HOW TO HANDLE SCORN AND ALIENATION (FEELING ALL ALONE)
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INTRODUCTION:
INTRODUCTION:
All who follow the Lord and live in obedience to His Word should expect to suffer contempt by the world (2 Ti. 3:12; 1 Jn. 3:13).
12 Indeed, all who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
13 Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
Sadly, though, it is not just the unsaved who will hold faithful believers in contempt: sometimes worldly and carnal believers—those who only profess to know Christ—will also despise those who are devoted wholly to the Lord.
The psalmist expressed the pain of such alienation in this section of Psalm 119. Because of his faithful obedience to God’s Word, he had become the object of scorn and criticism (v. 22). He felt totally out of place in the world, like a foreigner rejected by all who lived around him (v. 19). In response, he asked God to bless and deliver him, and he resolved to continue to immerse himself in God’s Word. This is, The Way to Handle Scorn and Alienation—Feeling All Alone, 119:17–24.
Ask God to be good to you (vv 17-21).
Ask God to be good to you (vv 17-21).
Psalms III: Chapters 107–150 (King James Version) Psalm 119: The Way to Handle Scorn and Alienation—Feeling All Alone, 119:17–24
The psalmist was paying a price for his faithful obedience to God. The ongoing scorn and contempt by those around him was draining the life out of him. He humbly asked the LORD to deal bountifully with or do good to (gamal) him—to show him His favor because he was God’s loyal servant.
a. Because He alone can give you life (v. 17a).
a. Because He alone can give you life (v. 17a).
The persecution the psalmist had encountered was so painful that he felt as if he was going to die. Realizing that God alone could give him life, he asked the LORD to pour out generous blessings upon him (Ps 119 77, 88).
77 May Your compassion come to me so that I may live, For Your Law is my delight.
88 Revive me according to Your faithfulness, So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.
A bountiful portion of God’s goodness would strengthen him to endure his fierce trial.
b. Because you vow to obey His Word (v. 17b).
b. Because you vow to obey His Word (v. 17b).
In strong need of a fresh touch from God, the oppressed psalmist made a holy promise to the LORD. He vowed to obey God’s Word as long as he lived. Note that the contempt by others did not persuade this devoted servant to compromise the truth or to stray from the path of righteousness. Instead, suffering reproach stirred him to be even more faithful to God’s Word.
c. Because you need help to understand His Word, Jn. 14:26 (v. 18).
c. Because you need help to understand His Word, Jn. 14:26 (v. 18).
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.
The psalmist knew that God’s holy Word was a storehouse of wonderful treasures. He longed to savor the marvelous truths of Scripture. However, he realized that, by nature, he was blind to spiritual truth. He needed God’s help to understand His Word (1 Co. 2:10–14).
10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among people knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit of the person that is in him? So also the thoughts of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 14 But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Unless God taught and guided him, he could not grasp the glories of God’s Word (Jn. 14:26; 16:13).
John 14:26 (NASB 2020)
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.
John 16:13 (NASB 2020)
13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
Therefore, the psalmist asked the LORD to open his eyes—the eyes of spiritual understanding—so that he might clearly see the wonders revealed in Scripture. Without divine enlightenment, the priceless treasures of Scripture would always be beyond his reach.
d. Because you are a stranger on earth (vv. 19–20).
d. Because you are a stranger on earth (vv. 19–20).
Living in obedience to God’s Word had led the psalmist to realize that he was out of place in this world. Scorned by those around him, he declared that he was a stranger or foreigner on earth (v. 19a; Php 3:20–21; He. 11:13; 1 Pe. 2:11).
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with His glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
11 Beloved, I urge you as foreigners and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.
Apparently, the rejection he suffered had also caused him to feel alienated from God, as if God were far away and he could not hear Him speak. In desperate need of refreshment and strength from God’s Word, he implored the LORD not to hide His commands from him (Ps 119 19b).
19 I am a stranger on the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me.
Verse 19 can also be viewed from a different perspective. Aware that he was a foreigner on earth, the psalmist needed the LORD to guide and help him. Therefore, he asked God not to hide His commands but to freely reveal His truth to him and give him clear direction. He needed to grasp “the inner sense and true application” of Scripture to his life.
The suffering psalmist went on to confess that his soul was broken (garas)—crushed, languishing, wasting away—because of his burning need to hear from God (v. 20). His parched soul panted for the cool waters of the Word. He longed for God’s Word to show him how to live in the barren, lonely wilderness of this world. Starved for spiritual direction, he yearned to know what the LORD wanted him to do.
e. Because He protects His people: He rebukes and curses the arrogant, all who turn away from His Word (v. 21).
e. Because He protects His people: He rebukes and curses the arrogant, all who turn away from His Word (v. 21).
Suffering intense persecution, the psalmist clung to the LORD’s promise to protect His faithful people. He reminded himself—and the LORD—that He rebukes the proud (zed, pronounced zade). The proud are those who arrogantly disregard God’s commands. Because they deliberately turn away from His Word, they live under a twofold curse:
⮚ the curse of the painful, natural consequences of their sin
⮚ the curse of God’s judgment
Ask God to deliver you from the arrogant and the scorners.
Ask God to deliver you from the arrogant and the scorners.
The psalmist asked God to deliver him from the arrogant scorners who were persecuting him. The reproach and contempt he was forced to bear were the outcome of his faithful obedience to God’s testimonies or statutes. Nevertheless, he reaffirmed his commitment to God’s holy Word.
a. Because you obey His Word faithfully (v. 22).
a. Because you obey His Word faithfully (v. 22).
The psalmist made a simple, but powerful, statement: he declared that he obeyed God’s Word faithfully. Because he was the LORD’s devoted servant, he expected God to defend and deliver him.
b. Because you are helpless before persecutors (rulers) (v. 23a).
b. Because you are helpless before persecutors (rulers) (v. 23a).
Even the princes or rulers spoke against this faithful follower of God. The word sit (yashab), here, refers to these rulers’ sitting in their official capacity as judges. Obviously, the psalmist was helpless before these powerful men. There was nothing he could do to defend himself when the judges declared themselves against him. He had nobody to turn to except the LORD.
c. Because you meditate on God’s Word despite opposition (vv. 23b–24).
c. Because you meditate on God’s Word despite opposition (vv. 23b–24).
In spite of the intense opposition, the psalmist was determined to stay true to the LORD. He responded to his persecutors by meditating on God’s Word (v. 23b). The precious truths of Scripture strengthened him to withstand the scorn and contempt being heaped upon him. Because God’s Word was his delight, meditating on Scripture encouraged him, lifting his downcast soul and lightening his heavy load (v. 24a). Note that the Hebrew word for delight (sha’ashuim) is plural in form. Indeed, the delights of God’s blessed Word are many to the persecuted believer.
Furthermore, because God’s truths were his counselors, they would guide and direct his every step in the face of such fierce opposition (v. 24b).
In his incomparable work on Psalm 119, the seventeenth century Puritan minister Thomas Manton points out that counselors (enosh etsah) is literally, “the men of my counsel.” When we turn to God’s Word for direction, our counsellors are the prophets, apostles, and other holy men of God through whom the spirit gave us the Scripture (2 Pe. 1:21). We can trust their counsel to be unfailingly true and right.
Closing Thought
Closing Thought
Like the persecuted psalmist, we should ask God to deliver us when we are mistreated for our faithfulness to His Word. At the same time, we need to remember that God may have a greater purpose for our suffering. Commentator Warren Wiersbe calls attention to the fact that “the psalmist’s suffering gave him opportunity to bear witness to nobles and kings” (vv. 23, 46). In the first century after Christ’s death, the gospel was carried to the world largely by persecuted believers who fled Jerusalem for their lives. The Apostle Paul accepted and even embraced the reality that God might be magnified more by his death than by his life. Nevertheless, he continued to pray and to trust the Lord to deliver him (Php 1:19–20).
19 for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 according to my eager expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
Whether God chooses to deliver us from persecution or to further His excellent purposes through our suffering, we can be sure that He will strengthen and sustain us by His Word. Like the psalmist, we need to meditate more than ever on the Scripture, find our delight in its blessed truths, and seeks its wisdom to guide our every word and step.
“Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us” (2 Co. 1:10).
“For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Ph. 1:19).
“And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (2 Ti. 4:18).
“And the LORD shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him” (Ps. 37:40).
“And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Ps. 50:15).
“And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you” (Is. 46:4).
Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 2016. Psalms: Chapters 107–150. Vol. III. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.