I.　Psalm 69 is on the suffering Christ, typified by the suffering David—vv. 1-3, 19-20, 26:

A.　David was a warrior who won victories and gained territories for God's kingdom, yet his life was a life of suffering, and in his suffering he was a type of the suffering Christ:

1.　David trusted in God and walked according to God's sovereignty in all his trials; under God's sovereignty, David took the lessons of the cross—1 Sam. 17:36-37; 23:14-16; 30:6b-10.

2.　We all need to learn two vital lessons—the lesson of God's sovereignty and the lesson of taking the cross with the power of resurrection—Rom. 8:28; Phil. 3:10.

B.　Psalm 69 speaks of Christ's sufferings in a detailed way:

1.　Christ was hated by many without cause—v. 4a; John 15:25.

2.　Christ suffered in bearing reproaches for the sake of God— Psa. 69:7a, 9b; Rom. 15:3.

3.　Christ was devoured by the zeal of God's house—Psa. 69:9a; John 2:17.

4.　Christ suffered much, and no one took pity on Him—Psa. 69:29a, 19-20; John 16:32.

5.　Christ suffered in His weeping and entreating God to deliver Him out of the waters of death—Psa. 69:10, 13-17, 1-2; Heb. 5:7.

6.　Christ was given gall as His food while He was suffering on the cross—Psa. 69:21a; Matt. 27:34.

7.　Christ in His thirst on the cross was given vinegar to drink— Psa. 69:21b; John 19:28-30.

8.　Christ was stricken and wounded by God—Psa. 69:26; Isa. 53:10a.

9.　Christ was betrayed by one of His disciples—Psa. 69:25; Acts 1:16-20a.

10.　Christ's suffering was for Zion and for the building of the cities of God's people —Psa. 69:35-36; Eph. 5:25b.

C.　The Lord Jesus has set His suffering life before us so that we can copy it by tracing and following His steps—1 Pet. 2:21-23:

1.　The Lord kept committing all His insults and injuries to Him who judges righteously in His government, the righteous God, to whom He submitted Himself; this indicates that the Lord recognized God's government while He was living a human life on earth—vv. 22-23.

2.　To follow His steps does not refer to a mere imitation of Him and His life but to a reproduction of Him that comes from enjoying Him as grace in our sufferings, so that He Himself as the indwelling Spirit, with all the riches of His life, reproduces Himself in us—v. 21.

D.　The ministry of the new covenant is produced in the new covenant ministers by the experiences of the riches of Christ gained through sufferings, consuming pressures, and the killing work of the cross—2 Cor. 1:8; 4:8-12.

E.　The apostles and the believers need to fill up "that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ…for His Body, which is the church"— Col. 1:24:

1.　The afflictions of Christ are of two categories: those for accomplishing redemption and those for producing and building up the church through the release of the divine life — John 12:24.

2.　We cannot have fellowship (participation) in Christ's sufferings for redemption, but we need to have much fellowship in Christ's sufferings for the church; the sufferings in which we participate are for the building up of the Body of Christ— Col. 1:24; Phil. 3:10.

II.　Christ is the factor to enact God's New Testament economy—Psa. 40:6-8:

A.　The prophecy in Psalm 40:6-8 is one of the greatest revelations concerning the all-inclusive Christ in the commission that God committed to Christ in His first coming through incarnation, which was to put away the animal sacrifices of the old covenant and to establish Himself, in His body, as the sacrifice of the new covenant—Heb. 10:7, 9-10.

B.　This is to terminate God's Old Testament economy and to initiate God's New Testament economy, in which Christ replaces all the offerings as well as all things, all matters, and all persons— cf. Matt. 17:4-8; Col. 2:16-17; 3:10-11.

C.　The prophecy concerning Christ in Psalm 40:6-8 is the goal and destination of the revelation of Christ in Psalms 2, 8, 16, and 22 through 24:

1.　The words I have come in Psalm 40:7 indicate Christ's first coming through His incarnation for the establishing of the new testament (covenant) by Himself as the enacting sacrifice and offering—Matt. 26:28.

2.　A sacrifice is for sin and sins before God, and an offering is for fellowship with God—Psa. 40:6:

a.　These two things were the elements upon which the old covenant was established, and the old covenant was the centrality and universality of God's economy in the Old Testament—Exo. 24:1-8.

b.　God's not delighting in and not requiring sacrifice and offering points to the termination of His economy in the Old Testament; this is the importance and the greatness of this prophecy—Psa. 40:6.

3.　In this prophecy Christ comes through incarnation to terminate God's old economy and initiate God's new economy, His New Testament economy, by replacing the animal sacrifices and establishing Himself as the unique sacrifice of the new covenant—Heb. 10:5-9.

4.　As such a unique sacrifice, Christ is the factor to enact God's New Testament economy that He may be the centrality and universality for the producing and building up of the church as His organic Body, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 21:2, 10-11.

5.　Christ has changed the age for the consummating of God's new creation out of God's old creation; His changing of the age is greater than the creation of the universe —2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15.