Psalm 69 Continued
Psalm 69:19 "Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: mine adversaries [are] all before thee."
A heap of words to express the greatness of the contempt that was cast upon him, and the injury that was done to his person and character.
Which was all known to God: as how he was vilified both by a lot of wicked words and blasphemous speeches.
How he was exposed to shame and dishonor by deeds; by spitting upon him, buffeting him, veiling his face, stripping him of his garments, and scourging and crucifying him naked.
"Mine adversaries are all before thee":
In his sight: he knew their persons, the malice and wickedness that were in their hearts.
And all the evil words that were spoken, and the evil actions that were done by them.
Or, "are all against thee"; for they that were against Christ were against his Father.
We have been viewing in these lessons, the reproach that David felt from the enemies around him, and the reproach that Jesus felt when the religious people of His day joined forces with the worldly people and all rejected Him.
The reproach, dishonor and the shame, did not belong to Jesus.
He had done nothing wrong to cause this.
They were attacking Him without a cause.
David also felt all of these things, but in some far away way felt he should pay restitution for the evil he had done.
He felt it could have been just payment.
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Psalm 69:20 "Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked [for some] to take pity, but [there was] none; and for comforters, but I found none."
This was his case when his soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death, and his heart like wax melted in the midst of his bows (Matt. 26:38).
"And I am full of heaviness":
As he was in the garden (Mark 14:33).
Or, "very sick, yea, incurably sick", as the word signifies (see 2 Sam. 12:15).
For what cure is there for a broken heart?
"And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none":
And for comforters, but I found none.
His disciples forsook him and fled.
The priests, scribes, and common people, that attended him at the cross, mocking him; the thieves that were crucified with him reviled him; and his Father hid his face from him.
Only a few women stood afar off and lamented.
This is certainly speaking prophetically about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even His beloved apostles had run away.
Peter had even denied Him 3 times.
Where were all of the people who had been miraculously healed by one touch of His hand, or touched by a word He spoke?
Where were the multitude that He had fed?
The only excuse that I can make at all for them, is that He was crucified early in the morning.
Perhaps before some of them knew.
Jesus loved them so much, and there was not any move at all to save Him.
He would not have let them stop the crucifixion, but it would have been
Jesus stood alone.
Psalm 69:21 "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."
“Gall … vinegar”:
Gall was a poisonous herb.
Here it serves as a metaphor for betrayal.
Friends who should provide sustenance to the psalmist had turned against him, Gall in vinegar was actually offered to Christ while He was on the cross (Matt. 27:34).
We see the fulfillment of this in the following Scripture.
Matthew 27:34 "They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted [thereof], he would not drink."
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These are prophecies of the destruction of Christ's persecutors.
(Verses
When the supports of life and delights of sense, through the corruption of our nature, are made the food and fuel of sin, then our table is a snare.
Their sin was, that they would not see, but they shut their eyes against the light, in loving darkness rather.
Their punishment was, that they should not see, but should be given up to their own hearts' lusts, which hardened them.
Those who reject God's great salvation offered to them, may justly fear that his indignation will be poured out upon them.
If men will sin, the Lord will reckon for it.
But we see those that have multiplied to sin, may still yet find mercy, through the righteousness of the Mediator.
God shuts not out any from that righteousness; the gospel excludes none who do not, by unbelief, shut themselves out.
But those who are proud and
Let those not expect any benefit thereby, who are not glad to be beholden to it.
It is better to be poor and sorrowful, with the blessing of the Lord, than rich and jovial, and under his curse.
This may be applied to Christ.
He was, when on earth, a man of sorrows that had nowhere to lay his head; but God exalted him.
Let us call upon the Lord, and though poor and sorrowful, guilty and defiled, his salvation will set us up on high.
Psalm 69:22 "Let their table become a snare before them: and [that which should have been] for [their] welfare, [let it become] a trap."
“Table became a snare”:
A snare was a trap for birds.
The psalmist prays that the plots of the wicked against him would end up backfiring and destroy them instead.
Psalm 69:23 "Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake."
Not literally the eyes of their bodies; but figuratively, the eyes of their understanding.
Which were so darkened, and they were given up to such judicial blindness, that they could not discern the signs of the times that the Messiah must be come, Daniel's weeks being up.
They could not see any glory, excellency, and comeliness in Christ.
Nor could not see the evidence of the Messiahship of Jesus in the miracles he wrought.
Nor in the prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilled in him: that book was a sealed book unto them at this time.
The Gospel, and the doctrines of it, were hid from them, even from the wise and prudent that was among them.
Yea, also those things which belonged to their temporal peace.
They were so blinded and infatuated, that they could not see what was for their outward good and happiness.
And, in proof of this their blindness, the words are cited by the apostle in (Rom. 11:7; see Matthew 16:3).
"And make their loins continually to shake":
Weaken their loins, in which a man's strength lies, that they may not be able to rise up against their enemies.
And that they might not be able to flee and escape from them (see Deut. 33:11).
Or fill them with horror, dread, and trembling, as they will be when Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven; and they shall see him whom they have pierced (Rev. 1:7).
The apostle renders the words "bow down their back always" (see notes on Rom. 11:10).
Psalm 69:24 "Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them."
Not a few drops of it only, but a flood of it, sweeping away and bearing down all before it.
Which was done when wrath came upon them to the uttermost, in the destruction of their city, temple, and nation (1 Thess. 2:16).
"Let thy wrathful anger take hold of them":
Follow after them, overtake them, seize upon them, and hold them fast, that they may not escape.
It denotes the severity of God towards them.
The fierceness and fury of his wrath upon them; and that their destruction would be inevitable, and an entire and utter one.
Psalm 69:25 "Let their habitation be desolate; [and] let none dwell in their tents."
Which is applied to Judas (quoted in Acts 1:20 with reference to Judas); but not to the exclusion of others.
For it must be understood of the habitations of others.
Even of their princes and nobles, their chief magistrates, High Priest and other priests, scribes, and doctors of the law.
For the word may be rendered, "their palace" or "castle", as it is by some.
And so, may denote the houses of their principal men, the members of their Sanhedrim.
Their houses great and fair, of which there were many in Jerusalem when it was destroyed (see Isaiah 5:9).
As well as the habitations of the meaner sort of people, which all became desolate at that time.
And particularly their house, the temple, which was like a palace or a castle, which was built upon a mountain.
This was left desolate, as our Lord foretold it would (Matt. 23:38).
"And let none dwell in their tents":
The city of Jerusalem was wholly destroyed and not a house left standing in it, nor an inhabitant of it.
It was laid even with the ground, ploughed up, and not one stone left upon another (Luke 19:44).
Jesus said, Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.
However we see in the book of Romans that this very thing spoken of (in verse 22 and 23 above), did happen to them.
The blessings of God were off them until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Romans
We do know, that this very thing has happened to the natural Jew.
This was even so up until 1948.
The time of the Gentiles is at a close.
Luke 21:24 "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
Now let us go back to Romans for one more Scripture.
Now we see why all of this happened.
Romans 11:11 "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but [rather] through their fall salvation [is come] unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy."
Psalm 69:26 "For they persecute [him] whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded."
“Him whom thou has smitten”:
Those hostile to the psalmist were ridiculing him as one suffering from God’s chastisement.
In its messianic application, the suffering of the Messiah was a part of God’s plan from eternity past (compare Isa. 53:10).
We find that this persecution has never stopped.
The sinful have just begun to persecute the followers of Jesus the same as they persecuted HIM.
Even now, there are many who persecute the name of Jesus.
They use His name in vain.
The worst thing of all, they are still rejecting Him today.
Psalm 69:27 "Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness."
Instead of taking away their iniquities by forgiveness, let one iniquity accumulate upon another till they are crushed by the load (compare Psalm 38:4; Jer. 18:23).
"Let them not come into thy righteousness":
Let them have no share in the manifestation of that righteousness or faithfulness to His covenant in virtue of which Jehovah pardons sin and delivers from danger (compare Psalms 5:8; 71:2; 71:15; 71:19; 71:24).
The Lord will not force His righteousness on anyone.
There is no hope for those who totally reject Jesus.
You can just take one look at the television and see that sin is getting worse and worse.
The only hope for this world, is the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Reach out and take the salvation Jesus offers today, before it is too late.
Psalm 69:28 "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous."
This is the book of divine predestination or election, often in the New Testament called the book of life.
In which the names of some persons are written, and others not (Phil. 4:3).
So called, not with respect to the present life, and also the affairs of it, which belong to the book of Providence.
But with respect to the life of the world to come, or eternal life, as Kimchi explains it.
It is no other than God's ordination or fore appointment of men to eternal life.
Which being called a book, and names written in it, show that election is personal or particular.
The exact knowledge God has of his chosen ones; his great care of them, his value for them; his constant remembrance of them, and the certainty of their salvation.
For such whose names are written here in reality can never be blotted out.
This would be contrary to the unchangeableness of God, the firmness of his purposes, and the safety of his people.
Wherefore the design of this imprecation is, that those persons who had, in their own conceits, and in the apprehensions of others, a name in this book.
That it might appear, both to themselves and others, they had none, by the awful ruin and destruction that should be brought upon them.
They who seemed by their profession to have been written in your book, yet by their fruits prove the contrary, let them be known as reprobates.
"And not be written with the righteous":
Neither in the book of life with them; by which it appears, that to be blotted out, and not be written, are the same.
Nor in a Gospel church state; so they were the branches broken off.
Nor be among them at the resurrection of the just, and in the judgment day.
Kimchi observes, that it is the same thing in different words; to be blotted out is the same as not to be written in.
We know that these religious people believed that they were the chosen of God, and that there was no way they would not be saved.
Those who reject Jesus, then or now, will not be saved.
God's chosen people who rejected Jesus would not have their names written in the book of life.
The righteous are those who have been washed in the blood of the precious Lamb and put in right standing with God for that.
Once we are truly saved, we are eternally saved.
We must not choose to go back into a sinful way of life after we have been saved (read chapter 6 of Hebrews).
Psalm 69:29 "But I [am] poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high."
Out of the reach of mine enemies; or, lift me out of the deep waters, and the mire, in which I was sinking (Psalm 69:14).
Jesus came to preach the gospel to the poor.
This does not mean just poor financially.
This means those poor in spirit as well.
We have nothing to offer God, but a repentant heart.
In that sense, we are poor.
Sorrowful has to do with repentance.
The way to receive salvation is to be sorrowful for your sin and repent and receive the salvation Jesus provided for each of us.
We know that since Jesus rose from the grave, we shall rise too.
We are not to try to elevate ourselves.
God will do the elevating of whom He chooses to.
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The psalmist concludes the psalm with holy joy and praise, which he began with complaints of his grief.
It is a great comfort to us, that humble and thankful praises are more pleasing to God than the costliest, pompous sacrifices.
The humble shall look to him, and be glad; and those that seek him through Christ shall live and be comforted.
God will do great things for the gospel church, in which let all who wish well to it rejoice.
A seed shall serve him on earth, and his servants shall inherit his heavenly kingdom.
Those that love his name shall dwell before him for ever.
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Arise, thou great Restorer of the ancient places to dwell in, please turn away ungodliness from your people.
Psalm 69:30 "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving."
The "name" of God is himself, his perfections and attributes; which are to be "praised" by all his creatures, and especially his saints.
And here by the Messiah, who sung the praise of God with his disciples at the supper, a little before his death.
And in the great congregation in heaven, upon his ascension there, having finished the great work of man's redemption.
For as it was no lessening of his glory, as Mediator, to pray to God when on earth, it is no diminishing of it to praise him in our nature in heaven (see Psalm 22:22).
This being said to be done with a song agrees with (Heb. 2:12).
And is an instance of praising God this way, and which could not be prayer wise.
As well as is a confirmation of the practice of New Testament churches, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, by the example of our Lord.
"And will magnify him with thanksgiving":
To "magnify" is to make great.
But God cannot be greater than he is.
He is great above all gods; he is greater than all.
But he is magnified when his greatness is owned and declared, and that is ascribed unto him.
And particularly when "thanks" are given to him for favors; for then is he acknowledged by men to be the Father of mercies, the author and giver of them.
And that they are unworthy of them, and that all the glory belongs to him.
Christ, as man, not only prayed, but gave thanks to his Father when on earth (Matt. 11:25).
Nor is it unsuitable to him, as such now in heaven, to give thanks and praise for being heard and helped in a day of salvation.
Or at the time when he wrought out the salvation of his people, and then he glorified all the divine perfections.
I will praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise His holy name. Christians, we have so much to praise Him for.
We of all the people in the world, have the hope of the resurrection.
We are the bride of Christ.
Our Groom is off preparing a place for us.
He will come again and receive us unto Himself.
Our lips should be filled with praise and thanksgiving.
Psalm 69:31 "[This] also shall please the LORD better than an ox [or] bullock that hath horns and hoofs."
“Better than an ox … bullock”:
(see Psalm 51:16; also Heb.
Implies a grown animal, one that would be especially valuable.
Christians should offer praise to God on a regular basis.
Sacrifice for a Christian is praise.
Jeremiah 33:11 "The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD [is] good; for his mercy [endureth] for ever: [and] of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD."
One more Scripture to verify that is what God wants from us.
Hebrews 13:15 "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips giving thanks to his name."
Psalm 69:32 "The humble shall see [this, and] be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God."
"The humble."
That is; others who are thus afflicted.
The poor, the needy, the oppressed, the sad shall be made acquainted with what has been done in my behalf, and shall take courage, or be strengthened.
They will learn to trust that God will also interpose in their troubles, and will then bring them out of their distresses.
"And your heart shall live that seek God":
Shall be revived; shall be encouraged, strengthened, animated.
James 4:6 "But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble."
The proud are the same as the ones Jesus called
The humble are teachable.
Seek and ye shall find, ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you. James 4:10 "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." God will not force Himself on anyone.
The humble seek salvation, and He shall save them.
Psalm 69:33 "For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners."
The needy; the humble; the unprotected.
The reference is to those who are in circumstances of want and distress.
The truth stated here is in accordance with all that is said in the Scriptures (compare the notes at Psalm 34:6; 10:14; 12:5; 35:10; 68:10).
"And despiseth not his prisoners":
He does not overlook them; he does not treat them as if they were worthy of no attention or of any regard.
The word "prisoners" here may refer to those who are, as it were, bound by affliction under his own providential dealings.
Or to those who are oppressed, or are held as captives, or are thrown into prison, on his account.
The particular reference here seems to be to David, and to those associated with him, who were straitened or deprived of their freedom in the cause of God.
These 2 Scriptures say it better than I could.
1 Samuel 2:8 "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, [and] lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set [them] among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth [are] the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them."
James 2:5 "Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?"
Psalm 69:34 "Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein."
Compare (Psalm 96:11).
As Job calls on heaven and earth to sympathize with him in his distress (Job
The Word of God created all of the things mentioned above (look in John chapter 1).
It is right that the creation would praise its Creator.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Psalm 69:35 "For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession."
The church of Christ, as it is often called (see note on Psalm 2:6).
This is to be understood not so much of the salvation of the people of God.
By Christ from sin and Satan, and the world, law, hell, and death, as of the preservation and continuance of the Gospel church state, notwithstanding all the opposition and persecution of the Jews and Gentiles.
And especially of the deliverance of the Lord's people, in the latter day, from the cruelty, captivity, and bondage of antichrist, by the destruction of him.
Which will occasion joy and praise (Rev. 18:4).
"And will build the cities of Judah":
Erect Gospel churches in the Roman empire, and in the several parts of the world.
As were in the first times of the Gospel, and will be in the latter day, when the cities of God shall be yet spread abroad through prosperity (Zech. 1:17).
Of which the saints are citizens, and enjoy in them many privileges and immunities.
These may be said to be "built", when they are built upon Christ, and on their most holy faith.
When the members of them are edified and multiplied.
When purity of faith, discipline, and worship, prevails among them.
And though this is usually by the ministers of the Gospel, as instruments, yet the Lord is the chief builder; for, unless he builds, in vain do the builders build (Psalm 127:1).
"That they may dwell there, and have it in possession":
The men of Judah, such as confess the name of Christ, as the word "Judah" signifies.
Who profess to believe in him with their hearts; these have a name and a place, and an inheritance in the churches, and an abiding one.
They shall never go out, but dwell in the house of God for ever.
Gospel churches being erected and built up for their sakes, and for such ends and purposes.
We have been discussing that there are two, or perhaps three different meanings of Zion.
Look at Zion as the church.
The true believers in Christ are the church, and we know they will be saved.
Look at Zion as Jerusalem, and we know that the Lord will rule from Jerusalem.
The new Jerusalem will come down from God out of heaven, and all who truly believe will live there with our Lord.
Psalm 69:36 "The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein."
Not their natural, but spiritual seed, or a succession of converts in the churches (Psalm 45:16). Who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Not of corruptible, but incorruptible seed, and by the word of God, which lives and abides forever (John 1:13).
These are the proper and rightful inheritors of the Gospel church state, and all its privileges, in all successive generations, quite down to the New Jerusalem church state.
Wherein will dwell only righteous persons, and whose names are in the Lamb's book of life.
Aben Ezra's note upon it is, "they shall inherit it, they and their children, in the days of David, or in the days of the Messiah''.
"And they that love his name shall dwell therein":
That love the person, Gospel, truths and ordinances of Christ (see SOS 1:3).
These shall have an abiding place in Zion, the church of God; in the cities of Judah, particular congregational churches.
And in the city of the New Jerusalem, where will be the tabernacle of God among men, and he shall dwell among them, and they with him.
Who are the seed spoken of here who will possess the land?
These are the seed of Abraham.
Those who are in covenant relationship with God.
Galatians 3:29 "And if ye [be] Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Praise God! all true Christians are the seed spoken of.
Psalm 69 Continued Questions
1.What 3 undeserved things was Jesus feeling in verse 19.
2.Who is verse 20 saying abandoned Jesus?
3.Where were all those who had been miraculously healed by Jesus?
4.Where is the fulfillment of verse 21 found in the New Testament?
5.What were some of the things prophesied to these people who turned against the Lord?
6.What did Jesus ask the Father to do to these who crucified Him?
7.How long shall Jerusalem be trodden down of the Gentiles?
8.Why had they stumbled?
9.Who do the sinful persecute today?
10.Who is there no hope for?
11.What is the only hope for this world?
12.Who will not be saved?
13.Who are the righteous?
14.Who had their names blotted out of the book?
15.Who did Jesus come to preach to?
16.What is the only thing we have to offer God?
17.Who elevates us up?
18.What is the hope of the Christian?
19.Who is the bride of Christ?
20.What two Scriptures verify the fact that praise is sacrifice?
21.God resisteth the proud, but does what for the humble?
22.What two other Scriptures explain verse 33?
23.Who created all things?
24.God will save _______.
25.Who, or what, is Zion?
26.Who are the seed that inherit from God?