Psalm 69:19-21

In order to convince Yahweh to "answer" her/his prayer for help (Psalm 69:13-18), the composer of Psalm 69 describes the terrible plight in which she/he finds herself/himself in verses 19-21:

"You [Yahweh] know the insults I receive,
and my shame and dishonor;
my foes are all known to you.
Insults have broken my heart,
so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none;
and for comforters, but I found none.
They gave me poison for food,
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."

1. A major weapon in the arsenal of the wicked against the righteous is insults (see verses 7, 9, 19, 20). When Individual A insults Individual B, it shows that Individual A is very fragile and unstable and filled with uncertainty, and that Individual A can think of no rational argument to respond to the position of Individual B; so all Individual A has to fall back on is insults. It is clear that Individual A is in the wrong.
2. God knows all human hearts and all human words and all human actions, even if no human being knows any of these things. The author of Psalm 139 says in verses 1-2:
"O Lord [Yahweh], you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away."
When God's opponents thing they are "getting away with murder," God is watching and patiently waiting for "just the right time" to deal with them.
3. A faithful follower of God would like to think that she/he could find like-minded believers who would comfort her/him in difficult times; and sometimes this happens. But often it does not happen. Job's three friends--Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar--came to comfort him in his terrible sufferings, but they failed miserably--See Job 2:11-13; 6:14-20; 16:2.
4. Verse 21 is obviously highly figurative or metaphorical. The enemies of the psalmist treated her/him like someone giving a hungry and thirsty traveler poison and vinegar. Not only do these elements fail to satisfy one's hunger and thirst; they bring the suffering traveler closer to death. The creative Gospel writers reapply verse 21 to Jesus on the cross and give it a literal meaning: see Matthew 27:34; Mark 15:23; Luke 23:36; John 19:29-30. We pointed out earlier that John applied Psalm 69:4 to Jesus in John 15:25; and Psalm 69:9 to Jesus in John 2:17. Psalm 69 is a good psalm to study to get an idea of how the New Testament speakers applied to Hebrew Bible to Jesus and the early church. They used the Hebrew Bible quite differently from the way we use it.
When wicked people are trying to destroy God's faithful servants, it is comforting to hear the words of Psalm 69:19-21, which assure us that God knows what is happening, and that he can and will intervene in his own time and way in behalf of his genuine followers.

John Willis