69:13-15 David wanted deliverance from a premature death and a word from the Lord that would enable him to know what to do.
69:16-18 The king based his petition on the loyal love and compassion of God. He asked God to redeem him from his trouble by drawing him out of it. God had done this when He redeemed Israel out of Egyptian bondage.
69:19-21 David was confident that God knew his situation and because He knew it would help him. The opposition of his critics had wounded David's spirit. None of his friends stood with him when popular opinion turned against him. Instead of sustaining him with a good meal they gave him poison to eat and vinegar to drink. This is probably a figurative description of their treatment of him. The Hebrew word barut(food) describes a meal that sympathetic friends gave to a mourner.128David's use of this particular word highlights the hypocrisy of his friends' actions.
One of Jesus' disciples treated Him hypocritically by betraying Him with a kiss (Matt. 26:48). Jesus' enemies gave Him real vinegar to drink as He hung on the cross (Matt. 27:48).
69:22-28 "Up to this point, Christ and His passion have been so evidently foreshadowed (see on verses 4, 9, 21) that we are almost prepared now for a plea approximating to Father, forgive them'. The curse which comes instead is a powerful reminder of the new thing which our Lord did at Calvary."129
Most of these verses call down God's punishment on those who had opposed God's anointed who sought to do His will and glorify Him. David was not venting his personal hatred but was asking God to punish those who resisted Him.
The Apostle Paul applied verses 22 and 23 to the Jews who had opposed the Lord Jesus in Romans 11:9-10 (cf. 1 Thess. 5:3).
The reason David wanted God to deal with his adversaries so severely comes through in verse 26. They had poured salt in a wound that God had given him. Evidently David viewed his suffering as ultimately coming from God in the sense that He had permitted it. His human enemies were adding insult to injury by treating him the way they did.
Likewise God was behind the crucifixion of His Son, but the human agents of Jesus' sufferings and death were also responsible and had to bear the punishment for their actions.
David asked that God blot out the names of his enemies from His book of life (v. 28). This probably refers to the book of the living (cf. Rev. 3:5). The term "book of life"in the Old Testament refers to the record of those who are alive physically (cf. Exod. 32:32-33; Deut. 29:20; Ps. 69:28; Dan. 12:1; cf. Exod. 17:14; Deut. 25:19; Isa. 4:3). It came to have a more specific meaning in the New Testament. There it usually refers to the list of the names and deeds of the elect (Luke 10:20; Phil. 4:3; Heb. 12:23; Rev. 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27; 22:19; cf. Rev. 2:11).130In other words David asked God to cut the lives of his enemies short.
