INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 69 TO THE CHIEF MUSICIAN UPON SHOSHANNIM, [A PSALM] OF DAVID. Of the word "shoshannim", Psalms 45:1, title. The Targum renders it, "concerning the removal of the sanhedrim;'' which was about the time of Christ's death. The Talmudists t say, that forty years before the destru... [ Continue Reading ]
SAVE ME, O GOD,.... The petitioner is Christ; not as a divine Person, as such he is blessed for ever, and stands in no need of help and assistance; but as man, and in distressed and suffering circumstances. As a priest, it was part of his work to intercede, as well as to offer sacrifice; and though... [ Continue Reading ]
I SINK IN DEEP MIRE, WHERE [THERE IS] NO STANDING,.... Which signifies not despair of mind, but difficult and distressed circumstances; the Messiah now bearing the filthy sins of his people, and the punishment of them, and so was got into the horrible pit, the mire and clay; Psalms 40:2; I AM COME... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM WEARY OF MY CRYING,.... In his distress; when, bearing the punishment both of loss and sense, he cried unto God; he prayed earnestly, with great intenseness and fervency of spirit; he offered supplications, with strong cryings and tears, insomuch that he calls it a roaring: and whereas there wa... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT HATE ME WITHOUT A CAUSE,.... As the Jews did; see John 15:18; for he did no injury to the persons or properties of men; but went about continually doing good, both to their souls and bodies; so that he merited their highest esteem and love, and not their hatred; and yet they were his impl... [ Continue Reading ]
O GOD, THOU KNOWEST MY FOOLISHNESS,.... Not that there was real foolishness in him, who, as man, from his infancy was filled with wisdom, and increased in it; and, as Mediator, had the spirit of wisdom on him, and the treasures of wisdom in him; and, as a divine Person, he is the Wisdom of God, and... [ Continue Reading ]
LET NOT THEM THAT WAIT ON THEE, O LORD GOD OF HOSTS, BE ASHAMED FOR MY SAKE,.... Of their expectation of redemption and salvation by the Messiah, they have been waiting upon the Lord for; when they shall see him in suffering circumstances, and even dead and laid in the grave, without any hope of his... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE FOR THY SAKE I HAVE BORNE REPROACH,.... Being reckoned a sinner, called a deceiver, said to be a Samaritan, and to have a devil; with many other reproaches, which he bore patiently for the sake of the word and worship of God, and for the sake of the glory of God, which he all along sought; a... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM BECOME A STRANGER UNTO MY BRETHREN,.... Not only to the Jews in general, who were his own people and nation, to whom he came, and of whom he came; who received him not, hid as it were their faces from him, and rejected him as the Messiah; but also to such who were still nearer akin to him, acco... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE ZEAL OF THINE HOUSE HATH EATEN ME UP,.... Of the house of the sanctuary, as the Targum; that is, the temple, which was Christ's Father's house, where he was worshipped and dwelt; and zeal for his Father, and his glory in it, and indignation against those that made it an house of merchandise,... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I WEPT,.... Because of the sins of his people imputed to him; the hardness and unbelief of the Jews that rejected him; their impiety and profaneness in polluting the temple with their merchandise: he wept at the grave of Lazarus, and over the city of Jerusalem, on account of the blindness of it... [ Continue Reading ]
I MADE SACKCLOTH ALSO MY GARMENT,.... Though we nowhere read that Jesus put on sackcloth upon any occasion, yet it is not improbable that he did; besides, the phrase may only intend that he mourned and sorrowed at certain times, as persons do when they put on sackcloth: moreover, as the common garb... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT SIT IN THE GATE SPEAK AGAINST ME,.... The princes, magistrates, and judges, who sat in the gates of cities, heard and tried causes, and executed judgment there; the elders of the city; see Ruth 4:1; the civil rulers among the Jews are meant; and also their ecclesiastical ones, the Scribes... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT AS FOR ME, MY PRAYER [IS] UNTO THEE, O LORD,.... Christ betook himself to prayer in these circumstances, and not to railing and reviling again: he applied to his divine Father, and committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, and prayed both for himself and for his enemies too: and this he... [ Continue Reading ]
DELIVER ME OUT OF THE MIRE, AND LET ME NOT SINK,.... In which he was sinking, Psalms 69:2; and accordingly he was delivered out of it, Psalms 11:2; even out of all the mire of sin, the sins of his people that were upon him, from which he was justified when raised from the dead; and so will appear w... [ Continue Reading ]
LET NOT THE WATER FLOOD OVERFLOW ME,.... The enemy, Satan, that came in like a flood upon him, with his whole posse of devils; or the wrath of God, which came upon him like a flood overwhelming him: NEITHER LET THE DEEP SWALLOW ME UP: as Jonah by the whale, and Dathan and Abiram in the earth: AND... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR ME, O LORD; FOR THY LOVINGKINDNESS [IS] GOOD,.... His lovingkindness to him, not only as his Son, but as Mediator; and which is a love of complacency and delight, and was from eternity, and will be to eternity: and this is "good", as appears by the effects and evidences of it; such as putting a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HIDE NOT THY FACE FROM THY SERVANT,.... This is a character that is frequently given to Christ as Mediator; he is a servant of God's choosing, calling, and appointing; of his sending, bringing forth, and supporting; who is an obedient, diligent, righteous, and prudent one; who always reverenced... [ Continue Reading ]
DRAW NIGH UNTO MY SOUL,.... God his father, while he was suffering, stood afar off from him; wherefore he desires that he would draw nigh to him in the manifestations of his love and favour to him; which he did, when he made known to him the way of life, and made him full of joy with his countenance... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST KNOWN MY REPROACH, AND MY SHAME, AND MY DISHONOUR,.... A heap of words to express the greatness of the contempt that was cast upon him, and the injury that was done to his person and character; which was all known to God: as how he was vilified by wicked words and blasphemous speeches; how... [ Continue Reading ]
REPROACH HATH BROKEN MY HEART,.... This was his case when his soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death, and his heart like wax melted in the midst of his bows is, Matthew 26:38; AND I AM FULL OF HEAVINESS; as he was in the garden, Mark 14:33; or, "very sick, [yea], incurably sick", as the word g sig... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY GAVE ME ALSO GALL FOR MY MEAT,.... Either some bitter herb mentioned with wormwood and hemlock, Deuteronomy 29:18; or the gall of some animal The Targum renders it, "the gall of the heads of serpents:'' the poison of some serpents is in their heads, and the word that is here used signifies th... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE BEFORE THEM,.... This and the following imprecations were not the effects of a spirit of private revenge; of which there was no appearance in Christ, but all the reverse who prayed for his enemies, while they were using him as above related: but they are prophecies of... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED, THAT THEY SEE NOT,.... Not literally, the eyes of their bodies; but figuratively, the eyes of their understanding; which were so darkened, and they given up to such judicial blindness, that they could not discern the signs of the times that the Messiah must be come, Danie... [ Continue Reading ]
POUR OUT THINE INDIGNATION UPON THEM,.... Not a few drops of it only, but a flood of it, sweeping away and bearing down all before it; which was done when wrath came upon them to the uttermost, in the destruction of their city, temple, and nation, 1 Thessalonians 2:16; LET THY WRATHFUL ANGER TAKE H... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THEIR HABITATION BE DESOLATE,.... Which is applied to Judas, Acts 1:20; but not to the exclusion of others; for it must be understood of the habitations of others; even of their princes and nobles, their chief magistrates, high priest and other priests, scribes, and doctors of the law: for the w... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THEY PERSECUTE [HIM] WHOM THOU HAST SMITTEN,.... Meaning the Messiah, who was not only smitten and scourged by men, but was stricken and smitten of God; according to his determinate counsel and foreknowledge, and agreeably to his will and plea sure; with the rod of his justice for the satisfacti... [ Continue Reading ]
ADD INIQUITY TO THEIR INIQUITY,.... Let them alone in sin; suffer them to go on in it; lay no restraints upon them; put no stop in providence in their way; let them proceed from one evil to another, till they fall into ruin: to their natural and acquired hardness of heart, give them up to a judicial... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THEM BE BLOTTED OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE,.... Which some understand of this animal life, or of the catalogue of living saints; of their being not written among the living in Jerusalem, or in the writing of the house of Israel, Isaiah 4:3. The Targum is, "let them he blotted out of the book of th... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I [AM] POOR AND SORROWFUL,.... The Messiah was poor in a literal sense, as it was foretold he should, Zechariah 9:9; so he was in his private life; born of poor parents, and brought up in a mean way: and in his public life, having no certain dwelling place, and ministered to by others; and when... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL PRAISE THE NAME OF GOD WITH A SONG,.... The "name" of God is himself, his perfections and attributes; which are to be "praised" by all his creatures, and especially his saints; and here by the Messiah, who sung the praise of God with his disciples at the supper, a little before his death; and... [ Continue Reading ]
[THIS] ALSO SHALL PLEASE THE LORD,.... That is, this song of praise and thanksgiving. The Targum has it, "my prayers;'' as if it retorted to Psalms 69:29; but what is expressed in Psalms 69:30 seems to be the proper antecedent to this, and which is a sacrifice; see Psalms 50:14; and more acceptabl... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HUMBLE SHALL SEE [THIS, AND] BE GLAD,.... The resurrection and exaltation of Christ, Psalms 69:29; the meek and humble followers of Christ, as his disciples were, saw him risen from the dead, saw him alive, to whom he showed himself forty days after his resurrection; they saw his hands, and feet... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE LORD HEARETH THE POOR,.... The prayer of the poor, as the Targum; of the poor disciples of Christ, who were together mourning, weeping, and praying, when their Lord was dead, and laid in the sepulchre, Mark 16:10; this epithet agrees with all the followers of Christ, who for the most part ar... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THE HEAVEN AND EARTH PRAISE HIM,.... As those, by a prosopopoeia, are often called upon to do, to express the greatness of the favour enjoyed, and to excite those that are possessed of it to greater joy and thankfulness; see Psalms 96:11; or the inhabitants of the heavens and earth may be meant,... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR GOD WILL SAVE ZION,.... The church of Christ, as it is often called; Psalms 2:6; this is to be understood not so much of the salvation of the people of God, by Christ, from sin and Satan, and the world, law, hell, and death, as of the preservation and continuance of the Gospel church state, notw... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SEED ALSO OF HIS SERVANTS SHALL INHERIT IT,.... Not their natural, but spiritual seed, or a succession of converts in the churches; see Psalms 45:16; who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; not of corruptible, but incorruptible seed, by the wo... [ Continue Reading ]