LORD’S DAY, SEPTEMBER 9
Psalm 69:1-36
Matthew 26:36-45

I thank Thee, Lord,
for saving my soul

“LEST I FORGET GETHSEMANE … LEAD ME TO CALVARY”

The NIV Study Bible, on the strength of just one verse (Ps 69:35), brushes aside David’s authorship. It “suggests a later son of David who ruled over the southern kingdom of Judah (see Ps 69:35). That king may have been Hezekiah (see 2 Kings 18-20; 2 Chron 29-32).” This is one instance of the license NIV translators take against the Sacred Text.

In this Psalm, David describes another of his quagmire experiences. His soul is totally overwhelmed with the flood waters of his grief, short of being swallowed up by the mouth of the pit (Ps 69:1, 2, 14, 15). This miry clay that is swallowing him, gulp by gulp, is the attack upon him by his enemies.

To make sure that there is no contributory cause from himself, he humbles himself to admit his foolishness and bares his heart for God to examine any unconfessed sin (Ps 69:5). This is a right attitude to adopt whenever we are overtaken by trouble. Though our heart is innocent in the matter, perhaps some sin committed beyond its periphery might have got us involved?

There is however a higher purpose in David’s sufferings. God has used these sufferings to adumbrate the sufferings of His greater Son and our Lord. No other Psalm apart from Psalm 22 is as much quoted as this Psalm for some part of Christ’s suffering. Scofield comments, “The New Testament quotations from, and references to, this Psalm indicate in what way it adumbrates Christ. It is the psalm of His humiliation and rejection (vv 4, 7, 8, 10-12). Verses 14 to 20 may well describe the exercises of His holy soul in Gethsemane (Matt 26:36-45), while verse 21 is a direct reference to the cross (Matt 27:34, 48; John 19:28). The imprecatory verses (vv 22-28) are connected (Rom 11:9-10) with the present judicial blindness of Israel, verse 25 having special reference to Judas (Acts 1:20) who is thus made typical of his generation, which shared his guilt.”

THOUGHT: Have I “become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children” (Ps 69:8) because of my faith?
PRAYER: (Use Psalm 69:1.)