Where do we look when friends seem to turn against us? It could be for something they misunderstood or it could be we did not understand their response. The writer of this psalm thought he and his people were scoffed and ridiculed.
How do we respond to these insults? Were they intentional or not? I remember a woman in our Sunday School class who thought a friend had insulted her. I also remember a woman who was hurt because her friend did not speak to her in the hall between Sunday School and church; her friend was talking with someone else.
Preachers have this feeling of rejection also. 1 Peter 4:11 says, “Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God Himself were speaking through you.” Yet, how can you really feel this knowing you are only a human with many flaws. Sometimes preachers feel they have not preached their best message. It was reported that Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one of the great preachers of the 19th century, had to be helped off the stage and to his house many times because he felt he had not done his best for God. One preacher found out a member of his church was unhappy because, “we had a great Bible School; too bad we had to spend all that money on kids that aren’t ours.” Talk about causing discouragement!
How should we deal with contempt and scoffing? The writer tells us to first look to God for the answer. “I lift my eyes to You, O God, enthroned in heaven. We keep looking to the Lord our God for His mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on the master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.” Today we don’t have an understanding of the culture the writer lived in.
In his day, it was very important for servants, whether hired or slaves, to be very attentive to signals from those they served. Often there were daily routines households went through. The servants were to prepare for those events and instantly deliver whatever was necessary at the master’s slightest signal. Only if there was a change in the routine would the master give verbal instruction.
This is God’s instruction to us: to always be looking to Him when we are under stress. We cannot see what God is doing in our lives. Poor Job went through some time not understanding why everything was taken from him. Abraham wandered in the wilderness for 25 years waiting for God’s promise of a son. Moses believed God had called him to liberate his people, and yet, he wandered 40 years in the wilderness herding sheep. David was anointed as the next king of Israel as a teenager but not seeing God’s promise fulfilled until he was 30 years old. When nothing seems to be going right, we must look to God alone for answers.