Psalm 69:13-28
13 And me? I pray. God, it's time for a break! God, answer in love! Answer with your sure salvation! 14 Rescue me from the swamp, Don't let me go under for good, Pull me out of the clutch of the enemy; This whirlpool is sucking me down. 15 Don't let the swamp be my grave, the Black Hole Swallow me, its jaws clenched around me. 16 Now answer me, God, because you love me; Let me see your great mercy full-face. 17 Don't look the other way; your servant can't take it. I'm in trouble. Answer right now! 18 Come close, God; get me out of here. Rescue me from this deathtrap. 19 You know how they kick me around - Pin on me the donkey's ears, the dunce's cap. 20 I'm broken by their taunts, Flat on my face, reduced to a nothing. I looked in vain for one friendly face. Not one. I couldn't find one shoulder to cry on. 21 They put poison in my soup, Vinegar in my drink.
22 Let their supper be bait in a trap that snaps shut; May their best friends be trappers who'll skin them alive. 23 Make them become blind as bats, Give them the shakes from morning to night. 24 Let them know what you think of them, Blast them with your red-hot anger. 25 Burn down their houses, Leave them desolate with nobody at home. 26 They gossiped about the one you disciplined, Made up stories about anyone wounded by God. 27 Pile on the guilt, Don't let them off the hook. 28 Strike their names from the list of the living; No rock-carved honor for them among the righteous.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 69:13-28
Commentary on Psalm 69:13-21
(Read Psalm 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.
Commentary on Psalm 69:22-29
(Read Psalm 69:22-29)
These are prophecies of the destruction of Christ's persecutors. Verses Romans 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.