[0:00] Hello folks, my name is George Sinclair, Pastor Church of the Messiah here in Ottawa. We're going to be opening the Word at this point in time. So if you don't have your Bibles, I encourage you, hopefully you already do, Psalm chapter 22 is what we're going to be looking at this morning together.
[0:19] So let's just pray before we get into it. Father, we're all separate, obviously, today by great distances connected through the internet.
[0:32] Father, we give you thanks and praise that you are equally present wherever we are. And we ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit would come with might and power and deep conviction upon each one of us.
[0:44] Father, bringing this psalm, bringing your Word very deep into our hearts, and this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
[0:55] We live right now in a prediction-driven society, don't we? We live in a prediction-driven society. The Government of Ontario just released a couple of days ago their own particular statistical predictions projections, predictions, in terms of governing how they're asking us to behave and to live.
[1:19] The University of Toronto, about a week or so ago, gave its own type of model, which actually sort of goes against the government model a little bit. Those of you who are following this at all, sort of at a deeper level, you know that much of the world is following the modelling of the Imperial College in London.
[1:37] But that about four or five days, about a week or so ago, a group of scholars at Oxford challenged that whole model, have a very, very different model.
[1:48] But here's the point. Maybe for the first time in many of our lives, we're reading about these models. And it's definitely the case that models and basically predictions are driving how we're living our lives.
[2:02] So what I thought we would do today is actually look at a prediction that came true. We have no idea. We hope the bad predictions are wrong. That's what we're all hoping.
[2:13] But I want to share with you a prediction that came true. A thousand-year-old prediction that came true. And it's seen in Psalm 22. And it's not just that we're looking at this as sort of a point of intellectual curiosity.
[2:27] Oh my, look at that. There's a prediction that came true. This is actually a very significant prediction because it touches on issues that are very, very, very, very relevant. We fear abandonment.
[2:40] And this psalm talks very much about abandonment. We fear death. This psalm talks about death. We fear being mocked and shamed.
[2:54] And this psalm talks about being shamed and about being mocked. We fear the rise of the mob. That's at the heart of all those pandemic and contagion movies is the mob.
[3:08] And this psalm talks about the fear of the mob. And we fear being powerless. And this psalm talks about powerless. So it's very, very interesting that in the context of deep existential concerns that each and every one of us have, this psalm is also a prediction that actually came true.
[3:30] And so if you turn to it, it's Psalm chapter 22. And I'm going to begin with the little notes because those are important. If you look at it, it goes like this. To the choir master, according to the Doe of the Dawn, a psalm of David.
[3:46] According to the Doe of the Dawn, we don't know what that means anymore. It was obviously a tune setting. And so this psalm was meant to be sung in the original language, which would have been ancient Hebrew.
[3:57] And it's a psalm of David. In other words, King David is the one who wrote this. And this is going to be very, very important as we go into the rest of the psalm, that this is written by David. And the words of the psalm, they begin in a very, very striking manner.
[4:13] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh, my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer.
[4:25] And by night, but I find no rest. Those of you who are at all familiar with the Christian faith know that Jesus cried these first words from the cross.
[4:36] And in fact, if we were, if this was being made into a movie, it would be one of those movies that the very, very opening scene would show Jesus hanging from the cross, crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[4:50] And then it might be one of those movies that goes, you know, three days earlier or a week earlier or, you know, and it jumps around. But it begins and just grabs you right off the bat.
[5:00] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And another thing which is really important for this. And by the way, just just so you know, no Christian can read this without thinking of the of the crucifixion of Jesus.
[5:13] No Christian can read this song without thinking of the crucifixion of Jesus. And I'm going to show you why. And it's just it's very interesting thing to know up until about 150 to 200 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
[5:25] All Jewish thinkers thought that this was a psalm about the Messiah. All Jewish thinkers thought that this was a psalm about the Messiah. But Jewish people and I have many, many Jewish friends and I'm not picking on anybody.
[5:39] They had to change the interpretation a little bit because it just becomes so overwhelmingly clear that this is a psalm that perfectly describes, so powerfully describes what happens in the crucifixion and what the crucifixion means.
[5:54] And so, you know, Jesus on the cross says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And one of the things about Hebrew poetry, it would be like me if I was to say, for those of us as a certain generation who like a certain type of what I call Austrian art movies, in other words, film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
[6:12] When you say, I'll be back, I can't do an Austrian accent. I just have to say that. And you think of Schwarzenegger, you think of the different movies, you think of the different scenes. And in biblical, the way the Bible works is that when Jesus is saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[6:28] Not only is he describing something that he's actually experiencing, he's sending a signal to us to think of the whole psalm. Like for all of the Jewish hearers and for us, we think of the whole psalm.
[6:42] It's not just that he's quoting this one bit, but he he he's pointing us in this direction. It's a very, very powerful thing. But then it moves in a very, very funny direction.
[6:52] In fact, it's a bit of a going back and forward because here he now, remember I said it's a little bit maybe like a movie where you you have the shock and then you maybe move back and forward to different moods. But maybe it's describing what's going on in Jesus's heart as well.
[7:05] In fact, I think it is. But look what happens next. It goes like this. Now he's speaking to God, the Father. I'm not going to get into the Trinity, but one of the things really I when I as a Canadian, I almost always really should say the triune God rather than God.
[7:20] Just so people understand, I'm talking about the God revealed by Jesus, the God of the Bible, the God of Canadians, but the God of the Bible. And anyway, he says, yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
[7:36] In you, our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them to you. They cried and were accused, rescued in you. They trusted and were not put to shame. This is verses three to five.
[7:47] It's a very, very it's sort of an interesting thing, right? He's speaking there as if he's completely and utterly forsaken. And he is. And he's forsaken by God. Because in the same breath that he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[7:59] Then he talks about you, God, as being holy, as being transcendent, as being other, as being the God of history, the God of peoples throughout the years. And then, and this, this, by the way, is often how many Canadians think of God and how many of us think of God.
[8:16] Maybe not as holy, but as sort of very, very far away, very high, very distant. And then it moves in verses six to eight. And this is a very important, especially verse eight is one of the keys to interpreting and understanding the entire psalm.
[8:31] And not just to understand it at an intellectual level, but to actually be able to enter into it emotionally in terms of what it means for us. Listen to what happens in verse six, eight, verse six to eight.
[8:41] But I am a worm. I am a worm and not a man, squirmed by mankind and despised by the people. All who seek me mock me.
[8:51] They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. Now, just sort of pause.
[9:01] In verse eight here, you get perfectly described the essence of religion, spirituality, and those who've completely and utterly rejected religion and spirituality.
[9:14] You see, at the very, very heart of all religion and spirituality, and it doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it's, as I've talked about before, a curated, you know, bespoke spirituality or if it's one of the classic historic faiths.
[9:27] At the very heart of all of them is this basic notion of a type of a quid pro quo that, well, actually, there's two versions. One of them is sort of like a very modern, magical type of thing where you just figure out how to use the gods or use the powers or use the forces to get things for yourself.
[9:43] That's perfectly expressed in here. Listen, if you're really, you know, get God to do what you want right now because that's what religion and spirituality is all about, isn't it, for you? Get him to rescue you.
[9:55] Duh. Not happening. Duh. And for all of us, for most of people, it's the far more basic human experience is that it's a quid pro quo.
[10:07] Like, okay, I give my tithes, I give some money to the church, and good things are going to happen to me. Like, I pray and I expect good things to happen to me. I don't expect bad things to happen to me.
[10:18] It's a bit of a quid pro quo. And it's the same type of thing. Well, you know, you've been following God and, you know, quid pro quo, so now have him show up. And the other type of mockers expresses perfectly why people have rejected religion and spirituality in our age.
[10:31] They say, why on earth are you bothering with prayer? Why on earth are you bothering with religious ceremonies? Why on earth are you bothering with crystals or anything like that? Like, just live your life. Be yourself.
[10:42] Be true to yourself. This stuff doesn't work. You do all that stuff. It just bends you out of shape. In other words, they expect that the call of verse 8, he trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, free the lights in him.
[10:57] He expects no answer. Now, it's very interesting how the psalm moves. Look what happens in verses 9 to 11. Yet you are he who took me from the mother's womb.
[11:10] 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.
[11:21] Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Just sort of pause here for a second. I don't know, you know, here's a very, very interesting thing about this psalm.
[11:31] And it's one of the reasons why psalms are so important for many people. I could tell you that God is transcendent and imminent. And for some of you, when I say God is transcendent and imminent, you go, oh, okay, really good ideas.
[11:44] I can really get a hold of that. But for others of you, it's like, duh. I might as well have been speaking Egyptian hieroglyphics.
[11:55] But when you read verses 3 to 5, and then you read verses 6, 7, 8, and then you read verses 9, 10, and 11, what you actually enter into is the experience of God being transcendent and the experience of God being imminent.
[12:13] That God is holy. God is the God who links different people in different times. He's beyond time. And you enter into that in those words. And then this idea of God being close, you enter into it in verses 9 to 11 in the context of your real life when you pray.
[12:29] But you are he who took me from the womb. You made me trust at my mother's breast. On you was I cast from my birth. Verse 11, be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help. You enter in to these doctrines with the words of the psalm and the prayer.
[12:46] Or a song. It perfectly expresses why Christianity has both produced geniuses, theological geniuses and systematizers like Calvin, and also powerful poetic singers like Andrew Peterson who allow you to enter into things emotionally.
[13:03] And it's deeply Christian to have both of them. But now the psalm takes a very, very different bend. It's now at this point in time, apart from the opening words, that you can actually see how this is talking about Jesus' death upon the cross.
[13:17] What happened on a spring day just outside of Jerusalem in either the year 30 or the year 33, depending on how you juxtaposode all of the eyewitness accounts with other historical things that we know.
[13:30] Sometime in the spring of 30 or 33, on a Friday, these things happen. And you can see them. It enters into them. A thousand years in advance, David describes it.
[13:43] I'm going to read it, and then I'm going to say something, and then I'm going to go back and read it again. Look at it. Verse 12. Just pause there.
[14:13] This is one of the reasons that we know it's not referring to David's own experience. Because David died of old age. This does not describe the death of David.
[14:26] But it continues. Verse 16. All of a sudden, we realize we're not hearing David being sick or just David being made fun of.
[14:49] We are seeing David. We are seeing David describe an execution. David is describing an execution.
[14:59] Continue on. Verse 17. Now you go back and you realize Jesus was pierced.
[15:21] Look, you just go back and you read it. Verse 12. Many bulls encompass me. Strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. And this perfectly describes the scene of the crowd mocking Jesus.
[15:37] Jesus is the enemies of Jesus that comprises both the state and the spiritual elite and the religious elite and the intellectual elite and the cultural elite and the powers of both the local community and of a worldwide, of a huge empire.
[15:52] They're all arrayed against Jesus in anger, looking forward to his death that they have been plotting. Described in very, very powerful words.
[16:03] Verse 14. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within my heart. Crucifixion. Those of you who look at the eyewitness accounts is that one of the ways that people die from crucifixion is the buildup of fluids around the heart, which can eventually stop the heart from working or you die from asphyxiation.
[16:25] And the terrible stretching of the body, of the slow diminishment of strength, of the crushing of the heart as if it is merely but wax. The flow of water that comes out of Jesus' side when he is pierced by the spear.
[16:38] All described in poetic language here. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaw as you lay me in the dust of death. Jesus dies.
[16:49] That Jesus is slow developing of thirst, the swelling of the tongue as he hangs on the cross. For dogs encompass me and evil company of evil doers encircle me.
[17:02] They have pierced my hands and my feet. It's exactly how Jesus died. It's crucifixion. I can count all my bones. None of his bones were broken.
[17:13] And he's so completely and utterly stretched out and, in a sense, broken and dehydrated. You can, in a sense, count his bones. They stare and gloat over me.
[17:26] People around the cross, they mock him. They say, you know what? You know what they say around the cross? You know, show us that you're really the Messiah. Come down from the cross and we'll believe you. Come down from the cross and we'll believe you.
[17:36] They divide my garments among them and from my clothing they cast lots. And that literally happened at the foot of Jesus as he's dying of crucifixion.
[17:47] See, no Christian can read this. And nobody can really read this with understanding and not see the crucifixion described. But it was written a thousand years before the death of Jesus.
[18:00] It was, in fact, written before crucifixion was invented. And David can't be talking autobiographically. But then there begins to be a bit of a change.
[18:13] Look at what happens in verses 19 to 21. In verses 19 to 21. But you, O Lord, do not be far off. Here we hear Jesus.
[18:24] O you, my help, come quickly to my aid. Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion.
[18:36] You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen. Interestingly enough, they use the word oxen. They're actually describing an auroch, a huge beast that is now extinct.
[18:49] That was very common throughout Europe and throughout the Middle East. The skeletons that they found of these beasts, at the shoulder, they were six foot tall. At the shoulder, they were six foot tall.
[19:00] They were huge. So think of a bull that's, the shoulder is six foot tall. The head is even higher than the bull. It's a fearsome, terrifying, wild animal. And it's interesting.
[19:12] In the original language, it says, you have rescued me. It's like this one word in Hebrew which says, you have rescued me. And it's very interesting because the notion here of rescuing is also, in a sense, it means, in fact, literally it says, you've answered me.
[19:28] And in the original language, there's three types of ideas that are all going along in this single Hebrew word which is shouted out. Which is that you've answered me because, in fact, and therefore you've vindicated me, you've rescued me, you've delivered me, I'm alive.
[19:45] And it's all captured in this one Hebrew word which is let out with a shout, so to speak. And then we see the resurrection.
[19:57] In a sense, what happens in verses 22 to 31, and we'll unpack it a little bit in a moment, talks about what happens on Easter Sunday.
[20:09] Look at verse 22. I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you. All you who fear the Lord, praise him.
[20:21] All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him. And stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel. For he has not abandoned or he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.
[20:35] And he has not hidden his face from him. But he has heard when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him.
[20:46] The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever. Now I'm going to unpack this a little bit more in a moment.
[20:58] But what you really see here is this, not only is now we see him alive. The servant who has been laid in the dust of death. The servant who begins with being forsaken. The servant who is described as being surrounded by these fearsome beasts and enemies.
[21:15] Who just wanted to devour him and have succeeded in killing him. And now we see that this same psalmist is alive. And he's not only alive. It's obvious that God has heard him and vindicated his life.
[21:28] Vindicated in fact that he really was innocent. That his suffering was of some particular type of value. Which I'll explain to you in a moment. And notice here in verse 26, the very last line.
[21:40] May your hearts live forever. It's somehow or another, this is going to have an impact on ordinary human beings. By which they live forever. And then it goes something which is really well beyond anything that could even possibly be imagined about it.
[21:57] Describing David or his experience in 1000 BC. Look what happens in verses 27 to 31. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nation shall worship before you.
[22:10] There is no faith in the world that has more people groups who are Christians. I mean, there's no, I'll say that again. There is no faith in the world that has more adherents in more people groups.
[22:25] It's just astounding the number of people groups that have Christians in them. And so this is a universal type of picture. That somehow or another, what has happened in the servant being forsaken.
[22:38] And what has happened with the servant being mocked. And the servant dying. That somehow or another, this is going to have some type of fruit. Not just that people can live forever. But beyond the borders of Judaism.
[22:50] To go to the very, very, very ends of the earth. And for those of you who are Christians. And you know we've had people from our church go to be missionaries. We have people serving as missionaries. This is the evangelistic call.
[23:01] It's why we are called to share what happens in things like what Psalm 22 is describing with people of any people group. Any ethnicity. Any language. Any subculture within Ottawa.
[23:13] We are called to have a heart for them and pray for them. It goes on. Verse 28. For kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. All the... 29 is a bit of an awkward verse.
[23:24] I'm going to read it. The version that I'm using ESV is a very, very literal version. And that can be very, very helpful for some things. But sometimes it means it's a bit confusing. And so I'll read it. And I'll tell you in an ironic way if you read the NLT that gives a very loose translation.
[23:40] It actually helps you to understand the meaning more. But I'll read it. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship. Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust. Even the one who could not keep himself alive.
[23:50] What it's basically saying is this. Who will come to know Jesus? Those who are vital. Full of strength. The elite athletes. The elite intellects at the top of their power.
[24:03] And people all the way down the food chain to the poorest of the poor of the poor. Even those who are on the edge of death. All people. The gospel is for them.
[24:14] Then verse 30. Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn.
[24:25] David's now saying this hasn't happened to me. This is down the road. And they're going to proclaim that God has done something right to make people right with him.
[24:37] His righteousness. And then it says the last words. He has done it. Now this is very, very, very, very powerful. It's one word.
[24:47] It can also be translated as he has wrought it. He has accomplished it. Why is this very significant? What is virtually the last word that Jesus says on the cross as he dies? It is finished.
[24:58] What does that mean? The end has been accomplished. The purpose is fulfilled. It has been done. It is finished. The final, in a sense, words of Jesus from the cross are not strive without ceasing.
[25:11] Not be more religious. Not harness your spiritual powers. Not never give up. Not never surrender. Jesus says, just before he dies on the cross, it is accomplished.
[25:24] It is finished. And how does this psalm end? He has wrought it. He has accomplished it. It's one word in Hebrew. A verb. So, here's the, and by the way, the sermon, I have sermon points.
[25:39] It's one of the things I do. They're going to be seen in the chat. I think I'm saying it the right word. The live chat. You're going to see this, the points recorded. If you want to sort of think about them and meditate upon them, they'll be available on the web page tomorrow.
[25:53] And probably tomorrow. And here's the first thing. David predicted the death and resurrection of Jesus Messiah 1,000 years in advance. Jesus predicted the death and resurrection of Jesus Messiah 1,000 years in advance.
[26:10] Jesus said, remember I said at the beginning that we live in a prediction-driven age. And so nobody can say that predictions don't matter.
[26:28] And here we have a thousand-year-old prediction that we see came true. So why doesn't it matter? It should matter. And it's even more amazing because, you see, it matters in the context.
[26:40] Remember, it matters in the context of suffering. It matters in the context of being forsaken. It matters in the context of mob rule. It matters in the context of these very, very deep fears we have.
[26:51] And so that's why you need to, we need to think about this a little bit, a moment. Because, you see, it isn't, go back and look at verse 8 again of chapter 22.
[27:03] Chapter 8 of verse 22. Remember I said how it perfectly ascribes religion and spirituality and those of us who've rejected religion and spirituality because it doesn't work.
[27:16] Now, the psalm shows that they were wrong. You know, for those of us who've said, you know, listen, I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I tried to be as good as I possibly could and I tried to obey the rules and all that happened is I got sick.
[27:32] All that happens is that I didn't get the promotion. All that happens is that my life still sucks. For those of our same-sex attracted or transgender friends, there's many of them who say, you know, I tried to pray and I tried to obey the Bible and I tried to do all of those things.
[27:49] I was still just unhappy and I was still just miserable. And so I had to just turn my back on that whole thing and just said the whole thing's just a pile of crap that's just pouring me down.
[27:59] Just be myself. Well, they end up being wrong in this text here as well, don't they? For every single one of you who've tried to be religious and spiritual and given up on it, this psalm shows that those claims, in a sense those criticisms, end up being proven wrong by how the psalm ends, by what happens with Jesus.
[28:24] But here's something which is very, very important for us to know. So, this psalm isn't written so that at the end of it, I can say to you, gotcha, whoo-hoo, beat ya, tricked ya, you're wrong, whoo-hoo, good for us.
[28:41] I mean, there's some Christians who try to talk that way and just pray that they have some humility. That's not the purpose of the psalm. The purpose of the psalm is not to say, gotcha, nah, nah, nah, nah, you're all wrong and we're right.
[28:54] It's not a power encounter at all. You see, the thing which is so significant is if you look through the flow of the psalm, you see, if verse 8 was earlier on, and talking about all of these things, perfectly describing both the religious spirit, the spiritual spirit, and the spirit of those who reject religion and spirituality.
[29:18] And if after that, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, happened, then maybe that's what the psalm is saying. You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're all wrong.
[29:28] But the psalm begins with, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It begins with that. You see, what this is saying is that the fundamental spirit, Jesus dies, he is forsaken, not just by the crowd, but he's forsaken for the crowd.
[29:53] He does it for his enemies. He does it for you and me. And that becomes even more clear that not just whatever this forsakenness means, that he's doing it for those who basically try to understand that life is all about a quid pro quo, quid pro quo with God.
[30:19] I do these things and you do these things and I do these things and then you do these things. And it goes back and forward. He's showing that that way is wrong.
[30:34] He's showing something which is very, very, very different. He's showing that it begins God's move, that the gospel is completely different than religion and spirituality.
[30:47] And for those who have given up on religion and vindicated in Jesus, that even before we turn to him, Jesus came and was in union with us, in union with those who mocked him.
[31:01] If you look at verse 22, the turning point of the psalm, remember I said the very end of verse 21 is that this, in a sense, there's the resurrection. He says, I will tell of your name to my brothers.
[31:13] You would also say here of my sisters. You see, what we see here is that, well here, let's put the point and then you can maybe see it clear. Here's a point that will be in your notes.
[31:24] Jesus is the Messiah who was forsaken and died to give ordinary people who trust in him a new eternal status. His sister, his brother. See, there's a very famous story in Acts chapter 9 when Paul, who used to be called Saul, when he had been persecuting Christians.
[31:53] And Jesus appears to Paul alive. And Paul has been persecuting Christians. But when Jesus, who's now, who's resurrected, appears before Paul, and what does Jesus say to him?
[32:05] Why are you persecuting me? See, at the heart of the Christian faith is this profound idea of union. That God, the Son of God, well the death he dies is my death.
[32:19] He dies for me. The forsakenness, we are casually or very adamantly in alienation and in rebellion against God. And while we were still enemies, Jesus becomes one in union with me and with you.
[32:35] See, all well-instructed Christians would understand that verse 8 is not describing other people, but describing each one of us. The persistent problem of Christianity is that it forgets the gospel and sinks into another quid pro quo religion.
[32:50] But the very, very heart of the gospel is that it begins with Jesus being forsaken. He takes upon himself the doom that you and I deserve.
[33:01] He takes upon himself all of that stuff within us that makes us look down at God, that makes us want to have God as being some type of a project that we have.
[33:11] All of the things that we do to shame people and all of the things that we do to mock people, all of the things that we do that are wrong, Jesus comes in union with us. And when he dies on the cross, he's dying the death, the doom, the shame, the sin that you and I deserve.
[33:30] And this psalm doesn't describe how we become brothers. We need to find that from other places in the psalm. But we know from the gospels, from Jesus' own lips, that it comes from putting trust in him.
[33:41] And then, you see, the entire Christian life then begins with union. And out of union with Jesus, the Christian life flows. It's the opposite of the quid pro quo approach.
[33:53] There's nothing in my hands that I can bring Jesus. When I was still your enemy, when I was far from you, when I had no interest in you, that was when you died for me.
[34:04] But it has more to do with it than that. You see, if we understand that we now are in union with Christ, that's, you see, why he calls his brothers. We become part of his family.
[34:15] We put our faith and trust in him. And what he's done upon the cross has turned us from enemies into his family, into union with him. So here's some things to wrap it all up.
[34:30] Life is hard. So for those in union with Christ by faith, and these will be some points you can look up, he was forsaken to save you, so he will never forsake you.
[34:43] You see, if you understand that his cry from the cross, he experiences our separation from God, and he deals with it.
[34:54] He deals with all that keeps us separate from God. He, in a sense, offers us that if we put our faith and trust in him, as we reach out our hand to him, he will take us, and we are united to him.
[35:05] And that means that everything he accomplished on the cross, his cry of vindication, his cry of victory, his cry of life, now becomes ours when we put our faith and trust in him.
[35:17] Because we are in union with him. It means that we can actually pray this psalm in different ways, because there are going to be times that you feel forsaken. There's going to be times that you feel abandoned.
[35:28] There's going to be times that you feel the threat of the mob. There's going to be the times that you feel the threat of being mocked and feeling shamed. But this psalm describes how Jesus knows that at such and such a deep level.
[35:43] And that's why I'm using these four little points. The first one being that he was forsaken to save you. So he will never forsake you. Because your relationship with him is based on his union with you in love, not your ability to make him do what you want.
[36:01] And here's another point. Life is hard. So for those of us who are in union with Christ by faith, he was forsaken to save you. So when you are shamed, mocked, and abandoned, you can pour out your heart to him.
[36:15] In fact, you can use the words of these psalms as your own. You don't have to think of your own words. You can say, I feel so forsaken. I feel so abandoned. I feel people mocking me. I feel people shaming me.
[36:26] I don't know where to go, Lord. I pour out my heart to you. This prayer, which was, you're dating the inner life and the outer life and the experience and the meaning of what Jesus does on the cross. And because we are in union with Christ and he is our brother, big parts of this prayer can become ours and goddesses we pray.
[36:45] But we can do it knowing that because he was forsaken to save you, you can pour out your heart to him. Here's another one. Life is hard. So for those in union with Christ by faith, he was forsaken to save you.
[36:59] So in him, your suffering will have meaning. Your suffering can have meaning. You see, we see this, that in this profound mystery, the forsakenness, the abandonment, the mocking, the shaming, the death, the horrible death, Jesus is vindicated in his resurrection.
[37:19] His ultimate innocence, his act for others to bring you in union with him, that's all vindicated. And it means now that even when we suffer, we can call out to God and say, Lord, how is it that you are going to use this?
[37:31] I don't understand all the time why my suffering has meaning, but I know it has meaning. I know that when I stand before God at the last day, he will make the meaning of my life clear.
[37:43] Sometimes my suffering, it will become the clear the meaning is that I've been doing something wrong, that I need to repent. Others, it might be that I have gone through this suffering of this period of suffering so I could draw close to him so I could die to my whole worldview of quid pro quo.
[37:59] You see, here's the fundamental point about all of this is that if you look at Psalm 8 and you look at the brothers and you look at the fact that in verse 31, he says, he has accomplished it. If you look at the whole flow of the Psalm, beginning with verse 1, with my God, my God, why are you forsaken?
[38:14] With the mocking of the crowd in verse 8, with the fact that he is now alive, that he is in verse 21, with this idea of the brothers, with the idea that he has accomplished it, is that God wants you and me to die to quid pro quo thinking of God so that we can be open to grace.
[38:33] He wants us to die to all aspects of quid pro quo thinking in terms of God, the triune God, to die to it, to continually put it to death, that we might be understanding and enter into the deep truth of the grace that is offered in Jesus that comes from union with Christ when we put our faith in him.
[39:00] And so we can know he'll never forsake us.
[39:11] And so we know that we can pour out our heart to him. And so we know that our suffering, our abandonment, or the things that happen in our lives can have a meaning, which he knows, which he might reveal sometimes to us and sometimes we get a sense of, even if the meaning is just to show, yeah, Lord, I mean, I went through it this week.
[39:28] I have to die to quid pro quo thinking. I need to trust in grace. I need to trust in grace. One final thing. He was forsaken to save you. So no matter how hard life gets, the final word about you will be life.
[39:44] Right? This is what he's saying here is that life is hard. So for those in union with Christ by faith, for those of us in union with Christ by faith, he was forsaken to save you.
[39:56] So no matter how hard life gets, the final word about you and me in union with Christ is life.
[40:08] It's life. That's partially why I can say that the meaning to your life will be made clear to you in the context that the final word about you is not shame, abandonment, forsaken, defeatedness.
[40:26] It's life. Friends, if you haven't given your life to Jesus, there is no better time now than to call out to him and say, Jesus, you were forsaken.
[40:42] You willingly came in union with somebody like me and died upon the cross and experienced forsakenness and abandonment and all of those things that I might be your brother and sister forever for eternity, to have eternal life, to never, to be made right with God.
[41:00] I, Jesus, take me and never let me go. Thank you that you will never let me go. And help me to live my life not by quid pro quo, which I repent of, but out of the grace that comes from you through union with you by faith.
[41:20] There's no better time than now to just call out to God and make that prayer your own. For those of us who are Christians, this is another reminder. Lord, you know the different ways that we've been working out of a quid pro quo worldview with you, how we've sunk to our flesh and a forgotten grace.
[41:38] Thank you for this song. Thank you that we can be together. Thank you that your word make us disciples of Jesus who are gripped by this wonderful good news so that we might begin to live patient, joyful, confident lives for your glory.
[41:53] Confident in you, joyful in you. Just bow our heads in prayer. Father, Father, we thank you so much that you could move through this king writing in the year 3000, thereabout, to predict what would happen to your son and our savior a thousand years later.
[42:17] And we thank you for this. And we thank you that it's not just that you show off as to what you could do, but you do it in the context of our forsakenness, our abandonment, our shame, our fears, that you do it because you did it because you love us.
[42:31] You want us to be your children and your friends and to live out of the grace that comes from you, to have a confidence in the gospel, a joy in the gospel as we deal with the tough and the good things in life.
[42:43] So, Father, we thank you for grace. We thank you for this psalm. Burn the words of this psalm in light of Good Friday, deep and Easter Sunday, deep into the very center of who we are. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior.
[42:57] Amen.