Seeing Jesus in Psalm 69

 Psalm 69

MAIN POINT: A sinless Jesus suffered all the pain of sin for me (and you) while He lived and hung on the cross.

Need I remind you that I am looking for Jesus Christ in the Psalms? So it is obvious that through the ages Psalm 69 is considered a Messianic Psalm because of Matthew’s inclusion of the detail of Jesus twice being offered sour wine.

“But instead, they give me poison for food; they offer me sour wine for my thirst.” 

Psalm 69:21 NLT 

“ The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it”. ... “One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink.” 

Matthew 27:34, 48 NLT

Many who comment on this Psalm say that only some parts of it apply to Christ because when David talks about being a sinner, that obviously can not apply to Jesus who was perfect and did not sin.

I want to consider what Jesus did on the cross. 

1. Jesus suffered humiliation. David talks in Psalm 69 of  suffering terrible humiliation.

2. Jesus was rejected even by family and friends. David mentions family rejection.

3. Jesus was slandered by liars. David includes the enemy's lies  in his description of suffering.

4. Jesus is suffering for sin on the cross. Maybe not His own sin, but nonetheless He is suffering for our sin on the cross. So when David mentions his sin, Jesus will feel that experience of judgement, shame, failure and separation caused by sin, even if it is not His own sin.

I want to suggest to you that Jesus came to the point that he suffered, the fears, the filth, the penalty, the shame, the separation, the utter dispari that sin  causes and then death itself.

So I have no problem with Jesus saying all the words of David, not because I believe Jesus was a sinner, or that he did wrong, but he took on himself sin, He became judged for sin, he hung in humiliation bare naked before all, vulnerable and alone because He bore our sins.

[2Co 5:21 NLT] 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Under are more references to Christ’s work of substitutionary atonement on the cross, where Jesus suffered as a sinner the penalty of sin.

So I believe there comes a moment in Jesus’ experience on the cross where he is bearing all the sadness of sin. It would be normal then to say and think some of the things David says and thinks even verses 5-9,

[Psa 69:5-9 NLT] 5 O God, you know how foolish I am; my sins cannot be hidden from you. 6 Don't let those who trust in you be ashamed because of me, O Sovereign LORD of Heaven's Armies. Don't let me cause them to be humiliated, O God of Israel. 7 For I endure insults for your sake; humiliation is written all over my face. 8 Even my own brothers pretend they don't know me; they treat me like a stranger. 9 Passion for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

And Jesus didn’t just face this description of suffering while He hung on the cross but also in his life:

[Jhn 2:17 NLT] 17 Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: "Passion for God's house will consume me."

(Matthew 16:21, 17:22, Luke 9:22, 44, 18:31-34, 24:7)

I don’t want to underestimate the hardships Jesus faced willingly as he lived and then died. You can be sure Jesus faced at some time the pain and suffering from sin that you are facing.

And yet there is a difference between David’s words and Jesus words that must be highlighted:

“Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.”

Luke 23:34 NLT

Obviously Jesus is a bigger man than David. Obviously the perfect son of God was not flawed and Jesus practised what he preached:

“But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”

Matthew 5:44-45 NLT

Although I know Jesus suffered and bore the sin of all mankind, its penalty, judgement, death, shame and humiliation. He remained at all times meek, merciful and forgiving. He did not need to ask for vengeance, because he was bearing the penalty  and thus He was bearing the vengeance and judgement of all sinners. He did not need to ask for justice, He was giving it at that very moment.

Conclusion

I can see my saviour in the words of Psalm 69 afresh as I realise how he suffered for me but I can have hope that Jesus was not reduced to a sinful man and He did not have to cry out requiring justice because He was giving it. He took on himself all the pain and still loved the sinner to the end.

[Isa 53:4-5, 8 NASB20] 4 However, [it was] our sicknesses [that] He Himself bore, And our pains [that] He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, Struck down by God, and humiliated. 5 But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being [was laid] upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed. ... 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off from the land of the living For the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow [was due?]

[Rom 8:3 NASB20] 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God [did:] sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and [as an offering] for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

[1Jo 2:1-2 NASB20] 1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.

[Gal 3:13 NASB20] 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us--for it is written: "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE"--

[1Pe 3:18 NASB20] 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all [time, the] just for [the] unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

[Heb 9:28 NASB20] 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without [reference to] sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

 Handwritten Psalm 69