David’s Words of Prophecy – The Suffering Messiah

Psalm 69

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. Of David.

Before you even read the Psalm for today, I want to tell you that this psalm, along with Psalm 22 are two of the greatest and most pointed of the Messianic psalms. It is serendipitous that we would read this psalm right in the middle of our study of the Passion of the Christ as we find it in Luke. David writes prophetically when he pens these words. As you read through these verses, imagine the suffering Christ; betrayed, unjustly tried, beaten, scourged, crucified, and struggling to breath. Those who arrested Him showed pure hatred and those who fulfilled the role of executioners stand at the foot of the cross watching Him suffer. I know this is a fairly long psalm, but don't give up. Read it all and read these words with Him in mind.

¹Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.

²I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.

³I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

⁴More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore?

⁵O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

⁶Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.

⁷For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.

⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons.

⁹For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

¹⁰When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.

¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

¹²I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

¹⁴Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.

¹⁵Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.

¹⁶Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.

¹⁷Hide not your face from your servant; for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.

¹⁸Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies!

¹⁹You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you.

²⁰Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.

²¹They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

²²Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.

²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually.

²⁴Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.

²⁵May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.

²⁶For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.

²⁷Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you.

²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

²⁹But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high!

³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

³²When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

³³For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.

³⁵For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it;

³⁶the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

When read from the perspective of the Lord Jesus on the cross, we gain a much deeper appreciation for His mental state at the time of His suffering. He even mentions this psalm as He walks with and teachs His disciples.

John 15:25

But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

Jesus went around doing good—preaching the gospel of forgiveness, comforting the afflicted, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and even raising the dead. In spite of this, yes, even because of this, the leaders of Israel hated him. The more good he did, the more they were determined to put him to death. Though Pilate admitted he found no fault with Jesus, he caved in to the demands that Christ be crucified. Christ was forced to pay for crimes he had not committed.

Brug, J. F. (1989). Psalms 1–72 (2nd ed., p. 271). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.

I am tempted so many times to simply skip over these types of psalms and that is a mistake. Psalm 69 brings my suffering Savior into even sharper focus and reading these words draws me into a deeper understanding of the horrifying price He had to pay for my sin. These words are harsh and difficult. So was His crucifixion.