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.
Key Verse:
32 The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.
Key Observation:
The memory verse is chosen for me to remember the Lord knows me. This is a very important messianic psalm.
Memory Verse:
5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
Devotion:
McGee says that this psalm is the second most often quoted psalm in the New Testament, after Psalm 22. Not only does this psalm refer to our Messiah on the cross, it also tells us of the “hidden years” of Jesus. The hidden years are those years between the age of 12 and the start of his ministry. In this psalm some of the anguish of those years is hinted at in this psalm.
This is a psalm of David, and while its primary interpretation is of David’s life, yet God is able to take the King’s words and speak prophetically of his own beloved son. Perhaps most well-known is this verse: “ They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” In the New Testament we read its fulfillment while Christ was on the cross.
“They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head.” This might sound like something that would happen to David, and it probably did, but it is quoted in John 15:25, “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” So we know that this verse is speaking prophetically of Christ.
Perhaps one of the new most hurtful things about the life of Christ in this psalm I learned in verse eight: “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.” Notice that it says “mother’s” children, and not father’s. Here is a prophecy letting us know that while Jesus had a divine birth, yet in the common thinking of even his family, he was considered naught but a bastard son. Oh, how I ache to think of that! That Jesus bore reproach from even his family, but certainly from his village. There is evidence in John, a verse that causes me pain each time I consider it, that his parentage was routinely disparaged by others.
In John 8, the whole chapter is largely an terrible argument that Jesus is having with religious leaders concerning legitimacy. The Jews claimed Abraham for their father, someone they were legitimately descended from. Jesus pointed out that the physical descent only mattered if there was a spiritual descent, and since there was not, these Jews, said Jesus, were from their father the Devil. Their defense was in verse 41: “Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.” The implication is very clear; they were saying Jesus did not know who his father was. Later in the chapter, verse 48, they say: “Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” In the eyes of Jews, life could not be made much worse than being accused of having a Samaritan for a parent.
Again in Chapter 9, the Jewish leaders proclaim in verse 29: “as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.” The Jewish leaders were so close! They were looking for their Messiah for they knew from their study of Scriptures that He was due in the world. Yet here He was, standing before him and they could not accept Him. They knew that the Messiah was to arise out of Bethlehem, yet Jesus was supposedly from Nazareth. They did not research their subject right, and when they should have listened, they found themselves opposing the very Son of God. Yet the Scripture says, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:39,40) How it must have pained our Lord to tell of His Father, and be spurned by those who should love Him!
Consider this verse and then I will stop the direction of this meditation: (Matt. 12:47) “Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.” Jesus replies signaling the disciples, here are my brothers and my mother. Many commentators, including me, feel that the mother and brothers were not there to just greet their brother. Instead they were trying to clean things up, to get their “crazed bastard” brother home and lock him up somewhere until he “got better.” If this is the case, the verse in Psalm 69, “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children,” must be even more powerfully true. How my Lord must have felt, seeing his own family convinced of his insanity!
Perhaps that explains what I call the Messianic curse. McGee calls it, more properly,
the “imprecatory” prayer. Imprecatory means curse. In Psalms 69: 22-28 we have an absolute horrid curse put to those who oppose Christ. The Son of God here is praying for God to bring justice, terribly and awfully, in these verses. Read them again:
22Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
23Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
24Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
25Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.
26For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.
27Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
McGee points out that there is only one kind of man and that is a sinner. You may be redeemed or unredeemed, but all of us are sinners. Which are you today? No penalty is given to man if he will be believe God and start to correct his way. This morning my wife and I had breakfast at the local cafe, and a man whom I am friendly with read the inscription on my shirt: “Saved by Grace through Faith”. I love wearing shirts like that for it gives me occasion to start many conversations. He referred to space pictures he had seen, and exclaimed, “There is no sign of God out there.” I replied to him, “Would you expect to find the Creator in his creation, or apart from his creation?” Do not misread the signs of our times, for the evidence of a Creator and Loving God are everywhere about you, just as they were in the time of Christ. If you will but see. Pray that God will open your eyes before it becomes too late.
1. Sing them over again to me,
Wonderful words of life,
Let me more of their beauty see,
Wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty
Teach me faith and duty.
o Refrain:
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life;
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life.
2. Christ, the blessed One, gives to all
Wonderful words of life;
Sinner, list to the loving call,
Wonderful words of life;
All so freely given,
Wooing us to heaven.
3. Sweetly echo the Gospel call,
Wonderful words of life;
Offer pardon and peace to all,
Wonderful words of life;
Jesus, only Savior,
Sanctify us forever.
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