Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Psalm 22, I'll read Psalm 22, and then we'll look at the first half. The psalm breaks down into two simple sections.
The first deals with the sufferings of Christ in verses 1 to 21a, and then the glory of Christ in verses 21b to 31. So I'll pick up verse 1 in Psalm 22. To the chief musician set to the dear of the dawn a psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning? Oh, my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear and in the night season and I'm not silent. But you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in you.
They trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people.
All those who see me ridicule me. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him.
Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. But you are He who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breasts. I was cast upon you from birth.
From my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
They gape at me with their mouths, like a raging and 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.
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.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Thank you for this holy ground, which is Psalm 22. As we approach it now, may we see it as the Psalm of Christ on the cross, Psalm of Christ resurrected and ascended on high. the psalm of His cross and of His crown. And may You guide us by Your Holy Spirit, forgive us for all of our sins and unrighteousness, and cause us to stand in awe at what the Lord Jesus Christ went through on behalf of all those whom the Father had given Him.
And we ask this in His most blessed name. Amen.
Introduction
Well thematically this psalm is very much like Psalms 20 and 21. In Psalms 20 and 21 we see specifically in Psalm 20 the cry of the church with reference to God's deliverance of his anointed king. So the church cries out for that in Psalm 20 verses 1 to 5, and then confidently expresses their hope that God the Lord will deliver His Messiah. Psalm 21 then shows us the deliverance of the Messiah in His reign and rule at the right hand of the Father, and then looks forward to His coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
And certainly Psalm 22 does the same thing. As I said, the first half takes up the sufferings of the Messiah and the latter half takes up the glory of the Messiah. In fact, Andrew Bonar in his commentary on the Psalm says, with reference to Psalms 20 and 21 and then 22, he says, we saw the warrior, we saw the fruits of his victory, we saw the prospects of yet farther glorious results from that victory. Now then, we are brought to the battlefield and shown the battle itself.
So look with me at Psalm 20 in verse 1. Notice, may the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. Psalm 22, at least the first half, shows us in graphic detail the trouble that befell the Son of Man. The trouble that our Savior went through in order to save us from our sins.
Samuel Pierce says, this psalm sets before us Christ crucified. He is most evidently expressed and revealed in his passion. It exceeds the 53rd of Isaiah, as there you have the prophet speaking of him, but here you have Christ speaking of himself. And he does so specifically in the first half of the psalm under the sufferings of Christ in three laments.
Remember that lament or lamentation is something that the psalmist employs to express grief before God. It is a type of prayer or song that expresses deep sorrow, confusion or distress, but crucially it is directed toward God in faith, not away from Him. And so
Structure of the Three Laments
if you look with me at the first half of Psalm 22, we've got three laments. We see first the lament over his desertion in verses 1 to 5. Secondly, the lament over his reproach in verses 6 to 11. And then thirdly, the lament over his crucifixion in verses 12 to 21.
And so note again with me the pattern. You've got the lament expressed in verses 1 and 2, and then the confidence of Christ in verses 3 to 5. You've got the lament of Christ in verses 6 to 8, and then the confidence of Christ in verses 9 to 11. And then finally, the lament of Christ in verses 12 to 18, and then the confidence of Christ in verses 19 to 21.
So he expresses this lamentation, he expresses his grief and his sorrow, he expresses the epitome of his suffering, but he doesn't lose himself there. He always comforts himself. He's always got that confidence in the Father and in what the Father has purposed to do for him in light of his work as mediator.
First Lament: Desertion by the Father
So let's take up this first one in verses 1 to 5. The lament is expressed in verses 1 and 2. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning?
Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear. And in the night season, and I'm not silent. If you're using the New King James and you refer to Psalm 22, you'll notice that it does capitalize the pronouns referring to the subject of the Psalm. In other words, it's Christ.
As I've tried to argue with reference to Psalms 1 to 21, they're all about Christ as well, and we should capitalize the pronouns referring to the psalmist in those particular psalms. But it's obvious and evident to every interpreter that Psalm 21 far transcends David. David had a life of suffering. David knew affliction.
David knew hardship. But David didn't have the absolute torture that is envisaged by Psalm 22. It is David's greater son. It is true David.
It is the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, commentators are obviously right based on verse 1. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you far from helping me?
And from the words of my groaning.
The Cry of Dereliction Explained
Christ prays this on the cross. Matthew 27, verses 45 and 46. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. And 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?
So the words of Christ on the cross take up as his subject Psalm 22. Some suggest he prays the entirety of Psalm 22, and I think that's probably an appropriate observation, culminating in the it is finished, and you could translate the end of Psalm 22 in like manner. But Christ prays this on the cross, and it's very important for us to understand what the words do not mean. When Jesus does this on the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He's not suggesting that there's somehow division in the Trinity. He's not suggesting that for that moment, at that particular time, the cosmic fabric of the universe, there was a problem with the Trinity, that there was a breach, that there was a division, that there was some issue wherein the Father delivers over the Son in such a way as to bring rupture to the doctrine of the triune God. In this divine and infinite being, there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word, or Son, and the Holy Spirit, the same substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided. It is absolutely impossible that there'd be a breach in the Trinity.
It's absolutely impossible that there'd be a division amongst the persons of the triune God. I would suggest as well, this does not mean a breach in the hypostatic union of our Lord Jesus Christ. The two natures in the one person, it's not as if there is some rupture or dissolution there. No, Christ assumes our humanity and as the confession says, 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." So no problem in terms of the Trinity, certainly no problem in terms of the hypostatic union of our Savior.
Christ as Mediator Under Wrath
So we ask the question, what does this text mean? What does Jesus mean when he cries from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why is it the case that he says, why are you so far from helping me? And from the words of my groaning, we need to understand Christ here as mediator.
We need to understand Christ here as according to his human nature. two natures, one person, and here specifically Christ as mediator, suffering for us men and for our salvation, the judgment of God most high. And it's in this that he satisfies divine justice. In fact, as we approach Psalm 22 and the sufferings of our blessed Lord, we mustn't forget Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5.21. God the Father made Him, Christ the Son, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
So this desertion was not a desertion in terms of a ruptured Trinity. It wasn't a desertion in terms of a compromise of the hypostatic union.
Penal Desertion Defined
It was legal in nature, Christ being imputed with our sin, punished in our stead, having removed from him the consolation of God's favor at that crucial hour on the cross. The my God, my God, why have you forsaken me is epitomized in the penal sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered on the cross according to his human nature. The text itself indicates that he's crying out as mediator, my God, my God, cries that according to his human nature.
The mediator suffered on the cross for our sins. He shall save his people from their sins. Matthew 121, John 129, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He suffers this desertion, this withdrawal of the favor of God the Father as the mediator for his people.
The mediator suffered on the cross for the duration determined by the Father. He was forsaken. In fact, in Romans 8, 32, it 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? And the prophet Isaiah 5310, it pleased Yahweh to bruise him, he has put him to grief.
So the mediators suffered on our behalf and experienced the withdrawal of God's favor on our behalf as the one who was destined by the Father to satisfy divine justice by his own excruciating sorrows and sufferings. So this is what evokes the cry of the Lord on the cross. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He's going to lament over the reproach that he suffered.
He's going to lament over the crucifixion that he suffers. But he cries out from the cross, why hast thou forsaken me? When he is removed from the favor of the Most High at that crucial hour. The favor was withdrawn, but not the Father.
He assumes throughout that the Father answers and hears. He assumes throughout by way of consoling or comforting himself with the reality of who the father is. The favor was withdrawn rather in accordance with his penal sufferings for us men and for our salvation. Listen to Matthew Henry.
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. Understand it in that light. Understand it was not a breach in the Trinity.
Understand it was not a dissolution of the hypostatic union. Understand that Christ as man, with our sin imputed to him, as the one who's going to satisfy divine justice through his own suffering, through his own punishment, through his own death, At that moment or at that time, that favorable glance of the father was withdrawn from him. Again, not abandoned, not cut off, but that favorable response of the father to him. Gil says, but he was now without a sense of the gracious presence of God and was filled as the surety of his people with a sense of divine wrath, which their iniquities he now bore.
That's the way we understand it. Not that the father actually cut off the son, not that there was this breach, not that there was this abandonment, but Christ is able to say in his earthly ministry, I know that you always hear me. Christ goes into the garden of Gethsemane and he prays that the cup be withdrawn, that the cup pass He doesn't want to drink the wrath and fury and judgment of God again, according to his human nature. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
If you ask a man, do you want to be insulted? What do you expect that man to say? No. If you ask a man, do you want your beard to be plucked out by wretched men?
He'll probably say no. You ask a man, do you want to be spat on? He'll probably say no. You ask a man, do you want a crown of thorns embedded into your head until you profusely bleed?
He's probably going to say no. Do you want to be delivered up to a Roman cross and crucified by the very people that you came to save? Do you want to have them hurl insults at you? Do you want them to disdain and despise you?
He's going to say no. This describes Gethsemane. Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. He understood all too well what the wrath and fury and judgment of God meant.
We'd expect true humanity to say, I want this cup to pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. He understood all too well what it is to be man because he assumed our humanity with all the essential properties, all the common infirmities and yet without sin. In other words, he was truly man.
And truly man, the mediator Christ, is speaking to us in Psalm 22, telling us, this is what I went through for us men and for our salvation. This is what I know experientially in terms of my own assumed humanity. And I think it's instructive for us, lament to God, but confidence in God. lament to God or complaint and crying, but then comforting ourselves in the blessed Lord. And that is the pattern three times here in Psalm 22, verses 1 to 21.
And then Flavel describes this this way. It was a penal desertion having to do with a penalty 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. So in other words, Christ cries verse 1 in Matthew 27, so that you and I will never ever have to, even though it's obvious why God should forsake us, because we're idolaters. Because we're blasphemers, because we're Sabbath breakers, because we're insubordinate, because we're murderers and adulterers and liars and covetous and thieves and everything.
It makes perfect sense that God forsake us. It makes perfect sense that God open hell for us. It makes perfect sense that we know experientially an eternity of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. but that our Savior cries this, he spares us from ever having to cry it. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, Christ says.
And then he confirms this in verse two by asserting, oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear, and in the night season, and I'm not silent. Again, this does not upbraid what he says in John's gospel. I know that you always hear me. But at this point in the satisfaction of divine justice, it meant that the Savior who assumed our humanity must be bruised.
He must be crushed. He must be trampled by divine justice in order to make the payment for our sins. So that's where he's coming from in this psalm. The psalm of lament in the first section is this cry for or lament over his desertion by the father.
Again, not a rupture in the Trinity, not a dissolution of the hypostatic union, but the favor of God at that moment and time.
Confidence in God's Holiness and Works
But then notice how he comforts himself in verses three to five. but you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in you, they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were delivered, they trusted in you and were not ashamed. Here's what I think he means in that first statement, but you are holy.
He's comforting himself here in the perfections and in the works of his father. model for us to follow. I don't want to moralize Psalm 22. I mean, of all the butchery an exegete could do would be to moralize Psalm 22. I've heard Gethsemane moralized before.
Brethren, we're not in Gethsemane. Whatever you have ever faced far, it doesn't even come into the realm of a Gethsemane. Whatever we have ever faced doesn't come anywhere near this sacred ground, which is Psalm 22. I don't want to moralize it and place us in there.
I do want to say, however, that what Christ does when he faces distress, What Christ models paradigmatically as he faces distress, as he cries out, laments before the Father over the difficulties that he faces. Look at how he girds himself up. Look at how he comforts his soul. Look at the expression of confidence, even though it seems as if the Father has hidden his face.
When he says in the first part of verse three, he's confessing the perfection of God's holiness, but you are, you are holy. Now there's a couple of ways we could understand this. I'm just going to give you what I think he means. Verses one and two must be the case.
Why? Because God's holy. And if the father is going to make him who knew no sin to be sin, then it follows from the perfection of holiness that he turn his back on that sin. that he desert that sin, that he doesn't have an intimate and familiar connection and communion with that sin. Does that make sense?
Christ is comforting himself by the grim reality that this is obviously the case. If Christ has made sin, that doesn't mean he became a sinner any more than we become righteous in the imputation of righteousness. It's a legal forensic declaration. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.
So how does God treat that one who's been made sin? Holiness. no smile on the cross, no coming to his immediate aid to take the cup from him. No, divine justice must be satisfied and Christ confides or rather comforts himself in the reality that what is happening in this lamentation is consistent with the very perfections of God most high. He's holy.
He's enthroned in the praises of Israel. He has no truck with unrighteousness. He doesn't smile on godlessness. He doesn't approve of that which is evil in his sight.
This is the way Gill seems to go with reference to this. He says, this is rather a reason quieting him under divine desertion and a sense of divine wrath, that God was righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. and that whereas he was the surety of his people and had all their sins on him, it was perfectly agreeable to the holiness and justice of God to treat him in the manner he did. Yea, it was done to declare his righteousness, that he might appear to be just while he is the justifier of him that believes in him." You see the connection there? Why hast thou forsaken me?
Verse 3. Because you're holy. There's no rupture amongst the persons of the Triune God. There's no dissolution of the hypostatic union.
The Christ who cries, verses 1 and 2, finds solace and comfort in verses 3 to 5. And how does he find that comfort and solace beyond verse 3 and verses 4 and 5? Look at how he encourages his own heart. 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. Then he's going to go on to show a bit of a contrast between the father's and God's treatment of them and the son and his treatment of the son.
But I think it functions thus. I know that after the extremities of sufferings have occurred, I know that beyond the cross there is a crown and I'm encouraged by that as I reflect upon old covenant history and I realize that our fathers trusted in you. Didn't always mean immediate response, didn't always mean immediate solutions, didn't always mean immediate remedies. Christ comforts himself in the perfection of God's holiness and in the works of God as evidence in the way that he treated his covenant people.
This is verses 4 and 5. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them. going to end this section in verses 19 to 21 in the same manner, in the same direction, in the same way. If there's a division between the persons of the Trinity, Psalm 22 does a terrible job at explaining that.
There is no division. The Christ who assumes our humanity, who suffers in the human nature under the wrath and fury and judgment of God, is the Christ who buoys himself up with the reality that God is holy and the reality that God comes to the aid of all those who trust in Him. Verse 5, they cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed.
So that's the first lament over his desertion, desertion by the father in verses 1 to 5. And again, just by way of observation. It's not that there's no lament in the life of the people of God. It's not that there's nothing to complain about in the life of the people of God.
But once we complain, once we express, we find comfort in God. I think the category of lamentation is a category that the church needs to recover. This idea that everything's only ever great, it's only ever upright. Come to prayer meetings sometime, please, if you haven't forever.
Hear what our brethren go through on the regular. Hear what it's like in Pakistan. Hear what it's like in Myanmar. Hear what it's like in Nigeria.
You know, I'm not trying to minimize our pain. I'm really not, not trying to, you know, minimize the afflictions and the hardships and the difficulties that we face. But man, in the midst of those, we still eat. We still got potable water.
We still got a degree of liberty. We're not being marshaled up and herded off to prison camps. We're not being cut down by Fulani herdsmen. We're not having our tongues cut out by some communistic regime.
Again, I don't want to minimize our pain. But to understand what goes on elsewhere can hopefully help us to understand that, bless God, in the midst of my pain, I've got a lot of benefits. I've got a lot of good things. So the Savior here models for us this lamentation in the face of desertion and yet shows for us this confidence and comfort and resolve in who God is in terms of his perfections and who God is in terms of his works.
I wonder if at times our complaints only stop at complaint. If our lamentation to God only stops with voicing our concerns about His wise providence in our lives, are they always followed up by this confession? But you are holy. You're enthroned in the praises of Israel.
Our Father's trusted in you and you've always shown yourself faithful. Brethren, that's the way we need to pray, not just about our issues, but to comfort and encourage our hearts with the solver of the issues, with the realization and recognition that he has his purposes. Again, if you were some foreigner who had no concept of Old Covenant Israel, you're a Gentile among Gentiles, wandering the streets of Jerusalem on the day that Jesus is crucified, and you see this man hung upon a cross, and you start to ask people, what was his crime? What did he do?
I don't know. I don't know what he did. He was holy, harmless, and undefiled. I know that.
That's a reason to crucify. He only ever went about doing good. Again, not a reason to crucify. Well, look at the placard up there.
This is Jesus, king of the Jews. Oh, so he asserted that he was the king of the Jews. Yeah. So that's a capital offense here in Rome?
Strange, odd, different. But if you looked at that scene, you might conclude that whoever this man's father is, there's certainly something that's gone awry. I mean, if he is the holy, harmless, and undefiled one, if he is the one that only ever went about doing good, raising the dead, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, feeding multitudes, you might conclude that whatever that relationship is, it just doesn't seem to hold. You'd be absolutely wrong.
The one on the cross never doubted. The one on the cross never stopped in terms of comfort, consolation for his own suffering soul. The one on the cross understood that providentially in the plan and purpose of my father, it must be the case that I assume humanity, that I live a life of perfect obedience for 33 years. that I then die as a substitute and a sacrifice on the cross in order to provide atonement for all those whom the Father had given me. In other words, he comforts himself with the recognition of God's purpose and plan, God's perfections and works.
This is where the Savior goes when he expresses his affliction, when he expresses his turmoil, when he expresses the hardship that he faces. And again, don't wanna moralize, don't wanna place us in this holy ground, but I do wanna suggest that we as God's people adopt something of his mindset when we go through the challenges in our lives. Pastor Cam read Psalm 46 at the outset. We sang Psalm 46 at the outset.
Why? Because though the mountains crumble and fall into the sea, though the nations in their upheaval rise up, the God of Jacob is our refuge. The God of Jacob is our hope. And after surveying the various calamities that face the earth, how does the psalmist counsel us to respond?
Bite your fingers to the nubs? Run and hide in the hills? Buy more canned beans? Not that it's wrong to buy canned beans.
Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. See, the scriptures never come and tell us, oh, what you perceive to be wrong out there, it's not really wrong.
Of course it's really wrong. Of course it's vile, of course it's detestable, but the scriptures give us a framework by which we understand that even that chaos and even that tumult and even that calamity under God has specific purpose and rationale. We may not know in this life, we may not get all our questions answered sufficiently, We may still scratch our heads and wonder, I'm not sure how this possibly can obtain in terms of good and positive net effect with reference to God's purpose and plan. But if he delivered up his own son, the one that was wholly harmless and undefiled, that only ever went about doing good, which obviously at least from one level or one perspective was the worst criminal activity that ever happened.
If he's able to overrule that for good, If he's able to overrule Joseph's brothers for good, if he's able to make crooked things straight, if he's able to do that, then I trust him with my issue. I trust him with my calamity. I trust him with my ill providence. I trust him because he's holy.
I trust him because our fathers trusted him and he never let them down.
Second Lament: Reproach by Enemies
Notice the second lament. We'll end on this one. I don't want to shoehorn in the third lament with reference to his crucifixion. But note the lament over his reproach in verses 6 to 11.
Again, the complaint, verses 6 to 8. And then the comfort, verses 9 to 11. Recurring pattern. I'm going to express my complaint, and then I'm going to fetch out my comfort.
Note the complaint. Verses 6 to 8. 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.
Brethren, make no mistake. OK, we've got the prophetic announcement of the cross and the crown here in Psalm 22. We've got the apostolic interpretation in the New Testament. How do you read Psalm 22 and not see the passion narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
You know, the bulls have surrounded me in verse 12. Who do you think that is? Physical bovines? Snorting beasts?
They're men that made up the Sanhedrin. They're men that made up a compromised civil government. They're men who in enmity and vehement opposition to Yahweh and His Christ treats Jesus the way Jesus is telling us He was treated. Did you get that from Pierce?
This even is more than the 53rd of Isaiah. Did you understand that reference? We might call Isaiah an apostle. We might call Isaiah an evangelist.
Why? Because of Isaiah 53. Remember the Ethiopian eunuch? He's reading that passage and he asks Philip, who is the prophet talking about?
And Philip preaches Jesus to him from Isaiah 53. Well, what Pierce notes is that Isaiah 53 is probably one of the clearest articulations of the suffering servant of Yahweh that we have in the entirety of the Bible. But as Pierce notes, it's Isaiah telling us about the suffering servant of Yahweh versus Psalm 22, where it's the suffering servant of Yahweh talking about the sufferings that the servant sustained in service to Yahweh. I am a worm, he says.
What does that mean? It means that's the view with which others viewed him. The maker of heaven and earth? The creator of things seen and unseen?
The holder together of all things assumes our humanity. You would think in the assumption of our humanity that that blessed Lord would walk the streets of Israel or walk the streets of Jerusalem to bowing, to confessing, to singing, to praising, to the hosannas that at least some of them had, but no. Listen to the 53rd of Isaiah, 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. So in verse 6, 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. They say he trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him.
Let him deliver him since he delights in him. Gil says Christ calls himself a worm on account of the opinion that men of the world had of him. Now, brethren, it's just here that I suggest we, if we haven't, removed our shoes, because we're standing on some very holy ground in the 22nd Psalm. This is Jesus, this ain't David.
David again, afflicted. David again, hardship. David again, troubled. How did David die? on his bed warmed by Abishag, not surrounded by the bulls of Beshik, not held in abject contempt by the enemies of the Most High, not bloodied and beaten and bruised.
No. This is Christ. When we ask Christ, what's it going to be like in your earthly ministry? From the vantage point of Psalm 22, he tells us, We ask Christ, what was it like in your earthly ministry?
From the vantage point of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they tell us. And as I've said many a time, you get more data concerning the physical sufferings of our Lord from the Psalms of David than you do from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. As Ritterbos points out, there's no passion play played out in the New Testament. If you were raised Roman Catholic and you have any sort of idea what goes on in Roman Catholicism, unfortunately ate by some in Protestantism today, you have these stations on the cross, there's 12 of them.
And a couple of times a year you stand with your priest and the priest waves incense before them and you go in detail about the physical suffering and torment of our Lord Jesus. This is when he fell, this is when he was picked up, this is when this, this is when that. Rudabas rightly points out you don't find that in the New Testament. You do find it in the Psalms, not enough to justify the wretched stations of the cross, but I'm a worm, he says.
They ridicule me. They wagged their head at me. They mocked me. He trusted in the Lord.
Let the Lord save him now. This is, again, in Matthew's gospel. What you find specifically specified here, you have it in Matthew 27 at verse 39. And those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, you who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself.
If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise, the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others, Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him.
Now, if He will have Him, for He said, I am the Son of God." A moment's reflection on this shouldn't cause us to be baffled by what our Lord laments here. Have we ever been talked poorly about? Oh boy, oh boy. How dare them?
We deserve it and a billion things more. Solomon cautions us against taking offense at everything that's ever been said by someone else. What's his rationale? For you yourselves know that you have also said things about others.
Not Christ. Genuinely holy, harmless, and undefiled. Actions, thoughts, and words. No guile on his tongue.
No venom. No nothing in terms of sin or transgression. So when we read this and we understand it and we see it applied in the gospel narratives with reference to unbelieving Jews, it's heinous. It's vicious, it's vile, it's reprehensible.
If we get offended when somebody lands a shot that's almost all true, what is it like to be pure human, to be righteous man, to be holy and harmless and undefiled and hear the enmity of man expressed at this righteous one? He is looked upon as a worm by men, he is ridiculed by men.
Confidence in God's Presence Since Birth
But his confidence, notice in verses 9 to 11, there's always this, here's my lament, but you? Here's my suffering, my sorrow, my hardship, but you? Brethren, that's the way our prayer lives need to be. Yeah, I've got issues.
Yeah, I've got afflictions. Yeah, I've got troubles, got trials, got hardships. But you, see, that's lamentation. It's not just complaint and then go out and shoot yourself in the head.
Complaint and then go check yourself in to the asylum. It's complaint and then confidence in God. That is exactly what we see in the Messiah. This lamentation or lament over reproach in verses six to eight are followed up with verses nine to 11.
But you, you are he who took me out of the womb. You are the one who 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. Again, the affirmation of his Father's presence in the incarnation of the Son, in the earthly ministry of the Son. How else do you understand? Verse 9, you are he who took me out of the womb.
You made me trust while on my mother's breasts. True humanity. The babe Christ suckled on his mother's breasts. You ever wonder, is the true humanity of Christ truly true?
Well, true humanity suckles on its mother's breasts, and that is precisely what we find Christ did. True humanity aches and agonizes in opposition, or when opposition mounts up against it, so does Christ. True humanity cries out, why hast thou forsaken me in those seasons where it seems as if the favorable countenance of God has taken a bit of a hiatus? The true humanity of Christ is all throughout.
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. See, here's what I think is happening.
Christ knows not only the sorrow. Christ knows not only the lament over desertion, he knows not only the lament over reproach, he knows not only the lament over the crucifixion, but he knows verses 21B to 31, he knows that God is gonna answer him. He knows that God is going to vindicate him, just like the church in Psalm 20 at verses 1 to 5. Pray, may the Lord deliver you in the day of trouble.
And then in 6 and following, they are confident that God saves his anointed king. As in Psalm 21, where we see the preeminence of the anointed king after his battle, victorious with his prize, coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead. The same flow or movement is here. He understands the holiness of God.
He understands the judicial desertion on behalf of the one who has sin imputed to him. But he understands as well that the cross isn't the final act. There's a crown that is coming, and this is what he's addressing. Verse 11, Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. as God had been faithful at the incarnation in his earthly ministry, he prays that God will be faithful in terms of exaltation, specifically in terms of resurrection from the dead, ascension on high, and the session at the right hand of the Father.
Theology of the Cry of Dereliction
Well, brethren, as I said, we'll take up the lament over his crucifixion, God willing, next week in verses 12 to 21. But as I've said on many occasions, the true humanity of Christ, it's seen in the cry of dereliction by Christ. The desertion, again, was a penal desertion according to his human nature as he was made sin for us and satisfied divine justice through his death on our behalf. That's the theology.
It could be worded differently, you may have that convention, but that's the theology. You don't come to the holy ground of Psalm 22 and not think of 2 Corinthians 5. Galatians 3, he was made a curse for us. That has to mean something, brethren.
And in terms of the experiential life of our Lord, it meant on the cross, not receiving that divine consolation in terms of smiles and in terms of immediate vindication. The satisfaction of divine justice was very, very gruesome work. Very, very difficult work. In fact, listen to Dale Ralph Davis describe atonement from 2 Samuel chapter 21.
I think that it's a passage that we probably need to focus on more or at least think about more in terms of atonement. Basically, I don't want to spend the next 20 minutes on 2 Samuel 21, but it's an instance of atonement. substitutionary guilt for atonement purposes. Davis says, if we've grown too used to Golgotha, perhaps Gibeah can shock us back into truth. Atonement is a drippy, bloody, smelly business.
The stench of death hangs heavy wherever the wrath of God has been quenched. He's right. We think about this holy place, Psalm 22, a description of the arena of redemption. We look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the arena of redemption.
It's not roses. It's not lilies. It's not lilacs. It's not couches and beds and feasts and water and bounty.
It's smelly, drippy, bloody business. Whenever the wrath of God is dealt with, that is assumed. The Lord Christ telling us about what the Lord Christ is going to go through in Psalm 22 and then the Lord Christ's apostles telling us what he went through in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John should forever dispel the notion that Christ only sort of appeared to be a man. No, true humanity in the cry of dereliction, true humanity in the use of lament, true humanity in the real suffering and death of Christ according to his human nature, and true humanity, the best of true humanity in his unwavering confidence in the Father, even in the midst of the greatest of sorrows and distress. unwavering confidence in the Father in the midst of the most grievous sorrows and distress.
We're lightweights, brethren. There's times when difficulties come and we're ready to jump ship. You know, I'd never really thought about apostasy before, but you know, it doesn't look too bad. We're ready to vacate.
We're ready to throw up our hands because it's just so hard. Again, I don't want to minimize what's hard in our lives. This is hard. This is hard.
And yet after every expression of lament, there's this boost or boon rather in his soul when it comes to rehearsing the faithfulness of his father. I think there is a great example there for us. While we never suffer like he did, let us live like he did in light of the difficulties we do face. Resting in God's perfections and works, verses 3 to 5, resting in the presence of God, verses 9 to 11, and trusting in deliverance from God, according to verses 19 to 21, which we'll see in more detail next week.
And then I just want to end with just this quick observation. It has to do with salvation itself.
Application: Justification and Assurance
Two specifics, justification and assurance. Paul makes that statement in Galatians chapter 2, 21. He says, if righteousness, I do not set aside the grace of God. I don't nullify it.
I don't back burner it. I don't bench it. I don't set it apart. I don't set it off as if it is not binding.
He says very specifically, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Let's jump into this holy ground, the arena of redemption in Psalm 22. Or let's jump into the holy ground in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in terms of the passion narrative. And let us ask the question.
Is it my righteousness, whole or in part, that gets me to heaven? Is it really my contribution? Does it really depend on me getting circumcised? Does it really matter what Israel's calendar specifies?
Does it really matter that I'm pretty good for the most part? If righteousness comes to the law, then Psalm 22 is in vain. If righteousness comes to the law, then the passion in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is in vain. Brethren, it's a blessed nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.
It's justification by faith alone. We think of Reformation Day, this time of the year. What better confirmation of the reformation of the church than the acknowledgement that justification is only and ever can be by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Why would he have to be reproached?
Why would he have to be deserted? Why would he have to be crucified? According to Paul in Galatians 2.21, if righteousness comes through the law, banish the thought. It's by grace through faith in Christ alone.
And what about assurance? Where do you think your victory comes? I read my Bible four times last week. I know there's, you know, three, what, three, four opportunities to go to church on a given week.
I made it twice. Where in does your assurance lie? Maybe Edward Mote was right. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. We do that with sweet frames, don't we? Oh, I had a great time of worship. I feel so good.
I read my Bible today. It was like God was speaking to me directly. It was so good. What about next Thursday when you read your Bible like you're a cold dead fish?
Wherein lies your assurance then? The disciples understood something of this, or at least were corrected by our Lord in this correction. The 70 go out and preach. The 70 go out and cast out demons.
The 70 come back and they say, Lord, we saw, as it were, Satan being cast down. Spirits were subject to us in your name. What does Jesus say? Good on you lads.
Next week when you don't have those experiences, bad on you, lads. No, don't rejoice in that, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Where is your assurance grounded, rooted, and stabilized? I hope not you.
I hope not you. I hope it's in Christ. I hope it's that blessed reality that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Call to Faith
And if you're not a believer here this morning, you may have heard in the past that different churches, oh, you know, God, he's Savior, but he really doesn't like to say he does it because he kind of has to. He's got his arm up behind his back, and there's this handful of miserable sinners that do have to get to heaven, so he'll go ahead and do that. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who orchestrated Psalm 22, who fulfills it in the gospel narratives concerning the Passion, is the God who calls sinners to come. Is there any reason or evidence that I should believe that God will receive me?
Psalm 22. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He's gonna deliver up his own son to this shame, to this desertion, to this reproach, to this crucifixion, and he's not gonna receive sinners who call upon his name? You got some bad theology if that's in your noggin.
May I say, Look, believe, and you shall be saved. The Lord says as much. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. You gotta think Psalm 22.
You gotta think the willingness of the Savior. You gotta think the graciousness of the Father. You gotta think the power of the Holy Spirit. Everything converges upon you as an argument as to why you should quit sitting here in rebellion and rejection and resistance and come to the Lord of glory.
Believe on Him and be saved. Know the joy of everlasting life. Know what it is to have your sins blotted out. Know what it is to have your righteousness given to you, cleansed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness, fit now to enter into the presence of a thrice holy God.
Don't stay. Don't tarry. Don't resist. Don't say no. but rather come by the grace of God to believe on the Lord that has given Himself according to Psalm 22 for us men and for our salvation.
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank You for Your Word, and thank You for the blessed Incarnate Word, even the Lord Jesus Christ who assumed our humanity, who lived a life of perfect obedience, who died a death as a criminal, as a sinner, and as a substitute and sacrifice. How we thank you for His resurrection again the third day, and for the blessed reality that Paul teaches in Romans 4. He was delivered up because of our offenses, and he was raised for our justification.
May this gospel be preached far and wide today, and may Christ, that blessed Savior on that white horse, ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. And we ask this in his most blessed name. Amen.