Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.
The verse is a sufferer's prayer laying open before God a heart filled with reproach and bitter shame and dishonor, with all his adversaries known to God as they mock his sorrow and tears. It belongs to one of the most precious psalms, composed for temple worship and voicing lamentation and prayer, whose burden relates first to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, and is to be read with His betrayal, condemnation and crucifixion alongside Psalms 22 and 31 where its words find literal fulfillment. It describes what Christ passed through when the sins of the world rested upon Him, revealing His inner feeling in His deepest soul as reproach broke His heart, yet He bore the world's burdens in human flesh without impatience or complaint and is therefore able to bear human burdens and strengthen believers to endure with patience and joy. As part of a psalm prophetic of His suffering, it assures His children that God knows their trials and that His triumph is a triumph they may share. Not every verse of the psalm applies to Christ, since to press the whole as His literal history would make Him a sinner, and others teach it is simply David's record of being hated without cause or zeal for the Lord's house eating him up, which later histories only appropriate and parallel.
Setting and Prophetic Meaning
Psalm 69 stands among the one hundred and fifty praises set to music as the hymn book of the Jews arranged for temple service, composed over a thousand years from Moses to the close of the captivity, voicing the heart's emotion in lamentation, prayer, praise and thanksgiving as a mirror of the faith, love and hope of the true Israelite, and as one of the most precious psalms it is prophetic of Christ. The verse is the sufferer's prayer telling God that reproach and bitter shame have filled his aching heart, that none who bears a brother's name fulfills a brother's part toward him, and that his adversaries are all before God while they reproach him in his deep sorrow and trembling fear and mock his weeping tears. The psalm portrays conditions and experiences in the life of Jesus, the greater King foreshadowed by David, with its burden relating primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, portions of it being quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, though not every verse applies to Christ.
The psalm refers to Christ and is to be read in connection with his betrayal, condemnation and crucifixion, and alongside Psalms 22 and 31 concerning his suffering, its prophecies of reproach, shame, dishonor and adversaries known to God finding literal fulfillment in what the Saviour passed through. It is predictive and typifies tribulation coming upon the enemies of God's church, its words not being simply an expression of personal revenge.
Although the New Testament expressly applies the psalm literally to Christ, its whole cannot be pressed as literal history of him, since that would make him a sinner, for a prophecy may apply partly to what is immediately before the reader and partly to what is remote, and use of one text in an accommodated sense does not make the whole prophecy accommodated, nor does literal force in one part make every part literal. Those who held otherwise taught that Psalm 69 is not a prediction but a simple record of David's experience of reproach, shame, dishonor and adversaries before God, applying no more to Jesus than to anyone else in the present day who happens to be hated without a cause and whose history is tangent to David's in certain points. Those who held the other related position taught that David stands in reproach, shame and dishonor with all his adversaries before God while zeal for the Lord's house eats him up as he takes upon himself the reproaches of those who reproach the Lord, and that other use of those words from parallel individual histories is an appropriated quotation, not fulfillment of a prediction in the same sense, though both may be called fulfillment of Scripture.
Christ's Suffering and Assurance
The verse describes Christ's experience when the sins of the world rested upon him, when he endured reproach and shame and dishonor while his adversaries were all known to God. It belongs to a prophetic picture of his inner experience, revealing how he felt in his deepest soul during his struggles with the enemy, as one who knew reproach and shame and dishonor and faced his adversaries in his suffering. It presents him as knowing and bearing that reproach and shame and dishonor until reproach broke his heart, yet bearing the world's burdens in human flesh without impatience or complaint, and therefore able to bear human burdens and to strengthen believers to endure with patience and joy.
God knows the reproach and shame and dishonor and adversaries faced by the speaker, and as part of a psalm prophetic of Christ's suffering the verse assures his children that God knows their trials and that his triumph is a triumph they may share. Many a Christian whose history runs parallel to David's may take upon himself, as David did when zeal for the Lord's house ate him up, the reproaches of those who reproach the Lord. That taking up of the words from parallel individual histories is an appropriated quotation, not fulfillment of a prediction in the same sense, though both may be called fulfillment of Scripture.
The verse is a sufferer's prayer laying open before God a heart filled with reproach and bitter shame and dishonor, with all his adversaries known to God as they mock his sorrow and tears. It belongs to one of the most precious psalms, composed for temple worship and voicing lamentation and prayer, whose burden relates first to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, and is to be read with His betrayal, condemnation and crucifixion alongside Psalms 22 and 31 where its words find literal fulfillment. It describes what Christ passed through when the sins of the world rested upon Him, revealing His inner feeling in His deepest soul as reproach broke His heart, yet He bore the world's burdens in human flesh without impatience or complaint and is therefore able to bear human burdens and strengthen believers to endure with patience and joy. As part of a psalm prophetic of His suffering, it assures His children that God knows their trials and that His triumph is a triumph they may share. Not every verse of the psalm applies to Christ, since to press the whole as His literal history would make Him a sinner, and others teach it is simply David's record of being hated without cause or zeal for the Lord's house eating him up, which later histories only appropriate and parallel.
Setting and Prophetic Meaning
Psalm 69 stands among the one hundred and fifty praises set to music as the hymn book of the Jews arranged for temple service, composed over a thousand years from Moses to the close of the captivity, voicing the heart's emotion in lamentation, prayer, praise and thanksgiving as a mirror of the faith, love and hope of the true Israelite, and as one of the most precious psalms it is prophetic of Christ. The verse is the sufferer's prayer telling God that reproach and bitter shame have filled his aching heart, that none who bears a brother's name fulfills a brother's part toward him, and that his adversaries are all before God while they reproach him in his deep sorrow and trembling fear and mock his weeping tears. The psalm portrays conditions and experiences in the life of Jesus, the greater King foreshadowed by David, with its burden relating primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, portions of it being quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, though not every verse applies to Christ.
The psalm refers to Christ and is to be read in connection with his betrayal, condemnation and crucifixion, and alongside Psalms 22 and 31 concerning his suffering, its prophecies of reproach, shame, dishonor and adversaries known to God finding literal fulfillment in what the Saviour passed through. It is predictive and typifies tribulation coming upon the enemies of God's church, its words not being simply an expression of personal revenge.
Although the New Testament expressly applies the psalm literally to Christ, its whole cannot be pressed as literal history of him, since that would make him a sinner, for a prophecy may apply partly to what is immediately before the reader and partly to what is remote, and use of one text in an accommodated sense does not make the whole prophecy accommodated, nor does literal force in one part make every part literal. Those who held otherwise taught that Psalm 69 is not a prediction but a simple record of David's experience of reproach, shame, dishonor and adversaries before God, applying no more to Jesus than to anyone else in the present day who happens to be hated without a cause and whose history is tangent to David's in certain points. Those who held the other related position taught that David stands in reproach, shame and dishonor with all his adversaries before God while zeal for the Lord's house eats him up as he takes upon himself the reproaches of those who reproach the Lord, and that other use of those words from parallel individual histories is an appropriated quotation, not fulfillment of a prediction in the same sense, though both may be called fulfillment of Scripture.
Christ's Suffering and Assurance
The verse describes Christ's experience when the sins of the world rested upon him, when he endured reproach and shame and dishonor while his adversaries were all known to God. It belongs to a prophetic picture of his inner experience, revealing how he felt in his deepest soul during his struggles with the enemy, as one who knew reproach and shame and dishonor and faced his adversaries in his suffering. It presents him as knowing and bearing that reproach and shame and dishonor until reproach broke his heart, yet bearing the world's burdens in human flesh without impatience or complaint, and therefore able to bear human burdens and to strengthen believers to endure with patience and joy.
God knows the reproach and shame and dishonor and adversaries faced by the speaker, and as part of a psalm prophetic of Christ's suffering the verse assures his children that God knows their trials and that his triumph is a triumph they may share. Many a Christian whose history runs parallel to David's may take upon himself, as David did when zeal for the Lord's house ate him up, the reproaches of those who reproach the Lord. That taking up of the words from parallel individual histories is an appropriated quotation, not fulfillment of a prediction in the same sense, though both may be called fulfillment of Scripture.