“I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.”
The statement that sackcloth became the psalmist's clothing and became a byword articulates that the visible signs of mourning and repentance become symbols of ridicule. The wearing of sackcloth, a traditional sign of mourning and penitence, becomes occasion for derision rather than respect. This verse continues to emphasize that every aspect of the psalmist's suffering and response becomes subject to mockery.
Church Fathers on Psalms 69:11
1. We have been born into this world, and added to the people of God, at that period wherein already the herb from a grain of mustard seed has spread out its branches; wherein already the leaven, which at first was contemptible, has leavened three measures, that is, the whole round world repeopled by the three sons of Noe: Genesis 9:19 for from East and West and North and South shall come they that shall sit down with the Patriarchs, Matthew 8:11 while those shall have been…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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