Psalm 119:141

Psalm 119:141

Being lowly and despised

For me, it started at Primary School, the odd snide comment about going to chapel and Sunday School. When you are 10-11 years of age and you haven’t experimented with a few swear words yet, some kids think you are really odd. They “rough you up” and mutter threats every night on the way home from school and you’re never invited to play sport or to become “one of the gang.”

Senior School is not much better, fights on the bus and the misery of being ostracized simply because you are “religious” and go to Grammar School when all the other kids failed the 11 Plus. You are despised because your language is clean and because you don’t tell dirty jokes and because you have the temerity to say that you believe in Jesus. 

Some years later, in the workplace, the same taunts and sneers are maintained but now they are accompanied by indifference or a cold shoulder, people just think you’re weird if you talk about faith. Faith is for the weak, the gullible, the fantasists and the desperate.

Many believers crumble under the weight of isolation and “being different”, others go underground and never let on! It takes courage and true faith to keep going and to grow in our love and appreciation of God’s Word and, if you haven’t yet realised, we are called to be set apart from the world. It seems like the psalmist understood all of this and his antidote was to keep in touch with the precepts of the Lord, He memorised them and He built his life around them and, in that way, found that he could live with being lowly and despised by men for He knew he was loved by God! Hallelujah!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psalm 106:13

Psalm 106:13 Do not forget We need to remember that Israel’s relationship with the Lord God was based on His laws and their obedience. It was possible for them to live lives that were highly blessed, that incorporated the provision of God in every tiny detail of their national and individual existence. God was prepared to give them everything they needed, He would provide food and water for them and their flocks. He would guide them on their journey. He would protect them from their enemies. He would inspire and direct their leaders. He would keep them from the heat of the sun and the terrors of the desert night. He would take them to the land that He had promised, in double quick time. There was no reason why they could not be in situ in just a few months. Everything they could possibly need was His to provide and He was willing to sacrifice anything to see them gratefully settled in Canaan.  There was just one snag, it all depended upon their obedience and faithfulness. God insis...
Read more

Psalm 119:135

Psalm 119:135 His shining face In verse 58 0f the Psalm we commented on the apparent impossibility of being able to see the face of God. And yet this intimacy was something that the psalmists, and other writers, craved. The High Priestly blessing, prayed over the people every day, asks that the Lord make His face shine upon them. In verse 58 we discovered that this plea involved more than just being able to see the face of God, which was impossible; I quote,  “ The Hebrew word for face in the Old Testament can be translated “presence.” Now things start to make more sense! Those Israelites who so regularly abandoned the Lord God were being reminded to seek again the presence of God and the psalmist lets it be known that this is his constant quest. When you think about it, a person’s face reveals a great deal about their character and personality even, maybe, their circumstances or lifestyle. The more we seek the face of God and the more we spend time in His presence, the more like H...
Read more

Psalm 42:1

Psalm 42:1 Why Lord?   This Psalm and the one that follows offer painful pleas to the Lord.  “Why have You forsaken me? When can I go and meet with God? Why must I go about mourning? Why is my soul so downcast?”  The good news is that the writer knows the answer, “ Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God.”  You will note that these two Psalms (41 and 42) are written by the Sons of Korah. These men, the Korahites, were Levites whose particular role was the worship and ceremonial or liturgical activities at the Tabernacle and later the Temple. They would, therefore, have composed music and songs like this as part of their role and also been engaged with the choir that sang at various times during the day and on festive occasions.    V1        The Psalm starts poetically but also with a heart cry;  “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.”  I’ve r...
Read more