Psalm 69:8
I am a foreigner to my own family,
a stranger to my own mother’s children. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Psalm 69
I would encourage you to read the entire psalm each day as we work our way through this psalm. You will read verses one way and then after we unpack it you will read it another way. Hopefully today we can learn something new.
We continue today with verse four of Psalm 69. Jesus says something that sounds very human, “I am forced to restore what I did not steal” (vs 4). It’s a strange perspective since it’s pretty clear that Jesus willingly went to the cross to pay for our sins. This line would appear to change that narrative a bit. But he’s not wrong. On the Mount of Olives Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). He hoped for another way, but the cross was the only way.
We find another hard teaching in verse five. “You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you.” Jesus wasn’t guilty of anything. He was God in a body. He never sinned. He was perfect. However, the apostle Paul explains, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Although he wasn’t guilty of sin, he was punished as if he had committed all of the sins ever committed. On the cross, Jesus was guilty of our sin. And when he died, he restored what he didn’t steal – our righteousness.
Verses six through eight could mean a few different things. Verse six sounds like something an imperfect follower of Christ would say. As believers, we make mistakes and often non-believers will look at these instances as reasons for not believing in our God. This can be detrimental to all believers and bring shame and disgrace on the rest of us. Have you ever seen a very public person profess faith in Jesus and then turn around and act like a fool? If so then you know what the psalmist was saying here.
But if verse six are the words of Jesus, it seems a bit strange again for him to say something like this. Jesus did nothing to bring disgrace or shame on God’s people. However, Jesus came to earth and turned the Jewish faith upside down. He challenged the status quo because the status quo was wrong. His followers would be disgraced and shamed because they weren’t following the traditions that Jesus was challenging. Many were likely shamed by their families and disgraced by their friends.
The reason given for verse six lies in verse seven. Jesus endured scorn and shame for God’s sake. That means his followers likely will bear scorn and shame as well. I wonder when Jesus endured this scorn and shame? Looking ahead to verse eight, Jesus was a foreigner to his own family. When? Was it only at the cross when his family rejected him? Or perhaps was Jesus experiencing this at an early age?
We know from Mark 6:3 that Jesus had at least four brothers – James, Joses, Judas and Simon. James and Jude would later become believers and write letters that are part of our New Testament. We know from the same verse that he had at least two sisters. Ever wonder how his six or so siblings treated him? Did they know about their mother’s pregnancy prior to her marriage with their father? How could they not know? Did Jesus claim as a young boy to be the Son of God? Maybe these verses are insightful into the home life of Jesus.
As a believer, are you willing to face the scorn, shame and disgrace that comes with following Jesus? In America, we’ve had it pretty good in that we have a lot of believers. We have power in numbers. But we can also see that could change at any moment. The world is becoming a darker place in many ways. How will you handle the adversity if it comes?
Christ in the Old Testament 
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