Please read psalm 69 (36 verses)

The psalmist cannot fight any more. His life is empty and his psyche has worn very thin. There is no human comfort and no place to turn for satisfaction. He is at his wits end. So many people hate him and are wanting to destroy him though he has done nothing to them. He has bourn reproach for the sake of the Lord and has become like a stranger to the people around him, such is his devotion to the Lord his God. Zeal for the things of God, the presence of God and the dwelling place of God have consumed him. Those who hate the Lord also hate him and sit at the city gates and revile him. The psalmist has become a reproach to the people and though he mourns for them and weeps in his soul, it makes no difference. They are against him.

But the prayer of the writer is to God. He asks God to extend His tender mercies to him and draw near to his soul to comfort him. God knows the shame and dishonour that he has suffered at the hands of other people, and the heaviness that dogs his footsteps. The psalmist looks for someone to have pity on him, but there is no one. He turns only to the Lord, for only the Lord has the comfort he needs. Thought he is poor and sorrowful, yet the Lord lifts him on high and causes him to be able to magnify the Lord. His preoccupation is to be a blessing to the people of God and not a shame to them. He asks that they are lifted up because of him and be helped by his situation. His prayer is that those who love God will be regarded and those who hold grudges will be stopped and shown for what they really are.

The psalmist prays against those who hurt others and gossip about the grief in the lives of the people of God for their own edification. He asks that they be blotted out of the book of the living and that they will never be associated with the righteous. He acknowledges his sorrow and poverty and his total dependence on the Lord. He sees that the whole earth and heavens praise the Lord and that the Lord will give the inheritance of the land to his own people. All who love the name of the Lord will dwell in it.