Psalm 69:10-12 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁰ When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,
    it became my reproach.
¹¹ When I made sackcloth my clothing,
    I became a byword to them.
¹² I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
    and the drunkards make songs about me.

Do not expect the world to understand us. We worship out of obedience of faith and sacraments. The world will talk trash about us and in this we are to accept this because it is exactly how they treated our Lord.

Psalm 44:22 English Standard Version (ESV) Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

They regard us as less that animals for they have respect for animals. In the eyes of the world we are to be treated with disrespect, unworthy of affection. We should not expect compassion or mercy from the world. The hard part is to look past the treatment towards our hope and our future. We live in the now, and now it hurts.

James 5:9-10 English Standard Version (ESV)

⁹ Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. ¹⁰ As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 1:7 English Standard Version (ESV) Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

No one says this is easy/ My wish is that in understanding what is happening and the results to come, we would find peace in doing as the Lord has asked in forgiving their ignorance.

Psalm 69:7-9 English Standard Version (ESV)

⁷ For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
    that dishonor has covered my face.
⁸ I have become a stranger to my brothers,
    an alien to my mother’s sons.

⁹ For zeal for your house has consumed me,
    and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

Allow me to show you how I was led to Psalm 69.

John 2:17 English Standard Version (ESV) His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

During a contest of opinions with another Christian this scripture came to mind. The reference in John 2 is over hotly contested issues of what the rulers of the temple were doing. In the middle of any heated debate, can we remember what we have learned and how it is relevant to our now moment?

Meditation in our quiet time can lead to remembrances of scripture with ease. Can the same be said while we are in a heated debate? It is in the heat of battle when we need God’s word with relevance more than ever. Jesus defeated Satan’s lies with truth. Can we hear truth in the middle of a heated discussion with a brother in the Lord? Here is one that probably would have been better suited for the moment.

James 4:2-3 English Standard Version (ESV)

² You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

It would have been relevant to our quarrel but that would not have served God’s will to lead me to this devotional series. What I needed more than to be right was to be in God’s will. He provided His answer rightly.