4 The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.
6 I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
7 But the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
8 He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord God helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
10 Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on his God.
He was not someone to be taken lightly. His comments could cut to the quick and being excoriated by him was never pleasant. We all were terrified of him my first year at the seminary. He assured us that he would have given Paul an A- for his sermon on the Areopagus in Acts 17. He was my homiletics professor.
When you got a little further into the term, however, or when you took another class or two from him, you learned that the piercing comments written in the margins of your papers and the in-class demolition of student arguments were in fact purposeful. If you took a moment to consider, you realized that he really cared about you, he cared enough to say what needed to be said about the immature and poorly reasoned things I written or said. He also cared for the people I would serve upon graduation.
He had a tongue that had been taught. He used it to sustain the weary. For thirty years I have come back again and again to the lessons I learned in his classes. When the well seems dry or the words are not forthcoming, I remember the discipline and techniques that he taught us. Not all my fellow students were sustained by him, I am sure. Some were perhaps not ready for what he said. After all, no one, short of Jesus, can be appropriate for all people. When I read in this passage about my Lord’s instructed tongue which sustains the weary, I thank God for this man and his gift to me. I wish I had listened better than I did. But this man also turned me toward another whose tongue instructed him and all of us. The one who set his face like flint and turned his back to those who scourged him. He did not hide his face from the abuse they heaped upon him. He is Jesus. My friend and mentor rests in Christ today as someday I will too. But Jesus’ Word will still be sustaining the weary and giving hope to those walk in darkness and have no light.