to lift · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
reproach
חֶרְפָּ֑הcher.Pah
H2781
contumely · noun, common feminine singular absolute
shame
כְלִמָּ֣הkhe.li.Mah
H3639
disgrace · noun, common feminine singular absolute
covered
כִּסְּתָ֖הki.se.Tah
H3680
properly · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
face
פָנָֽיfa.Nai
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 50:6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Psalms 44:22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Jeremiah 15:15 O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy…
Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and…
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised,…
Luke 23:11 And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.
John 15:21-24 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Psalms 22:6-8 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 69:1-12
In these verses David complains of his troubles, intermixing with those complaints some requests for relief.
I. His complaints are very sad, and he pours them out before the Lord, as one that hoped thus to ease himself of a burden that lay very heaven upon him.
1. He complains of the deep impressions that his troubles made upon his spirit (Psa 69:1, Psa 69:2): "The waters of affliction, those bitter waters, have come unto my soul, not only threaten my life, but disquiet my mind; they fill my head with perplexing cares and my heart with oppressive grief, so that I cannot enjoy God and myself as I used to do." We shall bear up under our troubles if we can but keep them from our hearts; but, wh…
This plea contemplates his relation to God as a sufferer in His cause. Reproach, domestic estrangement (Mar 3:21; Joh 7:5), exhaustion in God's service (Joh 2:17), revilings and taunts of base men were the sufferings.
John Gill on Psalms 69:7
Because for thy sake I have borne reproach,.... Being reckoned a sinner, called a deceiver, said to be a Samaritan, and to have a devil; with many other reproaches, which he bore patiently for the sake of the word and worship of God, and for the sake of the glory of God, which he all along sought; and to repair the loss of it, which was sustained through the sin of man;
shame hath covered my face; when he was spit upon by some, and smote by others with a rod upon his cheek; and when he was blindfolded, and bid to prophesy who smote him; see Isaiah 50:6.
John Calvin on Psalms 69:6-9
Psalm 69:6-9
6. O Jehovah, Lord of Hosts! let not them that wait for thee be ashamed in me: let not them who seek thee be put to shame in me, O God of Israel! 7. For on thy account I have suffered reproach: shame hath covered my face. 8. I have been a stranger to my brethren, and am become an alien to the children of my mother. [73] 9. For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up; and the reproach of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
6 O Jehovah, Lord of Hosts! let not them that wait for thee be ashamed in me. David declares that he is set forth as an example from which all the people of God may derive matter either of hope or despair. Although he was held in detestation and exec…
The Church Fathers
"For because of Thee I have sustained upbraiding, shamelessness hath covered my face." No great thing is that which is spoken of in "I have sustained:" but that which is spoken of in "for Thy sake I have sustained," is. For if thou sustainest because thou hast sinned; for thine own sake thou sustainest, not for the sake of God. For to you what glory is there, saith Peter, if sinning ye are punished, and ye bear it? But if thou sustainest because thou hast kept the commandment of God, truly for the sake of God thou sustainest; and thy reward remaineth for everlasting, because for the sake of God thou hast sustained revilings. For to this end He first sustained in order that we might learn to sustain... "Shamelessness hath covered my face." Shamelessness is what? Not to be confused. Lastly, it seemeth to be as it were a fault, when we say, the man is shameless. Great is the shamelessness of the man, that he doth not blush. Therefore shamelessness is a kind of folly. A Christian ought to have this shamelessness, when he cometh among men to whom Christ is an offence. If he shall have blushed because of Christ, he will be blotted out from the book of the living. Thou must needs therefore have shamelessness when Thou art reviled because of Christ; when they say, Worshipper of the Crucified, adorer of Him that died ill, venerator of Him that was slain! here if thou shalt blush thou art a dead man. For see the sentence of Him that deceiveth no one. "He that shall have been ashamed of Me before men, I will also be ashamed of him before the Angels of God." Watch therefore thyself whether there be in thee shamelessness; be thou boldfaced, when thou hearest a reproach concerning Christ; yea be boldfaced. Why fearest thou for thy forehead which thou hast armed with the sign of the Cross?...
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Gall — (1) Heb. mererah, meaning “bitterness” (Job 16:13); i.e., the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (25). (2.) Heb.…
Gin — A trap. (1.) Ps. 140:5, 141:9, Amos 3:5, the Hebrew word used, mokesh, means a noose or “snare,” as it is elsewhere rendered (Ps. 18:5; Prov. 13:14, etc.). (2.) Job 18:9, Isa. 8:14, Heb. pah, a plate…
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Shoshannim — Lilies, the name of some musical instrument, probably like a lily in shape (Ps. 45; 69, title). Some think that an instrument of six strings is meant.
Persecution · OF JESUS — OF JESUS
Prophecies Respecting Christ · His bearing reproach — His bearing reproach
Reviling And Reproaching · Saints: Endure for God’s sake — Saints: Endure for God’s sake
Zeal, Religious · EXEMPLIFIE — EXEMPLIFIE
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Out of deep distress, the work of his foes, the complaining one cries for help; he thinks upon his sins, which is sufferings bring to his remembrance, but he is also distinctly conscious that he is an object of scorn and hostility for God's sake, and from His mercy he looks for help in accordance with His promises. The waters are said to rush in unto the soul (עד־נפשׁ), when they so press upon the imperilled one that the soul, i.e., the life of the body, more especially the breath, is threatened; cf. Jon 2:6; Jer 4:10. Waters are also a figure of calamities that come on like a flood and drag one into their vortex, Psa 18:17; Psa 32:6; Psa 124:5, cf. Psa 66:12; Psa 88:8, Psa 88:18; here, howe…
Mistreated and abandoned by family, friends, and community, the psalmist turns to the Lord for comfort, relief (69:13-18), and redress (69:22-28).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 69:7
Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.
Because for thy sake I have borne reproach. Because he undertook to do the Father's will, and teach his truth, the people were angry; because he declared himself to be the Son of God, the priesthood raved. They could find no real fault in him, but were forced to hatch up a lying accusation before they could commence their sham trial of him. The bottom of the quarrel was, that God was with him, and he with God, while the Scribes and Pharisees sought only their own honour. Reproach is at all times very cutting to a man of integrity, and it must have come with acute force upon one of so unsullied a character as our Lord; y…
