Pity and Comfort

"I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none." Psalm 69:20.  The Bible testifies of Jesus. Not every single verse in the Old Testament is a hidden type of Christ, but all roads lead to the Lord. Some passages, like Isaiah 53 are explicitly about Christ. Psalm 69, I believe, points us in two directions, one to David and the other to Jesus. David talks about his sins in the fifth verse and the ninth verse is quoted in the New Testament about Jesus. When we get to Verse 21, we have a prophecy fulfilled on the cross when the Roman soldiers gave Jesus vinegar to drink. What’s happening here? The Psalm looks at King David as a human man, born in sin and Jesus, Son of Man, in his humanity, yet himself without sin. Some verses are only talking about David and some are only talking about Jesus and serve to contrast the two. Other verses could apply to both. I believe verse 20 is such a verse.

 Think about the Lord Jesus, in such a pitiable state, but found no pity. In a desolate situation, but there was none to comfort him.  No arm of flesh to hold him up. No friend to ease his burden. The one who healed the sick and gave sight to the blind had none to pity him. The consolation of Israel himself without another to console him. When he asked for prayer in the garden, he could find no one among his friends to stay awake and pray. When arrested and brought to the farce of a trial, he was surrounded by enemies with none to pity him. 

 There is nothing so human, as to need a sympathizing friend in a time of trouble. There is nothing quite so dark as to endure sickness or pain alone. And our Lord, while he came to save his people, the good shepherd was alone. Jesus is a sympathizing priest and knows the pain of suffering alone. Jesus was truly man, made flesh like his brethren, and shared in the limitations and hardships of humanity. He suffered physically and emotionally, like David. Like us all. Yet Jesus did so without sin. He is the priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.

 In John 16:32-33  Jesus told his disciples soon, they would be scattered and he would be alone. But though forsaken by all the world, he was not alone because the Father is with him. And because He is the sympathizing priest, he looked at those who would leave him and said, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." The compassionate Jesus, who was about to endure the greatest suffering known to man, pitied his disciples and provided comfort to those he came to save. What a savior.