Bible Study: Psalm 22

My reading is in Psalm 22 and indeed we realize as we approach this psalm that we are certainly treading upon very holy ground and I trust indeed that the Lord will condition our spirits increasingly as we think of the remembrance of the Lord this morning in considering this psalm. History mentions the fact that this psalm was probably written by David at a place called Maanaim and that is the place where Jacob was wrestling with God and so really the character of the psalm is a character of wrestling. It is a deep sorrow and tremendous reality of gripping with God and particularly in view of the great truth of our salvation, our redemption.

The title of it is A Hind at Dawn. It's a very touching title, it's one that helps us to understand a little again of the character of the sufferer. He is as one who has been chased through the night and at dawn he has found a weakened hind, an antelope, at the dawn of the morning.

So our blessed Lord Jesus is pictured in our psalm. And just before opening it is very interesting for the sake of my dear younger brethren studying that the five Levitical offerings that we have in Leviticus chapters 1 to 8, we find that there is a psalm that parallels them. That is it's going to give the experience of the person of the Lord Jesus in those different offerings and the one that we're looking at this morning is the sin offering.

It has to do with the person who is suffering and is the guilty one who is being dealt with. When we come to the burnt offering you would turn to Psalm number 40 and looking at the person of the Lord Jesus and his devotions to God. And Psalm 16 is the meal offering and Psalm 116 is the peace offering and you'll find that the three different characteristics of the peace offering in that psalm and Psalm 69 is a trespass offering.

It has to do with the dealings with the Lord Jesus regarding the character of sin. But we're going to be reading concerning the sin offering this morning and my dear brethren indeed will be able to help us perhaps to bring in thoughts as we consider the verses one by one down this chapter of the character of the sin offering as we will after we have finished our reading. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hear'st not, and in the night season, and am not silent.

But thou art holy. O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel, our fathers trusted in thee. They trusted and thou didst deliver them.

They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, despised of the people.

All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb.

Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble is near. There is none to help.

Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.

I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of my bowels.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me.

The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones.

They look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far from me, O Lord.

O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou has heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him.

All ye the seed of Jacob glorify him, and fear him all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him. But when he cried unto him, he heard.

My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied.

They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none shall keep alive his own soul.

A shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. Very interesting and beautifully the Septuagint interprets that last verse, that his righteousness shall be declared to a people that it is finished.

We not likely will be able to consider the latter half of the chapter tonight, this morning, because of our time, but and also because of the purpose of our gathering, we want to consider the person of our blessed Lord in his sufferings. But from verse 22 onward, it is certainly very instructive to notice that we have three different choirs who are praising the Lord in his resurrection, and he is the center of them, and he's the conductor of them, and he is the theme of them. That is very precious and is going to be realized as we will see, as we look at the passage, if we do have an opportunity.

But let me just notice a little concerning the little sections that are here, and I'm going to suggest a key word. This is just the way I study it, and it's not intended that you should be limited to this, my dear brethren, because we must look at each phrase and each verse thoughtfully in this passage this morning. But in the first ten verses, it is between the Lord Jesus and God, and it's going to take three different avenues of approach as to how God is dealing with him and how he is found as he appears in all the terribleness and the atrocity of the sufferings of the darkness of Calvary.

And the key word that I have noticed and noticed the character of this word forsaken is going to be described in some of these words that are used in the passage that we'll be following, such as the word roaring, for example. And the idea of for the word roaring is the Lord Jesus wasn't roaring upon the cross, but from the depth of his soul he was roaring. So it is an inward roaring of the heart of the Lord Jesus.

It actually equates to the same word that's used of him in Gethsemane when he speaks of being exceeding sorrowful. That is, it was next to death. Such was the depth of the sorrow of the roaring of the Lord Jesus.

So the idea of being forsaken is described in these different words. In the word darkness, of course, and the word for darkness there also means a pit. That is, he is being shut up in a pit of darkness.

That was the experience of the heart of our blessed Lord Jesus in the darkness of Calvary. And then, of course, we have the humiliation that is seen of him. And actually those verses three to five, very often we think of them in regard to men, but that is so only from the point of view that it's the same thought as you have in Isaiah 53.

He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we, they said, and we said he's afflicted of God. That's the picture that is really here in verses three to five when he is speaking about God and His holiness, how his fathers trusted him, and they were saved. But he is despised of God.

That, of course, is looking at it from the Jewish viewpoint, which our dear brethren will help us with, give us a little more detail. In verses 11 to 21, it is between the Lord Jesus and men, and how he is being dealt with there, and the key word I have noted in my own appreciation is that word, there is none to help. He stood alone in the awfulness of Calvary, amidst all the horrors and atrocities that were inflicted upon him by men, the bulls of Bashan, the roarings, his heart is like wax.

He's a defeated man. Dogs, lions, unicorns, the leaders of Israel, Gentiles, all mankind are depicted here in the atrocity of Calvary and the fierceness of the absoluteness of the fall of man in their hatred against their Lord. That is the character that's being given to these beasts because of their character, of their manner of destroying enemies, destroying the foe, even the lion.

It is not so much the idea that he's just standing looking at them roaring. He's chasing them. He's chasing the hind.

He would overcome him, would seek to slay him, and he cries out for deliverance, our precious Lord Jesus Christ. And then in the last, in verse 22, we have a choir in resurrection of the nation of Israel. In verse 23, it's both Jews and Gentiles, the great congregation, the seed of Israel are restored.

And in verse 25 is praise in the glory of the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus. And it closes by saying, it is finished. Blessed be his name.

So my dear brethren, we'll just look from verse to verse, and phrase by phrase, and help us as we look down this passage and consider first of all the person of the Lord Jesus in his dealings with God. Now there's one question that arises at the beginning of this psalm. We have to realize that many of the statements in this psalm, David did not physically experience.

Now that we have to, helps us to understand, dear brethren, may I say for the sake of younger ones, concerning divine inspiration. We have in this psalm tremendous example of divine inspiration. There never was a time that David could say, my God, my God, why didst thou forsake me? And so the idea of being forsaken is unique prophetically to the Lord Jesus, and they pierced my hands and my feet.

David had never seen anything like that. Crucifixion was Roman. David did not see it.

But it is prophetically given, and it may have to do with some feelings that he had, but the actual of it is given to us by the Spirit of God in regard to the person of our blessed Savior. And that is one thing that's going to help you again, dear younger ones, in being able to distinguish what is spoken of as messianic psalms. That's very interesting because it requires that there be something that is deliberate concerning the person of the Lord Jesus.

Not necessarily quoted in the New Testament, but deliberately prophesied uniquely for him. And that gives it the character of being a messianic psalm. And that's what we have in this one.

That's just by way of opening, so let us tread very softly, beloved, as we look at this first statement. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You would agree, Brother Smith, that the 22nd Psalm is really the beginning of a block of three psalms really. Peter writes of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, so Psalm 22 is almost like a suspension bridge that starts at that, doesn't it, with the sufferings, and concludes in the 24th Psalm with the glory that should follow.

So that, you know, when you, again, when you come to the 22nd Psalm, it's really what the world thinks of the Lord Jesus. When we come to the 23rd Psalm, it's what the believer thinks of him. But finally, in Psalm 24, it's what God thinks of him.

Thank you. There's a difference between the expression my God in verse 1 and my God in verse 2. In verse 1, the word for God is El, in the singular, and in verse 2 it's Elohim. Mr. Newbery brings out the significance of that in terms of El, it is the mighty one, and yet there's no help given.

And then in verse 2, Elohim, it's God in action. In the beginning, God created Elohim, God in action, but there's no move to help from God. Very good, brother, thank you.

You referred to the psalm as a messianic psalm, and that is correct. When ultimately the fulfillment of Psalm 22 came to pass at the cross, the Jews did not recognize that this was a messianic psalm. The Lord did not mumble, I say, reverently.

He spoke clearly. Yes. My God, Eloi, Eloi.

But the misinterpreted says he calls for Elias. So they didn't want to, they didn't want to recognize that he was a promised Messiah in Psalm 22. Very good, thank you.

It's interesting to me, and provoking to my thinking, of how the psalm commences with the darkness. It doesn't commence with the chronological order of events in the Gospels, you know. So my brethren will help us a little with that.

I think there is a reason for it, but I would like to hear your varied thoughts. It is interesting that it starts with the fourth saying on the cross. Right.

And it does set the psalm apart because, like in Psalm 69, you will read, let their table become a snare unto them. It's mixed with judgments on the people who stood around the cross. But the fourth saying comes after, Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Therefore this Psalm 22 has no thought of that whatever. It is strictly focused on Christ and his devotion to God and his suffering to Christ. So why is it not in chronological order? I think my appreciation of it is the fact that we're looking at the character of a sin offering.

I think there's a character of the psalm that has to be brought into view. And the idea of the sin offering is dealing with the sinner in his relationship with God, not his sins. And so the psalm commences with, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? When we come down to men forsaking him, it is not really the answer for him being the sin offering.

It's the dealings of men against him while he is the sin offering. But the character of the sin offering is when God is dealing with him. And that's where it commences.

Did you have some thought? Yes. Well just, and you can bring that in too, but I thought just keeping in with the psalm here that it is important to notice that it is not in chronological order, maybe for this reason. That to him, that distance, that darkness from his God was a greater suffering even than the piercing of his feet.

Because the piercing of his feet was done by men. I'm not minimizing the suffering of the piercing of his feet, but this was of even greater significance. So therefore, we do not have it in a chronological order.

So, am I hearing right? Are we restricting the time in which he was forsaken to the hours of darkness? In the first part of the psalm, that's what we're looking at, brother. It's God dealing with him. There's no question about that.

And when we look at the latter part, the second part we're talking about is man's dealings with him, but it is interpreted for us still as an extension of him being the sin offering. Okay, so in verse 2, Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. But thou hearest not in the daytime and in the night season.

And I'm not silent. And over all of that, forsaken. So would you agree that the I cry in the daytime is the first three hours, and then when he says the night season would be the next three hours, but it took those six hours to bring about the sufferings.

I do not see that what atoned for our sin, if you want to use the word, was just in three hours. I believe it took the six. I don't think the Bible goes that far.

He bare our sins in his own body on the tree. It doesn't go any closer. The whole of Calvary was necessary for atonement.

But what we're looking at is the dealings of God with his beloved son. And you can take, you must not say that it's limited to the darkness. But I think also brother, we have to remember that that statement in verse 2, I cry in the daytime, thou hearest not, and in the night season, and I'm not silent.

I think that's comprehensive. I think it's just, there never was a moment when the Lord Jesus was not forsaken. That's what he's been dealing with.

You can call it daytime or nighttime if you want to, but God had left him. And that is the point he is making. And wouldn't you agree brother Smith that Leviticus 16 will give us an example? Yes.

Because there was much that the nation could see the priesthood is functioning. Okay, they could see that, but there's much they couldn't see. Yes.

Okay, so. He was alone. It says that.

But both aspects of it were necessary, as you pointed out. Yes. And I think, just to go back to brother Williams' point just for a moment, the cross is a deep and a dark mystery to the human mind.

And the minute that we begin applying boundaries and trying to explain how God works, and we are lifting the cover on the ark. We're going into places that holy feet really shouldn't tread. So I think, really, that sort of restrictiveness on the cross really doesn't honor what happened there.

And I think too, the key expression would be verse 15 at the end, in spite of everything that man did, and thou has brought me into the dust of death. So sometimes we can get all occupied with what men did to him, but this is really centering, as you said, on God dealing with Christ for our sins. Yes.

And even, brother, when we come down to it and beginning to look at the way the Lord expresses it regarding coming from man, it all has to do with the fact of him being forsaken. The whole thing. But this is not the character here.

This is Calvary and the grace of God. And the Savior never spoke much of judgment as far as this dispensation is concerned. That belongs to another dispensation.

Yes. That's strictly Calvary in its intensity and suffering. In our first verse too, just for the sake of our meditation and view of the remembrance of the Lord, the word for forsaken is described in these different manners.

At the end of verse 1, for example, so far from helping me. And the word for being so far is the idea that he could not reach God. It's not that he was removed at a distance, but it's so far from helping me.

He couldn't reach him with his roarings. He couldn't reach him with his crying. It's the loneliness, the forsakenness of our blessed Lord at Calvary.

It's indescribable by us. Would the thought then be a total of abandonment? Abandonment. Yeah.

Is that right? It's an interesting thing because in the Hebrew, the word for forsaken is really limited to the one idea of abandonment. And that is God turned his back upon him. He turned away from him.

When you come to the Greek and the New Testament, it's a trilogy of thought, which is interesting. The word for forsaken does mean to be abandoned, but it means to be held down in the place of an outside place. Held down there.

Can't get out. He's being held down. And yet the third idea of the word for forsaken is the idea that they've been abandoned, and he's been held down, and he has been disowned.

It's the idea of being disowned, cut off from all inheritance and everything. So really the forsakenness of our Lord, we have no conception of what it must have meant to his holy being to be forsaken by God. So then, Brother Younger, give us help then.

We often hear people talk about the orphan cry of Christ. That wouldn't be scriptural because the father never forsook the son. We're not looking at that relationship here, are we? So give some help.

That's a very good point to bring up, Brother, because what we're dealing with is the Lord Jesus as He is in the sense in which He is a substitute. He is the one who is putting himself in the position of responsibility for the sinner. And He is being dealt with by God as He's going to bring out the different characteristics of God, and our brother has mentioned it, in relation to His holiness and His power and the greatness of His own being, is being defied by man, and now here's the substitute, and He's going to realize that.

So it's not an orphan cry. There's not, in any moment, was there ever a separation between father and son. Never.

He is representative as the sinner, and He is being dealt with by God. It's tremendous to think that He was forsaken, the Lord Jesus was forsaken. We deserve to be forsaken forever.

Abandoned, disowned, kept down. Amen, Brother. But because of what He experienced, we'll never experience that.

But He did experience it. These first verses are emphasizing the fact that He did it all alone. Yes.

You know, there's no one to help, forsaken of His God, but He's not complaining about the forsaking. He's giving the reason for it, and I think we need to move on a little bit, if you can. You know, but thou art holy.

Yes, that's fine, Brother. We can keep moving, but there's one thing that must be remembered even when we're thinking of the word forsaken. He says, My God.

His relationship to God, He never wanted to have broken. My God. It is a judicial matter here, isn't it? Yes.

Because some folks, they may do it because of ignorance. They say the Father forsook Him. Now, that can be corrected, but it's a judicial aspect because God was also His Father.

Yes, but there was never a break between the Father and the Son. That's an impossibility because of His eternal being, oneness and equality. But let us consider now looking at verse 2. My God and I, we have considered a little in the night seasons, and the day seasons am not silent.

And verse 3 tells us, but thou art holy. And now in verses 3 to 5, it really does relate to the fact that this is the way He is looked upon. He is looked upon as the one who could never enter into Israel.

They cried out, how come, Lord? I'm not being delivered. And His own personal devotion and His own holiness, He brings into the picture here. And He is the man of sorrows and the one who is acquainted with grief.

Three times over, we have those two words, but thou. We have it in verse 3, have it in verse 9, and in verse 19. In verse 3, we're still dealing with His sufferings, being forsaken by God.

In verse 9, it comes on the heels of what the people are saying, what man is saying, let Him deliver Him, saying He delighteth in Him, but thou art He. And then in verse 19, it's in that section dealing with the enemy, Satan himself, that's afflicting Him, but thou. And at each stage of His sufferings, whether from God, from man, or from Satan, He's vindicating God, but thou.

And He's worshiping in that expression, isn't He? It's very important in verse 3, thou art holy thou that are enthroned in the praises of Israel. There are people, and I'm almost afraid to say this, but many of these new atheists that are writing so many books, you know, assault the person of the Lord Jesus. That's really their goal.

And they would take a verse like Psalm 22 that begins with the word why, and they would say, well you see, that just shows that Christ was just this man, and He didn't know what was happening to Him. To the contrary, the Lord Jesus, in the eternal counsels of God, actually planned the cross. The Lord Jesus actually formed the very thing that He was now enduring.

This is not a question of an ignorant man who answers his own questions. Thou art holy. It is the absolute perfection of God that demands the cross as a response to our sin, and so therefore we must take a high view.

Christ is not asking this, wondering what's happening to Him. He knows God's holiness is the thing that's at stake. I think that's very important to emphasize.

What happens to you and I when we suffer is we we start to question the character of God, but you're looking at a sinless sufferer, and he kept upholding the character of God, okay? Sorry brother, go ahead. And that's true, although really the holiness of God did not have to be vindicated, okay? I think it's good to just keep that other side of it in mind, Brother Smith, but the holiness of God here didn't necessarily solve the problem. It added to it, because he says thou art holy, and the result of that is that a character so consistent with thine, then why this? Yeah, yeah, that's right, and even the ones who did cry unto God and were delivered, what did they cry for? Because they were in position of being forsaken, and he heard them and delivered them, so he's really dealing with the fact that his dealings from God, God is holy, and there is no deliverance for the character of what he is sustaining at Calvary.

That appreciation for the the holy character of God, Brother, could you equate that or link it with the the fact of the sin offering? Yes. That was most holy and placed upon the altar to be consumed for God, while the body of the beast was taken without the count, here is that which is a sweet savor aspect to the sin offering, his appreciation of God. Jim, not to hold you back, but something that I know Mr. Lavery wants us to move on, but something that is nice to notice that Moses in Exodus 20 would go into the darkness where he would find God.

Oh yes. Here's one that went into darkness and God was not to be found. Amen.

What a contrast. Amen. Yes.

I was just thinking that with all that inhabitus the praises of Israel could link with the sin offering on the day of atonement. And God is most holy, the sin offering is most holy, doesn't say that of the of the burnt offering. No.

You know it's guarding the the holiness of the Lord himself. Amen. And then that inhabitus the praises of Israel, while while that carcass was being consumed outside the camp, there was a sweet smelling savor ascended.

And I think that's at least a hint of that here, the praises ascend like a cloud of incense, the praise of Israel. There is too, in regard to the sin offering too, in relation to what we're looking at right here in the loneliness of the Lord Jesus, there were two aspects of loneliness in the sin offering. The one was the outside place, it must be burned outside the camp.

The other was the poor man's sin offering. It was a handful of flour, no frankincense, and no oil. It was the nakedness of being forsaken, and that was cast upon the altar.

So it is the idea here again of the loneliness of the Lord Jesus in his forsakenness at Calvary. Continue now in verse six, I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despise of the people. And it relates, as we were thinking, to Isaiah chapter 53.

He was stricken and smitten of God, they said, and afflicted. That's why he's like he is. God's against them.

And that is his humiliation of being considered as a worm. It's interesting that God calls Jacob a worm in Isaiah. Oh thou worm Jacob.

But the interesting thing is, he uses there an earthworm. But this is not an earthworm. No.

This is a worm that's crushed for the die. It is the great beauty of the Tola worm. Isn't it interesting, brother, that William there mentioned about threes.

Isn't it interesting that you start out with in verses one to five, and you have the female red deers you brought out, and then you come to verses six down to verse eight, you got this idea of a worm. And then verse nine, you're introduced to a child. Yes.

I see increasing dependence. The deer, the worm, the child. And then you contrast that to the ferocious animals at the next section.

You're introduced to the ox, the lion, and the dog. You've got an increase in viciousness or harm. So it's quite a contrast in the psalm, and the Lord is right in the midst of it.

Yes. There's a thought too, isn't there, about the worm and the child are defenseless. The Lord is not putting up any defense.

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. Our hearts should be touched when we think of the tenderness, like the hind of the morning, the tenderness of the Lord. Sin bothers us, but we're born sinners.

But imagine someone that never had any taint of sin about him at any time, and yet here he is, made sin for us. And in relation to the worm too, they were bred to be crushed. I think that's one of the thoughts that's even behind this.

That's why he came into the world, was to be crushed at Calvary. And perhaps the scarlet links this with Mark's gospel of the servant, so that you have the Father here enthroned in the praises of Israel. This is the King in all of his holy glory.

Where do we find Christ? The lowly servant that's moving to Calvary. So the three aspects, as you agree here, there's three aspects, Brother Smith. The worm and no man, that's what they thought personally.

He says the reproach of men, so they thought of him socially. Then he says despised of men, that's what he was nationally, because that is developed forces we perceive. Yes, yeah, the no man, but I'm a worm and no man.

Yeah, that's man in his dignity, is the word there. But then our approach of men, that's the word for Adam, man in his natural state. A worm is the lowest thing that you could think about, and that's what they thought of the Lord.

This couldn't be any lower, hardly, than a worm. And they laugh, you know, it's something. They sat down and watched him there.

They laughed me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they make faces, we would say, at him and shake the head. He trusted in the Lord.

Now here he is, all alone. I think, too, that we do have to keep in mind while we're looking at what man is doing to him, the point being made is, they considered this to be his condition, because of God was against them. That's what they were looking at, and that's what it's describing.

It's still dealing with this idea of being forsaken. And we're looking at it, of course, here in verse 8, verse 7, all they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip.

They say, he trusted on the Lord. You remember Calvary, they said, if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross and we will believe thee. That's the idea that's here.

He's the forsaken one, and the expressions of men were only, you know, emphasizing that fact, yes. But in their wickedness, they actually managed to say beautiful things. How about the day that they came and said, this man received the sinners and eateth with them.

That was supposed to be an insult. That was a glorious acknowledgment of who he was. This verse says, let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

And that was supposed to be a put-down. What a wonderful thing, the Lord Jesus always delighted in his God. It's true, yes, thank the Lord.

Just a quick comment to show you once again the inspiration. I'm sure you know this, brother. In verse number 4, our fathers trusted.

Now it's a different word when it's applied to the Lord in verse 8. He trusted. The first one there in verse 4 is really the idea of inward confidence. Verse number 8 is the idea of outward expression.

It's the rolling over of all the care. So they saw in the life of the Lord, someone who was completely dependent upon his God. And they had to acknowledge that, brother Dan, just along what you said there.

I wondered at the end of verse 8, seeing he delighted in him, is that the Lord Jesus delighting in his father, or is that the father delighting in him, or are both true? Well, we know that both is true, all right, but the point being made here is it's a word of derision against the Lord Jesus, seeing he delighted in him. That was his claim, wasn't it? Remember how he even preached it. He said that, I love the Father.

He told them that. And he was one with the Father. I and the Father are one.

If that's the case, well, what's going on here? Seeing you delighted in him, you're forsaken by him. I think the statement is ambiguous. I think it could be read both ways, but I personally was enjoying the dependence and the delight of Christ and the Father, but certainly the Father did delight in him also.

That seems to me, though, that he trusted on the Lord. He was trusting on God, and yet God didn't deliver him. That's what they're saying, I think.

Yes, it must be carried down. We're looking at it really statement by statement, because at the beginning of verse 7, and then in verse 8, is the derision of men. But then the Lord Jesus mentions the same thing in verse 9 and 10.

He says, but thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the womb.

Thou art my God from my mother's belly. So that is his own expression of the understanding and the wretchedness, the awfulness of his condition in being forsaken. He had no man, but he still had his God, didn't he? It's interesting that you had three references.

Once again, the three. Verse 9, the womb. Verse 10, womb.

The end of verse 10, mother's belly. And in contrast to these men of verses 4 and 5, where their trust started at a certain point in their life, here's the great contrast. Right from the midst of the womb, this one had trust in his God.

So you're looking at, I love the expression, verse, thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. As the sinless child, Christ, drew nourishment from an earthly mother, he drew spiritual nourishment from his God. Like, that is staggering.

That is so unique. No other infant that could be set up in this world. Just Christ.

And it's beautiful. And it's being spoken of before his birth. And the other thing, I think that the point being made here is the Lord is declaring his sinlessness and his devotion, and still he's forsaken.

So it's the feelings of his heart, you know, because he is declaring that he righteously should have been accepted, that he is forsaken. So we see Brother Smith that the psalm really brings before us when he cried, where he cried, and what he cried. Okay, so that's really, he says, be not far from me, trouble is near, there is none to help.

Would you take it that verse number 12, many bulls have encompassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have set me round, that this possibly could be the house of Caiaphas? Yes, I would take them to be the leaders. They were the, yeah, they were the fomentors of the hatred against the Lord Jesus amongst the normal people. The many bulls, and then he mentions them as the strong bulls of Bashan, which it was acknowledged that they were a very special breed of fierce bulls.

It's the thought of their agitation, isn't it? Some of these farmers know a lot better than I do. It's one thing to have a bull or two in the field, maybe one, but here's many of them. And it's not a thought that they're, you know, just kind of grazing around.

These were agitated. They were like bulls, and they were like lions. So the bull, the thought I think would be pressure, you know, and the lion tears apart.

It's interesting that the picture commencing in verse 11, there is none to help. It brings to mind the picture of the arena of those days. There's a man put into the arena, and he doesn't have a sword, he has nothing.

And they open the gates, and behold, the wild beasts come out to tear him to pieces. That's the picture that is here. The Lord's looking upon himself as that lonely individual with those wild beasts coming against him.

While you're on the animals, brother, then I know it's a couple of verses ahead, but then who are the dogs? Pardon me? Who are the dogs? I take to be Gentiles, the unclean beasts would be the Gentiles. The bulls, we realize the lion too, but the lion seems to be more of the political and the governmental against the Lord Jesus, whereas the bulls were the leaders, and the dogs are the Gentiles. What a contrast, brother, with Daniel's experience.

The mouths of lions are closed, here they're opened. And when it comes to the deliverance of the nation of Israel in Exodus, you remember that, and it's amazing because there's nothing noisier than a Palestinian knight with those dogs going. Not a one of them moves his tongue.

Everything's closed. But here the dogs are active. Yes, yeah.

Would you allow, brother, the ox, as you brought up to be the Jewish leaders, the dogs to be the Gentiles? It's interesting to see that the lion that's mentioned twice is always singular. Oxes are plural, the dogs are plural. So I was looking at the lion as the satanic behind.

Now we know that man was a ready instrument to inflict pain upon Christ, but the overriding words, this is thy, you're our, and the power of darkness. So we see the lion moving behind the ox and behind the dog. Very good, brother.

That's one of the most beautiful thoughts. Pardon me. I think it's an expression of the heart of the Lord as well, that there isn't one of them out there that's capable of understanding this.

I'm alone, not understood. So the words of his roaring brother Smith was not that he's expressing a language of distrust, but distress. Yes, that was his experience.

I think that's brought before us in the next verse that we have. Remember, I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax. That's a defeated man. And it's no exaggeration.

We have to remember this. This is really the experience of the Lord Jesus on the cross. His heart was like wax.

Just the very bottom of the ladder, he's done. Once again, you have another three. You're going to get tired of the same threes.

Verse number 14, like water, like wax, like a pot shirt. And what I was simply enjoying from that was like water, no resistance. You envision water being poured out, it just offers no resistance.

You have like wax, no retreat. The only way that wax can get away from a flame is to allow the flame to melt it. So there was no withdrawing of the Lord as he came into this incredible heat.

You have the idea behind like a pot shirt, no repair. So you take a vessel, you drop it on the ground, and all those pieces shatter. Let us never forget that the wrath of God for our sin touched every atom of his being.

It crushed him. And that's quite something to see that building. It was extremely personal to him, these sufferings.

Twelve times over, beginning with my bones, we get my mentioned twelve times over. And it's touching to remember that the number twelve is linked with government. So here's the one who is personally suffering so intensely that will, in a coming day, be the governor over the whole earth.

And he will be vindicated. And he'll have his rightful place then. Father, what about the expression, all my bones? Would that have been, is that literally what happened or just figurative? I don't think every bone in the body of the Lord Jesus was out of joint.

That's not the point. The point is the character even of crucifixion and hanging from the tree. Undoubtedly, he felt every bone.

Every bone would indeed be stretched and would be painful to him. But I think it's a figurative language of the fact that his whole being was in the suffering. Brethren, when we stop to think, a crown of thorns upon his head, his back laid open like a plowed field, his face is torn, spit upon, bruised.

I mean, from top to bottom, I think that's the idea. All my bones are out of joint. There's not a part of him that was not suffering.

There are two aspects that the Lord spoke of before he went to the cross. He had a baptism to be baptized with and he had a cup to drink. And in the baptism, that's the person immersed in the element.

And then it's the element in the person, in the cup. And I agree with you about his bones. There was no disfigurement.

They didn't break his leg. It's not that he died and there was some miracle took place, but they couldn't touch his body as far as that was concerned. And if all his bones were out of joint, he wouldn't have been able to speak.

He would not have been able to cry out. He wouldn't have been able to breathe. He would have died from that source and that would not be possible.

When he said, it's brought me into the dust of death, I look at that as the ashes of the sin offering. The work completed. We should think, Brother Smith, too, that David, when he withheld and tried to cover his sin, he said that his bones began to speak.

He spoke of the roaring as a result of that. But here's the sinless one that is really experiencing that. Would it maybe be better to say, rather than to say that he was a defeated man, that he seemed as a defeated man, because I believe that in all this he was forever victorious.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that over, Brother, because I meant to point out with Brother McLeod's point there is the word like. It was like that to him. That's what he looked like.

That's what he felt like. But he never was a defeated man, an impossibility. I appreciated in your opening, Brother Jim, the way that you pointed out that this psalm is such a wonderful statement of inspiration.

So we come to this statement now that they pierced my hands and my feet. Yes. Hundreds of years before the Roman Empire ever existed.

Hundreds of years, as far as we know, before crucifixion was practiced. Explicitly, the kind of death that Jesus Christ would suffer is laid out in detail here. And really, you have to do immense violence to everything that the Bible is about to deny that this clearly states that the Holy Spirit of God moved David by inspiration to foretell what was going to happen with the Christ.

There were two ways in the Old Testament under the law that men were hanged on trees, but never by piercing. They were hung there. In shame, the prodigal was stoned and then his body was hung on a tree, but it was not crucifixion.

And it was the same with the atrocities of war. Men's bodies would be taken and hung on the sides of buildings or hung on trees to show their despicable character and as well their shame. But never was there the piercings of hands and feet for crucifixion.

Just to show you the increasing pain and peril that's happening here, you got the three animals mentioned, the ox, the lion, the dog. Look what you have three times, verse 12, many bulls compassed me. They seem to be on the edge.

Then you come down to verse 12 again, beset me round. Come down to verse 16, you have the compass again, but only once. Look at verse 16, the middle, have enclosed me.

It's as if they're circling and now all together in a united, they all come in to enclose. So then when you come to the end of your section, you've got quick together, verse 20, the power or the paw of the dog, the lion's mouth, and the horns of the unicorn. No longer are they out there taunting.

They're right all in on top, if I can say that reverently, on top of them in for the kill, so to speak. So you see that increasing pain, viciousness. The fact that he pierced his hands and his feet, that was a punishment invented by the Phoenicians and carried out by the Romans.

And I think when you speak of him being on the tree, he made a curse and so on. You have Jew and Gentile guilty, everyone guilty. He's holy, but everyone's sinful and guilty.

I like to think of it too, you know, when in the upper room, when the Lord appeared to the dear disciples, he showed them his hands and his feet. And it's also going to be the fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah. So he showed them his hands and his feet as the fulfillment of this prophecy.

And also the one that will be in the future, the wounds in his hands. Brother Dan has mentioned this is evidence of inspiration. We also get that as well in verse 18.

This verse is cited in John 19. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. And thousands of years later, this, therefore, the soldiers did.

They fulfilled this scripture. And John tells us, too, that it was the soldiers that planted the crown of thorns. It was the soldiers that pierced his side.

And it was the soldiers that parted his garment. Could there be a link here somehow with the priestly garments, you know, and the priest going into the holiest just with the linen garment? He didn't need the garment really to prove that he was holy. That's what I'm thinking.

I'm just thinking out loud. Maybe I should think more about it. But it just comes to mind, you know.

To Brother Dan's comment about inspiration, as we all agree. Here's another one to prove it. Notice carefully the context, you know.

Verse 12, he got the ox. We understood that to be the Jewish nation. Then we got the line.

Then we come into the dog section, the Gentiles. Look what you find in the dog section, verse 16. They pierced.

It wasn't the Jews that pierced his hands. It was the dogs, the Gentiles. The Jewish nation had no power to kill.

They had to go to the Romans and try to convince them, capital punishment, kill him. So here's something that's prophesied a thousand years before it happened. And the Spirit of God says it won't be the Jews that will pierce him.

It will be the Gentiles. In verse 20, it's a dog singular. But you have the dogs that hunt and packs, the wild dogs.

In the light that no bone of our Savior's body was broken. Isn't that amazing, brethren? During the crucifixion, the soldiers were guided that no bone was affected. The human hand has 28 bones.

And to just drive a nail through and not affect any bones, just a mystery. Amen. One time when I was having meetings out here in Iowa, I put my neck out, looking out the window of my car.

And so I went to a chiropractor. He was a Catholic man. I had a very nice talk with him.

He said to me, you know, Mr. Smith, he said, crucifixion, he said the nails going through the hands and the feet of the Lord Jesus, one of the reasons they did that was because that put the body into continuous spasms of pain. So the body of the Lord Jesus, I think that's the idea of I may tell all my bones. It was just continual spasms as His body would be jerking.

And crucifixion was a horrible thing for them. The Lord experienced that too. And yet we remind ourselves once again this morning that while they pierced Him, it was God's will, I'm quoting from Isaiah 53, to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer.

And as excruciating as all of these things are that men inflicted, we are only standing at the very margin of the suffering of His soul. Yes. These are the sufferings in a sense of what He felt in His body.

But really when the Holy One touched Him for our sin in His soul, then that is something that is veiled in darkness. We cannot even begin to enter that. That's the cry of verse 20.

Yes. Deliver my soul from the sword. And we remember the prophecy of Zechariah, Arise, O sword against the man that is my fellow.

Another nice thing, brother, to show the increasing anxiety as these foes, you know, they come right in for the kill, so to speak. Look at the closeness of these verbs in verse 19. O my strength, haste.

Verse 20, deliver. Verse 21, save. Those three Hebrew verbs, it's in the imperative mode.

It's a command. So you've got this idea of this desperation, and in quick succession, you have these three verbs. Bang, they just happen right away as the desperateness of the situation increases.

And He calls out for His God. I've wondered, or not wondered, but I've been thrilled with the thought that there's pierced feet in Psalm 22, but one day there's going to be planted feet as He reigns for God. Amen.

Yes. God has heard me. There was an answer.

An answer in resurrection and in future glory. What are the horns of the wild buffalo, brother, as we close? Pardon me? What are the horns of the unicorns or wild buffalo here that are mentioned? Yeah, well, I think the point being made is it's like at this point in the psalm, save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. Our brother McLeod has brought up the lion's mouth being Satan, and there's undoubtedly the point that when the Lord Jesus left Gethsemane, He said, this is your hour and the power of darkness.

So at Calvary, the devil was unrestrained in his assault against the person of our Lord Jesus. And this seems to be the summation of that. This is the high mark of it.

And he mentions there then that in verse 20, deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog, and save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. So in the midst of it, we realize that there is the confidence of the Lord Jesus that in the fulfillment of it, He would be delivered. And there comes a point where wicked men are never going to touch Him again.

Oh, yes. You know, they've done what they're going to do, but now He's going to be laid in a new tomb. Now He's going to be handled by disciples.

Now they're going to put their hand, you know, they're going to touch Him. And so I think it just summarizes this final conclusive spasm of their evil. And God is going to say, that's enough.

And now I'm going to embrace my son. And believers are going to embrace Him. What were your thoughts, William, on the horns of the unicorns? Oh, I accept fully what my brother is saying.

It's a summation of all of that power of darkness that was arrayed against them. See, in the Middle East, they actually had an animal that was equal to the Texas Longhorns. And that's where the strength was.

Although its tips were extremely sharp. So it's the power of this animal. The rhinoceros has two horns, too.

Horns, plural. I thought personally that it really was a picture of the strength and resurrection. Maybe taking it to the other side.

But I had looked at it more as the power that was to be being heard in resurrection. Thou will not leave my soul in hell. That's the point that's being made here.

He would never be left in the place of... And we have come to close, brethren, so we'll close with a psalm. That's what we have in the last part of this beautiful psalm. Three choirs, and I'm in one of them.

So are you, thank God, in the second one. We shall praise our blessed Lord who was forsaken. He was alone in his sorrow, but he wasn't alone in the psalm, was he? Amen.

No. Forever and ever.