Morning    “All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the  head.”    Psalm 22:7

Mockery was a great ingredient in our Lord’s woe. Judas mocked him in the

garden; the chief priests and scribes laughed him to scorn; Herod set him at

nought; the servants and the soldiers jeered at him, and brutally insulted him;

Pilate and his guards ridiculed his royalty; and on the tree all sorts of horrid

jests and hideous taunts were hurled at him. Ridicule is always hard to bear,

but when we are in intense pain it is so heartless, so cruel, that it cuts us to

the quick. Imagine the Saviour crucified, racked with anguish far beyond all

mortal guess, and then picture that motley multitude, all wagging their heads or

thrusting out the lip in bitterest contempt of one poor suffering

victim! Surely there must have been something more in the crucified One than

they could see, or else such a great and mingled crowd would not unanimously

have honoured him with such contempt. Was it not evil confessing, in the very

moment of its greatest apparent triumph, that after all it could do no more than

mock at that victorious goodness which was then reigning on the cross? O Jesus,

“despised and rejected of men,” how couldst thou die for men who treated thee so

ill? Herein is love amazing, love divine, yea, love beyond degree. We, too, have

despised thee in the days of our unregeneracy, and even since our new birth we

have set the world on high in our hearts, and yet thou bleedest

to heal our wounds, and diest to give us life. O that we could set thee on a

glorious high throne in all men’s hearts! We would ring out thy praises over

land and sea till men should as universally adore as once they did unanimously

reject.

“Thy creatures wrong thee, O thou sovereign Good!

Thou art not loved, because not understood:

This grieves me most, that vain pursuits beguile

Ungrateful men, regardless of thy smile.”

 

Evening    “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him.”   Isaiah 3:10

It is well with the righteous always. If it had said, “Say ye to the righteous,

that it is well with him in his prosperity,” we must have been thankful for so

great a boon, for prosperity is an hour of peril, and it is a gift from heaven

to be secured from its snares: or if it had been written, “It is well with him

when under persecution,” we must have been thankful for so sustaining an

assurance, for persecution is hard to bear; but when no time is mentioned, all

time is included. God’s “shalls” must be understood always in their largest

sense. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, from the first

gathering of evening shadows until the day-star shines, in all conditions and

under all circumstances, it shall be well with the righteous. It is so well

with him that we could not imagine it to be better, for he is well fed, he feeds

upon the flesh and blood of Jesus; he is well clothed, he wears the imputed

righteousness of Christ; he is well housed, he dwells in God; he is well

married, his soul is knit in bonds of marriage union to Christ; he is well

provided for, for the Lord is his Shepherd; he is well endowed, for heaven is

his inheritance. It is well with the righteous–well upon divine authority; the

mouth of God speaks the comforting assurance. O beloved, if God declares that

all is well, ten thousand devils may declare it to be ill, but we laugh them all

to scorn. Blessed be God for a faith which enables us to believe God when the

creatures contradict him. It is, says the Word, at all times well with thee,

thou righteous one; then, beloved, if thou canst not see it, let God’s word

stand thee in stead of sight; yea, believe it on divine authority more

confidently than if thine eyes and thy feelings told it to thee. Whom God

blesses is blest indeed, and what his lip declares is truth most sure and

steadfast.