“For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me” (Psalm 69:9 ESV).
David wrote this psalm describing his “zeal,” his passionate commitment, for God and for God’s house. The Lord affirmed David’s zeal describing him as “a man after his own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22).
But the psalm finds its prophetic fulfillment in Christ. For John wrote in his gospel that the disciples remembered the first part of this psalm when Jesus zealously cleared the temple of the moneychangers on the Monday of Passion Week (see John 2:17).
On Good Friday, Jesus fulfilled the latter part of the psalm as all the world’s “reproach” fell on him. For Jesus offered Himself as an atonement, taking on our sin and our shame, that we might become His righteousness.
The Lord spoke through Isaiah about the zeal of the coming Messiah saying, “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Isa. 9:7). For it was Christ’s zeal, his passionate love and commitment, that moved him to give his life for us.
PRAYER: Dear Father, we love You because You have first loved us. Forgive us when our zeal for You wanes. For we desire to have our hearts always set aflame for You. Show us how to fan into flame our zeal for You and for Your house, which is the Church. In Jesus’ name, amen.