Psalms 22:8

He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him.

Faith among mockers

David experienced “cruel mockings.” The flesh may not be cut, but the heart may be torn. But text tells of the Lord Jesus. David knew reproach but in small measure compared with Him. It is the common heritage of the godly. But--

I. Their trust in God is known. Hence we learn--

1. Our trust in God should be apparent, manifest, public. That in Christ which revealed it was His wonderful calmness. We ought distinctly to avow our trust, life man has a right to be a secret believer.

2. Our general conduct should reveal our faith. If I trust the Lord about my soul I must trust Him about my body, wife, children, and all my affairs.

3. This trust should come out most distinctly in times of trouble. For then it is our adversaries are most likely to notice it. In bereavements, business troubles. Let the possession of godliness tell its own tale, the spikenard its own fragrance.

II. The world does not understand this trust. Our Lord’s enemies restricted His trust to the point of His being delivered. But--

1. Our faith is not confined to merely receiving from God. We must not live and wait upon God merely with a cupboard love.

2. Nor to what men call deliverance. Our Lord trusted still, though the cup did not pass from Him. The blind world cannot understand this. They say, like their father, “Doth Job serve God for nought?” And--

3. Our faith is not tied to time. Christ’s enemies thought that if the Lord did not deliver Him then, His trust would be proved a folly. But it is not so. We may not be delivered from our distresses tonight, nor tomorrow, nor next month; it may be for years. We do not tie God down to conditions, but we trust Him all the same.

4. Nor will it judge at all by present circumstances. How wrongly the world judged of Christ when it judged of Him by His sorrows.

III. This true faith will, in all probability, be mocked at some time or other.

1. Some men scoff at faith itself. It is an honour to have one’s name written up on such an Arch of Triumph as that of Hebrews 11:1. But many think it no honour at all. They hold faith to be a folly of weak minds.

2. Others, at the very idea of Divine interposition. “Look,” they say, “he fancies that God will deliver him; as if the Creator had not something else to do besides looking after him, poor miserable that he is!” They believe in laws, they say, irreversible, immutable laws, that grind in like the great cogs of a machine which, when once they are set in motion, tear everything to pieces that comes in their way.

3. And some mock at all kinds of faith in the Divine love. How the world rages against electing love! The heathen could not make out a certain brave saint because he called himself Theophorus, or “God bearer”; but he stuck to it that he was so, though they hated him all the more.

4. Some find amusement in the trials involved in the life of faith. Their cry, “Let Him deliver him,” implies that their victim was in serious difficulty, but that was only sport to them. Such mocking is a part of the covenanted heritage.

IV. The time shall come when our trust shall be abundantly justified.

1. It is no small thing to have the ungodly bearing witness. “He trusted in God.” It helps one to believe that he is really God’s child.

2. Another justification will come when God shall deliver His people. That day will come. Dives sees Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom: what a sight for him. At the last great day ungodly men will witness for the saints. They will have to own, “They did trust, for we mocked them for it.” But whether men mock or praise, we trust in God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)