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69. Psalm 69

¹ Save me, O God,
   for the waters have come up to my neck.
² I sink in the miry depths,
   where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters;
   the floods engulf me.
³ I am worn out calling for help;
   my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,
   looking for my God.
⁴ Those who hate me without reason
   outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause,
   those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore
   what I did not steal.

⁵ You, God, know my folly;
my guilt is not hidden from you.

    ⁶ Lord, the LORD Almighty,
   may those who hope in you
   not be disgraced because of me;
God of Israel,
   may those who seek you
   not be put to shame because of me.
⁷ For I endure scorn for your sake,
   and shame covers my face.
⁸ I am a foreigner to my own family,
   a stranger to my own mother’s children;
⁹ for zeal for your house consumes me,
   and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
¹⁰ When I weep and fast,
   I must endure scorn;
¹¹ when I put on sackcloth,
   people make sport of me.
¹² Those who sit at the gate mock me,
   and I am the song of the drunkards.

    ¹³ But I pray to you, LORD,
   in the time of your favor;
in your great love, O God,
   answer me with your sure salvation.
¹⁴ Rescue me from the mire,
   do not let me sink;
deliver me from those who hate me,
   from the deep waters.
¹⁵ Do not let the floodwaters engulf me
   or the depths swallow me up
   or the pit close its mouth over me.

    ¹⁶ Answer me, LORD, out of the goodness of your love;
   in your great mercy turn to me.
¹⁷ Do not hide your face from your servant;
   answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.
¹⁸ Come near and rescue me;
   deliver me because of my foes.

    ¹⁹ You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed;
   all my enemies are before you.
²⁰ Scorn has broken my heart
   and has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
   for comforters, but I found none.
²¹ They put gall in my food
   and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

    ²² May the table set before them become a snare;
   may it become retribution and Or snare / and their fellowship become a trap.
²³ May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
   and their backs be bent forever.
²⁴ Pour out your wrath on them;
   let your fierce anger overtake them.
²⁵ May their place be deserted;
   let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
²⁶ For they persecute those you wound
   and talk about the pain of those you hurt.
²⁷ Charge them with crime upon crime;
   do not let them share in your salvation.
²⁸ May they be blotted out of the book of life
   and not be listed with the righteous.

²⁹ But as for me, afflicted and in pain—
may your salvation, God, protect me.

    ³⁰ I will praise God’s name in song
   and glorify him with thanksgiving.
³¹ This will please the LORD more than an ox,
   more than a bull with its horns and hooves.
³² The poor will see and be glad—
   you who seek God, may your hearts live!
³³ The LORD hears the needy
   and does not despise his captive people.

    ³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise him,
   the seas and all that move in them,
³⁵ for God will save Zion
   and rebuild the cities of Judah.
Then people will settle there and possess it;
    ³⁶ the children of his servants will inherit it,
   and those who love his name will dwell there.

32. The afflicted have seen it. He here shows that the blessed effects of his deliverance will extend to others as well as to himself, a point which he frequently insists on in the Psalms, as we have seen in Psalm 22:23, 26, and in many other places. And his object in doing this is, partly to commend the goodness and grace of God to true believers, and partly that by this as an argument he may prevail with God to succor him. Besides, he does not mean that God’s people would rejoice at this spectacle merely on the ground of brotherly friendship, but because, in the deliverance of one man, a pledge would be given to others, affording them also assurance of salvation. For this very reason he terms them the afflicted. Whoever seek God, (says he,) although they may be subjected to afflictions, will nevertheless take courage from my example. The first and the second clauses of the verse must be read together; for a connected sense would not be preserved were we not to understand the meaning to be this, That the example of David would afford a ground of rejoicing to all the faithful servants of God when they should seek a remedy for their afflictions. He very properly conjoins the desire of seeking God with affliction; for all men do not so profit under the chastening hand of God as to seek salvation from him in the exercise of a sincere and ardent faith. In the concluding part of this verse there is a change of person: And your heart shall live. But this apostrophe is so far from rendering the sense obscure, that, on the contrary, it expresses it the more forcibly, as if a thing present were described. In addressing those who were so much under the pressure of affliction as to be laid prostrate like dead men, he exhibits to their view a kind of image of the resurrection; as if he had said, O ye who are dead! unto you new vigor shall be restored. It is not meant that faith perishes in the children of God, and remains entirely dead until it is quickened into life again by the example of the deliverance of others; but that the light which was quenched is rekindled, and thus, so to speak, recovers life anew. The Psalmist immediately after (verse 33) describes the means by which this will be brought about in the children of God, which is, that believing the deliverance of David to be a common token or pledge of the grace of God presented before them, they will confidently come to the conclusion, that God regards the needy, and does not despise the prisoners. We thus see that he considers what was done to one man, as a clear indication on the part of God that he will be ready to succor all who are in adversity. ⁹⁹⁹⁹ “Tous ceux qui seront oppressez a tort.” — Fr. “All who shall be wrongfully oppressed.”