Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

The only way to shut Jeremiah up was to throw him into a cistern.

King Jehoiakim burned the scroll of the words of YHWH that Jeremiah had delivered to him, but then God gave him another copy (Jeremiah 36).

He was thrown into prison because the guards at the city gate believed he was defecting to the Chaldeans (Jeremiah 37), but even in prison he kept warning that the city was doomed.

But even in prison, Jeremiah remained faithful to the message that God had given him to deliver:

Jeremiah 38:2–3 (ESV)

2 “Thus says the Lord: He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live.

He shall have his life as a prize of war, and live.

3 Thus says the Lord: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken.”

And in their anger and hatred for Jeremiah and his stubborn refusal to stop declaring the message of God’s judgment on Jerusalem, they took ropes and lowered him down into an empty cistern, where neither he nor his inconvenient message would be able to escape:

Jeremiah 38:6 (ESV)

6 So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes.

And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

And there, in the festering muck at the bottom of the empty cistern, Jeremiah may very well have remembered the old song of David, the psalm that is before us today:

Psalm 69:1–3 (ESV)

1 Save me, O God!

For the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. 3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.

My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

The hatred and reproach that Jeremiah suffered at the hands of people who hated him for his faithfulness to God is nothing new—David suffered that reproach from King Saul and his family (think of Michal watching him dance before the ark), as did Moses before him, who

Hebrews 11:24–25 (ESV)

24 ...when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

And on back we go, even to Cain, who murdered his brother Abel over Abel’s faithful love for God.

Psalm 69 is the cry of every faithful child of God who suffers the reproach and hatred and slander of standing firm for the truth of God’s Word and the glory of God’s Name and the hope of God’s Kingdom in this world.

If Psalm 67 is the vision of the harvest of the nations into the glory of the Gospel and Psalm 68 is the glory and honor of the merciful might of the God who calls and rules those nations, then Psalm 69 is the song of the faithful soul that works towards that harvest and swears allegiance to that God in the middle of hatred, opposition, slander and reproach.

And Psalm 69 stands as your great hope in the midst of that reproach and enmity between you and a world that hates you because it hates the God that you love.

Because Psalm 69 is one of the psalms that the writers of the Gospels quote more than almost any other as they tell the story of Jesus’ life.

Jesus Himself was no stranger to the hatred of the world, and He warned us of as much in John 15--

John 15:18–19 (ESV)

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Psalm 69 was written by David, experienced by Jeremiah, and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

This is the hope that you have, Christian, as you face the hatred and enmity and scorn for your allegiance to the Son of God this morning:

You bear no REPROACH that was not already ENDURED by Christ

There is much to consider in this psalm, and so what I hope to do this morning is take a “guided tour” of its riches by looking at the way the New Testament authors interpreted it in light of the person and work of Jesus—surely this is one of the Psalms that Jesus explained to the disciples in Luke 24 when He said that

Luke 24:44 (ESV)

44 everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

The first twelve verses of the psalm are the desperate cry of a faithful believer who is sinking down into the mud of the hatred and reproach—a faithful child of God who is

I. DROWNING In false ACCUSATIONS (Psalm 69:1-12)

Psalm 69:1–2 (ESV)

1 Save me, O God!

For the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.

In verse 3, you can hear the despair creeping into his voice, that he is beginning to feel that he is in

A hopeless SITUATION (vv.

1-4)

Psalm 69:3 (ESV)

3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.

My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

The weight and heaviness of the reproach that he bears for God’s Name is all the heavier for the sense that God has forgotten Him, that He is not coming to his rescue soon enough, and that he is sinking down with no foothold into the muck and mire of scorn and derision.

Have you felt that hopelessness?

Whether because of a family member who thinks you’re an idiot for all the Jesus stuff, or co-workers who casually dismiss your commitment to Christ, or the relentless barrage of ridicule and hatred and fear-mongering from the media aimed at your “Christian extremism”, we are more and more acquainted with the flood of false accusations against those who love God and His Word.

David cries out to God in exasperation over the false charges brought against him:

Psalm 69:4 (ESV)

4 More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies.

What I did not steal must I now restore?

He did nothing to earn the hatred and scorn of his enemies (this verse is quoted in John 15 as Jesus is encouraging His disciples that they will be hated just like He was.)

But then as David considers all the false charges against him, he cannot deny that he is in fact guilty before God:

ps 69:5

Psalm 69:5 (ESV)

5 O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

In other words, David says, “I may be innocent of the charges they bring against me, but I know I am not innocent before You!” David cries out in a hopeless situation, and he acknowledges

A worthless REPUTATION (vv.

5-8)

David isn’t “playing the victim” here in this psalm; he realizes that he is calling out for rescue from a God Who knows exactly what is in his heart.

And so along with his cry for rescue from his enemies’ reproach is David’s prayer that he not bring more reproach on God’s Name through his own sinfulness!

Psalm 69:6–7 (ESV)

6 Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.

7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.

David prays that God’s Name and His people would not be put to shame by his behavior; that he would remain honorable in his response to the scorn heaped on him.

“Lord, I am capable of reacting very badly to this scorn and ridicule; please don’t let me respond in such a way as to bring shame on You and your people!”

Verse 8 reminds us of how Jesus’ own brothers didn’t believe in Him, mocking Him in John 7 that He needed to “show Himself to the world!” at the feast in Jerusalem (John 7:3-5).

Verse 9 is another verse quoted in John’s Gospel.

In John 2:17, when Jesus cleansed the Temple of the moneychangers

John 2:17 (ESV)

17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

But here in Psalm 69 we get the rest of that verse:

Psalm 69:9 (ESV)

9 For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

The “zeal for the House of the LORD” that filled Jesus at that moment was followed by

A reproachful HUMILIATION (vv.

9-12)

As David sings it, His zeal for God led to mourning over the ways that God’s glory was being torn down and ridiculed.

David’s heart for God’s glory was broken over the way he saw God’s glory being profaned, and as a result he “wept and humbled his soul with fasting” (v.

10)—and that weeping “became his reproach”.

People mocked him for being brokenhearted over the way God’s glory was being profaned.

And this is exactly what happened to Jesus—His zeal for the glory of God in the Temple caused Him to drive out the thieves and robbers in its courts, and that very zeal was one of the reasons He was targeted for destruction:

Mark 11:18 (ESV)

18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

Christian, when you are overwhelmed by the flood of false accusations that you are a “Christian Extremist” or a “Jesus freak” or “holier than thou” or a “hypocrite” or “bigot” because of your love for God, His Word and His Church, you have the comfort of knowing that there is no reproach that you bear that has not already been borne by Christ Himself.

And as David continues here in Psalm 69, he moves from drowning in false accusations to

II.

TRUSTING in God’s FAITHFULNESS (Psalm 69:13-21)

Psalm 69:13 (ESV)

13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.

At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

Even though your enemies are trying to drown you in false accusations, Christian, see here how Psalm 69 reminds you that

The LOVE of his GOD never FAILS (vv.

13-16)

David cries out to God to deliver him from sinking into the mire of their lies, to be delivered from the depths of his enemies’ slander and hatred (v.

14).

David prays

Psalm 69:15–16 (ESV)

15 Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.

16 Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.

In the midst of their attacks, David clings to the covenant love of God—the lovingkindness that never fails.

He knows that God will never forsake him because God will never break His promise—and He had promised to love David and put his descendant on the throne forever.