Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
We read Psalm 69, and it seems to be the lament of a bad man who deserves to be forsaken of God:
(1) He "sinks in deep mire" (vs. 2).
(2) "The floods overflow him" (vs. 2)
(3) He is "weary with his crying" (vs. 3).
(4) Everybody "hates him" (vs. 4).
(5) He says that the Lord "knows his foolishness" (vs. 5).
(6) He says his "sins are not hidden from" the Lord (vs. 5).
(7) "Shame has covered [his] face" (vs. 7).
(8) He has "become a stranger to [his] brothers" (vs. 8).
(9) He is "the song of the drunkards" (vs. 12).
(10) He expresses the horror of someone about to be punished with everlasting retribution (vss. 13-15).
(11) He knows "reproach, ... shame, ... and dishonor" (vs. 19).
Then suddenly you are shocked: all this is Christ speaking! He is describing how "they gave Me gall for My food, and for My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink" (vs. 21). He "pours" out a holy "indignation" on those who have "persecuted" and "put to grief" the Savior of the world (vss. 24-26). The language fits the end of Judas Iscariot and the chief priests (vs. 28). There is a divine justice: those who have committed the crime of the ages, of all eternity, must bear their guilt. "The humble shall see this and be glad; and you who seek God, your hearts shall live. For the Lord hears the poor, and does not despise His prisoners" (vss. 32, 33).
"God will save" His church, "Zion," and will "[re]build" it (vs. 35). Those who dwell in it forever are those who "love His name" (vs. 36). In other words, don't leave the church; and don't abandon your confidence in the triumph of the Lord's great "Day of Atonement."
In Psalm 69 we witness firsthand how Christ was "made ... who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). "Be reconciled to God" (vs. 20).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 15, 2007.
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