Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 69 – Psalm 70
The lxix. PSALM.
David in great distress prayes for speedy relief, bemoans himself and the wrongs he under-went for God, in whom yet he comforts himself, and falls again to earnest prayer for speedy relief, appeals to God for justice and vindication of his wrongs, being innocent and friendless: In the spirit of prophesie he curseth the wicked Iews, that crucified Christ in the persons of those that so cruelly and unjustly persecuted him, his type; wishing them such temporall and spirituall miseries, as have since befallen them. But prayes that God would remember to raise him up out of his distresses to be King of Israel, as Christ shall be raised from death, and the grave to be head over his Church, promises then to praise him for it, and promises himself the acceptance of his praises, and assures his few friends, Gods faithfull people that lived in expectancy of it, that it shall certainly be, both for their good, and the good of Gods Church in after times, And exhorts the world, and all creatures in it, to be in their kinds praisefull for this mercy of his Churches establishment and flourishing, for whose sake they have theirs.
A Psalm made by David, Psalm lxix. To the chief musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David.and set to Shoshannim, an instrument of six strings, and by him, committed to him that is most skilfull thereupon, for his care and ordering of it in the Quire.
1 O Lord,1SAve me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. its high time for thee to appear for me, I am brought to such a pinch, as that I must sink if thou dost not save, for the waters are as it were broken in at severall leeks round about the ship, and into my very cabin, so that I am about utterly to perish, if thou help not suddainly, for such are my miseries, and so is my life instantly endangered without thy present remedy.
2I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the flouds overflow me.2 I am implunged into manifold miseries, and sink deeper and deeper into them, as a man in mire, I can find no footing upon earth, all humane helps fail me, so that I am as a lost man, like one thats past wading, taken of my feet, and can find no bottom, the waters are as it were both above and below me, for I am in such a condition, as if I were swallowed up of the main sea amongst the billows, so that I must be saved by miracle.
3I am weary of my crying, my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.3 Thou, Lord, knowest how many, and what earnest prayers I have put up unto thee in the trouble of my soul, in so much, as by the exhausting my naturall moisture with continuall complaint, my tongue is tired, my throat sore, and my voice hoarse, and I have looked so long for thy promised deliverance, and wept so soar before the Lord for it, that both tears and sight begin to fail me.
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.4 I am a lone man and innocent, causelesly hated and unjustly persecuted to the death by the King and all the Kingdom, judged a capitall offendor, and mine estate confiscated by might not by right, and given as forfeited to those I never wronged one farthing, as if I were a fellon, bound to make restitution of what I never stole nor took away.
5O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.5 O God, thou knowest me, none better, that I am a sinner I confess it, its well enough known to thee that I am so, subject to, and guilty of the same aptitude to transgress as other men, yea, my particular sins that have and do spring from mine innate pravity, which are not a few, are all of them obvious to thee. But though I am not innocent as to thee, yet do I, and dare I make thee my judge as to others, whether I be guilty of these treasonable practises they lay to my charge, and condemn me for, yea, whether ever any such thing came into my thoughts.
6 Let not those,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. (O Lord, that hast power enough to do otherways) who humbly and dependingly live in faithfull expectation of the fulfilling thy gracious promises to thy Church, by my means and under my government be disappointed of their hopes, by my miscarrying through the power and rage of mine enemies; Let not them that are thy people and whose God thou art, and by reason of thy promise do hope, and heartily pray for better dayes to befall them, when thou shalt set me over them, be blasted in their hopes, and disheartned in their prayers by mine undoing: neither now, O Lord, let me be a stumbling-stone of thy peoples faith, nor in ages hereafter, to whom I shall appear upon record.
7 O Lord,7Because for thy sake I have born reproach; shame hath covered my face. thou knowest I never sought nor coveted the Kingdom from Saul, but it was thou that didst cast it upon me unlooked for or desired, annointing me to it when I was keeping my fathers sheep, and thought nothing less, but for this fact of thine, I am accused and condemned as a Traitour, and a proud aspiring person, which slanders (though innocent) yet shame me to think that I should be thus thought of, when thou, Lord, knowest its nothing so.
8 My nearest kinred,8I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an aliant unto my mothers children. mine own flesh and bloud, that lay in a belly with me emulate and censure me as bad as others, and think it is my pride and rashness that brings this trouble upon me, and them for my sake, whereupon they avoid me all they can.
9 For truly,9For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that Lord, such hath been my zeal for thy Church and people, the promoting the good and prosperity thereof, according as thou hast promised and designed I should, as that I am wholly taken up (as shall the Messiah) with the desire of it, not mine own self-seeking or interest, as I am falsely and slanderously reported, by those that indeed are in heart thine enemies, and wish and speak evil of me onelyonly for thy sake: as they shall of Christ who they strike at and wound through my sides, as they shall thee through his.
10When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.10 Let my behaviour be at never such a distance, to the designs they fasten upon me, let me walk never so unlike to such attempts, more saint, than either politician or souldier like, mourning for the sins, and lamenting the judgements of God upon the Kingdom, instead of coveting it for my sake; why, it was all one, this humbling my self, and fasting before the Lord, was judged to be done in hypocrisie and design.
11I made sack-cloth also my garment: and I became a proverb to them.11 I could not so demean my self, but whatsoever I did it was wrested to misprision, if they saw me in sack-cloth, they would point at me and say in derision, Behold the King.
12They that sit in the gate spake against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.12 It is not some, but all, of all sorts, that are thus bent against me, they that should be wiser, graver, and juster, and of better example, even the magistrats and men in office and judicature, have their invectives and jears at me, and much more the deboisheers and rabscalions in their cups and merry-meetings make sport with me, and scornfully abuse me.
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.13 After this sort do men demean themselves, but as for me I study not to reveng my self, or to return like for like: no, Lord, thou knowest mine application and appeal is to thee, and however I am so unacceptable to men, yet not to God; when all men put me from them, then can I betake my self to God in prayer and be welcome, he never refuses me: accordingly, O Lord, let me find thee now, for I am in the midest of a multitude of miseries, therefore in my behalf oppose against them the multitude of thy mercies, remember thy promises touching me, my deliverance and preservation, to fulfill them faithfully.
14 For though to my sense and outward appearance,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. according to the face of things in humane probability. I cannot scape this danger, yet my faith is not so extinct, but I know all things are possible to God, and therefore pray thee even for the greatness sake of my present affliction, to deliver me out of it, that I fall not into the hands of my cruel enemies, nor by them, but that thou wilt save me from drowning, that am as it were already so near it, that I have but this word to speak to thee, before I sink quite over head and ears irrecoverably.
15 Let not this torrent of afflictions overwhelm me,15Let not the water …loud overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. O thou that commandest the raging seas, much more land-storms, let me not be swallowed up of them, like a ship wracked in a Tempest; thou knowest into what a depth of miseries I am implunged, find a way out for me to escape, and let them not bring me to an utter and untimely end.
16 Let me not pour out my complaints in vain,16Hear me, O Lord, for thy loving kindness is good; turn unto me, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. nor in effectually open my case unto thee, but, Lord, consider what I say, hear me to purpose, grant me releif, let thy loving-kindness, which according to thy promise I know thou bearest me, manifest it self in gracious beneficence, for I am sure, thy love is not a vain but a beneficent love, thou art a benefactour to whom thou art a wel-willer; accordingly, good Lord, let me find the sweet effects of the earnings of thy bowells, and the tenderness of thy compassions towards me, which I know to be very great, in a happy and powerfull relief and release of me out of these miseries, according to my prayers.
17And hide not thy face from thy servant, for I am in trouble: here me speedily.17 And do not suffer me thus uncomfortably to remain under a cloud, without sence of thy favour, or experience of thy goodness, who am related to thee as near as man can be to God, for I am thy servant chosen by thee, and devoted to thee, and therefore under thy protection, as also because of my trouble, which as it is for thy sake, so it is great and my danger imminent, and so therefore must be (and I pray thee so it may be) thy help and succour.
18Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it; deliver me because of mine enemies.18 Thou seemest to be afar off, though thou art not so in reallity, for my dangers greaten upon me, and the nearer they approach my life, the farther (seemingly at least) art thou from it in compassion and providence, but, Lord, change the scene, come thou speedily to my rescue, let thine own goodness, and mine enemies ungratiousness, move thee to work my deliverance.
19Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.19 For thou, Lord, hast known mine innocency, and their injuries, how they have heaped up lies and disgraces upon me, the wrong they have done me, they are known to thee, and so are the doers of them, though they are so many I know them not all, yet thou dost, and both canst and wilt do me justice upon them.
20Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pitie, but there was none; & for comforters, but I found none.20 Who have so wronged and slandered me, that knowing mine own innocency, it cuts me to the very heart, and is a great grief unto me, and the more, for that I have none to take my part, for as some that know me to be innocent do against their own consciences traduce me, so others that believe so of me, their mouths for all that is stopt, and they dare not or will not speak a good word for me, but all men are against me, or as good, for none are for me, to shew any compassion to my wronged innocency, or to afford me any comfort and support in my misery.
21 Nay,21They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vineger to drink. instead of comforting me, those that I had need of, and applied my self unto, added affliction to affliction, in stead of affording me relief when I craved it, they fell upon me with all manner of bitterness and soure usage; wherein I am, as a member mysticall of Christs body the Church militant, so also a type of Christ personall, that shall be thus befriended on the Cross, comforted with no other cordials then gall and vineger, in the agonie of his soul.
22 Let the present plenty and prosperity of mine enemies,22Let their table become a s…are before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. whereupon they bear themselves so high, and which makes them so proud and merciless, be the cause of thine humbling them low enough, let abused mercies turn to curses, as shall Christ himself be to his unjust and inhumane persecutours though sent of God to better purpose amongst his people, proud of their priviledges which they abuse to their own destruction, that was intended for their salvation.
23 Let them that persecute me the type,23Let their eyes be darkned that they see not; and make their Ioi…es continually to shake. and Christ the Antitype, be ruined never to see good days, but live in perpetuall infelicity, anguish, and fear, let them neither know what tends to their good, nor have power to make use of it, but miserably and irrecoverably miscarry in horrour and darkness like hell it self.
24Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathfull ang…r take hold of them24 Blast them in every thing they put their hands unto, and make them a noted people by the terrible executions of thy wrathfull displeasure against them, and fearfull judgements upon them.
25Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents.25 Let the land spue out my persecutours and Christs, let them become as vagabonds upon the face of the earth exposed to destruction, that neither they nor their posterity may ever inherit thy favour, or inhabit this inheritance of thine and theirs any more, but be desolate.
26For they p…rsecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.26 For as they do by me, so will they do by Christ, because thou that art the sovereign God of all the earth, art pleased in righteousness to exercise and try thy servant with hardship, and to humble me before thou exalt me, these men instead of praying for, and pitying of me, they take advantage of thine hand upon me, and double and trebble my misery, yea, persecute me to the death, which thou never meantest, and because thou art pleased to wound me and cast me down, with a purpose to heal me and raise me up, like as Christ shall die and be buried to rise and live again, they to the grief both of his heart and mine, shall, and do blaspeme thee, scoffing at me in my misery, and him in his torments.
27Adde iniquitie to their iniquitie: and let them not come into righteousness.27 Do thou give them over unto their lawless and sinfull lusts, untill they heap up their iniquities that the measure of them be full, and let them never partake of pardoning grace, nor share in thy justifying or renewing righteousness.
28Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.28 Let them by their fearful sinnings, and thy fearful judgements appear and be known to be that which indeed they are, hypocrites and reprobates, none of thine elect, nor never let them be such, as are thus wicked enemies to thee and thy Christ, and persecutors of thy faithful Church and innocent people, let them be taken away from amongst them, and neither have the name of Israel named upon them here, nor be partakers of their divine and heavenly priviledges either here or hereafter.
29 But,29But I am poor, and sorrowfull: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. Lord, take notice into what a low and uncomfortable condition I am brought by my persecutors for thy sake, which though it be their doing, yet is it, I am sure, by thy permitting, let them not have their wills quite to overthrow me, but do thou that art faithful and able to deliver, bring to pass thy promised salvation, and that high dignitie of my being the Kingly type of the Messiah.
30 Then,30I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnifie him with thanksgiving. Lord, will I not forget to do my homage, and pay my tribute to thee from whom I am sure I must have my Kingdom, and of whom I will hold it, and will declare in the ears of all the people to the praise of thy free grace, thy choosing me for it, and bringing me to it, through such difficulties, and by such deliverances, all which I will repeat and register in Psalms and Songs enumerating them and thy power, grace, and merciemercy to me in them, and with my uttermost zeal and skill will thankfully exalt thee for thy goodness, illustrating the full demensions of it.
31 And as I promise praise and thanks to God,31This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock, that hath horns and hoofs. so I dare promise my self his acceptance of them spiritually, and faithfully offered up in the merits and mediation Christ, who is the kernell and scope of all legall sacrifices, which be they never so great and good, and exactly performed, are but shadows, and of no acceptance with God, saving as they are offered in spirit, and faith of him their Antitype.
32The humble shall see this and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.32 O the happiness and joy of that day not onelyonly to me, but to all the humble and faithfull expectants of it, like that of Christs, and doubt not but it will come to the reviving of you from out your fears and doubts, and the animation of all such as you are, in times to come, to seek the Lord as you have done, in hope of the like success and issue in greatest distress.
33For the Lord heareth the poore, and despiseth not his prisoners.33 For the Lord hath an ear, to hear the prayers of his poor afflicted people in all places and all ages, and how despicable so ever they may be in mens eyes, subject to all manner of injury and abuse, yet God is regardfull of them that suffer for his sake, and that most, when they are in the worst condition.
34Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.34 Let the heavens, the earth, and sea, and all the creatures that he hath given existence to in all these, let them I say be sensible of, and in their kind thankfull to him.
35For God will save Sion, and will build the Cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.35 For the good that God will do for his Church, which if he should cast off, it would be the dissolution of all things even the whole creation, but he of his grace will preserve Sion, the place of his worship, and save his people Israel all the Church he now hath, and not let them be ruinated, but will now make them flourish, and will so maintain and uphold them, and will never suffer his Church to cease from off the earth, but will preserve it, and all created Beings, for his Churches sake.
36The seed also of his servants shall inherit; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.36 There shall not be wanting a holy seed to inhabit this holy land, and to be a Church unto him, whom he will preserve and bless, and all things for their sakes; yea, for his elects sake, the whole world shall subsist.
The lxx. PSALM.
A Psalm made by David,Psalm lxx. To the chief musician A Psalm made by David, to bring to remembrance. and by him committed to the President of the Quire, for his ordering of it; the purport whereof, is to put God in mind of his piteous state, and his faith in him, thereby to gain relief.
THis whole Psalm consisting of five verses,1MAke hast, O God, to deliver me, make hast to help me, O Lord. is the same with the five last verses of the 40. Psalm;2Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soule: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion that desire my hurt. viz. the 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. verses;3Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame: that say, Aha, Aha. being a part of that Psalm here repeated upon the like occasion of distress,4Let all those that seek thee rejoyce, and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation, say continually, Let God be magnified. some few words onelyonly varying in the texts,5But I am poor and needy, make hast unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer, O Lord, make no tarrying. which being compared, serve the better to explain, and illustrate the sense.