (“grow dim, are worn out”): His eyes are spent from long waiting, and he has not given up on God.

Psalms 69:4

His enemies are beyond counting, and they hate him for nothing. The last line may mean he is forced to give back what he never took. Jesus applied the words ‘hated without cause’ to Himself, because He too was hated though He had done no wrong.

BSA: without cause (“without a cause or reason”): The hatred has no just basis, which is why the suffering is so unfair.

See also: John 15:25; Psalm 35:19.

Psalms 69:5

The psalmist does not claim to be perfect. He is innocent of the charges his enemies make, but he admits he is a sinner before God. Nothing can be hidden from God, so he does not pretend. Honesty before God is the safest ground for prayer.

BSA: folly (“foolishness, foolish actions”): He admits real foolish deeds, though not the ones his enemies accuse him of.

Psalms 69:6

He is concerned for other believers as well as himself. If God lets him be shamed, those who trust God might lose heart. His prayer is not selfish. He asks for rescue partly so that God’s people are not discouraged.

BSA: ashamed (“disappointed, humiliated”): If his hope seems to fail, others may think hope in God fails too.

Psalms 69:7

Here the suffering has a cause: his loyalty to God. The scorn comes ‘for Your sake’. This is a comfort to anyone mocked for faith. Shame covering the face pictures a person who cannot lift his head among others.

BSA: sake (“on Your account, because of You”): His shame is the price of belonging to God.

See also: 1 Peter 4:14.

Psalms 69:8

Even his own family has turned away from him. He feels like an outsider in his father’s house. Jesus’ brothers also did not believe in Him at first. Faith in God can cost a person the closeness of family.

BSA: foreigner (“alien, stranger”): His own relatives treat him as an outsider.

See also: John 7:5.

Psalms 69:9

His passion for God’s house drives everything. The first line was recalled by the disciples when Jesus cleansed the temple, and Paul quotes the second line about Christ in Romans. Love for God means taking on the insults aimed at Him.

BSA: zeal (“passion, fervent devotion”): His devotion burns so strongly that it eats him up.

Hebrew: קִנְאַת (qin’at, H7068) — “zeal, burning jealousy.” The word describes a fierce, protective love, like a heart that cannot stand to see what it loves dishonored.

See also: John 2:17; Romans 15:3.

Psalms 69:10-11

Tears, fasting and sackcloth are signs of humble grief and prayer. Instead of sympathy, he gets contempt. The people around him turn his sorrow into a joke. Doing the right thing in the right spirit does not always earn respect.

BSA: sport (“a proverb, a byword, an object of scorn”): People use his name as an example of someone to laugh at.

Psalms 69:12

The gate was the place where town leaders met and business was done. The respectable talk about him there, and the drunks make songs about him in the streets. He is mocked by both the high and the low.

BSA: gate (“the city entrance, a place of gathering”): The gate was the public square, so his shame is known by everyone.

Psalms 69:13

The mood changes with ‘But’. He turns from his enemies to the LORD. He asks for ‘a time of favor’, a moment when God will act. He rests his hope on God’s covenant love and God’s faithfulness, not on his own worth.

BSA: loving devotion (“mercy, lovingkindness”): This is God’s steady, covenant love, which does not give up on His people. favor (“acceptance, goodwill”): He asks for a season when God shows His welcome openly.

Hebrew: חֶסֶד (chesed, H2617) — “loyal, covenant love.” It is love that keeps its promises, which is why David can appeal to it.

See also: Isaiah 49:8.

Psalms 69:14-15

The drowning picture returns, now as a prayer. He asks not to sink, be swallowed, or be shut into the Pit, a word for the grave or the place of the dead. He asks God to keep him from final defeat.

BSA: Pit (“underworld, grave”): This is the place of the dead, the most feared end of the flood.

Psalms 69:16-17

He appeals to God’s goodness and compassion. He asks God not to hide His face, which means to look on him and help. He calls himself God’s servant, and he asks for a quick answer. A servant has a claim on his master’s care.

BSA: compassion (“pity, tender mercies”): The Hebrew word suggests the tender feeling a parent has for a child. face (“presence, countenance”): For God to hide His face is to withdraw His presence and help.

Psalms 69:18

He asks God to come close and to redeem him. ‘Redeem’ and ‘ransom’ recall the buying back of a person from slavery or danger. He wants God near, not just a distant rescue. This is a prayer that God will personally take his side.

BSA: redeem (“rescue, set free”): God is asked to act as one who buys back what is His own. soul (“my inner being, my life”): He asks God to come close to his whole self.

See also: Psalm 34:22.

Psalms 69:19

God already sees every insult and every enemy. The psalmist does not need to prove his case. He lays it before the One who sees all. There is relief in knowing that nothing done to us is unseen.

BSA: before You (“in Your presence, under Your gaze”): His enemies are fully known to God and cannot hide.

Psalms 69:20

Insults can break a heart. Worse than the insults is the loneliness: he looked for sympathy and found none. This verse is often read as a picture of Jesus in Gethsemane and at the cross, when His friends fell asleep or fled.

BSA: comforters (“those to encourage me”): He found no one willing to stand beside him in his grief.

See also: Matthew 26:38-40.

Psalms 69:21

Instead of food and drink in his need, he is given poison and sour wine. This verse is clearly echoed at the cross, when Jesus was offered vinegar to drink. It shows how cruel his enemies were, and the Gospel writers saw it fulfilled in Christ.

BSA: gall (“bitter herbs, poison”): It is something bitter and harmful, meant to add to his suffering. vinegar (“sour wine, bitter drink”): A sharp drink offered where kindness was needed.

See also: Matthew 27:34; John 19:28-29.

Psalms 69:22-23

Now the psalm turns to prayer against his enemies. Their table, meant for comfort and friendship, is to become a trap. Their sight is to fail and their strength to give way. Paul quotes these words in Romans 11 about those who rejected God’s message.

BSA: snare (“a trap, a source of danger”): The thing they enjoy most turns into the thing that catches them.

See also: Romans 11:9-10.

Psalms 69:24-25

He asks God, not himself, to deal with the wicked. Wrath here belongs to God the righteous Judge. Peter applies the words ’let their place be deserted’ to Judas, who betrayed Jesus. Christians read this as a plea for justice, not as personal revenge.

BSA: wrath (“indignation, fierce anger”): It is God’s settled anger against evil, not a human outburst.

See also: Acts 1:20.

Psalms 69:26

The reason for the curse is given. His enemies add to the pain of one God has allowed to suffer. They mock the sorrow of those already hurting. Piling on a person who is down is something God does not overlook.

BSA: persecute (“pursue, harass”): They keep hunting someone already wounded.

See also: Isaiah 53:4.

Psalms 69:27-28

These are hard words. He asks that their guilt stand against them and that they be removed from the Book of Life, which is the record of God’s people. Scripture shows that God’s justice is real, and that all who refuse Him face it. The Bible also teaches that God takes no delight in the death of the wicked.

BSA: blotted out (“erased, removed completely”): It means their names are taken off the list of God’s people. Book of Life (“the record of those who have eternal life”): It is the record of those who belong to God.

See also: Exodus 32:32-33; Revelation 20:12; Ezekiel 33:11.

Psalms 69:29

Back to his own need. He is in pain and distress, but he trusts that God’s salvation can lift him up out of the water to safety. The word ‘protect’ means to set him high, beyond the reach of the flood.

BSA: protect (“set me up on high, keep me safe”): God lifts him out of the flood onto a place that cannot be reached.

Hebrew: תְּשַׂגְּבֵנִי (tesaggeveni, H7682) — “set me on high, make me safe.” The word pictures lifting someone to a place too high for enemies or floods to reach.

Psalms 69:30-31

His answer to suffering is to praise. He says thankful song pleases God more than offering an ox or bull. This does not cancel sacrifice. It says God wants the heart behind it. Gratitude is something God values highly.

BSA: thanksgiving (“gratitude, acknowledgment of His salvation”): It is thanks that names what God has done. name (“His character and reputation”): Praising the name is praising who God is.

See also: Psalm 51:16-17; Hosea 14:2.

Psalms 69:32-33

His rescue becomes a joy for others. The humble, the needy and the ‘captive’ see that God does hear. Hearts that were nearly dead are revived. God is not far from the lowly. He listens to those whom people ignore.

BSA: revived (“live, have life”): The hearts of the seeking come back to life. captive (“prisoner, oppressed”): God does not look down on those who are held down.

See also: Psalm 34:6.

Psalms 69:34

The praise grows from one man to the whole creation. Heaven, earth and sea, with everything that lives in them, are called to praise Him. What began as a private cry from deep water ends with all of creation singing.

BSA: seas (“the vast oceans, the depths”): Even the deep waters that threatened him now join in praise.

Psalms 69:35-36

The psalm closes with hope for God’s people. God will save Zion and rebuild Judah’s cities, and the children of His servants will inherit the land. Those who love His name will have a home. His rescue of one sufferer is part of His care for all His people.

BSA: inherit (“possess, take control of”): The land is a gift passed on to the next generation, not earned. love (“are devoted to”): Those who love God’s name are the ones who belong in His place.

See also: Psalm 102:13-16; Psalm 37:29.