Ps. 69.6 (forestalling the shame of the king)

Let none of those / who wait for you / be put to shame / through me
O Lord / Yhwh of Hosts
let none of those / who seek you / be humiliated / through me
O God / of Israel! 

The key portion of this verse is the king’s desire that he not become a source of humiliation and shame for those who ‘wait for’ and ‘seek’ God; it is the ‘through me’ that draws our attention. In light of our previous reflections, this sense of the king’s concern that he not mediate shame and humiliation onto his flock that transitions this psalm from a personal lament, as in verses 1-2, to that of a plea for his people. He wants to ‘stem the tide’ and asks God to prevent ‘shame and humiliation’ from spilling out through him and onto his people. This is not ‘spiritual’, however; the king is essentially asking that in his deliverance the source of his people’s humiliation will be redeemed. All of this relates to the closing of the psalm and the restoration of the land. It would seem that in the king’s deliverance, the land (and Zion) would be rebuilt such that it would become a permanent dwelling for his people. This redemption would forestall the “folly and guilt” that is now in danger of overflowing onto his people—the ‘folly and guilt’ of his loss of the land. Here we see an interesting dynamic emerge: the opening, and throughout, emphasizes the imminent danger to the life of the king. As we saw, the king is in a tug-of-war between God and ‘the Deep’. The danger posed to his life is now merging into a concern that his death may ‘infect’ his people. The beginning of the loss would/could become complete. This terrible potential is countered by the end of the psalm when not only is the land and Zion restored, but they are restored permanently. There, the king’s life is pushed into the background and the land/Zion are seen as being ‘resurrected’ from the waters. What I think we see is this: that with the ‘drawing forth’ of the king, the land/Zion are also ‘drawn forth’. Both are established; both rely on each other. The life of one is the life of the other. And if one is redeemed, then the ‘generations’ have a permanent dwelling, forever. If one dies, then shame, humiliation and reproach result (in exile and death). This is why the king stands directly in the middle. His life is the life of his people because his life is the life of the land. This is the Adam-power of the king as it relates to the Eden-Promised Land of Zion. And, with the Second Adam, the ultimate ‘shame and humiliation’ will be removed which will usher in the fully redeemed Promised Land, and signal the future descent of Zion from heaven to Earth (Eden restored…). In this will be the ‘clothing of immortality’.