Psalms 119:21-24 ESV
“You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones,
who wander from your commandments.
Take away from me scorn and contempt,
for I have kept your testimonies.
Even though princes sit plotting against me,
your servant will meditate on your statutes.
Your testimonies are my delight;
they are my counselors.”
Who
are the insolent? They are those who do not show due respect for other people.
They are also the brazen, the shameless who show scorn for others, marked by
contemptuous disregard of others. They are evildoers, meanies, abusers, users,
manipulators, liars and cheats. Their flesh is their god whom they worship and
give all their love and adoration to. For they live for self-pleasure and
self-gratification regardless of who they hurt in the process.
Now these who are insolent can be people in positions of
power and rule, such as government heads, and/or CEOs of corporations, and/or
the wealthy and powerful of the world (the elite) who are the ones really
running the world. And some of them are pastors of church congregations (or of
what is falsely being called “church”), and some of them are church elders and
deacons, and some of them are heads of households who exercise authority over
those within their households.
But they aren’t just people in positions of rule and
authority over others, for they are regular people, too. And some (or many) of
them are also among those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, and some of them
will use religion as a way to abuse others, too. But they are the selfish and
the self-driven who are guiding their own steps and who are not yielding their
lives over to the will of God. For they are those who wander from God’s
commandments in order to do what ought not to be done.
But they are also those who will excuse away their insolence
and their disobedience with all sorts of lame excuses for why they are living
as they are. For, even though they may profess faith in Jesus Christ, they do
not honor him as Lord of their lives, but they deny him by their actions and by
how they treat others, for some of them will show scorn and contempt to those
who are following the Lord Jesus with their lives. And some of them will do
this because they resent those whose faith in Jesus is strong.
And so the psalmist here is praying to God to take away from
him such scorn and contempt, for he had kept the testimonies of the Lord. And
even though there were rulers and others who were plotting evil against him, he
remained faithful to the Lord and to meditating on his statutes. For the
testimonies of the Lord were his delight. They were his counselors. But if we
remain faithful to the Lord in keeping his commandments (New Covenant), does
that guarantee us that God will rescue us from scorn and contempt?
If we read the New Testament Scriptures and the words of
Jesus and of the apostles we will soon learn that we are destined for such
treatment as this. For Jesus said that if we follow him that we will be hated
and mistreated like he was, and that we will be scorned and mocked and falsely accused
of wrongdoing, etc. For we are called of God to share in the fellowship of
Christ’s sufferings, becoming like him in his death. For if we follow Jesus
with our lives, the same kinds of people who hated him will hate us, too.
So, although the Lord Jesus may give us relief from our
suffering, from time to time, and he may remove us from situations where we are
being persecuted, and he may send us someplace else sometimes, he doesn’t promise
us in this life that we will totally be free from suffering or persecution and
from being treated with scorn and contempt. For the closer our relationship is
with our Lord, and the greater our obedience to him, the more we are going to
be hated and opposed and scorned.
[Matt 5:10-16; Matt 10:16-25; Matt
24:9-14; Matt 28:18-20; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; John
15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Acts 1:8; Acts 14:22; Acts 26:18; Rom
5:3-5; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; 2 Co 1:3-11; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Phil
3:7-11; Col 3:16; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; Heb 3:13; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Pet 1:6-7;
1 Pet 2:9; 1 Pet 4:12-17]
He Lifted Our Burdens
An Original Work / February 15, 2014
Based off Isaiah 9:2-7
People walk in
darkness.
They abide in their
sin.
It has power o’er
them.
True belief escapes
them.
Jesus Christ came to
save them.
He gave His life up
for them;
Crucified; died for
our sin,
So we might be
forgiven,
And have life up in
heaven.
Many come to know
Him.
God’s love now
o’erflows them.
They rejoice in
vict’ry.
Their sin is but
hist’ry.
We were once bound
in slav’ry.
Jesus lifted our
burdens;
Set us now free from
Satan,
So we now walk in
freedom.
Sin has no more
dominion.
Praise be to our
Savior!
He showed us His
favor.
He took all our
burdens;
Cast them all upon
Him.
He is our mediator;
The Light which
shines in darkness.
Counselor in our
troubles;
He gives peace now
in our hearts;
Joy which is
everlasting.
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