"Pour out your indignation upon them,
and let your burning anger overtake them."
—Psalm 69:23
As Jesus suffered on the cross—falsely tried, unjustly accused, mocked and shamed—unfathomably, He utters this beautiful prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). We place that prayer on a pedestal. We marvel at it. We glory in it.
The 69th Psalm provides another window into the soul of our Lord as He suffered at the hands of wicked men. Shamefully though, we hide it in the closet. We are uncomfortable with it. We don’t speak of it. But the shame is all on us.
The New Testament however, is not at all ashamed of our text. It is not ashamed of any of it. It quotes it—every portion of it. The bulk of our text (vv. 1–20), is made up of lamentation. Though familiar, this is not our favorite. But it is not the lamentation that has caused us to hide this psalm in the closet. No, lamentation we just allow to collect dust in a corner. It collects dust in a corner until we feel like crawling into a corner ourselves with dust on our heads.
The next portion of the text (vv. 21–29), is unrelentingly full of imprecations—curses. This is where the embarrassment comes. Perhaps we could bravely stomach the imprecation if it were in isolation. But the imprecations of this psalm cannot be isolated from the suffering of our Lord. Those who glory in our Lord praying, “Father forgive them,” have difficulty accepting that He might also say, “Pour out your indignation upon them.”
And then our psalm ends with thanksgiving (vv. 30–36). This is more to our liking. This is the trophy we like to set on the mantle. But you cannot have the trophy without the agony of lamention or the anger of imprecation. We might gladly sing the end of the psalm, but you may not authentically enter its joy if you know nothing of its sorrow or zeal.
So let us then learn to love this song—all of it. To do so, we must hear it in the voice of our Lord. We may find a verse or two that we can only understand David to have sung, but we will find most to mean most when we find them on the lips of the Most High who stooped so low. Then, having found these words to be the words of Christ, let us remember His warning, “whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26).