Psalm 69:21 – Vinegar for My Thirst
“They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” David composed this lament while suffering unjust persecution, describing how enemies added insult to injury by offering bitter substances instead of comfort. Yet David never experienced this literally—no historical record places him receiving gall and vinegar from tormentors. The psalm speaks prophetically of Christ, whose crucifixion included this precise detail: a sponge of vinegar lifted to His dying lips. In the smallest particulars, Scripture foretold the cross.
David’s Deep Affliction
Psalm 69 is among David’s most intense laments. He describes sinking in deep mire where there is no standing, overwhelmed by floodwaters, throat hoarse from crying, eyes failing while waiting for God. His enemies outnumber his hairs. He has become estranged from his brothers, a stranger to his mother’s children. The reproaches of those who reproached God have fallen upon him.
The cause of his suffering appears connected to his zeal for God. “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me” (Psalm 69:9). David suffers because of his devotion to God, not despite it. His enemies oppose him because they oppose the Lord he serves.
Into this context comes verse 21: “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Gall was a bitter, potentially poisonous plant substance. Vinegar—sour wine—was poor refreshment for genuine thirst. Instead of kindness, his tormentors offered mockery. Instead of relief, they intensified his misery. Their provisions were insults disguised as aid.
The psalm continues with imprecations—prayers for God’s judgment upon these enemies. Their table should become a snare; their eyes should be darkened; God’s wrath should pursue them. Such prayers shock modern sensibilities but express the intensity of David’s suffering and his confidence that God judges wickedness.
When Did David Drink Vinegar?
No narrative in Samuel, Kings, or Chronicles records enemies offering David gall and vinegar. During his flight from Saul, Ziklag’s destruction, or Absalom’s rebellion, nothing matching verse 21 appears. If the psalm is strictly autobiographical, this verse remains unfulfilled in David’s life.
The language may be metaphorical—describing metaphorical bitterness rather than literal drink. David’s enemies offered him “bitter” treatment rather than actual beverages. This interpretation has merit but leaves the specificity of “gall” and “vinegar” unexplained. Why these particular substances if purely metaphorical? The detailed imagery seems to exceed metaphorical requirement.
Furthermore, the New Testament treats Psalm 69 extensively as messianic prophecy. Jesus quoted verse 9 when cleansing the temple (John 2:17). Paul applied verse 9 to Christ (Romans 15:3). The disciples understood verse 25 as prophesying Judas’ fate (Acts 1:20). The pattern of New Testament usage suggests the whole psalm—including verse 21—speaks of Christ beyond David.
The psalm’s imagery of drowning, isolation, enemies without cause, and undeserved suffering all find intensified fulfillment in Christ’s passion. If David spoke prophetically throughout the psalm, verse 21 requires similar prophetic interpretation: someone would literally offer the psalmist’s greater Son gall and vinegar in His suffering.
Fulfilled at Calvary
All four Gospels record the offering of vinegar to Jesus at the crucifixion. Matthew provides the most explicit connection to Psalm 69:21: “They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink” (Matthew 27:34). The correspondence is unmistakable—vinegar mixed with gall, offered to the suffering Messiah, exactly as David’s Spirit-inspired words foretold.
Mark describes wine mingled with myrrh offered to Jesus at the beginning of crucifixion, which He refused (Mark 15:23). Some see this as a narcotic to dull pain, which Jesus rejected to face death fully conscious. Near the end, a sponge soaked in vinegar was lifted to His mouth (Mark 15:36). The details vary slightly between accounts but converge on the prophetic pattern.
John explicitly notes the fulfillment of Scripture: “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth” (John 19:28-29). Jesus’ cry “I thirst” occasioned the vinegar’s offering, completing the prophetic picture.
The precision is remarkable. A thousand years before crucifixion, David described receiving gall and vinegar. At the cross, Jesus received exactly that. This is not coincidence but providence—divine orchestration of historical detail to confirm prophetic word. The Father arranged that even minor elements of the crucifixion would fulfill what He inspired David to write.
Suffering in Specificity
Psalm 69:21’s fulfillment demonstrates Scripture’s detailed accuracy regarding Christ’s sufferings. Prophecy did not speak in vague generalities that could fit any suffering figure. It specified gall and vinegar—particular substances offered in mockery to a particular sufferer at a particular moment. When Jesus hung dying, Roman soldiers unknowingly enacted what David had written.
This specificity strengthens faith in Scripture’s divine origin. Human authors could not predict such details a millennium in advance. David did not know about Roman crucifixion practices or what soldiers would offer condemned men. The Holy Spirit knew and inspired words that would find exact fulfillment in events David could not have imagined.
The detail also underscores Christ’s identification with human suffering to its depths. He did not merely die; He experienced the cruelty of mockery while dying. Thirst—one of crucifixion’s most agonizing elements—was met not with relief but with vinegar. Every dimension of suffering was tasted, including the bitterness of human contempt.
Psalm 69’s imprecations following the gall-and-vinegar verse describe judgment upon enemies. “Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate” (Psalm 69:24-25). Within a generation of Jesus’ crucifixion, Jerusalem was destroyed, its temple burned, its inhabitants killed or scattered. Those who offered vinegar to their Messiah soon experienced the judgments the psalm pronounced.
The Bitter Cup Tasted
Jesus tasted the bitterness so that you might taste salvation’s sweetness. The gall and vinegar given in mockery picture the full bitterness of humanity’s sin that Christ bore. He drank the cup of suffering to its dregs—not just physical pain but rejection, mockery, abandonment, and divine wrath. Nothing was held back.
“I thirst”—one of Jesus’ seven last words from the cross—reveals His true humanity. The Creator of water thirsted. The source of living water dried up under judgment’s heat. He experienced genuine human need in its extremity, not as performance but as reality. The vinegar could not satisfy His thirst; only resurrection morning would end His suffering.
The psalm that begins with deep waters and mire finds its fulfillment in One who entered the deepest waters of divine wrath. “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me” (Psalm 42:7). The flood of judgment that should have drowned humanity passed over Christ instead. He sank that we might stand.
Have you recognized what Jesus endured for you? The vinegar lifted to His lips was lifted because of your sins. The bitterness He tasted should have been yours—eternal bitterness, everlasting gall. But He drank it in your place. The cup the Father gave Him was filled with wrath that was directed at your rebellion. He drained it so you never would.
Psalm 69 ends with praise: “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30). From suffering to singing, from gall to glory, from vinegar to victory. Christ passed through the bitterness and emerged in resurrection joy. All who trust Him pass through death to life, through judgment to justification, through the bitterness of conviction to the sweetness of forgiveness. Taste and see that the Lord is good—the Lord who tasted gall and vinegar for you.