A lament of innocent person

November 6, 2023 - Monday, 31st Week in Ordinary Time

Psalm 69:30-31, 33-34, 36

Psalm 69 is sometimes given the title ‘a lament of innocent person’. The innocent suffering of God’s servant is also the topic of Psalm 22 and the song of Isaiah about God’s servant (Is 53). Both the psalmist and Isaiah deal with the disturbing fact of persecution, suffering, and even death for the sake of God. So why is it that those who try to live in obedience to God’s will experience so many trials in the world?

Neither Psalm 22 nor Psalm 69 give us the answer to why the righteous people have to suffer in this world at the hands of the wicked. On the other hand, the anonymous prophet who is behind the fourth song of the suffering servant of God in the book of Isaiah (see Is 52:13-53:12) indicates that it is vicarious suffering. The suffering servant bore the iniquity of others and by doing so he would be able to save the sinners. This is an incredible idea that we seldom consider in our discussion about suffering.

Psalm 69 is often quoted in the New Testament. For example, the words “zeal for your house consumes me” (Ps 69:10) are used to explain the cleansing of the temple by Jesus in the Gospel of John (see John 2:17). Saint Paul in the letter to the Romans quotes from our psalm the phrase: “the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me” (Ps 69:10; see Rom 15:3). The apostle applies them to the sufferings of Jesus Christ. There is also an allusion to this psalm in the Passion story when Jesus was given the sour wine to drink just before his death (Ps 69:22; see Mark 15:36; John 19:29).

Christianity identified the suffering servant of God with Jesus. Saint Paul explains that “for our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). But as the followers of Christ, we participate in his death. Saint Paul speaks about his suffering as vicarious ones for the sake of the Church: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (see Col 1:24).

Thus, Christian reading of Psalm 69 can associate it with the Passion of Christ, the innocent victim of human sinfulness, who suffered death on the cross for our salvation, and on the third day rose from the grave. We can also see in this psalm, the promise of final victory for all those who suffer because of their faithfulness to God. As the Jewish exiles could return home, so we can also return home, to our heavenly Jerusalem and inherit a new heaven and a new earth where justice resides (see 2 Peter 3:13).