Jason Ellison is an old man at 15 years of age.
Already he has lived beyond the normal life expectancy
of one suffering from progeria. Progeria is a
disease that wildly accelerates some aspects
of the aging process. Jason's story is told in
the current issue of Life Magazine. His appearance
is that of a very old and frail man. He is just
four feet tall and weighs 41 pounds. He looks
quite different, even odd. In fact, there are
only 15 children in the whole world that look
like Jason does. Like most progerians, Jason
is highly intelligent. In a recent school essay,
he wrote these words. When I look in the mirror,
I see a person like no other persons around me.
I see someone who is bald, a cricked nose, no
front teeth, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, and pointed
ears. Someone who has crooked legs and a very
tiny body for his age. I want people to look
at me and see past my looks and see who I really
am. Not a freak, but a wonderful human being
who loves life and his fellow man. I think this
is who I am. Although my looks are so different,
I did not choose to look the way I do, or to
have a life that could be over tomorrow. I'm
just here to love life," he wrote. And though
he is here to love life, he has experienced rejection
in these 15 years of life. He is surrounded by
a loving family. Joe, his 10 -year -old brother,
says, people make fun of Jason. They call him
things like alien, Martian, skinhead. Joe went
on to describe how he fought people who called
Jason those things. The article in Life magazine
relates how, on one occasion, Jason calmly stared
at an adult store manager who had looked up and
seen Jason before him. and began shrieking, it's
a monster, it's a monster. Perhaps the most painful
experience that a human being can endure is that
of rejection. To be refused by someone who is
meaningful to us in our lives. Whether rejection
comes from a parent or a peer, an employer or
an employee, a sibling or a spouse, when it strikes,
it tears at the delicate fabric of one's esteem,
and it rips apart one's ideas about one's self,
one's worth, one's meaning, one's positive contribution
to the world. Rejection is especially hard when
it comes to a child. that cannot understand or
defend itself. I suppose all of us have at some
time in our childhood experienced rejection.
I remember when I was in the first grade, I went
to a small country school in Kansas, and another
small country school came to play us in a game
of softball. I think that at that time there
were 18 of us in the whole school, scattered
over eight grades. And as they began to choose
up the teams, I was one of the last one picked.
And I remember how I felt at that moment, that
I wasn't good enough to play. Now I was a first
grader, but first graders don't understand things
like that. And to this day, I do not like to
play ball because of that experience. But a more
difficult time for me personally was when I was
an older child, about 11. My father had died
three years before and the next man in our family
that meant something to me was my grandfather.
But my grandfather rejected me. He wouldn't talk
to me. more than just a few words when he had
to. He was a quiet sort of a person anyway. But
I remember how painful it was to me to be rejected
by the one man in my family that should have
loved me at that point. I can't blame him for
that because I think frankly that he was so deeply
hurt over my father's death that he withdrew
into himself. Probably every person in this auditorium
could come up here this morning if given the
opportunity and could share some experience of
rejection in his or her life. Jesus Christ experienced
the depths of being forsaken and rejected. We
turn to our scripture today in Psalm 22 and we
find a prophetic word regarding that experience
of our Lord. In fact, he quoted from the first
verse of Psalm 22 when he was on his cross, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? More
than any other person, because of his keen sensitivity,
unaffected by personal sin, he knew the acute
painfulness of being rejected and forsaken. He
was rejected by his own family, who did not believe
on him. Ultimately, he was rejected by the multitudes
and finally forsaken by his own disciples. Then
on the cross, he was forsaken by his God. This
Messianic psalm prophesies of the rejection,
suffering, and death of Christ in verses 1 through
21. And then in the second part of the psalm,
verses 22 through 31, it speaks of Christ's deliverance
and victory. In the first part of the psalm we
have crucifixion. And as we'll see this morning
as we read some of the verses, it's graphically
depicted a thousand years before it happened.
In the last part of the psalm we have resurrection.
In the first part of the psalm, pain and death.
In the last part, praise and deliverance. In
the first part, Messiah's rejection. In the last
part, Messiah's reign. The lesson that I see
in Psalm 22 that I'd like to apply to our lives
today is this. Overriding the sharp pain of rejection
comes the sure promise of God that He will never
forsake His own. As we think about this, I'd
like for us first to look at the complaint of
the one who is forsaken and then the conviction
that he likewise had. His complaint, the complaint
is very clear in verses 1 and 2. It is that God
is silent. He goes on to say in verse 1, far
from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
Oh my God, I cry by day. But thou dost not answer,
and by night, but I have no rest." This prophetically
speaks of the Lord Jesus. By day, by night, during
the daylight, the nighttime of the cross, that
supernatural darkness that came upon it, he cried
out, and God was, as it were, silent to him.
But notice that three times he calls God, my
God. Although God is silent, he does not throw
over his faith or his confidence in God. He says,
my God, my God, my God. And yet his God appears
to reject him and seems and seems not to respond
to his cries. Does God ever seem that way to
you in the pain that you're going through? Can
you identify with the psalmist and his complaint,
God is silent and I cry out and I groan and my
deliverance is far away? He not only complains
that God is silent, but in verses 6 -8 he complains
that man is scornful of him. I am a worm, he
says, and not a man. I am a worm is perhaps the
forgotten I am of Jesus. I am a worm, not a man.
The other day I was doing some digging. in order
to plant some shrubs. And as I did, I uncovered
a worm. And in light of this text that I knew
I was going to be preaching today, I picked up
that worm and looked at it closely. I think my
spade had missed him. He looked rather whole.
But I got down real close to him in my palm and
I looked at him. And then I looked over the worm
to the world around. Have you ever looked at
the world from the perspective of a worm? Everything
is overwhelming to a worm. And what the psalmist
David is saying about his experience, which is
fully fulfilled in Christ, is that through this
experience of rejection and being forsaken, he
had utterly lost a sense of self -worth. He recognized
himself as frail and helpless, just like a worm.
He says, a reproach of men, despised by the people,
all who see me sneer at me. They separate with
the lip, which is roughly a way of saying they
stick out the tongue at me. They wag the head
back and forth saying, commit yourself to the
Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him
because he delights in him. Words of mockery
and scorn in verse 8 from man. The ridicule and
derision that are recorded here are not uncommon
experiences to the godly person. Jesus heard
them at the cross. In fact, this This text is
almost fulfilled verbatim in Matthew chapter
28 by those who stood around his cross as they
scorned him. Saying, let him come down from the
cross. He says that God is his father. Let God
deliver him. If he's a son of God, come on down.
So he knew the scorn of men. And so does any
person who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus.
And usually the point of scorn is the faith of
the godly man. You say you're a Christian and
God treats you like that? So the complaint of
the psalmist who is forsaken is that God is silent
to me and man is scornful. There's a third complaint,
verses 11 through 18. He complains that his enemy
is strong. He compares his enemies to bulls,
vicious bulls, strong bulls that have encircled
him. He says they open wide their mouths. They
are like a lion that is ravening and roaring,
ready to devour him. In verse 16, he compares
those around him to dogs, scavengers. who are
out hunting for him. So he complains that his
enemies are strong and they encircle him, ready
to tear him to pieces and destroy him. Do you
see how this applies to Jesus? Can you see the
scene at the cross from his perspective as he
hangs there, suffering in pain, and looks down
at the circle of people around him, mocking,
scorning, deriding him? Those who are, as it
says in verse 18, dividing his garments, casting
lots for his clothing. You see how that was fulfilled
in Christ? Notice that he says, I am poured out
like water. 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. Jesus said,
I thirst. My tongue cleaves to my jaws, thou
dost lay me in the dust of death. They pierced
my hands and my feet. I count all my bones, they
look at me, they stare at me. David wrote these
words, remember, in his lifetime. but they were
fulfilled in the Son of David, our Lord as He
hung at the cross. And in that position of crucifixion
with its agony, His body stretched out in torture,
unable to get His breath, the irregular rhythm
of His heart, the profuse sweating. The thirst
that would come to him, the piercing of his hands
and his feet before the Jews knew anything about
crucifixion. That was a torture of the Romans.
The Romans were not even on the scene when David
wrote these words. How prophetically the Holy
Spirit causes David to write. Jesus is the forsaken
one who sees his enemy as strong and yet Any
of us who have been through the experience of
rejection can identify with some of these words.
For the one who has forsaken, everything seems
to be pathetic. All is lost. There is no hope
for him, so it seems. But in the last part of
the psalm, the whole tenor, the whole theme of
the psalm changes. We come now to the conviction
of the one who has forsaken. His conviction.
We have seen his complaint as it is expressed,
but now let's look at his conviction in the midst
of his complaint. There are three matters of
conviction that he has. The first one is what
God is like. Notice that even as he cries out
in verse 1, my God, why have you forsaken me?
He answers his own question in verse 3, thou
art holy. His first conviction about God is that
God is holy. And Messiah knew as he hung upon
the cross that the reason that God turned his
back on his son was because his son had become
sin as he bore your sin and mine in our place
to die for it. Thou art holy Messiah says. His
hope is in God. A God who is holy, a God who
is exempt from all the shortcomings of man. Are
you complaining at God today? Perhaps you haven't
spoken it, but are those feelings bubbling within
you because of being forsaken? Remember that
God is holy, my friend. God is exempt from all
the shortcomings that plague you and me. He is
different than we are. He is holy. Be careful
of complaining against him. God wants our honest
feelings to be expressed, but as we express them,
we must do so with a certain reverence and fear
of God, for he is holy. And then in verses four
and five we learn that he has a conviction that
God is faithful. In thee our fathers trusted,
they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. To
thee they cried out and were delivered. In thee
they trusted and were not disappointed. The psalmist
looks to the past and he sees that in the past
the people of God seemed trapped also. In the
past they had been encircled as it were by those
who were opposed to them. And yet God knew that
situation. He delivered them. We think of Egypt
immediately. In their slavery, they cried out
to their God, and God sent Moses. Then they were
trapped at the Red Sea, the mountains on one
side, the sea on the other, the Egyptian army
coming at them, trapped. And they cried out to
God, and Moses lifted the rod as God told him
to and the waters parted. God intervened. God
is faithful. That was his conviction. There's
a third conviction he had about God found in
verses 9 and 10 that God is omniscient. God knows
everything. God even knew the psalmist in his
infancy. Thou art he who didst bring me forth
from the womb. Thou didst make me trust when
upon my mother's breasts. Upon thee I was cast
from birth. Thou hast been my God from my mother's
womb." He says, God, you have known me from the
time that I was an infant and you know my present
plight. That's the point. He had convictions,
you see. The first area of conviction was what
God is like. God is holy. God is faithful. God
is omniscient. God knows what I'm going through.
That's true with you, too, friend. And the second
matter of conviction was what God will do. We
see this, for example, in verse 11. Be not far
from me, for trouble is near. There is none to
help. But then he says in verse 19, but thou,
O Lord, be not far off. O thou my help, hasten
to my assistance. Deliver my soul from the sword,
my only life, from the power of the dog. Save
me from the lion's mouth, and from the horns
of the wild oxen thou dost answer me." His conviction
is what God will do. God will help him. God will
not fail him. Why? Because God knows him. God
knows him. Not just that God is aware of him,
but God knows him. There is a relationship between
this psalmist and his God. And then he is convicted,
thirdly, about what God deserves. In light of
the fact of what God is like and what God will
do for him in helping him and assisting him,
He has an area of conviction dealing with what
God deserves and basically it's worship. He says,
God deserves my worship. You will find the term
praise used in this psalm from verses 22 on some
four times. Worship is used twice. Fear is used
twice. Also the word glorify or stand in awe
or pay vows or bow before. All of these phrases
deal with worship. What does God deserve? Worship.
He says, I will worship God. I will tell of thy
name to my brethren, says Messiah, verse 22.
In the midst of the assembly, I will praise thee.
The writer of Hebrews says that this verse is
fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus and his
proclamation to the church that he is raised
from the dead, that he lives evermore to save
those that will come to God by him. I will tell
of thy name to my brethren." What a wonderful
way for Messiah to speak of us. And he does.
He calls us his family. The psalmist says, I
will worship God and others will join in. Verse
23, he invites those who fear the Lord to praise
him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him.
Stand in awe of him. All you descendants of Israel.
What does God deserve? God deserves worship.
God deserves worship because he has heard the
cry of his people. Look at verse 24. He invites
others to worship, for he has not despised nor
abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither
has he hidden his face from him, but when he
cried to him for help, he heard. What wonderful
words God heard There are some of you this morning
that are going through excruciating pain of rejection
you have been forsaken by others and You sense
that even God has forsaken you and you cry out
and God is silent and others seem to turn their
backs on you and your circumstances are strong
against you and you feel like crawling in a hole
and pulling it over the top of you. Where's your
conviction this morning, child of God? What is
God like? Remember that God is faithful. That
God is holy. He is not like man. He's different
than us. And God knows what you're going through.
And God hears, and because He hears your cry,
the proper response, even in the midst of your
pain, is worship. Worship God. Bow before Him.
Reverence Him. Trust Him. Worship Him because
He's heard and He hears. God deserves worship
from all people says the psalmist look at verse
27 all the ends of the earth Will remember and
turn to the Lord and all the families of the
nations will worship before thee The psalmist
is writing again prophetically and there is a
day coming when all of the earth will worship
before our Savior It doesn't mean everybody's
going to be saved someday This is not a proclamation
of universal salvation But the point is that
people from every nation will turn to the Lord.
From every race, every tribe, every tongue, there
will be those who will worship Messiah. In every
nation, he says, the kingdom is the Lord's and
he rules over all the nations. People in every
condition, he says, the prosperous of the earth
will eat and worship and all those who go down
to the dust, that's the opposite of prosperity,
those going to death. He says, all will bow before
him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive.
He says that the Lord is to be worshiped not
only by all peoples, but for all time. Verses
30 and 31, posterity will serve him. It will
be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
They will come and will declare his righteousness
to a people who will be born that he has performed
it. You and I are part of that generation that's
spoken of here. And yet if the Lord tarries,
there will be generations after us that need
to hear the message of Messiah's rejection, but
also His resurrection. His death and pain for
our sin, but His resurrection from the dead that
we might be saved through Him. You and I who
are alive on this earth today should worship
Him and invite others to worship Him as well
for all time, for He alone is worthy. Can you
worship Him today where you are in your circumstances?
You say, I'm not sure if I can. Maybe the better
question is, will you worship Him? For you see,
worship comes not just when we feel like it but
when we choose to worship despite how we feel.
Just three quick closing observations. One is
this, that being forsaken is a universal human
experience. There is no one who escapes from
even many episodes in life of being forsaken
for one reason or another. How wonderful then
to have a God who has promised us, I will never
leave you or forsake you. Someone says, yes,
but he forsook Jesus. He forsook Jesus that he
might never forsake you. And he has promised
that he would never leave you, that he will never
disown you in any respect. No, not ever. A second
observation I make is that when forsaken, the
child of God can commit his feelings to a high
priest who can fully sympathize. The writer of
Hebrews again reminds us of this truth when he
writes as he does in the fourth chapter of the
book of Hebrews. We do not have a high priest
who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. But
one who has been tempted in all things as we
are yet without sin Let us therefore draw near
with confidence to the throne of grace Do you
understand that today friend there sits on the
throne of grace in heaven? one who has experienced
the depths of the pain that you know And since
we're talking about rejection today, understand
that He knows what it means to be rejected of
men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
He not only knows what it's like because He's
God and knows everything, He knows because He's
been here and He has experienced it. So He understands
the hot tears that flow down your cheeks. And
he's able to identify with those feelings that
conflict within you and the confusion that comes
to your mind because of what you're passing through,
he knows. And because he is the God of all comfort,
he is able to give you grace and comfort in all
of your tribulation. Remember this too, that
the experiences of rejection that you're going
through are tests for you. to determine and to
prove the foundation of your life. The psalmist
wrote here in the midst of his rejection experience,
whatever it was, that God was still his God.
There's a third observation that I make and that
is the pain of rejection sensitizes us to the
hurt of others. It's very easy to say, I know
just how you feel, isn't it? But the fact is
that we don't know just how somebody else feels
until we've been in their moccasins, until we've
walked that mile where they've been. When you
and I have gone through the experience of being
forsaken by someone, It sensitizes us to others
who are going through or will go through similar
experiences. And we then, because we have had
comfort from God, are able to share that comfort
with them. We then become God's channels, if
you please, of His comfort to others. So that
then we can say, I know how you feel. And it
communicates because we've been there. And we
can quote that verse of scripture, that from
the tongue of some would sound trite, but because
that scripture has been our strength in a similar
experience, it comes through with power to that
other person. And we can put the arm around them
and maybe say nothing, but there's that sense
of empathy because we have truly been there.
Remember that the pain you're going through is
preparation. Yeah, it hurts. No, I can't say
that God caused that to happen to you. But I
can say God allowed it. Because whatever the
situation is, God is bigger than the situation.
And He's allowed you to go through that to prepare
you. For something he has for you in the future
you hang on to this and never forget it God never
wastes a single experience in your life Not one
And that experience you're passing through now
God has shaped and fashioned and planned so that
He might prepare you for some greater work. And
so in the midst of your rejection and your being
forsaken, worship Him. He's faithful. He knows.
He's heard. And in ways that maybe now you can't
tell, He's there. And He's your God. our Lord
and our God. How grateful we are today for your
Word which speaks to us right where we're living.
And there are a number of people listening in
this congregation this morning that I know are
going through this experience of being rejected.
And there are others undoubtedly that I don't
know. that are also passing through it. And yet
there are other struggles that every one of us
is passing through. Thank you for the application
of your word. And I pray, Father, that in the
midst of our pain we will be able to look up
to you and say, Father, my Father, I choose to
worship you in the midst of my sorrow. In the
midst of my anguish, in the midst of my suffering,
I worship you and I surrender to your purpose
in all of this. For Lord, we know that as we're
able to respond that way and will, that you are
greatly pleased. Help us to remember that you
loved us so much that you sent your son who gave
his life for us And if you've given your son
Will you not with him freely give us all things
Even what we need right now in this hour Thank
you Amen