The Messiah Anna Longed For

Psalm 69:8-12 (NASB) I have become estranged from my brothers
And an alien to my mother’s sons.
For zeal for Your house has consumed me,
And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
When I wept in my soul with fasting,
It became my reproach.
When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them.
 Those who sit in the gate talk about me,
And I am the^]song of the drunkards.

When Christ overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, because he loved his Father’s house, that even shocked the disciples. Doing it a second time during Passover week seal the path to the cross. The establishment, relying on the income from the temple sales, could not condone the preference for God over money.

To a lesser extent, all those words in the Psalm could apply to Anna. She loved the temple so much that she lived there. She mourned and fasted often. She prayed and prophesied. And she spoke of the need for the redemption of Jerusalem to any who would listen.

No one, popular opinion states as much today as it did then, can live so sold out to God and be normal. It’s not sane.

I can imagine parents entering the women’s portion of the temple with their children. “Don’t get too close to old Anna. She’s been here since I was a child. She’s not quite right. Sure, she has wisdom from God sometimes, but, who would live in the temple?”

It makes you wonder. What were the songs the drunkards made up about Christ? Or about Anna? They knew they were so clever because those people just weren’t normal.

But then, imagine what they might sing now.