Psalm 109:25 Scorned Saviour

Psalm 109:25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads

This psalm is very much an imprecatory psalm with its prayers for vengeance on the one who loved to pronounce a curse and wore cursing as his garment. Verse 8 is quoted in the New Testament and is applied to Judas. That hermeneutical key clearly makes David a messianic figure, so when he speaks as he does in verse 25 of being an object of scorn we can immediately see how that speaks also of Christ and in particular what happened to him in the various trials leading to the cross and when he was actually crucified. This is exactly how it was. At his trials before the High priests and Herod and Pilate, he became an object of scorn and ridicule. It was the same at Golgotha. When people saw him they really did shake their heads in disgust. The Gospel writers describe how the different groups - the soldiers, the Jewish leaders, the people passing by, even the criminals either side of him - all scorned him and shook their heads uttering one derogatory remark or another. However, like David, the Lord cried to God for help, in accordance with his love and was heard. On the third day he rose again. And so it is now too. Today we see Jesus Christ once again made an object of scorn to his accusers. So Michael Onfray, for example, can say "Jesus’s existence has not been historically established. No contemporary documentation of the event, no archaeological proof, nothing certain exists …We must leave it to lovers of impossible debates to decide on the question of Jesus’s existence" (Atheist Manifesto, 115, 116). The scorn and the head shaking goes on. A verse like this warns us not to be surprised at that and stirs us to pray for his vindication which will come in due time.