Mocking

In my bible study were are reading Psalms. These are poetic prayers - songs - that the ancient Hebrews sang. I think it is very cool that we can read (and even sing) the exact same prayers that people were singing together thousands of years ago.

But the first psalm gave me pause.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers

The part that got me here was the bit about the mockers. I'm not supposed to sit in the seat of mockers. Man. I like to mock. It's fun. I feel like I so often do when I get a teaching from God, like a little kid stamping my foot, "but I want to mock!"

I mean, I don't want to hurt people - but that does seem to be the definition of mock:

ridicule
	buffoon, burlesque, caricature, chaff, deride, flout, hoot, insult, jeer, jive, kid, kid around, laugh at, needle, parody, rally, razz, rib*, scoff, scorn, scout, show contempt, sneer, taunt, tease, travesty

Maybe I just like to joke. Could this be about semantics? Where is the line between joking and mocking?

I never thought of mocking as that bad before. Of course it's mean and rude to mock someone in a cruel way. But it can be fun to mock friends or family who know how to take it.

And what a culture of mockers we are! The media is chock a block full of mockery. Mocking is cool.

Maybe it's because mocking has the energetic effect of tearing down, it isn't constructive or helpful - only funny. I don't know. But this is the very first psalm, so I am going to pay attention to it. Ponder it. Pray about it.

And think twice about mocking.