Scorned… (Psalm 69:5-12)

I’ll never forget the first
time I was really mocked for the sake of God. 
I was in college sitting in a biology class.  We were knee-deep in the quagmire of the
amino acids when I finally got tired of the incredible trouble the professor
was taking in avoiding God.  I asked a
simple question, “Why does this work?” 
It was simple, right?  What makes
all this stuff work?  How does it know to
do it?

The answer was complicated
chemically and the professor was careful to explain it.  I’m sure he told me to the best of his
ability why it worked.  I just had no
idea what he was talking about! 
Eventually, I said, “No…thanks.  I
mean: WHY does it work.  Why can’t I go
into the lab and mix these same chemicals together, run a charge across it and
create ‘life’?  It seems to me ‘life’ is
pretty unique, chemically speaking. 
Almost like it was designed to be that way.”  I thought it was pretty good. 

The professor didn’t agree.

Neither did many of my
classmates.

The ridicule from the
professor was so strange at the time.  He
was infuriated that I would be willing to trade the “miracle and brilliance of evolutionary
processes for an ancient myth of God that cannot be proven or justified in our
modern society.”  I still remember.  And that was just the words. 

That was a hard semester
because I spent the rest of it justifying every move I made from
classmates.  I was “that Christian” or I represented
“those anti-scientific people” of the world.

But I persevered…by the
grace of God.  And it taught me a lot
about the Lord and how I wasn’t called to be popular.  It hurt and I certainly wasn’t popular in the
class.  I wasn’t perfect and certainly
didn’t have the world all figured out but my Lord deserved me to speak up.

Ever been there?  Have you ever just felt like you just HAD to
speak up and say something only to be ridiculed for it?  King David felt the same way.  You know what?  Jesus did too.  

Psalm 69:5–12 (NIV)

⁵ You,
God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you.

⁶ Lord,
the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me;
God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me.

⁷ For
I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.

⁸ I
am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children;

⁹ for
zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall
on me.

¹⁰ When
I weep and fast, I must endure scorn;

¹¹ when
I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me.

¹² Those
who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

David knew he wasn’t a
perfect man (verse 5), but it was for the Lord’s sake he asked for
intervention.  In His standing for the
Lord, he was scorned—ridiculed, hated, mistreated.   His love for the Lord and the house of the
Lord caused a riff between him and those against him.  So great was the scorn that even David’s
family was alienated from him. 

It doesn’t take an
excessive amount of observation to see Jesus in these verses.  When Jesus cleared the Temple of its
money-changers in John 2:13-25, it was this same kind of zeal that caused the
scorn from others towards Jesus.  When
others were criticizing Jesus, they were criticizing God.  This is how Paul applies this Psalm to Jesus
in Romans 15:3-4 ³ For
even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those
who insult you have fallen on me.”  ⁴ For everything that
was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance
taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

We should not be surprised
when the world doesn’t like us.  We
shouldn’t be surprised when people we know and love ridicule us.  Jesus told us “If the world hates you,
keep in mind that it hated me first.  IF
you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but
I have chosen you out of the world.  That
is why the world hates you” (John
15:18-19).

Maybe today you feel like
people around you are gloating over your misery.  Perhaps you feel like those in authority over
you are mocking you and making a taunt out of you.  It’s okay. 
Keep your chin up.  Remember the
mission we are called to.  You are dearly
loved and treasured to the Father and your witness—even in suffering—tells them
this world is not your home.  We are
pilgrims and nomads in this world.  But
we are pilgrims and nomads who have been adopted by the King!

Verse 1

O soul are you weary and troubled

No light in the darkness you see

There’s light for a look at the Savior

And life more abundant and free

Verse 2

Through death into life everlasting

He passed and we follow Him there

Over us sin no more hath dominion

For more than conquerors we are

Verse 3

His Word shall not fail you He promised

Believe Him and all will be well

Then go to a world that is dying

His perfect salvation to tell

Chorus

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth

Will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”

Words and Music by Helen H.
Lemmel

Public Domain