bitter Gift

Psalm 69

Save Me, O God

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. Of David.

 ¹Save me, O God!
   For the waters have come up to my neck
²I sink in deep mire,
   where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
   and the flood sweeps over me.
³I am weary with my crying out;
   my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
   with waiting for my God.

 ⁴More in number than the hairs of my head
   are those who hate me without cause;
mighty are those who would destroy me,
   those who attack me with lies.
What I did not steal
   must I now restore?
⁵O God, you know my folly;
   the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

 ⁶Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,
   O Lord GOD of hosts;
let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,
   O God of Israel.
⁷For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
   that dishonor has covered my face.
⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers,
   an alien to my mother’s sons.

 ⁹For zeal for your house has consumed me,
   and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
¹⁰When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,
   it became my reproach.
¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing,
   I became a byword to them.
¹²I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
   and the drunkards make songs about me.

 ¹³But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD.
   At an acceptable time, O God,
   in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
¹⁴Deliver me
   from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
   and from the deep waters.
¹⁵Let not the flood sweep over me,
   or the deep swallow me up,
   or the pit close its mouth over me.

 ¹⁶Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good;
   according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
¹⁷Hide not your face from your servant;
   for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.
¹⁸Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
   ransom me because of my enemies!

 ¹⁹You know my reproach,
   and my shame and my dishonor;
   my foes are all known to you.
²⁰ Reproaches have broken my heart,
   so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none,
   and for comforters, but I found none.
²¹They gave me poison for food,
   and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

 ²² Let their own table before them become a snare;
   and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.
²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see,
    and make their loins tremble continually.
²⁴Pour out your indignation upon them,
   and let your burning anger overtake them.
²⁵ May their camp be a desolation;
   let no one dwell in their tents.
²⁶For they persecute him whom you have struck down,
   and they recount the pain of⁾ those you have wounded.
²⁷ Add to them punishment upon punishment;
   may they have no acquittal from you.
²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;
   let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

 ²⁹But I am afflicted and in pain;
   let your salvation, O God, set me on high!

 ³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song;
   I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
³¹This will please the LORD more than an ox
   or a bull with horns and hoofs.
³²When the humble see it they will be glad;
   you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
³³For the LORD hears the needy
   and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

 ³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him,
   the seas and everything that moves in them.
³⁵For God will save Zion
   and build up the cities of Judah,
and people shall dwell there and possess it;
 ³⁶ the offspring of his servants shall inherit it,
   and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

Do you think you have had a bad day? Week? Month? Year? Life?  David did.  He continually takes complaints to God to say how poorly he is being treated by his enemies. While he does throw in the occasional praise to God, most of what he has written is either complaining about how bad things are for him, or praying for God to destroy those who are persecuting him. 

Interestingly, in v. 21, David says, “²¹They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” The words for poison and sour wine can also be translated gall and vinegar respectively.  These are the exact items given to Christ on the cross (Matt. 27:34, 48) by His enemies.  It is no accident that David wrote these words foreshadowing the Suffering Servant’s last moments.  However, there is a difference between Christ’s response and David’s (and our’s).

While David was being persecuted, he did not ever come close to the suffering and persecution that Christ suffered.  No matter what we suffer, no matter how bad it seems, the depth of our suffering will never approach either the intensity of Christ’s suffering nor the injustice of His suffering.  You and I and even David, the man after God’s own heart, are sinners and our existence is only worthy of death and suffering.  We deserve it.  David was suffering for righteousness; God’s righteousness.  He was being persecuted for following God’s will. Christ died for unrighteousness; yours and mine. He did not deserve it.

Unlike David’s calling upon God for the destruction of his enemies (v. 22 ff), Christ called for the forgiveness of those who persecuted Him. Christ asked the Father to forgive those who were executing Him, even from the Cross. Yet David, who is protected from real sacrifice at every turn by God, calls upon the Father to destroy those who persecute him.  How different our response from Christ’s.

We cannot fathom the depth of suffering that Christ endured.  His complete separation from the Father is something we, thankfully, will never experience IF we have placed our faith in Christ.  Our sufferings are minor by comparison, BECAUSE Christ chose to suffer in our place and take what we deserve.  We really have no reason to complain.  Nothing we suffer will ever compare to the bitterness of gall and vinegar that Christ suffered in His separation from the Father.  This truth should change the way we view those who persecute us.  We should strive to forgive them, rather than seeking to destroy them.  We should try to follow Christ’s example.