Psalms 69

Save me, God. The water has risen up to my neck.

1Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.

NoteDeep water and drowning are the standard Hebrew images for danger that has gone past a person's power to survive; the picture is not a literal flood. The word rendered "neck" (the King James has "soul") is the Hebrew word for the throat or the life-breath, so the line means the water has reached the point where the next breath is impossible.

2I am sinking in deep mud, and there is nothing solid to stand on. I have come into deep water, and the flood is washing over me.

2I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

3I am worn out from calling for help. My throat is dry. My eyes are failing as I keep watching for my God.

3I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

4The people who hate me for no reason are more than the hairs on my head. Those who want to destroy me are strong, and they are my enemies for no good reason. I had to pay back things I never stole.

4They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.

NoteThe last line describes a legal penalty: he is forced to make restitution for property he never took. Israelite law required a thief to repay what he had stolen, sometimes several times over, so to "pay back what you never stole" is to be treated in public as a convicted thief.

5God, you know the foolish things I have done. My guilt is not hidden from you.

5O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

Note"Foolishness" here translates a Hebrew word for moral wrongdoing, the willful stupidity of doing wrong, not a lack of intelligence. The psalm makes no attempt to square this admission with the claim in verse 4 that his enemies hate him without cause; both stand side by side.

6Lord GOD, leader of heaven's armies, do not let those who put their hope in you be shamed because of me. God of Israel, do not let those who look for you be disgraced because of me.

6Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.

Note"Hosts" is an old word for armies, so the title means something like "commander of the heavenly armies." In this line the King James prints two different words: "Lord" is the ordinary Hebrew word for master, while "GOD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud. Elsewhere in the psalm that same name is printed "LORD" in capitals.

7It is for you that I have put up with insults. Shame has covered my face.

7Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

8I have become a stranger to my own brothers, a foreigner to my own mother's sons.

8I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.

NoteIn a household where a man might have several wives, "my mother's sons" meant full brothers, the closest family a person had. Saying he is a foreigner to them means the estrangement reaches the innermost circle of his kin, not just distant relatives.

9My deep devotion to your house has eaten me up, and the insults of people who insult you have landed on me.

9For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

Note"Your house" means the temple in Jerusalem, God's household in the sense of a king's residence. The verb translated "eaten me up" means burned up or consumed, the way fire consumes fuel.

10When I cried and went without food to humble myself, people used it against me.

10When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.

NoteGoing without food was a public act of grief or self-humbling, often accompanied by visible signs so that others knew what was happening. The complaint is that neighbors read this public display as evidence against him rather than as devotion.

11When I wore rough sackcloth as my clothing, I became a joke to them.

11I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.

NoteSackcloth was coarse, dark cloth woven from goat hair, the material of grain sacks, worn next to the skin as a sign of mourning or distress. It was deliberately uncomfortable and unmistakable, so wearing it announced a person's grief to everyone who saw him.

12The men who sit at the city gate talk against me, and drunks make up songs about me.

12They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.

NoteThe open space just inside a city gate was where elders heard legal cases, where business was settled and where public opinion was formed. "Those who sit in the gate" are therefore the respectable decision-makers of the town. The verse pairs them with drunks to say that he is talked about at both ends of society at once.

13But I pray to you, LORD, at a time when you will accept me. God, in your great mercy, answer me with your sure saving help.

13But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

Note"A time when you will accept me" translates a phrase meaning a season of favor, the moment when a petitioner is received rather than turned away, as a subject waits for the hour when a king is willing to hear requests.

14Pull me out of the mud, and do not let me sink. Rescue me from the people who hate me, and out of the deep water.

14Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

15Do not let the flood wash over me. Do not let the deep water swallow me. Do not let the pit close its mouth over me.

15Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

Note"The pit" is a standing Hebrew term for the grave and the realm of the dead. It is pictured here as a creature with a mouth that closes over its prey, and once shut it does not open again.

16Answer me, LORD, because your faithful love is good. Turn toward me, because your mercy is so great.

16Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

Note"Faithful love" translates the Hebrew word hesed, which covers loyalty, kindness and steady commitment together, the sort of dependable good will owed within a lasting relationship rather than a passing feeling.

17Do not hide your face from me, your servant. I am in trouble. Answer me quickly.

17And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.

NoteTo "hide the face" is court language. A king who turned his face away from a petitioner was refusing to acknowledge him; a face turned toward someone signaled attention and favor.

18Come close to me and buy me back. Set me free because of my enemies.

18Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

Note"Set me free" and "buy me back" translate two legal terms for rescue by payment. One is the duty of the nearest male relative, who was expected to buy a family member out of slavery or debt and to recover lost family property; the other is the price paid to release a captive. The speaker is asking God to act as that relative.

19You know how I am insulted, shamed, and disgraced. You see every one of my enemies.

19Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.

20The insults have broken my heart, and I am crushed with sadness. I looked for someone to feel sorry for me, but there was no one. I looked for someone to comfort me, but I found no one.

20Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

21They put bitter poison in my food, and when I was thirsty they gave me sour wine to drink.

21They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Note"Gall" refers to a bitter, poisonous plant, used as a byword for anything foul-tasting. The "vinegar" is sour wine, the cheap drink of laborers and soldiers, thin enough to be worthless for real thirst. Food and drink were what a host owed a guest, so poisoning them is a deliberate reversal of hospitality.

22Let the table where they eat become a trap for them. Let the very thing meant for their good become a snare.

22Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

NoteSharing a table meant safety and welcome; a guest at your table was under your protection. The curse asks that the one place a person should be safest turn into the ambush. Verses 22 through 28 are a formal curse, a recognized kind of prayer in which the speaker hands his case over to God rather than taking revenge himself.

23Let their eyes go dark so they cannot see, and make their backs bend and shake without stopping.

23Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.

NoteThe Hebrew of the second line refers to the loins or hips, the seat of a person's physical strength. Backs bent and shaking is a picture of strength failing, whether from terror, illness or the stagger of someone carrying too much weight.

24Pour out your anger on them, and let your burning anger catch up with them.

24Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

25Let the place where they live be left empty. Let no one live in their tents.

25Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.

Note"Tents" is used for dwellings in general, a survival from Israel's nomadic past. An empty settlement with no one left to live in it was the standard picture of a family line wiped out.

26They chase down the man you have already struck, and they talk about the pain of the ones you have wounded.

26For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

27Charge them with wrong on top of wrong. Do not let them share in your goodness.

27Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

Note"Your goodness" here translates the word for righteousness, which in this kind of prayer means God's action in setting a case right, the verdict of acquittal and the rescue that follows. The request is that these people be left outside that verdict.

28Let their names be wiped out of the book of the living. Do not let them be listed with those who do what is right.

28Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

NoteThe "book of the living" pictures the register a city kept of its living citizens; a person's name was struck off it when he died. To be blotted out of it is to be removed from the roll of the living community.

29But I am poor and full of sorrow. God, let your saving help lift me up to a safe place.

29But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

30I will praise God's name with a song, and I will honor him by thanking him.

30I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

31That will please the LORD more than giving him an ox, more than a full-grown bull with horns and hooves.

31This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

NoteCattle were the most expensive offering an Israelite could bring to the temple. "Horns and hooves" specifies a fully grown, unblemished animal of the kind the law required, the description marks it as the costliest possible gift, which makes the comparison with a song sharper.

32People who have been brought low will see it and be glad. You who look for God, may your hearts come alive again.

32The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.

33The LORD listens to people in need, and he does not look down on his own people who are locked up.

33For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.

Note"Locked up" translates a word for prisoners or captives, which covered both those held in confinement and those carried off as spoils of war. It could apply to a debtor seized by a creditor as easily as to a population deported by an enemy.

34Let the heavens and the earth praise him, and the seas, and every creature that moves in them.

34Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.

35God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah, so his people can live there and own the land.

35For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.

NoteZion was originally the fortified hill in Jerusalem; the name came to stand for the whole city and its people. Judah was the southern Israelite kingdom, with Jerusalem as its capital. Talk of rebuilding its ruined cities suggests a time of national disaster or exile, which is why many readers think these closing verses were added to an older prayer.

36The children of his servants will receive it, and those who love his name will make their home there.

36The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.