Psalm 109:29

Psalm 109:29

What are we wearing?

The imagery found in this verse is often used in the Scriptures. It is not literal of course, how can someone be clothed with disgrace or wrapped in shame! Yet, the kind of characteristics and attitudes that we display reveal a lot more about us than the fabrics that we bought off the peg in a high street store. So, let’s explore some other verses that explain the negative and positive effects of our moral and spiritual clothing. In fact, we can start here in this Psalm because, in verses 18-19 David’s enemy “wore cursing as a garment,” ….. it was “like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him.”

In Psalm 35:26 David prays that all who gloat over his distress and exalt themselves over him “be clothed with shame and disgrace.” However, the Wedding Song found in Psalm 45 contains a positive plea that the King might clothe himself with splendour and majesty. This kind of language is often used of the Lord God, “Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendour and majesty. The Lord wraps Himself in light as with a garment.” Psalm 104:1-2. There are many other references in the Psalms, Job and the prophets and they all describe the Lord God and His people as being clothed with positive characteristics, and the enemies of God wearing shame and other negative garments. 

This carries over into the New Testament where the Apostle Paul gives this advice to believers, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” Romans 13:14. How do we do that? “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”Galatians 3:27. In 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 Paul describes the miraculous way that our resurrection bodies will be transformed and “the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” In Colossians 3:12 we are exhorted to clothe ourselves! “With compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” 

It's time to look in a mirror and see ourselves for what we really are. Forget the hairstyle, or the new footwear or the latest styles that we so readily put on and then discard. What about the character that we show? What do people see when they meet us? Are we wearing Jesus Christ when we socialise with others? What do the spiritual influences within us reveal to the people we know and meet? Will you and I be wearing Christ Jesus today?

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