Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 23. We've considered the Savior and His crucifixion, basically standing at the foot of the cross. I've mentioned how there are seven sayings of the Savior from the cross. We find the first in Luke chapter 23 when He says, Father forgive them.

Luke 23, for the second today will be with me in paradise. The third is in John's gospel. Woman, behold your son. The fourth in Matthew, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The fifth in John, I thirst. The sixth in John, it is finished. And the seventh, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. So we're going to look at that one this morning.

So I'm going to read just a couple of verses here in Luke's gospel. Then we'll turn to Psalm 31. So Luke chapter 23 beginning in verse 44. Now it was about the sixth hour and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

Then the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. You can turn with me now to Psalm 31.

Psalm 31, I'll begin reading in verse 1. To the chief musician, a psalm of David. In you, O Lord, I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed.

Deliver me in your righteousness. Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me.

For you are my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for your name's sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for you are my strength. Into your hand I commit my spirit.

You have redeemed me, O Lord God, of truth. I have hated those who regard useless idols, but I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have considered my trouble. You have known my soul in adversities and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy.

You have set my feet in a wide place. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. My eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body. For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing.

My strength fails because of my iniquity and my bones waste away. I am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances. Those who see me outside flee from me. I am forgotten like a dead man out of mind.

I am like a broken vessel, for I hear the slander of many. Fear is on every side. While they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life. But as for you, or as for me, I trust in you, O Lord.

I say, you are my God. My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. Make your face shine upon your servant.

Save me for your mercy's sake. Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon you. Let the wicked be ashamed. Let them be silent in the grave.

Let the lying lips be put to silent. which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men. You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man. You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

"'Blessed be the Lord, for he has shown me "'his marvelous kindness in a strong city. "'For I said in my haste, "'I am cut off from before your eyes. "'Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my supplications "'when I cried out to you. "'Oh, love the Lord, all you his saints, "'for the Lord preserves the faithful "'and fully repays the proud person.

"'Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. "'All you who hope in the Lord, amen.'"

Opening Prayer

Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your written word. We thank you that it's given for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. And as we marvel now about the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, may you draw out from us love, adoration, and worship to this most blessed Savior.

We ask for forgiveness now for all sin and unrighteousness. We pray for guidance and illumination by your Holy Spirit. And God, help us to see again the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lived for us, who died for us, and who was raised again for us. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Introduction

Well, we look at this particular psalm and we see it's to the chief musician, a psalm of David. So it's fit and appropriate for the singing of it in public worship. So even the laments and imprecations and the difficulties associated with the Christian life, the sorrows and hardships are to be sung in public worship. As well, it says it's a psalm of David.

If we had to locate a time in David's life when he may have penned such a psalm as this, we might look at 1 Samuel 23-26. He's persecuted, he's chased by Saul. Or we might think of the agony that he went through with reference to his son Absalom in 2 Samuel 13-18. But I want to submit that this psalm actually is about our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's the prophetic background to what we'll see in the contextual observations at the foot of the cross. Now one of the difficulties in that assertion might be verse 10, For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Remember that Jesus, as covenant mediator, is our representative.

He is our high priest. It's not his personal sin, but it's the sin of his people. And this is legitimate when we consider 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. Psalm 31 is a psalm of Christ.

Psalm 31 again shows us something of the physical hardship, the torment and the torture that took place on the cross. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John do not sort of expound upon or give detail concerning the physical suffering. The psalm is due, however, Psalm 31 is one of those instances, Psalm 22, I think Psalm 88, Psalm 69, what we get in the Psalter is the prophetic statement concerning the work of the Messiah.

The Prophetic Background: Psalm 31

So I want to look first at the prophetic background, this psalm, and then secondly some contextual observations at the foot of the cross with reference to that seventh saying of the Savior on the cross. Now, Psalm 31, as I understand it, breaks down into five parts. I'll try to be slow with reference to the heads. because I think it's important for us to see the flow. First, the petition for his deliverance in verses 1 to 8.

Secondly, the description of his suffering in verses 9 to 13. Third, the condemnation of his enemies in verses 14 to 18. Fourth, the admiration of his father in verses 19 to 22. And then finally, the exhortation of his people in verses 23 and 24.

Petition for His Deliverance

But let's look first at the petition for his deliverance. Note verse 1, In you, O Lord, I put my trust, or I have taken refuge. This is not an uncommon theme in the scripture wherein the psalmist takes refuge in the living and true God. So he says, In you, O Lord, I put my trust.

Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in your righteousness. And if you look at verse 1, this let me never be ashamed, and then you look at the exhortation in verse 24, be of good courage. I think what the Savior is telling us is that God's faithfulness is such that we mustn't ever be ashamed that He's not going to undertake on our behalf. that we are to be of good courage based on the proven faithfulness and the steadiness and the consistency of the living and true God.

When the Bible calls us to good courage, it's not because we're strong, it's because God's strong. When the Bible calls us to courage in the face of hardship and affliction and opposition and persecution, it's not to tell us to pull up our bootstraps and to do it in our own strength, but it's rather live as those who have tried and proven their God. So the psalmist cries out at the outset, in you, oh Lord, I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed.

Deliver me in your righteousness. Again, I want to express that I think this is a Psalm of the cross, every bit as much as Psalm 31 is. He rehearses the affliction. And remember that fourth saying of the Savior, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

There was a suspension of a brief time of the kindness and the sweetness and the mercy of the Father to the Son. It wasn't a dissolution of the hypostatic union, it wasn't a breach in the Trinity, but the Son of God standing in our stead on that cross bearing sin was indeed not receiving those consolations of God's favor. And so he cries out as a result of that in psalms such as these. Notice in verse 1b he says, deliver me in your righteousness, deliver me in your faithfulness.

And though it's a psalm of Christ, it's a psalm that specifically applies for the people of Christ. Hence the exhortations of Christ to his church in verses 23 and 24. Love the Lord. Be of good courage.

Well, we will, like the Master, suffer affliction. We will, like the Master, undergo hardship. The Apostle says in 2 Timothy 3 that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. We know that's our lot.

We know that's our challenge. We know that's our difficulty. So the Lord here prays, deliver me in your righteousness, or deliver me in your faithfulness. David Dixon says, as the Lord sends, in his wisdom, trouble after trouble on a believer, so he sends, in his justice and faithfulness, promise delivery after delivery from oppressions.

Deliver me in thy righteousness. Christ knew that of the Father. He prays that specifically in terms of petition. Notice as well, verse 3, you are my rock and my fortress, therefore for your namesake lead me out and guide me.

There's never doubt in the mind of the Savior. There ought never to be doubt in the mind of the Savior's people. We ought to realize and again be of good courage at the reality that the God who saved us is the God who keeps us. The God who secures us is the God that will bring us home to the very end.

As the Apostle says in Romans 8, if God 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? If God does the greater, the delivering up of His Son, He's going to do the lesser in securing and stabilizing His people and protecting them from all oppression and persecution and affliction. But notice, He doesn't protect them by delivering them completely from it. That's typically the way we pray.

God, I don't want to be afflicted. I don't want to be oppressed. I don't want to be persecuted. No.

That's a given. That's a reality. You're in a sin-cursed world. You're in a world marked by the first verses of Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage and the people plot of vain things against Yahweh and against His Christ? Well, how do you think they're going to treat you if you're for Yahweh and for His Christ? How do you think they're going to treat you if you're a follower of the Lamb? How do you think they're going to treat you if you acknowledge the Godhood and the Lordship of our blessed Savior?

Well, they're going to hate you, and they're going to despise you. We need to appreciate and understand that God is our strong fortress, even in the midst of affliction. God is our refuge and strength, even in the midst of oppression and persecution. God is there with us in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the fire, in the midst of the hardship.

He sees us through it. He says, you are my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for your namesake, lead me and guide me. pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for you are my strength." It's vivid language. Why do you use a net?

You use a net to capture an animal. You use a net to capture an enemy. And the Savior is in the net of the enemy and he cries out to the Father to free me from that particular net. We ought to follow the Savior in a light manner and when we pray, when we find ourselves in a net, we pray for God's speedy deliverance or for God's grace so that we can suffer through non-speedy deliverance.

And then of course our text in verse 5, into your hand I commit my spirit, you have redeemed me O Lord God of truth. You need to see the hand of God and the hand of the enemies in this particular psalm. You see the hand of God and you see the hand of Christ's enemies at the foot of the cross. Notice in verse 5, into your hand I commit my spirit.

Verse 8, and if not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. Verse 15, my times are in your hand, deliver me from the hand of my enemies. He's caught betwixt the two. He's in the hand of his enemies and he cries for God's hand of safety and goodness.

Note the entirety of his commitment. When he says, into your hand I commit my spirit. Spirits do not exist apart from bodies in this present age. True humanity with reference to our Lord. spirit and body is committed to the Blessed Father, as well the timing of his commitment.

It's at his death, spoken in that seventh saying of the Savior on the cross, but I think it includes his life, and I think verse 15 indicates that it includes his life. My times are in your hand. In other words, everything falls out according to divine providence. The adversaries, the oppressors, the persecutors, the afflictors, they're not somehow outside the purview of my father's hands.

They're not some sort of random events out there in the universe that have just fallen upon me. No, he's always conscious. He's always mindful. In the garden, he prays, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. The cup is the will of the father for the son to drink in order to save his people from their sins. Again, Jesus, according to his humanity in the Garden of Gethsemane, knew what that cup was brimming over with, namely God's wrath and fury and curse for sin and sinners. And as a man, he prays, if it is possible, let this pot pass from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. So I think we learn from the Savior here in this statement concerning His commission or commending of His Spirit to the Father's hand in verse 5, and a recognition of the entirety of His life in verse 15, that whatever our God ordains is right. Romans 8.28 isn't just a motto text for believers or a bumper sticker or a fridge magnet to sort of buck us up once in a while. What does Paul say there?

We know. How do we know this? Because the Bible tells us. How do we know this?

Because the Spirit convinces us. How do we know this? Because experience has demonstrated it. We know that God causes all things to work for good.

That means the good things, obviously. Finding bags of money always works for our good. Getting promotions at work always worked for our good. Happy wives and husbands and happy children always work for our good.

I don't think that's Paul's point. That's a tautology. That means saying the same thing over again. Of course all good things work for our good.

I think he means the hard things. I think he means the persecutions. I think that's why he ends the chapter by saying, what shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? shall persecution, shall tribulation, shall hardship. So we know that God causes all things to work for good.

To every single human being out there, no, to those who love God and to those who are the called according to his purpose. See, the Savior exemplifies that in his life. The Savior shows us that throughout, from cradle to grave, that dependence and trust in the Father, who is his strong tower, who is his rock of refuge for times of woe and affliction. He commits his spirit to the Father because that's the way he always lived, with reference to the Father.

And then notice, he goes on in verses six to eight, to show the futility of idols and the faithfulness of God. Notice in verse 6, I have hated those who regard useless idols, but I trust in the Lord. I think it's safe to say that if he hated those who trusted in useless idols, that obviously means that he himself didn't trust in useless idols, right? Pretty clear implication.

He condemns those who trust in useless idols but he expresses his trust in the living and true God. And I wanna just look at that for a moment. I have hated those who regard useless idols, but I trust in the Lord. When the sermon ends today, I'm gonna try to make this practical for each of us and the difficulties that we face.

And the very first thing we need to understand, because the psalmist here rehearses many good things about God. The many good things. He's faithful. He protects.

He is our refuge in times of trouble. We just sang that in Psalm 46. But the first and primary emphasis is on the very being of God. Just his existence.

Just that he's there. Isn't that Hebrews 11.6? By faith it is impossible to please him. Those who come must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

There's something about God in himself that is commendatory. There's something about the fact that he is that produces comfort and strength and stability. The fact that he does reemphasizes all of who he is, and that's what the psalmist is gonna rehearse for us, but I hate those who regard useless idols, but I trust in the Lord. And if you take that to the foot of the cross, there's specific application.

What are those unbelieving Jews doing when they're crucifying Jesus? They've constructed an idol. They have a concept of Yahweh that's not biblical. They have a concept of Yahweh that makes him devoid of being a trinity.

They have become the idolaters by crucifying the very Lord of glory that Yahweh sent to save his people from their sins. So after highlighting the being of God, notice he goes on in verses seven and eight. I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have considered my trouble, you have known my soul and adversities, and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a wide place.

In other words, I have tried and proven that you are faithful. I have tried and proven that you are God. I have tried and proven that you are there for your people in the midst of adversity. You know me in my adversities.

So we can never pray that, God, you just don't know what I'm going through. Well, God is absolutely conscious of it, because he's omnipotent and omnipresent and omniscient, so he knows everything that we're going through, but God the Son assumed our humanity. God the Son was persecuted, he was afflicted, he was tried, he was tempted, he was hurt, he was broken, he was battered, he was bruised, all that. So a believer can never say, God, you don't know what I'm going through.

Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 4 shows us that Christ knows exactly. He's able to sympathize with us. Why? Because He was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

The blessed Savior for sinners is our friend, and He knows us in our adversities.

Description of His Suffering

Now notice then the description of his suffering in verses 9 to 13. He declares his trouble in verses 9 to 10 and then he identifies his troublers in verses 11 to 13. Notice in verse 9, Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. My eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body.

True humanity of the Savior, soul and body. What's He pray in John 12, or what's He say? Now my soul is troubled. When He goes into Gethsemane, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.

We see the trouble of His body. We've been standing at the foot of the cross, listening to the sayings of the Savior from the cross, and seeing the abuse and the scorn and the shame inflicted upon Him, and the pain. Thorns in His head, nails in His hands. spit and scourging prior to that. All the things that are true of the Savior.

Look at him. My eye wastes away with grief. Yes, my soul and my body. For my life is spent with grief.

This is consistent with the prophet Isaiah. He's a man of sorrows and what? Had a little bit of an idea of grief? No, he's acquainted with grief.

What's Isaiah say? He had no former comeliness. nothing about Him that would attract our attention. He didn't walk around with 21-inch guns. They're bigger now.

He didn't walk around with a halo. He didn't walk around in just, you know, white flowing throughout the hills of Israel and everybody wanted, no. It's just the opposite. There's nothing about him that was alluring.

He was a man of sorrows, and he was acquainted with grief. He says the same in Psalm 3110, for my life is spent with grief, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Now note, as he identifies his troublers in verses 11 to 13, he's reproached to his enemies.

That's not anything that should cause us too much alarm, is it? We're reproached to our enemies. Notice in verse 11, I'm a reproach among all my enemies. It's the next bit that I think is a bit more harder to get our minds wrapped around, at least in our own trouble, right?

If the guy at work who's hated you since the first day of work hates you, yeah, that's the way it goes. When a guy in church who's supposed to love you hates you, that's a bit of a difficult one. Look at what he says, verse 11, I am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and I'm repulsive to my acquaintances. Those who see me outside flee from me.

Neighbors like Peter who denied him. A neighbor like Judas who betrayed him. A neighbor like the disciples who fled from him. This is Jesus, brethren, expressing through Psalms the grief on the cross.

Athanasius had this very good counsel to us, actually not to us personally. He wrote a letter, I think it was Marcellinus, and he says this. When you see yourself hated and persecuted by family and those you love because of the truth, you should not despair for yourself or them. And when you see those who are well known to you turning against you, don't be alarmed, but instead separate yourself from them and looking to the future, here's his counsel, sing Psalm 31.

Praise God, Athanasius, that's the best encouragement you can give to a suffering perplexed soul that's meeting opposition in those closest to him. Sing Psalm 31. Notice that he moves on to the condemnation. Well, I'll just read the section.

Verse 12, I am forgotten like a dead man. That's a pretty common sort of image. We forget most dead people, don't we? I know we like to think we've got a legacy.

I know we like to think that in 60 years, the minstrels will be composing songs about us. Nah, it's probably not gonna happen. We're here for a time, and then we're gone. And that's okay.

I don't get this desire to make last, I mean, make an impact in your area, be a good husband, be a good father, be a good mother, be a good wife, all that. Be a good kid. Be faithful in what you do. But this inordinate desire that generations to come will sing my praises.

That seems to be the core of just godless humanists. I mean, ex-presidents have to build libraries to celebrate them for subsequent generations. Most people are forgotten. That's what the Savior's saying.

My worth in the first century to my contemporaries, my own to whom I came and they've received me not, it's like I'm a dead man. Here today, gone tomorrow, forgotten just as quick. Verse 13. For I hear the slander of many, fear is on every side.

While they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life." Again, a connection to Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the people plot of vain things? Why do the rulers of the earth take counsel together against Yahweh and against His Christ? Who counseled together?

Well, you had Judas the betrayer, you had the Sanhedrin, you had the Sanhedrin go to Pontius Pilate, you had Pilate send him over to Herod, you had Herod send him back to Pilate, you had the Sanhedrin gin up the multitude so that they cried, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Brethren, we don't like to hear people say anything negative or bad about us ever, do we? That guy's mean. And we hear it and we're sad or we're mad.

Imagine being the Savior, the only one that was ever wholly harmless and undefiled and he hears the slander of many, fears on every side while they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life. He'd done no sin, he'd committed no wrong, he had perpetrated no crime whatsoever.

Condemnation of His Enemies

That brings us forth to our third, the condemnation of his enemies in verses 14 to 18. Note his refuge in God, verse 14. But as for me, I trust in you, O Lord. I say you are my God.

My times are in your hand. That idea of times, it's used in 1 Chronicles 29-30, just means the events of my life, the circumstances of my life, those things which define me. So notice, with reference to God's sovereignty, God's providence, the psalmist is not questioning him in a way of, why are all these bad things happening to me? Why are the adversaries rising up against me?

He's lamenting it, he's expressing it in prayer, he's agonizing over it, but he's not calling into question God, because if you really were faithful, you'd make sure that none of these guys ever did anything like this. I think that's the way we pray sometimes. If not you, I don't want to blame you for my sin. Well, why is this happening?

Can't you stop this? There seems to be this formulaic approach to the Christian life wherein we think that immediately when we pray, everything should just be steady and perfect. I don't know where we get that in the Bible. I don't know where we get in the Bible that Christ in the boat with us means the absence of storms.

I see Christ get in the boat with his disciples and then the storm comes. What about David when he's anointed King of Israel in 1 Samuel 16? What happens on the heels of that? Persecution, distress, hardship, sorrow, woe.

The Spirit comes and so does adversity. Consider the Savior. He's baptized, he hears the father in his approbation, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. What's the next scene post-baptism of Jesus?

The spirit drives him out to the wilderness to be what? Tempted by the devil. The presence of God in our lives does never result in the absence of sorrow. The health, wealth, prosperity gospel is a lie from the pit.

Come to Jesus and everything will always be great and wonderful. Very often it's come to Jesus and man, you're gonna have some real issues and challenges and troubles and trials and difficulties. Come to Jesus in a Muslim nation. Come to Jesus in a unconverted context.

Come to Jesus, and more often than not, you're gonna find the Spirit driving you into the wilderness to be tempted or tested in ways you'd never imagine. Before David went, or was anointed, I mean, bears and lions don't sound like a walk in the park, but for the most part, as a young shepherd, it was probably a pretty cakewalk job. He gets anointed King of Israel, and all bets are off. So he recognizes divine providence.

He recognizes divine sovereignty, and he commends his life and his death to this blessed one. But then notice in verse 16, and again, I think we connect the fourth and the seventh sayings of the Savior. Make your face shine upon your servant. Save me for your mercy's sake.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Again, no breach in the Trinity, no dissolution of the hypostatic union, but in terms of being the God-man, in terms of being the surety of a better covenant, in terms of bearing the wrath and fury and judgment of God that you and I deserve, there was for a moment that lack of the sweet consolations of the Father's favor. But notice what he says in the midst of it, make your face shine upon your servants, save me for your Mercy's sake. Dixon, David Dixon, wonderful little commentary on the book of Psalms.

When the cloud of trouble hideth the Lord's favor, faith knoweth it may shine again, and therefore prayeth through the cloud for dissolving of it. Make thy face shine upon me. He doesn't stop there. Notice, he turns his attention to the enemies.

Verses 17 and 18. His expectation of the Father. His expectation of the Father. See, at the foot of the cross, there was this arrogance in the opposers.

There was the mocking and the taunting. There was a, oh, he saved others, let him save himself. Let's just see if God comes to his aid and rescue. Mocking, taunting, wretched opposition.

What steadies the Savior's mind in the midst of that? Yeah, the salvation of his people, but the condemnation of his enemies. Again, a trait, characteristic thing that the church lacks today. God's punishment of his enemies is something that believers have traditionally rejoiced in.

We don't think it really speaks concerning God's love. Well, how do you explain Paul? God is gonna repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 2 Thessalonians 1. How do you explain the saints in heaven after the destruction of the false prophet and the whore sing a fourfold hallelujah to God most high?

Or what about those souls martyred for Christ under the altar according to Revelation chapter six? You know what they don't say? How long, Lord, till all the world knows your love? That's not necessarily a bad petition, but you know what they say?

How long till you avenge? What's Paul say in Romans chapter 12? Beloved, do not avenge yourselves. We're not supposed to be vigilantes.

Bandoleros and shotguns raging, walking down to five corners ready to, you know, liquidate our enemies. Do you know what Paul does say? Give place to wrath. He doesn't say, wrath bad, condemn it, Christians.

No, give place to it. How do we give place to it? By singing Psalm 31 in public worship. How do we give place to it?

By singing Psalm 58 in public worship. How do we give vent to it? By singing Psalm 109 in public worship. by acknowledging the justice of God and the righteousness of God and the reality that God is gonna take those who crucified the Lord of glory, not the ones who acted in ignorance. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

There were elect among them that were acting ignorantly, but there were non-elect there that were acting wretchedly. Notice in verse 17, do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon you. Let the wicked be ashamed. Let them be silent in the grave.

Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. expressing that righteous desire, that righteous expectation that those tormentors, those afflictors and oppressors, those persecutors and murderers are going to be cut off by Yahweh Most High and sent into everlasting destruction. If the church has problems with praying the Psalms, we need to remember they're the very prayers of Christ. How would we not pray the prayers of Christ? Again, check yourselves.

The guy who cut you off on the street isn't your enemy, isn't God's enemy. But with reference to those standing at the foot of the cross, mocking and taunting the Savior, having crucified Him, having delivered Him up to Pontius Pilate, Pilate having delivered Him up to these four soldiers that were in charge of the execution, that's wretched. Reprobate behavior is going to be punished by God in the lake of fire forever and ever.

Admiration of the Father

That brings us then, fourthly, to the admiration of his father. There's this kind of back and forth, isn't there? Spurgeon says it's an almost impossible psalm to outline. I don't think so.

I think it reflects. I don't disagree with Spurgeon lightly, by the way. He does go on to outline it. But I think there's consistent movement.

Petition to God, deliver me. Reason, adversity. As well, contemplation of God's goodness and faithfulness to him and the punishment of the wicked doers. And here, specifically, admiration.

This belongs in prayer. We admire God for who God is. We delight in God for who God is. We just stand in awe of God because of God.

Two things specifically, his protection, verses 19 to 21, and then secondly, his faithfulness in verse 22. Notice in verse 19, oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men. You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man. You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

God's goodness, God's graciousness, God's protection. Notice in verse 21, Remember when we looked at Ephesians chapter 1, I mentioned that that was a literary convention, a practice of prayer, when 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. He's drawing from a history, he's drawing from a tradition. Bless the Lord, and then express the reasons why we bless the Lord.

Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, forget not his holy name. It is incumbent upon the people of God, even in the midst of adversity, to be praisers of God, to be admirers of God, to rejoice in God, for that is what the Savior is doing as He experiences these things. So it's not only His protection, but His faithfulness. Notice in verse 22, For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before your eyes.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to you. When I cried out to you.

Exhortation to His People

And then the psalm ends with an exhortation to his people. Again, love God, be courageous before God. Notice in verse 23, O love the Lord, all you his saints. Now, I would suggest that Jesus is in a very unique place to be able to give these exhortations, right?

God's a strong tower and refuge and strength. The adversaries have been many. It's been adversarial to the point where soul and body have been in perpetual grief. He'd come out the other side.

The shining countenance of his Father has returned. Verses 23 and 24 is, church, come here. Let me gather you around, because I want to tell you what I've learned. I've trodden the earth and Israel, I've assumed your humanity.

I've battled with the devil. I have encountered the wickedness of man. I have been slapped. I have been spat on.

I have been pierced in my head with thorns. I have been mocked. I have been shattered. I have been treated in absolute contempt.

So church, I want you to listen to what I say. That's how you should understand verses 23 and 24. Love him, why? For his faithful protection over you, even in the midst of adversity, even in the midst of trial, even when there's oppressors and oppression, even when there's persecution, even when there is assault upon your person, the Lord preserves the faithful and fully repays the proud person.

There's that pesky emphasis once again on God's judgment as a motivator to the righteous to keep on keeping on. This world isn't all there is. Wicked men get away with a lot of things in this world, don't they? I mean, it's vexing.

I don't know if you saw the video that's circulating on social media where the girl was just stabbed to death for no reason at all. Not listed on any sort of media, you know, no news agency has picked it, why? Why hide that? Well, because they're gonna jump in with damage control and tell us why what happened didn't really happen.

But you see this, right? You see people get away with things. I mean, we'd be here for hours. I wanna keep it within the time limits.

I want everybody to be hopefully encouraged. We could be here for hours, multiplying instances where they got away with it. Yeah, temporally. Yeah, in this life.

There is a righteous God. There is a righteous judge. Isn't this what set Asaph's spirit into calm repose? Asaph writes in Psalm 73, you know, my, I almost slipped.

I almost stumbled. Why? Because I saw the righteous suffer. I saw my brethren hurting.

And then I saw the unrighteous thrive, flourish. There's no pangs, no pains, no hardship. They drive their great big cars to their summer homes. It just hurt.

What sat Asaph's mind straight? Until I went into your sanctuary. Once he went into the sanctuary and he got God's perspective on things vis-a-vis, thou dost set them in slippery places. In other words, the judgment of God upon the enemies of God furnish an encouragement to the people of God.

Again, don't be vindictive at Walmart. Somebody grabs the last, you know, broccoli head. Don't, Father, I beseech you in your justice to smite them. No, no, no, we're not jerks.

But the complete and utter absence of the part of the church to sing the Psalms of David that are imprecatory in nature or to heed the command of the Apostle Paul to give place to wrath, that's a bankruptcy. There's a problem there. If Jesus is comforted in the reality that his enemies are gonna be cut off and punished, I don't think it's wrong for Jesus' people to have the same mindset. And then he ends contrasted with where he, well, consistent with where he began.

Verse one, let me never be ashamed. Verse 24, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord. Be of good courage. command to Joshua, remember, be strong and of good courage. The command from Joshua to Israel, be strong and of good courage. 1 Corinthians 16, 13, the new King James renders it, be brave.

It's literally act like men. The old King James gives it as quit ye like men. What's Paul saying? Well, be brave is a good gloss, good translation in the new King James, but it's literally act like men.

Not just to the men, but to the women, too. That doesn't mean, you know, go for gender reassignment. That's not what he means. Ladies, act like men, change your pronouns, and buy trousers.

That's not what he's saying. Be brave. Be strong. Don't be, you know, beat down by every jot and tittle that this world has to throw at you.

You need to be of good courage. Why? Because God preserves his people. Listen again to Dixon.

He says, albeit opposition be made unto a believer, yet he must resist everything which might put him back from trusting in God. For it becometh a believer to be stout, be of good courage. So he gives the command and he furnishes a reason. Love the Lord.

Why? The Lord preserves the faithful. Again, it's not you're a superior being and you've come to that place where you've just got this machismo. No, no, no.

You trust in God. You see Him in His being and in His attributes, His perfections, His faithfulness in your life consistently. You have every reason to believe that the God who acted for you last week is going to be there for you next week. He's a rock.

He's a refuge. He's a fortress. He's stable. We are in flux.

We are in turmoil. We are cast about. Not God.

Contextual Observations at the Cross

So in terms of the foot of the cross, there are three lessons quickly that I want to draw out from Luke's gospel. Luke 23. Well, and the other gospel narratives.

The Control Exercised by the Son

I would say the first thing we observe with reference to the Savior is the control exercised by the son. the control exercised by the Son. In John's Gospel, Jesus goes forward to his arresters in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus tells Peter to put his sword in the sheath because Jesus says, I must drink the cup that my father is giving. Jesus is not pictured in the gospel records as being an unwilling participant.

We speak of active and passive obedience of Christ. Passive obedience refers to his death on the cross, but it should not be inferred that he is a passive participant in it. In John 10, 17, and 18, he says, Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on myself.

I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from my Father. So Jesus is in control. And in fact, in Luke 23, notice specifically in verse 46, and when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, a loud voice, man, you know what it is to get a cold.

And you know what it is to lie on the couch. And you know what it is to beg of your beloved, ginger ale and crackers. Do you say it with a loud voice? No, I'm so sick.

I'm so lonely. I'm hurting. That the Savior musters a loud voice for this shows us victorious true humanity. Shows us a Savior that's in control.

He said, Father, into your hands, Pilate commits my spirit, the Sanhedrin commits my spirit, the multitude now I commit my spirit. Christ laid down his life for us, for us men and for our salvation.

The Contrast Between God and Men

I would suggest secondly, we see it in the psalm, I just want to make note of it here, the contrast between God and men, unbelieving men that is. In the Psalm, it's a contrast to hands. Into your hand I commit my spirit. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies.

My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies. That's exactly played out at the foot of the cross. You've got man, in opposition to Christ, murdering him.

You've got God, the Father, receiving his spirit.

The Communion of the Son with the Father

And then as well, thirdly, the communion of the Son with the Father, the cry of dereliction, the cry of, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now it's Father into your hands, I commit my spirit. So he went to be with the Father and would be joined with the thief from the cross. So the second saying of the Savior is played out as well.

So just some contextual observations.

Application

I just want to end here. First, the trials for God's people. They're real. If they're real for the people's savior, they're gonna be real for us.

Jesus learned obedience through suffering, Hebrews 5.8. Jesus' people most likely are gonna learn obedience in the same way. Wouldn't it be nice if we just got a, you know, well, we do have a book, but a specific book that says, okay, this is what you need to do to learn how to obey. That's not usually the plan and the purpose.

Some of us are a bit thicker in our heads than others. It's the school of hard knocks that oftentimes teaches us, doesn't it? We learn by experience very often. There will be trials.

There will be effects on the soul and even the body. And there is this recognition of the first cause in divine providence. My times are in your hands, from first to last, and everything in between. In terms of comfort for God's people, the being of the living and true God, verse 6, Psalm 31.

The providence of the living and true God, verse 15, and the faithfulness of that living and true God, the entirety of Psalm 31. Andrew Bonar in his commentary on the Psalms. Safety in the hands of the living God and only there is the theme of this plaintive psalm. Safety in life as well as in death.

Safety from the enemy's snares and from all adversity, from grief and reproach, from calumny and contempt. from personal despondency as well as from the pressure of outward adversity. David needed his theme. The true David needed it yet more, and his followers will not cease to need it till verse 19 be realized in all its vastness. Verse 19 reads, Oh, how great is your goodness which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men.

Brethren, this psalm, the saying of the Savior, worked its way out in the life of Christ's church. Remember Stephen's dying words in Acts 7, 59? He asks that they be forgiven in imitation of the second saying of the Savior from the cross, or rather the first saying of the Savior from the cross, but he also says, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. In a context where the Apostle Peter is exhorting the church on how to deal with tribulation, he tells them to expect it.

He tells them to evaluate its cause. Why are you being vexed? Why are you being oppressed? If it's because you're a murderer, then you deserve that.

But if it's for righteousness sake, yeah, you got to deal with that. He tells us to exalt in it. But he also tells us to entrust our souls to a faithful creator. Listen to his language.

He says, therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God. My times are in your hand. Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good as to a faithful Creator. That's the message that the Savior King exhorts with reference to his church.

Love the Lord and be of good courage. And if you're not a believer here this morning, I want to just call upon you to think about what Jesus went through for sinners. Because sometimes people say, well, you know, I'm such a sinner. I don't think God will have me.

Yeah, we all said that. We all said that at one time. Yeah, I'm too wretched. I don't think he'd save one like me.

We have the Apostle Paul saying, this is a faithful saying, it's worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Let me just ask you, a Savior who would go through what he went through in the gospel records, but in Psalm 31, in Psalm 22, in Psalm 88. Remember when Dr. Jim Renahan preached Psalm 88?

He used that imagery of that dungeon within a dungeon. I forget the name of it, it was a French word, that's probably why I forget it, but it's the obelet or something like that. It's the lowest part of a dungeon. I mean, it's probably bad to be in the dungeon, chained to a wall as it is, but you're particularly notorious.

So there's a hole in the dungeon with no room to stretch out. They're gonna sink you into even lower. Sign me up. That's Psalm 88.

As far as I know, the other 149 psalms end on a positive note. I mean, lots of misery and negativity in the midst of the psalm, but it typically ends on a hope in the Lord. Bless the Lord. Not Psalm 88.

It's a downer from first to last. It's the suffering of the Savior. He's the one that goes into the dungeon of dungeons. Why?

Because he doesn't want to save people? No. Because he's come to save a lot of people. So if you're part of the lot of people that isn't saved, may I encourage you to come to Him in faith, to look to Him and believe, and to know the joy of everlasting life.

Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

Our Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word, we thank You for this seventh saying of the Savior on the cross, and for the psalm from whence it comes. Help us to be faithful in the midst of adversity and trial, but even more so, help us to trust in your faithfulness in the midst of adversity and trial. And may we love you, and may we have courage before you, and may you grant us the grace to live in a manner that is consistent with our calling in the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And we pray in his most blessed name, amen.

Scripture References

• 1 Samuel 16; 23:1-26:25
• 2 Samuel 13:1-18:33
• 1 Chronicles 29:30
• Psalms 2:1-2; 22; 31:1-24; 46; 58; 69; 73:2-3; 18; 88; 103:1; 109
• Isaiah 53:2-3
• Matthew 26:38-39; 27:46
• John 10:17-18; 12:27; 19:26; 19:28; 19:30
• Luke 23:34; 23:43-46
• Acts 7:59
• Romans 8:28; 8:32; 8:35-39; 12:19
• 1 Corinthians 16:13
• 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Ephesians 1:3
• 2 Thessalonians 1:6
• 1 Timothy 1:15
• 2 Timothy 3:12
• Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:15; 5:8; 11:6
• 1 Peter 4:19
• Revelation 6:9-10