Psalms 69

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim. A Psalm of David. This Psalm, the title assures us, was composed by David; and the matter of it sufficiently declares, that he was in extreme great danger when it was penned. I should suppose it might have been about that time, when he concluded, that he should one day perish by the hand of Saul, (1 Sam. xxvii. 1.) were it not for what we read here, ver. 35. of this Psalm, concerning God’s love to Zion: which was not then in the possession of the Israelites. And therefore it must rather be indited when he was persecuted by his rebellious son Absalom: who pressed him so sorely, and reduced him to such lamentable straits, that, as he feared he should never be able to extricate himself; so he could find no words high enough to express the agonies into which they cast him. But this is not so considerable a difficulty, as to be sufficient to incline those who read the whole Psalm seriously, to conclude that it hath no reference to Saul’s persecution: unto which some passages in it seem more plainly to belong than to the other; And therefore I suppose he only reviewed it, (see Psal. lxx.) and added the thirty-fifth verse, in the rebellion of Absalom: which was likewise so grievous and dangerous, that he could find no words fitter to represent his sad condition, than those he had formerly used in the like distress. And some of the expressions, it is manifest, are such as were not literally fulfilled in him, in either of those afflictions, but in our “Saviour Christ: of whom David was a figure; both in his sufferings, and in his advancement after them to a kingdom. There is no mystery, I suppose, in the word Shoshannim (as some of the Jews fancy), but it only denotes that the master of the music was to take care this Psalm should be sung as the forty-fifth; to which I refer you for an account of this word. Why Theodoret should think this Psalm was made without respect to David, for the Jews in the captivity of Babylon, praying for deliverance out of that servitude, I cannot imagine. But what he adds concerning our Saviour’s sufferings, which are here foretold, together with the utter overthrow of the Jewish nation, who were the authors of them, is very considerable. For because, saithhe, they were so audaciously wicked, as to do that to their benefactor and Saviour, which they had suffered from Iheir spiteful enemies; God the righteous judge condemned them to suffer that themselves, which they prayed might fall on the heads of those enemies. Ver. I. &AVE me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soid.] most mighty God, in whom alone I hope for safety; deliver me, I beseech, thee, out of this miserable condition; wherein I am overwhelmed with so many calamities, that my life is in extreme danger, unless thou mercifully preserve it. It is not easy to determine, whether this Psalm was only separated from the fortieth (whereof, for the main, it is a part), that it might serve those who are in any distress, as a short form recommending themselves and their condition t9 God; or that David in some new danger (probably that into which he fell by Absalom’s conspiracy, as Theodoret thinks) took a review of what he had there said, and, with some small alterations, composed this as a distinct prayer, to be used by him constantly, during the time of that sharp affliction. I incline to this latter, because there is some difference (though not very much, in the fourth verse) between every verse of this Psalm and those in the latter end of the fortieth, from which it is taken; just as there is between the fifty-third and the fourteenth. See what I have said there; and in the title of the thirty-eighth Psalm, you will find why this is called, A Psalm to bring to Remembrance. PSALM LXXf. est, for safety, have perpetual cause to rejoice in thee exceedingly: let such as expect and delight to see thee appear for the deliverance of thy people never cease to say, Let.the righteous Judge of the world be praised; let the glory of his wonderful works be every where published and extolled. Vcr. 5. But J am poor and needy; make haste unto me, * O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying.’] O God, I beseech thee again, delay not to speed the relief I expect from thee; that this may be my song also: for at present I am stripped of all, and utterly destitute of human help; nay, so forlorn, that I shall perish presently, unless thou prevent it, O Lord; on whom alone I rely for help and deliverance, which I once more beseech thee to send me speedily.

Psalms 69:1

ItjLAKE, haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord. O God, the judge of the world, thou seest the danger I am in is so exceeding great, that I am undone without thy speedy relief: which I beseech thee therefore not to delay; but to make haste, O Lord, to declare thy power in sending me seasonable help for my rescue, now that I am ready to perish.

Psalms 69:2

I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overfloiv me.~. There is no hope otherways, that I should escape:, for I am like a man that sinks deeper and deeper into the mud, and can find no bottom; or that is fallen into the very deepest place in a river; and carried away out of the reach of human help, by the violence of the stream, Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to cowfusiou, that desire my hurt.] My enemies fancy that I cannot escape their hands: but do thou most shamefully disappoint all those that restlessly endeavour to take away my life: defeat them, and put them to flight with open disgrace, whosoever they be that study to do me any mischief.

Psalms 69:3

I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.~. I have long atao implored thy help, with most earnest prayers; even till I am tired with my crying: I can now scarce speak a word, nor lift up my eyes towards heaven, from whence, with great intention of mind, I have expected some relief) but cannot yet obtain it of my God, who hath been formerly most gracious to me, Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, nhaf] Let a total rout of their forces be the recorapence of their shameful deeds; whereby they thought to have exposed me to shame, when they insulted over my calamity, and made a mock both of it, and of my hope that thou wouldest deliver me.,

Psalms 69:4

TJiey that hate me without a cause are more than, the hairs of my head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty; then I restored that which I took not away.] No, rather my enemies are grown more formidable, both for their number, which exceeds the hairs of my head, and for their power, which enables them to destroy me: to which they want no will, having conceived an implacable, but undeserved, hatred tome. Who have been so far from provoking their malice, that I am content, rather than quarrel with them, to part with my own right; and make them satisfaction for a wrong that I never did them. Let all those that seek thee rejoice, and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.] But let all those that depend on thee alone, and seek by no other means, but such as thou allow-

Psalms 69:5

O God, thou hiowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. O God, the righteous judge, I make my appeal to thee, who knowest the very worst of me: and protest, that whatsoever my mistakes or my wilful sins have been, which cannot escape thy sight, I never did them any injury, nor gave them cause to persecute me,

Psalms 69:6

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. Which will move thee, I hope, to take some compassion on me; for it will extremely dishearten all pious men, if thou sufferest innocence to be thus ruined: for their sakes, as well as for mine, be pleased to relieve me: O let not those that rely alone on thee, O Lord, the mighty God, who commandedst all the powers in heaven and earth, hang down their heads for shame, to see ine deserted by thee: let not those, O God (who hast engaged thyself unto us by a gracious covenant), that commend themselves to thee in well-doing,, be confounded; as they will, if they see me forsaken by thee.

Psalms 69:7

Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. For it is upon thy account (merely because I adhere to thee, and willuse no unlawful means to right myself, 1 Sam. xxiv. 10, &c.) that I have thus long suffered so many reproaches and abuses, ashaye made me extremely contemptible..

Psalms 69:8

I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.*. Not only to those that do not know me, but to my cousins and familiars; nay, to those who lay in the same womb with me: who behave themselves towards me as if I were a perfect stranger; or a man of another country and religion.

Psalms 69:9

For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. Whereas thou knowest, it was nothing but my ardent zeal for thy honour and service (not any childish ambition) which made me hazard my life for them; and was the first occasion of this hatred they bear me, (1 Sam. xviii. 6 — 8. as it will be of the death of the Messiah, John ii. 17.) I could not endure the blasphemies which I heard against thee, but they moved my indignation (as they will do his, Rom. xv. 3.) as much as if they had been against myself, (1 Sam. xvii. 10. 26. 45.)

Psalms 69:10

When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. These things grieved me exceedingly; and it hath cost mc many a tear, while I humbled my soul with fasting, to bewiail their impiety, and the dishonour that was done thee: but they took occasion from thence only to despise me; and to load me with greater reproaches, either of weakness or of hypocrisy.

Psalms 69:11

I made sackcloth also my garment;.and I became a proverb to them. And still the more sorrowfully I debased myself, wearing sackcloth in token of ray heaviness, the more 1 was scorned and derided; and it was the common saying (when they would express their utmost hatred or contempt of any man), I value him no more than I do David.

Psalms 69:12

They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards. This is the language even of the grave senators, and judges of the land, who ought in reason rather to have vindicated my innocence, (Gen. xxiii. 10. 18. xxxiv. 20. Ruth iv. 1. Prov. xxii. 22.) as well as of the idle and dissolute companions, who, in their drunken meetings, make abusive songs and libels on me.

Psalms 69:13

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.* While I in the mean time do nothing but only commend myself with the greater earnestness unto thee, O Lord; who, now that I am so despicable, writ think it, I hope, the fittest time to be favourable to me: hear my prayer, O God, I beseech thee, and thereby magnify thy abundant mercy, and thy faithfulness, in such a seasonable deliverance of me.

Psalms 69:14

Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. For I am in extreme great danger of perishing in this distress, unless thou interpose (as I most humbly again beseech thee that thou wait, ver. J, 2.) for my deliverance: O leave me not in this miserable condition into which I am plunged; but deliver me from my bitter enemies, and all the troubles and difficulties wherein they have involved me.

Psalms 69:15

Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her month upon me. Which are great and many, and extremely dangerous; enough to make me despair of safety, did I not depend on thee; that thou wilt not sufFcr me % to be carried away, overwhelmed, and buried in this heap of calamities which oppress me so sorely, that 1 am ready to sink under the weight of them.

Psalms 69:16

Hear me, O Lord; for thy loving-kindness is good: turnunto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Do not fail my expectation, O Lord, whose loving-kindness, as it is the only comfort I have, so it gives me abundant consolation: for it is prone to pity and rolieve those that are distressed; and will incline thee, 1 hope, to look now favourably upon me, as thou hast done, many and many a time, with most compassionate mercy towards me.

Psalms 69:17

And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily. Who, as despicable as I am, yet am thy servant; and upon that score claim the patronage of my most gracious Lord and Master: O disown me not, especially now that I am in such helpless straits; but rather make the greater haste to relieve me.

Psalms 69:18

Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me, because of mine enemies. For nothing less than my life (which is in imminent danger) will satisfy the rage and hatred of my enemies: therefore interpose thy power for my rescue, and let not them have the pleasure (which will make them still more insolent) to see me ruined.

Psalms 69:19

Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Thou art perfectly acquainted with the reproaches, the shameful and contumelious abuses of all sorts, which I have suffered; and must still (without thy seasonable deliverance) enduro from my cruel enemies: none of whom, nor of their secret plots, and subtle lies, whereby they seek to defame and undo me, are hidden from thy all-seeing eyes.

Psalms 69:20

Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness: and Hooked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. Which behold likewise, what an intolerable burden it is to me to be thus loaded with reproaches, and to have no means to clear myself from their false imputations: it even breaks my heart, and I am oppressed with heaviness, looking still for some help to arrive; but, alas! I cannot meet with so much as the comfort of any body to condole with me.

Psalms 69:21

TJiey gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Instead of that, they exasperated my grief; and because I was so miserable, reproached me the more bitterly: just as if, when a man is hungry, one should give him gall to eat; or when he is thirsty, they should give him (as they really will do to Christ, John xix.) vinegar to drink.

Psalms 69:22

Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Which barbarous usage shall meet with a suitable vengeance; for they shall have no friends neither: but they that eat of their meat shall betray them, and their prosperity shall prove their ruin. (This shall be the recompencc of those that abuse the Messiah, as now they do ine, Rom. xi. 9.)

Psalms 69:23

Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loi?is continually to shake. They shall be deprived of all judgment, and not be able to see the evils that are coming on them; or if they do, let them not be able, O Lord, to prevent them; but make their councils uncertain, and let them have no power to execute any good design for their preservation..

Psalms 69:24

Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Pour out on a sudden so many evils upon them, that they may not be able to escape; but feel they suffer the most dismal effects of thy severest arid lasting displeasure against them.

Psalms 69:25

Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents. Let their most magnificent structures be laid waste; and root them out so entirely, that there may not be a man left to dwell in their poorest cottages, (Matt, xxiii. 38. Acts i. 20.) Ver. 2G. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast ivounded.] For they had no pity upon the miserable; but instead of comforting him, when they saw him afflicted by thee, they took that opportunity to insult oyer him, and oppress him: nay, made a pastime of his calamity; and added to all his other suffering, their scoffs and jeers, their lies and calumnies, or at least their uncharitable censures of him.

Psalms 69:27

Add iniquity to thqir iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let such obstinate offenders be quite deserted by thee;, and by thy just judgment be suffered to go on to complete their iniquity, and never obtain any mercy from thee.

Psalms 69:28

Let them be blotted orjtt of the book of the living, quid not be written with the righteous. Let them be cut off before their time, in the midst of their jollity; and let them enjoy none of the blessings which thou hast promised to the righteous.

Psalms 69:29

But I am poor and sorrowful; let thy salvation, O God, set me tip on high. But let me, O God, who now am despised and dejected, be graciously delivered by thee, and raised above the contempt or power of such men to depress me,

Psalms 69:30

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. And I will not be unmindful of the benefit, but praise thy power and goodness in joyful hymns; and acknowledge how great they are, in thankful commemorations of them.

Psalms 69:31

This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that Jtath horns and hoofs. Whieh will be, I know, more acceptable sacrifices to the Lord, than if I should bring him a whole ox, when he is young and in his prime, and offer him at his altar.

Psalms 69:32

The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. For other pious men, reading in my songs the goodness of the Lord, will be filled with joyful hopes, when they fall into such-like troubles as I am in: they will think they hear me saying to, them, Do not despond, but be of good comfort, whosoever you are that seek God, and faithfully depend upon him.

Psalms 69:33

For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. For the Lord, you see, doth not fail to relieve the afflicted and helpless men, when they cry unto him, ancj rely on him alone: but owns them for his servants, when they are no better than slaves; by delivering them from their hard and cruel bondage.

Psalms 69:34

Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. I would advise you all to acknowledge his Divine power, by hearty submission to him; whose care over Israel as plainly appears in many magnificent works, as thunder declares his strength in the clouds. Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.] Let the whole world therefore join together, to celebrate him with their highest praises: for one tongue is not sufficient to proclaim his most excellent goodness, and to thank him for all his benefits.

Psalms 69:35

O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power to his people. Blessed be God. God, thy dreadful majesty is to be most humbly adored, who striketh terror into thy enemies, both out of thy sanctuary here in Zion, and out of thy sanctuary in heaven: but art most gracious to thy people, whom, a* thy peculiar portion, thou enduedst with mighty strength and invincible courage. Blessed be God for his goodness to us. For God will save’ Zion, and will build the cities ofJudah; that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.) Which shall bo continued towards Zion; for God \yill preserve it from being destroyed in these tumults: and will repair the ruins of the other cities of Judah; that his people may dwell quietly, and not be disturbed in their possessions.. Ver. 3G. The s$ed also of his servants shallinherit it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein. ~] And their posterity also may hereafter inherit it; provided they faithfully serve him, and heartily love him and his religion: for then they shall dwell securely in Zion; and offer the continual sacrifice of praise unto him. PSALM LXX; To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David, to bring to Remembrance.