Those in trouble in Psalm 69 are evidently near death, and are earnestly pleading for the Lord to deliver them from trouble. It seems as if they feel like they are not being heard
And they call on the Lord’s lovingkindness,
“Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.”
Psa 69:16.
The Lord does have great lovingkindness,
““Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, 7 keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.””
Ex 34:6-8.
Ah! that is clearly so. Even so they plead for him to not hide His face from them.
“Don’t hide your face from your servant,
For I am in distress.
Answer me speedily!”
Psa 69:17.
Does God ever hide his face from His servants? Yes in fact, sometimes He does. So it says in Proverbs,
“Yahweh is far from the wicked,
But he hears the prayer of the righteous.”
Prov 15:29
God says of physical Israel of the Old Testament,
“He said, I will hide my face from them,
I will see what their end shall be:
For they are a very perverse generation,
Children in whom is no faithfulness.”
Deut 32:20
In Isaiah chapter 1 it one gives specific reason.
“When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you;
Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.”
Isa 1:15
So the men in Psalm 69 realize that God may hide His face from us. Look carefully! If you play games with God, He may hide from you when you need Him!! They plead with God,
“Draw near to my soul, and redeem it.
Ransom me because of my enemies.”
Psa 69:18
No doubt David at times felt abandoned
by God at times
He knew the reason when his first child by Bathsheba was dying, and his prayers went unanswered in 2Samuel 12. Likewise in Absalom’s revolt. Still, excepting some of David’s psalms about the Christ, his heart was over all very trustful in the Lord despite horrendous setbacks in 1Samueal. Perhaps this fits Jesus better. The psalmist goes on to say,
“Don’t hide your face from your servant,
For I am in distress.
Answer me speedily!”
Psa 69:17
So it does seem to say he feels like God is hiding His face from him.
Jesus felt that God had hidden His face from Him,
“About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, limaa sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” Mtt 27:46.
Now you may argue that it only felt that way, but maybe He did for a while, so that Jesus could bear the penalty for our sins.
Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901