After four praise Psalms in a row, we return to the Psalms that were written around circumstances in life where David calls out to the Lord. This situation is difficult to match up with a specific instance in David's live. The Psalm refers to a time of great reproach in David's life. During this time the men at the gate spoke against him and the drunkards sang mocking songs about him. Regardless of not knowing the specifics, this Psalm reflects an outcry to God in desperation. We can all identify with desperation and feeling our life threatened in some way. We can see David responded the way any of us would. Out of a very normal sense of self preservation we cry out to God and lash out at our enemies or that thing that threatens us. In the end, we seek after our sovereign God and sing His praises. Our life was bought and paid for in Christ. We are His and we trust in His plan for our life.
To the Chief Musician. Set to "The Lilies."A Psalm of David.
1 Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in deep mire,
Where there is no standing;
I have come into deep waters,
Where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary with my crying;
My throat is dry;
My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
You can feel the desperation in David as he calls out for God to save him. David likens this threat to the flood waters that have risen. At your ankles the waters are no big deal; at your waist they concern you; at your shoulders they begin to wear you out. When the flood waters get to your neck, panic will begin to rise up. The threat washes over David's life like the flood waters over his head. He can not longer stand up and breathe and survive. His life is beginning to slip away. We can see the physical weariness of crying. He is physically exhausted as he waits for God.
4 Those who hate me without a cause
Are more than the hairs of my head;
They are mighty who would destroy me,
Being my enemies wrongfully;
Though I have stolen nothing,
I still must restore it.
Jesus quoted verse 4 as written in John 4:25. This ties this Psalm to the messiah. The world hated Jesus and if we are in Him, it will hate us also. David felt like those who hated him were more than the hairs on his head. These enemies were mighty enemies but they weren't just in their cause. David felt like he was offering restoration for something that he wasn't responsible for taking.
5 O God, You know my foolishness;
And my sins are not hidden from You.
6 Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me;
Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
David knows he has sinned and fallen short of what God desired for his life. God knew his heart but he didn't want others to know. He feared that his testimony and his shortcomings would interfere with other's faith. He was afraid his life would be a stumbling block. Strangely enough it seems David was concerned for people like you and me that were looking into his life. What we see though is another man who is imperfect and whom God uses as he sanctifies him. We can identify with David because he doesn't seem perfect in every way; he seems to get caught up in life and the world for he takes his eyes off the Lord.
7 Because for Your sake I have borne reproach;
Shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
And an alien to my mother's children;
9 Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up,
And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
10 When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting,
That became my reproach.
11 I also made sackcloth my garment;
I became a byword to them.
12 Those who sit in the gate speak against me,
And I am the song of the drunkards.
This fallen world will always come against God and the things of God. When we identify and trust in Jesus Christ we will bear the reproach of the world and all who trust in it. We will be ridiculed and ignored by our families. When we come to God with a broken heart and in repentance we will be a byword to the citizens of the earth. As citizens in heaven we will never fit in to the value system of a fallen world. In sackcloth David was in grief but even then there was ridicule. The town officials who sat at the gate gossip and whisper about him as well as the drunkards as they sing their drunken songs.
Verse 9 is quoted in John 2:17 after Jesus cleansed the temple. And the 2nd part of verse 9 is quoted by Paul in Romans 15:3 in speaking about Jesus. All the reproach fell on him.
Jesus said our sense of family will come from those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ (Matthew 12:46-50).
Even Jesus' brothers didn't believe Him (John 7:3-5).
13 But as for me, my prayer is to You,
O LORD, in the acceptable time;
O God, in the multitude of Your mercy,
Hear me in the truth of Your salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire,
And let me not sink;
Let me be delivered from those who hate me,
And out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the floodwater overflow me,
Nor let the deep swallow me up;
And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.
Death felt imminent. David saw Sheol, the realm of the dead, opening wide to consume his life. As for David, his trust wasn't in his ability to survive, outrun, outsmart or outwit the threat on his life. David's prayer was with God. This 'acceptable time' is an interesting phrase. There is recognition of God's will but also a continued prayer for mercy and salvation. David sought the Lord and waited on Him, but his time was almost run out. David is laying his circumstances before the Lord almost as if he were saying, "It would be a really good time for you to intervene, Lord."
16 Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good;
Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.
17 And do not hide Your face from Your servant,
For I am in trouble;
Hear me speedily.
18 Draw near to my soul, and redeem it;
Deliver me because of my enemies.
It is by God's lovingkindness and by His multitudes of tender mercies that we can even call on Him. Without God's kindness and love we are without hope destined to eternal death. In the deepest and darkest pits of our lives we can call on Him and draw near. Regardless of what we've done or where we've gone, He will redeem us and deliver our soul from death. While David was praying regarding his physical circumstances, it was a spiritual war. David asked God to deliver him because of his enemies. These enemies thought they controlled the circumstances of David's life, when in fact God was the one calling the shots.
19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor;
My adversaries are all before You.
20 Reproach has broken my heart,
And I am full of heaviness;
I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none;
And for comforters, but I found none.
21 They also gave me gall for my food,
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Gall is a reference to something bitter. It could also refer to a poisonous herb. Those that would offer gall for food were betraying David. This is what was offered to Jesus on the Cross, gall and vinegar, offered to deaden the pain. These three verses seem to describe what Jesus was feeling on the cross as he bore the sins of men. The reproach and shame and dishonor were heavy. He was experiencing a separation from God the Father that He had not experienced before. There was a profound heaviness and there was comfort to be found among men.
22 Let their table become a snare before them,
And their well-being a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see;
And make their loins shake continually.
This was quoted in Romans 11:9-10 in reference to
24 Pour out Your indignation upon them,
And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their dwelling place be desolate;
Let no one live in their tents.
Verse 25 was quoted in Acts 1:20 in reference to Judas. God's indignation and wrathful anger is a righteous response. This is David asking God to give them what they deserve. We stand in the grace of God knowing what we deserve but knowing that Jesus received the penalty for our sins. For their dwelling place to be desolate and their tents vacant is to wipe them from all memory and existence including all their family. When an Israelite was killed it was believed that the killer also killed all the offspring that would have come from that man.
26 For they persecute the ones You have struck,
And talk of the grief of those You have wounded.
This is reflected in Isaiah 53:10. This is messianic. Those who persecuted Christ spoke of how He had offended the people and religion and traditions. They accused Him of bringing grief on men.
27 Add iniquity to their iniquity,
And let them not come into Your righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,
And not be written with the righteous.
David asked that there would be no memory or record of these men. He didn't want them to be saved in God's righteousness and asked that they be blotted out. Did David think these men were beyond salvation? Did he think that their heart was so wicked and evil that they would never seek God?
29 But I am poor and sorrowful;
Let Your 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 bull,
Which has horns and hooves.
32 The humble shall see this and be glad;
And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
33 For the LORD hears the poor,
And does not despise His prisoners.
God is pleased with our humbled heart, our praise of His name and when we come to Him with thanksgiving. Men put value in the ox and bull which were valuable in the world. But those things were meaningless to the Lord. He sought after those who offered their hearts to the Lord. The Lord hears the poor and those imprisoned in Sin.
34 Let heaven and earth praise Him,
The seas and everything that moves in them.
35 For God will save
And build the cities of
That they may dwell there and possess it.
36 Also, the descendants of His servants shall inherit it,
And those who love His name shall dwell in it.
This passage is prophetic in that it speaks of the millennial kingdom when Christ will rule. At that time, all heaven and earth will praise Him. All God's people will enjoy the inheritance of the Lord. All those who love Him will dwell in that New Jerusalem.
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