What is the meaning of Psalm 69:21? They poisoned my food • David records an actual act of cruelty: enemies tampering with what should have sustained him (compare Psalm 41:9; 1 Samuel 26:19). • The verse widens to a prophetic window, foreshadowing how Christ’s own people would reject Him (John 1:11). • The malicious treatment highlights the world’s hostility toward the righteous, echoed in Matthew 10:25 and 2 Timothy 3:12. • In both David’s life and Jesus’ passion, treachery turns the commonplace (food) into a weapon. with gall • “Gall” (a bitter, poisonous substance) intensifies the offense—enemies do not merely withhold kindness; they load it with harm (Jeremiah 9:15; Deuteronomy 29:18). • Bitterness becomes a vivid picture of sin’s effect. Just as gall ruins nourishment, sin contaminates what God designed for good (Hebrews 12:15). • Isaiah 53:3–4 shows the Suffering Servant bearing the bitterness of human rebellion, fulfilling the pattern David experienced. and gave me vinegar • Vinegar, cheap sour wine, was offered to Jesus on the cross (Matthew 27:34; Mark 15:23; Luke 23:36). The soldiers’ mock “hospitality” mirrors David’s lament. • John 19:28–30 stresses that Jesus knowingly received the vinegar “to fulfill the Scripture,” directly tying Psalm 69:21 to the crucifixion. • The exchange exposes a deeper irony: the One who turned water to wine (John 2:1–11) is repaid with wine turned sour—humanity’s gratitude apart from grace. to quench my thirst • Physical thirst accents the fullest human vulnerability. David often speaks of soul-thirst for God (Psalm 42:1–2; 63:1); here the agony is both bodily and spiritual. • Jesus’ “I am thirsty” (John 19:28) discloses real human need while also pointing to His deeper thirst to accomplish redemption (Luke 12:50). • Revelation 7:16–17 promises that the Lamb will finally remove all thirst, reversing the cruelty of the vinegar cup with the living fountains of God. summary Psalm 69:21 captures a moment when enemies swap nourishment for poison and mercy for mockery. David reports literal abuse; by the Spirit, he also previews the Messiah’s sufferings. Gall and vinegar expose human sin’s bitterness and emptiness, while the crucified Christ absorbs that bitterness and offers living water instead. The verse therefore stands as both a record of injustice endured and a signpost to the cross, assuring believers that God foresaw, permitted, and answered every cruelty through the redemptive work of His Son. |
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