Being thin-skinned

Derek Kidner, Tyndale commentary on Psalm 119.

‘While God, as always, had his loyalists, and the psalmist some kindred spirits (63, 74), the prevailing temper seems to have been a religious skepticism (‘they have made void thy law’, 126, AV) ranging from the non-committal, the ‘men who are half and half’ (113, Moffatt), to the thoroughly profane, ‘the wicked’ who ‘lie in wait to destroy me’ (95).

The attacks on the psalmist are taking the form of derision (22), slander (described, by a curiously modern touch, as smearing him, 69) and intrigue (23, 85). The fact that the authorities persecute him by devious means suggests that the regime is not openly apostate; but such verses as 87 and 109 show how murderous such pressure can be. And he is young, it seems (the ‘young man’ of verse 9 is himself, to judge from the context; see also 99f.), and sensitive to scorn (‘the reproach which I dread’, 39); his isolation makes him low-spirited: ‘small and despised’ (141), drained of vitality and dried up (25, 28, 83). Like Jeremiah, another thin-skinned personality, he is alternately saddened and infuriated by what he sees, reacting now with tears (136), now with ‘hot indignation’ and ‘disgust’ (53, 158).’

Well said, Derek Kidner.  

May none of us hide behind the meretricious piety which seems to allow some to say, ‘Let God take care of that,’ when he has appointed His servants to do just that very thing in the face what disturbed Jeremiah: religiosity, formalism, tyranny, slander, falsehood and cronyism.  May we never grow numb under the false piety of a shell of a thick skin…

And still, O ye who must not be named: I forgive you.  You should have all listened to Stu more…he’s the godliest man among you – you dismissed him to your own (and the people’s) spiritual harm.

The Lord is my portion.  I am satisfied.