The Most Avoided Messianic Psalm (10): The Prayer and Song of the Poor (Psalm 69:29-33) by Rev. Angus Stewart
I. The Sorrowful Poor
II. The Powerful Prayer
III. The Thankful Song
John Phillips: “No doubt the Lord quoted all of Psalm 22 and all of Psalm 69 when hanging on the cross. These closing verses [cf. vv. 29-36] must have greatly encouraged Him and strengthened Him to keep His grip on reality in the face of sufferings which stagger the imagination and which are far beyond our ability to conceive” (Exploring the Psalms, vol. 1: Psalms 1-88, p. 570).
John Gill on Psalm 69:30: “For as it was no lessening of his glory, as Mediator to pray to God when on earth, it is no diminution of it to praise him in our nature in heaven; see Ps. 22:22. This being said to be done with a song agrees with Heb. 2:12, and is an instance of praising God this way, and which could not be prayer-wise: as well as is a confirmation of the practice of New Testament churches, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, by the example of our Lord ... Christ, as man, not only prayed, but gave thanks to his Father when on earth, Matt. 11:25-26, John 11:41; nor is it unsuitable to him, as such now in heaven, to give thanks and praise for being heard and helped in a day of salvation; or at the time when he wrought out the salvation of his people, and glorified all the divine perfections.”
Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 69:31: “Here he puts dishonour upon mere outward offerings by speaking of the horns and hoofs, the offal of the victim. The opus operatum, which our ritualists think so much of, the Lord puffs at. The horning and hoofing are nothing to him, though to Jewish ritualists these were great points, and matters for critical examination; our modern rabbis are just as precise as to the mingling of water with their wine, the baking of their wafers, the cut of their vestments, and the performance of genuflections towards the right quarter of the compass. O fools, and slow of heart to perceive all that the Lord has declared. ‘Offer unto God thanksgiving’ is the everlasting rubric of the true directory of worship.”