Psalm 69

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. Of David.

1 Save me, O God!
    For the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in deep mire,
    where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
    and the flood sweeps over me.
3 I am weary with my crying out;
    my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
    with waiting for my God.
4 More 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?
5 O God, you know my folly;
    the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
6 Let 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.
7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
    that dishonor has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
    an alien to my mother's sons.
9 For zeal for your house has consumed me,
    and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,
    it became my reproach.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
    I became a byword to them.
12 I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
    and the drunkards make songs about me.
13 But 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.
14 Deliver me
    from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
    and from the deep waters.
15 Let not the flood sweep over me,
    or the deep swallow me up,
    or the pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good;
    according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
17 Hide not your face from your servant,
    for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.
18 Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
    ransom me because of my enemies!
19 You know my reproach,
    and my shame and my dishonor;
    my foes are all known to you.
20 Reproaches 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.
21 They gave me poison for food,
    and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
22 Let their own table before them become a snare;
    and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see,
    and make their loins tremble continually.
24 Pour out your indignation upon them,
    and let your burning anger overtake them.
25 May their camp be a desolation;
    let no one dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom you have struck down,
    and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.
27 Add to them punishment upon punishment;
    may they have no acquittal from you.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;
    let them not be enrolled among the righteous.
29 But I am afflicted and in pain;
    let your salvation, O God, set me on high!
30 I will praise the name of God with a song;
    I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This will please the Lord more than an ox
    or a bull with horns and hoofs.
32 When the humble see it they will be glad;
    you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
33 For the Lord hears the needy
    and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.
34 Let heaven and earth praise him,
    the seas and everything that moves in them.
35 For God will save Zion
    and build up the cities of Judah,
and people shall dwell there and possess it;
36 the offspring of his servants shall inherit it,
    and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

All four Gospels tell the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple by flipping over the tables of the money-changers. I think it’s fair to say that it’s that act that gets him killed—it is extremely provocative.

Here’s how John tells the story:

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. [John 2:13-22]

Did you catch that? The disciples see Jesus flip over the tables, and they immediately think of a line from today’s psalm:

9 For zeal for your house has consumed me,
    and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. [Psalm 69:9]

This is a good example of how the early Christians used the Psalms as a way of understanding the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. They see Jesus as zealous for the Lord’s righteousness, and punished for it.

Friends, this is one reason why it is so important that we are reading through the Psalms—without understanding the Psalms, we won’t understand Jesus.

A second reason we’re reading the Psalms is that they teach us to pray through our emotions, thereby giving our emotions over to the Lord.

Psalm 69 is a prayer of desperate complaint. If you have ever been in a difficulty way, the 69th Psalm is for you.

“This is one of the longest prayers for help in the book of Psalms. Its petitions are complex, covering multiple themes. The prayer opens with a proclamation of personal trouble (vv. 2-3), followed quickly by cries about the enemies (v. 4). Next is a declaration of one’s own sin (vv. 5-6). The prayer also addresses problems with God’s inaction (v. 26). Another element is an expression of suffering because of dedication to God, a Suffering Servant motif (vv. 7-12). In and of themselves, none of these motifs are unusual in prayers for help. What is unusual is that they all appear in one prayer. The psalm shows just how complicated life can be and that one can suffer because of God’s action and/or inaction and that enemies can threaten because of personal pain, sin, or because of a person’s faithfulness—or in this case, all of the above at the same time. The remainder of the psalm is typical for a prayer. It offers petitions for God’s action followed by the praise that testifies to the promise of being heard.” —Beth Tanner