Matthew Henry Commentary Psalms 69:22-29

"Let their table before them become a snare; And when they are in peace, [let it become] a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; And make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them, And let the fierceness of thine anger overtake them. Let their habitation be desolate; Let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; And they tell of the sorrow of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity; And let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of life, And not be written with the righteous. But I am poor and sorrowful: Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high." — Psalms 69:22-29 (ASV)

These are prophecies of the destruction of Christ's persecutors. Verses 22 and 23 are applied to the judgments of God upon the unbelieving Jews, in Romans 11:9-10. When the supports of life and delights of sense, through the corruption of our nature, are made the food and fuel of sin, then our table is a snare. Their sin was that they would not see, but shut their eyes against the light, loving darkness rather; their punishment was that they should not see, but should be given up to their own hearts' lusts which hardened them.

Those who reject God's great salvation offered to them may justly fear that his indignation will be poured out upon them. If people will sin, the Lord will call them to account for it. But those who have greatly multiplied their sins may yet find mercy, through the righteousness of the Mediator. God does not shut out anyone from that righteousness; the gospel excludes no one who does not, by unbelief, shut themselves out.

But those who are proud and self-willed, so that they will not submit to God's righteousness, will receive their doom accordingly; they themselves decide it. Let those not expect any benefit from it, who are not glad to be indebted to it. It is better to be poor and sorrowful, with the blessing of the Lord, than rich and jovial, and under his curse. This may be applied to Christ. He was, when on earth, a man of sorrows that had not where to lay his head; but God exalted him.

Let us call upon the Lord, and though poor and sorrowful, guilty and defiled, his salvation will set us on high.