for the summer. And if you have your Bible with you, I'll invite you to open it up to Psalm chapter 22.
If you don't have your Bible with you, you can find one in the bottom of the seat in front of you there.
There won't be any words on the screen this morning, so it might be helpful to you to be able to follow along.
So Psalm chapter 22, and I'm going to read it for us this morning.
We'll jump right into the message, and then after that we'll go straight into the Lord's table afterwards.
So Psalm 22, for the director of music, to the tune of the dough of the morning, a Psalm of David.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer. By night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One. You are the one Israel praises.
And you, our ancestors, put their trust. They trusted, and you delivered them.
To you, they cried out and were saved. And you, they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm, and not a man.
Scorned by everyone.
Despised by the people.
All who see me, mock me.
They hurl insults, shaking their heads.
He trusts in the Lord, they say.
Let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.
Yet you brought me out of the womb.
You made me trust in you, even at my mother's breast.
From birth, I was cast on you.
From my mother's womb, you have been my God.
Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help.
Many bulls surround me.
Strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Roaring lions that tear their prey.
Open their mouths wide against me.
I'm poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax.
It has melted within me.
My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You lay me in the dust of death.
Dogs surround me.
A pack of villains encircles me.
They pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display.
People stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength.
Come quickly to help me.
Deliver me from the sword.
My precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions.
Save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
I will declare your name to my people.
In the assembly, I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him.
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him.
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel.
For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one.
He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help.
From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly.
Before those who fear you, I will fulfill my vows.
The poor will eat and be satisfied.
Those who seek the Lord will praise him.
May your hearts live forever.
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.
And all the families of the nations will bow down before him.
For dominion belongs to the Lord.
And he rules over the nations.
All the rich of the earth will feast and worship.
All who go down to the dust will kneel before him.
Those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him.
Future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness.
Declaring to a people yet unborn.
He has done it.
So we'll go back to the beginning of the psalm.
And we'll start there.
We learn a little bit about the psalm in the superscription.
This is a psalm of David.
David lived about 3,000 years ago.
About 1,000 years before Jesus was born.
And this was a song that he wrote.
And then gave to the director of music.
Probably to be used for worship in Israel.
It even says the tune of the song.
To the dough of the morning.
Unfortunately, the tune, the melody, the rhythm.
All of that is lost to us today.
What we have though are the lyrics.
And they are God's words as well as David's words.
And there's enough in the words alone to touch our hearts and our minds to the core.
This psalm has two distinct parts to it, which I'm sure you notice.
There's verses 1 down to 21, which is the lament part of the psalm.
That's the part where David is pouring out his heart to God in the midst of his troubles.
Asking for help.
And then there's the thanksgiving and worship part, which is the second part, 22 to 31.
It's like the tone just changes after the deliverance has come.
And David can hardly keep it in.
He just worships the Lord.
And we'll get to that, Lord willing.
But let's start here at the beginning.
Where does this song come from?
Well, songs usually come from the heart.
And this one comes from the deep anguish in the heart of David.
My God.
Why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me?
So far from my cries of anguish.
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer.
By night.
But I find no rest.
Do you feel the anguish and desperation in David's heart as he says these words?
He calls out to God and he basically asks him,
Why have you forgotten me?
He feels as though God has abandoned him.
As if God is just so far away from the trouble that he is in.
And I have been praying.
And I have been asking again and again.
Day after day.
Night after night.
But why haven't you answered me?
I don't know what is going on in all your lives right now.
But if you are going through a really tough time right now.
These words are a comfort.
In a world where men don't cry.
And it's considered awkward to, even inappropriate, to ugly cry in front of others.
To let what's in here come out in front of people.
David puts it on display for the whole nation.
I've been here.
I've felt like this before.
You're not alone.
David experienced it.
Sleepless nights.
Seemingly unanswered prayers.
Some people might look at this cry and think it almost inappropriate to speak to God this way.
Too intimate.
Too personal.
Except that it's right here in the Bible.
We might wonder, is he accusing God of abandonment?
Or of abandonment?
Or of ignoring him?
And it kind of raises the question.
Has God forsaken David in this moment?
Has God not been answering David's prayers?
And it kind of depends on your view of the Psalms.
And how this is both the word of man and the word of God at the same time.
We might come to some different conclusions.
Some will say that for these words to be true.
God really has forsaken David in this moment.
Perhaps because he sinned.
God really isn't answering his prayers.
Perhaps because he's done something.
And he needs to get right with God first.
Others will say, no.
These words are true in the sense of,
they're the thoughts that David really has in his heart.
They accurately describe the feelings that he has right now.
And I think that's the right way to read this.
There are a lot of things said in the Psalms
that seem to convey the feeling truth,
the inward thoughts of the individual,
rather than the fact truth of the circumstance
that that individual is in,
or what's going on between him and God.
And this seems to be the conclusion that David comes to
in the second part of the Psalm.
Just look with me quickly to verse 24.
Here at verse 24, David is praising God.
He's worshiping God, celebrating him.
And then he starts calling on all the people of Israel
to join him in praise.
And why?
David answers in verse 24.
He says,
It's as though David is saying,
how I felt earlier before,
before the answer to my prayers came,
it wasn't the reality.
You hadn't hidden your face from me.
All along, you were watching me.
You were listening to my prayers.
You were seeing me, hearing me.
There's some powerful lessons here for us.
And I think the first and most obvious one is,
don't be afraid, don't hesitate
to just pour out your heart to God.
To tell him what's going on in your heart,
how you're feeling, put words to it.
God can handle us being real with him,
raw with him.
That's lesson number one.
Second, we have to know and we have to understand
that sometimes God's answer,
God's help,
seems a long time in coming.
Feels a long time in coming.
God doesn't always give us what we ask for
when we want it,
when we expect it.
But third,
probably the most powerful lesson
of this whole psalm,
God hasn't forgotten you.
He hasn't been hiding his face from you.
If you belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ,
he does not despise or scorn you
or the things that you're going through.
He doesn't think light of those things.
He doesn't turn his face away from you
when you're in the moment of trouble
as if that's despicable.
That's despicable.
I don't want to look on that.
He sees everything that you're going through
and he hears every prayer that you pray.
He's watching
and he has a purpose
for those things in our lives.
For those who belong to God
through faith in his son Jesus,
this promise holds true
and cannot be broken.
Hebrews 13 verse 5,
Never will I leave you.
Never will I forsake you.
It may feel sometimes like he has,
but it's not true.
He is there.
He sees.
He hears.
Moving on from there,
David goes on to reflect
on how God has been faithful in the past.
We see that in verses 3 to 5
and we see more of that in verses 9 and 10.
And I'm just going to skip over this.
We don't have time for everything here,
but basically he thinks about
how God has answered the prayers of his ancestors
and they trusted in him
and God delivered them.
But there's kind of that conflicted tone.
You did that for them,
but what about me?
Why not my prayers?
In verses 9 and 10,
it's reflecting back on his birth.
God, you're right there with me
from the time I was born.
You've been with me all along through my life,
but it's as though he's asking,
where are you now?
As I face death,
as I come to the end,
it seems, of my life.
Some people simply don't understand
the deep anguish of soul
that can come from much suffering and hardship,
from relationship breakdowns,
chronic health troubles,
from stresses and pressures
too numerous to count,
from traumatic things
that have been witnessed or experienced,
or from devastating loss.
Sometimes people will say,
well, just look back
at how God has been faithful in the past.
And usually they mean well.
Sometimes that does work.
That gets our eyes off of how we're feeling
and onto God,
and it changes how we feel,
but sometimes it's not always true.
Try as we may,
we end up here with David
wondering why God seems to be treating me
differently from others.
Why God seems to be treating me differently now
compared to how he did earlier in my life.
Let's talk about the trouble
that David is in for a moment.
David describes it here in verses 6 to 8
and further on as well.
He says,
But I am a worm
and not a man,
scorned by everyone,
despised by the people.
All who see me
mock me.
They hurl insults,
shaking their heads.
What's causing all this anguish of soul?
It's the way that people are treating David.
According to David,
they're treating him
in a way that makes him feel
like he's less than human.
When David says,
I'm a worm,
I think he simply means,
I'm like a despised thing
in their eyes.
Subhuman.
They don't even treat me
with that most basic dignity
and respect that we all deserve.
And what are they doing to him?
They're mocking him.
They're insulting him.
They're shaking their heads.
Who is this?
This is the people,
according to David.
It's all who see me.
This probably took place
before David became king.
There was a time where
King Saul poisoned
the minds of everyone
in the nation against David.
He was spreading slander
about David.
David couldn't go anywhere
without feeling like
he was in trouble,
like people were spying on him
out to get him.
And David gives an example
in verse 8
of the kind of things
that they're saying about him.
He trusts in the Lord.
Let the Lord rescue him.
Let the Lord deliver him
since the Lord delights in him.
So whoever these people are,
it's like they see David's trouble,
but they're not sympathetic at all
to his circumstance.
They aren't going to do anything
to help him.
Just leave him.
If God wants to rescue him,
then let God do it.
After all,
he trusts in God.
They mock his faith
in the Lord.
Not only that,
but they mock
the Lord's delight in David.
Let the Lord deliver him
since he delights in him.
If I had to guess,
I would think that these mockers
probably knew about
how David had been chosen
by God
to be the next king of Israel.
Somehow the word leaked out.
Jonathan knew of it.
Saul,
the current king,
came to know of it.
And the whole people
all over started to know about this.
He's the favored one.
He's the one in whom God delights.
The one God has chosen
to be his king.
But here,
they're mocking him about it.
They're making fun of that
while David is running around
desperately
just trying to stay alive.
In verses 12 to 18,
David describes,
he goes on some more
with this
just talk and description
of what his trouble is.
Verse 12,
he says,
Many bulls surround me.
Strong bulls of Bashan
encircle me.
I guess the bulls
from the region of Bashan
were known to be
the fattest
and largest cattle
in all Israel.
And David piles
on the metaphors here.
He uses three different kinds
of animals.
Strong bulls,
roaring lions
that tear their prey,
open their mouths
wide against me.
Verse 13.
And then in verse 16,
Dogs surround me.
All of these referring
to the same group of people.
And in verse 16,
he describes them as men.
He says,
A pack of villains
encircles me.
The reason David,
I think,
describes them
using these three different
kinds of animals.
I mean,
this is a song.
This is poetry.
This is full of metaphor.
This is how things feel.
I mean,
think about each one
of these animals.
They're dangerous.
Think about the last time
you saw somebody
trying to ride a bull
on TV
or at a rodeo.
I mean,
those things are dangerous.
And here David's saying,
I feel like I'm surrounded.
By many of them.
Like they're encircling me.
Like I'm about to be trampled.
Gored.
Like lions that are roaring at me.
All around me.
Ready to tear their prey.
Ready to rip me to shreds.
Or like dogs.
Hunting in a pack.
Closing in on me.
Ready to gnaw into me
and thirsty for my blood.
And in the midst of this,
we get more from David
about how he feels.
Verse 14.
He says,
I'm poured out like water
and all my bones
are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax.
It is melted within me.
Again,
we have to remember
that this is poetry.
I think we know it
when we hear some of these words,
but maybe we're not sure.
David is not telling us
that his blood pumping muscle
has actually turned to wax.
This is metaphor.
He's saying,
my courage,
my confidence,
it's melting away.
I'm afraid.
It's melting away
just like,
just like wax
does before a flame.
Similarly,
with his bones
being out of joint,
being poured out like water,
these are all metaphors
describing how he feels.
Now,
some of these
aren't as easy to understand.
There's a huge gap here
in culture.
There's a huge gap in time.
And then there's a huge gap
in language.
And so,
some of these things
we kind of wonder,
what exactly does he mean
with these metaphors?
But all of them describe
the anguish,
the fear,
the emptiness,
the dryness
that David feels.
At the end of verse 15,
he says,
you lay me in the dust of death.
Like God,
in your sovereign working of things,
you've brought me to the end.
This is it.
The writing's on the wall.
And David goes on.
We see a little more of this
in verses 17 and 18.
David describes
just how exposed he feels.
All my bones are on display.
People stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
Again, metaphor.
Like a man who has been stripped
naked of his clothes,
I feel exposed.
Everybody's staring at me
with contempt
everywhere I go.
There was one time
a guy who helped David out
when he was fleeing from Saul.
He was a priest.
And a whole lot of priests
were killed
because of that one act of kindness.
So you have to know
that David was considered
an untouchable.
You don't have anything
to do with him
or else you'll be in big trouble
with Saul here.
Now we don't know for sure,
but possibly Saul had put out bounties,
hired mercenaries
to help go after him.
That's kind of the sense
we maybe get with verse 18
that there's a competition
almost here.
We want to get his clothes.
We want to have the spoils.
The clothes were often considered
the spoils of killing someone,
getting them.
And this is the infamous
son of Jesse.
Now some people
have a difficult time
reading this
as a real situation
of David's life.
So they might suggest
that well David
didn't actually go through
any of this.
He was just kind of
speaking about Jesus
by the Spirit
and didn't really know
what he was talking about.
I don't think that's right.
I think even though
it's difficult maybe
to imagine how
this could have been
David's song,
David's cry
in the midst of his story
or we might not know
what time of his life
this points to.
I think the key here though
is realizing that David
is speaking with poetic language.
He's speaking with metaphor.
He's not actually surrounded
by canines.
His enemies are human.
They're closing in on him
like a pack of dogs
surround their prey.
He's probably not tied up
for execution
and naked
with every bone on display.
I mean we have to read this
for the kind of writing
that it is.
It's poetry.
He's feeling utterly exposed.
People are looking at him
with the same kind of content
that they would look at
a naked criminal
that's being led off
to execution.
In verse 16
David says
they pierce my hands
and my feet.
And again here
some people look at this
and they just go straight
to the cross.
They assume that this
can't have any possible reality
in the life of David.
But again
it's probably
that we're just so familiar
with the fulfillment
and how this was done
to Jesus
that we take that meaning
and we push it back
into the text.
Now certainly
God intended
to foreshadow
and speak of the way
that his son would die.
There's no doubt about that.
But there's other possibilities here
for how this
had some meaning
in the life of David.
We might look down
to verse 20
where David says
deliver me from the sword.
Perhaps some of these men
that were on the prowl
for David
looking for him
chasing him
hunting him
we don't know
maybe David even had
some skirmishes
with some of them
and had been wounded
on occasion
and just barely escaped
with his life.
Or another possibility
David describes
them like animals
with teeth
lions
eager to tear the prey.
Verse 16
dogs surround me
a pack of villains
encircles me
they pierce my hands
and my feet
pierce with what?
With their teeth
perhaps.
That these men
are just
eager to bite
hand and foot
ready to devour him
possibly that David
was wounded
on occasion.
So these are
utterly desperate times
for David.
He feels as though
his end is near
and
God hasn't been
answering his prayers.
What does David do
in the midst of all this?
He just keeps on
calling out to God.
He keeps on
asking for God's
deliverance.
Verse 19
But you
Lord
do not be far
from me.
You are my strength
come quickly
to help me
deliver me
from the sword
my precious life
from the power
of the dogs.
This is one of
the biggest themes
in all the Psalms.
Whenever we're in trouble
what should we do?
Call out to God.
Ask for his help.
Now we come to
the second part
part two.
In verse 22
the tone of this
whole thing
just changes
instantly.
I will declare
your name
to my people.
In the assembly
I will praise you.
David is not
lamenting anymore.
He is in
worship mode
now.
I'm going to
tell everybody
about my God.
I'm going to
praise him
before everybody.
And then in
verse 23
he starts calling
on everyone
to worship
the Lord
with him.
I love that.
You who fear
the Lord
praise him.
And we're just
kind of left
wondering at this
point what just
happened here?
what changed
so drastically?
One minute
David's crying
out to God
for deliverance
from imminent
death
and the next
minute he's
the worship
leader of
all Israel.
That's actually
the story of
David in a
nutshell.
Something massive
changed.
And David
hints at it
in verse 24.
Why praise him?
Why honor him?
Why revere God?
Why am I now
eager to declare
the name of my
God to everyone?
For he has not
despised or
scorned the
suffering of
the afflicted
one.
He has not
hidden his
face from him
but has listened
to his cry
for help.
This is like
the pinnacle
moment of the
psalm.
God did
deliver David
from all his
troubles.
He answered
David's prayers.
His enemies
didn't get the
best of him
after all.
They closed
in,
perhaps even
wounded him.
They taunted
him.
They gloated
over him.
But David
cried out to
God and
God answered.
And it was
then that David
realized this
truth.
All along
God had not
forgotten him.
God had made
that promise
right from the
beginning when he
was anointed.
He would be
king.
God had not
forsaken him.
He wasn't
hiding his face
from him.
And David's
suffering was
itself precious
and meaningful
and had a
purpose.
Now David
doesn't tell us
about that
great deliverance
but the
historical books
of the Bible
do.
They tell how
God rescued
David time
and time
again from
all his
enemies in
Israel,
later establishing
him as king
on Israel's
throne.
And you can
read about that
in 1 and 2
Samuel.
He did
indeed become
the worship
leader of the
nation so to
speak.
In the second
part of the
psalm here from
verses 25 to
31 we hear
David just
praising and
worshiping with
all his heart
declaring the
worthiness of
God.
And there's so
much in here I
think we're going
to have to skip
over some of
it but what we
notice is that
it's as though
David says me
praising you right
now is not
enough.
You're worthy
of more.
In fact
generation after
generation they're
going to declare
your praise,
your righteousness.
See that in
31.
Future generations
will be told about
the Lord.
They will proclaim
his righteousness
declaring to
people that
haven't even been
born what he
has done.
There's this
expansion.
It can't just be
here and now.
It's got to be
down the line
into the future.
He is worthy
of worship
forever.
Generation to
generation.
And then we also
see this expansion
of you know
it's not just
going to be
worship here
in Israel.
It's got to be
bigger than that.
One day the whole
world is going to
praise the Lord.
All the ends of
the earth,
verse 27,
will remember
and turn to the
Lord and all the
families of the
nations will bow
down before him
for dominion
belongs to the
Lord and he
rules over the
nations.
This is how
worthy God is
of worship.
He's the king
says David.
He's ruler of
the whole world.
He really does
deliver those who
look to him,
those who seek
him.
He brings them
through to that
place where they
praise him.
They give him
glory.
Glory.
We're going to
turn now to the
Lord's table.
Probably some of
you are wondering
well how come you
haven't said a word
about Jesus yet in
this psalm?
This is the Jesus
psalm.
Well I've been
leaving it for last.
We want to hear
this from David's
perspective.
But one of the
most cherished
things about this
psalm is really
the way that it
points, it speaks
to the coming
son of David
down the line
a thousand years
later.
And it's amazing
if you've ever
looked at this
psalm before
or seen this
I mean you know
the ways that it
points to Christ.
Verse 1
My God, my God
why have you
forsaken me?
These were the
very words that
Jesus cried when
he was on the
cross.
That's a whole
five or ten
minutes right there
just thinking
about what
that meant.
That some of
these kinds of
emotional realities
were present in
the very heart of
Christ as he
suffered in anguish
on the cross.
Or we could look
at verse 8
and the taunts
that were being
made, the insults
that they made
against David.
Matthew 27
verses 41
in the same way
the chief priests
the teachers of
the law and the
elders mocked
Jesus.
Verse 43
He trusts in
God.
Let God rescue
him now if he
wants him.
For he said I'm
the son of God.
It's amazing
a thousand years
later they
fulfilled the
very same
almost the same
words they used
to insult
to mock
Jesus
the son of
David
the son of
God
as he was
suffering.
And there are
many more.
David describes
how he was
encircled.
There they were
circled around
him at the
cross
taunting him
mocking him
threatening him.
David talks
in verse 15
he says you lay
me in the dust
of death.
For David it
was imminent
death.
For Jesus it
went beyond
that.
It was the
ultimate.
He really
was.
Laid in the
dust of
death.
He died
at the
hands of
his enemies.
All my
bones are
on display.
I think
David meant
it poetically
metaphorically
describing his
feelings but
it was true
for Jesus.
They stripped
him of his
clothes and
put him up
high where
everybody could
see him.
He hung
there naked.
He bore
the scorn and
the gloating of
people.
They stared at
him with
contempt.
Just like
here in
the psalm.
And they
pierced my
hands and
feet.
The one
we're probably
most familiar
with.
A thousand
years earlier
God declared
the locations
on his
body where
he would
receive the
wounds.
It's
amazing how
this psalm
foreshadows
the ultimate
suffering.
The suffering
of the son
of David.
The one who
died to
rescue us
from our
guilt and
from our
sins.
David
found out
when God
finally did
answer his
prayer that
he is
faithful.
he hadn't
forsaken
him.
He was
delivered.
For Jesus
it went a little
bit different.
He was
delivered too
but not from
death.
Through
death.
He died and
then was raised
back to life
from the dead
and he will be
the king of this
great kingdom
that David
declares and
speaks of
when he
returns.
there will
come that
moment when
every knee
will bow
every tongue
will confess
that Jesus
is Lord
to the glory
of God
the Father.
So as we
come again to
the table this
morning I
want to
encourage you
to take a
few moments
to talk to
God in the
quietness of
your heart
to reflect on
that suffering
that anguish
that he went
through for
you.
confess your
sins to
him.
Marvel at
his plan of
salvation that
over a
thousand years
before he was
already thinking
about doing it
for you.
After a few
minutes of
quiet we'll
have Dave
and Rod
come and pass
out the
elements and
if you are
here and you
are trusting in
Jesus as the
afflicted one
who suffered
for you
then please
partake with
us in
remembering
Christ's
death.
We'll wait
until everybody
has been
served and
then we'll
eat and
we'll drink
together in
unison.
or
ilippo
and
Thank you.
Let's eat and drink together again in remembrance of the love of Jesus, which took him to the cross for us.