1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Psalm 22, for the director of music to the tune of the Doe of the Morning, a Psalm of David. 2 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:13,800 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from me, 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,320 saving me, for so far from my cries of 4 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:22,400 anguish? My God, I cry out by day, 5 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:27,120 but you do not answer by night, but I find no rest. 6 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:34,120 Yet you are enthroned as the holy one. You are the one, Israel praises. 7 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:41,120 In you our ancestors put their trust. They trusted and you delivered them. 8 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:49,120 To you they cried out and were saved. In you they trusted and were not put to shame. 9 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:56,120 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. 10 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:02,120 All who seek me mock me. They hurl insults, shaking their heads. 11 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:07,120 He trusts in the Lord, they say. Let the Lord rescue him. 12 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:14,120 Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. Yet you brought me out of the womb. 13 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:20,120 You made me trust in you, even on my mother's breast. 14 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:22,120 At my mother's breast. 15 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:29,120 From birth I was cast on you. From my mother's womb you have been my God. 16 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:34,120 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. 17 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:40,120 Many bulls surround me, strong bulls of bashing encircle me, 18 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:44,120 roaring lions that tear their prey, open their mouths wide against me. 19 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:50,120 I poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. 20 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:55,120 My heart has turned to wax. It has melted within me. 21 00:01:55,120 --> 00:02:02,120 My mouth is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. 22 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:09,120 You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircle me. 23 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:15,120 They pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display. 24 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:23,120 People stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast slots for my garment. 25 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:29,120 But you Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength. 26 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:34,120 Come quickly to help me. Deliver me from the sword. 27 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:39,120 My precious life from the power of the dogs. Rescue me from the mouths of the lions. 28 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:42,120 Save me from the horns of the wild oxen. 29 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:47,120 I will declare your name to my people. In the assembly I will praise you. 30 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:53,120 You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob honour him. 31 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:57,120 Revere him. All you descendants of Israel. 32 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:02,120 For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one. 33 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:08,120 He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help. 34 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:13,120 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly. 35 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:17,120 Before those who fear you, I will fulfil my vows. 36 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:24,120 The poor will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek the Lord will praise him. 37 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:31,120 May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. 38 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:35,120 And all the families of the nations will bow down before him. 39 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:41,120 For dominions belong to the Lord. And he rules over the nations. 40 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:47,120 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship all who go down to the dust. 41 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:53,120 Will kneel before him. Those who cannot keep themselves alive. 42 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:59,120 Posterity will serve him. Future generations will be told about the Lord. 43 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:05,120 They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to the people yet unborn. 44 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,120 He has done it. 45 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:11,120 Good morning everyone. 46 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:17,120 If we've not met before, my name is Michael, one of the elders here, 47 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:20,120 and it is absolute delight to have you with us. 48 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:24,120 If you've not been here before, please don't rush off after. 49 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:26,120 Please stay for morning tea. 50 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:30,120 Also, the subject that we're going to be looking at this morning, 51 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:35,120 as you may have just realised in the text that was read for us, 52 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:37,120 it's quite a heavy subject. 53 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:41,120 So if you would like prayer for anything that you hear this morning, 54 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:47,120 please come and find either myself or one of the elders, 55 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:49,120 and we want to pray with you. 56 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:55,120 We want to hear what's going on, and we'd love to stand with the Lord with you. 57 00:04:55,120 --> 00:05:01,120 Let's pray now before we come to this text. 58 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:06,120 Father God, we are in awe of the Gospel, 59 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:10,120 and we ask this morning that as we turn our attention, 60 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:18,120 that you would cause our hearts by your Holy Spirit to be opened to these words. 61 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:22,120 Father, we don't want to be filled with information. 62 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:26,120 We want to be filled with good news. 63 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:31,120 We ask that your Spirit enlightens the eyes of our hearts, 64 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:37,120 and that we would be a people that would be running hard after you, 65 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:43,120 a people living in awe and worship of what you have done. 66 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:46,120 We ask that you would teach us from these words this morning 67 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:52,120 for the sake of Christ, and we ask him for this in his name, amen. 68 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:57,120 I wonder if you've ever faced a situation where you felt like 69 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:01,120 you had absolutely no one to reach out to, 70 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:08,120 no one that understood, and you felt totally abandoned and alone. 71 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:16,120 Not just ostracised by friends and family, mind you, but even from God himself. 72 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:20,120 Who do you run to in that situation? 73 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:22,120 What do you do? 74 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:33,120 Where do you go, and how do you act in that deep, dark pit of despair? 75 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:38,120 Well, believe it or not, our author this morning, the king of Israel, David, 76 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:43,120 was once described as a man after God's very own heart, 77 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:47,120 and he felt just like that. 78 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:49,120 Felt just like Jonah in the belly of the beast, 79 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:56,120 sinking deeper and deeper into oblivion with no way out. 80 00:06:56,120 --> 00:07:00,120 And although David felt abandoned, cast off, 81 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:04,120 confused with the situation that he found himself in, 82 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:08,120 he didn't stay in that place for long. 83 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:14,120 No, he found peace in the storm and joy in the so-called valley, 84 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:21,120 not by his circumstances changing, or by looking to anything in and of himself, 85 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:28,120 but by looking to our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 86 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:33,120 And I want to show you what I'm talking about this morning in just a couple of points. 87 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:39,120 First, in verses 1 to 21, we'll look at how David found hope, real hope, 88 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:42,120 in the midst of a hopeless situation. 89 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:50,120 And then second, in verses 22 to 31, we'll look at why we, like David, have hope. 90 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:58,120 And that is because of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to which this wholesome teaches us. 91 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:01,120 So again, just two points this morning. 92 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:05,120 First, how to find hope in a hopeless situation, 93 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:11,120 and then second, why we can have hope in the first place. 94 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:15,120 So if you have your Bibles with you this morning, 95 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:22,120 look with me at just the first couple of words in verse 1 there. 96 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:31,120 We read, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 97 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:37,120 So straight off the bat, our author, David, he brings us, the audience, into a situation 98 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:43,120 which he describes as a deep, dark pit of hopelessness. 99 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:49,120 Now for whatever reason, we don't really know because David hasn't given us the context here, 100 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:54,120 but our author has found himself crying out to God. 101 00:08:54,120 --> 00:09:05,120 And because he hasn't felt or seen God move anywhere in his life, he feels completely abandoned. 102 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:12,120 Now on top of not having the context here, David also doesn't give us a timeframe. 103 00:09:12,120 --> 00:09:18,120 But you can feel it in verse 2. 104 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:27,120 There's this feeling of being totally abandoned as he cries out to God by day and by night. 105 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:32,120 All this to say, in just the first couple of verses that we have here, 106 00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:38,120 we have a scene of Israel's king calling on God in the midst of his situation 107 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:47,120 and is wrestling to know where God is and to what on earth he is doing. 108 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:53,120 And it's absolutely crushing him. 109 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:57,120 Now there's something that I want you to notice here with me, church. 110 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:02,120 You see, whatever may be going on and however long, 111 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:10,120 you might notice that this isn't the language of a man who was rebelling against God. 112 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:19,120 It's not the language of a man who's backsliding or even doubting God's existence in the midst of all of this. 113 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:23,120 Now this is the heart cry of a man in the prayer closet, 114 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:29,120 wrestling with his own inner turmoil with what he is feeling in the moment 115 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:34,120 over and against what he knows to be true. 116 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:36,120 Notice it. 117 00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:42,120 In just the first couple of verses, there's this language of intimacy. 118 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:49,120 He isn't saying, God, if you're out there somewhere or just in case if someone's listening, please help. 119 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:51,120 No, notice it. 120 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:56,120 He says, my God, my God, why? 121 00:10:56,120 --> 00:11:02,120 Why, my God, I'm crying out to you. 122 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:10,120 And I want you to see that language because it tells us something about the author here. 123 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:16,120 This is a man that is well acquainted with the presence of God. 124 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:22,120 A man that knows what it is to be in relationship with God. 125 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:30,120 A man that knows what it is to see God work in his life. 126 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:37,120 In other words, this is a man that knows what it is to have friendship with our God. 127 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:47,120 And so in verse three, he starts to direct his thoughts to the type of God that he has come to know. 128 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:53,120 Saying, you, you are enthroned as the Holy One. 129 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:58,120 You are the one Israel praises. 130 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:03,120 See what David is doing here in the midst of the deep, dark pit. 131 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:13,120 David feels one way, but in it all, he starts to remind himself of the reality of who God is. 132 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:19,120 In other words, he's not relying on his feelings to give him the facts. 133 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:29,120 No, he weighs his very real feelings in the scales of the reality of who God has revealed himself to be. 134 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:35,120 This is as David says here, God is a mighty King. 135 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:37,120 He's the King of heaven. 136 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:41,120 He is the one Israel praises. 137 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:53,120 And our author, he thinks on these things because the people of God praise the King of heaven as historically in the midst of their most tragic of circumstances, 138 00:12:53,120 --> 00:13:02,120 in the midst of their most worst of situations, in the midst of their most grotesque of hopelessness. 139 00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:07,120 The people of God have put their trust in God and he delivered them. 140 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:18,120 They cried out and they were saved, they trusted and weren't put to shame as we see in verses four and five. 141 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:26,120 That's the history that our author reminds himself of here in the midst of feeling utterly forsaken. 142 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:37,120 Whenever God's people have called upon the King of heaven, they have not been put to shame. 143 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:43,120 This is what makes these next few lines so interesting. 144 00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:55,120 You see, David knows all about this history, but then he doesn't go on to compare himself there in verse six with the great heroes of the faith. 145 00:13:55,120 --> 00:14:08,120 The great heroes like Abraham, Joseph, Moses or Joshua, no, he goes on to compare himself with one of the most insignificant invertebrates on the planet. 146 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:16,120 That people either walk over, step on or pick up and simply throw away. 147 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:27,120 I say that's interesting because what we're meant to get here is that David doesn't see that just because he is the King of Israel, 148 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:38,120 that he has earned anything from God, or that God is obligated to give him his attention or obliged to even answer him. 149 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:52,120 Now, David acknowledges that in light of all who God is, he is like a worm in the soil that is wiggling and pleading with the great King. 150 00:14:52,120 --> 00:15:04,120 And thus, David acknowledges that for anything to happen, it must come by God's mercy and grace alone. 151 00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:19,120 Again, church, we don't have all the details here, but whatever the case may be, David's turmoil, it's starting to be noticed by those around him, 152 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:31,120 to the point that they mock and taunt him for his faith in what he knows to be true about the God that he has come to put his trust in. 153 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:44,120 And thus, yet again, David, for the second time he reflects, he meditates on what he knows to be true of the God that he knows in the midst of how he feels, 154 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:51,120 saying there in verse 9, you, you brought me out of the womb. 155 00:15:51,120 --> 00:16:12,120 You made me trust in you, even at my mother's breast, from birth I was cast on you, from my mother's womb, you have been my God. 156 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:17,120 What are we to make of this so far? 157 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:27,120 Well, it's very apparent in the text before us this morning that David, he feels like a dirty, worthless creature with no hope. 158 00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:31,120 Look at what else we've seen so far. 159 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:44,120 In the midst of it all, in the midst of this deep, dark valley of hopelessness, David, he reminds himself of a few things here. 160 00:16:44,120 --> 00:17:01,120 First, he reminds himself that God is enthroned in heaven, which is to say he is mighty to save, which second, God has proven to be the case time and time and time and time again, 161 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:06,120 in that he rescues his people when they call upon him. 162 00:17:06,120 --> 00:17:21,120 And third, God has always been there for our author, always been there even before he knew his left hand from his right. 163 00:17:21,120 --> 00:17:32,120 Even before, mind you, he knew how to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. 164 00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:45,120 And so though David feels and sees one thing, in light of who he knows who God is, he makes this bold request of the King of Heaven there in verse 11. 165 00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:52,120 He says, do not be far from me, for trouble is near. 166 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:58,120 There is no one to help. 167 00:17:58,120 --> 00:18:02,120 I wonder if you felt like this. 168 00:18:02,120 --> 00:18:12,120 I wonder if you felt abandoned on every side, not able to see or feel God working anywhere in your life. 169 00:18:12,120 --> 00:18:18,120 Brother and sister, you're not here by any mistake this morning. 170 00:18:18,120 --> 00:18:24,120 This is such a wonderful thing that Scripture is teaching us here. 171 00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:32,120 God doesn't abandon nor forsake his people. 172 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:38,120 Now that's not to say that we won't ever feel abandoned. 173 00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:50,120 We might do from time to time and that deep dark pit that you find yourself in can feel pretty hopeless. 174 00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:56,120 But the fact of the matter is this, God is still the King of Heaven. 175 00:18:56,120 --> 00:19:05,120 He's still, by his mercy and grace, rescues his people when they call upon him. 176 00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:14,120 And he still cares for the intimate details of every single one of us. 177 00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:22,120 And so though the temptation comes knocking at the door and you might feel like God has cast you off, 178 00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:27,120 the fact of the matter is very different. 179 00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:35,120 And we can call upon our Heavenly Father in our time of need and know that he hears us. 180 00:19:35,120 --> 00:19:38,120 How did David come to this conclusion? 181 00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:43,120 How did he get to this place of great boldness and know that God would hear him, 182 00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:49,120 even when his feelings were preaching to him the exact opposite? 183 00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:53,120 Well, he didn't make it up. He didn't pluck it out of the sky. 184 00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:56,120 He didn't even go with his guts. 185 00:19:56,120 --> 00:20:04,120 No, he reminded himself of what he knew to be true about our God. 186 00:20:04,120 --> 00:20:10,120 Because God had revealed who he is to his people. 187 00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:22,120 Church, David drew on the truth of who God revealed himself to be in the midst of his very real and present anguish. 188 00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:29,120 And it caused him to turn his eyes to heaven and say, I have no other health. 189 00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:32,120 I'm hopeless. 190 00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:39,120 But what I know to be true of you, my God, I trust you. 191 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:44,120 Do not be far from me. 192 00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:55,120 Now, in verses 12 to 21, we get a similar sort of picture of an incredibly desperate man. 193 00:20:55,120 --> 00:21:01,120 And I want you to notice that as Jackie so wonderfully read the passage for us, 194 00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:05,120 that our author used a lot of imagery in these verses. 195 00:21:05,120 --> 00:21:13,120 Imagery of wild animals that were ready to rip and tear the author apart. 196 00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:18,120 He talks of wild bulls, roaring lions and ferocious dogs surrounding him. 197 00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:24,120 And he even sees a brutality coming that is like no other. 198 00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:28,120 In that his enemies would pierce his hands and feet. 199 00:21:28,120 --> 00:21:42,120 And that his executioners would stare at his bones, which were on display as they stripped him naked to divide his clothes and cast lots for his garment. 200 00:21:42,120 --> 00:21:53,120 This is all language that's meant to give us a sense of our author being utterly brutalized and tortured by his enemies. 201 00:21:53,120 --> 00:21:56,120 So I want you to notice it again. 202 00:21:56,120 --> 00:22:01,120 Notice that it's not like David feels all of this, but then starts to say, 203 00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:09,120 chin up, onward Christian soldiers, she'll be right, mates. 204 00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:13,120 No, he gets extremely raw with our God. 205 00:22:13,120 --> 00:22:22,120 Because the situation that he sees coming there in verse 14, he says it pours him out like water. 206 00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:26,120 It melts his heart within him. 207 00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:31,120 To put it simply, he is absolutely terrified. 208 00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:42,120 And so again, he cries out to God, pleading to the King of Heaven that he would come down and get in the dirt with this worm and rescue him. 209 00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:55,120 And saying in verses 19 to 21, come quickly to help me, deliver me from the sword, my precious life, from the power of the dogs, rescue me from the mouth of the lions. 210 00:22:55,120 --> 00:23:04,120 Save me from the horns of the wild oxen. 211 00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:11,120 Brothers and sisters, don't we see something about the nature of prayer here? 212 00:23:11,120 --> 00:23:22,120 God, he doesn't just invite us, but he wants us to go to him with it all. 213 00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:27,120 We see it with our author, he is desperate and utterly terrified. 214 00:23:27,120 --> 00:23:33,120 And so he doesn't sugarcoat the way that he's feeling and run like Adam from God. 215 00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:43,120 No, just the opposite, something causes him to run to God and he cries out and doesn't hold back. 216 00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:52,120 Questioning, pleading, pleading with his God to do something in his situation. 217 00:23:52,120 --> 00:23:59,120 This isn't a man that babbles on with rote-learned prayers, hoping that his many words will be heard. 218 00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:07,120 What we have here is a picture of a man in deep pain and trepidation knowing that because of the nature of our God, 219 00:24:07,120 --> 00:24:20,120 no matter how he feels he is able to trust him and not be put to shame. 220 00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:27,120 We as the people of God learn something tremendous about the nature of prayer here. 221 00:24:27,120 --> 00:24:31,120 And that's first, that's David. 222 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:38,120 He found hope in a hopeless situation because he wasn't manipulated by his feelings. 223 00:24:38,120 --> 00:24:47,120 No, he reflected on what he knew about God and that's that God can be trusted by his people in any situation 224 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:56,120 and they can call upon him in the midst of it all, no matter how hopeless it might seem. 225 00:24:56,120 --> 00:25:05,120 So that's why what we see next has to be the most outstanding thing in our passage. 226 00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:11,120 Because as we turn our attention to the second part of this psalm, 227 00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:21,120 well there is nothing to indicate that David has been rescued and is now safe from the situation that he's been describing 228 00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:24,120 or that it had changed in any way. 229 00:25:24,120 --> 00:25:33,120 Now from verses 22 right through to the end, you'll notice that most of the language is in the future tense. 230 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:48,120 So as to indicate to us that this is David's great hope for what he knows will happen once God's great mercy and grace delivers him. 231 00:25:48,120 --> 00:26:01,120 First in verses 22 to 25, David he envisions a scene where at some point in the future he'll stand with the people of God in the great assembly. 232 00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:09,120 That would have been the tabernacle where he will lead them in the praise and worship of their God 233 00:26:09,120 --> 00:26:22,120 and declare to his brothers and sisters that God is still a God that hears the cries of his people and rescues the suffering and afflicted. 234 00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:35,120 Second in verses 26 right through to 31, David he has this sense that this good news of God's salvation won't just be a message for Israel, 235 00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:50,120 but a message that will infiltrate all peoples and be proclaimed around the entire world where all the families of the nations will bow down before the Lord. 236 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:59,120 Church in just these last few verses in the midst of what seems like an absolute hopeless situation, 237 00:26:59,120 --> 00:27:08,120 what David sees is an amazing vision of God's grace and mercy being poured out on the king of Israel. 238 00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:23,120 To the point that he envisions that he'll be brought back from the absolute horrors of death to be put in a position where he'll witness the good news of God's saving message proclaimed to the nations. 239 00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:38,120 An absolutely amazing scene of faith in God's love, mercy, grace and mighty saving hand. 240 00:27:38,120 --> 00:27:48,120 And this is the most incredible thing about this Psalm. 241 00:27:48,120 --> 00:28:06,120 You see, as you read through the history of David's life, there's nothing to indicate to us that he ever fully went through what he is describing here. 242 00:28:06,120 --> 00:28:14,120 It never went through events like this to the extent that he had described it. 243 00:28:14,120 --> 00:28:24,120 No, there's no event in David's life where he was totally and utterly forsaken by God, where his hands and feet were actually pierced, 244 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:31,120 where his bones were actually all poured out of joint, where his garments were torn off and bartered for, 245 00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:46,120 and where he was made to really and fully lay in the dust, which is to say that he was made to return to the dust from which he had been made. 246 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:55,120 And that's because, according to the New Testament writers, David wasn't ultimately speaking about himself here. 247 00:28:55,120 --> 00:29:18,120 No, he was actually under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, looking forward to and writing about someone to come that would really and truly go through these very events in their most fullest and absolute expression. 248 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:33,120 In Matthew 27, as Jesus was hanging there on the cross, we're told in the last moments of his life that he actually cried out the words that we started with this morning, 249 00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:49,120 my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And as he was doing that, as he hung there naked and in agony crying out to God, 250 00:29:49,120 --> 00:30:00,120 it's reported by the evangelists that people mocked him and sneered at him and said he trusted in God. He should save him. 251 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:15,120 In fact, John quotes for Baton David's words of Psalm 22 in chapter 19 of his book saying that as Jesus hung there, that those that drove the nails into his hands and feet, 252 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:21,120 they took his garments and they cast lots for his clothing. 253 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:31,120 I mean, what an incredibly vivid and precise outworking of the words that we've looked at this morning. 254 00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:47,120 But before we move on, we really need to understand something here. If we're going to capture the impact of Psalm 22. 255 00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:58,120 You see, there's a reason why Jesus cried these very words of Psalm 22 out in the cross. 256 00:30:58,120 --> 00:31:05,120 It was because he really was forsaken of the Father in that moment. 257 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:19,120 You see, because of the curse of his people's lawbreaking being met on him, Jesus was truly under the wrath of God. 258 00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:32,120 It wasn't because of his wrongdoing, but because of the punishment of our lawless deeds, our iniquity, as Isaiah says, being placed on him. 259 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:45,120 The Apostle Paul says it like this in 2 Corinthians 5, God made him who had no sin to be sinned for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 260 00:31:45,120 --> 00:32:01,120 Brothers and sisters at the cross, Jesus didn't just feel abandoned, but was truly utterly and absolutely crushed because his life was being punished for our sin. 261 00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:16,120 In other words, Jesus was made a sin offering and he died in our place on our account so that he might bring us to the God, the King of heaven. 262 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:37,120 And it was the manifestation of God's hatred of sin being poured out in that Jesus experienced the horrendous result of what our sin causes in that terrible hour. 263 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:47,120 An incredibly precise and vivid scene of David's words coming to fruition in the life of Israel's Messiah. 264 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:58,120 The very words that he uttered under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit were uttered some thousand years later by the Messiah on the cross. 265 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:11,120 The very King of heaven when he came down from his throne into the so-called dirt to rescue the worm. 266 00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:16,120 But of course as we've seen this morning, that's not all David wrote on. 267 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:29,120 He also envisioned a time when the King of Israel would be in and amongst his people proclaiming the saving work of his God to his brothers and sisters. 268 00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:45,120 And wonderfully the writer to the Hebrews picks up on these very verses after explaining that after Jesus descended to earth, after he suffered death, after he was raised to life, 269 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:59,120 after he ascended to heaven, that he is now crowned with glory and now at this very moment in the heavenly realm, in the heavenly tabernacle as it's described. 270 00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:10,120 Jesus calls his brothers and his sisters to come and worship our God with him. 271 00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:23,120 It's a little wonder after witnessing the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus that the New Testament writers said of our author this morning and asked to that he was a prophet. 272 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:31,120 He knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 273 00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:44,120 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah and that he wouldn't be abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor would his body see decay. 274 00:34:44,120 --> 00:35:01,120 Church, as we wrap this up this morning, in one sense Psalm 22 is about knowing and trusting God in the midst of total and utter hopelessness. 275 00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:16,120 David, he's given us a scenario of people mocking and threatening him all the while wrestling with his own inner turmoil which told him that God had forsaken him. 276 00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:21,120 David, he certainly felt that. 277 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:32,120 God's people, they feel that from time to time and maybe you even feel like that at this very moment. 278 00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:44,120 But as we've seen this morning, David's words in their ultimate sense, they pointed beyond themselves to one who would take the full brunt of these words upon himself. 279 00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:57,120 They pointed forward to one who would truly and utterly be forsaken so that we might never have to be. 280 00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:06,120 Church, Jesus was pierced for our transgressions and punished for the iniquity of our sin. 281 00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:24,120 He was cast off for our lawlessness so that the full force of God's giving over to his wrath and abandonment to hell might never truly be met on us. 282 00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:31,120 It's true that we won't always feel like God is there or that he loves us. 283 00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:39,120 But like David in the midst of it all, let us remember exactly who God is and what he has done for his people. 284 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:44,120 God rescues those who call upon him. 285 00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:58,120 God tells us if we call upon the name of the Lord that we won't be put to shame and no more clearly do we see God's grace and mercy and amen towards us then in the crucifixion 286 00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:02,120 of his begotten, only begotten Son Jesus Christ. 287 00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:07,120 It was the King of Heaven who took the sin of his people and tasted death for us. 288 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:11,120 But as we know, he didn't stay in the grave. 289 00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:20,120 He was raised to life victorious and he ascended to heaven where he is now inviting us to come and worship our God. 290 00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:31,120 Right at this very moment, the King of Kings and the Saviour of the world invites all people to come and worship him. 291 00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:35,120 Have you done that? 292 00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:42,120 Have you called upon the name of the Lord? 293 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:52,120 The words of Jesus are that he will in no way cast out anyone who comes to him. 294 00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:58,120 Maybe you'll hear this morning you would say that you have been abandoned by people around you. 295 00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:09,120 That you've been mocked, that you've been slandered and you would say that you have real enemies that if they could would want to take your life. 296 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:15,120 I can't imagine what some of you might be going through even at this very moment. 297 00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:22,120 I couldn't fathom what events have taken place in your life. 298 00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:35,120 But what I do know and what I can tell you is though you may feel like a filthy abandoned worm in the dirt, 299 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:45,120 there is one who knows exactly what it is to be mocked, abandoned, betrayed and even murdered. 300 00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:57,120 And today he invites you to come to the throne of grace and to lay your burden, your anxiety before him. 301 00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:07,120 Dear brother, dear sister, because of his life given for you, he has made you a precious son or daughter of our heavenly Father. 302 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:15,120 Hear this this morning, God never abandons his people for the sake of his son, for the sake of Christ. 303 00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:18,120 He will never leave nor forsake you. 304 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:26,120 And though you might not feel it right now, though you might not see it at this very moment, there will come a time. 305 00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:39,120 When without hindrance we will all worship and praise and glorify and bless and know our Lord and Saviour face to face. 306 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:43,120 And just one last thing here this morning. 307 00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:51,120 Psalm 22 began in darkness, but as we've seen, the whole thing ends in this triumph. 308 00:39:51,120 --> 00:40:01,120 And if we just think on those last few words of verses 30 to 31, it's got this missionary kind of vibe to it. 309 00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:19,120 David, he sees the future generations that they'll be told of the Lord and that they'll proclaim his righteousness saying that he has done it. 310 00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:34,120 Brothers and sisters, this gospel, this good news of God saving work in Jesus Christ on the cross was never designed to just stay with us. 311 00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:54,120 We've been given a great commission by Heaven's King to go, to go and tell it, to go and proclaim it and tell people that he has done it. 312 00:40:54,120 --> 00:41:14,120 He has accomplished salvation for all who call upon his name. And so let us go and let us ask our great God and Saviour that he would help us to tell others of this wonderfully good news that we have heard this morning. 313 00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:22,120 Would you please pray with me? 314 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:36,120 Father God, we are in awe of the gospel. We're in awe of all that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has done on the cross. 315 00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:48,120 Father, there's many people in this room this morning, but the joy of their salvation is lacking. 316 00:41:48,120 --> 00:42:08,120 But we know that we can ask that you would restore it, that we would have an assurance that we would know that what happened all those years ago on Calvary happened because you went to the cross for your people. 317 00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:24,120 This morning, our Father, we asked that you would give us a great love, a yearning, a deep want to share this good news with those around us. 318 00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:42,120 Father, we're nervous in many ways. We're worried in other ways, but we would ask that you would create situations for us in which your spirit would move and that we would proclaim to those around us, share in love that you have done it. 319 00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:58,120 We ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen.