Bible Commentary

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 69:1 To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. Psalm 69:1-36 THE Davidic authorship of this psalm is evidently untenable, if for no other reason, yet because of the state of things presupposed in Psalm 69:35 . The supposition that Jeremiah was the author has more in its favour than in the case of many of the modern attributions of psalms to him, even if, as seems most probable, the references to sinking in deep mire and the like are metaphorical. Cheyne fixes on the period preceding Nehemiah’s first journey to Jerusalem as the earliest possible date for this psalm and its kindred ones. { Psalm 22:1-31 , Psalm 35:1-28 , and Psalm 40:13-17 } Baethgen follows Olshausen in assigning the psalm to the Maccabean period. The one point which seems absolutely certain is that David was not its author. It falls into two equal parts ( Psalm 69:1-18 and Psalm 69:19-36 ). In the former part three turns of thought or feeling may be traced: Psalm 69:1-6 being mainly a cry for Divine help, with plaintive spreading out of the psalmist’s extremity of need; Psalm 69:7-12 basing the prayer on the fact that his sufferings flow from his religion; and Psalm 69:13-18 being a stream of petitions for deliverance, with continuous allusion to the description of his trials in Psalm 69:1-6 . The second part ( Psalm 69:19-36 ), begins with renewed description of the psalmist’s affliction ( Psalm 69:19-21 ), and thence passes to invocation of God’s justice on his foes ( Psalm 69:22-28 ), which takes the place of the direct petitions for deliverance in the first part. The whole closes with trustful anticipation of answers to prayer, which will call forth praise from ever-widening circles, - first from the psalmist himself; then from the oppressed righteous; and, finally, from heaven, earth, and sea. The numerous citations of this psalm in the New Testament have led many commentators to maintain its directly Messianic character. But its confessions of sin and imprecations of vengeance are equally incompatible with that view. It as Messianic as typical rather than as prophetic, exhibiting a history, whether of king, prophet, righteous man, or personified nation, in which the same principles are at work as are manifest in their supreme energy and highest form in the Prince of righteous sufferers. But the correspondence of such a detail as giving gall and vinegar, with the history of Jesus, carries us beyond the region of types, and is a witness that God’s Spirit shaped the utterances of the psalmist for a purpose unknown to himself, and worked in like manner on the rude soldiers, whose clumsy mockery and clumsy kindness fulfilled ancient words. There is surely something more here than coincidence or similarity between the experience of one righteous sufferer and another. If Jesus cried "I thirst" in order to bring about the "fulfilment" of one verse of our psalm, His doing so is of a piece with some other acts of His which were distinct claims to be the Messiah of prophecy; but His wish could not influence the soldiers to fulfil the psalm. The first note is petition and spreading out of the piteous story of the psalmist’s need. The burdened heart finds some ease in describing how heavy its burden is and the devout heart receives some foretaste of longed for help in the act of telling God how sorely His help is needed. He who knows all our trouble is glad to have us tell it to Him, since it is thereby lightened, and our faith in Him is thereby increased. Sins confessed are wholly cancelled, and troubles spoken to God are more than half calmed. The psalmist begins with metaphors in Psalm 69:1-2 , and translates these into grim prose in Psalm 69:3-4 , and then, with acknowledgment of sinfulness, cries for God’s intervention in Psalm 69:5-6 . It is flat and prosaic to take the expressions in Psalm 69:1-2 , literally, as if they described an experience like Jeremiah’s in the miry pit. Nor can the literal application be carried through; for the image of "waters coming in unto the soul" brings up an entirely different set of circumstances from that of sinking in mud in a pit. The one describes trouble as rushing in upon a man, like a deluge which has burst its banks and overwhelms him; the other paints it as yielding and tenacious, affording no firm spot to stand on, but sucking him up in its filthy, stifling slime. No water was in Jeremiah’s pit. The two figures are incompatible in reality, and can only be blended in imagination. What they mean is put without metaphor in Psalm 69:3-4 . The psalmist is "weary with calling" on God; his throat is dry with much prayer; his eyes ache and are dim with upward gazing for help which lingers. Yet he does not cease to call, and still prays with his parched throat, and keeps the weary eyes steadfastly fixed, as the psalm shows. It is no small triumph of patient faith to wait for tarrying help. Psalm 69:4 tells why he thus cries. He is compassed by a crowd of enemies. Two things especially characterise these-their numbers, and their gratuitous hatred. As to the former, they are described as more numerous than the hairs of the psalmist’s head. The parallelism of clauses recommends the textual alteration which substitutes for the unnecessary word "my destroyers" the appropriate expression "more than my bones," which is found in some old versions. Causeless hatred is the portion of the righteous in all ages; and our Lord points to Himself as experiencing it in utmost measure, { John 15:25 } inasmuch as He, the perfectly righteous One, must take into His own history all the bitterness which is infused into the cup of those who fear God and love the right, by a generation who are out of sympathy with them. The same experience, in forms varying according to the spirit of the times, is realised still in all who have the mind of Christ in them. As long as the world is a world, it will have some contempt mingling with its constrained respect for goodness, some hostility, now expressed by light shafts of mockery and ridicule, now by heavier and more hurtful missiles, for Christ’s true servants. The ancient "Woe" for those of whom all men speak well is in force today. The "hatred" is "without a cause," in so far as its cherishers have received no hurt, and its objects desire only their enemies’ good; but its cause lies deep in the irreconcilable antagonism of life principles and aims between those who follow Christ and those who do not. The psalmist had to bear unjust charges, and to make restitution of what he had never taken. Causeless hatred justified itself by false accusations, and innocence had but to bear silently and to save life at the expense of being robbed in the name of justice. He turns from enemies to God. But his profession of innocence assumes a touching and unusual form. He does not, as might be expected, say, "Thou knowest my guiltlessness," but, "Thou knowest my foolishness." A true heart, while conscious of innocence in regard to men, and of having done nothing to evoke their enmity, is, even in the act of searching itself, arrested by the consciousness of its many sins in God’s sight, and will confess these the more penitently, because it stands upright before men, and asserts its freedom from all crime against them. In so far as men’s hatred is God’s instrument, it inflicts merited chastisement. That does not excuse men; but it needs to be acknowledged by the sufferer, if things are to be right between him and God. Then, after such confession, he can pray, as this psalmist does, that God’s mercy may deliver him, so that others who, like him, wait on God may not be disheartened or swept from their confidence, by the spectacle of his vain hopes and unanswered cries. The psalmist has a strong consciousness of his representative character, and, as in so many other psalms, thinks that his experience is of wide significance as a witness for God. This consciousness points to something special in his position, whether we find the specialty in his office, or in the supposed personification of the nation, or in poetic consciousness heightened by the sense of being an organ of God’s Spirit. In a much inferior degree, the lowliest devout man may feel the same; for there are none whose experiences of God as answering prayer may not be a light of hope to some souls sitting in the dark. In Psalm 69:7-12 the prayer for deliverance is urged on the ground that the singer’s sufferings are the result of his devotion. Psalm 44:13-22 may be compared, and Jeremiah 15:15 is an even closer parallel. Fasting and sackcloth are mentioned again together in Psalm 35:13 ; and Lamentations 3:14 and Job 30:9 resemble Psalm 69:12 b. Surrounded by a godless generation, the psalmist’s earnestness of faith and concern for God’s honour made him an object of dislike, a target for drunken ridicule. These broke the strong ties of kindred, and acted as separating forces more strongly than brotherhood did, as a uniting one. "Zeal for God’s house" presupposes the existence of the Temple, and also either its neglect or its desecration. That sunken condition of the sanctuary distressed the psalmist more than personal calamity, and it was the departure of Israel from God that made him clothe himself in sackcloth and fast and weep. But so far had deterioration gone that his mourning and its cause supplied materials for tipsy mirth, and his name became a by word and a butt for malicious gossip. The whole picture is that of the standing experience of the godly among the godless. The Perfect Example of devotion and communion had to pass through these waters where they ran deepest and chilliest, but all who have His Spirit have their share of the same fate. The last division of this first part ( Psalm 69:13-18 ) begins by setting in strong contrast the psalmist’s prayer and the drunkard’s song. He is sure that his cry will be heard, and so he calls the present time "a time of favour," and appeals, as often in the Psalter, to the multitude of God’s lovingkindnesses and the faithfulness of His promise of salvation. Such a pleading with God on the ground of His manifested character is heard in Psalm 69:13-16 , thus inclosing, as it were, the prayer for deliverance in a wrapping of reminders to God of His own name. The petitions here echo the description of peril in the former part-mire and watery depths-and add another kindred image in that of the "pit shutting her mouth" over the suppliant. He is plunged in a deep dungeon, well-shaped; and if a stone is rolled on to its opening, his last gleam of daylight will be gone, and he will be buried alive. Beautifully do the pleas from God’s character and those from the petitioner’s sore need alternate, the latter predominating in Psalm 69:17-18 . His thoughts pass from his own desperate condition to God’s mercy, and from God’s mercy to his own condition, and he has the reward of faith, in that he finds in his straits reasons for his assurance that this is a time of favour, as well as pleas to urge with God. They make the black backing which turns his soul into a mirror, reflecting God’s promises in its trust. The second part of the psalm ( Psalm 69:19-36 ) has, like the former, three main divisions. The first of these, like Psalm 69:1-6 , is mainly a renewed spreading before God of the psalmist’s trouble ( Psalm 69:19-21 ). Rooted sorrows are not plucked up by one effort. This recrudescence of fear breaking in upon the newly won serenity of faith is true to nature. On some parts of our coasts, where a narrow outlet binders the free run of the tide, a second high water follows the first after an hour or so; and often a similar bar to the flowing away of fears brings them back in full rush after they had begun to sink. The psalmist had appealed to God’s knowledge of His "foolishness" as indorsing his protestations of innocence towards men. He now ( Psalm 69:19 ) appeals to His knowledge of his distresses, as indorsing his pitiful plaints. His soul is too deeply moved now to use metaphors, He speaks no more of mire and flood, but we hear the moan of a broken heart, and that wail which sounds sad across the centuries and wakes echoes in many solitary hearts. The psalmist’s eyes had failed, while he looked upwards for a God whose coming seemed slow; but they had looked yet more wearily and vainly for human pity and comforters, and found none. Instead of pity He had received only aggravation of misery. Such seems to be the force of giving gall for food, and vinegar to His thirst. The precise meaning of the word rendered "gall" is uncertain, but the general idea of something bitter is sufficient. That was all that His foes would give Him when hungry; and vinegar, which would make Him more thirsty still, was all that they proffered for His thirst. Such was their sympathy and comforting. According to Matthew, the potion of "wine (or vinegar) mingled with gall" was offered to and rejected by Jesus, before being fastened to the cross. He does not expressly quote the psalm, but probably refers to it. John, on the other hand, does tell us that Jesus, "that the scripture might be accomplished, said, I thirst," and sees its fulfilment in the kindly act of moistening the parched lips. The evangelist’s expression does not necessarily imply that a desire to fulfil the scripture was our Lord’s motive. Crucifixion was accompanied with torturing thirst, which wrung that last complaint from Jesus. But the evangelist discerns a Divine purpose behind the utterance of Jesus’ human weakness: and it is surely less difficult, for anyone who believes in supernatural revelation at all to believe that the words of the psalmist were shaped by a higher power, and the hands of the Roman soldiers moved by another impulse than their own, than to believe that this minute correspondence of psalm and gospel is merely accidental. But the immediately succeeding section warns us against pushing the Messianic character of the psalm too far, for these fearful imprecations cannot have any analogies in Christ’s words ( Psalm 69:22-28 ). The form of the wish in "Let their table become a snare" is explained by remembering that the Eastern table was often a leather flap laid on the ground, which the psalmist desires may start up as a snare, and close upon the feasters as they sit round it secure. Disease, continual terror, dimmed eyes, paralysed or quaking loins, ruin falling on their homes, and desolation round their encampment, so that they have no descendants, are the least of the evils invoked. The psalmist’s desires go further than all this corporeal and material disaster. He prays that iniquity may be added to their iniquity- i.e. , that they may be held guilty of sin after sin; and that they may have no portion in God’s righteousness- i.e. , in the gifts which flow from His adherence to His covenant. The climax of all these maledictions is that awful wish that the persecutors may be blotted out of the book of life or of the living. True, the high New Testament conception of that book, according to which it is the burgess roll of the citizens of the New Jerusalem, the possessors of eternal life, does not plainly belong to it in Old Testament usage, in which it means apparently the register of those living on earth. But to blot names therefrom is not only to kill, but to exclude from the national community, and so from all the privileges of the people of God. The psalmist desires for his foes the accumulation of all the ills that flesh is heir to, the extirpation of their families and their absolute exclusion from the company of the living and the righteous. It is impossible to bring such utterances into harmony with the teachings of Jesus, and the attempt to vindicate them ignores plain facts and does violence to plain words. Better far to let them stand as a monument of the earlier stage of God’s progressive revelation, and discern clearly the advance which Christian ethics has made on them. The psalm ends with glad anticipations of deliverance and vows of thanksgiving. The psalmist is sure that God’s salvation will lift him high above his enemies, and as sure that then he will be as grateful as he is now earnest in prayer, and surest of all that his thankful voice will sound sweeter in God’s ear than any sacrifice would smell in His nostrils. There is no contempt of sacrifices expressed in "horned and hoofed," but simply the idea of maturity which fits the animal to be offered. The single voice of praise will be caught up, the singer thinks, by a great chorus of those who would have been struck dumb with confusion if his prayer had not been answered ( Psalm 69:6 ), and who, in like manner, are gladdened by seeing his deliverance. The grace bestowed on one brings thanksgivings from many, which redound to the glory of God. The sudden transition in Psalm 69:32 b to direct address to the seekers after God, as if they stood beside the solitary singer, gives vividness to the anticipation. The insertion of "behold" is warranted, and tells what revives the beholders’ hearts. The seekers after God feel the pulse of a quicker life throbbing, when they see the wonders wrought through prayer. The singer’s thoughts go beyond his own deliverance to that of Israel. "His captives" is most naturally understood as referring to the exiled nation. And this wider manifestation of God’s restoring power will evoke praise from a wider circle, even from heaven, earth, and sea. The circumstances contemplated in Psalm 69:33-36 are evidently those of a captivity. God’s people are in bondage, the cities of Judah are in ruins, the inhabitants scattered far from their homes. The only reason for taking the closing verses as being a liturgical addition is unwillingness to admit exilic or post-exilic psalms. But these verses cannot be fairly interpreted without recognising that they presuppose that Israel is in bondage, or at least on the verge of it. The circumstances of Jeremiah’s life and times coincide closely with those of the psalmist. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. &&& Psalm 69:1-12 Human suffering Homilist. I. Man's sufferings are SOMETIMES OVERWHELMINGLY GREAT. This shows — 1. The abnormal state of man. Was man made to suffer thus? No; man suffers because he has transgressed. 2. The blessedness of Christ's mission. He came to "heal the broken-hearted," and to "wipe away all tears from off all faces." II. Man's sufferings are OFTEN INFLICTED BY HIS FELLOW-CREATURES. The sufferer here ascribes his sufferings, not to God, or accident, or fate, but to men. 1. To the malice, the multitude, and the might of his enemies. These enemies, he says —(1) Compelled him to restore what he "took not away." They extorted from him by violence that which was his, not theirs. He does not say what it was, whether it was his time, his labour, or his property. Men are often doing this, taking from others that to which they have no right.(2) Persecuted him on account of his religion. "For Thy sake I have borne reproach," etc. How often in the history of the world do we find men inflicting sufferings upon their fellows in consequence of their religious convictions! 2. To the alienation of his most intimate relations and friends. 3. To the contempt he received from all on account of his religious zeal. III. Man's sufferings often REVEAL THE MORAL WEAKNESS OF HIS CHARACTER. If, as here, you find a man parading his sufferings, moaning and groaning about his afflictions, he is not a man of strong moral character. Christ, instead of parading His sufferings, seldom even mentioned them. IV. Man's sufferings OCCASIONALLY LEAD HIM TO GOD. They did so now in the case of David. ( Homilist. ) The good man's foes Joseph S. Exell, M. A. I. THE GOOD MAN HAS FOES. 1. The devil. 2. Wicked men readily learn the craft of their master. II. THE GOOD MAN'S FOES ARE PERTINACIOUS. 1. They act in concert — take counsel how they may best succeed in their designs; encourage one another, to make their plans most effective. 2. They are never satisfied. Satan, not content to rob Job of his property, must needs seek to destroy his children. The trouble of the Christian, so far from moving his enemies to compassion, do but instigate to fresh deeds of iniquity. III. THE GOOD MAN'S ENEMIES ARE COWARDLY. 1. Slander is one of the commonest weapons by which they seek to destroy. It is referred to several times by David. It is the sharp "sword," the poisoned "arrow," the "bitter words." 2. Misrepresentation is another very common mode of attacking the godly. "They Search out iniquities." This seems to suggest that when faults cannot readily be found, they are sought diligently, until some trivial defect is discovered that may be magnified into a deadly sin. Instead of setting a watch upon themselves, they watch others, and looking for faults they will invent them rather than be disappointed. IV. THE GOOD MAN'S ENEMIES ARE LABORIOUS. They are "workers of iniquity." Men who are too idle to do any good thing will toil at an evil one. Many men work far harder to go to hell than would suffice, humanly speaking, to carry them to heaven. If half the diligence devoted to works of evil were but given to the service of God, how greatly would the aspect of the world be changed. ( Joseph S. Exell, M. A. ) I restored that which I took not away. Psalm 69:4 Christ restoring what He took not away T. Cruse. I. WHAT IT IS WHICH WAS TAKEN AWAY, AND FROM WHOM. 1. Glory was taken from God.(1) The glory of God shining forth in the holy government of His reasonable creatures, was taken away by sin.(2) That glory which we are tied to give to God, was withheld by sin. 2. There was righteousness, holiness, and happiness taken from man. II. WHEREIN IT APPEARS THAT CHRIST DID NOT TAKE THESE THINGS FROM EITHER. 1. It is plain, as to God, that He never took any glory from Him; for He never did anything dishonourable or offensive to God ( John 8:29 ). 2. It is also clear, as to man, that He took not away any righteousness, holiness, or happiness from him ( Isaiah 53:9 ; Acts 10:33 ; Luke 9:56 ). 3. The Scripture therefore speaks of Christ's being cut off, but not for Himself ( Daniel 9:26 ). Though He suffered in His own Person, He did not suffer on His own account ( 1 Peter 3:18 ). 4. The innocency of Christ was conspicuous in His very sufferings ( Acts 13:28 ). III. HOW DID CHRIST RESTORE THOSE THINGS WHICH HE TOOK NOT AWAY? In general, by His active and passive obedience; for both are concerned in this matter, and contribute their joint influence towards the great and blessed work of which I am now speaking. IV. WHY DID CHRIST MAKE IT HIS WORK TO RESTORE WHAT HE TOOK NOT AWAY? 1. It was a necessary work, a work which must be done, in order to His being a Saviour. 2. It was a work impossible for any mere creature to do; so that if Christ did not, it could not have been done by any person besides Him. 3. Christ was ordained of God to this work, and in that respect there was a necessity of His accomplishing it ( John 9:4 ). 4. The infinite love of Christ to sinners did sweetly incline Him to this work. ( T. Cruse. ) A robbery committed, and restitution made, both to God and man E. Erskine. I. PREMISE TWO OR THREE THINGS FOR CLEARING OF THE WAY. 1. When God made man, He bestowed all manner of goods upon him, that were necessary to make him live comfortably here, and to make him eternally happy hereafter. 2. Satan, by this time, having fallen, like a star, from heaven to earth, filled with envy, enters into a resolution, if it were possible, to commit a robbery upon man, and to strike at God's sovereignty through man's side; and accordingly — 3. Satan prevailed upon our first parents, and beguiled them; and thereby the covenant of works was broken. 4. The covenant of works being broken, and man having entered into a rebellion against God with the devil, he justly forfeited all the spiritual and temporal goods that God bestowed upon him, and likewise lost his title to a happy eternity, and became the enemy's vassal; and thus the enemy robbed him of all the goods that God bestowed upon him. 5. The eternal Son of God having a delight in the sons of men, and beholding them in this miserable plight, enters upon a resolution that He will take on man's nature, and that He will in man's nature be avenged upon that serpent that hath beguiled our first parents, and spoiled them of their patrimony. And accordingly, in the fulness of time, He comes, and is manifested to destroy the works of the devil, and to recover all the stolen goods. II. INQUIRE INTO THE ROBBERY THAT WAS COMMITTED BY SIN AND SATAN, BOTH UPON GOD AND UPON MAN. 1. To begin with the robbery that was committed upon God. It was the devil's great drift, by tempting man to sin against God, to rob God of His glory. 2. Inquire into the goods that wore stolen from man by sin and Satan. Hero we may see a melancholy scene. The glory of the human nature was quite marred by sin. Sin hath robbed us of heaven, and made us heirs of hell and wrath. In short, sin hath disordered and disjointed the whole creation. III. MAKE IT APPEAR THAT OUR GLORIOUS IMMANUEL MAKES A RESTITUTION OF WHAT WAS TAKEN AWAY BOTH FROM GOD AND FROM MAN. He restores unto God His due, and restores unto man his loss. IV. INQUIRE INTO THE TIME WHEN CHRIST DID ALL THIS: WHEN DID HE RESTORE THAT WHICH HE TOOK NOT AWAY? ( Galatians 4:4, 5 ). V. INQUIRE INTO THE REASONS OF THE DOCTRINE. Why was it that our Lord restored what He took not away? Why did He restore these goods that sin and Satan took away both from God and man? 1. Because it was His Father's pleasure. 2. Because it contributed very much to enhance His mediatorial glory. 3. Because of His regard to the holy law of God. 4. Because His delights were with the sons of men. 5. That He might "still the enemy and the avenger," that is, the devil. VI. APPLICATION. 1. Is it so that Christ restores what He took not away? Then, hence see, what a generous Kinsman we have of Him; He never took away anything from us, and yet He restores all to the spoiling of His own soul, and pouring it out unto death. 2. This doctrine serves to let us see into the meaning of ( Romans 8:3 ). "He condemned sin." Why, or how did He it? Why, sin is a robber, and is it not just that a robber should be condemned to die? Well, Christ condemns sin, and yet He saves the sinner. 3. Hence see what a criminal correspondence it is that the generality of the children of men have with sin. It is dangerous to haunt and harbour robbers; and yet will you keep a robber in your bosom. 4. If sin be such a robber of God and man, then see how reasonable the command is, to crucify sin, and to mortify the deeds of the body. 5. From this doctrine see what way Christ takes in order to carry on His mediatory work of making peace betwixt God and man. 6. From the doctrine we may likewise see, that the believer in Christ is the wisest man in the world, however the world may look upon him as a fool. Why? because he comes to Christ, and gets restitution of all the losses he suffered either by the sin of the first Adam or his own. 7. See the folly and madness of the sin of unbelief ( John 5:40 ). 8. See the folly of the legalist, that goes about to make restitution to God, and to himself, of what was taken away by sin. But consider, that "by the works of the law no flesh living can be justified"; you will never repair your own losses, nor the dishonour you have done to God, but only by coming to Christ, who is "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." ( E. Erskine. ) O God, Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from Thee. Psalm 69:5 God's knowledge of sin I. GOD MUST HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN'S SIN. Because — 1. He is infinite in knowledge. 2. He is everywhere present. 3. He is everywhere perceiving. 4. He is ever reading the heart. 5. He knows what is yet to be.You are all books, and every page is open to the eye of the great Reader, who reads you from the first letter to the last. There is nothing which any man here can possibly conceal from God. It is so, it must be so; if God be God, He knows my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Him. II. Now, let us just turn the current of our thought while I ask, concerning God's knowledge of man's sin, AFTER WHAT FASHION IS IT? If God knows, in what particular way does He know? 1. It is complete knowledge; the Lord knows us altogether. I must confess that I cower down beneath that thought. That the Lord should know my public service is sufficiently awe-striking; but that He should know my private thoughts, ah! this sinks me into the very dust! 2. It is the knowledge of a holy being. 3. It is an abiding knowledge. 4. It is an eternal knowledge. III. WHAT THEN? 1. How frivolous must those be who never think about it t 2. What care this ought to work in us! 3. What holy trembling this ought to put in us! ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Let not them that wait on Thee, O Lord, be ashamed for my sake. Psalm 69:6 Esprit de corps J. Parker, D. D. This poet is afraid that if he misbehaves himself people will exalt themselves against God, and say with mocking laughter, These are Thy saints! Even whilst he is sinking he would wish to do it with some grace. Extinction itself may be crowned with a species of honour. Death need not be humiliation. There are men who have so died as to have lived a thousand lives in their last combat. Have we lost esprit de corps? Do you not remember that we are involved in the way in which you bear your troubles? If you do not play the man now the enemy will laugh at the whole Church; he will gladly take you up as a specimen of God's sustaining grace, and say, This is the man who prayed: how chopfallen now I see how that once proud chin hangs on the collapsing breast: this is prayer! If I do not bear myself heroically in the storm, the enemy will have a right to laugh at this pulpit, and to put his foot of contempt upon this whole ministry. If I play the atheist in the darkness, then may men justly meek what I endeavour to say in the light. The mockery will be directed against God, not against men. Moses felt this; he said, If they go back, they will say Thou thyself wert not able to take us forward; and if saints do not play the hero in the time of real combat and desperate difficulty, when everything is going down, when business is dull, when enemies are strong, when health is quaking, people will blame not them only but God, and say, This is the doing of the Lord; why, what advantage is it that we pray to Him? or what profit have we in waiting upon God? the saint and the dog die in the same agony. Thus we recover ourselves, under the blessing of God, by thinking of others. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) For Thy sake I have borne reproach. Psalm 69:7, 8 Suffering torture for Christ's sake An echo of the Boxer risings in China was heard in the address of Dr. Whitfield Guinness. In July, 1900, the little party with which he was connected was shut up in Honan, and as the speaker detailed those days of anxiety until deliverance came, many were deeply impressed. After leaving the city, thirteen days were spent hiding in the cabin of a boat. Time after time the boat was examined by the customs officials, who, in the order of God's providence, failed to detect the presence of Englishmen. To indicate the genuineness of the Honanese converts, the speaker told a pathetic story. In a few weeks after one of the converts had been baptized, the Boxers pillaged his home, and securing the man's hands behind him, drew him up by a rope to the roof. While thus suspended the man was asked to recant. On refusing, the poor fellow was subjected to horrible tortures and suffering. Some time afterwards Dr. Guinness put to him the question, "Was it worth while to suffer like that for Jesus' sake?" The man replied, "Worth while! I would go through it all again to-morrow for His sake." For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me. Psalm 69:9 A suffering Saviour H. Melvill, B. D. Nearly all the prophecies of Scripture admit of and require a threefold interpretation. 1. They tell of some event or experience in the life Of the writer. 2. Then of like experience in the people of God. 3. And chiefly of what in yet higher degree our Lord Himself should suffer or accomplish. And these remarks apply to this prophecy. Twice in the New Testament it is applied to our Lord, and we may take the words as those of the Lord Himself. Now, it is good for us oftentimes to stand by our Saviour's cross and to contemplate His sufferings. And this is what the text leads us to do. For it shows us — I. THE MOTIVE BY WHICH HE WAS SUSTAINED. "The zeal of Thine house," etc. We must not limit these words to His expulsion of the traders from the temple at Jerusalem, but they tell of the spirit which ever animated Him. And God's "house" does not mean merely a building such as the temple, but the world at large, the race of mankind whom Christ came to save. His "zeal," therefore, means that consuming desire to preserve and save them. For this He became incarnate, and lived, suffered and died. His zeal devoured Him, wore away His vigour so that "His visage was marred more," etc. Hence, also, He became "a stranger to His brethren and an alien," etc. II. THE SUFFERINGS THEMSELVES. "The reproaches of them that," etc. We must not limit our idea of these sufferings to that which was outward, such as is represented in the well-known picture, "Ecce Homo." But it was the soul of our Lord that suffered, Could not but suffer. For He was that "holy one," and to such the ever present sight of sin, the infinite dishonour done to God, and the ruin wrought upon men, could not but have been far more terrible than any outward pain. Hence He was consumed with desire to vindicate the honour of God and to save men. ( H. Melvill, B. D. ) Service here and hereafter W. Baxendale. (with Revelation 7:15 ): — These passages of God's Word, significant in the several truths they contain when standing apart, but still more significant in their contrast when placed side by side, express and interpret the two most prominent phases of the highest form of Christian life and activity. It is not every servant of God who could use them with propriety, but only that man who has not only lived but died for the Master, whose spirits have been burdened, and whose life has been cut off prematurely by unwonted zeal and unvarying labours for the Saviour. The service which has been in the midst of much imperfection and weariness, death may and must end; but the service which shall be without imperfection and without change, it may not and cannot touch. The words, used in such a light, are eloquent with the simplicity of truth, and full of the hope of immortality. I. First, look at THE DEEP UNDERLYING AGREEMENT amid the differences these words suggest. Both speak of service, yes, and of zealous service, and both speak of service for God. 1. There is a consecration unto God amid the sin and the impurity of earth, even as there is a consecration amid the holiness and beatific blessedness of heaven. It may seem to the angels of God, looking down in wonder, a toil amid darkness, as in some murky mine, in which men grope while there is daylight above; none the less does it yield precious jewels and gold and silver to the crown of the Messiah and to the kingdom of God. And He, the Lord of all, counts it as His work. He has put especial honour upon it. He has taken upon Himself this service of toil, when He became a Man of Sorrows, knowing what weariness was in the midst of labour. And it was when the disciples saw His zeal for God, they remembered it was written, "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up." 2. But again, our text carries us on to glance at the occupation of heaven. That also is a service, and a ceaseless service. Not rest, as some would interpret that word, but work — the work which is rest, the balanced activity which brings its own enjoyment and blessedness. To live, "more life and fuller," that is what we want. Heaven would be no heaven unless it gave room to develop, to expand like flowers in the sunshine, in one word, to live. We have had enough of lethargy, enough of sloth, of unused powers in this world; we long to do something in the next. And that conception of heaven is highest which sees it a sphere of loyal service unto God, a realm of ceaseless activities, where they labour amid their rest, and rest in their labours, and find His presence to be, in all, an infinite and everlasting joy. II. Consider THE CONTRAST suggested in the text. The second phrase found here is taken from that gathering around the throne of the Lamb which included the sealed of the twelve tribes of Israel, and a great multitude out of every nation and kindred, and peoples, and tongues. David's tribe was there, for twelve thousand were sealed of the tribe of Judah, and doubtless David was there. The man who had said, "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up," who had borne reproach for God until it had eaten, like a canker, into his very soul, stands with that multitude before the throne, serving day and night. Wondrous change! It is the same service, yet how different in all its results. The idea is that it is not merely the persecutions and dangers of Christian life which tire out these faithful ones; the very enthusiasm and zeal for Christ's service may do this. We have the treasure, says Paul, in earthen vessels, and the heavenly often wears out the earthly. There are not only martyrs for Christ, whose bones bleach upon a foreign shore, unsuccessful and unknown, but yonder in the great city you may find those whose ministry, it may be, has been crowned abundantly, and yet who can say with equal truthfulness, "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up." But to all these comes the same consolation of the future. Heaven stands out to give meaning to earth. The Christian who has realized this twofold aspect of Christian service has climbed to some Pisgah height from which he can see both past and future. It is said that when Cortez led his sailors across the vast continent of South America, after months of toil and sickness, they climbed one of the peaks of the Andes, and saw out there in the distance, far away, the glimmering of the sea. And the men wept for joy at the sight. It was their own native element, the love of their life, their home. Toil there was a pleasure in comparison with this journeying through endless forests and wildernesses, and they wept for joy. So it is with God's children when they catch sight of that sea of glass mingled with fire, which is before the throne. There is the desire of their hearts, the hope of their life, their treasure and their home. There is the shout of triumph and the song of victory, the rest that shall never end and the service which cannot weary. But, again, we have a further contrast here. In the former text you have the idea of conflict, the evidence of that struggle which is ever going on in the heart of man; the spirit against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit, the soul cramped and hindered in its progress, as in some prison-house struggling to be free, the body worn out and enfeebled by the restless energy of that which is within. It is a state of intense unrest in which that which is best in the man, his zeal for God, is the disturbing element. And against this, in strong contrast, the text places the calm and composure, the serenity of heaven and heavenly service. On the one hand, it is a sea torn and tossed by every wind and wave, boiling and seething as from some internal convulsion; on the other, it is an ocean quiet and peaceful, in whose every movement there is majesty and grandeur. Or, to change the imagery, here it is a morbid spasmodic activity, a life producing death by its very violence, like some untimely plant which springs up too soon and fast, and is withered ere strength and beauty can be developed; yonder it is a maturity which knows neither change nor decay, but is ever green and fair as the seasons roll round, return, and come again. Here the day of labour needs the night of rest, and even then there is left perchance a weariness which slumber may not remove. In heaven they serve Him day and night in His temple without rest. Lastly, I but emphasize one thought, and that by way of making a practical use of all this. It is the important thought which stands connected with the continuity of the Divine life. For the service here, we must never forget, is the beginning of the service which is yonder. They are essentially one and indivisible, and this is necessary to that. Life is the apprenticeship, the school for heaven, necessary not so much, indeed, in this aspect for the work which is done, and the service which is rendered, as that we may learn how to work and how to serve. ( W. Baxendale. ) Unquenchable zeal for Christian work When Stanley found Livingstone in the heart of Africa, he begged the old hero to go home. There seemed to be every reason why he should go back to England. His wife was dead, his children lived in England, the weight of years was pressing upon him, the shortest march wearied him, he was often compelled to halt many days to recover strength after his frequent attacks of prostrating illness. Moreover, he was destitute of men and means to enable him to make practical progress. But, like Paul, none of these things moved him; nor counted he his life dear to himself. "No, no," he said to Stanley; "to be knighted, as you say, by the Queen, welcomed by thousands of admirers, yes — but impossible. It must not, cannot, will not be. I must finish my task." But as for me, my prayer is unto Thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. Psalm 69:13-29 The compassionable, commendable, and censurable Homilist. I. THE COMPASSIONABLE. The representation which the author here gives of his sufferings, appeals strongly to our pity. Those sufferings are — 1. Great. "Deep waters," "mine," "pit." 2. Varied. Involving reproach, torture, depression. II. THE COMMENDABLE. What does this suffering man do in his suffering? 1. He goes to God in his distress (ver. 18). Who can deliver us but He? What hand but His can lift us from the "mire" into which we are sinking, can arrest the floods that are rushing on us? Science may mitigate some of our sufferings for a brief period; but it cannot remove any of them, and some it cannot touch. Saintly counsel and sympathy may yield us some succour and support, but God alone can deliver us out of all our sufferings. 2. He pleads His goodness for relief (ver. 16). III. THE CENSURABLE. His imprecations (vers. 22-28). "Be bravely revenged," says old Quarles; "he is below himself who is not above an injury." ( Homilist. ) O The truth of God's salvation I. GOD'S SALVATION IS A GREAT REALITY. "The truth of Thy salvation." There is a substance in it; it is not a shadow, it is not a myth, it is not a mere type or figure of speech, it is a substantial thing, there is a truth in it: "The truth of Thy salvation." 1. View it in reference to the Lord himself. To God, His salvation is in the highest sense full of grace and truth. If I may venture to speak concerning Him of whom we can know nothing except as He reveals Himself, I may say that the truest and deepest thought of God is for the salvation of His people. This lies in the very centre of His heart; and the drift of His other thoughts and acts is all towards this point. 2. God's salvation is a great reality to ourselves, as well as to Him. That day when I saw Christ as my soul's salvation, the great sacrifice for sin was to my soul the most real thing I had ever seen. II. WE HAVE PROVED IT TO BE SO — 1. By our experience of a new life. 2. By our sense of sonship. 3. By our ecstatic joy. 4. We have had Divine support in trouble. 5. God has wrought great deliverances for us. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink. Psalm 69:14 The believer sinking in the mire Many rivers, and especially the Nile, have on their banks deep deposits of black mud, and it is most perilous for any who have the misfortune to fall into it. The more they struggle to get out the deeper they sink. Travellers tell of such incidents. Had David really witnessed such a scene, that speaking of his spiritual sorrows, he said, "I sink in deep mire where there is no standing"? Now, the prayer of our text suggests — I. THAT THE TRUE BELIEVER MAY BE. IN THE MIRE AND VERY NEAR SINKING. 1. In the mire of unbelief. Even the firmest in faith lose their foothold at times. All manner of doubts crowd into the mind. They are compelled to pray this prayer. 2. Through lack of full assurance of his own interest in Christ. 3. The mire of temporal trouble. 4. Of inward corruption. 5. Of Satanic temptations. 6. Various are the causes of this sad condition. Sometimes it is through our own sin. It is a chastisement upon us. Sometimes to try our faith; or that we may the better glorify God, or to show the natural weakness of the creature, that no flesh may glory in man; or to make heaven sweeter when we enter its pearly gates. But all the while, these sinking ones are really God's people, for if they were not, they would have no such trouble. The sinner whose element is sin laughs at the weight by which the believer is borne down. The best of God's saints have known such trouble. Luther did, and John Knox , and many more. II. BUT WHEN IN SUCH A STATE THEY KNOW THAT THEIR ONLY HELP IS IN GOD. The Bible cannot help, for unbelief bars you off from all its precious promises. Other believers cannot aid you. God alone can. III. PRAYER IS THE CHRISTIAN'S NEVER-FAILING RESORT. When you cannot use your sword, you may take the weapon of "all-prayer." That is never forbidden. And it is never futile, it ever has true power. Oh, never let us cease to pray. In asthma you say, "I cannot breathe"; but you must breathe if you would live. And so in the condition told of here you must, though you think you cannot, pray. But let us walk carefully, lest we fall into the mire. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. Psalm 69:20 My broken-hearted Lord Thomas Armitage, D. D. Did it ever occur to you that there is a vivid contrast between Jesus in His death and that of the noble army of martyrs who died for Him? Jesus shrank from death, was perturbed, agitated and dismayed, as the martyrs were not. Their fortitude was such that they extorted from the lips of dark pagans the exclamation, "See how these Christians die." And their bodily agonies were quite as excruciating as were those of our Lord. Rome sharpened all her devices for cruelty in the tortures she inflicted on the Christian confessors. Now, wherefore this difference between the attitude of Jesus and the martyrs, He so distressed, they so dauntless? Compare Paul's exultant word when in near prospect of the bloody axe which was soon to smite his life down to the ground, "I am ready, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown"; compare that with the agonized cry of Jesus in Gethsemane, "Oh, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." The grass was bedewed with His tears; and flecked with His bloody sweat. The history of man had not witnessed such a dismay. But all this shows that there was some deep mental struggle, some mysterious foreboding, unusual with suffering man. Evidently His sufferings held their seat in, the mysterious pavilion of His nature. His death was to be the equivalent for the sins of guilty millions, so that the real tragedy of Calvary was impervious to human scrutiny, and was chiefly enacted in the internal agitations of the incarnated God. Hence this startling passage, "Reproach hath broken my heart." It opens a field of wonders in explanation of the physical cause of our Redeemer's death. He died on the cross but not by the cross. He died of a broken heart. In proof see — I. OUR LORD'S OWN TESTIMONY respecting His death. He said that it was purely voluntary. How could that have been if He had died as the result of His crucifixion? II. THERE WAS NOT TIME FOR DEATH BY CRUCIFIXION. No vital organ of the body was touched by the tortures of the cross. Hence death came with terrible slowness. But our Lord suffered on the cross for fewer hours than others have for days. III. THE SOLDIER'S SPEAR proves that Jesus did not die the ordinary death of the crucified. The highest medical authorities tell us that no other mode of death but rupture of the heart can account for the separation into its primitive parts of the blood which flowed from our Lord's pierced side, while that blood yet continues in the body. Nor could He have died from mental fainting and exhaustion. Our Lord was, evidently, physically strong, and He was in perfect health. IV. WHAT WAS IT BROKE HIS HEART? The text says it was "reproach." No praise is more poignant than that of reproach. To a mind such as that of Jesus it becomes the sorrow of sorrows. But when God inflicts it, in vindication of justice and law, as He did upon Jesus, then what sorrow could be like that? Hence the bitter cry, "My God, My God," etc. Oh, how should we hate the sin which thus broke the heart of our Lord. ( Thomas Armitage, D. D. ) Self-reproach W. L. Watkinson. 1. If we are not on our guard, seasons of leisure may easily degenerate into seasons of unwholesome brooding and unprofitable unhappiness. The wakeful hours of the night are specially liable to this peril; the soul then almost involuntarily becomes the prey of introspection and self-scorn. Every foolish thing that we ever did, every foolish word that we ever spoke, comes to light again to mock and threaten us. It is all deeply distressing. It is the hour and the power of darkness; the sins and follies of years flash upon us in a judgment night. 2. Much may be done to check the morbid element of our reflective and introspective hours. It is a wise thing to keep the soul interested in large thoughts and causes, to preserve a general intellectual and spiritual sanity by entering heartily into the facts and interests of practical life. But when these dark moods threaten to prevail, is not the grand specific a profound faith in the reality of the Divine grace and forgiveness? "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." Surely the doleful hours of self-reproach are signs of our defective trust in the Divine promise and faithfulness! If our sins are cast into the depths of the sea, to be remembered against us no more for ever, why are we dredging in the depths, bringing up mire, and

69:1-12 We should frequently consider the person of the Sufferer here spoken of, and ask why, as well as what he suffered, that, meditating thereon, we may be more humbled for sin, and more convinced of our danger, so that we may feel more gratitude and love, constraining us to live to His glory who died for our salvation. Hence we learn, when in affliction, to commit the keeping of our souls to God, that we may not be soured with discontent, or sink into despair. David was hated wrongfully, but the words far more fully apply to Christ. In a world where unrighteousness reigns so much, we must not wonder if we meet with those that are our enemies wrongfully. Let us take care that we never do wrong; then if we receive wrong, we may the better bear it. By the satisfaction Christ made to God for our sin by his blood, he restored that which he took not away, he paid our debt, suffered for our offences. Even when we can plead Not guilty, as to men's unjust accusations, yet before God we must acknowledge ourselves to deserve all that is brought upon us. All our sins take rise from our foolishness. They are all done in God's sight. David complains of the unkindness of friends and relations. This was fulfilled in Christ, whose brethren did not believe on him, and who was forsaken by his disciples. Christ made satisfaction for us, not only by putting off the honours due to God, but by submitting to the greatest dishonours that could be done to any man. We need not be discouraged if our zeal for the truths, precepts, and worship of God, should provoke some, and cause others to mock our godly sorrow and deadness to the world. 69:13-21 Whatever deep waters of affliction or temptation we sink into, whatever floods of trouble or ungodly men seem ready to overwhelm us, let us persevere in prayer to our Lord to save us. The tokens of God's favour to us are enough to keep our spirits from sinking in the deepest outward troubles. If we think well of God, and continue to do so under the greatest hardships, we need not fear but he will do well for us. And if at any time we are called on to suffer reproach and shame, for Christ's sake, this may be our comfort, that he knows it. It bears hard on one that knows the worth of a good name, to be oppressed with a bad one; but when we consider what a favour it is to be accounted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus, we shall see that there is no reason why it should be heart-breaking to us. The sufferings of Christ were here particularly foretold, which proves the Scripture to be the word of God; and how exactly these predictions were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, which proves him to be the true Messiah. The vinegar and the gall given to him, were a faint emblem of that bitter cup which he drank up, that we might drink the cup of salvation. We cannot expect too little from men, miserable comforters are they all; nor can we expect too much from the God of all comfort and consolation. 69:22-29 These are prophecies of the destruction of Christ's persecutors. Verses 22,23, are applied to the judgments of God upon the unbelieving Jews, in Ro 11:9,10. When the supports of life and delights of sense, through the corruption of our nature, are made the food and fuel of sin, then our table is a snare. Their sin was, that they would not see, but shut their eyes against the light, loving darkness rather; their punishment was, that they should not see, but should be given up to their own hearts' lusts which hardened them. Those who reject God's great salvation proffered to them, may justly fear that his indignation will be poured out upon them. If men will sin, the Lord will reckon for it. But those that have multiplied to sin, may yet find mercy, through the righteousness of the Mediator. God shuts not out any from that righteousness; the gospel excludes none who do not, by unbelief, shut themselves out. But those who are proud and self-willed, so that they will not come in to God's righteousness, shall have their doom accordingly; they themselves decide it. Let those not expect any benefit thereby, who are not glad to be beholden to it. It is better to be poor and sorrowful, with the blessing of the Lord, than rich and jovial, and under his curse. This may be applied to Christ. He was, when on earth, a man of sorrows that had not where to lay his head; but God exalted him. Let us call upon the Lord, and though poor and sorrowful, guilty and defiled, his salvation will set us up on high. 69:30-36 The psalmist concludes the psalm with holy joy and praise, which he began with complaints of his grief. It is a great comfort to us, that humble and thankful praises are more pleasing to God than the most costly, pompous sacrifices. The humble shall look to him, and be glad; those that seek him through Christ shall live and be comforted. God will do great things for the gospel church, in which let all who wish well to it rejoice. A seed shall serve him on earth, and his servants shall inherit his heavenly kingdom. Those that love his name shall dwell before him for ever. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Arise, thou great Restorer of the ancient places to dwell in, and turn away ungodliness from thy people.