Preacher, prophet, or paranoid zealot? The speaker of Psalm 69 lives in an unstable time. Classic commentators say that it is just after the return from the Babylonian exile amidst a debate whether to rebuild the Temple. He claims that those who hate him are seeking to poison his food and sing drunken songs of his mournful ways. Among the wordplays is the similar sound of shir (song) and shor (bull), suggesting that God will warmly welcome his song in place of a bull as an offering.
Remarkably, this is the second most quoted Psalm in the New Testament.
