Coaches and parents especially don’t encourage those under their care to taunt their opponents. But the Bible does!
Seriously!
As a part of our P119 Spiritual Workout series, we looked at the section called Waw yesterday—
May Your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, Your salvation according to Your promise; then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in Your Word. (Psalm 119:41-42)
“I will answer the one who taunts me.” How exactly do you answer the taunter? The word for answer here in Hebrew comes from the idea of “singing tunefully.”
You know how it feels when you have that perfect zinger—that great one-liner as a comeback to someone who’s tweaked you?
And you know how you don’t just say that zinger, but you add a musical note to it as well, just to add a little emphasis?
Well, this is what Christians can do to the devil when he taunts them! The book of Revelation tells us that satan is the accuser (the taunter) of the Christians, and that we overcome him by the blood of Jesus and the word of our testimony. But the psalmist says it’s not just plain old words, but the lilting sing-song, tuneful reply to his taunt.
We reply to our enemy’s taunts with a Scriptural-based tweak of our own. We can remind him of our total forgiveness in Christ. We can tell him how God loves us, and sent His Son to die for our sins, and how the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a deposit guaranteeing that we are now in Christ. We can use the Bible to tunefully taunt the taunter with the truth of God’s Word.
Don’t just silently take it when the enemy accuses you. Don’t get mad. But shut him up by answering him with a song right from God’s Word!
If you have missed any of the messages in our P119 series, you can access them all by clicking here.
Craig T. Owens 