Malicious Witnesses

There is a line in this Psalm that the gospel writers must have remembered when they sat down to describe the trial of Jesus. "Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know." The Psalm walks us through the experience of being lied about — of being charged with what you did not do, by people you fed when they were sick, by people you mourned with when their losses came. The psalmist has poured himself out for these accusers and they are now arrayed against him with grins on their faces. The Psalter does not pretend this never happens to the people of God. It hands them a prayer for the day it does. "Wake up! Bestir yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord!"

The greater Son of David walked through the very script of this Psalm. False witnesses rose up against Him; they asked Him of things He did not know in the way they meant the question. He had fed the hungry, healed the sick, mourned with the bereaved, and now stood silent before men who paid each other to lie about Him. He did not return the malice. He committed His cause to the One who judges justly. And here is the wonder: He took the malicious verdict so that we who deserved a worse one might receive a kinder one. When we are slandered, we are not slandered alone. The Lord who stood silent before His false witnesses now stands beside us when ours rise up. And the day of vindication He waited for, in patience and in trust, has already broken over Him in resurrection — and will break over us in Him.