Zealous for His House

Psalms 69:9:
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

This is the quotation in John from the Book of Psalms. The accurate, literal translation according to usage from the Aramaic that I have worked out to the best of my ability is as follows: “My zeal made me courageous to defend your house.”

And that is accurate. His disciples remembered that it was written, “My zeal made me courageous to defend your house.”

If you will put that translation into the Psalm in 69, verse 9, “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; [made me courageous to defend your house. My zeal made me courageous to defend your house] and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.”

Then it will fit like a hand in a glove in the United States. The zeal made me very courageous, or made me courageous, to defend your house. The disciples remembered that. Jesus Christ coming back into the temple, he was very courageous. Courageous to defend the house, the temple.

You and I certainly could not do less regarding God’s Word today. And that is that our zeal should defend. Be very courageous about defending, holding forth the greatness of God’s Word.

The temple at the time of Jesus, was there with the fulfilling of the law. And Jesus Christ coming into that temple, seeing how devilish they were using it, how just contrary to God’s will they were utilizing it. He drove the sheep and the oxen out, overthrew the tables of the money changers, and he said to the men, “Get out of here, this is my Father’s house. Don’t make it a den of thieves.”

What they were doing was they were cheating. They were selling second-rate animals at first-rate prices. They were selling animals that were maimed at high prices. And God had demanded that the animals that would be sacrificed, for instance, had to be male lambs of the first year and without any imperfection in it. But they were selling older lambs, sheep, and they were imperfect. They couldn’t get the top dollar for them on the market, but they could get the top dollar out of the people. And therefore they were selling them.