Not Fooled - Psalm 69

“To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Psalm of David.” Psalm 69:1

The Hebrew word for “lilies,” either describes an instrument so shaped, or denotes a tune by that name to which the Psalm was to be sung. This is a song of love, or, of beloved ones. [1]

“Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail while I wait for my God.” Psalm 69:1-3

David uses picturesque language to describe his circumstances to God. You or I might say, “Help Lord! I am drowning. I cannot touch the bottom. I am going under. Soon, I will be silent. My eyes will go dark.”

Once, while floating in the water off the coast of Tai-O Island, I was enjoying being moved along by a current in the water. I did not grow up near an ocean. I had no idea that I was caught in a rip current. From a nearby pier, my Hong Kong friends began signaling to me and yelling something at me. Finally, I heard one say, “Swim for your life.” As I swam toward the pier, the current grew stronger. I asked the Lord to help me and He did. I made it to the pier, but was exhausted.

Thank God for revealing to us when we are in danger and for rescuing us when we ask for help!

“Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. They are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully. Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it. O God, You know my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from You. Let not those who wait for You, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me. Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel. Because for Your sake I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.” Psalm 69:4-7

At first, King Saul wanted David dead. Later, it seems, evildoers within Israel wanted their law-loving king dead. They were more than the hairs on his head. They advocated that he be forced to restore things that he had not stolen. David did not want those who waited on the Lord to suffer confusion or shame due to his actions. At same time, he voiced his circumstances to God, saying that he was experiencing reproach and shame for the sake of God’s glory.

In Psalm 69, David is a type of Christ in regards to suffering. The Pharisees attacked Jesus relentlessly. In John 15:25, Jesus applied the prophecy, “They hated me without a cause” to Himself. 1 Peter 2:22 states that Jesus “committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.” Jesus experienced unjust treatment by people in Israel.

“I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children, because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.” Psalm 69:8-9

Both David and Jesus were mistreated by family members. In 1 Samuel 17:28, David’s oldest brother, Eliab, accused him of pride and wickedness. In John 7:5, the brothers of Christ did not believe in Him. In John 1:11, Jesus came to His own and His own received Him not. [2]

Zeal for God’s house consumed both David and Jesus. Zeal made both Christ and David to forget themselves, and do that which generated insults toward them for doing it. [3]

“When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that became my reproach. I also made sackcloth my garment. I became a byword to them. Those who sit in the gate speak against me, and I am the song of the drunkards.” Psalm 69:10-12

While David fasted and wept for souls, they cast insults at him. When David replaced his royal robe with the garment of a griever, they laughed at him. Drunkards made up songs about him. He was a headliner among gossipers in public places. They considered him contemptible.

In 1 Corinthians 4:9, Paul wrote, “I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death. We have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.”

All who care for souls as Christ does will incur insults from Satan’s servants. Or as Paul put it in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”

“But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord, in the acceptable time. O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, hear me in the truth of Your salvation.” Psalm 69:13

In contrast to those who scorned prayer, fasting, grieving for souls and zeal for God’s house, David remained committed to praying and seeking the Lord for mercy.

“Deliver me out of the mire and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the floodwater overflow me, nor let the deep swallow me up. And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.” Psalm 69:14-15

The mire, the deep waters and the floodwaters that David referred to in verses 1-2 of this Psalm are people who hate him. They dug pits for him. David did not want to be assassinated by them.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 says, “No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death.” In Psalm 68:20, David wrote, “To God the Lord belong escapes from death.” In Hebrew 10:39, Paul wrote, “We are… those who believe to the saving of the soul.”

“Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good. Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. And do not hide Your face from Your servant, for I am in trouble. Hear me speedily. Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of my enemies. You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before You.” Psalm 69:16-19

David’s enemies successfully convinced many that only fools were for him. This is how some people treat believers in Christ. David asked the Lord to offset his trouble with lovingkindness. The Lord was merciful to David and redeemed his soul. The real fools were those without God.

“Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Psalm 69:20-21

Jesus experienced ridicule and blasphemy from rebels. David wrote prophetically about Jesus when he wrote of reproach breaking His heart. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was full of heaviness. He looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but found none. While on the cross, His torturers gave Him gall for food, and vinegar to drink. [4]

The gall and vinegar was a pain reliever given to those who were about to die. Jesus refused it to bear the full brunt of the pain that our sin deserved. His heart was broken because those who crucified Him did not know what they were doing. They were murdering the very one who loved them the most. The Savior who delivers lost souls from hell!

Sin matters! Sin cost Jesus great pain, grief, and death. Murder, lying, deceiving, hatred, gossip, fornication, adultery, unforgiveness, greed, thievery, and rivalry are sins. Sin is the deadliest pandemic. It ends with death. And for those whose sin debt has not been paid, sin costs them an eternity of separation from God. An eternity in hell!

Hell is horrible! It is forever! It is the incinerator for those who trashed God and God’s Word. The worst humanitarian crisis is to be a lost soul on the way to hell.

The good news is Jesus Christ wants to save us. He wants to redeem us. In John 5:21, He said, “As the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.”

In John 5:24, Jesus said, “He who hears My Word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

In other words, faith in Christ seals the deal. The believer in Him has eternal life.

“Let their table become a snare before them, and their well-being a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and make their loins shake continually.” Psalm 69:22-23

In Romans 11:9-10, Paul quoted these verses almost word for word and applied them to the judgments of God upon the unbelieving Jews.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16, Paul wrote of his countrymen who rejected Jesus Messiah, saying that they “killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us. They do not please God and are contrary to all men. They forbid us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.” God’s wrath, and Paul’s was about their rejection of Messiah.

The table of the religious leaders became a snare to them. The table in this verse refers to the altar of the Lord. By their affection and adherence to the Old Testament altar they denied Messiah to whom the altar was a symbol according to Hebrews 13:10.

“Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let Your wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their dwelling place be desolate. Let no one live in their tents.” Psalm 69:24-25

Those who reject God’s Son should fear His wrath. In John 3:36, Jesus said, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Behold the goodness and severity of God!

According to John 11:48, the very thing the religious leaders tried to prevent by crucifying Christ was fulfilled. Their dwelling place was left desolate. The temple and Jerusalem was destroyed. According to the 1st-century historian Josephus, approximately 1.1 million Jews died during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, many of whom were pilgrims trapped in the city. Another 97,000 were captured and enslaved. Many were forced into hard labor or killed in the arena. [5]

“For they persecute the ones You have struck and talk of the grief of those You have wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity and let them not come into Your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.” Psalm 68:26-28

The religious leaders slapped and spit on Christ when He stood in their council chamber. They shouted insults at Him while He hung on the cross dying for their sins and for the sins of the world. They turned souls against Jesus. Jesus had said to them in Matthew 23:15, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” The names of rejectors of Christ will not be written with the righteous in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

“But I am poor and sorrowful. Let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.” Psalm 69:29

What did David think of himself? He was poor of spirit. He needed the Lord to save him and bring him to heaven. All of his hope was in God and not in himself.

“I will praise the Name of God with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull, which has horns and hooves.” Psalm 69:30-31

“The Bible explicitly commands singing to God in approximately 50 instances, with over 400 references to singing in total.” [6] The first and great commandment is to love God with all one’s being. God wants to be loved. Think about it! Would you rather have a relationship with a disappointing person who is always apologizing to you, or a relationship with someone who adores you, and is grateful for you?

Don’t get me wrong, we all need the Lord’s sacrifice on the cross to atone for our sins. But let us press on into praising His Name. Singing God love songs! Magnifying and giving Him thanks!

“The humble shall see this and be glad. And you who seek God, your hearts shall live. For the Lord hears the poor and does not despise His prisoners. Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” Psalm 69:32-34

“The psalmist here, both as a type of Christ and as an example to Christians, concludes a psalm with holy joy and praise.” [7]

Humble people are unashamed to profess faith in Christ. They rejoice when prodigals, like them, come to their senses, and seek God. The world might despise them, but God does not. He hears them. Therefore, they praise God with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Sing to God is what Paul and Silas did after they were imprisoned for the Lord. As they sang to the Lord, the earth was moved! Just as the stone before the tomb of Jesus could not stop His resurrection, neither could the prison stocks retain Paul and Silas. They stood upright and declared Good News to their prison guard. He believed in the Lord, and so did his entire family.

“For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it. Also, the descendants of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His Name shall dwell in it.” Psalm 69:35-36

Jesus Christ was the King on the holy hill of Zion who gave His life for our salvation. His Gospel of the Kingdom has spread from Zion to the ends of the earth. In 1 Corinthians 4:15, Paul wrote of birthing the Corinthians into the faith by preaching the Gospel to them. The Lord also used the words of Paul and John to birth me into the Christian faith. Now, I am a descendant of God’s servants who “shall inherit the land.” I love His Name. I pray that this is your testimony too.


[1] Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary
[2] Matthew Henry’s Commentary
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] historyhit.com/66-ad
[6] https://www.9marks.org/article/sing-to-one-another
[7] Matthew Henry’s Commentary