Psalms 69

Psalms 69:1-12

David’s troubles were typical of the Redeemer’s foreword, of whose sufferings, and the glory which followed, to have principally trusts. 1. He complains of the great distress and trouble he was in, and earnestly logs of God in relapse and fussure him, vers. 1—21. 2. He represents the judgments of God upon his perfusters, vers. 22—29. 3. He concludes with the voice of joy and praise, in an affluence that God would help and fussure him, and would do well for the church, vers. 30—36.

¶ To the chief musician upon Shoffnanim, A psalm of David.

1. SAVE me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. 2. I sink in + deep mine 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 caule, 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 I 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 born reproach: shame hath covered my face. 8. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an allant 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 chastised 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.

Vol. I.

We have here, in the suffering son of Jefie, a lively figure of the suffering Son of God, of whom these things are chiefly spoken.

1. He pours out his complaints unto God, and they are many and grievous. Troubles, deep as the swelling flood, compelled him, and he ready to sink under them, v. 1, 2. Exhausted with strong crying and tears, and failing because no help appeared, v. 3. Though ineffensive, yet harsh, pernicated by many and mighty foes, and cruelly as wrongfully, v. 4. His dearest friends were afraid to own him, lest they should be involved with him in ruins, v. 5. His zeal for God reallocated his enemies, and brought upon him a load of reproaches and infamy, v. 7, 9, and when in the holy exercises of religion he was engaged, they ridiculed his humiliations, v. 10, 11. The great, who sat in the gate, maligned and divided him; and the drunkards, in their midnight revels, made him the subject of their spirit and soaps, v. 12. And heroin he was,

[1.] A type of the Lord Jefua Christ, whose soul in the garden, deluged with anguish, seemed as if weighed down with the insupportable load, and the humanity unable to support it, v. 2. With strong crying and tears he then made supplication unto God, and on the cross with bitterness lamented the divine de-reliction, v. 3. Though sinless and harmless, he paid the debt of sin he had never contracted, and satisfied that justice he had never injured; yet did these sinners, whose guilt he bore, persecute him with ceaseless hatred. Fixed on his destruction, they submerged false witnesses against him, to take away his life, v. 4. He was disowned by every friend; betrayed by one disciple; denied by another; for taken of all, v. 5. Loaded with the most malignant reproaches; his tears over them, and his efforts to save them, despised and rejected; inflicted, with the most unrelenting cruelty, by the meantime as well as greatest; by governor, priest, elders, soldiers; his miracles of grace imputed to disab-lical agency; and his importunate cries upon the cross mocked and ridiculed, v. 7, 9, 10.

[2.] Of all believers, whose trials are severe, and help often long delayed, whose souls are ready to faint; the objects of the world’s malice and loom; forfakes and givens up by their once dearest friends and relations; treated as mad, and derided as foolish; opposed by the great, and often literally fill the drunkard’s song. But through much tribulation we must thus enter into the kingdom of God, through evil report and good report; and whilst we carry our grails to a compulsmatic Redeemer, must patiently expect the salvation of God.

2. He conceives his sons, which were known unto God; the folly bound up in his heart, and the sins of his life, which, however upright before men, he could not plead as pure before God. The Lord Jefua had on sin of his own to confess, yet was he made sin for us; our folly and guilt were imputed to him, and he was therefore numbered with the transpereform. Note, They who know themselves best, know most evil of themselves. The deepest read in self-knowledge are ever the most humble before a holy God.

3. He prays earnestly for help and salvation, v. 1. pleads the discouragement it would call on the faithful, if he was left to fall, v. 6. and the dishonour it would bring upon God, since it was purely an account of his zeal for his cause that he was exposed, v. 7—9. Thus Christ prayed to be saved from the trying hour; and that his people might not be disappointed of their expectations of redemption by him, who now in his resurrection and triumphant ascension have confidence towards God. Note, (1.) A faithful soul cannot but zealously espouse the cause of God and truth. (2.) It is a great satisfaction when we suffer, to know that it is for righteousness.

4. 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 mine, and let me not sink: ‘We believe me be delivered from them that hate me, and ‘out of the deep waters. 15. Let not the water flood 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 ’looked for some I 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 thrift they gave me vinegar to drink.

Psalms 69:13-21

Whilst we have a gracious God to fly to, we need not be concerned about the malicious reproaches of the proud.

8 A David

David, oppressed, has recourse to God for deliverance from his dangers, that his enemies might not prevail, nor his foul sinks under his troubles. And he enforces his requests. [1.] By the acceptableness of the time: never could relief come to welcome, as when he is reduced to love, v. 13. [2.] By the multitude of God’s mercies, which now would be especially manifested, v. 16. [3.] By the truth of his salvation, his faithfulness being engaged for the answer of humble and fervent prayer, v. 13. [4.] By the views of his great trouble, which God well knew; the shame, reproach, and dishonour he endured for his sake, v. 19, 20, which required speedy help, and the comforts of his countenance, v. 17, that he might not be discouraged. [5.] By the desolateness of his estate: all other friends have forsaken him, therefore the more he needs God to appear for him. [6.] By the insistence and cruelty with which he was treated, which he knew God would not behold with unconcern, v. 21.

Such requests, in the days of his flesh, the Son of David made. God knew what sufferings he endured; what trouble and reproach he bore from foes without; what anguish, from the withdrawing of his sensible favour; how exceeding sorrowful and very heavy his soul was burdened; no friend to pity or relieve; in his enemies hands, ready to be swallowed up; the pit of the grave opening; death, with all its horrors, the death of the cross, approaching; and even when in his agonizing pangs extended on the tree, there inflicted with vinegar mingled with gall, to mock his raging thrift. In his distress he prayed, and pleaded the multitude of his Father’s mercies, and his truth engaged for the fulfilment of the everlasting covenant. He begged to behold the light of his Father’s countenance, which was hid from him in displeasure; to be supported and carried through his work of redemption; that those who hated him, Satan and his servants, might be disappointed, and the grave unable to keep him prisoner: that he might be delivered from all his enemies, redeemed from death and hell, and finally victorious: and God abundantly answered his prayers in the resurrection-day, when all his reproach and fortune was for ever rolled away, and his glory great as his sufferings had been.

Such also must be our recourse in our distresses, such our pleas, and such then assuredly will be the eternal deliverance we may expect from all our enemies.

22. Let their table become a share 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 perficute him whom thou hast smitten, and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. 27. Add iniquity to 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.

Psalms 69:22-29

These words being expressly applied to the Jews, who rejected the true Messiah, Rom. xi. 9. 10. we can be at no loss for the explanation of them. They contain a prophetic denunciation of God’s righteous judgments against them; and we see them this day lying under his curse, and, in the fulfilment of the prophecy, standing evidences for the truth of the Christian religion. We have here,

1. The judgments denounced. [1.] Their comforts should misrate them; or the sacrifices, part of which belonged to the offer, to which they so obstinately adhered, in opposition to the true sacrifice of the Redeemer, whom they rejected; these should be made the means of hardening them against him, instead of leading them to him, as we see they were, v. 22. [2.] They should be given up to judicial blindness, rejecting the clearest declarations of their own prophets, v. 23. [3.] They should be in continual terrors, or how down their backs always, as the apostle renders the words, Rom. xi. 10. which was not only the case when the Romans came and besieged Jerusalem, and made such a dreadful massacre; but to this day, they are servants in all lands; in many governments forced to conceal their religion; and in all have been harassed and plundered, and are still exposed to the same sufferings; not to speak of their horrors, when they shall see him whom they have pierced, coming in the clouds of heaven, v. 23. [4.] They should feel the severity of his wrath, which they eminently did, when their city and country was utterly destroyed, and the land ploughed up; so that for a while none dwelt there; and to this day these desolations in a great measure continue, very few Jews being now found in the whole land of Palestine, and these miserably oppressed by the Turkish governors, v. 24, 25. [5.] They

should add sin to sin; having crucified the Master, they would perficute the disciples, and, instead of being convinced by all they suffered, would continue hardened and inveterate as ever; so that they should not come into God’s righteousness; rejecting him who is the only righteousness of his people, they are shut up in unbelief, v. 27. And, lastly, that their name should be blotted out from the living, as was literally, in a great measure, fulfilled, when the Romans saw such vast numbers, that they seemed to threaten an entire excision of the whole Jewish race; and spiritually is accomplished in their exclusion from the blefing of the gospel, by which righteousness and life eternal alone can be obtained, v. 28.

2. The cause of these judgments is mentioned, v. 26. Their persecution of Jesus, whom they esteemed stricken and smitten of God; and whom, according to the divine crusade and foreknowledge of God, Acts xi. 23. they with wicked hand crucified and slew; and, in fact, in their rage against his cause, contrived every method to insult God’s wounded ones, as the word signifies, those who suffered for their fidelity to Jesus. Note, It is double cruel to prove those already weighed down with sufferings; but diabolical malice sports at misery.

3. The plaintiff, in the person of the Redeemer, commends himself to God. But I am poor; in his humiliation for our sakes he became poor; so poor, that he had not a place to lay his head; and sorrowful: from the cradle to the grave, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: sorrows, like unto which were no sorrows. Let thy salvation, O God, let me up on high, or, thy salvation shall set me up on high. Either it is a prayer for, or his confident expectation of, the glory which should follow after his sufferings, when by death having overcome every enemy, he should arise, ascend, and reign on his eternal throne. Note, The poor and sorrowful believer may be comforted. If we have been planted with Jesus in the likeness of his sufferings and death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection and glory.

4. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31. That 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 despiseeth not his prisoners. 34. Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas and every thing that I moweth 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.

Psalms 69:30-36

David, in the prospect of this salvation of the Redeemer and his people, triumphs, and calls on heaven and earth to join his praises.

2. The people of God shall rejoice in beholding his salvation, manifest in the resurrection of Jesus. They will be encouraged now to seek God, because since he lives, they shall live also. Though poor in this world, and prisoners for Christ; or tied and bound with the chain of sins, under which they groan, and long to be looted; God will not despise their prayer; he will bear their cry, and will help them. Note, As long as we have a heart to pray, we shall always have cause to rejoice.

3. He calls upon all men and angels, yea, every creature that moveth through the paths of the water, to praise God with him for his glorious salvation. His Zion shall be saved; his church, and the cities of Judah, the different assemblies of the faithful, he built up. The faithful seed shall inherit a portion in God’s holy mountain, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; and they that love his name, his person, his worship, his word, his ways, shall dwell therein, as at present the children of God’s family, and shortly to possess the enduring mansions in the bare, whore, with Jesus our exalted head, we shall take up our glorious and eternal abode. Well do such inspiring hopes demand our warmest praise.