Scripture Reading: Psalm 22

Psalm 22 for our meditation prior to the supper. I'll read the entirety of the psalm, but our focus will be on the first half from verses 1 to 21a. So beginning in Psalm 22 at verse 1. To the chief musician set to the dear of the dawn, the 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 and thrown 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 roaring lion. 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 potsherd, 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.

All 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 nations 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. Well, let us pray.

Opening Prayer

Father in heaven, we thank you for this wonderful psalm. We thank you for the reality that its application, its main subject is the suffering of our blessed Lord Jesus on our behalf. We thank you that he went to the cross. We thank you that he endured the shame.

We thank you that he went through all of this in order to save us from our sins. God may again encourage our hearts as we come to this psalm. May you encourage our hearts as we come to the supper, and may you strengthen us by your Holy Spirit, and may we walk in a manner that is consistent with our high calling. Again, forgive us now for all sin and unrighteousness, and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.

Introduction

When we come now to Psalm 22, it's the Psalm that Jesus had on his lips when he went to the cross. And we see that specifically in the Gospel of Matthew. You can turn there, Matthew chapter 27, specifically in the section where he is on the cross. So Matthew 27, we're gonna bounce back and forth a little bit tonight, but notice specifically in verses 45 to 52.

Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. In about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, this man is calling for Elijah.

Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink. The rest said, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to save him. Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened. Amen. So

Subject of the Psalm

going back to Psalm 22, I'm going to look at two things. First, the subject of the psalm, and you see that in the superscription. Notice verse 1 in the Hebrew Bible reads, To the chief musician set to the deer of the dawn, a psalm of David. So we'll consider the subject of the psalm briefly. and then move to the prophetic meaning of the psalm in verses 1b to 21a.

But notice it is a prophetic word. We have the fact that David wrote it. But

David Writing as Prophet

David is writing about something here that transcends his own experience. Certainly David suffered. You see it in 1 Samuel chapter 16. He goes from shepherd to the anointed king of Israel.

Well, once the Holy Spirit comes upon him, once he receives that anointing from Samuel, then his troubles begin. There's a life of distress and hardship for David. First of all, from Saul, he has the struggle with internal enemies. But as well from the Philistines, he has the struggle with external enemies.

Just about everybody disdains and despises David, and lots of people want to see him dead. But what we find in this psalm, as I said, transcends the suffering of David. It does not describe his trials and afflictions. Alec Motier makes the observation.

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. We are listening to David the prophet looking forward to the suffering Messiah. And there he quotes, or rather alludes to Acts 2.30.

In that day of Pentecost, when Peter is preaching, he invokes David and he calls him a prophet in Acts chapter 2. and verse 30. So Psalm 22 is written by David under inspiration of the Spirit, but it's not about David. It's about David's greater son, even the Lord Jesus, the one who was promised to come from that particular line. Now the Psalm breaks down into two sections.

Verses 1 to 21a deals with the suffering and the death of the Messiah. And then verses 21b to 31 deals with his exaltation. the fact that he was raised from the dead and exalted and ascended on high, where he led captivity captive and he gave gifts to men. So what we have in Psalm 22 is what we find throughout the Gospels, what we find throughout the Epistles, what we find throughout the Scriptures. It is a description of the suffering and the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of all those whom the Father had given him, and then that subsequent exaltation to the right hand of God Most High.

So the Psalm is quoted, verse one in Matthew 27, verse 46, as we've seen. Verse eight in Matthew 27 at verse 43. Verse 15 is at least alluded to in John 19, probably Psalm 69 is back there as well. And then verse 18 is quoted in Matthew 27, 35.

And then in the latter half, verse 22 is quoted in Hebrews chapter two and verse 12. So that it's about Christ. I don't think is open for dispute. And Bonar, in his little commentary on the Psalms, he entitled Psalm 22, Messiah bearing the cross and wearing the crown.

Messiah bearing the cross and wearing the crown. And that's the movement in Psalm 22. Now

Prophetic Meaning of the Psalm

that brings us, secondly, to the prophetic meaning of the psalm. And it focuses, as I said, upon the suffering and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to look at three things. First, the distress of the Messiah.

Secondly, the suffering of the Messiah. And then thirdly, the confidence of the Messiah. But

The Distress of the Messiah

first, notice the distress. You see that there in 1B. The Lord Jesus takes this upon his lips and he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning?

I think there's some misunderstanding in terms of what these words represent. In fact, there's a famous song, a famous Christian song, and the man that writes the song says that the father turns his face away from the son. Others suggest that what the Father does here with reference to the Son is that He abandons Him wholly. That's not what's happening.

Again, Jesus here is expressing the distress of His heart according to His humanity as He's suffering under the wrath and fury of God Most High for us men and for our salvation. The fact that the psalm tells us that he petitions Yahweh or his father while he's on the cross indicates that there wasn't an abandonment. It indicates that the father didn't turn his face away. In fact, in the second half of the psalm, the Lord Christ underscores that.

Notice in verse 24. 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. Christ knew that experientially upon the cross as this psalm relates.

So as we look at the particular cry, I want to explain it first as to what it does not mean, and secondly, as what it does mean.

What the Cry Does Not Mean

First, it does not mean that there was any division among the persons of the Trinity. It does not mean that there was any division among the persons of the Trinity. It doesn't mean there was a breach. It doesn't mean that there was some separation.

It doesn't mean that there was some sort of a disorder in terms of God, ad intra. The father's forsaking the son was not at the level of theology proper. It was not at the level of what we call ad intra, God's relations, the persons to one another, father, son, and Holy Spirit. There's no rupture in that.

There's no division there. There's no breach there. Additionally, we need to understand that the triune God did not suffer on the cross. That's bad theology.

That is not good. It is Jesus, according to his humanity, as the Son of God, who goes to the cross. So there was no division among the persons of the Trinity. But as well, there was no dissolution of the hypostatic union.

Now remember, the hypostatic reunion refers to the fact that Jesus is one person in two natures. There's no rupture there. There's no dissolving there. There's no breach there.

Jesus is both man and God, and on that cross he continues to be. Our confession in chapter 8, paragraph 2, tells us, with reference to the hypostatic union, so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. Again, there's probably a lot of other things we could say here, but know this, there's no breach or no division amongst the persons of the Trinity, and as well, there's no dissolution of the hypostatic union of our Lord.

What the Cry Does Mean

So when we ask the question, what does it mean? What does it mean when Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It doesn't mean whole abandonment. If it doesn't mean the Father turning away his face from him, then what does it mean?

I've got four things I want to consider. First, the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross according to his humanity. And this expresses that. His sufferings were real.

His blood was real. His death was real. It didn't just appear to be that way. It wasn't just sort of a stage show.

But Christ suffered and when he cries this cry, that is the evidence of his true humanity. This is exactly what we'd expect of a man who goes to the cross and does receive in himself the punishment due to sin. So the Lord Jesus Christ suffers on the cross. And notice specifically in verse one, he says, my God, my God, not my father, my father.

The fact that he says, my God, my God, indicates that he is speaking according to his humanity. When we locate him on the cross in Matthew's gospel, he's there according to his humanity. Divinity doesn't suffer, divinity doesn't ache, divinity doesn't bleed, and divinity doesn't die. It was necessary that the Lord Jesus Christ be both man and God.

In fact, John Gill says, God is the God of Christ as he is man. So the very statement itself does not suggest what some try to tell us that it does, that there's a rupture in the persons of the Trinity, that there's this wholesale abandonment on the part of the father with reference to the son. No, the father loves the son, the father approves of the son, the father delights in the son, and the father is glorified in the son's suffering. So whatever Jesus means here cannot suggest for a moment that there's some sort of a division between father and son.

Secondly, the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross for our sins. He goes to that cross and he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's the due punishment for sinners. And so Christ is our substitute.

Christ is our federal head. Christ is our public person, goes to that cross for us, for us men and for our salvation. You know the passages, Matthew chapter one and verse 21, he will save his people from their sins. Well, how does he do that?

He lives for them, he dies for them, he's raised again for them. Matthew 20, 28, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Second Corinthians 5, 21, God the father made him God the son who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So Christ suffered on the cross, according to his humanity, Christ suffered on the cross for our sins.

The church father Hillary says, nay, it was we who were forsaken and disregarded, so that it was as appropriating our personality that he offered these prayers. He stood in our stead. He prayed our prayer. He said the very thing that is true of humanity, suffering under the wrath and fury and curse of God Most High.

This was real. It happened. It occurred. And this expression from Psalm 22 on the mouth of the Savior indicates the case.

Thirdly, the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross as determined by the Father. He suffered on the cross as determined by the Father. There's two passages we ought to consider here. Romans chapter 8 and verse 32.

The Lord Jesus was delivered to the cross by the Father, according to the Apostle Paul. In Romans 8, 32, Paul says, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who sent Jesus to the cross? That's a perennial question.

Was it the Jews? Well, they were certainly complicit. Was it the Romans? They were certainly complicit.

Was it you and I? We were certainly complicit, but it was the Father. It was a plan and purpose of God Most High. Isn't this Peter's point?

Again, on the day of Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2 and verse 23, he underscores the reality that godless hands nailed Jesus to the cross, but it was according to the predetermined plan and purpose of God Most High. When the apostles pray in Acts chapter 4, they understand that Pilate and Herod do exactly what God's hand had determined beforehand to do. The Father undertook on our behalf. This is what the scriptures teach repetitively.

When Adam and Eve sin, it's not they that run to God, it's God who comes after them. When the tower builders at Babel try to rise up and make a name for themselves, and God confounds their lip, what happens on the heels of that? God calls Abram out of Ur, the Chaldeans, and he covenants with him. It's God who seeks and saves that which is lost.

And that's the emphasis that we find in scripture. The father sent the son with all that that entailed, perfect life of obedience, a death as sacrifice and substitute on the cross, and resurrection again the third day. And as well, he delivered him to the cross, but he didn't deliver him from the cross. Isaiah the prophet in chapter 53 at verse 10.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he has put him to grief. So what you have there is the father sending the son to the cross and it pleases the father, not in a sick, twisted, sadistic way. but in the John 12 sort of way, when Jesus says, Father, glorify your name. And the father says, I have glorified it and I will glorify it again.

The father is pleased to bruise him, again, not some sick, twisted, demented, you know, act of cosmic child abuse, the way some proponents of, or anti-proponents of penal substitution would argue. The father sends the son to affect the purpose of God in the salvation of a great multitude that no man can number. Christ goes willingly, the Father sends him for that particular purpose, and the Son takes it upon himself to go through to the uttermost. And then as well, the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross, and here's where I think we get at this, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me idea, is that the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross and experienced the withdrawal of the Father's favor.

The withdrawal of the father's favor. Not the withdrawal of the father, or else the very petition itself would be in vain. The father is there. The father is pleased on the one hand, but according to his humanity, he is suffering wrath and fury and divine vengeance for the sins that you and I have accomplished.

So the favor was withdrawn, or rather the Lord Jesus on the cross suffered and experienced the withdrawal of the Father's favor. So notice, the favor was withdrawn, but not the Father. The cry itself. He doesn't say, God, God.

He continually says, my God, my God. It's just a terrible analogy, but I hope it gets at it to some degree. When you and I are afflicted by Yahweh, or when we are afflicted by the Father, He doesn't stop being our Father. He doesn't end His covenant relationship with us.

We're not supposed to interpret it that way. If you do, you need to repent. Oh, God's afflicted me. He must have abandoned me.

I don't think we usually think that. In fact, Paul tells us in Hebrews chapter 12, we're not supposed to think that at all. We're supposed to understand that the ones that the father loves, he rebukes. The ones that the father loves, he chastens.

The ones that the father loves, he disciplines. Jesus says as much to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3.19. So the presence of affliction doesn't argue for the absence of God. The presence of affliction for the Lord Jesus didn't argue for the absence of God.

It argues rather from this withdrawal of his favor, the kindness, the sweetness of his smile upon him. And again, he's suffering in our stead according to his humanity. There's no problem at the level of ad intra. There's no divine son and father with any breach or rupture. with reference to the cry, my God, my God, he doesn't cease to be his God.

And then in the remainder of the Psalm, Christ expresses his confidence in the Father over and over again. In fact, the whole is a prayer unto God the Father in terms of the reality that he's undergoing. The favor was withdrawn in accordance with his penal sufferings for us men and for our salvation. Again, when we ask the question, what's true of humanity?

What's true of humanity is to cry out when the favor of God is withdrawn from us. Again, going back to our affliction. I hope affliction sends you to your closet, or affliction sends you to the family altar, or affliction sends you to the prayer meeting. And in that affliction, you cry out to God for speedy relief.

You cry out to God for his aid. You cry out to God for his visitation. Again, in terms of divine favor and blessedness. Matthew Henry said it this way, 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. That's a far cry different than suggesting that the father hid his face from the son. Now, the father looks approvingly upon the son's work. The father looks approvingly upon the one that brings glory to him.

But in terms of his function there as mediator, according to his humanity, as our surety, he's receiving the penalty of God's wrath. He is satisfying divine justice. Well, in the satisfaction of divine justice, there's not a big smile from the father that goes along with it. That's what evokes the cry, why hast thou forsaken me?

John Gill 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. Again, this passage ought not to be interpreted as if something bad or something awry had happened to the triune God. No, it underscores the beauty of our triune God. It underscores the glory of the incarnation of the Son.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Well, what does it mean? Did He just appear to be flesh? No.

All the essential properties and all the common infirmities thereof, and yet without sin. John Flavel says it was a penal desertion. inflicted on him for satisfaction for those sins of ours, which deserve that God should forsake us forever as the damned are forsaken by him." It is in the arena of Christ satisfying divine justice and understanding and underscoring and receiving in himself that punishment for sin, that's why the cry comes, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Suffering of the Messiah

Now, let's look next at the suffering of the Messiah at the hands of men, the suffering of the Messiah at the hands of men. And interestingly, on the cross, we only get what happens Godward. In other words, when we see the cross and our Lord Jesus hung upon it in Matthew 27, we only get verse one. Spurgeon suggests that he may have prayed the entirety of Psalm 22 on the cross.

I'll read that quote in just a moment. The point that I want to make is that it wasn't the beastly conduct of the men that evoked the cry from Jesus in Matthew's gospel. But that doesn't mean there wasn't beastly conduct of men that he was undergoing while he hung on that cross. Sometimes people say, you know, we shouldn't sing the Psalms only, or we shouldn't sing much of the Psalms, because there's not a lot of Jesus there.

There's as much Jesus in Psalm 22 as there is in Matthew 27. In fact, Psalm 22 gives us insight to Jesus according to his humanity, where Matthew doesn't. We learn more about Jesus' suffering on the cross from Psalm 22 than we do from Matthew 27. In John 19, it speaks of his crucifixion, and he was crucified.

Herman Ritterbosch makes the observation in that place. He says, there's not one trace whatsoever of some sort of passion celebration in the New Testament. And I get what he means. Roman Catholicism, if you go into one of their churches, I use that very lightly, they've got stations of the cross, and you're supposed to go and stand before it and wave the incense, and the priest says a few things, and you just kind of muddle along, and it really fixates upon the suffering of the Savior.

That movie that came out years ago, The Passion of the Christ, that was a celebration of the physical torture of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not saying it was specifically or purposely, but that was the high note of that movie. It showed you the penal sufferings, or not the penal sufferings, but the wrath of man against the Savior. And men are sometimes fixated upon that.

I think Ritterboss is right. There's no trace of that kind of passion and emphasis in the New Testament. The language is very brief. But in the Psalms, we find a bit of a lens into what was going on in terms of the Savior when he hung upon that cross.

Again, not so we can have the stations of the cross and not so we can celebrate passion in terms of physical torture, but we get an insight into what happened. with the Son of God who loved us and who gave Himself for us. We get, as it were, a bird's-eye view into His experience as He's receiving in Himself not only the penalty of God the Father, but the punishment and the wretchedness of beastly men. So notice, with reference to this, he's got reproach, the reproach of men in terms of their verbal assault. Notice in verses six to eight, but I'm 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. Brethren, I think we need to understand that when we read certain passages of Scripture, we tend to kind of sanitize it. And for instance, I was thinking about that passage in John 12. I preached that this morning and I alluded to John 12, 19, when the Pharisees said, you know, if we don't stop this fellow, the whole world's gonna go after him.

I don't think it was in the vein of a serious sort of a reflection and, you know, a sober sort of assessment on the goings on. If we don't get rid of this fellow, then the whole world's gonna go after him and they're gonna upstage us. These are wretched, vile, disgusting human beings. They are in Adam.

They're dead, and they've turned their antipathy against the Most High. It is the Psalm 2 reality. Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples plot against Yahweh and against His Christ?

Look at the language our Savior says, but I am a worm and no man. John Gill says Christ calls Himself a worm on account of the opinion that men of the world had of Him. Can you imagine that? The Lord of glory, the Word became flesh, and this is His sort of declaration?

I am a worm and no man. I'm 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. They are wicked men.

There is derision in their voice. Yahweh holds men in derision. Well, that doesn't seem altogether kind. Well, it's certainly wretched and lawless for men to hold him in contempt and him in derision.

And this isn't the only place we see this. In the prophet Isaiah, in the fourth servant song of Yahweh, we read in Isaiah 53, two and three, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Brethren, when John tells us in the prologue that he came to his own and his own received him not, John's not making that up.

John's got the prophetic script behind him, but under the inspiration of the Spirit as he takes pen to paper to record the doings and dyings of our blessed Savior, he underscores that reality. Paul the Apostle refers to Him in Hebrews 7, holy, harmless, and undefiled. And yet men treated Him with contempt. They held Him in derision.

They despised Him. They looked at Him as a worm and not a man. We wouldn't know that of the suffering Savior on the cross without the lens that we have here in this altar. So the Messiah is looked upon as a worm by men, and he's ridiculed by men.

And that's what's happening there in verses seven and eight. And you see that in Matthew's gospel, specifically in Matthew 27, 39 to 44, the section just prior to what I read. They're standing at the base of the cross, and what are they doing? They're mocking him.

They're adding insult to injury. And it's bad enough he's being crucified for something he didn't do. It's bad enough that you've taken the very worst form of execution that isn't even doable with reference to Roman citizens unless they happen to be specifically and particularly notorious. Roman citizens didn't get crucified.

When Barabbas and his two compadres are up on that cross, the text calls them thieves. You didn't get crucified for being a thief. You got crucified for being an insurrectionist. You got crucified for being a revolutionary.

You got crucified for being a terrorist. And that's the way they saw Jesus. The religious leaders of the Jews despised and hated him such that they conjured up these charges, and they did so in such a way as to get the interest of Pontius Pilate. He forbids paying taxes.

Well, that'll make any civil government happy to execute, happy to imprison, happy to do away with anybody who would ever dare to not pay their taxes. But also, he makes himself out to be a king. Why do you think they did that? Because then Pilate would see him as a political threat.

He would see him as a revolutionary. He would see him as a terrorist. And he would give the kill order and send the suffering Savior to the cross. So these men are at the base of the cross, he's suffering this shame, and they mock him, and they insult him, and the psalmist tells us that such is the case.

He trusted in the Lord, let him rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. They said this with a mock, and a sneer, and a slapping of the knee. These were vile men.

Now

The Attack by Beastly Men

notice secondly, in terms of the suffering of the Messiah, the attack by beastly men. Notice in verses 12 and 13, verse 16, 20 and 21. Bulls, lion, dogs, dog, lion's mouth, horns of the wild oxen. From the vantage point of the cross, when we look at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, it publishes to us or declares to us certain perfections of God.

It definitely declares His love, John 3, 16, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It also declares His righteousness. Romans chapter 3, when God sent His Son as a propitiation by His blood, it was designed to demonstrate at the present time the righteousness of God, that He's both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So when you look at the cross in terms of the divine perfections, they come through fully.

But when you look at the doctrine of depravity, when you look at the base of the cross, we're not well represented there, brethren. Our fellows are engaged in absolute lawlessness and godlessness. And when Jesus, in the psalm here, describes these particular persons, he uses that beastly imagery. He uses the language of animals.

He uses the language of vicious predatory animals that want to destroy him. Again, keep in mind, he's wholly harmless and undefiled. He is the only man that never committed a sin and certainly not a crime. He's the only man that could say, you know what, they're framing me.

He's the only man that could say, you know what, this is a kangaroo court. But he doesn't do that. He stands there silent before the Sanhedrin. For the most part, he stands silent before Pontius Pilate.

He describes these persons that put him on the cross in language that should cause us, as fellows, to hang our heads in shame. Again, it's the Father who put him there, ultimately. But the Romans were complicit, the Jews were complicit, certainly we were complicit. For the sins of his people, he went to that cross.

Davis makes the observation. 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, in verse 16b.

The beast imagery implies, as Alec Motyr says, that the assault lacks any of the constraints of humanity. This is a frenzy. This is a bloodthirsty mob. From the first cry of, away with him, away with him, crucify him, to the mocking, to the insult, and to the last breath when he gives up the spirit.

These people are wretched. These people are godless. But the text doesn't stop.

The Torture Inflicted by Men

Notice the torture inflicted by men. Verses 14 to 18. We see first the effects of crucifixion in verses 14 and 15, and then the actual reference to crucifixion in verses 16b to 18. But notice the effects according to verses 14 and 15.

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.

There's that divine initiative again, even on the cross, the Lord Jesus acknowledges that this isn't first and foremost man's sinfulness that put him here. It's the father's purpose in the covenant of redemption for the son to redeem his people from their sins. Now notice, with reference to the suffering, he gets very detailed and very specific. Motyr again says a likely consequence of the unnatural position of a crucified person.

In other words, when he says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The explanation is simple. Under the penalty of God's wrath for sinners, there is that withdrawal of divine favor, the smile of God. Not the withdrawal of the divine, not the withdrawal of God.

When it comes to the infliction of pain thrust upon him by men, he gives that detailed description. And again, I think the 1928 in John alludes to this. If it's not, you know, direct quotation, this along with Psalm 69, when Jesus says, I thirst when he's on the cross. But then notice that reference to crucifixion specifically in verses 16 to 18.

For dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. It's intriguing. The English versions here follow what's called the Septuagint.

The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. It's oftentimes referred to as LXX, which is the Roman number for 70, because the story goes there were 70 men that worked on this particular translation. So you've got this Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. You've got the Hebrew Masoretic text reading in the margin.

But with reference to this, we notice that there is a clear reference to crucifixion. Now how do we jive that? Masoretic text and LXX. I don't want to get too bogged down, but Davis again makes the observation.

In 1997, a Hebrew text from Nahal Haver was published which actually reads, they have pierced. And this Hebrew text is a thousand years earlier than our traditional Hebrew text. The Greek translation, the Septuagint from about 200 BC, also took it this way. Now, there's a man by the name of Michael Reitelnick, and he has a book on the messianic hope.

He deals with Genesis 3.15 and the opening up of that promise of the seed of the woman that crushes the serpent. And he makes the observation that the Masoretic text, at places, got rid of messianic interpretation that would have indicated or confirmed that Jesus was the Messiah. And he suggests as much here. With reference to verse 16b in the Masoretic Text, Reitlnick says plainly 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.

Probably something about that. And yet when we come to this passage, I just want to try to confirm you that this is a reference to crucifixion. Several hundred years prior to the crucifixion. Again, David is writing as a prophet about his greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ invoking this psalm on his lips as he does from the cross validates and confirms that. And so all those hundreds of years prior to the crucifixion, we have this reference to the crucifixion. 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. Matthew 27, 35.

This isn't just kind of a vague possibility of fulfillment. See, I think there's that idea outside the church and unfortunately inside the church. Yeah, the prophecies are kind of vague and a bit ambiguous, and you really got to press to see fulfillment in the New Testament. Not even a little bit, brethren.

Not even a little bit. This is as obvious and as clear as could possibly be. Many years prior to the crucifixion, David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us about the crucifixion. So when the Jews, for instance, reject or resist the notion of the suffering Messiah, they're absolutely off base.

The same Old Testament that promised an eternal Messiah, that promised a divine Messiah, that promised a powerful Messiah, also promised a suffering and dying Messiah, and a resurrected one. So as we move our way through John's Gospel, and they ask the question, how can you say that the Son of Man dies? Again, they had the concept of power, they had the concept of eternality, but they didn't have the concept of suffering. Paul says that into his own day in 1 Corinthians 1.

The Jews seek after signs, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ and Him crucified. To the Jews, what? A stumbling block, a scandal. Why?

Because they couldn't conceive that Messiah would actually die. He would come, he would subjugate their enemies, he'd give them all new cars, and new houses, and money, and bank accounts, and chickens in every pot, and he would restore geopolitical Israel to a place of prestige. They missed it by a long shot. And so the psalmist calls it, the psalmist prophesies, and that shows the contemptibleness of those Jewish leaders in first century Israel that missed this significant piece of redemptive prophetic messaging.

And then

The Confidence of the Messiah

notice, we've got the confidence of the Messiah and we'll end here. He affirms the perfections of God, even while he's on the cross. Notice in verse three, but you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. See, what's happening to the Savior doesn't compromise the holiness of the Father.

What's happening to the Savior demonstrates the holiness of the Father, demonstrates the righteousness of the Father, demonstrates that He's both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. The forsakenness of the Son does not mitigate the holiness of God. The forsakenness of the Son shows or demonstrates or validates the holiness of God. Spurgeon made the observation, 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. So again, that idea that he turned his face away or he wholly abandoned him does not jive with the rest of the psalm. The Lord Jesus expresses, again, the confidence that He has in the Father who is holy. He knows too well His Father's goodness to let outward circumstances libel His character.

There's 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.

He acknowledges the holiness of God, and He acknowledges the faithfulness of God. Again, I don't want to moralize. This is a bad place to moralize. I guess I want to just make the observation.

If under this distress, Jesus nevertheless confesses the holiness and faithfulness of God when we are likewise afflicted. Again, not likewise, we're on the cross. No, no, no, no. Don't banish the thought.

But brethren, our tendency is to question God. Our tendency is to accuse God. Our tendency is to say, well, why are you letting these things happen to me? Jesus is confessing His holiness.

Jesus is confessing His faithfulness. He is faithful in the history of His people. He says that specifically in verses 4 and 5. 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. the faithfulness of God toward the Messiah. Notice in verses 9 and 10.

But you are He who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breast. I was cast upon you from birth, from my mother's womb. You have been my God.

You see, there is never this diminishing thought in the mind of the Savior on the cross as He's suffering divine wrath and curse. for our sin, and as he's surrounded by these beastly, ghoulish men, there's no thought whatsoever that anything in terms of God's perfections have been compromised. He loves the Father. He obeys the Father. He brings glory to the Father.

He does what the Father intended for him to do. We're not looking at the complaint. We're not looking at grumbling. We're not looking at some sort of a register of dissatisfaction in the terms of the covenant.

Now we're looking at true humanity, crying out to God on the cross under the weight of divine wrath. And then notice finally, in terms of the confidence of the Messiah, He affirms His perfections and He affirms His presence. Notice, the presence of trouble evokes the petition in verse 11. Be not far from me.

The presence of trouble evokes the petitions in verse 19. Do not be far from me. Hasten to help me. The presence of trouble evokes the petition in verse 20.

Deliver me. And the presence of trouble evokes the petition in verse 21. Save me. He affirms the presence of God, even while he's on the cross and he's crying out, why hast thou forsaken me?

If the Lord's cry in verse 1 meant the utter abandonment of the Son by the Father, then all of these petitions are prayed in vain. But 21b tells us they were not prayed in vain. And you answered me. The Lord God answered him.

This follows the trajectory that you find in Ephesians chapter one. The Lord Jesus Christ dies. The Lord Jesus is then raised by the father from the dead and he's stationed at the right hand of the father. This follows the trajectory in Philippians chapter two, verses five to 11.

The son who became a slave and the son who suffered the humiliating curse of death on a cross. What happens on the heels of that? He's exalted to the right hand of God Most High. The psalm moves in the same direction as the gospel.

The psalm moves in the same direction as Paul's epistles. The psalm moves in that direction because it's the truth of God Most High. And a plug for Psalm singing is simple. If Jesus had this Psalm on his lips in his dying hour, we as his people ought to have it on our lips in our living hour.

We ought to sing the Psalms of Zion, knowing that they're about the Lord Jesus Christ, and they reveal to us things that even Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John don't tell us. Psalm 69 is another very important passage in that regard. We get insight into the humanity of our blessed Savior as he undergoes his life of humiliation. So

Application

in conclusion, I would suggest the theology of the Psalter is no different than the theology of the New Testament. The New Testament is patterned after the theology of the Psalter. The complaint that the Psalms are silent concerning the Lord Jesus is simply untrue. Brethren, may I give you a bit of a hermeneutical piece of advice?

When you read your Old Testament, read it as a New Testament Christian. You mean we can do that? Yeah, yeah, you can, and you should. You should, when you come to Leviticus chapter 16 on that day of atonement, you should be thinking Jesus.

You should be thinking Jesus. You should be thinking blood atonement. You should be thinking the expiation of our guilt. You should be thinking Christ when that scapegoat is prayed over by the high priest, and the sins of Israel are confessed, and that goat is then driven out into the wilderness.

You should be seeing there our Lord Jesus Christ. When you come to Psalm 22, let it inform and instruct your mindset concerning the suffering of the Son of God on our behalf in the gospel records. Read the Old Covenant with that New Covenant perspective. Read the Old Covenant as New Covenant believers in Jesus Christ.

That's the way the apostles do it. That's the way Paul and Peter train us to do it. That's the way we're supposed to do it. And that's what Jesus affirms when he upbraids the religious leaders, when he says to them, you search the scriptures for in them, you think you have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me. read the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament.

The suffering, the death, the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ in Psalm 22 gives us a perspective that even Matthew's gospel does not. As I said, Ritterboss on 1918 and John, the New Testament has no trace of any passion mysticism oriented to the physical torture of Jesus. Spurgeon says it may have been actually repeated word by word by our Lord when hanging on the tree. It would be too bold to say that it was so, but listen to what he says.

But even a casual reader may see that it might have been. perfectly appropriate, perfectly legitimate. The gospel writers seem to indicate that when they keep citing, when they keep highlighting, when they keep connecting back to this psalm of the cross. And then in terms of the glory of the Savior, the psalm echoes the gospels and the epistles. The psalm echoes the apostle Paul.

Hebrews chapter 2, what does Paul say concerning the redemptive work of Christ? For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. That gets at well what we find there in Psalm 22. And then the Psalm displays the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessed effect, the blessed fruit of his death and resurrection on our behalf.

Verses 27 and 28. 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. Let us behold our Christ in Psalm 22.

Yea, let us behold him in the entirety of the book of Psalms, because he's all over the place. And as we sing them, as we pray them, as we read them, as we rehearse them, it is calculated to do our souls a measurable good.

Closing Prayer

Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this psalm of the cross that we find those many years prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for what is written here.

We thank you for the application of it in the New Testament. And we thank you that you've made us benefactors and recipients. As Paul says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. May we never forget these things, may we ponder them each and every day, and may they be fresh in our minds and hearts even now as we eat this bread and drink this cup.

And we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. We can turn to Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter 26, where we read the

Scripture References

• Leviticus 16
• 1 Samuel 16
• Psalms 2; 22:1-21; 22:24; 22:27-28; 69
• Isaiah 53:2-3; 53:10
• Matthew 1:21; 20:28; 26; 27:35; 27:39-44; 27:43; 27:45-52
• John 3:16; 12:19; 12:28; 19:18
• Acts 2:23; 2:30; 4
• Romans 3; 8:32
• 1 Corinthians 1
• 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Ephesians 1
• Philippians 2:5-11
• Hebrews 2:12; 7; 12
• Revelation 3:19