Psalm 119:51 NKJV
51
The proud have me in great derision,
Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.
The Proud Mock, But We Stand Firm
My Notes
Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV) says:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
What David went through with people and even his wife Michal treating him with contempt and ridiculing him is something that we still see today. Thomas Adams listed several others from the Bible who were disrespected in this manner; Joseph was called a dreamer, Paul a babbler, they tried to put down Jesus by calling him a carpenter, and the list goes on.
We see it today when new believers are made fun of and ridiculed by co-workers, “friends”, and family. They are made fun of because when they are saved, they became a new creation, the old man has died, and they are a new man. But David had the answer and we do well to take note of it, “Yet I do not turn aside from Your law”. There is no need to be belligerent to those who are mocking us, but by our actions, by our steadfastness, some of those who mock us will come to believe in Christ Jesus. There will be a time when one of those people mocking will have a need, I’ve seen it time and time again. When those “mockers” have something in their life that knocks them down, the person they come to is the one they mocked. Jesus always wins, Jesus has already won.
I like what David said when Michal mocked him for dancing in front of the Ark, “And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. ”, in today’s language David was doubling down on God. He was in effect saying that when people make fun of me for my belief in the Lord, I will run harder toward the Lord.
Psalm 119:51 illustrates David’s unwavering commitment to God’s law despite facing derision from the proud and haughty. The proud mock individuals dedicated to faith, revealing their contempt for those who strive for holiness. Charles Spurgeon and other commentators emphasize that ridicule from such individuals should not sway believers from their spiritual paths. David stands firm, not only enduring mockery but also remaining steadfast in his faith. The consensus among commentators highlights the importance of maintaining one’s dedication to God’s word in the face of worldly scorn, urging believers to find strength and comfort in their faith rather than yielding to disrespect.
Note: Psalm 119 is an acrostic pattern. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet; each of the 22 sections is given a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each line in that section begins with that letter. Today, we’re looking at verse 51, which is in the 7th section, which is called “Zayin ז”. According to the hebrews4christians.com website, the letter Zayin ז is the 7th letter of the Aleph-Bet, having the numeric value of seven. The pictograph for Zayin ז looks like a sword. Since Zayin ז represents both the number seven and a sword, it is not surprising that it is used to divide or cut up time (z’man) into units of sevens:
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Shabbat – the 7th day of the 7-day week (the week of days)
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Shavu’ot – the 49th day after Passover (the week of weeks)
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Tishri – the 7th month of the year (the week of months)
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Shemitah – the 7th year of rest for the land (the week of years)
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Yovel – the 49th year (the week of weeks of years)
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The Millennial Kingdom – the 7th millennium of human history (week of 1,000’s)
The Rabbi’s pronounced “All sevens are blessed”, and the number seven has always been regarded in the Jewish tradition as the number of completion, wholeness, blessing, and rest.
……..Bill
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“The proud have had me greatly in derision.” Proud men never love gracious men, and as they fear them they veil their fear under a pretended contempt. In this case, their hatred revealed itself in ridicule, and that ridicule was loud and long. When they wanted sport they made sport of David because he was God’s servant. Men must have strange eyes to be able to see a farce in faith and a comedy in holiness; yet it is sadly the case that men who are short of wit can generally provoke a broad grin by jesting at a saint. Conceited sinners make footballs of godly men. They call it roaring fun to caricature a faithful member of “The Holy Club.” His methods of careful living are the material for their jokes about “the Methodist,” and his hatred of sin sets their tongues wagging at long-faced Puritanism and straitlaced hypocrisy. If David was greatly derided, we may not expect to escape the scorn of the ungodly. There are hosts of proud men still upon the face of the earth, and if they find a believer in affliction they will be mean enough and cruel enough to make jests at his expense. It is the nature of the son of the bondwoman to mock the child of the promise.
“Yet have I not declined from thy law.” Thus the deriders missed their aim: they laughed, but they did not win. The godly man, so far from turning aside from the right way, did not even slacken his pace, or in any sense fall off from his holy habits. Many would have declined, many have declined, but David did not do so. It is paying too much honor to fools to yield half a point to them. Their unhallowed mirth will not harm us if dogs pay no attention to it, even as the moon suffers nothing from the dogs that bay at her. God’s law is our highway of peace and safety, and those who would laugh us out of it wish us no good.
From Psa 119:61 we note that David was not overcome by the spoiling of his goods any more than by these cruel mockings. See also Psa 119:157, where the multitude of persecutors and enemies were baffled in their attempts to make him decline from God’s ways.
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Enduring Word
The proud have me in great derision: In this section as well as the previous, the idea is that the psalmist is mocked and reproached for his love and trust in God’s word. These proud mockers look at the psalmist and his dedication to the word of God, and they hold him in great derision.
i. And so it has ever been: those who love and trust God’s word – especially with the depth and passion reflected by the psalmist in this mighty psalm –are mocked by the proud who want nothing to do with God and His word.
(David Guzik)
Yet I do not turn aside from Your law: We almost sense a note of defiance in the psalmist. No matter how great the derision that comes from the proud, he will hold faithful to God and His word.(Guzik)
i. Great harm has been done to the cause of God when believers find themselves unable to endure this great derision, and they begin to downgrade their view of God’s word and its inerrant character. Hoping to appease or impress the proud, they lead themselves and others to trust and love God’s word less. Such ones should instead find their strength and comfort in these very passages and declare, “Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.” (Guzik)
ii. “Christian! Be satisfied with the approbation of your God. Has he not adopted you by his Spirit, sealed you for his kingdom? And is not this ‘honor that cometh from God only’ enough – far more than enough – to counterbalance the derision of the proud?” (Bridges)
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Albert Barnes
The proud have had me greatly in derision – Those of rank; those in high life: perhaps, as we should say, the frivolous and fashionable world. They have ridiculed me; they have held me up to contempt for my scruples, my seriousness, my conscientiousness, my unwillingness to mingle with them in the pursuits, the pastimes, the frivolities of life. It is now no new thing to be held in contempt by the “proud” and the frivolous, on account of serious piety; to be thus held in contempt has been rather the rule than the exception in the treatment which the friends of religion have received from the world.
Yet have I not declined from thy law – I have not been deterred from the avowal of my religious belief; I have not turned away from the duties of piety on account of the ridicule and scorn to which I have been exposed. Compare Psalms 44:17-19.
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John Gill
The proud have had me greatly in derision,…. Profane sinners, proud and haughty scorners, that make a jest of religion, and scoff at everything serious and good: these derided the psalmist for his piety and religion, his principles and practices; in which he was a type of Christ, who was both the song of the drunkards, and was derided by the proud and haughty Scribes and Pharisees; as all self-righteous persons are, they who trust in themselves, and despise others, Psalm 69:11;
[yet] have I not declined from thy law; from walking according to it, as a rule of life and conversation; from professing and maintaining the doctrine of the word, the truths of the Gospel, he had knowledge and experience of; and from going on in the ways of God and true religion he was directed in; and this testimony the Lord himself gave of him, 1 Kings 14:8 see Psalm 44:19.
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Matthew Henry
David here tells us, and it will be of use to us to know it,
1. That he had been jeered for his religion. Though he was a man of honor, a man of great prudence, and had done eminent services to his country, yet, because he was a devout conscientious man, the proud had him greatly in derision; they ridiculed him, bantered him, and did all they could to expose him to contempt; they laughed at him for his praying, and called it cant, for his seriousness, and called it mopishness, for his strictness, and called it needless preciseness. They were the proud that sat in the scorner’s seat and valued themselves on so doing.
2. That yet he had not been jeered out of his religion: “They have done all they could to make me quit it for shame, but none of these things move me: I have not declined from thy law for all this; but, if this be to be vile“ (as he said when Michal had him greatly in derision), “I will be yet more vile.” He not only had not quite forsaken the law, but had not so much as declined from it. We must never shrink from any duty, nor let slip an opportunity of doing good, for fear of the reproach of men, or their reviling. The traveller goes on his way, though the dogs bark at him. Those can bear but little for Christ that cannot bear a hard word for him.
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Miscellaneous Comments
“The proud have had me greatly in derision.” The saints of God have complained of this in all ages: David of his busy mockers; the abjects jeered him. Job was disdained by those children whose fathers he would have scorned to set with the dogs of his flock, Job 30:1. Joseph was nicknamed a dreamer, Paul a babbler, Christ himself a Samaritan, and with intent of disgrace a carpenter…Michal was barren, yet she hath too many children, that scorn the habit and exercises of holiness. There cannot be a greater argument of a foul soul than the deriding of religious services. Worldly hearts can see nothing in those actions, but folly and madness; piety hath no relish, but is distasteful to their palates.—Thomas Adams.
It is a great thing in a soldier to behave well under fire, but it is a greater thing for a soldier of the cross to be unflinching in the day of his trial. It does not hurt the Christian to have the dogs bark at him.—William S. Plumer.
The life and rigour infused into me by the promise which “quickened me,” caused me “not to decline from thy law,” even though “the proud did iniquitously altogether;” doing all in their power, through their jeering at me, to deter me from its observance.—Robert Bellarmine.
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Cross-References
Psalm 119:157 (KJV)
157 Many are my persecutors and mine enemies;
Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.
Job 23:11 (KJV)
11 My foot hath held his steps,
His way have I kept, and not declined.
Psalm 119:78 (KJV)
78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause:
But I will meditate in thy precepts.
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Closing Thoughts
My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil. Proverbs 4:20-27 NKJV
ז ZAYIN – The power of God’s word to comfort and strengthen. (Completion, Wholeness, Blessing, and Rest.)
49
Remember the word to Your servant,
Upon which You have caused me to hope.
50
This is my comfort in my affliction,
For Your word has given me life.
51
The proud have me in great derision,
Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.
52
I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord,
And have comforted myself.
53
Indignation has taken hold of me
Because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.
54
Your statutes have been my songs
In the house of my pilgrimage.
55
I remember Your name in the night, O Lord,
And I keep Your law.
56
This has become mine,
Because I kept Your precepts.
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