I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.
David here resembles the twenty-second psalm in lamenting the cruelty of his enemies, though we cannot fix which persecution occasioned it, Saul's or Absalom's. Yet the New Testament quotes it of Christ at least seven times, making clear it is prophetic of Him. David's affliction did not shake his trust in God or weaken his holy conduct; rather, his zeal for God's glory provoked the world's hatred against him.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 69:1-36
They that sit in the gate speak against me. The ordinary gossips who meet at the city gates for idle talk make me their theme, the business men who there resort for trade forget their merchandise to slander me, and even the beggars who wait at men's doors for alms contribute their share of insult to the heap of infamy. And I was the song of the drunkard.
When afflictions enter the soul itself, not merely threatening life but disquieting the mind, the spirit becomes wounded and cannot sustain. All that David sought to prop his hope upon failed him; he sank in mire without footing, overwhelmed in deep waters, this points to Christ's inward agony when He cried that His soul was exceedingly sorrowful.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 69:1-12