Scripture Reading: Psalm 22
Psalm 22, I'll begin reading in verse 1. To the chief musician set to the deer of the dawn, a psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning?
Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear, and in the night season, and am not silent. But you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them.
They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All those who see me ridicule me.
They shoot out the lip. They shake the head saying, he trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him. but you are he who took me out of the womb.
You made me trust while on my mother's breasts. I was cast upon you from birth. From my mother's womb, you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.
Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They gape at me with their mouths like a raging and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water. and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax, it has melted within me. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me.
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me.
They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, do not be far from me. O my strength, hasten to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen. You have answered me. I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him and fear him, all you offspring of Israel. For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him. But when he cried to him, he heard.
My praise shall be of you in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nation shall worship before you. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship.
All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him. even he who cannot keep himself alive. A posterity shall serve him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation. They will come and declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has done this.
Amen.
Opening Prayer
Well, let us ask God's help. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this word. We feel in many respects that we are walking into very holy ground, and we would pray that the Spirit would help us as we look at this prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a psalm of David, but the subject matter is certainly David's greater son.
And we would pray, Father, that you would encourage our hearts at what great lengths the Savior went through to save us from our sins. Help us to appreciate afresh the gospel of our salvation. Help us to engage in gratitude and thankfulness to you for the love that you have shown us in and through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask that the Holy Spirit would guide us, the Holy Spirit would teach us, and the Holy Spirit would seal to our hearts these things.
And we ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Introduction
Psalm 22 is obviously a very important psalm. It is certainly taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and we will see that as we move through the psalm. We're simply going to look at the first half. The psalm basically follows the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus.
The first half deals with His humiliation, the suffering, the death that He underwent on our behalf. and then that turn in 21B when God answers, when the Father answers, and then we move to the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, in the language of Bonar, in his commentary on the book of Psalms, he essentially says that this is what the psalm is about. As soon as I find the quote here, he says that it's the Messiah suffering and the Messiah crowned. And I think that is a great way for us to appreciate the movement that we find here.
So, I want to look quickly at the subject of the psalm and then, secondly, at the prophetic teaching of the psalm. We won't look at every jot and tittle of it, but we will look at some of the primary emphases in Psalm 22.
The Subject of the Psalm
Note first, in terms of the subject of the psalm, this is a prophetic word of David. Now, David, as you well know, if you've read the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, had no small share of affliction and trial and difficulty in his life. As soon as the Holy Spirit comes upon him in 1 Samuel chapter 16, his troubles begin. In other words, it's not the case that he had all of the sorts of things that afflicted him prior to the coming of the Spirit, similar to the Lord Jesus.
Remember, Jesus, after his baptism, is then, the Spirit comes upon him and then he's driven out into the wilderness where he suffers, or where rather he is tested by the devil. And the same sort of thing is true in David. The Spirit comes and the trouble comes. So David was chased, David was hunted, David was certainly not held in high regard by Saul, for instance, and by the enemy nations around Israel.
He even had issues in his own family. The sword would never depart as a result of his sin. But this psalm transcends anything that David underwent. This psalm far exceeds the sorts of things that David underwent.
Motier says, the psalm goes beyond any experience of David's. While it could arise from some time of his suffering, it goes far beyond such to torture and death. When you read Psalm 22, you are reading an account of torture. Torture and death that would ultimately be experienced by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Motier finishes by saying we are listening to David the prophet looking forward to the suffering Messiah. In Acts chapter 2 at verse 30, we learn that David was in fact a prophet. And in terms of the subject of the psalm, we know that this is, in fact, the experience of our Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered and He died on behalf of His people.
He was exalted by God. We've seen all that movement in Acts chapter 2. Peter, in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, begins with the true humanity of the Lord Jesus. He moves on to the predetermined death of the Lord Jesus. and from there to the glorious resurrection and the triumphant exaltation.
So you see that same sort of movement reflected that we find in this particular psalm. So it is a prophetic word. As well, several of these verses in Psalm 22 are quoted in the New Testament and obviously applied to our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1, is Matthew 27, verse 46.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Verse 8 is Matthew 27, 43. Remember the mockers at the base of the cross were ridiculing Jesus, just as is described in Psalm 22. Then verse 15, in the reference to his great thirst, We see at least allusion of this in John 19, 28, when Jesus is on the cross.
Verse 18, the division of Christ's garments. We see that in Matthew 27 at verse 35. And then note verse 22. In verse 22, I will declare your name to my brethren.
In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. That's in Hebrews chapter 2 at verse 12. And I think that is a great sermon or subject for another message. Look at what Jesus says in verse 22.
I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. Christ is present, obviously, in the preaching of the word. But Christ is also present in the corporate worship of the church of Jesus Christ.
Christ is ultimately the choir director. Christ is ultimately the worship leader. Christ is the one who, with his people, leads the faithful to Zion to sing the praises of God Most High. It's really a beautiful concept.
But
The Prophetic Teaching of the Psalm
let's look next at the prophetic teaching of the psalm, and I want to look at three things here. First, the distress of the Messiah, verses 1 and 2. Secondly, the suffering of the Messiah. And then thirdly, the confidence of the Messiah.
The Distress of the Messiah
But note the distress, verses one and two, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? And from the words of my groaning, oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear and in the night season and I'm not silent. Now, when we dealt with this cry of the Savior from the cross in Matthew 27, I tried to demonstrate what it doesn't mean and tried to highlight what it does mean.
I want to rehearse a few of those things now because there's a lot of false teaching out there concerning this cry of distress or this cry of dereliction. The idea being that the father completely abandoned the son. The father turned his face away from the son. In fact, there's a very popular and a famous worship song that tells us that, that the father turned away from the son while the son was on the cross.
If that is what this text is teaching, then we have some big troubles. I want to highlight what it doesn't mean. First, the cry of Jesus does not indicate any division among the persons of the Trinity. Secondly, the cry of dereliction on the cross does not indicate any dissolution of the hypostatic union.
In other words, Christ is one person, two natures, and that is not affected with reference to this particular cry. The cry of Jesus does not indicate, as one man teaches, that the three persons of the Trinity suffered on the cross. That is simply inaccurate. That is bad theology.
The second person, according to his humanity, suffered on the cross, not His deity, not according to His godhood, but according to His humanity. And the cry does not indicate that the Father abandoned, without qualification, the Son. In other words, there was no rupture, there was no breach, there was no cessation of love vis-Ã -vis the Father to the Son. It wasn't as if in that moment when Christ hung upon the cross, the Father stopped loving Him.
That simply cannot be. The Father loved Him always. The Father never stopped loving Him, and the Father never will stop loving Him. So
What the Cry of Dereliction Means
what does that cry of dereliction indicate? First, the Lord Jesus, according to His humanity, suffered in our place on the cross. Many texts teach us that. Matthew 20, 28.
Remember the Lord Jesus Christ says, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Galatians 3.13 tells us that Christ was made a curse, so it's in our humanity. It's assuming or having the sins of man imputed unto Him.
The Father, Hillary, says it was we who were forsaken and disregarded so that it was as appropriating our personality that He offered these prayers. And then as well, it's the reality that the Father did not deliver the Son from the agony of the cross. That's what's in view, the agony of the cross. Why have you forsaken me?
He does so according to the humanity, where He assumes our sin, and He takes the punishment of the Father. When He asks the question, why, it's not a seeking out of information. Rather, it expresses His distress. It expresses the full weight of the wrath and fury of God Almighty received by Christ on behalf of His people.
He knew why He was on the cross. He knew why He had gone to that place. It had always been predetermined, and He was following through in order to fulfill His obligations in terms of the covenant of redemption. as well. This forsakenness was the withdrawal of the Father's nearness and favor in terms of a closeness, in terms of that felt or that known or that experienced blessing.
You know that in your own life. There are times and seasons where you walk with God, you know the smile of God. There are times and seasons where you're not walking with God, and you don't always know the smile of God. Now, it's not the case that Jesus wasn't walking, but when our sin is heaped up upon the Savior, and the Father is punishing Him in our stead, in our place, that was the experience of Christ.
He did not have that conscious smile of the Father at that particular time. Matthew Henry said, Christ was made sin for us, a curse for us, and therefore, though God loved Him as a son, He frowned upon Him as a surety. If you get that, if you begin to appropriate the theology behind statements like that, it will help you tremendously, not only in your Bible study, but in your understanding of who God is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John Gill says, but he was now without a sense of the gracious presence of God, and was filled, notice, as the surety of his people.
He's our substitute. He's our surety. He's our mediator. Our sin is heaped up upon him.
And as a result, the Father is punishing him, and that elicits this cry of dereliction. Why hast thou forsaken me? So Gil says, but he was now without a sense of the gracious presence of God, and was filled, as the surety of his people, with a sense of divine wrath, which their iniquities he now bore. Now, the psalm itself indicates that Jesus didn't interpret this cry of dereliction the way that others have.
If the Father had abandoned Him, if the Father had stopped loving Him, if the Father had genuinely forsaken Him, then why would He continue to pray to the Father? Why would the Father ultimately answer him? Why would the Father ultimately deliver him and vindicate him and exalt him to his right hand? It may make for good song copy to fill our hearts with some sentimental sap, but it is simply not the case that there was a rupture that twixt the persons of the Trinity.
There was no problems in terms that the Trinity of God, the Triune God, came into some sort of a rupture or a breach among the persons. That is simply unacceptable, and I hope that you appreciate it. Christ, according to His humanity, the Son of God, took on our humanity, and in our place, as our surety, He suffered and He died, and as a result, He calls out from the cross, why have you forsaken me?
The Suffering of the Messiah
Now let's look, secondly, at the suffering of the Messiah. And again, I don't know that the gospel records even give us as much detail as does the psalm here. One has observed Hermann Ritterbosch in his commentary on the gospel of John. He says there's no hint in any of the gospel narratives that there's some sort of, you know, rehearsed passion narrative celebrating the physical torture of Christ.
If you ever go to a Roman Catholic Church, which I certainly don't recommend, they have this thing called the Stations of the Cross, and they're basically little pictures all along the walls of the Roman Catholic Church. And at different times during the year, you walk with the priest, and he has incense, and he sort of shakes that before each of the stations of the cross. They may say a prayer, they may rehearse a bit about what's going on, but there's really this sort of celebration of the physical torture of Christ. Now, not to mitigate or take away from the physical torture of Jesus Christ, but the gospel records don't do that.
They don't sort of rehearse every single jot and tittle of all the sufferings that our Savior underwent. I don't think this psalm does either, but it certainly does detail for us the sorts of things that the Savior encountered on our behalf. And I think it's helpful for us to remember this. I think it's encouraging for us to see the great love with which He loved us.
And first,
The Reproach of Men
notice the reproach of men experienced by the Savior. In verses 6 to 8, He says, I am a worm and no man, that the Lord Jesus Christ would utter such a thing, that the Lord Jesus Christ would make such an admission. It indicates this was the regard that men had for him. He was no better than a worm.
And Christ understood that he was disdained this way. He says, I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All those who see me ridicule me. They shoot out the lip.
They shake the head saying he trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him. We remember that at the base of the cross.
That is precisely what they were saying to the Savior at that particular time. He was ridiculed. Now, I think that for us, we get a little ridiculed. We meet with a little opposition.
We meet with a little bit of disdain from another person, and it just about breaks us. Or we get very angry. How in the world could they ever say such a thing? Well, this was part and parcel of the Lord Jesus' life.
He has no form or comeliness. There was nothing about him that attracted us to him. He came to his own according to John's gospel, and his own received him not. He was, in fact, a man of sorrows.
He was acquainted with grief. And one of those things was the reproach of men that he bore on behalf of his people.
The Multitude of Beastly Men
Secondly, the multitude of beastly men that opposed him. When you read this particular psalm, and you see bulls, or you see lions, or you see dogs, or Aten, these are not the actual animals. This is simply the psalmist's way of describing the sufferings of Jesus Christ at the hands of godless men that had descended to beastly means. They were not even humanistic in the way that they carried out this execution.
That grown people would say of an innocent and guiltless man, away with him, away with him, crucify him. That persons would mock the Savior the way that they did. That they would take a crown of thorns and embed it into his head. That they would mock him when he's on the cross actually dying.
These were beasts and not men that encompass the Lord of glory. Notice in verse 12, many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They gape at me with their mouths like a raging and a roaring lion.
Verse 19, but you, O Lord, do not be far from me. Oh, my strength, hasten to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen.
He's encompassed about by men, to be sure, a multitude of men, many men, but these men are acting in a beastly fashion. Davis says he describes his suffering in beastly terms. Bulls surround him, verse 12, but in the next verse, bulls become a lion that tears up its prey and roars. In verse 16, dogs circle around.
These are not the house pet variety, but the half-wild garbage moochers of the Near East. But the canines are human. They are a congregation of evildoers. Verse 16b.
The beast imagery implies, as Alec Motier says, that the assault lacks any of the constraints of humanity. And I think you ought to appreciate that when you read through the gospel narrative. Again, reading it for the factuality that is conveyed therein. There are times, brethren, that you ought to read the Passion narrative or Psalm 22 to feed your soul with the great love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think the supper is a great time to do that as well. When we eat this bread, we drink this cup. What are we proclaiming corporately? His death until he comes again in glory.
That is the means by which the Savior has wrought out our salvation. He didn't pay a price in terms of money. He had no silver or gold either. But what he had, he gave on to us, namely his life and his death.
That is what the psalmist is recording for us in terms of prophecy that would face the Son of God as he came into this world. So we see the reproach of men, the multitude of beastly men, and then
The Physical Torture of Crucifixion
notice the physical torture inflicted by men in verses 14 to 18. Notice in verse 14, I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. That would probably be the most likely thing in execution by crucifixion. I mean, it was a very nasty way to dispatch someone, a very horrific way to dispatch someone.
Remember that when a man was sentenced to die by crucifixion, he was first scourged. So he didn't go to that cross full of health and vigor and zeal and ability to withstand the pain and torture on the cross for a time. And the beating that they gave a man deemed for crucifixion was extremely nasty. It was extremely brutal.
It wasn't the one that was inflicted upon Jesus simply to try to satiate the bloodthirsty Jews. This was the one that accompanied crucifixion, pieces of bone, pieces of metal within the scourge itself, so that it would rip open the back, it would rip open the body of the sufferer. And then once on the cross, he would die ultimately by asphyxiation. And that is the reason why that small block of wood is down there by the feet.
That wasn't to provide relief. It was rather to prolong the suffering. See, the man would be suffering. He would be asphyxiating.
But he would find a little purchase on that piece of wood, and he'd be able to gasp in some air. Well, that simply prolonged the amount of time that he would suffer. That's why ultimately they would break the legs of the victim so that they would indeed give up the ghost at that particular time. If the suffering was prolonged such that it would start to go into the next day or it was something that was going on or taking too long, that's why they break the legs, to speed up the death process and to get rid of the victim.
That's why Pilate was shocked or surprised at the reality that Christ was dead. They didn't have to break his legs, they pierced his side. The suffering that Christ went through is what is depicted here. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax, it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death. Now, never forget that.
Messiah never forgot what was happening. Yes, these bulls encompassed Him. Yes, these lions gaped at Him. Yes, these dogs were certainly nipping at Him.
But it was the Father that brought the Son to this point. This is parallel to Isaiah 53, 10. Yahweh was pleased to bruise Him. You see, the reality is it was the predetermined plan of God the Father that Christ come into this world, that He assume our humanity, and that He ultimately live and die and rise on our behalf.
And Christ understood that, and Christ knew that. So the physical torture inflicted by men, we see the effects of crucifixion in verses 14 and 15. But notice the specific reference to crucifixion in verses 16 to 18, or 16 and 17. 16 says, dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. Notice, they pierced my hands and my feet.
Now, remember when David wrote this particular psalm, it was probably 900,000 years before the actual crucifixion. As far as I know, they didn't practice crucifixion at the time of David. And yet he speaks about Messiah's feet and hands being pierced. Now, most of you have the New King James, or many of you have the New King James.
I think it's represented as well in the English Standard Version, I think the NIV. and the New American Standard all reflect this reading. They pierced my hands and my feet. But if you look in the margin of the New King James, you see MT. That means Masoretic Text, the Standard Received Text, in terms of the Hebrew Scriptures, like a lion, instead of they pierced.
Now there's a sort of a lexical reason or a translational reason involved, but as well there is textual sort of data involved. Now, I don't want to confuse anyone, but I simply want to say that this does reflect an older and proper reading. And it's very intriguing because we typically translate the Old Testament based off the Masoretic text. Well, here is an instance where the New King James translators went with what was called the Septuagint.
The Septuagint, being older, preserved an older reading. In fact, there was a manuscript discovered in 1997 that was, I think, substantially older than the Masoretic text, and it preserved this same reading as well. You need to understand something about the Masoretic Text. They were not Christians.
They were not pro-Jesus. And I'm not saying they were duplicitous. I'm not saying get rid of your English versions based on the Masoretic Text. For the most part, it's most excellent.
But in clearly messianic texts that refer to the Lord Jesus Christ, there are times, this being one of them, where they obscure that. Again, they're not pro-Jesus. They're not pro-Him as Messiah. In fact, Michael Reitelnick, in a very excellent book called The Hope of Israel, a Jew himself that had been converted to Jesus Christ, he says plainly, the Masoretic text rendering, that's the margin that you have there in the New King James, the Masoretic text rendering avoids the Christological implications of predicting the crucifixion, thereby taking the less messianic rendering and making it more acceptable to Judaism.
There's a school of thought out there that the LXX of the Septuagint is always bad. Now, at times, the Septuagint preserves older readings and certainly more Christological readings, readings that apply specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of that to simply say that long before the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, David prophesied, David stated, David stipulated. And one wonders how the persons that operated against the Lord Jesus could possibly pillow their heads at night based on what they would have known from Psalm 22, that they act out very specifically and particularly what is prophesied here by King David of Israel, they inflict upon this Jesus of Nazareth.
So He suffered at the hands of men, He suffered the physical torture, and the specific reference to crucifixion is there in verse 16. So we see the distress, verses 1 and 2, we see the suffering all throughout the psalm.
The Confidence of the Messiah
Let's look finally at the confidence of the Messiah. In other words, why hast thou forsaken me was not interpreted by Messiah as, I can't pray to him anymore, I can't call upon him anymore. No, it pertains specifically to the sufferings and the agonies of the cross. But all through that ordeal, this is what Christ does.
He casts himself wholly and fully upon the Father. He refreshes himself at the thought of who God is. And I think there are four things, or three things rather, we ought to appreciate. First, the perfections of God.
Secondly, the faithfulness of God. And thirdly, the presence of God. But no,
The Perfections and Holiness of God
one of the things that encouraged Messiah was the reality that God was holy. Look at verse three, but you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. That's pretty counterintuitive to the way that you and I operate. I would suggest.
Maybe not. Maybe you've got it mastered. But I think for God's people, at times, when they go through distress, when they are tried, when they are afflicted, the first thing called into question is the integrity of God. In other words, how could you let this happen to me?
We may not voice it at a prayer meeting quite like that, but that might be the heartbeat of our soul. How in the world could a good, a gracious, and a holy God ever allow such calamity to fall upon me? Messiah will never entertain that thought. Messiah will always entertain the reality that you are holy.
Whatever may be happening around me, whatever bulls or dogs or lions encompass me about, whatever physical torture I am undergoing, whatever hardships I am pressed with, this one thing is true. God is holy. He is enthroned in the praises of His Israel. There is no shadow of turning with Him.
There is no variation. God's immutability and God's impassibility encourage the Savior on the cross. The reality that God is holy is non-negotiable. And brethren, I would suggest, without trying to moralize the text, we take our cue from Messiah here.
Never let your thoughts of God run too hard when you are suffering affliction. Do not entertain hard thoughts of God. Rather, encourage your heart that he is holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. Listen to Spurgeon.
He said, however ill things may look, there is no ill in thee, O God. We are very apt to think and speak hardly of God when we are under his afflicting hand, but not so the obedient son. He knows too well his father's goodness to let outward circumstances libel his character. There is no unrighteousness with the God of Jacob.
He deserves no censures. Let him do what he will. he is to be praised and to reign enthroned amid the songs of his chosen people. You see, a couple of years ago, our particular association of churches went through a sort of a theological debate or a theological sort of pursuit with reference to the doctrine of divine impassibility. And while I don't want to rehearse all of the contours of that, I would simply like to say that that is one of the areas an association of churches should fight for.
In other words, it has to do with who God is. I think that for the people of God, as long as we get a little bit of Bible reading, a little bit of prayer, and we don't fall into some major calamitous sin or trial or difficulty or hardship, we're pretty good with that. But you know, for the scriptures, we are told by our Lord Jesus Christ that this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. The psalmist elsewhere said, greater the works of the Lord, they are studied by all who have pleasure in them.
In other words, brethren, theology proper is not simply a pursuit for James Dolezal. Theology proper isn't simply something that John Owen spent a great deal of time on. Theology proper isn't something located only in the 17th century confessions of faith. Theology proper is the ballast of the soul.
Who God is, is going to keep you from losing your mind. Who God is, is going to steady you in the midst of affliction, in the midst of trial, in the midst of hardship. You don't need to know who you are in terms of those things, because you already do. You need to know who God is.
And in the midst of distress, in the midst of calamity, in the midst of suffering, the Lord Christ encourages His own heart with this bit of theology proper. You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. Brethren, learn from Messiah, learn your Bible, learn the doctrine of God, and may that be the ballast of the soul. May that be encouragement in the times of difficulty that you will no doubt face.
It is God that speaks peace to the heart. You know, this has always perplexed me. Oh, you know, we just need practical sorts of lessons for our lives. No, you need a good big fat dose of theology proper for your life.
You need to know that God is spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. You need to meditate upon that. You need to find comfort in that. You need to find encouragement in that.
And then you'll be able to deal with those practical issues in your life. The practical issues in life, how to be a faithful husband, how to be a faithful wife, how to be a faithful father, I mean, we need preaching on that. I'm not against that. I have preached on that.
We'll probably continue to preach on that. But it's not rocket science. You just do what God says. Basically, isn't that it?
Yeah, yeah, everybody with me? What do we do to be a good husband? Do what God says. Love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
How do I be a good and godly woman? Submit to your own husband as the church does to the Lord. Honor him, respect him, thank him for his hard work. How do we raise these children?
Well, you just apply some love and correction and a whole lot of prayer. Now again, detailed, practical, specific instruction is helpful. I'm not against that, but don't be so busy pursuing that that you miss God. This is eternal life, that they may know how to effectively bring up their children.
Not minimizing, bringing up children. I hope everybody gets that. But that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. This is what encourages Messiah when He's on the cross in distress.
The fact is that God is holy.
The Past Faithfulness of God
Notice, secondly, the faithfulness of God. Verses four and five, the past faithfulness of God provides present comfort to the Messiah. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them.
They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed. Before we look at that in more detail, look at what Jesus says here, our fathers. Notice in verse 22, I will declare your name to my brethren.
Jesus identifies with us. They are our fathers, according to Jesus. We are his brethren, according to Jesus. Union with Christ brings us into this familial relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Union with Christ brings us into a place of blessed adoption as sons. Adoption with which, or by which, we are entitled to all the privileges of the firstborn. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter eight. We are joint heirs with Christ.
Christ speaks of our fathers and he speaks to us or of us as my brethren. But this refreshes the Savior. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them.
They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed. You see, in order for Messiah to be able to remind himself of this in the midst of suffering, he would have had to known it from the beginning. In other words, you need to understand the movement of God in the history of His people.
The Exodus comes up so many times in the Bible, subsequent to the Exodus, as the magnificent display of the power of God in the redemption of His people. And for us in the new covenant, there's a new exodus, and that is from the bondage of sin via the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to know that data so that we can refresh our spirits in the midst of present suffering with a reminder of the past faithfulness of Yahweh. That's what Christ does here.
Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed.
That is how we ought to be encouraging ourselves. Notice as well the faithfulness of God displayed to Messiah previous to the cross. Verse 9, you are He who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breasts.
I was cast upon you from birth. From my mother's womb, you have been my God. You see, you've never left me, you've never forsaken me, you've never departed me, you've never abandoned me. Now that doesn't mean every step of the way was only rose petals and bluebirds singing tunes of joy on my way to heaven.
The Savior, prior to the cross, knew trial, knew sorrow, knew hardship, but he knew the faithful presence of God in the midst of that. You see, brethren, what Christ does on the cross, again, not to moralize it, but simply to try to encourage us to take a similar tact. Remind yourself of the perfections of God and remind yourself of the past faithfulness of God in your own life, in the lives of the people of God, throughout the history of redemption. And then
The Presence of God Invoked
notice, thirdly, in terms of the confidence of the Messiah, the presence of God. He invokes it. He prays for it. He pleads with God.
Notice in verse 11, Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. The imminence of trouble, the imminence of suffering evokes from the Savior that cry, Be not far from me. Again, whatever we interpret verse 1 as, it doesn't mean abandonment, total. It doesn't mean forsakenness, total.
The Lord Christ invokes the presence of the Father in the midst of His calamity. Verses 19 to 21a. But you, O Lord, do not be far from me. O my strength, hasten to help me.
Deliver me from the sword, my precious life, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen. He petitions God Most High that God would be there for him, that he would be near, and that he would bring salvation and deliverance from this gaggle of enemies that had confronted the Messiah. And then, of course, we have in verse 21b, you have answered me.
And the psalm then shifts directions amazingly. We move from the suffering of the Messiah to the crown of the Messiah when he enjoys that exaltation given him by the Father for his having performed the work as surety of the new covenant. Well, brethren, as I said, this is indeed holy ground. It's a bit of a scratch the surface.
May it encourage our hearts and may it draw from us a great appreciation for the great love with which the Savior loved us and he gave himself for us. Paul does this in the New Testament. He says this, who loved me and who gave himself for me. Perhaps some of our struggles in the Christian life is because we're not thinking theologically.
We're not refreshing our hearts with who God is. We're not refreshing our minds with what God does. We get this idea that, well, you know, he's always been there in the past, but in this present circumstance, I have no confident expectation whatsoever that he will deliver me. He has proven himself faithful.
I love that bit Spurgeon said when he said, pray as those who have tried and proven their God. Pray as those who have tried and proven their God, because essentially that's what we have done. We have tried Him. We have proven Him.
He is faithful, and He will never relinquish. He will never depart. He will never leave us, nor will He forsake us. So let us close in a word of prayer.
Closing Prayer
Thank you, Father, for your word, and thank you for this psalm, this prophecy concerning the Messiah, and thank you for the New Covenant documents that show us these things lived out, experienced by the Son of Man on behalf of his people. We give praise to you for so great a salvation, and we pray to you that you would give us this mindset Help us to ponder the perfections of God. Help us to consider the faithfulness of God. Help us in the midst of trial and affliction and hardship and difficulty, not to jump ship, but to refresh our minds with who you are and with what you've done in the past, in the lives of the people of God at large, and specifically in our lives.
You've always been there. You're always faithful. You will never cease from being thus. You have promised to never leave us nor forsake us, and in this we greatly rejoice.
And we do thank you that our Lord Jesus Christ underwent what He underwent on the cross, that He did have this experience. He did suffer on our behalf so that we may have everlasting life. We give all praise and glory unto you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we pray through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Amen.