8 A stranger I have been to my brother, And a foreigner to sons of my mother.
Among all mine adversaries I have been a reproach, And to my neighbours exceedingly, And a fear to mine acquaintances, Those seeing me without -- fled from me.
My lovers and my friends over-against my plague stand. And my neighbours afar off have stood.
And Eliab, his eldest brother, heareth when he speaketh unto the men, and the anger of Eliab burneth against David, and he saith, `Why `is' this -- thou hast come down! and to whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I have known thy pride, and the evil of thy heart -- for, to see the battle thou hast come down.'
My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me. Ceased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me, Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes. To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him. My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my `mother's' womb. Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me. Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.
Believe not in a friend, trust not in a leader, From her who is lying in thy bosom keep the openings of thy mouth. For a son is dishonouring a father, A daughter hath stood against her mother, A daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, The enemies of each `are' the men of his house.
`And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and father child, and children shall rise up against parents, and shall put them to death, and ye shall be hated by all because of my name, but he who hath endured to the end, he shall be saved.
And he who did deliver him up did give them a sign, saying, `Whomsoever I will kiss, it is he: lay hold on him;' and immediately, having come to Jesus, he said, `Hail, Rabbi,' and kissed him; and Jesus said to him, `Comrade, for what art thou present?' Then having come near, they laid hands on Jesus, and took hold on him.
but all this hath come to pass, that the Writings of the prophets may be fulfilled;' then all the disciples, having left him, fled.
And he denied before all, saying, `I have not known what thou sayest.' And he having gone forth to the porch, another female saw him, and saith to those there, `And this one was with Jesus of Nazareth;' and again did he deny with an oath -- `I have not known the man.' And after a little those standing near having come, said to Peter, `Truly thou also art of them, for even thy speech doth make thee manifest.' Then began he to anathematise, and to swear -- `I have not known the man;' and immediately did a cock crow,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 69
Commentary on Psalms 69 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 69
David penned this psalm when he was in affliction; and in it,
Now, in this, David was a type of Christ, and divers passages in this psalm are applied to Christ in the new Testament and are said to have their accomplishment in him (v. 4, 9, 21), and v. 22 refers to the enemies of Christ. So that (like the twenty-second psalm) it begins with the humiliation and ends with the exaltation of Christ, one branch of which was the destruction of the Jewish nation for persecuting him, which the imprecations here are predictions of. In singing this psalm we must have an eye to the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that followed, not forgetting the sufferings of Christians too, and the glory that shall follow them; for it may lead us to think of the ruin reserved for the persecutors and the rest reserved for the persecuted.
To the chief musician upon Shoshannim. A psalm of David.
Psa 69:1-12
In these verses David complains of his troubles, intermixing with those complaints some requests for relief.
Psa 69:13-21
David had been speaking before of the spiteful reproaches which his enemies cast upon him; here he adds, But, as for me, my prayer is unto thee. They spoke ill of him for his fasting and praying, and for that he was made the song of the drunkards; but, notwithstanding that, he resolves to continue praying. Note, Though we may be jeered for well-doing, we must never be jeered out of it. Those can bear but little for God, and their confessing his name before men, that cannot bear a scoff and a hard word rather than quit their duty. David's enemies were very abusive to him, but this was his comfort, that he had a God to go to, with whom he would lodge his cause. "They think to carry their cause by insolence and calumny; but I use other methods. Whatever they do, As for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord!' And it was in an acceptable time, not the less acceptable for being a time of affliction. God will not drive us from him, though it is need that drives us to him; nay, it is the more acceptable, because the misery and distress of God's people make them so much the more the objects of his pity: it is seasonable for him to help them when all other helps fail, and they are undone, and feel that they are undone, if he do not help them. We find this expression used concerning Christ. Isa. 49:8, In an acceptable time have I heard thee. Now observe,
Psa 69:22-29
These imprecations are not David's prayers against his enemies, but prophecies of the destruction of Christ's persecutors, especially the Jewish nation, which our Lord himself foretold with tears, and which was accomplished about forty years after the death of Christ. The first two verses of this paragraph are expressly applied to the judgments of God upon the unbelieving Jews by the apostle (Rom. 11:9, 10), and therefore the whole must look that way. The rejection of the Jews for rejecting Christ, as it was a signal instance of God's justice and an earnest of the vengeance which God will at last take on all that are obstinate in their infidelity, so it was, and continues to be, a convincing proof of the truth of the Christian religion. One great objection against it, at first, was, that it set aside the ceremonial law; but its doing so was effectually justified, and that objection removed, when God so remarkably set it aside by the utter destruction of the temple, and the sinking of those, with the Mosaic economy, that obstinately adhered to it in opposition to the gospel of Christ. Let us observe here,
Psa 69:30-36
The psalmist here, both as a type of Christ and as an example to Christians, concludes a psalm with holy joy and praise which he began with complaints and remonstrances of his griefs.