The Reproach of His Glory

O sons of man, how long will my glory be a reproach?

You love strife; you seek after a lie!  Selah.

Psalm 4:2

When Israel’s prophet and king David, and “all the house of Israel”, brought the ark of God into Jerusalem, trumpets sounded and everyone was happy.  David was so full of joy that he danced before all the people as the ark proceeded toward the tent he had prepared for it.  David’s soul was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of having God’s ark with him in Jerusalem.  With his whole body and soul, David was saying to all the people, “Praise Him with a blast of a shofar!  Praise Him with harp and lyre!  Praise Him with timbrel and dance!  Praise Him with strings and flute!  Praise Him with clashing cymbals!  Praise Him with crashing cymbals!  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!  Hallelujah!”

Unfortunately, there was one that day who did not join the king in his joy, for David’s wife, “Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down through the window and saw King David leaping and whirling before Jehovah, and she despised him in her heart.”  The glory of God that David was feeling was contemptible to her, and she reproached him for it: “How the king of Israel was glorified today, who exposed himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his slaves, like one of the worthless men who shamelessly expose themselves!”

When those who do not love God see the glory of God on His people, they despise it as if it is something shameful, and they will speak evil of both it and the people on whom that glory rests.  But David’s response to his wife’s reproach is an example for us all.  He did not back up an inch.  He said to her, “Yes, I played before the Lord!  And I will be more contemptible than this!”   

Among the many riches of the kingdom of God is one which we often try to avoid, though we are exhorted to gladly receive it: the reproach of Christ.  Are we rich in that?  Moses “esteemed the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked ahead to the reward.”

Consider the value of the reproach of Christ, and do not flinch when God uses the world to heap it upon you.  Be like David, and tell those who despise the glory of God, “I will be more contemptible than that!”  In other words, “I will rejoice in the glory of God more than that!”

Luke 6

22. “Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you, and revile and cast out your name as evil for the sake of the Son of man.

23. Rejoice in that day, and dance!  Behold, your reward is great in heaven!  For their fathers used to do such things to the prophets.”

Hebrews 13

12. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.

13. So then, let us go to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.

1Peter 4

14. If you are being reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.  On their part, he is blasphemed, but on your part, he is glorified.

“No King but Caesar!”

It was about twenty years before Jesus was born that God changed Rome from a Republic into an Empire.  In making this change, God was setting up for His people a choice between their heavenly Messiah and an earthly king.  The following portion of Scripture shows us that the Jews chose the Empire over the Son:

John 19

13. Pilate led Jesus outside and sat on the judicial bench,

14. and he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 

15. But they cried out, “Away with him! Away!  Crucify him!”  Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priest answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”

Before Rome became an Empire, there was no Caesar for the Jews to choose as their king instead of God’s Son, and they could not have said, “We have no king but Caesar!”  But decades before God sent His Son into the world, He prepared an alternative king for those among His people who wanted the way of the flesh instead of the Spirit.

God is ahead of us all, creating paths for our feet which will accommodate the hidden desire of our hearts, good or bad.  When we make our choice, the choice will seem right to us, whether we be among the few who choose the Son of God or among the many who choose the Empire of man.  David was wise to pray that God would put right desires in his heart.  And he warned his son Solomon to make every effort to keep his heart pure, “for out of it”, he said, “are the issues of life.”