Psalms 69:3-9 “Turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies” – Part 2

Psa 69:3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Psa 69:4 They 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.
Psa 69:5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
Psa 69:6 Let 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.
Psa 69:7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.
Psa 69:8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.
Psa 69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

God’s elect are given to cry out to God “turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies” a statement that is uttered when we are at our wits’ end (Psa 107:28-30) and one that brings us to our “desired haven”, which is Christ and His body.

Last week we talked a little bit about how the old covenant typifies the old carnal nature of man that must become something new. God patiently forms and describes this new creation being formed as an act of mercy (Rom 11:32). He alone can change our old hearts to become a new heart of flesh (Eze 36:26), being formed in the new covenant relationship that is being given to few to partake of in this age (Mat 22:14).

God’s tender mercies are seen throughout this process of becoming a new creation with a new heart, and we look to the word of God both the old and new covenant to be encouraged by the witness and promises being given.

2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

His sovereignty and ongoing promise of salvation expressed in his word are profitable (2Ti 3:16), and that salvation spoken of is especially but not exclusively (1Ti 4:10) unto those whose eyes are being open to see the pillar of light and darkness that God has formed for our growth as we learn to discern good and evil through the trials He prepares for us.

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

Heb 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Heb 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
Heb 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 10:18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

The types and shadows of the old and new covenants are written for our admonition upon whom the end of the ages have come (1Co 10:11), and they show us that God has always been wakeful over his word and creation which is for our sakes (Jer 1:12, 2Co 4:15).

He uses the physical creation to make manifest the truths of His plan to those who are given to see the mysteries (Col 1:27) of the ‘is, was and will be’ mind of Christ that reveal the spiritual plan and purpose of God through the physical creation (Rom 1:18-20).

When Christ tells us he is come to reveal the Father, it is not just by his words that he is doing this but by the creation that Christ has spoken into existence (Psa 33:9, Heb 11:3, Joh 1:1-5) by the word of God, with God, in the Father (Mat 11:27, Joh 5:43, Joh 14:11, Joh 14:20).

The division of light from darkness (Gen 1:4), the dividing of waters (Gen 1:7), the Isles of the Gentiles divided in their land of (Gen 10:4-5), the new and old wine of the new covenant (Mat 9:17) are just a few examples that speak to the process needed to divide or put off flesh so that twain can become one as God divides and puts back together that which he has divided in a way that is pleasing to him and profitable for us (Ecc 3:3-11).

Dividing and putting together or breaking and binding is demonstrated in type and shadow for us in the history of Israel and Judah as well (1Ki 11:31-40, 1Ki 12:15). Christ and His body is the reality that all these stories point to as the one bread and one spirit which the body of Christ becomes through Christ who is typified by Judah and the body of Christ being Israel in type (Gal 6:16, Rom 4:25).

We are being prepared by our loving Father to be one ‘house of bread’ (Bethlehem) for the nations, and one spirit (Eph 4:4) that will wash the unwashed masses who have yet to come to those living waters that have temporarily been taken away from the world (Isa 1:3).

God is the one who allows for the division in the heart of man that is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9) and easy to divide and sift without Christ on the throne of our hearts (Luk 22:31, Psa 127:1).

Man and woman have a natural enmity against each other as scripture declares (Gen 3:15-16), revealing to us that the head and the body in type and shadow of the body of Christ or (Judah and Israel) are twain and not one until Christ creates the unity through the holy spirit that is found in the body of Christ alone (Eph 5:31, Jas 1:27).

God brings us to see the need for these natural divisions in the physical and spiritual (1Co 11:19) as He drags us to the only one who can bring unity to the body of Christ (Joh 6:44) a unity demonstrated by our marriage to the lamb (Rev 19:7) which will witness to all the world of His love toward the masses (Joh 3:16). We are given as the vessel that God will use to make twain one in this marriage which has always been His desire (Mar 10:8, Mat 19:8).

God first shows us that we are divided and against him, and through that process of repentance and reconciliation he prepares us to be the living water and bread that will be used to heal the nations of all the division that exists through the first man Adam down throughout all the ages of man. That is the deep reflection on the verses in psalm 69.

Doing a search in e-sword for the word ‘divided’ provides a profound study on the subject of how God shapes the circumstance of life or the counsels of men by forming the light and darkness, which depending on where you are in the spectrum of God’s purpose for you, will affect your life in the preordained manner that God has chosen.

I hope to show in tonight’s shorter than usual study how ‘it hath pleased him’ to form the body of Christ in such a way that we have need of each other, and how God will continue to build us up as His family by giving us challenges that bring us to reach out to the body of Christ and bring us to see the need for this ‘the cup of blessing which we bless‘ (1Co 10:16).

Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

1Co 12:18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

1Co 15:38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

It is a cup of suffering (Mat 20:22 GNB) that burns away any spirit of denial of who Jesus Christ is (Act 9:4-5) as Christ strengthens us through the body and blood of Christ and makes us a healthy, united body with the same mind of Christ and the same love toward one another (Joh 6:53, Php 2:2, Joh 15:12).

The cup that we drink, “the cup of blessing which we bless” forms us into “one body” (1Co 12:20), a body which is a living sacrifice that is experiencing what it is like to say “this is my blood of the new testament” as we fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ for his body sake the church that will be comprised of all mankind one day. All of this process is being accomplished through Christ where we are accepted (Col 1:24, Rom 4:25, Eph 1:6-7, Rom 15:7).

1Co 12:18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
1Co 12:19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
1Co 12:20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.

1Co 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
1Co 10:17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

Rom 4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
Rom 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

*Rom 4:25 Who was delivered for [Greek: dia – through] our offences, and was raised again for [Greek: dia – through] our justification.

Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Rom 15:7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

Psa 69:3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Psa 69:4 They 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.
Psa 69:5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
Psa 69:6 Let 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.
Psa 69:7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.
Psa 69:8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.
Psa 69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

Psa 69:3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

While we wait for God to deliver us, we are going to experience this weariness and we are going to feel powerless to say or do anything, with our throats dried and our eyes failing us, which are both symbols of the need for the spiritual increase that comes from God alone (Deu 28:65-67, 1Co 3:6).

God brings us to this place of thirst and lacking vision in order to be brought to a point where our flesh is out of the way, as we become persuaded (Rom 8:38) that God alone is the one who can and will deliver us in our times of need.

It is always darkest before the dawn, which is just another way of saying that we are brought to our wits’ end by a loving Father who wants us to learn of His great power to deliver, and in this we do learn of His ‘tender mercies’ (2Co 1:9, Mat 6:34, Psa 27:14, Psa 107:28).

We see in verse 4 that like Christ, we are hated by all the world with a cruel hatred that would have them destroy us. What is most important for us to notice is how David deals with the abundant amount of enemies and hatred that God is allowing to manifest in his life.

Psa 69:4 They 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.

David ends this verse by saying: “then I restored that which I took not away”

CLV says it this way: “Must I restore then what I have not pillaged?”

ESV says it this way: “What I did not steal must I now restore?” which brings to mind these verses: (Gen 42:25, Jer 30:17, Luk 6:29-30, Gal 6:1).

That spirit of meekness is formed through these humbling moments of suffering for righteousness sake (1Pe 3:14). We learn that all of it is God’s plan and that vengeance is His (Deu 32:35-36, Isa 62:1) , which is the pattern we see in this Psalm with David now confessing of his sins in verse 5, declaring that He knows his foolishness (Psa 139:7-12).

Psa 69:5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

Verse 6,7, and 8 speak to the need for us to realize that our actions, good or bad, have consequences that affect others. It is not for my/your sake but for God’s sake that he has “borne reproach” and that “shame hath covered my face”.

Psa 69:6 Let 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.
Psa 69:7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.
Psa 69:8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.

God lets us feel the shame of our wrongdoings, and we feel very isolated at times for our own good and for the good of the body of Christ. We “become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children” (of verse 8) so that we can be cleansed of all our iniquity which is all connected to His “tender mercies” (Psa 51:1-4).

Psa 51:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Psa 51:2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
Psa 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Psa 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

All of these humble and contrite words of King David lead up to the last verse of our study (Psa 69:9), a parable that speaks to how all of these detailed events of verses 4 to 8 are accomplished within those who God is showing His tender mercies to in this age. It is all within us and we learn (painfully and humbling) that we all live by every word, the good and the evil in our day.

Psa 69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

This is a good place to end our study, as we contemplate how God cleanses the body of Christ of all our iniquities and brings us very low (Psa 79:8> from last week’s study) so that we can again be washed and renewed “for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up;” (of verse 9 tonight), through (Rom 4:25*) these tender mercies that God manifests (as seen in the second half of verse 9, in “the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me”), so that “that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” of Psa 51:4 above.

Psa 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

*Rom 4:25 Who was delivered for [Greek: dia – through] our offences, and was raised again for [Greek: dia – through] our justification.