Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/lakeside/sermons/77896/the-psalm-of-the-cross/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? From the words of my groaning.

[0:12] ! Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. By night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

[0:25] In you our fathers trusted, they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued. In you they trusted and were not put to shame.

[0:35] But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me.

[0:47] 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. Yet you are he who took me from the womb.

[1:01] You made me trust you at my mother's breast. On you as I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me. For trouble is near and there is none to help.

[1:17] Many bulls encompass me. Strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. I'm poured out like water.

[1:30] All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a potsherd.

[1:41] My tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me. A company of evildoers encircles me.

[1:54] They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing they cast lots.

[2:08] But you, O Lord, do not be far off. O you, my help, come quickly to my aid. Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.

[2:19] Save me from the mouth of the lion. You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen. I will tell of your name to my brothers.

[2:31] In the midst of the congregation I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him. And stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel.

[2:45] For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. He has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation.

[3:00] My vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever.

[3:13] All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nation shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.

[3:26] 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.

[3:38] 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. That he has done it.

[3:51] Amen. Well here again we have a beautiful psalm penned by King David. Sent to the choir master for use in Israel's worship.

[4:06] And here again is a psalm that is fundamentally about neither David nor the people who would sing it. Nothing we know about David's life can account for all that is written in this song.

[4:22] And we must resist that kind of relentless urge to make every text about ourselves. To insert ourselves somewhere in Psalm 22 as if this is merely a model prayer for us to pray when we go through difficult seasons.

[4:38] That's not what this is. Psalm 22 is about Jesus. And it's one of the most compelling and important portrayals of Christ's sufferings and subsequent glories in all of the Old Testament.

[4:56] And we talk often about how we preach Christ from the scriptures. That all of the scriptures are meant to point us to Christ. That's what we're looking for is the gospel for where Jesus is.

[5:10] And sometimes when we come to David's Psalms. Like next week we get to Psalm 23. We see that David is singing and he's writing and he's praying about the Lord. And we can see the fulfillment of that prayer in the person of Christ.

[5:25] It's much more explicit in Psalm 22 than that. As we understand the New Testament's teaching, Psalm 22 is not ultimately being prayed from the lips of David.

[5:35] It's being prayed from the lips of Jesus himself. It's all about him. But to ensure that we stay within the bounds of appropriate biblical interpretation, just a couple preliminary notes will be necessary.

[5:52] First, we need to remember that the Bible is the best commentary on the Bible. So we need to ask ourselves, we come to a passage like this, we're trying to sort out its meaning and its purpose.

[6:05] One of the questions we ask is if and how other portions of Scripture comment on the Psalm. And what we find is that direct quotes, allusions, thematic continuity with Psalm 22 are abundant in the Scriptures.

[6:25] They're not hidden at all. They're abundant, especially in the New Testament. Let me give you just a few. The most crucial of them all come from Jesus himself as he hangs on the cross on Golgotha.

[6:42] He quotes both the first and the last verse of the Psalm. Why? He does that for us. He wants us to understand that what he is enduring in that moment in the crucifixion is represented for us so that we might enter into it with him here in Psalm 22.

[7:05] The gospel authors also pick up on this. They underscore various moments of Jesus' crucifixion and what was happening around the crucifixion. The people that are there, what they're saying, what they're doing, what they're like.

[7:23] The gospel authors picking up on it and helping us to understand that Psalm 22 is not about David. The apostles later on in the New Testament, they do the same thing.

[7:35] They reference it often. The author of Hebrews in particular quotes verse 22 as if spoken by Jesus himself.

[7:46] So based on the New Testament, the Psalm 22, the fact that it's all about Jesus is undeniable. So if we're looking at how does the scripture refer to this psalm, how does it help us to understand this psalm, well, it's really unmistakable.

[8:01] This isn't about David. It's not about David's experience. It's about Jesus. But what does that mean for David? And what does that mean for the Israelites who would have sung this song or prayed this prayer in their worship?

[8:18] Did they sing something that they couldn't have possibly understood? Sometimes I think we get this idea that we come to Old Testament texts like this and psalms like this, that there is one meaning that David and the Israelites would have had, as if they would have come to temple and they would have sung this song meaning one thing that was appropriate for them.

[8:41] And then later on, maybe the apostles and the New Testament authors come to that same passage and they say, well, for David and Israel, it meant this, but for us beyond the cross, it means this, as if there's two different plausible and right interpretations.

[8:59] And that's wrong. There's not multiple interpretations for scriptures. There's one meaning to each passage. And what I want to suggest is that even in David and Israel's minds, as they sing Psalm 22, they understand that this is not about them, but this is about Messiah.

[9:22] They wouldn't have had a category for comprehending Roman crucifixion. I don't want to overstate the point. But they were well aware, like the psalms that preceded this one, that this song was about the suffering and the exaltation of the promised Messiah.

[9:44] When they sang this song, they didn't sing it to reflect on David's life. They didn't sing it to somehow fit themselves into it, as if it would be a prayer that would bring them comfort in their own distress.

[9:55] That's not what they would have had in mind. No, they sang this to look ahead to what would happen with their Savior. Here's what we know they knew.

[10:08] They knew that David would not be the source of global victory and triumph that is expressed in the second part of the psalm.

[10:18] They knew that. They knew David would die. David knew he would die. All of that triumph, that victory, that glory would not come from him.

[10:29] It would come through the future son that was promised to him in the covenant that God made with David. They knew that. They wouldn't have sung the second half of this thinking this is going to happen now.

[10:43] No, they knew this was coming later. They knew that the Messiah's glory and their participation in that glory would follow immense suffering.

[10:56] We've seen that in several of the psalms up to this point. We see it in the pictures of the Old Testament. Always the whole point of the picture of the lamb slaughtered as an atonement for sin.

[11:09] The suffering of the future king. Even in Genesis 3, the very first prophecy of gospel hope that we find, what is it that we find will be true of the seed of the woman?

[11:22] That his heel would be bruised. He would suffer. There would be hardship for him. They knew that. They knew that theirs as a people generally, and David's experience as an individual in particular, that his life foreshadowed what the Lord's king would experience in its fullness.

[11:45] And we might come to Psalm 22 and say, there is a sense in which David went through difficulties that might be described, at least in part, the way this psalm speaks.

[11:56] But even David would have known that the future son will fulfill in the fullest what his life only foreshadows and points to. They knew that.

[12:08] They knew that all of this was part of God's covenant to save sinners and establish an eternal kingdom. Did they have a cross in mind?

[12:19] Of course not. When they read of pierced hands and feet, do they think massive spikes holding someone to a piece of wood? No, probably not. Did they know that this wasn't about David, but it was about a greater king who would lay down his life for their salvation?

[12:37] Yeah, I think they knew that exactly. And I think it's why they sang it. Spurgeon says this about Psalm 22. I love this. This is beyond all others, the psalm of the cross.

[12:53] David and his afflictions may be here in a very modified sense, but as the star is concealed by the light of the sun, he who sees Jesus will probably neither see nor care to see David.

[13:12] Therefore, Spurgeon says, we should read it reverently, putting off our shoes from our feet as Moses did at the burning bush, for if there be holy ground anywhere in Scripture, it is in this psalm.

[13:29] The Gospels tell us what happened to Jesus physically in his crucifixion and his sufferings. Psalm 22 reveals to us what Jesus was thinking and feeling as a man hanging on that tree.

[13:42] The psalm invites us to enter into the darkness of his sufferings. It invites us to begin to comprehend exactly what it was that Jesus went through in order to provide us with eternal salvation and forgiveness.

[14:03] What he felt and what he experienced in order that that eternal kingdom would come for all who believe. That's what the psalm is for. That's what I want to point out to you this morning.

[14:15] The shape of it is straightforward. There's really two parts. In the first, it tells us of Christ's anguish. And then in the second one, it tells us about his resurrected glory.

[14:28] And we want to walk through both things this morning. First, I want you to see the anguish of Christ for his people. The anguish of Christ for his people. The first part of the psalm spans verses 1 to 21.

[14:42] As I said, it intends to draw us into the anguish of Christ and his sufferings. David composes it in three sections. And each section follows a particular pattern.

[14:56] It begins with a cry of anguish. And then is followed by an expression of faith in the Lord God. And the whole point, as I said, was to invite us in whatever way possible into the darkness of the cross.

[15:10] Into the depths of Christ's endurance and suffering for our salvation. Let's just walk through it. In the first section, verses 1 and 2, we see Christ forsaken.

[15:24] Look at verses 1 and 2. Matthew and Mark both record that Jesus cried out these very words from the cross.

[15:50] As he hangs there, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Not only was this his real felt experience, this distance with the Father here.

[16:04] But he quoted the psalm for us. He wants us to know that this is fulfilled in him. He wanted us to understand his agony, I think.

[16:17] As the fulfillment of what was written by David a thousand years beforehand. Here's how Matthew says it. Matthew 27, 46. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.

[16:34] That is my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? And indeed, it was a loud cry, even according to the psalm. Verse 1, this term groaning, it comes from a verb that means roaring.

[16:50] Like the roaring of a lion. It's akin to screaming. These are not whispers from our Lord as if to give a silent prayer as he hangs on the cross.

[17:01] These are screams of agony from the cross. Agony over what? What? Being forsaken.

[17:14] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What does he mean? Christopher Ashe, I think, helpfully points out that forsaken is a covenant word.

[17:31] Like often in the Psalms, we see steadfast love is a covenant word. It's the faithfulness of God to his covenant. Well, forsaken is also a covenant word. To forsake is to break covenant.

[17:48] God has placed under the curse, under his wrath, the one who has been perfectly faithful to the covenant.

[18:00] Do you sense that? That's why Jesus cries out in anguish. He understands what's happening in the moment. The faithful one is forsaken.

[18:12] Not the sinful one, the faithful one. How can this be? How is it possible? How is it even right for God to do it?

[18:25] Well, again, the New Testament helps us here. 2 Corinthians 5.21. He has made him to be sin who knew no sin. Why? So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

[18:38] That's why. The righteous one is forsaken so that we might be accepted. Jesus doesn't quote the verse as if to truly ask the question, trying to ask the Father, why are you doing this?

[18:55] Why are you allowing me to do this? No, he knows exactly why he's there. And he's there willfully. He knows. He doesn't quote the verse to ask the question, but to express the reality of the wrath of God that he was experiencing for our sake.

[19:10] On the cross, Jesus, the Son of God, he experienced something that we cannot possibly comprehend apart from suffering ourselves in eternal hell.

[19:25] However you and I and David might have ever thought to experience the feeling of being forsaken by God, it is not worth comparing to what Jesus truly experienced in this moment.

[19:46] In Christ, any feelings of being forsaken, if you're a believer, is not a real or objective curse or wrath. Why?

[19:57] Because on the cross, Christ takes the full curse, the full wrath. Every drop of the cup of God's wrath is consumed by him there.

[20:17] He experienced in those moments a darkness that we will never have to experience ourselves, not if we are in Christ. He's forsaken so that we are forgiven.

[20:30] That's his cry of anguish. But beyond his forsakenness, there comes this cry of faith, doesn't there? In verses 3 to 5, we see him trusting.

[20:42] Trusting. Verse 3. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them.

[20:53] To you they cried and were rescued. In you they trusted and were not put to shame. Though forsaken as our sin-bearing savior, Jesus endured the curse with unmatched faith.

[21:10] Notice his language. Why have you forsaken me? Yet you are holy, he says. Says Christopher Ashe again, speaking to the God under whose curse he screams.

[21:25] He addresses him yet as holy, morally pure, distinct from sinners, the one who is enthroned on the praises of his covenant people who praise him because they trust him.

[21:41] Though the righteous one was facing the curse, he never charges the father with injustice. In his suffering, he remains faithful, acknowledging the perfect character of God, and fully entrusting himself to the will of the father in this moment.

[22:02] 1 Peter 2, 23, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but what did he do? He continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

[22:17] And as the psalm affirms, those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame. Jesus, in his darkest moments, trusted that the father would not abandon him to death, but would raise him up.

[22:34] Which brings us to the next cry of anguish. In verses 6 to 8, we see that he is shamed. He's shamed. Look at the verses with me. But I am a worm, and not a man.

[22:47] Scorned by mankind, despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him.

[22:59] Let him rescue him. He delights in him. Not only did Jesus experience what it was like to be forsaken by the father, but he anguished under the shame of public humiliation in his suffering.

[23:16] His enemies treated him as less than a man. They dehumanized him. Scorned him as nothing but a worm. The gospel authors, three of them, they quote this, these verses directly as they recorded what took place with Jesus in his crucifixion.

[23:37] Let me read to you Matthew's account in Matthew 27. Those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.

[23:51] If you're the son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priest and the scribes and the elders, they mocked him, saying, he saved others, he cannot save himself.

[24:03] He is the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross and we will believe in him. And then notice what they say. He trusts in God, let him deliver him now if he desires him.

[24:18] The robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. His enemies mock his faith, believing that there is no actual rescue for him.

[24:29] So blind were the chief priest and the scribes and the elders that they quote the very psalm in their ridicule of the Savior and fail to realize that they are the ones whom the psalm condemns.

[24:52] They are the mockers and the scorners. What does Jesus do? He simply endures it. He endures it. Why?

[25:04] Well, he does it for us. He takes our shame. That moves us into 9 to 11. We see him again believing. Verse 9, The Savior cries out to God, Yet you are he who took me from the womb.

[25:20] You made me trust at my mother's breast. On you was I cast from my birth. And my mother's womb, you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help.

[25:34] Do you see the contrast here? In the anguish, he acknowledges that all the mockers around me, they say that I'm hopeless, that I have no rescue, that you will not hear.

[25:46] And then he responds, this moving moment, answer of faith, and he responds to the Lord and he says, But you have been with me from the very beginning. I have trusted you from birth.

[25:57] At my mother's breast, you cared for me and you watched over me and I have trusted you. You have been my God. He's not deceived by the mockers. He's not tempted by them to question the Father.

[26:13] No, he remains faithful even in the shame. He voices the lifelong, unshakable trust he had in the Father going all the way back to Bethlehem.

[26:26] Throughout his entire life, there was never a moment that Jesus did not act in full faith, believing that the Father would be faithful to accomplish his work and to deliver him from death.

[26:39] And despite the darkness, Jesus faced his suffering with joy. Knowing that trouble was near, God would be faithful.

[26:50] How do we know that? Well, because the writer of Hebrews tells us that for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. Well, that leads us to the third cry of anguish in verses 12 to 18.

[27:05] This is the most detailed portion of it. What do we find in here? In the first cry of anguish, we find Christ forsaken. The second cry of anguish, we find Christ shamed. In the third cry of anguish, we find Christ killed.

[27:20] Look first at 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 poured out like water.

[27:37] All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt. My tongue sticks to my jaws.

[27:50] You lay me in the dust of death. It's in this third section that the details of the Messiah's death are described for us. Just as Jesus was dehumanized as a worm, so are his enemies dehumanized here as wild beasts ready to devour.

[28:10] First are the bulls who have surrounded him, opening their mouths like a lion ready to devour. If you've ever watched those videos of a pride of lions attacking their prey, you know what this illustration is meant to communicate.

[28:28] It's vivid. What does it communicate? Inevitable death. When the whole group surrounds the prey, the prey has no hope.

[28:41] Death is inevitable. Messiah cries out from the cross, and he says, they've surrounded me. Death is inevitable.

[28:51] You have laid me in the dust of death. Verses 14 and 15, they graphically portray Christ's weakness against these enemies.

[29:05] He says, I'm poured out like water. My bones are out of joint. My heart is melted like wax. My strength is like a pot shirt, which is like a dried up, broken piece of pottery that you might find at an archaeological dig.

[29:20] Extreme thirst. Christ speaks of weakness and instability and insecurity. But again, in verse 15, death is inevitable. But notice who the Messiah says is ultimately responsible.

[29:37] He says, you have laid me in the dust of death. Not the bulls or the lions. You have. Well, who's he addressing in this prayer?

[29:49] He's addressing the Father in this prayer. I think this is important. As the dust readies itself to receive the lifeless corpse of the Savior, he knows that it's all part of the Father's eternal plan to save sinners.

[30:11] He knows. Isaiah 53, 10. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. Acts 2, 23.

[30:22] This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed. And then in verses 16 to 18, we see this description carried on even further.

[30:37] Look at the verses with me. Now he says, dogs have encompassed me. A company of evildoers encircles me. They've pierced my hands and feet. I can count all of my bones.

[30:49] They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots. Here the enemy is now not a pack of wild bulls.

[31:02] They're a pack of wild dogs. How are we to understand? I tend to think that the bulls here are probably, if we're looking from a New Testament perspective, are probably representative of the leadership of the Jews.

[31:16] The mob of Jews who cry out for his crucifixion. But then we get to the lions, I think, or not the lions, but the dogs. I think we have here represented the Romans, the Gentiles, who actually carried out Christ's execution.

[31:34] And again, he's encircled as if to secure his death. And they are indeed successful. They pierce his hands and feet. Crucifixion.

[31:45] They beat him so as to deform his body and expose his bones. That's the flogging. They callously put him to public shame. All of these things are referenced multiple times in the New Testament as the fulfillment of Psalm 22.

[32:02] I want you to meditate on the picture that is drawn for us here. Nailed to a tree by his hands and feet is the Lord Jesus.

[32:13] His naked and dying body hangs publicly as his flesh is ripped to pieces. But let your eye move below the cross now and what is it that's there according to Psalm 22?

[32:29] Below his feet is a group of soldiers who cast lots to see who gets to take what little possessions he has. It's tragic.

[32:43] Dismissing the broken figure of the incarnate Son of God they find more value in his clothing than in his life.

[32:59] John 19 24 quotes it directly and says this was to fulfill Psalm 22. How callous. How blasphemous.

[33:12] How damning. And yet the same thing it plays out in front of us every day. Every Sunday countless people flock to churches caring only for what they might get out of Jesus and caring nothing for Jesus himself.

[33:33] They're no different than the soldiers. They roll the dice to see what they might get. What prosperity might he bring me? And one day they will awaken in hell having stared directly at their only hope but failing to have eyes to see it.

[33:53] How tragic. And then we find in the end the Savior is still hoping. Verse 19 But you O Lord don't be far off O you my help.

[34:12] 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 and then there's a sudden shift here.

[34:25] It goes to past tense. You have rescued me from the horns of the wild dogs. And what is that? It's hope. Confidence.

[34:35] The first five lines they reiterate the cries for help that we see elsewhere in the psalm but it's in this last line that we find this explicit assurance of salvation.

[34:48] You have rescued me. He's so confident that God will deliver him from death that he speaks of it as if it's already happened. The forsaken one knows that his prayer will be heard.

[35:04] he knows that in spite of death he will be raised. He will see life again. And it's here that the psalm prepares us for the glory that is expressed in the second part.

[35:19] So we see Christ's anguish for his people and then we move to the final part of the psalm and we see Christ's glory with his people. This takes us to 22 to 31.

[35:34] In the first 21 verses it's intense anguish but in 22 to 31 it is this amazing incredible joy and the shift in extremes that can only be explained by resurrection.

[35:52] This is the theological pattern of the Bible. We see it over and over. Glory comes through suffering and in the passages that are most explicitly meant to direct us to Jesus and his atonement.

[36:06] Text like this one life is promised to him and to those who are in him after death. Hear it from Isaiah 53 when his soul makes an offering for guilt he shall see his offspring.

[36:24] That's life after atonement. He shall prolong his days he will live again. The will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

[36:36] All of that coming after the suffering coming after the death and in the last part of the psalm we find the risen king being glorified and exalted in the midst of his people.

[36:49] Here we have a glimpse of the promised kingdom led by the promised king. We might break it up into two sections I think.

[37:00] First we see the risen king leads his people in worship. He leads them in worship. Verse 22 this is still the Messiah's words to God I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

[37:17] And then he turns to the congregation and he says you who fear the Lord praise him all you offspring of Jacob glorify him stand in awe of him all you offspring of Israel for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted he has not hidden his face from him but he has heard when he cried to him and again he turns back to the Lord from you comes my praise in the great congregation my vows I will perform before those who fear him the afflicted shall eat and be satisfied those who seek him shall praise the Lord may your hearts live forever he says in verse 16 earlier Jesus was encircled by a company literally a congregation of evildoers but beginning in verse 22 the risen Lord stands in the midst of the congregation of the saved his church and what is it that he's doing leading us to worship the Lord to worship

[38:23] God and when we get to verse 24 we find what that worship is rooted in look at it again for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted he has not hidden his face from him but he has heard when he cried to him do you remember what he expressed in his faith when he felt forsaken he recognized the character of God and the pattern of God with his forefathers and he says they cried to you in faith and you delivered them you heard them and what is it that he says here he says praise him because he has heard me he heard my cry he did not despise the affliction of the afflicted remember what the verse said earlier that those who trust in him will not be put to shame it's not that he wasn't saying that they wouldn't be put to shame by the world he's saying that God would not put them to shame that God would not reject them and here he says look

[39:30] God has proven faithful I am the afflicted one and he has not abhorred my affliction what is this it's the atonement of Christ on the cross it's the resurrection of Christ from the dead and he leads the congregation of his people and he says all you who will believe praise the Lord because he has done it this is gospel praise he did not despise Christ's affliction instead he accepted it as a full atonement for our sins propitiation is the New Testament term God's wrath fully appeased against us because it is poured out on the righteous one the one who was forsaken so that we might be accepted and Jesus leads us to praise God for accepting that atonement he leads us to praise him for raising him from the dead to give us this amazing assurance of salvation and then we find in 25 and 26 the picture of a great feast that the

[40:34] Messiah puts on for his people and it includes all who will trust in his atoning death and resurrection and is this not a picture of what we will enjoy in eternity we will worship with triumphant joy because of what is declared in Psalm 22 and fulfilled by Christ in the gospels so the risen king he leads his people in worship but the risen king in the end he leads his people in mission 27 to 31 all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord this is again the words of the Savior all the families of the nations shall worship before him for kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations all the prosperous of the earth eat and worship before him shall bow down all who go down to the dust even those who could not keep himself alive posterity shall serve him it shall be told of the

[41:39] Lord to the coming generation they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn here Christ reaches all the way back to God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12 to remember the covenant and we'll give you a son and in you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and here David reminds us that that will be fulfilled in the Christ that through Jesus' death and resurrection all the families of the earth will be blessed and that through the proclamation of this gospel people from every nation and tribe and language will worship with him in the great congregation in eternity what does the Messiah lead us to do he leads us in mission and what is that mission to proclaim this gospel to the world and then in verse 29 we're reminded that all kinds of people will be included in the feast no one will be excluded on the basis of who they are or their standing in the world

[42:51] I think that's the significance of the threefold breakdown there the prosperous of the earth that worship that's the living the healthy before him shall bow down all who go down to the dust that's the dying even the one who could not keep himself alive that's the dead all gathered around the throne to worship the king for what he has done for our salvation all who come to Jesus in repentance and faith will be welcomed but how will they come to know him because he leads his people in 30 and 31 to proclaim this gospel of the kingdom thus we are to preach this gospel to the world inviting whosoever will to come and receive Christ by faith it's a wonderful picture but as we close we we shouldn't quickly overlook the last line of the psalm it's a bit odd isn't it at the very end of verse 31 what is it that they will proclaim that he has done it he has done it

[43:59] Hebrew scholars note that the phrase is oddly abrupt because it lacks an object in the original language a very wooden translation or literal rendering would be he has done he has done the sense of it is he has performed or as Jesus said it is finished which is exactly why Spurgeon called it the psalm of the cross because it's what was on Jesus' mind and it's what was on Jesus' lips as he suffered and died for our sins what does it mean it means everything that was necessary to accomplish your salvation was done in full on the cross there's nothing left over do not be mistaken it's not that you come to

[45:03] Jesus and then you bring something with you in order to finish the job no he has done it all it's not that you come to Jesus and then say well I'll do all of these other things as well I'll give and I'll worship and I'll serve and I'll do these things and I'll try to do my best and try my hardest to live a good moral life and if I do that because of Jesus then maybe then I'll be accepted no what he means here is that he's done it all every sin atoned for every work fulfilled what does that mean for us it means we simply turn and believe and we trust that that's true that he has indeed done it that it is indeed finished because it is that's the glory of the cross is it a dark picture the darkest that you'll ever hear or see unquestionably dark but that's what it took to finish the job and he has finished it you say well what is really the purpose of this psalm at the end of the day what does any of this mean for me

[46:17] Augustine who lived a long time ago he said that psalm 22 helps us to view the crucifixion afresh so that we might come to the cross no longer as mockers but as believers and perhaps that's why you need the psalm today maybe you need to be confronted with the depths of Jesus' suffering and what he endured to bring salvation so that you will finally turn and believe will you turn and believe he said it can't be that easy well I didn't say it was easy but it is that simple turn and believe he's done it and you can trust him he said you don't know how you don't know how bad

[47:22] I've been I don't care how bad you been he took it all and he promised that all who come to me I will never cast away I won't turn them away never what does this do for the believer though well I think you probably already know a fresh meditation on Christ's sufferings helps us to follow the risen!

[47:50] King in his worship so that we might praise our Lord that our worship would be rooted in the gospel of Christ and his death and his resurrection and it should motivate us also to follow him in mission why would we not want people to know that's what Kathy said this morning in the earlier class just being confronted recently with just the reality of death and how death reigns in this life and I just I just want my family to know I just want them to hear the truth the gospel the good news that he has done it and if they will just trust him they'll be forgiven they'll be saved surely a fresh meditation on the cross will increase our worship and our mission consider all that he has done and join him day by day in the!

[48:43]  salvation ho