Remove from me reproach and contempt; For I have kept thy testimonies (Psalm 119:22).
A new convert to the Christian faith may naively expect that he is on the verge of general congratulations, when observers see by the consistency of his life and lip that he is in dead earnest to live as a disciple of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. This is, after all, the most wonderful, praiseworthy change that can possibly come over a person. To be liberated from sin’s bondage, changed from a moral menace to a means of blessing, truly is a cause for celebration. Indeed, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents (Luke 15.10). If only earth had as much sense!
IT IS PREDICTABLE
Instead, both his becoming a sincere Christian and making genuine advances in godliness provokes the opposite reaction from most people, as they remain hostile to God and His holy church.
Here the psalmist testifies of his ongoing experience of “reproach and contempt,” the Hebrew words have connotations of disgrace, disrespect, a state of dishonor and low status, scorn, insult, taunt, slur, verbal mocking, and the like. Instead of enjoying an elevated reputation, the psalmist had to endure all this considerable misery in his earthly experience. His enemies hated him without a cause; there was no good reason for them to disrespect, ostracize, and ridicule him.
Such a reaction on their part to a true man of God is predictable. Calvin stated the sense of this verse and elaborated upon it in these words,
O God, permit not the ungodly to mock me for endeavoring to keep thy law. For this impiety has been rampant in the world even from the beginning, that the sincerity of God’s worshippers has been matter of reproach and derision; even as, at this day, the same reproaches are still cast upon God’s children, as if not satisfied with the common mode of living, they aspired being wiser than others (in loc.).
This biblical doctrine of the shame of godliness is a far cry from that false gospel preached by many today which has been labeled “health and wealth,” as completely devoid of any cross! “Come to Christ and your life will become comfortable; exercise great faith and you will not have to suffer anything unpleasant;” with words like these they entice lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. For self-gratification, false teachers exploit their gullible hearers, separating them from their money (2 Tim 3.4; 2 Pet 2.3).
Many Scripture texts affirm the shame of godliness in this vile world; evidently the Lord knows we need to be firmly convinced of the reality of this prospect for all who would live godly in Christ Jesus (e.g., Matt 10.22; Acts 14.22; John 16.33; 1 Thess 3.4; 2 Tim 3.12; Heb 11.24-26; 1 Pet 4.1-4).
IT IS PAINFUL
Psa 119.22 is borne of suffering and the cry of one in great distress. Sickness and poverty are less severe trials than this to the spiritually-sensitive soul. His main concern is not that he would be esteemed and liked, but that the public honor of his beloved God is at stake, and the good of souls who might otherwise come under his influence. The one who loves God supremely and loves his neighbor as himself also cares more about God’s praise and the salvation of sinners than his own reputation, as important as that is (Prov 22.1). Therefore, when these other priorities suffer, he agonizes deeply over it, mourning over the sad state of affairs.
This soul-pain drives the godly to prayer, for only God can effect the blessed change. “Remove (roll off, so the Hebrew word) from me reproach and contempt.” A very similar expression is found in Joshua 5.9 where the Lord says to His people, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.” The place where God said this was thereafter named “Gilgal,” which means “rolling.” The Egyptians had taunted Israel as nationally rejected by God because they were no longer practicing circumcision. Under Joshua, their reproach was rolled away with the renewal of the covenant sign. The Israelites would now be widely recognized as the special people of God’s covenant in a way that had been nearly lost just before they triumphantly entered the Promised Land.
Only God can elevate your esteem and influence among men, and prosper His church in the world. Without a gracious answer to this prayer, any advance in godliness will only be met with greater disdain and opposition, and any compromises with the world will, ironically, also provoke their disgust at one professing to be a Christian. You cannot really win the world to God by becoming worldly yourself. The popularity of compromising churches is only an illusion of spiritual success.
Therefore we must resort to prayer for relief of the predictable and painful shame of godliness. We must not be afraid to complain reverently to the Lord about our sufferings, particularly in this. “Roll away from me their reproach and contempt, that Your glory might be seen and their souls might be saved.”
IT IS PASSING
Everything that saints ask of God according to His will shall eventually be granted to them (1 John 5.14-15). The very fact that the Holy Spirit prompted the psalmist to pray this was, in itself, a harbinger of relief, because He would not provoke holy desires He did not intend to gratify.
It is not according to God’s eternal plan that the most godly should remain forever the most despised, and that the wicked should forever triumph. Even in this life, God is often pleased to give His faithful servants a measure of honor, even from the wicked (Esther 6.11).
Also, a greater reversal than that illustrated in Haman and Mordecai is coming (Mark 10.31), and it will especially be realized on Judgment Day when Christ returns. Then, as He promised,
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matt 13.41-43).
The psalmist looks forward with confident hope that God will eventually grant this petition, when it tends most to His glory and the good of His elect, because he prays as one who can say, “for I have kept thy testimonies”—not perfectly (119.5-7), but sincerely. The psalmist did not regard his righteous manner of life as the grounds of his justification before God, but as the evidence that the One who had already regenerated him, and was now progressively sanctifying him, would also bring the gracious work of salvation to its final conclusion, even his glorification.
What a comfort to him under persecution and slander! Men despised him, but God loved him. Enemies said he was a troublemaker, but God knew the sincerity of his spiritual service.
One day—one glorious day—he would be honored and vindicated before all creation. “The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom 8.19). When Christ returns, the shame of godliness will be rolled away from His true servants forever. All the wicked will then envy their happy estate, and lament that their everlasting miseries have come upon them, with no possibility of escape.
Oh Lord, for the glory of Your name, and for preservation of your beloved children during our trial, and for the conversion of multitudes outside the church, we pray as one body that You will remove from us reproach and contempt, for the testimony of our conscience is that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have kept Your testimonies (2 Cor 1.12). Amen.
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