The Most Avoided Messianic Psalm (9): “Add Iniquity Unto Their Iniquity” (Psalm 69:26-28) by Rev. Angus Stewart
I. The Theory That It Refutes
II. The Meaning of the Prayer
III. The Grounds of the Imprecations
John Gill on Psalm 69:26: “For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten ... Meaning the Messiah, who was not only smitten and scourged by men, but was stricken and smitten of God; according to his determinate counsel and foreknowledge, and agreeably to his will and plea sure; with the rod of his justice for the satisfaction of it; for the sins of his people, whose surety he was. Him the Jews followed with reproaches and calumnies; pursued after his life, and persecuted him unto death; and which was the cause of their ruin and destruction; see 1 Thess. 2:15; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded; or, ‘of thy wounded ones’; not wounded by him, but wounded for his sake, on his account, and for their profession of faith in his son Jesus Christ. These, as they were led to the slaughter, had trial of cruel mockings, which aggravated their sufferings, and were very grieving to them; especially such talk as reflected upon their dear Redeemer, for whose sake they were put to death."
Matthew Poole on Psalm 69:27: “Of thy righteousness, properly so called, of that everlasting righteousness which the Messiah shall bring into the world, Daniel 9:24, which is called the righteousness of God, Romans 1:17 Philippians 3:9, &c., which is said to be witnessed by the law and the prophets, Romans 3:21, by and for which God doth justify or pardon sinners, and accept them in Christ as righteous persons. For this was the righteousness which the Jews rejected to their own ruin, Romans 10:3, according to this prediction. Thus as the first branch of the verse maketh or supposeth them guilty of many sins, so this excludes them from the only remedy, the remission of their sins. And that justifying rather than sanctifying righteousness is here meant seems most probable from the phrase, which seems to be a judicial phrase, as we read of coming or entering into judgment, Job 22:4 34:23, and into condemnation, John 5:24, opposite unto which is this phrase, of coming into justification; or, which is all one, into thy righteousness.”
J. A. Alexander on Psalm 69:27: “The righteousness of God is that which he bestows by the judicial act of justification, including pardon. To come into it is to come into possession or enjoyment of it, to become a sharer in it.”
Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 69:28: “‘And not be written with the righteous.’ This clause is parallel with the former, and shows that the inner meaning of being blotted out from the book of life is to have it made evident that the name was never written there at all. Man in his imperfect copy of God’s book of life will have to make many emendations, both of insertion and erasure; but, as before the Lord, the record is for ever fixed and unalterable.”
John Calvin on Psalm 69:28: “As then David desires that the vengeance of God may be manifested, he very properly speaks of the reprobation of his enemies in language accommodated to our understanding; as if he had said, O God! reckon them not among the number or ranks of thy people, and let them not be gathered together with thy Church; but rather show by destroying them that thou has rejected them; and although they occupy a place for a time among thy faithful ones, do thou at length cut them off, to make it manifest that they were aliens, though they were mingled with the members of thy family.”