Psalm 119:22

Psalm 119:22

Remove the scorn and contempt

The scorn and contempt of the godless can be very hurtful. We’ve all had a dose of their disdain and their sneering comments, we’ve all known something of the ridicule that the wicked pour upon the righteous. Sometimes they just say it outright, they pour out their insults and their derision on anyone who has faith. The mockery begins in the form of cutting remarks in the school playground and continues right through to the contemptuous and condescending speeches of the intellectual elite, who publicly pour disdain on those who have a “simple” faith in God and therefore show themselves to be gullible to superstition and delusion.

Whilst cutting words are hurtful, they soon pass. What can be harder to take is the growing awareness that there are people who deliberately treat you as “persona non grata”; you are not wanted, your face does not fit, you will never get that promotion, you will never be invited to join the popular gang, you will always be kept at arm’s length. Whilst people smile and act in a friendly manner, behind your back they gossip and insult you, and the God you serve.

It has always been so, as our psalmist reminds us, and he has a strategy for dealing with this. Firstly, he prays to the Lord to remove the stigma of faith from him, to take away the sense of loneliness and isolation that being a child of God brings. He may even be suggesting here that the Lord removes the contemptuous from his life. Secondly, the author is able to appeal to a higher purpose for the reason he has become a victim of the scorn and contempt of others is because he keep the statutes of the Lord. In other words, he can claim the moral high ground, whatever the mockers may say, he knows that in God’s eyes, he has found favour. At the end of the day, that is all that really matters. Hallelujah! 

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