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Bible preaching from the pulpit of Choice Hills Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina
Psalm number 69 tonight, Psalm 69.
We're gonna look at, the whole Psalm,
do kind of an overview. We're not gonna spend very long in any particular part of the Psalm, and you'll see why in just a minute. But the
Psalms, let's just start out with this. Psalm 69 is a messianic Psalm, okay? If you look at if you look at the number of mentions
of
the the Psalms in the in the New Testament, when it's quoted as a as a as a reference, as an illusion,
this
Psalm ranks
third
in the scripture. So, this Psalm,
you know, of course, the first, the the most commonly
quoted Psalm in the New Testament is Psalm 22,
but then you have you have another Psalm and then this one is the third most quoted Psalm in the New Testament. So, it is definitely messianic and you'll see why. So, as a as a rule, when you're looking at the scripture and especially when you're looking at the Psalms in particular, and you've seen this, we've been through 68 of these Psalms now, and so you definitely have seen
this feature. But whenever a Psalm is quoted
and it is directly referenced in the New Testament,
and you you have this kind of dynamic
where the writer is obviously David or or another Psalmist. The writer is David in the Psalmist. So, if you didn't have the New Testament, you would think David is referring to himself,
but then when you read the the New Testament, you see that the New Testament writer quoted this that verse in the Psalm,
and he said it referred to Christ, as if Christ was speaking. And when you see that, that is a very strong indicator
that what you're dealing with is a messianic Psalm. In other words, it has dual meaning. It has a meaning local to that time and also prophetic.
And that's one way you can identify it. So when when people say, well, is a messianic Psalm, that's usually what they're talking about. So, what you can do then is once you know that it's messianic in that way, you can kind of expand out your understanding of the Psalm knowing
that the Lord intends us
to understand it as it refers to Jesus, not just David.
And so, this that's what we're gonna do in this Psalm. There are no less than
five, no, six. There's no less than six
references
to the New Testament just in this Psalm.
And there from verse four all the way down to verse 25.
And so we're gonna see those in just a minute, but what I wanna do is,
as we go through the different verses and again, just stopping very briefly at some various verses and seeing some of these references,
I just wanna take some time
to
think and meditate
upon
the work of Christ
on the cross. Now, this is of course, so many times as we've gone through different
verses in or the Psalms in particular, but also in Matthew, other places, you know, some people like, why don't you preach on anything else from any other place? But how many times have we come to the Psalms
and it has been
dead
on
with some other thing that we've been studying just as we've been going verse by verse and chapter by chapter in the scripture, and this is no exception. This is a Messianic Psalm that concentrates on
what else but the sufferings
of Christ.
And that's what we've been spending, let's say three weeks on in Matthew chapter 27.
And so, what I wanna do then is because we're looking at the sufferings of Christ prophetically in this Psalm is just to stop
and slow down
and think about what this Psalm reveals to us about the sufferings of Christ, about his death for us, about what he experienced
on the cross. You say, well, I already know all that. No, you don't.
Nor do I. None of us know that. And the Lord definitely
well, why is why is that that narrative of Christ's death on the cross written in all four gospels? It's something that the Lord wants us to see from various angles, from different perspectives.
He wants us to meditate
upon what our Lord did for us. That's why we have the Lord's Supper.
He wants us to stop and memorialize
and meditate
and think upon
what Christ did for us. Even if you know it,
to be brought to be put in remembrance of those things, so that that becomes a part of you and a part of the way you and a part of your decisions, and a part of every every Your values, and every part of your life, it touches
The truth of the gospel should touch every part of a Christian's life. Every part of a Christian's life. It is the beginning, it's the middle, it's the end. It's the reason it's the reason we're going to heaven and it's what we'll be talking about for all of eternity.
And so,
as we do this, as we go through this Psalm, nothing in this Psalm is gonna be new to you.
But I encourage you to just take a moment and think about and meditate upon and ask even ask the lord. Lord, show me something that I've not ever seen about your sufferings.
Show me something I've seen
but maybe I need I need a new view of it as we go through the Psalm. Let's pray together. Our Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to study your word. Bless our time as we as we stroll
through Psalm 69.
Give us understanding.
Give us wisdom. Help us to stand in awe of what you've done for us. I thank you, Lord, that you not only have given us the narratives of your death upon the cross and the four gospels,
but you have also given us these prophetic views as well to see,
to to cover things that maybe aren't in the narratives directly.
And so, Lord, give us understanding, help me to see things and to recognize things
in this Psalm that can help your people, and I pray that you would teach them and help us all, Lord, to grow from our study tonight, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now, you'll notice Psalm 69 starting in verse number one, the Bible says this, save me, oh God.
Save me, oh God, for the waters, note notice the waters, the waters are come in
unto my soul.
I sink in deep mire where there is no standing.
Is anybody here
have a hard time swimming?
It's not your favorite thing to do. Everybody's a swimmer here, okay. Alright, well that's okay. My kids have not,
they just did not have a lot of opportunity to learn how to swim. We could have thrown them in the Mekong, but they probably would have gotten sick and died
from all
the nastiness in that river.
But we did go swimming from time to time, but it wasn't enough to where that they got really good at it, right? And so that's a life goal, that's on your bucket list. Hopefully not a part of kicking the bucket, but
So,
but if you're not a good swimmer and you go into a place where the water's over your head, what's the thing you wanna You start panicking, right? Right, and that's what he's describing. That's what David is describing here. He says, I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. He said, I am weary of my crying and my throat is dried, mine eyes fail
while I wait for my God.
And as we get into this, we already know, and you'll
see, so just kind of trust me for the moment, even though we haven't demonstrated it, but trust me for the moment that this is a Messianic Psalm. So as we read verses one through three,
I want you to think about the lord Jesus.
As the lord is hanging on the cross, these are the thoughts that he's thinking. He's thinking about the waters that have come in unto his soul. That he's sinking in deep mire and the water is over his head. The floods are overflowing
him. He's He says, I am weary of my crying. And then notice at the end of verse three, he says, while I wait
for my God. Now, you don't see these words quoted in the New Testament, but you do hear another Psalm quoted, which is Psalm 22, the first verse.
When Jesus was on the cross, he said, my God,
my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Now that there's
there's you could write volumes on that ones, that one question, that one sentence.
But we do know the lord cried that out and that is very much like what he's doing here. He's waiting on god. Now, what is the lord when he's crying out to his father when it's when this is in his heart?
What is he waiting on?
In his sufferings, he's waiting just like the Psalmist over and over. He says, these terrible things are coming upon me and I'm crying out to god as you've seen many times up to this point and you're waiting on god for deliverance
and that's what you see the lord Jesus is doing. My god, my god, why hast thou forsaking me? Psalm 22 goes, why art thou so far from from the words of my roaring? Psalm 22 says,
So Jesus
cries out for deliverance. Look at Let's jump ahead to verse number 14.
Because this So this idea of the flood, this idea of a flood, we saw a We were watching a documentary, my wife and I were watching a documentary
of the
tsunami
that hit
Actually, don't know if my wife was watching that with me or not, but anyway, was a multi I think she was. A multi
episode series about the tsunami during the two thousand four
earthquake and tsunami in Asia.
And it hit India, and it hit Thailand, and it hit Indonesia
primarily,
Sri Lanka as well.
But they had video of the
water, seawater that had come in, and it is it it is just it is staggering.
I encourage you to watch that. It it's just absolutely
staggering to see the and to hear the testimonies of the power of the water just absolutely
sweeping people away
And
and that's kind of like what the Psalmist is describing here, but he brings that idea that flood that
flood kind of motif for that flood theme back up in verse 14. He says this, deliver me out of the mire.
Again he's praying, and let me not sink.
Let me be delivered
from the from them that hate me and out of the deep waters.
So here he brings it up up again a second time. He's crying for God to deliver him. And this is these are the words of the lord Jesus prophetically.
He's crying out for deliverance. Jesus is crying out for the father to deliver him twice in this Psalm.
Let me ask you a question.
Was the lord
delivered
from the mire?
Was the lord delivered from the flood? Did the flood overflow
him?
It did.
Think about this.
These are prophetically the the the heart of Christ when he's suffering on the cross.
And he cried out to his father for deliverance
And did not get it.
The floods
billowed, the billows just rolled over him.
He did not get deliverance.
Was he delivered? Verse 15,
he says,
let me be delivered from them that hate me. Was our Lord delivered from those that hate him?
No. They won the victory that day. Be it Satan, be it the Jews, be it the Romans. They won the victory that day because the flood overflowed him. He was not delivered from his enemies like we see him crying out.
No,
our Lord's prayer was not heard
that ours
might be.
Think about that.
The Lord was ignored
by his father.
His cries went unanswered
as the billows rolled over him.
So that our cries could be answered.
So that god would come to our aid and could
book of Romans that we're gonna be studying in the school of scripture so that he that is just could be the justifier
also.
And it's because he wasn't heard.
Look at verse four.
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head.
They would, they that would destroy me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty, then I restored that which I took not away.
This is directly quoted. He said, John 15 verse 25, Jesus said, but this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me
without a cause.
You see, the lord Jesus was indeed hated of all of his enemies for no good reason. They did not, they didn't hate the lord Jesus because of the good that he did and you know, he healed people, he taught righteousness, and all of these things. We know that. That's not the reason they hated him. They hated them.
They did not hate him because he had done evil but because
they had done evil. John 15, which we'll look at in a minute, but I'll just quote it for the moment, they hated him because they had done evil, not because he had done evil. So, you have this,
you have what what the Psalmist is saying here is true of Christ, they hated me without a cause.
And this was not the cause for the Lord's suffering. The reason why Jesus is going to the cross and he's subject to his enemies whims and and persecutions
is not because he did anything wrong. In fact, we've seen over and over in Matthew 27, he is innocent, he is without fault, he is
is sinless, they're harming him
not because of his wrongdoing,
but he's still being harmed. I'm gonna build upon that. Look at verse five. Oh God,
thou knowest my foolishness
and my sins are not hid from thee, right? This is the part that obviously is most directly references David. So, how do you square it with the Messiah?
How could you say that the Messiah is saying verse five?
Remember,
where Jesus is
in this prophetic point of view.
Remember,
Jesus
Jesus is upon the cross. Now, in this, David is What was interesting is in verse four, he says, they hate me without a cause. And then in verse five, he describes a cause, his sin, right? He describes his sin and foolishness.
So, he's being persecuted,
but he's not being persecuted for those sins,
he's being persecuted by man,
not because of what he's done but yet he has sins. That's what David is describing.
So, how do you square that with the literal statement that David made with the fact that this is a messianic Psalm and this is what you have to remember that at this point in the life of Christ,
when it speaks prophetically of the lord Jesus, he is bearing
the sin of the world.
He is standing in the place of the sinner.
You you know, when the when the Bible says that the lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, it's it's sometimes we get this idea that you know, Jesus is just kind of dragging it, dragging our sin along behind him. Now, now, follow me now.
Like a suitcase, he's dragging his suitcase behind him, but that's not what's happening here. The Bible says, He became
sin for us.
Not just He carried it along,
but when the Bible says that it was reckoned to him and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all, he became the sinner.
That's the only way he could stand in the place of the sinner.
He became sin for us.
So whatever
you see in this Psalm where David describes the sin that's on him, Jesus stands in that place as the sinner. That's the only way the father could judge his son and punish his son as if his son truly
stood as a sinner.
And took his took took the place of sinful man and that's exactly what he did.
So, that's verse five,
our sins were reckoned.
Our foolishness
were reckoned on him. He is bearing the sin of the world. Look at verse six.
Let them that wait on thee, oh, let not them that wait on thee, oh lord of hosts, be ashamed for my sake.
Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, oh god of Israel, because for thy sake, I have born reproach.
Shame hath covered my face. What happened to the disciples when when the when the the moment of reproach finally arrived?
They're gone.
They were ashamed.
They were confounded.
They were scattered abroad. They they would not stay faithful.
And remember, Jesus is doing just exactly what his father wanted him to do. He was bearing the reproach
that our sin deserved
and what was the effect? He's praying for he's praying for his disciples in this saying, lord, let them not be confounded or ashamed and we know they were.
They were. They fled
from the lord.
Look at verse eight,
I am become a stranger
unto my brethren
and an alien unto my mother's children. John seven:five says this,
for neither did his brethren believe in him.
Jesus was a stranger.
Until after his resurrection, he was a stranger to his siblings,
those his mother bore,
right?
At the cross, you don't see his siblings,
You do see his mother, but you do not see his siblings.
They didn't believe in him. They're not at the cross.
And so, even verse eight applies to him. Look at verse number nine. For the zeal
of thine house hath eaten me up.
That's from John chapter two verse 17 says this, and his disciples remembered
that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
This is this is Anybody remember when this is quoted, when the disciples remember this? It was during the cleansing of the temple.
You see, the Lord Jesus had an all encompassing zeal for everything related to his father.
Even when he was a little boy.
Remember,
he said to his
mother and to Joseph, he said, wish you not that I must be about my father's business? He had an all encompassing
zeal with everything related to his father. Most importantly, his father's house and this is the reason he cleansed the temple. He could not. He simply could not abide
what the wicked things that were going on in his father's house. His zeal would not permit it.
Man, we need, do we not need that kind of zeal against sin in our own life?
I I guarantee you the reason why and this is not I'm getting off track here, but the reason why sin is allowed to remain remain unmolested
in our lives is because we don't have any zeal against it.
You know what zeal is? Probably the best word we can use to describe zeal is energy.
We're just so
worn out,
so lukewarm,
so
weak,
so
whipped.
We have no zeal.
Right? The Lord did.
He was fit to be tied at what he saw
And that's why he cleansed the temple.
Not only that, it goes on to say in verse nine, it says, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me.
In a completely different place, that's quoted in Romans 15.
Verse three says, for even Christ pleased not himself but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me.
Now, if you would take a peek at John chapter 15, I wanna show you the rest of the verse.
John 15, John 15.
I quoted verse 25 a minute ago, but let's start in verse 23.
Listen to what Jesus said.
John fifteen twenty three, He that hateth me
hateth my father also.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sinned, but now
have they both seen and hated
both me and my father. You see this, you hate one, you hate the other. Whoever reproaches God, reproaches Christ. The reproaches of the father reproach him and vice versa. That's what this verse is saying.
But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause.
And so it is actually prophetic when Jesus places Himself as the Father and He says,
whoever hates me hates the father, and whoever hates the father hates me.
The same reproach,
in other words, this
is the truth that's born out,
which is this, if someone rejects and refuses the Lord Jesus Christ, you they cannot say,
they cannot say that they love god. That's why Jehovah's Witness is actually an offense
to god. The
Mormons,
the the Mormons, the Mormon
impostor of Jesus is actually an offense
to God.
Because you cannot reject the Bible Jesus and
love the Bible God.
You cannot do that.
You hate one, you hate the other. The reproach on one is a reproach on the other. Look at the next verse back in our Psalm. Look at Psalm Psalm 69 verse 12.
They that sit in the gate speak against me, and I was the song
of the drunkards. You can imagine the Lord Jesus,
you can imagine Him coming out of the hall
after
His meeting with Pilate
as he carries the cross out or maybe Simon has the cross and as he walks through the streets of the city, he's they're not allowed to crucify within the city city walls. They have to be outside of the city walls. And if the city walls encircle the city, that means in order to get out outside of the city walls, you have to go through a what?
A gate. And this verse says, they that sit in the gate speak against me. So Jesus passes through that gate where he's near where he's going to be crucified,
and you can imagine the crowd was jeering
and mocking
and
and
taunting
and ridiculing the lord Jesus. No doubt the drunks were making fun of him
as we see here. Look at verse 17 and hide not thy face from thy servant
for I am in trouble. Hear me speedily. Now, we know
that he his prayer was not answered. We already looked at that.
Hide not thy face from thy servant. Verse 18,
draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of mine enemies.
But God did hide his face. He
who is
light.
That that's that We're not even there yet. I'm kinda tipping my I'm kinda tipping my Showing my hand a little bit. But when we get to the darkness that fell three For three hours at the cross,
this is God who is light.
Hiding his face.
You say, well, isn't Jesus light? Yeah, Jesus is light, but in that moment,
he is darkness.
He is our darkness.
There's no light.
And so what was happening on the spiritual level
was demonstrated
and seen
in the physical world.
When it was the time of the full moon, which is the time when, if you know anything about astronomy,
when the full moon during the time of Passover, remember the beginning of the month,
of the lunar month is the new moon, halfway through that is the full moon, right, because the moon is approximately a one month cycle.
And so, the
beginning of the month is Nisan one, and Nisan fourteen
is when the Passover happens.
So, it's the full moon. So, the moon's here and the sun's on the other side here shining,
reflecting the light of the moon to the earth, right? In other words, it's impossible that this is solar eclipse.
Because the solar eclipse has to be like this,
but they're like this.
So, what was it? It was a supernatural
dimming, putting out the lights. This is God who is light
turning away.
He says,
hide not thy face from thy servant, and we're reminded again.
God the Father
did
hide His face.
The earth went dark for three hours.
The Father turned away
the cries of His Son.
Look at verse 20.
Reproach
hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I look for some to take pity, but there was none.
And for comforters, but I found
none.
They gave me also gall
for my meat and in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. We already looked at this but Matthew twenty seven thirty four, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall and when they had tea and tasted thereof, he would not drink. Now, in Mark, it actually says, they gave him wine mingled with myrrh. It's the same thing. It's the same substance and I I have some myrrh back in my office but I haven't tasted it yet. I'm gonna take, I'm gonna grind up a little bit and I'm gonna taste it and see if if it's bitter, if that's the bitter thing we're talking about here.
But don't think they gave Some of the commentaries I read as I've been studying through Matthew,
some of them said, well, they gave him this as kind of like a painkiller.
That is not true. And that's not what you see here. They gave it to him as mockery,
as mockery.
In other words, in verse 20, he says, I look for some to take pity,
but there was none.
In other words, here, he's thirsty. His blood's coming out. He's thirsty because that's what happens when you lose blood and so they mockingly give him something that's not going to quench his thirst and it tastes nasty too.
That is mock, mocking. That is ridicule.
This was not this offer of the vinegar mingled with gall is not an act of mercy but of mockery. They showed no pity. The lord got no pity from this world.
No pity. Verse 22,
let their table become a snare before them,
and that which should have been for their welfare,
let it become a trap.
Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loins continually to shake. Who is there? Look at verse 22, there, them,
their eyes be darkened, they see not. These are the persecutors. Who are we talking about here? Now we we could we could look at several persecutors, right? We could say, well, this is maybe the Romans.
We could say that this is maybe the Jews.
But who it what is the who what group is the primary
guilty party in the sufferings of Christ from a human perspective.
It was the Jewish people.
It was the Jewish people, without question.
That's who's that's who he's referring to here. And in fact, we know that because this verse is quoted in Romans 11 verse nine. It says this, and David saith,
let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back all the way. So actually, here, now think about the prophetic view here.
Here,
the lord is saying, the lord is is pronouncing a judgment upon those who persecuted him. Those who brought this suffering upon him, this imprecatory
part of the Psalm, right? You say, well, we shouldn't do that and I read I read a commentary earlier today and it said, well, this is not certainly the way Christians should pray. Well, did.
But see, this is not personal hatred.
This is judicial
righteousness,
if can understand the difference.
This is not personal animus, because we know the Lord prayed personally, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Yet,
they would be judged, in fact, judgment is pronounced.
So, the Jewish people are in mind in verse 22 and verse 23 and Romans 11 says, that because of their rejection of Christ,
their eyes have been darkened.
That's what Roman says.
That's why they don't see. And even their religion has become a snare to them
and has kept them from Christ.
Look at verse 25.
Let their
habitation be desolate. You see there,
the same there, and let none dwell in their tents.
In Acts chapter one, Peter quotes this. He says, Acts one verse 20, for it is written in the book of of the Psalms, let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and let his bishop another
take. But in this case, he's not referring to the Jews at large, he's referring to one specific Jew and who is that?
Judas Iscariot,
who is lumped together with the enemies of Christ.
Pronouncing his judgment.
As we come to the end look at verse 26.
For they
persecute him.
Who's the they?
They is the enemies of Christ,
specifically in this case the Jews, but more broadly the enemies of Christ.
Now let me, as we kinda circle back to the beginning,
why are they persecuting Him?
Is it because He has done them wrong?
No.
It is without a cause.
Why are they persecuting Him? Without a cause. He has harmed them not.
Notice,
for they persecute Him whom
thou,
God,
hast
smitten.
And they talk
to the grief
of those whom thou hast wounded. So, David think, David is talking to god.
So, you you what you see is the dual element of of Christ Christ's suffering.
From the perspective of man, he's innocent,
right?
And all the suffering that they're inflicting upon him is without a cause.
But from God's perspective,
he is guilty.
And God
himself,
that's what the Psalm says,
is smiting his son.
You have both happening. How
can Christ
be without sin
while simultaneously
be
smitten of God because of sin? How can that be? The only way that's possible is through
the miracle of Christ vicarious
his substitutionary
death, that our sin was laid upon one who was perfectly innocent. They, from a human perspective, they were punishing someone who never did wrong, but from a divine perspective,
he was being made sin for us and suffering as a result. And this is backed up by other scripture like this, Isaiah 53 verse four.
Surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we did him did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God
and afflicted.
Isaiah 53 verse 10.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, He
hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul, Jesus soul, an offering for sin.
He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the lord
shall prosper in his hand. You see that?
Ultimately,
we must always remember
that when our savior was on the cross,
the theme
of that story
was not a bunch of guys doing a bunch of bad things to someone without cause.
That's part.
But the grand theme of this story
is that
he who had no sin was bearing our sin and being smitten by God Himself
for us
so that God would not,
His justice would not demand
that you be smitten.
Let's pray.