Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 69:14
Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
14, 15. In his prayer he repeats the words which he had previously used to describe his plight ( Psa 69:2 ; Psa 69:4). It is difficult to see why the R.V. has substituted overwhelm for overflow here and not in Psa 69:2, the Heb. word being the same in both cases.
let not the pit &c.] Either the grave (Psa 55:23), or a dungeon (Lam 3:53; Lam 3:55), may be meant. In the latter case Jeremiah’s experience (ch. Psa 38:6) may have suggested the metaphor; but the words are not to be understood literally of release from Malchiah’s dungeon.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Deliver me out of the mire – Out of my troubles and calamities. See Psa 69:1-2.
And let me not sink – As in, mire. Let me not be overwhelmed by my sorrows.
Let me be delivered from them that hate me – All my enemies. Let me be saved from their machinations and devices.
And out of the deep waters – See Psa 69:1-2. From my troubles.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 69:14
Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink.
The believer sinking in the mire
Many rivers, and especially the Nile, have on their banks deep deposits of black mud, and it is most perilous for any who have the misfortune to fall into it. The more they struggle to get out the deeper they sink. Travellers tell of such incidents. Had David really witnessed such a scene, that speaking of his spiritual sorrows, he said, I sink in deep mire where there is no standing? Now, the prayer of our text suggests–
I. That the true believer may be. In the mire and very near sinking.
1. In the mire of unbelief. Even the firmest in faith lose their foothold at times. All manner of doubts crowd into the mind. They are compelled to pray this prayer.
2. Through lack of full assurance of his own interest in Christ.
3. The mire of temporal trouble.
4. Of inward corruption.
5. Of Satanic temptations.
6. Various are the causes of this sad condition. Sometimes it is through our own sin. It is a chastisement upon us. Sometimes to try our faith; or that we may the better glorify God, or to show the natural weakness of the creature, that no flesh may glory in man; or to make heaven sweeter when we enter its pearly gates. But all the while, these sinking ones are really Gods people, for if they were not, they would have no such trouble. The sinner whose element is sin laughs at the weight by which the believer is borne down. The best of Gods saints have known such trouble. Luther did, and John Knox, and many more.
II. But when in such a state they know that their only help is in God. The Bible cannot help, for unbelief bars you off from all its precious promises. Other believers cannot aid you. God alone can.
III. Prayer is the Christians never-failing resort. When you cannot use your sword, you may take the weapon of all-prayer. That is never forbidden. And it is never futile, it ever has true power. Oh, never let us cease to pray. In asthma you say, I cannot breathe; but you must breathe if you would live. And so in the condition told of here you must, though you think you cannot, pray. But let us walk carefully, lest we fall into the mire. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Them that hate me; whereby he explains his meaning in these metaphors of mire, and waters, and deep, and pit.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink,…. In which he was sinking, Ps 69:2; and accordingly he was delivered out of it,
Ps 11:2; even out of all the mire of sin, the sins of his people that were upon him, from which he was justified when raised from the dead; and so will appear without sin, when he comes a second time:
let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters; these phrases design the same, even the enemies of Christ; such that hated him, compared to deep waters: these are the floods of the ungodly, and the many waters out of which he was drawn and delivered,
Ps 18:4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In this second part the petition by which the first is as it were encircled, is continued; the peril grows greater the longer it lasts, and with it the importunity of the cry for help. The figure of sinking in the mire or mud and in the depths of the pit ( , Ps 55:24, cf. , Psa 40:3) is again taken up, and so studiously wrought out, that the impression forces itself upon one that the poet is here describing something that has really taken place. The combination “from those who hate me and from the depths of the waters” shows that “the depths of the waters” is not a merely rhetorical figure; and the form of the prayer: let not the pit (the well-pit or covered tank) close ( with Dagesh in the Teth, in order to guard against its being read ; cf. on the signification of , clausus = claudus, scil. manu) its mouth (i.e., its upper opening) upon me, exceeds the limits of anything that can be allowed to mere rhetoric. “Let not the water-flood overflow me” is intended to say, since it has, according to Psa 69:3, already happened, let it not go further to my entire destruction. The “answer me” in Psa 69:17 is based upon the plea that God’s loving-kindness is , i.e., good, absolutely good (as in the kindred passion-Psalm, Psa 109:21), better than all besides (Psa 63:4), the means of healing or salvation from all evil. On Psa 69:17 cf. Psa 51:3, Lam 3:32. In Psa 69:18 the prayer is based upon the painful situation of the poet, which urgently calls for speedy help ( beside the imperative, Psa 102:3; Psa 143:7; Gen 19:22; Est 6:10, is certainly itself not an imperative like , Psa 51:4, but an adverbial infinitive as in Psa 79:8). , or, in order to ensure the pronunciation korbah in distinction from karbah , Deu 15:9, (in Baer,
(Note: Originally – was the sign for every kind of o6 , hence the Masora includes the also under the name ; vid., Luther. Zeitschrift, 1863, S. 412,f., cf. Wright, Genesis, p. xxix.))
is imperat. Kal; cf. the fulfilment in Lam 3:57. The reason assigned, “because of mine enemies,” as in Psa 5:9; Psa 27:11, and frequently, is to be understood according to Psa 13:5: the honour of the all-holy One cannot suffer the enemies of the righteous to triumph over him.
(Note: Both and , contrary to logical interpunction, are marked with Munach; the former ought properly to have Dech, and the latter Mugrash. But since neither the Athnach -word nor the Silluk -word has two syllables preceding the tone syllable, the accents are transformed according to Accentuationssystem, xviii. 2, 4.)
The accumulation of synonyms in Psa 69:20 is Jeremiah’s custom, Jer 13:14; Jer 21:5, Jer 21:7; Jer 32:37, and is found also in Ps 31 (Psa 31:10) and Ps 44 (Psa 44:4, Psa 44:17, Psa 44:25). On , cf. Psa 51:19, Jer 23:9. The , (historical tense), from , is explained by from , sickly, dangerously ill, evil-disposed, which is a favourite word in Jeremiah. Moreover in the signification of manifesting pity, not found elsewhere in the Psalter, is common in Jeremiah, e.g., Psa 15:5; it signifies originally to nod to any one as a sign of a pity that sympathizes with him and recognises the magnitude of the evil. “To give wormwood for meat and to drink” is a Jeremianic (Jer 8:14; Jer 9:14; Jer 23:15) designation for inflicting the extreme of pain and anguish upon one. ( ) signifies first of all a poisonous plant with an umbellated head of flower or a capitate fruit; but then, since bitter and poisonous are interchangeable notions in the Semitic languages, it signifies gall as the bitterest of the bitter. The lxx renders: , . Certainly can mean to put something into something, to mix something with it, but the parallel word (for my thirst, i.e., for the quenching of it, Neh 9:15, Neh 9:20) favours the supposition that the of is Beth essentiae, after which Luther renders: “they give me gall to eat.” The . (Lam 4:10 ) signifies , from , (root , Sanscrit gar , Latin vor-are ).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
14. Deliver me from the mire, that I may not sink. The Psalmist repeats the same similitude which he had used before, but in a different manner. He had previously said that he was sunk in the mire, and now he prays that he may not sink in it. In short, he now prays that those things may not now befall him which he had formerly complained of as having befallen him. But it is very easy to reconcile this diversity of statement; for in the opening of the psalm he spake according to his actual feeling and experience; but now, looking to the issue, although living in the midst of death, he cherishes the hope of deliverance. This is expressed still more clearly in the last clause of the 15 verse, where he prays, Let not the pit close its mouth upon me; which is as if he had said, Let not the great multitude and weight of my afflictions overwhelm me, and let not sorrow swallow me up.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Reader! if you are much acquainted with the evangelists accounts of Jesus’s sufferings in the garden and on the cross (and if you are not, it is much to be wished that you were) you will see how all these expressions refer to those solemn seasons. Oh! how expressive are they of the sorrows of Jesus! Behold and see, was ever any sorrow like unto his sorrow, with which the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce anger? Lam 1:12 . I am inclined to think that David, king of Israel, as a prophet, was purposely commissioned by the Holy Ghost to compose such expressions as these, which we meet with both in this and other Psalms of his, for the special use of the Lord Jesus in the day of his flesh. And I am also farther inclined to think, that as in no part of our Lord’s sufferings God’s honour and glory were more magnified than when Christ bore shame and reproach, as the sinner’s Surety; Christ particularly referred to the vast recompense made, by way of reparation, when he said, Thou hast known my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour. Sweet consideration to the soul of the believer! I stay not to make any additional observations concerning those situations of Jesus which the prophet here describes of his broken heart, the desertion of his friends, and the offered gall and vinegar; the Reader will not fail, I hope, to recollect that the reproaches and taunts of the Jews, while Jesus hung on the cross, the desertion of all his disciples in that hour of sorrow, and the sufferings of Jesus not being finished until this last prediction was fulfilled, in the giving him the gall and vinegar to drink; all so strikingly belonged to the Lord Jesus, as that they could belong to no ether, and plainly manifest it is of him alone the prophet speaks.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 69:14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
Ver. 14. Deliver me out of the mire ] i.e. De civitate Gehennae, from the state of hell, saith the Hebrew scholiast; a out of that deadly danger whereof he had complained, Psa 69:2 . Alphonsus, king of Arragon, by a gracious condescension, helped a laden ass out of the mire with his own hand, and is renowned for it in history (Val. Max. Christ. 41). God helpeth his out full oft, and little notice is taken of it.
a One who writes explanatory notes upon an author; esp. an ancient commentator upon a classical writer.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deliver: Psa 40:1-3, Jer 38:6-13, Lam 3:55
let me: Psa 25:18, Psa 25:19, Psa 35:19, Psa 109:3, Psa 109:21, Luk 19:14, Luk 19:27, Act 5:30, Act 5:31
out of: Psa 69:1, Psa 69:2, Psa 69:15, Psa 42:7, Psa 124:4, Psa 124:5, Psa 144:7, Mar 14:34-42, Mar 15:34
Reciprocal: 2Sa 22:5 – the floods 2Ch 18:7 – I hate him Job 27:20 – Terrors Job 30:14 – as a wide Psa 25:16 – for I Psa 35:17 – rescue Psa 40:2 – the miry Psa 93:3 – The floods Psa 130:1 – Out of Jer 38:22 – thy feet Jon 2:3 – thou Luk 22:44 – being
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 69:14-18. Let me be delivered from them that hate me By thus speaking, he explains his meaning in the metaphors here used of mire, waters, deep, and pit. For thy loving-kindness is good Is eminently and unspeakably good; is gracious, or bountiful; the positive degree being put for the superlative: it is most ready to communicate itself to miserable and indigent creatures: the Hebrew word , chesed, here used, signifying abundance of goodness, or mercifulness. Draw nigh unto my soul To support and relieve it, O thou who seemest to be departed far away from me. Deliver me because of mine enemies Because they are enemies to thee as well as to me, and if they succeed, will triumph, not only over me, but in some sort over thee and over religion.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
69:14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the {n} deep waters.
(n) He shows a living faith, in that he believes that God is favourable towards him when he seems to be angry and at hand when he seems to be far off.