Psalm 69:12

Psalm 69:12, in plain English

Everyone is talking about David—from the leaders at the city gate down to drunk people on the street. He's become a universal target for mockery.

Why it's here

The scope of David's humiliation is total and across all social levels. The powerful mock him, the common people mock him, even the intoxicated use him as material for jokes. There's nowhere he's safe from ridicule.

Who's speaking

David, showing the widespread nature of his disgrace.

Where it sits in the story

This kind of universal mockery is also experienced by the suffering servant in Isaiah and by Jesus during his crucifixion, when people from all walks of life participated in his humiliation.

The scholarly reading

The psalmist's degradation has become public spectacle—those in positions of civic authority mock him openly, and common people have composed songs of ridicule about him.

Language and setting

The 'gate' (sha'ar) served in ancient Israel as the place of civic assembly, legal judgment, and public discourse; sitting at the gate represented civic authority and respectability. The psalmist's isolation is thus rendered spatially—those most respected in the community actively mock him, and the broader populace has composed derisive songs, incorporating him into their entertainment. The phrase 'song of drunkards' (shir niv'elim) suggests not merely criticism but dehumanization; he has become an object of casual, inebriated ridicule.

Voice

The psalmist, now depicting systematic, institutionalized mockery involving both the powerful and the powerless.

Significance

This verse evokes the Crucifixion narrative's accounts of public mockery (Matthew 27:39-44, Luke 23:35-37), where both civic authorities and common people participate in Christ's humiliation. The application to Christ becomes almost inevitable in early Christian reading—the righteous sufferer mocked by all strata of society, his person become spectacle.

10I wept and fasted, but it brought me reproach.

11I made sackcloth my clothing, and I was sport to them.

12Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of drunkards.

13But my prayer to You, O LORD, is for a time of favor. In Your abundant loving devotion, O God, answer me with Your sure salvation.

14Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.

Read all of Psalm 69 — David is drowning — literally and figuratively. The waters have come up to my neck. A psalm of desperation that Jesus made His own.