Psalm 69
What we’ll do this evening as
we look at Psalm 69 is we’ll take it up in little sections
instead of reading it at the outset. But just by way of introduction,
I don’t think you have to be told that life is not always
rosy. And I definitely think you don’t
have to be told that the Christian life is not always a bed of roses. Some people will tell you that
if you become a Christian, all your problems will go away. But
the Bible seems to tell us that if we become a Christian, we
actually attract problems. Particularly in the case of if
we identify with Christ, we will then receive the reproaches and
the sufferings that were intended for Him. But since he is ascended
and up in heaven, we who are in Christ receive those sufferings,
those insults, and those hardships. And so Psalm 69 tells us and
encourages us in several ways in helping us navigate life and
the problems. Now, Psalm 69 is a psalm of David. We’re pretty sure about that.
Some think Jeremiah may have written it from the pit when
he was tossed in a pit as a prophet of the Lord, but most people
think it was David. It’s what we call a messianic
psalm in that it has a little m messianic theme, as in it’s
about David, the anointed king of Israel, God’s Messiah. And then it’s messianic with
a big M in it that it speaks or gives hints of Jesus, the
Messiah, the greater David. Also, one of the things that
you’ll find is that it is a psalm quoted very often in the New
Testament. Very often messianic psalms are
quoted in the New Testament, and seven out of the 36 verses
in Psalm 36 are quoted in the New Testament. So you could spend
a couple Sunday nights on this one. You could really get down
to business and dig deep into it. But we’ll see what we can
look at in about 15 minutes of time. The first thing I want
us to think about is that there are difficulties in life. We’re
just gonna think broadly about that for just a moment. Life
is difficult. And when you come to Psalm 69,
you’re gonna see that there are difficulties in life that, you
know, it’s not that your cable went out. You know, it’s not
that the sudden rainstorm blocked out your satellite TV channels.
I mean, as hard as that is, especially in the final seconds of a basketball
or football game, you know, that, you know, or your favorite movie.
Okay, those aren’t the kinds of difficulties that God speaks
of here. These are difficulties where
you are up to your neck, you are up to your ears, you are,
as we say, up to your eyeballs in hardship. We’ll see some words
like, In a mire, the flood has swept over me. I’m weary. My
throat is parched. My eyes grow dim. There’s lots
of difficulties. But life is very hard. And very often, we look at our
predicaments and say they are without cause. I’ve done nothing
to deserve what is taking place in my life. I’ve not sinned,
or I’ve not done something to someone else that I deserve this. And so a Psalm like this reminds
us of several key truths of the Bible and helps us understand. Now let’s pick through Psalm
69 for just a moment. It has several sets of laments. I count one, two, three, four,
five sets of laments. And it seems to say the same
thing over and over. Now if you’ve ever been through
hardship, and you’re sitting across the table or on the couch
with someone and you’re telling them your troubles, you’re very
likely to repeat yourself, right? You’re very likely to state your
case one way and then to state it another. And that’s in a sense
what is done here in Psalm 69. So start with the first stanza
or the first lament. verses one through four. He says,
save me, oh God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I seek
in deep mire where there is no foothold. I have come into deep
waters and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary. With my crying
out, my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting
for my God. More in number than the hairs
of my head are those who hate me without cause. Mighty are
those who would destroy me, those who would attack me with lies.
What I did not steal must I now restore. This begins to sound
a little bit like some of the laments in the book of Job. Many
of you studied that last summer, I believe it was, in the Sunday
school hour. And you get a couple chapters setting up the scene
of Job. What’s going on? What’s God doing? What’s Satan
doing? And then you get a whole bunch of chapters of Job and
his friends going back and forth and back and forth, lots of laments,
lots of windbag speeches, as they’re called. And then at the
very end, God says, look, Job, I’m God, you’re not, submit,
and we’ll figure this thing out. And then Job is blessed and moves
on with life. So a lot of lament language here,
similar to that of Job. Now notice there’s a confession
in verse five. He says, Oh God, you know my
folly. The wrongs I have done are not
hidden from you. And so he takes a little break
in his laments to just give a little confession. And then notice the
second lament, starting at verse six, goes through 12. Let not
those who hope in you be put to shame through me. O Lord God
of hosts, let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through
me, O God of Israel. For it is for your sake I have
borne reproach. Remember, he’s the king. It is
for your sake that dishonor has covered my face. I have become
a stranger to my brothers and alien to my mother’s sons. Now,
a minute ago, we said this was the Messianic Psalm. You start
to see that Messianic language there in verse seven. And then another Messianic piece
of language pops up in verse nine. For zeal for your house
has consumed me. The reproaches of those who reproach
you have fallen on me. When I wept and humbled my soul
with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them. I am the talk of those who sit
in the gate, and drunkards make songs about me. But as for my
prayer, it is to you, O Lord, an acceptable time, O God. In
the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me in your saving
faithfulness. That begins the third stanza. Deliver me from sinking in the
mire. Let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep
waters. Let not the flood sweep over
me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over
me. Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast
love is good. According to your abundant mercy,
turn to me. Hide not your face from your servant, for I am in
distress. Make haste to answer me. draw near to my soul, redeem
me, ransom me because of my enemies. And so there’s the end of the
third stanza. You see over and over, he’s expressing
difficulty and pretty strong language. I’m up to my neck,
I’m up to my ears, I’m in the mire, there’s no foothold, I
can’t get out. You know, all is lost. Now, as
we said just a few moments ago, difficulties in life are not
the internet going out. for some reason every night about
11 30 or so the internet at our house kicks out and it’s right
in the middle of you know a good Netflix or what you know checking
up on the news or a ballgame that goes out and what do we
call that third first world problems right the internet goes out or
a flight is delayed but real problems are deeper than that
aren’t they they are They are problems of the soul, problems
of anguish, problems of things can’t get better, things can’t
change. When our heart is overwhelmed, when we feel like death has stolen
upon us, that’s when life is really difficult. And so these
are good words, these are good prayers, these are good words
to put in our mouth when we go through those things. There’s
a fourth stanza that picks up at verse 19. It says, you know
my reproach and my shame and my dishonor. My foes are all
known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart
so that I am in despair. I look for pity, but there was
none. For comforters, but I found none. And here’s another Christological
or Messianic. passage they gave me poison for
food and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink these are
the words of Christ at the cross and then a fifth or another lament
pops up in 22 let their own table before them become a snare when
they are at peace let it become a trap let their eyes be darkened
so they cannot see make their loins tremble continually there
we getting into a little bit of what we call those the imprecatory
Psalms, you know, give them the heebie-jeebies. Verse 24, pour out your indignation
upon them. Let your burning anger overtake
them. May there can’t be a desolation. Let no one dwell in their tents
for they persecute him whom you have struck down. They recount
the pain of those you have wounded. Add to them punishment upon punishment.
May they have no acquittal from you. That’s a pretty serious
charge, isn’t it? Let them be blotted out of the
book of the living and let them not be enrolled. among the righteous. Now again, there’s a one verse
break and that’s verse 29. And it’s less of a confession
of sin, like verse five, it’s a little bit more of a statement.
He says, but I am afflicted, I am in pain. Let your salvation,
O God, let it set me on high. And then we pick up with one last stanza and it leads
us to praise God. We’ll come to that in just a
moment. You know that as we’ve studied the Psalms over the last
many months, that David has been in all kinds of difficulties. We have ours, and it’s the big
ones we’re talking about here, not the the cable and the TV
and the cell phone service and the late flights and, you know,
suppers late and our tummies growling. It’s not those. It’s
the big things. But David also is king over Israel,
dealt with personal struggles, family struggles, but also national
struggles. And they were monumental. They
were spiritual. He had a son that tried to steal
the throne from him. He had Saul trying to take his life. He had
enemies all around that hated the people of God that wanted
to invade and destroy Israel. and defame the name of Yahweh. And so we read of these things,
we hear of them, and so we are given words that help us understand
when we go through our own sorrows. And so David expresses those
here in Psalm 69, just as he does in other places where we’ve
studied. But this ought to lead us to
something really important. We certainly have our own difficulties.
David had his own difficulties, but we have a person We have
a Savior to whom we can look for help in our time of need.
Particularly the book of Hebrews teaches us. It teaches us that
Jesus, the Son of God, became man. And he is for us a high
priest who can sympathize with us. He was born, and as our catechism
tells us, in a low condition. Or as some of the Christmas hymns
speak of, he was born in mean conditions. He was born poor. He was made under the law. He
lived under the curses of this life, the difficulties of this
world. He was ill-treated by his own countrymen as well as
people of foreign nations. He suffered. He died. He was in the grave. And then
he was raised from the dead. But the book of Hebrews and other
places teach us that where else should we go than to our God,
our savior, who has become like a brother to us. And there’s
not a thing that we will go through that he hasn’t been through.
Isn’t that amazing that we have a high priest who can sympathize
with us. He knows what it’s like, and
he’s been through far worse. He’s the son of God who became
a man. and in his experiences, not only did he suffer these
things so that we can go to him and he knows what we’re talking
about, but he also has set an example for us to live. He set
an example for us. So when difficulties come upon
us in life, we can look to Jesus as a great example for how to
bear up under those hardships. Everything about Christ, everything
about his humanity, everything about his suffering, is for our
good and for His glory. And so that’s a perspective we
ought to have. Every problem we have, not the cable and the
internet problems, but every serious struggle we have should
be taken to the cross. And we’ll see that God has an
answer for it. So what do we do at the end of
a psalm like this? Well, if you pick up at verse 30, the fitting
response for any Christian person is praise. And notice what King
David says. He speaks, I will praise the
name of God with a song. I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns
and hooves. When the humble see it, they
will be glad. You who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the
Lord hears the needy. And he does not despise his own
people who are prisoners. But heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save
Zion. He will build up the cities of
Judah and people shall dwell there and possess it. And the
offspring of his servants shall inherit it. And those who love
his name shall dwell in it.” What a wonderful charge and challenge
that is to us to take to take the good blessings in life that
when God provides for us and to come to his house and give
him praise. And so we have a wonderful example from King David and a
charge from the scriptures. I will praise God with a song
and I will magnify him with thanksgiving. Let’s pause and pray together.
Our Lord, we thank you for showing us a few things about suffering
and the perspective we ought to have from this song. We pray
that you would encourage us in our hardships. And we thank you
that no matter what we go through, no matter what we endure, no
matter what befalls us, whatever comes upon us, we have one who
has been through it before us, even Jesus, our savior and our
big brother. And we thank you that we can
look to him. We can look to his example and we can cry out to
him, him who knows what it is like to suffer. And we thank
you for this wonderful set of truths. We pray that they would
sink deep into our hearts, that we would think of them in our
minds, and that when we come out free and on the other side
of these things, we can come in your house and give you great
praise and thanks for our deliverance. We ask it all in Christ’s name.
Amen.