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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.

1. Save me, O God! for the waters, etc. Under the figure of waters, the Psalmist represents his condition as so extremely distressing that it brought him even to the brink of despair; and yet we know that, so far from being a soft and an effeminate person, he was one who encountered and overcame dreadful temptations with extraordinary courage. Whence we may infer the bitterness of the distress with which he was at that time afflicted. Some understand the word soul as denoting life; ⁶⁸⁶⁸ “The waters are come in unto my soul; i.e., a flood of overwhelming calamities threaten my life: comp. verse 16.” — Cresswell. Williams thinks the allusion is to a leaky vessel, or to an inundation. but this gives a very cold and unsatisfactory meaning. It rather signifies the heart. A man when he falls into an abyss of waters, may prevent for some time the water from entering his body, by stopping his mouth and his nostrils, but at length, from its being impossible for a human being to live without respiration, suffocation will compel him to let in the waters, and they will penetrate even to the heart. David by this metaphor would intimate, not only that the waters had covered and overwhelmed him, but also that he had been forced to draw them into his body.

2. I am sunk in deep mire, where there is no standing place Here he compares his afflictions to a deep sink of mire, where there is still greater danger; for if a man fixes his feet upon a solid bottom, he may raise himself up, there having been many instances in which persons, placing their feet on the bottom, have by a sudden spring emerged and escaped the peril of the waters; but when a man finds himself once sunk in some slough or muddy river, it is all over with him, he has no means of saving himself. ⁶⁹⁶⁹ “Comme nous en voyons plusieurs qui donnans du pied au fond, de roideur trouvent facon d’eschapper le peril de l’eau: mais depuis qu’on se trouve une fois enfonce en quelque bourbier ou riviere limonneuse, c’est fait, il n’y a nul moyen de se sauver.” — Fr. The Psalmist adduces additional circumstances in illustration of his afflicted condition. He declares that he was inundated by the flowing of the waters; an expression indicating the disorder and confusion which his distresses and persecutions produced.

3 I am weary of crying David, in seeking and calling upon God, when his affairs were in such a confused and desperate condition, exhibited an instance of rare and wonderful patience. He complains of having continued crying until he was exhausted and became hoarse, and all to no purpose. By the word weary, he does not mean that he gave up with prayer, as if he had cast from him all love to and delight in that exercise upon finding that it proved unavailing as a means of deliverance. He rather describes his untiring perseverance; and the same idea is expressed by his hoarse throat and failing eyes. ⁷⁰⁷⁰ “‘My sight faileth me,’ etc. This is said metaphorically, the metaphor being taken from the pain occasioned to the eyes when they are long and intently fixed upon the same point.” — Cresswell He certainly did not cry out before men from mere affectation, nor was this hoarseness contracted in the course of one day. We perceive, then, that although his bodily senses failed him, the vigor of his faith was by no means extinguished. When we reflect that David has spoken, as it were, out of the mouth of Christ, and, as it were, out of the mouth of all true saints who are the members of Christ, we ought not to think that any strange thing happens to us, if at any time we are so overwhelmed with death, as to be unable to discern the slightest hope of life. Yea, rather let us learn betimes, while God spares us, to meditate on this truth, and derive the aid which it is fitted to impart under calamity, that even in the most profound depths of adversity faith may hold us up, and, what is more, may elevate us to God; there being, as Paul testifies, (Romans 8:39) no height nor depth which can separate us from the infinite love of Him who swallows up all depths, yea, even hell itself.