Psalm 119:51

We continue today with our meditations taken from the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Zain

Psalms 119:51 The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.

Derision is the action of deriding. So let’s define the word deride.

Deride – To laugh at in contempt or scorn; to laugh to scorn; to make sport of, mock.

The man of God writes in this psalm of the yearnings and experiences of God’s chosen and redeemed family, who keep His law. One of those experiences is to be the object of derision, to be laughed at in contempt, to be made fun of.

Note that the ones who hold them in contempt are called the proud. Anyone who would make fun of a person for fearing God has a very high opinion of himself; he is very full of himself. His expression of contempt for God’s servant is in reality an expression of contempt for God Himself and His holy law. No greater expression of arrogance can be imagined than to thus boldly mock the Almighty God of heaven and earth, Who holds in His hand the breath of every living thing. The Lord has but to nod and that arrogant fool would be reduced to nothingness. Yet he dares to defy the living God and mock His chosen ones with the very breath His Maker gives Him.

Not only do the proud have God’s servants in derision; they have had them greatly in derision.

Psalms 123:4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.

It is hard to imagine any passage more relevant to the age in which we live than the verse we consider today. Observe how much, yea, how greatly the media makes fun of Christianity and its followers. If a television show or a movie has a character that is a preacher, how many times is that preacher presented as a bungling idiot or a crook? Authoritative leaders who enforce righteousness are cast in a dim light. It is they who must be broken. They are the villain.

But over against all this derision, the psalmist states: yet have I not declined from thy law.

Decline – To turn aside, deviate. fig. To turn aside in conduct; esp. to swerve or fall away (from rectitude, duty, allegiance, instructions, etc.).

The psalmist did not let the scorn of the proud intimidate him into backing off from his devotion to God’s law and neither should we. As Matthew Henry pointed out, the psalmist was “jeered for his religion,” but he was not “jeered out of his religion.” He would bear the laughter; he would be the brunt of the joke; he would endure the embarrassment. Because, you see, in the end, it is God and His servants who will have the last laugh.

Psalms 2:4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Luke 6:21 …Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. 23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

The day is coming when the derision of the proud aimed at the righteous will be forever silenced.

Jude 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

But before we leave this meditation today, let us “consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,” even our Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:3). Today’s verse speaks so plainly of Him. Whilst hanging on His cross bearing our reproach and sin, it was written of Him:

Luke 23:35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. 36 And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, 37 And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.

He, too, was had greatly in derision by the proud who encircled His cross and poked fun at Him and His claims, and dared Him to come down from the cross. Yet, thank God, He did not decline from the law that required His suffering on that cross. Instead of coming down from the cross, He bore its curse to the death thus fulfilling the law and bringing in our everlasting salvation. Praise ye the Lord!