Today’s Passage: Psalm 69
David is drowning. The water has risen to his neck, and there is no footing anywhere beneath him. In the same breath he admits real guilt and cries out against a hatred he never earned. qinʾah, pronounced kin-AH. Strong's H7068, jealousy, zeal, burning ardor. It speaks of ardor, a jealousy for God’s honor that burns the very one who carries it. Consumed is the word a fire would use. When John watched Jesus clear the temple, this was the verse he reached for. for God’s house has consumed him, and his enemies hand him gall and vinegar to drink. Then he asks God to judge them, and then, still in pain, he praises. Do not skip the hard middle of this psalm, and do not baptize its cries for revenge into something softer than they are. The apostles did not treat any of this as only David’s story. They heard it in Jesus.
"His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”" John 2:17 (BSB)
Paul takes the second half of the same verse and sets it on Christ.
"For even Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written: “The insults of those who insult You have fallen on Me.”" Romans 15:3 (BSB)
The apostles did not weigh whether this line belonged to Christ or leave the question open. They said plainly that it is His.
As you read, hold this: The waters are up to my neck. The apostles heard this psalm in Jesus.
Context Of David, to the tune of "Lilies"
“For the choirmaster. To the tune of ‘Lilies.’ Of David.” The heading is part of the text this house receives, not a note to be skipped over. David prayed a real drowning here, and long after him John, Paul, and Peter each took lines of this psalm and closed them upon Christ as His own. This house reads it the way they read it.
Psalm 69:1-4 (BSB)
¹ For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of David. 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.
Four verses of water. The neck, the mire, no footing anywhere, a flood closing over him, and a throat left raw from crying. Then verse 4 adds the other fact of his trouble, a hatred that has no cause behind it, and Jesus later named that very line as His own.
"But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’" John 15:25 (BSB)
Psalm 69:5-6 (BSB)
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.
After the cry against unjust hatred comes an honest admission. Real folly, real guilt, and no attempt to hide either from God. Where Psalm 44 had denied any hidden betrayal, this psalm will not pretend the guilt away to make its lament cleaner. A person can be wronged and at fault in the very same season, and still carry the whole tangle to God.
Psalm 69:7-12 (BSB)
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.
Psalm 69:13-18 (BSB)
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.
The water returns. He has told God more about himself now, and still the flood has not dropped an inch. “Answer me quickly” is not a patient man’s request. It is the cry of someone who knows how little air is left.
Psalm 69:19-21 (BSB)
¹⁹ You know my reproach, my shame and disgrace. All my adversaries are before You. ²⁰ Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found no one. ²¹ They poisoned my food with gall and gave me vinegar to quench my thirst.
Gall handed to him for food, vinegar for his thirst, cruelty dressed up as a drink. John names this very verse at the cross.
Study notes To fulfill the Scripture
"After this, knowing that everything had now been accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of sour wine was sitting there. So they soaked a sponge in the wine, put it on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted it to His mouth." John 19:28-29 (BSB)
John does not call this a loose echo of an old song. He calls it fulfillment, and we teach it the way he taught it.
Psalm 69:22-28 (BSB)
²² May their table become a snare; may it be a retribution and a trap. ²³ May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. ²⁴ Pour out Your wrath upon them, and let Your burning anger overtake them. ²⁵ May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. ²⁶ For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded. ²⁷ Add iniquity to their iniquity; let them not share in Your righteousness. ²⁸ May they be blotted out of the Book of Life and not listed with the righteous.
Teach these lines as they stand. Do not baptize their revenge into something gentler, and do not sand them down into a passing mood. They are the psalm’s own cry for justice, handed up to God. David gives the judgment over to God and does not take it into his own hands. Peter later received verse 25 as Scripture already spoken over Judas.
"For it is written in the book of Psalms: ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, ‘May another take his position.’" Acts 1:20 (BSB)
The imprecation stands in the book. The apostles did not cut it out, and neither will this house.
Psalm 69:29-36 (BSB)
²⁹ But I am in pain and distress; let Your salvation protect me, O God. ³⁰ I will praise God’s name in song and exalt Him with thanksgiving. ³¹ And this will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with horns and hooves. ³² The humble will see and rejoice. You who seek God, let your hearts be revived! ³³ For the LORD listens to the needy and does not despise His captive people. ³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them. ³⁵ For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it. ³⁶ The descendants of His servants will inherit it, and those who love His name will settle in it.
He is still in pain when verse 29 opens, and verse 30 lifts into praise anyway. The last vision of the psalm is larger than one man’s neck in the water: Zion saved, the cities of Judah rebuilt, and a people who love His name settled at last in the land.
The waters are up to my neck. The apostles heard this psalm in Jesus.