They Gave Me Also Gall for My Meat (Psalm 69:21)

2023-05-28

They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (Psalms 69:21)

This lament psalm of David mirrors a lot of the things the Lord went through in His life and on the cross. This verse is one small piece of this, which we see clearly fulfilled in the New Testament.

When Jesus first got to Golgotha to be crucified, He refused to drink the vinegar with the gall. “They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink” (Matthew 27:34). However, immediately before He died, He was offered vinegar with no mention of gall, and He received it. “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 spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:28-30; cf. Matthew 27:48).

Gall is something that is bitter (Deuteronomy 29:18; 32:32), poisonous (Job 20:14; Amos 6:12), and something one would not normally want to drink (Jeremiah 8:14). Why would they offer this to Jesus but to hasten His death or ease His pain? He refused and felt the full pain of the crucifixion. His experience of the wrath of God was not dulled. However, Jesus received the vinegar only when He was about to die “that the scripture might be fulfilled.”

The two discrete events are in the same order, as they were listed in the psalm. This is another small piece of prophecy fulfilled.