Will the real believer stand up

DEVOTION

PSALMS

WILL THE REAL BELEVER STAND UP

Ps 69:19-29

19 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. 20 Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. 21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

22 May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap. 23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. 24 Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. 25 May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. 27 Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. 28 May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous. 29 I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me.

NIV

It sure doesn’t sound like the words of Jesus, but it has to be because of how much prophetic language is in this psalm. We know they gave him vinegar for his thirst. We know that although he knew that was what he came to do, it must have broken his heart the Jew, the very people he came to, hated him so much, the hurled insults at him. They disgraced him, and put him to shame as a common criminal on a cross. But all the lashing out at them about a table before  them becoming a snare. Asking their eyes to be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. Asking God to pour his wrath on them, his fierce anger overtaking them. Asking their place be deserted. All the rest speaking negative onto them, and especially about their names being blotted out of the book of life. It just doesn’t sound like the loving Jesus who came to die for the sins of the world. It sounds more like the God of the Old Testament dealing with his disobedient nation of Israel. The funny thing is that he is still the same God, for he does not change. He is the same today as everyday he ever was.

Mal 3:6-7

6 "I the LORD do not change . So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty.

NIV

Heb 13:8

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

NIV

 But there is also something in these words which can be taken personally in our lives. Is there a time coming when we might experience this kind of persecution? There are believers today in other parts of the world that already have been killed for their faith, tortured in the most heinous ways. Those who do such things to believers surely most have their names blotted out of the book of life. One of the truths we can see here is there is diffidently is difference between the evil and the righteous. The heart of those who would do harm to believers are no doubt influenced by evil. The righteous are influenced by God. We believers have to come to terms with the fact the world is not our friend. The world and all that it stands for, and by the world it is meant the ways of the world, the philosophies, the lifestyle, the concepts, traditions, customs, everything the world stands for is opposed to the truth of God. Why would we who have been adopted as sons and daughters of God want to adopt any part of the world? We are foreigners, strangers, aliens living in a unfriendly environment. We need our space suit on, the Armor of God, the Fruit of the Spirit, the Gifts of the Spirit to engulf us and protect us from the harshness of this environment we must live in, but not of. We have been called out from the deserted place, the parched land where no one lives. The members, the citizens of the world who remain in the world and of the world will not live. But we have life and life abundantly. So why would we want to be a part of this world. Jesus came to change the way in which a person could find salvation and that it would be through him. But the world rejected him and it rejects us. We cannot partner with God and the world at the same time. It is possible the reason we may not experience the type of scorn the writer of this psalm depicts is we may have adopted too many of the ways of the world, looking too much like those who would do a believer harm. We might be hiding in the open, so not to be noticed, and thus persecuted. It might be time for the real believer to stand up.