March 11, 2011 Psalm 69
There can be a danger in interpreting the Scriptures to try and find a hidden meaning under every word. There are some who claim that by counting the Hebrew letters that by using a special code it spells out English words and warnings; and by buying their book you too can have the code! It leads to all sorts of fanciful and wild interpretations that lead people to do some pretty crazy and foolish things.
The Scriptures weren’t written that way. There are some things that are more difficult to understand than others and need to be explained. This is supposed to be done by using other clear Scriptural references to the visions to explain what God’s Word says. But the overall message is meant to be quite simple and straight forward; written in normal language that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out and interpret. When someone comes up with some seemingly strange explanation that doesn’t fit with any other word of Scriptures, you know that it’s wrong.
The Psalms contain language that has simple language and yet it also does take some interpreting; explanations which are found in other Scriptures. What we see in the Psalms of David is that he was not always only talking about HIMSELF. Some of them are actually referring specifically to Christ, while some others are referring to both David and the Christ. Psalm 22 is one of those instances where it quotes the exact words of Christ from the cross; referring specifically and only to Christ.
This is one of those Psalms that comes under the debate, “Who is David talking about?” The Lutheran Study Bible recently put out by the Missouri Synod takes this Psalm to be a psalm of David about David, with verses that are quoted in the New Testament and applied to Christ. Yet other commentators say that this Psalm reflects the actual words of Christ; referring to His work of redemption and reflecting His emotions and thoughts in prayer. I am going to look at it from this perspective and see how it shows -
The Restoration of Christ
I. Was not welcomed by humanity
In vs. 4 the Psalm says, “I am forced to restore what I did not steal.” Humanity stole from the Tree that God told us not to take from. In trying to take a knowledge that didn’t belong to them, the devil also stole away their own righteousness and holiness. The devil in fact stole us away from God and became our spiritual slave master. Adam and Eve also stole away from their children and themselves the ability to see and believe that God is good and gracious.
If we look at this from a Jesus perspective, you can see that He was called on to restore perfection and holiness to a world of sinful humans. He also came to restore our relationship with Himself. The one argument could be that Jesus wasn’t “forced” to do it. He volunteered for it. Yet one could say that it was His own justice and love voluntarily “forced” Him to do something that nobody would volunteer for otherwise. It was not as if Jesus enjoyed being beaten, whipped and crucified.
The prayer of Psalm 69 reflects the difficulties of the Messiah that He had while doing what He didn’t have to do.
I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn; when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me. Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards. (Psalm 69:7-12)
Imagine if your child wet his bed and you went in his room to take his sheets off and clean up his mess so he would have a clean bed to sleep in. While you were proceeding to do so he kicked you in the rear end and slapped you in the head. He also then said, “What are you doing? I don’t need my bed cleaned! I like sleeping in urine. You want to clean it up? Well then, get going slave woman. Hurry up.” It wouldn’t take long for you to get angry at him and tell him to clean up his own mess.
Isn’t this a picture of what humanity did to Christ? When Jesus cleaned out the temple, the leaders of the Jews only became angry with Him and questioned His authority. They ridiculed Him for His timing when He healed the sick and questioned His authority when He forgave the sinners and ate with them. Not being convinced that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus’ own brothers taunted Him to go to Jerusalem before His time to reveal his miracles. (John 7) When Jesus finally got to the cross, the spiritual leaders of Jerusalem only made fun of Him and taunted Him to come down. When He was thirsty they gave Him a sour tasting gall, just as the Psalm predicted. If anything, they should have been thanking Him and making His journey there as easy as possible. They should have been thanking Him from the cross instead of mocking Him.
This Psalm is still being fulfilled today. In a comedy show George Carlin openly mocked Christianity. He said,
When it comes to believing in God. . . I really tried. I really really tried. I tried to believe that there is a God who created each of us in His own image and likeness, loves us very much and keeps a close eye on things. But the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, corruption . . . . If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. Results like this do not belong on the resume of a Supreme Being. . . . If there is a God most reasonable people would have to agree he’s at least incompetent and maybe, just maybe, doesn’t care.
I decided to look around for something else to worship; something I could really count on. Overnight I became a sun worshiper. First of all, I can see the sun. (Unlike some other gods I could mention.) If I can see it - it helps the credibility. It gives me everything I need; heat, light, food, flowers in the park, reflections on the lake, an occasional skin cancer . . . but hey, at least there are no crucifixions. There’s no mystery, no miracles, no pageantry, no one asks for money, no songs to learn and we don’t have a special building where we all gather once a week to compare clothing.
The BEST thing about the sun is that it never tells me unworthy. Doesn’t tell me I’m a bad person who needs to be saved; hasn’t said an unkind word; treats me fine. So I worship the sun.
This is a very clear example of someone who openly mocks the very concepts of Christianity. He hates the very concept of why Jesus would go to the cross in the first place. As the people drank their drinks and listened to George they laughed and laughed and laughed; they concurred. With His eternal ears, Jesus heard them. The mocking continues. Sinners continue to mock Him more and more blatantly for His greatest gift.
II. Is either believed or rejected
So the prayer says in vs. 5, “You know my folly, O God; my guilt is not hidden from you.” At first blush you might read this and again say, “Jesus didn’t have any FOLLY or guilt. This can’t be his prayer.” Yet what does Paul call the cross? He says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Only God truly understood the Folly of the cross and the reason for the cross. Only God knew the true source of Jesus’ guilt; it was our guilt. That guilt was not hidden from God. He knew who sinned and He knew what had to be done with it. So while the rest of Jesus’ brothers were mocking Jesus for being on the cross, Jesus knew that the Father understood why He was there. It was not hidden from Him. To God, this made perfect sense; this was the noble and the gracious thing to do for sinners; even though they mocked the concept and made fun of it. That’s all that really mattered to Jesus. Even if his mother and his brothers and the disciples didn’t get it, God did. This would have been of great comfort to Jesus; to know that the Father understood exactly what Jesus was doing and why He was doing it. 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains that, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus didn’t go to the cross for Himself. He didn’t only do it because it was the right thing for Him to do. He did it for sinners. Salvation comes only through faith; and Jesus wants people to believe and to hope in God’s love and mercy. He doesn’t want them to despair or thing that just because He is dying that God is actually dead. This is the temptation that we have in seeing Jesus on the cross and in our own suffering; to despair of God’s love or God’s plan.
So the Psalm also contains a prayer. Psalm 69:6 says, “May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the LORD Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel.” This prayer makes perfect sense. Jesus was praying that those who had trusted in the LORD and were seeking salvation would not stumble at Him; that they would believe in Him as their Savior; foolish as He looked to be. He prayed that they would be enabled to see beyond the weakness and the death; to see that within that weakness and death the sins of the world were being paid for.
Many did not see it because they didn’t want to see it. They only wanted Jesus to die so they could keep their positions of authority. When Jesus died, they saw nothing but an imposter getting what he deserved. So they laughed at him. They rejoiced in his death. They went home and ate and drank, even after the darkness and the earthquake and even after the resurrection. All they managed to do was harden themselves all the more, paying the guards to lie about what Jesus had done. The Psalm reflects a prayer for them as well.
The prayer almost seems to be the exact opposite of what Jesus prayed from the cross. Yet who was Jesus praying for from the cross? He was praying for those who were only following the crowd, for those who had not hardened their hearts to the Messiah. He was praying for those who still were open to the Gospel. This is a prayer for those who had completely shut their hearts to Jesus being the Christ; to those who were completely harden themselves to any hope of thought of needing a Savior. This is what this prayer is about –
May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous. (22-28)
Peter later used this prayer in reference to Judas, (Acts 1) who had ultimately done what he knew he shouldn’t have done and rejected the Gospel. God’s Word is clear. “Whoever does not believe will be damned.” We think as if God is crying and mourning over those who have hardened their hearts. But when their will has become hardened, and God’s judgment has set, He does not mourn over His justice. When Samuel continued to mourn after Saul after his death, God told him to stop it. What was done was done. Saul made his choices and earned his fate. So had those who had seen Jesus’ miracles and yet chose to put Him to death anyway. For those who knew better and who had openly rejected Him, there was no mercy left. They would be blotted out of the book of life. They would not be listed with the righteous. God’s will then resorts to giving them what they wanted.
This is the natural opposite of the Gospel. God says, “Here is my Christ. He has died for the world, including you. He has also risen from the dead. It is yours for free. You need it. Believe it and be saved. Reject it and be damned.” It is not rocket science. It is the simple truth. It is the way of salvation; no more and no less. You want to call it foolishness and make fun of it? You want to make fun of Christians who believe such things? You want to condemn them as haters? Fine. Don’t blame God when you are then blamed for your own words and actions on Judgment Day. As for me and my house, we belong to the Lord. We will thank God for His prayer being answered, that we do not stumble at the message of the cross.
III. Was prayed for by Jesus
This seems to give us a harsh picture of Christ. But what we also see in this Psalm is a humble Christ; a needy Christ; a tender Christ; a faithful Christ. Jesus was in a position of weakness on the cross. He was in a position of great need. He had no one else to turn to from the cross. All of his countrymen and the spiritual leaders had turned against him. The people followed THEIR lead. The women did nothing more than sit there and cry for Him. In His voluntary position He could do nothing but die. How would He go through hell and live to tell the tale? The words of this Psalm open our minds to the neediness of the humble Christ; how He had to rely only on the mercy of His loving Father to rescue Him from His precarious position.
But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. (vs. 13)
I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me. (vs. 29)
It is an amazing slap in the face of God how we often look at Him. When we go through sickness and despair we treat God like this Person who has never experienced desperation. We think of Jesus as this Person who was a cold stoic who never felt any trepidation in life. Who are we kidding? Look at the Garden of Gethsemane. Listen to His words from the cross! Hear the words of this Psalm! How else could Jesus have felt when His own Father abandoned Him on the cross? He had no one else to turn to! What more desperation could there be when He didn’t just THINK that God deserted Him. He KNEW and FELT for sure that God had deserted Him! Yet EVEN in the worst desperation of knowing that His Father had deserted him, HE STILL prayed to the Father. He asked God to save Him not from death, but through death; through the resurrection from the dead. Jesus prayed for His own restoration.
Without His restoration, we would have no restoration. Jesus was not only praying this for a narcissistic reason to save His own skin. He was doing it to save our skin. The final words of this song again reflect the fact that God always had in mind HIS CREATION in doing all of this. He wanted to free us and His world from His own condemnation on it.
The poor will see and be glad— you who seek God, may your hearts live! The LORD hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them, for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it; the children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there. (32-36)
Isn’t this the most wonderful love of all? While Jesus is going through the worst hell you could imagine, He has in mind the heaven of His beloved creatures. He wanted the needy and the poor of heart to have hope and salvation. God can’t wait to see heaven and earth praise Him and rejoice at the resurrection of the dead and the recreation of His fallen creation. He can’t wait to resettle His believers in a new heaven and earth. His prayer for restoration reflects His ardent love of His creation and His desire for it’s restoration; for YOUR restoration.
“Interpretation” is a tricky thing. We live in a world that believes five different people can translate the same thing in five different ways; and somehow ALL of them can be right in their own way! Five people can look at a frog and call it five different animals. That is completely illogical, but that’s what they believe.
There are many who look at this Psalm and see nothing but David complaining about having to return something he didn’t steal. They refuse to see Christ in anything throughout the Old Testament! What a sad and empty way to see and interpret the Scriptures. Throughout the New Testament the apostles see this Psalm describing what happened to Christ.
Jesus Himself said that all of God’s Word testifies of Him. This is God’s own “interpretation.” There is no fanciful interpretation in seeing Christ here. These words reflect the passionate heart of our God to see the salvation of the world. May this restore to you the joy of your salvation through faith in Christ. Amen.
