Psalms 69:1 - Meaning and Application

In these verses David speaks of his troubles and mixes in requests for help. He pours out his grief before the Lord, as someone who wants to lift a heavy load from his heart.

He first speaks of how deeply his troubles have affected him (Psalm 69:1, Psalm 69:2). The waters of affliction, like bitter floodwaters, have come up to his soul. They do not just threaten his life, they unsettle his mind. They fill him with worried thoughts and heavy sorrow, so that he cannot enjoy God or himself as he once did. We can bear trouble better if we keep it from ruling our hearts, but when it drives us from peace within, our condition is serious. A person can endure weakness if the spirit remains steady, but what can we do when the spirit is wounded? That was David's case here.

His thoughts searched for something solid to trust in, but he found nothing. He sank in deep mud, where there was no sure footing. The things that once supported and encouraged him no longer seemed to help, and he felt as if he were being pulled under. He was like a drowning man, confused and overwhelmed. This also points to Christ's sufferings in his soul, and the deep agony he felt when he said, “Now my soul is troubled,” and “My soul is very sorrowful.” For it was his soul that he offered for sin. This teaches us that when we suffer, we should leave the keeping of our souls with God, so we do not become bitter or fall into despair.

David also complains about how long his troubles lasted (Psalm 69:3). He says, “I am weary of crying.” Even though he could not keep himself above the flood, he still cried out to God. The closer death seemed, the more he prayed for life. Yet he did not immediately receive peace, or even the comfort that God's people often feel in prayer. So he grew almost tired of crying, his voice grew hoarse, and his throat became so dry that he could not call out anymore. He also lost the comfort he usually found in believing, hoping, and waiting for help. His eyes grew weak as he waited for his God, as if he had nearly worn them out looking for deliverance. Still, the fact that he said this to God shows that he was not willing to stop believing and praying. His throat was dry, but his heart was not. His eyes failed, but his faith did not. In the same way, our Lord Jesus on the cross cried, “Why have you forsaken me?” and yet still held to his relation to the Father, saying, “My God, my God.”

David then complains about the hatred and number of his enemies, along with the wrong and cruelty they showed him (Psalm 69:4). They hated him and wanted to destroy him, because hatred always aims at a person's ruin. But what wrong had he done? What sin had he committed against them? None at all. “They hate me without a cause,” he says. He had done them no injury, yet they treated him with deep hostility. Jesus applies this to himself in (John 15:25): “They hated me without a cause.” We often use this kind of statement to defend our anger toward those who hate us, saying we gave them no reason. But it is better used as a reason to bear it patiently, because then we suffer as Christ did and may expect God to defend us. “They are my enemies wrongly, for I have not been their enemy.” In a world so full of sin, we should not be surprised to meet enemies who treat us unfairly. Let us make sure we do no wrong, so we can bear it better when wrong is done to us.

These enemies were not small or weak. They were many, more than the hairs of his head. Christ's enemies were also many, as the great crowd that came to seize him shows. They were also strong, with authority and power. We are weak, but our enemies are strong, for we wrestle against rulers and powers.

Then David says, “I restored that which I took not away.” For David, this means his enemies forced him to suffer for a wrong he had not done, and he was willing, if possible, to give back and make peace. He could have stood on the rights of justice and honor, since neither duty nor common thinking would usually require a man to restore what he had not taken, because it can seem like wronging yourself in both wealth and reputation. Yet there are times when such a thing may become our duty. The apostle Paul, though free from all men, made himself a servant to all for Christ's honor and the church's good.

Applied to Christ, this is a striking picture of the satisfaction he made to God for our sin by his blood. He restored what he had not taken away. He suffered the punishment that belonged to us, paid our debt, and bore our offense. Sin had taken away God's glory in some ways, and it had taken away man's honor, peace, and happiness. Christ had not taken these away, yet by the merit of his death he restored them.

David also complains of the coldness of his friends and relatives, and this is a pain that often cuts as deeply as any other (Psalm 69:8). “I have become a stranger to my brethren,” he says. They acted as if they did not know him and treated him like an outsider. They were shy of speaking with him and ashamed to own him. This was fulfilled in Christ, whose brothers did not believe in him (John 7:5), who came to his own and was not received by his own people (John 1:11), and who was forsaken by the disciples with whom he had lived so openly as a brother.

He also complains of the shame and mockery he had to endure. In this, his complaint especially points to Christ, who for our sake accepted the deepest disgrace and made himself of no reputation. We had injured God's honor by sin, and Christ satisfied that wrong, not only by laying aside the honors due to the incarnate Son of God, but also by enduring the harshest insults that could be given to any man. David notes two things that made this dishonor worse: the reason for their mockery (Psalm 69:10, Psalm 69:11), and they ridiculed him for what humbled him and honored God. When people lift themselves up in pride and empty boasting, they deserve to be laughed at for their folly. But David humbled his soul and wore sackcloth, and they used his self-humbling as a reason to trample on him.

When people dishonor God, it is right that their own dishonor should follow. But when David, out of pure devotion to God, wept, humbled himself with fasting, and wore sackcloth, they did everything they could to mock him and keep others from copying his good example. Instead of praising his devotion, they turned it into a disgrace. They laughed at him as if he were a fool for humbling himself like that, and he became a saying among them, the target of their jokes.

We should not think it strange if people speak badly of us for doing what is right, especially when we have reason to believe God accepts us. Our Lord Jesus was stoned for his good works (John 10:32), and when he cried out, “My God, my God,” some mocked him as if he were calling for Elijah.

The people who reproached David were of two kinds. Some were the most respected and serious people, the ones who sat in the gate, where judges and leaders met. Their insults carried the weight of public authority, so others treated their words like court decisions. Others were the lowest and most contemptible people, the drunken and worthless, the children of fools and base men. These drunkards made themselves vile, and David became their song. They used him to amuse themselves and their companions. This shows the sad fruit of drunkenness. It makes people despise what is good. The king, made sick with wine, stretched out his hand with scorners (Hosea 7:5). In that kind of company, mockery becomes ordinary. Yet for thoughtful people, it is not hard to ignore being despised by such people.

David’s confession of sin is also very serious: “O God, you know my foolishness; my sins are not hidden from you” (Psalm 69:5). He is saying that, even if he denies the false charges people bring against him, he must still admit before God that he deserves far more than he is suffering. This is the true confession of a penitent person, someone who knows sin cannot be hidden and that it is wiser to admit it because God already sees it. God knows the foolishness that lies in our hearts, and all our sins rise from that root. He also knows our life sins, even the secret ones. Nothing is hidden from him, and nothing is ever really pushed out of his sight until it is repented of and forgiven.

This can also be applied to Christ, who knew no sin, yet was made sin for us. God knew this, and it was not hidden from him when it pleased the Lord to crush him and make him suffer.

David’s prayers are very urgent. First, he prays for himself: “Save me, O God” (Psalm 69:1). He asks to be rescued from sinking and from giving up. In this, Christ was heard because of what he feared, for he was saved from giving up his work (Hebrews 5:7). David also prays for his friends: “Do not let those who wait for you be ashamed because of me, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel” (Psalm 69:6). We should seek God in both ways, as the God of hosts, who has all power to help, and as the God of Israel, who is in covenant with his people and is bound by his own honor and truth to help them.

David feared that if God did not appear for him, it would discourage other godly people and give their enemies reason to boast. So he asks that, whatever happens to him, all who seek and wait for God would not lose heart, not be put to shame, and not be laughed at by others. If Jesus Christ had not been upheld and accepted by his Father in his sufferings, then all who seek God and wait for him would have been ashamed and confounded. But because Christ was upheld, believers have confidence toward God and can come boldly to the throne of grace.

David’s plea is especially strong in Psalm 69:7 and Psalm 69:9. Reproach was one of his heaviest burdens. He asks God to remove the shame and defend his cause. He says, “It is for your sake that I bear reproach.” Those who are insulted for doing good may confidently leave it to God to bring their righteousness into the light. He also says, “The zeal for your house has eaten me up.” That means his deep love for God’s house and honor had consumed him, so that he forgot himself and acted in ways they twisted into a reproach against him.

Those who hated God and his house hated David for the same reason, because they saw how deeply he cared about them. Their hatred and insults seemed to swallow up his reputation and all the respect he once had among them. When people blasphemed God and spoke against his word and ways, they also reproached David for believing God’s word and walking in God’s ways. Or David may mean that his zeal for God’s house made him feel every insult to God’s name as if it were an insult to his own name. He felt dishonor to God and contempt for religion more deeply than his own outward troubles.

For that reason, he had good reason to hope that God would take up his cause, since he had always taken up God’s cause. Both parts of this verse point to Christ. His cleansing of the temple showed his love for his Father, and the disciples remembered this verse, “Zeal for your house has eaten me up” (John 2:17). It also showed his self-denial, because he did not please himself, and the reproaches meant for God fell on him (Romans 15:3). In that, he set us an example.