Psalm 69

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim,
A Psalm of David.

This psalm is much like the 22nd, representing at once the troubles of David and of David’s Lord, and the glories which followed. We have in it, (1.) Bitter complaints of long and sore troubles; of the malice and multitude of enemies; of the unkindness of friends; of general contempt: and these mingled with candid acknowledgments of guilt, and with supplications for God’s gracious audience and merciful deliverance, ver. 1-13. (2.) Pleas insisted on, in these supplications, viz. the mercy and truth of God; the psalmist’s own great distress; the insolence and cruelty of his enemies; and the unkindness of his friends, ver. 14-21. (3.) Predictions of the ruin of David’s, and especially of Christ’s Jewish enemies; importing that their sacrifices and their common food should be cursed to them; that they should be plagued with judicial blindness and wrathful disquiet; that they should be rendered public monuments of the vengeance of God, having their church and state quite unhinged, and their land desolated; and, in fine, that their ruin should be increasing, and their recovery almost impossible, ver. 22-28. (4.) Under a deep sense of his poverty and distress, David, and his divine Son, celebrate the high praises of God, and call others to praise him for the deliverances of Israel; but chiefly for the erection of the gospel church, and for the certain, though still future recalling of the Jews into the same, ver. 29-36.

While I sing, let me behold my Redeemer, charged in law with my sins, and bearing the punishment thereof. Let me learn with patience to run the race of holy obedience and of necessary trials set before me, looking to Jesus as my pattern, and as the author and finisher of my faith. While I behold the tremendous severity of God’s judgments against his ancient people, for rejecting and murdering his Son, let me not be high -minded, but fear. Let me behold the grace of our Lord Jesus, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor; that we through his poverty might be made rich. And let me be a living and lively member of that church which is founded in his blood, and blessed in him with all spiritual blessings.

1 Save me, O God, because the floods
do so environ me,
That ev’n unto my very soul
come in the waters be.

2 I downward in deep mire do sink,
where standing there is none:
I am into deep waters come,
where floods have o’er me gone.

3 I weary with my crying am,
my throat is also dried;
Mine eyes do fail, while for my God
I waiting do abide.

4 Those men that do without a cause
bear hatred unto me,
Than are the hairs upon my head
in number more they be:

They that would me destroy, and are
mine en’mies wrongfully,
Are mighty: so what I took not,
to render forced was I.

5 Lord, thou my folly know’st, my sins
not covered are from thee.
6 Let none that wait on thee be shamed,
Lord God of hosts, for me.

O Lord, the God of Israel,
let none, who search do make,
And seek thee, be at any time
confounded for my sake.

7 For I have borne reproach for thee,
my face is hid with shame.
8 To brethren strange, to mother’s sons
an alien I became.

9 Because the zeal did eat me up,
which to thine house I bear;
And the reproaches cast at thee,
upon me fallen are.

10 My tears and fasts, t’ afflict my soul,
were turned to my shame.
11 When sackcloth I did wear, to them
a proverb I became.

12 The men that in the gate do sit
against me evil spake;
They also that vile drunkards were
of me their song did make.

13 But, in an acceptable time,
my pray’r, Lord, is to thee:
In truth of thy salvation, Lord,
and mercy great, hear me.

14 Deliver me out of the mire,
from sinking do me keep;
Free me from those that do me hate,
and from the waters deep.

15 Let not the flood on me prevail,
whose water overflows;
Nor deep me swallow, nor the pit
her mouth upon me close.

16 Hear me, O Lord, because thy love
and kindness is most good;
Turn unto me, according to
thy mercies’ multitude.

17 Nor from thy servant hide thy face:
I’m troubled, soon attend.
18 Draw near my soul, and it redeem;
me from my foes defend.

19 To thee is my reproach well known,
my shame, and my disgrace:
Those that mine adversaries be
are all before thy face.

20 Reproach hath broke my heart; I’m full
of grief: I looked for one
To pity me, but none I found;
comforters found I none.

21 They also bitter gall did give
unto me for my meat:
They gave me vinegar to drink,
when as my thirst was great.

22 Before them let their table prove
a snare; and do thou make
Their welfare and prosperity
a trap themselves to take.

23 Let thou their eyes so darkened be,
that sight may them forsake;
And let their loins be made by thee
continually to shake.

24 Thy fury pour thou out on them,
and indignation;
And let thy wrathful anger, Lord,
fast hold take them upon.

25 All waste and desolate let be
their habitation;
And in their tabernacles all
inhabitants be none.

26 Because him they do persecute,
whom thou didst smite before;
They talk unto the grief of those
whom thou hast wounded sore.

27 Add thou iniquity unto
their former wickedness;
And do not let them come at all
into thy righteousness.

28 Out of the book of life let them
be razed and blotted quite;
Among the just and righteous
let not their names be writ.

29 But now become exceeding poor
and sorrowful am I:
By thy salvation, O my God,
let me be set on high.

30 The name of God I with a song
most cheerfully will praise;
And I, in giving thanks to him,
his name shall highly raise.

31 This to the Lord a sacrifice
more gracious shall prove
Than bullock, ox, or any beast
that hath both horn and hoof.

32 When this the humble men shall see,
it joy to them shall give:
O all ye that do seek the Lord,
your hearts shall ever live.

33 For God the poor hears, and will not
his prisoners contemn.
34 Let heav’n, and earth, and seas, him praise,
and all that move in them.

35 For God will Judah’s cities build,
and he will Zion save,
That they may dwell therein, and it
in sure possession have.

36 And they that are his servants’ seed
inherit shall the same;
So shall they have their dwelling there
that love his blessed name.