Psalms 69:2-12

2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

3 I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn't take away.

5 God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren't hidden from you.

6 Don't let those who wait for you be put to shame through me, Lord GOD of Hosts. Don't let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Yisra'el.

7 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.

8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, An alien to my mother's children.

9 For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

10 When I wept and I fasted, That was to my reproach.

11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.

Psalms 69:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, [A Psalm] of David. Of the word "shoshannim," See Gill on "Ps 45:1," title. The Targum renders it, "concerning the removal of the sanhedrim;" which was about the time of Christ's death. The Talmudists {t} say, that forty years before the destruction of the temple, the sanhedrim removed, they removed from the paved chamber, &c. But it can hardly be thought that David prophesied of this affair; nor of the captivity of the people of Israel, as the Targum, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Arama, and R. Obadiah interpret it: and so Jarchi takes the word "shoshannim" to signify lilies, and applies it to the Israelites, who are as a lily among thorns. But not a body of people, but a single person, is spoken of, and in sorrowful and suffering circumstances; and, if the Jews were not blind, they might see that they are the enemies of the person designed, and the evil men from whom he suffered so much. And indeed what is said of him cannot be said of them, nor of any other person whatever but the Messiah: and that the psalm belongs to Christ, and to the times of the Gospel, is abundantly evident from the citations out of it in the New Testament; as

Psalm 69:4 in John 15:25;
Psalm 69:9 in John 2:17;
Psalm 69:21 in Matthew 27:34;
Psalm 69:22 in Romans 11:9;
Psalm 69:25 in Acts 1:16.

The inscription of the psalm in the Syriac version is, "'a psalm' of David, according to the letter, when Shemuah (Sheba), the son of Bichri, blew a trumpet, and the people ceased from following after him (David); but the prophecy is said concerning those things which the Messiah suffered, and concerning the rejection of the Jews." And Aben Ezra interprets Psalm 69:36 of the days of David, or of the days of the Messiah.

{t} T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 8. 2. & Roshhashanah, fol. 31. 1, 2.