#DailyDevotion Jesus Fulfills Prophecy & Wins For Us Eternal Life
Psalm 69 19You know how I’m insulted, put to shame, and disgraced — My enemies are all before You. 20Insults have broken My heart and I am sick. I’m looking for sympathy and there’s none, and for comforters and can’t find any. 21And they put gall in My food and for My thirst give Me vinegar to drink.
As we read the Gospels from the time Jesus is in the garden to the point in His death, you can read these verses and see David is praying prophetically what his promised Descendant, the one who would rule forever on the throne of God would experience. Jesus was certainly insulted in the Sanhedrin, in Pilate’s court, in Herod court, on the road to Golgatha and hanging there on the cross. His crucifixion put Him to shame and disgraced Him. Certainly Jesus’ heart was broken over His people’s rejection of Him as their Messiah and King. Hanging on the cross, Jesus would see no sympathy and comfort and there was none except a few of the women who followed Him and His disciple. The overwhelming majority of opposition from His chosen people weighed heavily upon Him, even though He knew He had to experience this to save them from their sins and to save the world. Jesus indeed was given vinegar to drink when He at last cried, “I thirst,” thus fulfilling the prophecy.
22May their table, spread before them, become a snare, and a trap when they feel all is well. 23May their eyes turn dark so they can’t see it and their loins continually shake. 24Pour Your anger on them; may Your blazing fury catch them. 25May their camp turn to ruins; and no one live in their tents, 26because they pursue Him whom You struck and talk about the pains of those You wounded. 27Charge them with one sin after another. Exclude them from Your righteousness. 28May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.
Well this is pretty horrific. This is real cursing. What we often call cursing is just foul language and vulgarities. This is calling God’s curse down on someone. Jesus prayed this. How can He have prayed this? Because it is God’s curse on all evil doers. Yes, Jesus died for these people’s sins before, during and after His crucifixion. The LORD though chose to use wicked people and their sinfulness to effect salvation for all mankind, even their salvation. These curses are God’s judgment against their sin. There would be only one way out to avoid the curse they brought down on themselves as they sinned against God’s anointed. They would have to repent, turn to the One they killed, and believe what He did for them in His innocent suffering and death and that He rose from the dead as He promised He would. Reading Acts, we know some did, even some of the priests. For the ones who wouldn’t repent, they would experience these things, especially when Rome came and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.
The rest of the world to whom the Gospel went and they rejected this Good News of salvation, shall they escape this curse? They will not. They shall receive what they deserve for all their wickedness. We may think they seem to be pretty good people, but we do not know their hearts or their thoughts. That they reject this free gift of salvation shows the wickedness of their hearts.
Thanks be to God, you and I have heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. We have heard by His innocent suffering and death described by the words in this Psalm, Jesus has made atonement for our sins. God no longer holds us accountable for them when we believe Jesus has taken our curse into Himself on the cross. We believe the Good News that Jesus has offered and given to us the free gift of eternal life. God counts this faith as righteousness. He has given us His Holy Spirit so we may continually turn to God for every good and to turn from our wicked lives and thoughts to the goodness of our Father in heaven.
Heavenly Father, we give You thanks and praise for the suffering and death of Jesus for our sake. Grant us repentance unto life always so we may escape the judgment. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.