Psalms 69:22-32

22 (68-23) Let their table become as a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumblingblock.

23 (68-24) Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and their back bend thou down always.

24 (68-25) Pour out thy indignation upon them: and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

25 (68-26) Let their habitation be made desolate: and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles.

26 (68-27) Because they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.

27 (68-28) Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity: and let them not come into thy justice.

28 (68-29) Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.

29 (68-30) But I am poor and sorrowful: thy salvation, O God, hath set me up.

30 (68-31) I will praise the name of God with a canticle: and I will magnify him with praise.

31 (68-32) And it shall please God better than a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.

32 (68-33) Let the poor see and rejoice: seek ye God, and your soul shall live.

Psalms 69:22-32 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.