Psalm 22

Open your Bible, please, to Psalm 22. This is an absolutely amazing Psalm. The reason I think it's so amazing is because there is so much prophetic information in this Psalm. And when we remember... And well, first of all, it's prophetic concerning the crucifixion of Jesus. And what is amazing is when we keep in mind that this Psalm 22 was written 1,000 years before the birth of Christ, it is all the more incredible. What we're going to do here tonight is we're going to read through the whole Psalm. And then we're going to pray and then we're going to see what the Lord has for us. Okay? Psalm 22, beginning at verse 1,

Let's pray, Father, thank You. Thank You for the power and the majesty and the prophecy of Your Word. Thank You, Lord, that You know the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. And thank You, Lord, that You moved upon David to write these words in such a powerful, prophetic way. We pray, Father God, that as we go through and meditate on these very verses, that You would open our hearts to understand more about what they mean and what we are being directed to. Father, lead us, we ask. Guide us in wisdom. Guide us in understanding. And then, Lord God, help us to apply Your Word to our lives. In Jesus name we pray, amen. We are not certain what events in the life of David precipitated this prayer. There are some who believe that David simply began to write prophetically and that there wasn't anything specific going on in his life that generated these thoughts. We just don't know that for sure. All we know is that Psalm 22, as a Messianic Psalm, is powerful and amazing. --- ---

--- Whatever may have been going on in David's life, he found himself speaking to the Lord, but speaking about events that were not to take place for another 1,000 years. And of course, he was referring and we see in these verses, that he speaks of the suffering of Messiah on the cross. And there are many statements throughout this Psalm that connect us to the cross and the suffering that Jesus suffered for us there. But the very first one begins in the very first verse. If you look with me again in your Bible, it says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And then he goes on to ask two other questions. "Why are you so far from saving me," And also "from the words of my groaning?" And obviously from David's perspective, if there was in fact an event in his life that generated these words, it must have been pretty awful, pretty terrible. To feel forsaken by the Lord is an awful thing. But these verses obviously provide that prophetic insight into what was what we know as the fourth cry of the cross. All of the cries of Jesus are given for us, recorded for us, in the gospel accounts, and there are seven of them. But this would be the fourth. And it is the first cry after the shroud of darkness came over the land at noon until 3 o'clock. We know that darkness came upon the land for a total of 3 hours. And when that darkness came upon the land, this cry came forth from Jesus. It's recorded in the Book of Matthew. Let me put it on the screen for you. It goes like this, Matthew 27:45-46 (ESV)

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" And that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And to understand the depth of the question that Jesus is posing to the Lord, forsake, as we've already mentioned, it's a terrible thing to feel like you've been forsaken by the Lord. I know a lot of people who have felt forsaken. But the word is pretty powerful. Let me put the reminder of it up on the screen for you.

for•sake verb  to abandon (someone or something)  to renounce or give up It basically means to abandon. Whether you're abandoning something or someone. It also means to renounce or to give up. And so what Jesus is crying out from the cross is, My God, why have you abandoned me? Why have you renounced me? Why have you given up on me? in that sense. And that brings us to the question; was Jesus truly forsaken? And the reason I asked that question it's because I've had a lot of people talk to me, and frankly I have felt in my own life times, when I guess it felt like I had been forsaken by the Lord. But I don't think I was and I don't think you were either. I'll just tell you that right now. But the question of whether Jesus was truly forsaken by the Father is an interesting and a different one. Because I believe the answer is absolutely yes He was forsaken. We have to remember something about when Jesus hung on the cross. And we're reminded of a few things from Paul's writings. Let me show you the first one. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

It says, "For our sake he (God the Father) made him (Jesus Christ, look at this) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Did you catch that? I mean, if you look at that again, "For our sake he made him to be sin…” We think about Jesus being the offering for our sin. And He was that and that's a correct statement. But Paul makes it even stronger than that, and says that, Jesus Christ was made sin on our behalf. That's one of the first elements of helping us to understand the answer to the question, was Jesus truly forsaken by God the Father? ---

The second is in Romans chapter 8; and I want to show you this out of the NIV.

It says, "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son (look at this) in the likeness of sinful man (to what?) to be a sin offering. And so (it goes on to say at the end of this passage) he condemned sin in sinful man." Well, let me ask you this, how did God condemn sin? He did it by condemning his Son. Jesus hung on the cross condemned. He hung on the cross forsaken. He was condemned. He was forsaken. But do you know what the implications of that are? That you never will be. And that's why I said earlier, even though somebody might come to me and say, I feel forsaken by the Lord, I don't believe it has taken place. Because I believe Jesus took on that forsakenness for us. That condition of being forsaken by God, He bore it. He bore that condemnation. And obviously because Jesus was condemned for us, well, listen to what the apostle Paul has to say,

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because Jesus bore our condemnation, we are no longer condemned. There is no condemnation. How in the world could there be condemnation for you when He bore it already? How can there, how can God forsake you in Christ when He has already forsaken His Son on your behalf? Right? And you'll remember once again, and this is so important, that before Jesus dismissed His spirit, He said, "it is finished!" (John 19:30) And you know as well as I do that means it's done. It's paid it's completed. The work has been completed, meaning that the bearing of that condemnation the bearing of that forsaken condition for you and I, it was done. It's completed. It's over. There's no more to dish out for those who are in Christ Jesus. There's no more forsake, forsakenness to dish out people.

Well, Pastor Paul, then why is it sometimes that I feel like God has forsaken me? Well, because those are your feelings and your feelings lie. We got to remember the heart is deceitful. And that means it is actively trying to deceive you and tell you things that aren't true. God doesn't love you. God's not listening to you. He doesn't even like you. You just sinned the final sin that pushed you over the point of no return. There's no coming back. Those are all the things that our heart will say. And of course the enemy is more than happy to trounce on those kinds of thoughts. And, corroborate those with you however he may accomplish that. Very, very difficult when people are dealing with their feelings. But we have to learn to come to a place of doubting our feelings, We have to... Your heart is an unreliable friend. And if you've ever had an unreliable friend in your life, you know how you dealt with that person. They would tell you something and you would go, well, I'm going to consider the source. Well, when your heart tells you something, you have to consider the source. And you have to say, well. It's probably lying to me, because my heart is deceitful. Right? Verse 2. David goes on writing here, "O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest." You know when you put these words in the mouth of Jesus, and again, I feel like I believe this whole chapter is prophetic concerning the Messiah. And you think that Jesus calling out to the Lord, calling out to His Father and not getting an answer, that's something that He had never experienced before. That was a completely new phenomenon in His life and probably a terrifying one. To pray and not receive an answer, very challenging thing for you and I as well. To pray and not get an answer. And here's what I find that people do when they pray and they don't get an answer. They fill in the blanks about why they didn't get an answer. They don't really have any concept of knowing why they haven't gotten an answer, but they fill in the blanks anyway. Have you ever noticed that as human beings, we're just all too ready to fill in the blanks. Somebody will say, pastor Paul, I prayed and God didn't answer me. And so then they go on to tell me why they think it was that God wasn't responding to them. And often they'll just say something like, God isn't hearing my prayers.

God isn't answering my prayers. And the fact is again, they don't know. They're guessing. They're guessing. There are many times in the Bible where we see that people had to persevere in prayer just, for a long, long, long time. And Jesus even taught us to do that. He told parables about persevering in prayer that ought to keep us from the discouragement that we so easily fall into when we pray and we don't get a ready answer. But this habit that we have of filling in the blanks as to why we think God is acting a certain way in our life is, I'll just tell you, never a smart thing to do. And I'll tell you why. It all comes back to what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus was forsaken so you never would be. He will not forsake you. He will not forsake you. Let me say that again, He will not forsake you. You know that. You know that. He cried that on the cross. He cried about His own forsaken condition. We know that He was condemned. We know Paul's response is, now “there is no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) We know that. And yet isn't it amazing, even in the midst of what we know, people still feel forsaken and they still feel condemned. Well, who is it who condemns? Well, our hearts, our consciences condemn us. Right? Our hearts will easily condemn you. And then of course the enemy loves to condemn you. He is the accuser of the brethren. But how quickly we are to apply that to God. Do you know that one of the biggest reasons people don't come to church is because they feel condemned? They don't want to come to church and be reminded of their sin. Because their sin, being reminded of sin makes them feel condemned. And who wants to do that? Praise the Lord! I want you to see something here about this how suffering affected Jesus' prayer life. I'm going to show you a passage in just a moment. But I want to preface it by saying this, the reason the enemy wants to jump on those thoughts that you've been forsaken by God and that God has condemned you, is because he knows that if he can convince you of those things, you're not going to pray. You're not going to go to God and pray. And, because who's going to, who wants to pray to somebody who you believe condemns you? I don't. I mean, if I knew for sure some a person condemned me, I probably wouldn't want to go talk to him. And if I felt like I'd been forsaken by someone, in this, another human being, I probably wouldn't want to hang around that person. I wouldn't want to go spend time with him if I felt forsaken by them. Right? I mean, it doesn't make sense. The enemy knows that... he understands that if he can get you feeling that way about God, hey, piece of cake! This is a slam dunk. You're not going to want to go talk to the Lord. And if he can get you to stop talking to God, stop praying and relating to the Lord, he's won a great victory. I want you to see what happened to Jesus when he was going through an incredibly agonizing and painful situation It's recorded in Luke's gospel. Up on the screen, here's what it says,

This is in the Garden of Gethsemane just before His arrest. Did you catch what's going on here? And being in agony, He stopped praying because He got discouraged, and He said, God doesn't love Me anymore. No, that's us. That's us. That's what we do. "And being in agony He prayed more earnestly." I really think this is one of those verses that we need to really learn from, really meditate on. Because this is an important quality of Christ that it would be good for us to adopt rather than allowing our heart to rule; right? And our feelings to be paramount. God doesn't love you anymore. God's not listening to your prayer, and you've sinned one too many sins, and He's done with you. That's your heart. Instead of doing that, pray more earnestly. But in order to do that, you have to be convinced of His love. That's really the key. And that's why Jesus prayed more earnestly. Because He was never in doubt of God's love. He was never in doubt of His Father's love. And you and I have to come to a point in our lives where nothing, nothing, nothing will convince us that God no longer loves us. Nothing. That we stand our ground regardless of what is happening in our lives. That's challenging. Believe me. So important for us to remember.

Verse 3. It says, "Yet you are holy," By the way, that's the answer to why Jesus was forsaken. Because God is a holy God and He cannot deal with... He cannot abide sin. He says, "enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. (In) you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame." I love this part of David's prayer. And this is something that David would do in his prayers. Even starting off a prayer with, "...my God, … why have you forsaken me?..., he comes back to run that through his memory, the reminder of God's faithfulness from the past. Do you know how easy it is for us to forget what God did in the past for us? The wonderful ways He delivered us, took care of us, provided for us and even in ways that we are even unaware. The Lord said something very humbling to me when I was still a fairly young man. But when I came to know the Lord, and I had... And when the elders of my church back in Montana, laid hands on me and prayed over me... In fact, it was at my ordination, I'm pretty sure, when I was ordained as a pastor. One of the things the Lord said to me was, I knew you when you knew Me not. And that wasn't saying that He treated me special than anybody else. He was just saying that when I had no concept of Him in my life, His hand was there. And that's true of all of us. God's hand was on you, even when you didn't know him. Even when you didn't recognize that God's hand was there. Even when you were oblivious to the fact that God was working in your life, He was working in your life. You didn't know about it, but He was there. He was accomplishing. And how... What a wonderful thing it is to remember the things that the Lord has done in our lives. It's so incredibly helpful. Verse 6, "But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. (Look what it goes on to say here.) All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; (which is a literal translation.) The New King James (NKJV) says, "they shoot out the lip." Interesting. It says, "they wag their heads. "He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him for he delights in him!" What we're seeing now, what we're reading here in this prophetic Psalm are the dying pangs of the crucifixion and what Jesus was experiencing. And how He even saw His helpless condition. He says, "...I'm a worm and not a man,..."

Well, there's absolutely... A worm has absolutely no ability to protect them self. Somebody comes along and steps on it and that's the end. Jesus, if we're going to put these words in His mouth, with I think... which I think is appropriate as a Messianic Psalm, He speaks of this helpless condition. And I want you to notice here the similarity, once again, of these words with what we know from the New Testament when it talks about, all who see me mock me, they're wagging their heads, saying things like, He trusts in the Lord, let God deliver Him, and so on and so on. Would you notice now for a moment the similarity of those words with Matthew 27, up on the screen which says,

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads. "He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, "I am the Son of God. Isn't that amazing? Once again, 1,000 years before these events took place, David wrote these words down and prophetically looked ahead to the mocking and shameful behavior of the people toward Jesus. Goes on in verse 9 to say, "Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God." Now, this was certainly true of David, but it had a special significance regarding Jesus. Because remember, Jesus had a special birth. His is a birth which we refer to as, The Incarnation. And it was at His birth, you'll remember, that Jesus took on a different relationship with God the Father. One of the things we have to remember, Jesus was not always the Son of God. He became the Son of God. It says elsewhere in the Old Testament, "today, I have begotten you." (Psalm 2:7) Today, you have become My Father, and so forth. This happened in a day in history. Where was Jesus before the incarnation? Well, He was the eternal Word of God.

He still is the Word of God. But the point is before Jesus' incarnation, remember, Jesus is an earthly name. Joshua, Jesus, same name. It's a name they're still naming people today. What was... This is a time... At a point in time He took on humanity. At a point in time He took on this special relationship with the Father. Prior to that, He's just the eternal Word of God. I say, just. The Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) He was with God in the beginning. It's speaking of Jesus. Then you read later on in John chapter 1 and it says, "...the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) Jesus is the eternal Word of God made flesh. But notice what he is saying here to the Lord. Yet, he says, he's saying to His Father, You took Me from the womb. You made me trust You even from that early time of nursing and on and on. I was cast from my birth. And from my mother's womb You have been my God. You know what's wonderful about these words? We can say them too. It's a beautiful thing about, the incarnation. Jesus came to experience the reality of what is a birthright for you and I. That we can actually say, Lord... And when you're... And I'm talking about when you're going through a hard time. Right? When you're going through a really hard... But Lord, you say, You made me trust in You. You've had Your hand on me since the very beginning. Since I was conceived, You are my God. You have known me from before I was conceived. You are the Lord, My God, and so forth. And I tell you that puts things in a different perspective than what the enemy wants you to think about how God views your life. And so he says, here in verse 11, if you look with me there,

Jesus appeals to God here, prophetically through David, to draw near in this hour of this crushing, lonely trial. Verse 12 he says, "Many bulls encompass me; (which of course just means gather around me) strong bulls of Bashan, (And) ...they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion."

Now, here's what's interesting about this. The district of Bashan, located just east of the Jordan, was well known for its rich pasture land and consequently fat cattle. And, in fact if, you don't need to do it now, but if you go to the fourth chapter of the book of Amos, you will find that the prophet actually refers to the Israelites as the "cows of Bashan," in a negative sort of a way; referring to how they loved their luxury. Oh, these “cows of Bashan." Right? (Amos 4:1) So, Jesus, when He speaks of the bulls of Bashan, He's referring to the Jews who want him dead and who are there watching during His crucifixion. And just reveling in the fact that they got their way and this man will finally be killed. Now, beginning in verse 14, this is where it gets really amazing. We literally have a description of a human body during crucifixion. It says in verse 14,

I didn't take time to go through it in my study, but I know that there was actually a doctor a number of years ago, who took this description and connected each of these statements with a physical manifestation of the dying process of an individual who was literally nailed to a cross. And that these are actually correct physical sorts of manifestations for someone who's experiencing that horrific kind of death. Now, it hasn't even said here yet, there's been nothing here talked about regarding crucifixion at this point. You and I know it was crucifixion, but it hasn't been mentioned yet. But I want you to notice the very next verse. It says, "For dogs encompass me;" And by the way, dogs was a common name for Gentiles. He says, "a company of evildoers encircles me;" And then look at the rest of verse 16. "they have pierced my hands and feet." Again, this is 1,000 years before it took place. This is before crucifixion was created as a means of execution. The Romans came up with it. It was horrific. And so horrific, it was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen. This is amazing. You know what's interesting about the gospel accounts? Do you know that none of the gospel accounts actually, specifically refer to the nailing of the hands?

We get that from the fact that He showed His scars. We know, but we also know historically what crucifixion entailed. We know that it was nailing of the hands and the feet, to a cross piece of wood and so forth. But here, 1,000 years before the fact, David specifically speaks prophetically of crucifixion, "they have pierced my hands and feet." He says in verse 17, "I can count all my bones-- they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." Again, an incredibly right on target statement by David. Look what we read from eyewitness John, from his gospel account, chapter 19.

It says, "When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see (whom) whose it shall be." Isn't that interesting? They divided his garments and they cast lots for some of his clothing. Exactly what David wrote prophetically in verse 18. Verse 19, "But you, O LORD, (be) … not far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! (Again, references to the Gentiles there.) Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!" Now, as we begin now to go into verse 22 and following, you're going to see a major shift in the mood and the tenor of this Psalm. David writes, "I will tell of your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:" And even though these words here in verse 22 are written by David, the writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews actually quotes this verse in speaking of Jesus. Let me put this on the screen for you.

Hebrews chapter 2. it says, "For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he (and that's referring to Jesus) is not ashamed to call them (and that's believers) brothers, saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." Even the writer of the Book of Hebrews makes the connection here with Messiah. Now, in these final verses, again, the prophetic voice of David is very strong, very powerful. But now we go, we move from the crucifixion and we move to the ruling and the reigning of Jesus Christ. These are wonderful verses. Verse 23. "You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, (so, we know who the afflicted is) but has heard, when he cried to him. From you comes my praise (to the great) in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him." Now, he speaks of the afflicted, speaking now of people in verse 26. “The afflicted (and this now refers to those who are small in the eyes of the world cast out if you will, persecuted in this world) shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!" I love this verse. I always love when God champions the little guy. And particularly those who have given up in this life many of the blessings that come with living in this world like popularity, and power, and money and so forth. And have taken a position of being afflicted. And the Lord speaks and says regarding those "they shall be satisfied," "they shall be satisfied." Verse 27. "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow (down) all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive."

Now I want you to notice the difference here in this, it says, now we're speaking of the prosperous of the earth. But now I believe we're talking about during Christ's rule and reign during the Millennial Kingdom, those who have been elevated are the prosperous of the earth. And they now eat and worship because they were the afflicted prior to this. But notice he says, but also those before him who go down to the dust will bow down and worship, he's talking about those who could not keep themselves alive. So, in other words, everybody at some point is going to bow down and worship Jesus. And this is exactly what the apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians. Let me put this on the screen from chapter 2, verses 9 through 11. He says,

Now, this is a wonderful passage. It tells us here in no uncertain terms that every created being is going to worship the Lord. I mean, it's very clear. He says, "in heaven … on earth,” even “under the earth,” they're all going to bow and every tongue is going to confess. Now, here's the question people ask, does that mean everybody's ultimately going to be saved? No, it doesn't. It doesn't mean that at all. It just means that they will still worship the Lord. They will still bow the knee. Some will bow the knee because they have to. Not because they're forced to, but because at the vision of Jesus, they simply will bow the knee. That's all there is to it. So, we have this wonderful opportunity as believers. We get to bow the knee now out of a willing choice on our part to do what's right. And what a glorious thing it is to bow the knee to Jesus, to His Lordship. To do this right now, right here, just to say, you know what? You are Lord. And there is none like You. There's none over You. There's none above You. You are the Lord. You are my God. I bow the knee to You. I do it willingly. I do it gladly, humbly. I say, You are the Lord of my life. Do you know every time we submit to His will, we're bowing to the Lord. We're bowing the knee. Bowing the knee is not something you do just in prayer or in worship or something like that. It's what you do in your decisions. It's what you do in your marriage. We've been talking in Ephesians how husbands are to love their wives and wives are to have a respectful submission to their husbands. When you do that, husbands and wives, you're bowing the knee to Jesus. When you love your enemy, you're bowing the knee to Jesus. You're saying, I surrender to You. I surrender to You. Instead of getting mad and praying for people who have hurt you and done terrible things to you, you're bowing the knee to Jesus. What a wonderful thing it is to bow the knee. I, just... I'm glad to do it. There's going to come a day, however, when those who refused to do it in this life will still bow the knee. And they will confess with their mouth Jesus Christ is Lord. And they will do it to the glory of God the Father. But then they will go down to the dust and that's what this Psalm speaks of here. It ends with these last 2 verses. It says, "Posterity (and that means future generations) shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord (or, yes, of the Lord) to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it." And that is another way of saying, "it is finished." It is accomplished. What Jesus did on the cross is done. Completed. He has done it. Oh, what a wonderful Psalm! What a, what an incredible Psalm. The prophetic insights. The specific prophecies related to crucifixion and the death that one would die in that sort of a situation. And, just absolutely amazing. And the things that we learn from this Psalm are really, truly insightful.