… My reproach, and My shame, and My dishonour. Mine adversaries are all before Thee. Psalms 69:19-20 KJV
… My reproach and My shame and My dishonour; All My adversaries are before You. Psalms 69:19-20 NASB
The passion of Christ is brought to a climax in verses 19-21 and is introduced by this statement: “Thou hast known …” Only God can know in full measure the reproach, shame, dishonour, and fury of His foes. Why can only God know?
First, God alone knows the glory which His Son left to come to earth. To measure a distance, you need two points – a point of departure and a terminus. We cannot know the point of origin. His glory is beyond measure. Only God is able to fully appreciate it.
Only God knows the honour He deserved. Men receive honour for what they do, but also for how they do it and the cost involved to them. Heroes who risk death for another are acclaimed more than men who without risk give aid to those in need. Only God fully knows what He did and the motives and manner in which He did it. We have glimpses and at times feel we have deeper insights into His sufferings. But all that, at its best, is a faint picture of the reality. As God gazed at the place men gave His Son, He alone could measure the chasm between what the Son received and what the Son merited.
Only God knew the true greatness of His Son. Only God fully knew the praise of which He was deserving. Only God can know the depth of the reproach heaped upon His Son. Finally, only God knew the true adversaries and the depth of the hatred and malice at Calvary. Only God knew that behind the cries of men, the cabal’s priests and elders, and the choices of Pilate and Herod, the true adversary, in all his fury, was Satan.
But what this verse tells us is that Christ was content that the Father knew. He looked for some to take pity; He looked for some to understand, to comfort. There was no one. But it is not a complaint. It is rather a contrast. His God knew and that was sufficient. He lived – and died – for the eye of God alone.
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Consider:
- Does it seem strange to you that the section on His suffering ends with the mention of the gall and vinegar in 21? How does this contrast with what God knew (v 19)?
- “I am full of heaviness,” suggests the intensity of His sufferings. What does “full” suggest to you?
- There were none to pity or to comfort. How are we to understand this in light of those women who surrounded the cross?