We’re going to read Psalm 69 over two days. For this psalm, rather than our “do-it-yourself” method, I will provide some of my own reflections today and tomorrow.

1 Save me, O God,
for the waters are up to my neck.
2 I have sunk into the miry depths,
where there is no footing;
I have drifted into deep waters,
where the flood engulfs me.
3 I am weary from my crying;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,
looking for my God.
4 Those who hate me without cause
outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are those who would destroy me—
my enemies for no reason.
Though I did not steal,
I must repay.

5 You know my folly, O God,
and my guilt is not hidden from You.
6 May those who hope in You not be ashamed through me,
O Lord GOD of Hosts;
may those who seek You not be dishonored through me,
O God of Israel.
7 For I have endured scorn for Your sake,
and shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers
and a foreigner to my mother’s sons,
9 because zeal for Your house has consumed me,
and the insults of those who insult You have fallen on me.
10 I wept and fasted,
but it brought me reproach.
11 I made sackcloth my clothing,
and I was sport to them.
12 Those who sit at the gate mock me,
and I am the song of drunkards.

13 But my prayer to You, O LORD,
is for a time of favor.
In Your abundant loving devotion, O God,
answer me with Your sure salvation.
14 Rescue me from the mire
and do not let me sink;
deliver me from my foes
and out of the deep waters.
15 Do not let the floods engulf me
or the depths swallow me up;
let not the Pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, O LORD,
for Your loving devotion is good;
turn to me in keeping with Your great compassion.
17 Hide not Your face from Your servant,
for I am in distress.
Answer me quickly!
18 Draw near to my soul and redeem me;
ransom me because of my foes.

REFLECTIONS

This psalm is a cry for help from King David at a time when he was experiencing intense persecution and suffering, being mocked and humiliated because of his faith in God.

Many Christians find this a difficult psalm to read, because as we’ll see tomorrow, David goes on to call on God to judge and destroy his persecutors. But the New Testament writers saw this psalm as a clear and direct prophecy of Jesus, especially of his crucifixion. I found it so enriching to read it imagining it as the prayer of Jesus to his Father as he faced the cross. Even verse 5 (“my guilt is not hidden from You”) is a reminder of how Jesus took our sin on himself – God made him “to be sin on our behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:21). But ultimately, the thing that made Jesus willing to suffer so much shame and scorn was that he was consumed by zeal for God’s “house” (v 9) – zeal for God’s honour, love for God’s holiness and reputation. It also expresses how completely Jesus trusted his Father as he went to the cross – he knew that on the other side of death, God would rescue him and ransom his life from the grave.

All of that makes our suffering as believers – when people mock and insult us for our faith – so much more bearable, even somehow special! I kept remembering Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:5: “For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” When we suffer for faith in Christ, it is never meaningless. Christ is there with us in those sufferings, because they are an extension of his. So we can take these words and pray them all to God with the same trust as Jesus had when he went to the cross, knowing that God will hear and redeem our lives from the grave.