Theme: How the Psalm Points to Jesus
In this week’s lessons we are given a vivid picture of Christ’s sufferings.
Scripture: Psalm 69:1-18
Jesus bore a lifetime of insults for God and our sakes. When he spoke the truth about sin, the leaders were incensed. Jesus showed them that they were children of their fathers, who had stoned the prophets and killed those who were sent to them. “You are doing the things your own father does” he told them (John 8:41). They turned on him with wrath and reproached him with illegitimacy. They knew, undoubtedly, that Jesus had been born shortly after the marriage of Joseph and Mary, and not knowing that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, they flung in his teeth that he was rumored to be illegitimate: “We are not illegitimate children.” Jesus knew that he had been begotten by the Holy Spirit and took this reproach gently, but he let them know their true background: “You belong to your father, the devil” (v. 44).
The first time that Jesus ever spoke in public, his message on salvation by the simple, electing grace of God aroused fury in the Pharisees. He had not spoken twenty lines before they rose up and led him to the brow of the hill on which the city was built, intending to push him over the precipice (Luke 4:28). When he cast out demons, his enemies reproached him for working by the power of the devil: “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons” (Matt. 12:24). When he was on the cross, they mocked him with the claims he had made: “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God” (Matt. 27:40)! They flouted his claim to deity and more than implied that he was himself a great deceiver.1
If there was ever an example of one who was willing to bear even the worst of abuses in order to please God the Father, it was Jesus Christ. If there was ever one whose personal experiences in life reflected the words of this psalm, it is the Savior.
1This material is covered in a fuller form by Donald Grey Barnhouse in God’s Glory: Exposition of Bible Doctrines Taking the Epistle to the Romans as a Point of Departure, vol. 10, Romans 14:13-16:27 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), pp. 41-43.
Study Questions:
Why was Jesus rumored to be illegitimate? Why was this rumor incorrect?
How did he counter the accusation?
Why did Jesus bear such severe abuses?
How did his life reflect the words of our psalm?
Application: Perhaps you are experiencing abuse from unbelievers because of your Christian testimony. Or maybe you are even being mistreated by other Christians. Pray for perseverance, and for God’s perfect will to be accomplished in your life.
