Core Theme: For when grief, rejection, and long waiting have piled up together and no one around you seems to understand
(Related Theme: This psalm also speaks to When God Feels Silent — see verses 1–3 below.)
Background
David wrote Psalm 69 during a season of overwhelming distress. Scripture does not tell us the exact occasion, but the psalm itself paints the picture: enemies who hate him without cause, family members who treat him like a stranger, mockery in the city gate, and a long, exhausting wait for God to answer. The heading sets it “upon Shoshannim,” meaning “lilies,” which most likely names the tune it was sung to.
Psalm 69 holds a special place in the Bible. Outside of Psalm 22, few psalms are quoted more often in the New Testament, and again and again those quotations point to the Lord Jesus. The zeal for God’s house, the reproach borne for God’s sake, the vinegar offered in His thirst: David’s sorrow became a picture of the far deeper sorrow of the Son of David.
Psalm 69 (KJV)
1 To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto mysoul.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
6 Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
10 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.
11 I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.
12 They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
16 Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.
17 And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.
19 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.
20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.
33 For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.
34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.
35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.
36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.
The heart of it
Psalm 69 is what sorrow sounds like when it has been building for a long time. David is not dealing with one bad day. He is worn out from crying, misunderstood by his own family, mocked in public, and hated by people he never wronged. Every source of support he might have leaned on has given way, and he feels himself sinking.
What keeps this psalm from being only a lament is where David keeps turning. In verse 13, right in the middle of the mockery, he says, “But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD.” He even admits his own failings in verse 5, “O God, thou knowest my foolishness,” because he knows God sees him completely and he has nothing to hide. Sorrow does not drive him from God. It drives him to God, again and again.
The psalm also reaches far beyond David. Many of its lines are fulfilled in Christ, who was hated without a cause (John 15:25), consumed with zeal for His Father’s house, and offered vinegar on the cross. That means if you are reading Psalm 69 in your own season of heaviness, you are not alone with it. The Saviour has walked this road, and He walked it further than any of us ever will.
Walking through it
Verses 1–3: “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.”
David describes sorrow as drowning. The water has risen to his neck, his feet are stuck in mire [deep mud] with nothing solid to stand on, and the floods keep pouring over him. Anyone who has carried grief for a long time knows the feeling of losing your footing. Then comes verse 3: he is hoarse from crying, and “mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.” For anyone in a season when God feels silent, notice where David’s failing eyes are still fixed: on “my God.” He is exhausted from waiting, but he has not stopped waiting on Him.
Verses 7–9: “Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.”
Some of David’s sorrow came because of his faithfulness, not in spite of it. He has borne reproach [scorn, insult] for God’s sake, and it has cost him even his own family: “I am become a stranger unto my brethren.” Then verse 9: “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” His zeal [burning devotion] for God made him a target. When the Lord Jesus drove the money changers from the temple, “…his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up” (John 2:17). Paul applies the second half of the verse to Christ as well: “For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me” (Romans 15:3). If you are hurting because you stood for what is right, the Lord knows that pain firsthand.
Verses 20–21: “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.”
This may be the loneliest verse in the psalm. David’s heart is broken, and when he looks for someone to understand, there is no one. Then verse 21 describes being given gall [a bitter, poisonous herb] for food and vinegar for his thirst. At the cross these words were fulfilled to the letter: “They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall…” (Matthew 27:34). The Lord Jesus knew what it was to look for comfort and find none, as His closest friends scattered. That is why He can meet us in our heaviness with real understanding: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities…” (Hebrews 4:15). Even when no human comforter can be found, “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart…” (Psalm 34:18).
Verses 29–33: “But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.”
David has not been rescued yet, and he says so plainly: “I am poor and sorrowful.” But in the same breath, he begins to praise. He promises to magnify God with a song and with thanksgiving, and he says this pleases the Lord more than any costly sacrifice. Then comes the promise that anchors the whole psalm: “For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.” Those who feel trapped by their circumstances are not despised or overlooked by God. He hears them. And David adds a word for everyone who is still searching for Him: “…your heart shall live that seek God.”
Carrying this forward
If the Lord has already brought you up out of a season like this, remember what it was like to feel the water rising and your footing gone. David wrote of that kind of rescue elsewhere: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings” (Psalm 40:2). It is easy, once our feet are steady again, to slowly drift and forget how desperately we needed Him. Keep the song of thanksgiving going, just as David promised to, and keep your focus on the One who lifted you out.
If you are sinking right now, and your eyes are tired from waiting and no one seems to understand, you can pray the way David did. Tell God honestly how deep the water is. Tell Him you are poor and sorrowful. You do not have to be rescued before you turn your heart toward Him; David praised God while he was still in the mire. The Lord Jesus has been where you are, rejected, misunderstood, and given vinegar in His thirst, and He has not forgotten you. “For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.” Keep seeking Him, and your heart shall live.
The Hard Verses: Psalm 69:22–28
Verses 22–28 are some of the harshest words in the Psalms. David asks God to turn his enemies’ table into a snare, to darken their eyes, to pour out His wrath on them, to leave their habitation [dwelling] desolate, and to blot them out of the book of the living. How should believers read prayers like these?
First, notice what David does not do. He does not take revenge into his own hands. He hands the matter over to God, who alone judges rightly. That is the same principle the New Testament gives us: “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19).
Second, the New Testament reads these verses prophetically. Paul applies verses 22–23 to those in Israel who rejected their Messiah (Romans 11:9–10), and Peter applies verse 25 to Judas (Acts 1:20). In other words, these lines describe the judgment that falls on those who set themselves against God’s Anointed. They are not a pattern for how we should speak about people who hurt us.
Third, the phrase “the book of the living” in verse 28 most naturally refers to the register of those alive on the earth. David is asking that his enemies be cut off from life. He is not teaching that a true child of God can lose their salvation.
Finally, set these verses beside the cross. The same Saviour whose sufferings are described in this psalm prayed for the very people crucifying Him: “…Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do…” (Luke 23:34). David’s prayer hands justice to God. Christ’s prayer shows us the heart of God toward sinners, and that is the posture believers are called to share. We can be honest with God about our anger and our hurt, as David was, and trust Him to make every wrong right in His time.
Psalm 69
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