Psalm 69
36 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 35×4Psalms 102×3Matthew 27×3Psalms 22×3Psalms 109×3Isaiah 43×2
Summary
Chapter summary
After Psalm 22, the passion psalm most quoted in the New Testament. 'The waters are come in unto my soul… I sink in deep mire.' 'They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head' (John 15:25); 'the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up' (John 2:17); 'they gave me also gall for my food; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink' (the cross); 'let their habitation be desolate' (Acts 1:20 of Judas). Out of the depths the vow still rises: 'I will praise the name of God with a song… for Jehovah heareth the needy.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 69The history
Sinking in deep mire where there is no standing is not a general feeling. Cisterns and storage pits were cut into the rock, plastered, and left empty in the dry season with a thick sludge at the bottom. Jeremiah was lowered into one and sank in the mud. A man in a pit like that could not climb, could not stand, and could not be heard.
Two crowds are named. The elders who sit in the gate — that is the court and the town's public square — talk about him, and so do the drunkards, who make him the subject of their songs. He is being taken apart at both ends of the social scale at once.
Gall for food and vinegar for thirst names two real things. Vinegar here is sour wine, the cheap drink of soldiers and field workers, and gall is a bitter plant substance. Offering them to a suffering man was mockery dressed as help. The Gospel writers report both being offered at the cross, which is one reason the New Testament quotes this psalm more than almost any other.
The curses in the middle are the sharpest in the book. They ask for the table to become a snare, the eyes to go dark, and the names to be blotted out of the book of the living. Again, the writer has no court and no power. He is asking God to pass the sentence rather than passing it himself.
What it meant to them
The line that carries it is this: the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. The abuse aimed at him was really aimed at God, and it landed on the man who stood in the way.
For first hearers whose faith made them a joke in their own town, that reframed the shame. They were catching something thrown at somebody else.
Sources cited
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 69. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 1 · Same kind of writing
both individual laments, both drawn on in the Passion; shared dereliction-to-vindication arc. FLOOR.
Psalms 22:1→My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
Gunkel
v. 4 · Quoted here
'They hated me without a cause': Jesus (w/ Ps 35:19).
John 15:25→But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 9 · Quoted here
'The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up': the disciples remember (temple cleansing).
John 2:17→His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 9 · Quoted here
'The reproaches... fell on me': Paul (Christ pleased not himself).
Romans 15:3→For even Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written: “The insults of those who insult You have fallen on Me.”
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 21 · A picture of Christ · Fulfilled in the pattern
gall and vinegar (also Jhn 19:28-29)
Matthew 27:34→they offered Him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, He refused to drink it.
MannaFest topical index
v. 22 · Quoted here
'Let their table be made a snare': Paul ('David saith').
Romans 11:9→And David says: “May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to them.
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 25 · Quoted here
'Let his habitation be desolate': Peter, on Judas.
Acts 1:20→“For it is written in the book of Psalms: ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, ‘May another take his position.’
public-domain commentaries in agreement
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.