Psalm 22

Just a devotional thought on Christ's Psalm 22. Nothing gives you the incentive to live for him like the Lord Jesus. Sometimes we can try to put the cart before the horse and out of pure determination I'm going to live for God but that will never last.

Nothing like just focusing in on the Lord Jesus, meditating upon him. Psalm 22 is probably, well you can see it's probably the most marked up in my Bible. Whenever I need a go-to, I just go to Psalm 22 and that's where I love to think.

So we'll start, always good to read the title in the songs because they are part of the inspired Word of God. Part of verse 1, to the chief musician, upon Angela Shachar, a Psalm of David. My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far? The word far will appear three times in this chapter.

Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Let your eye go over to verse 25. He says, my praise. You can really take this Psalm and divide it neatly into two parts.

It's all about my roaring, the sob, the sorrow, and the last part is all about his praise. It's all about his worship. It's all about a song and the whole division of it is in verse 21 where he is heard and that's where the whole thing changes.

As you're reading Psalm 21, Psalm 22 starting verse 1, the whole scene starts to get darker and darker and darker as you're moving and then by the time you hit number 22, I would declare my name just like the dimmer switch. All of a sudden then the light just starts getting brighter and brighter and brighter. So it's an amazing time.

I don't think anything in the life of David is in this Psalm. I think it's all 100% referring to the Lord Jesus Christ prophetically. It would be my own personal understanding of it.

Angela Shachar, that's the red deer, the female red deer, the doe, often referred to as the dawn of the morning. What you're going to notice in this chapter, we'll look at it in just a second, is I want you to notice the different animals, the different things that are brought before us. Some of them picture the Lord Jesus, the first three will, and then when in a little later on you'll see things that picture humanity and the devil as well.

So look at what we have in verse number two. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent. Now if you have a Newberry Bible, he's very helpful.

The last phrase of verse two, and in the night season and I am not silent, there is no silence to me. What that means is because there was no response from heaven when he was calling out to his God, he kept calling. He kept roaring.

There's a there's a tremendous sense of desperation there. Like if I was talking to Frank, this is the polite thing to do, hello Frank, how are you? You know, I'm waiting for him to come in and respond and the minute I pick up him responding, I'm supposed to shut him out and listen, right? That's kind of the polite thing to do. But this servant, the Lord Jesus, when he's on that cross, he's calling for his God.

He's calling for his God. He's calling for his God. You get the sense? Calling for his God.

That's all he heard was his own voice. Calling in desperation. You go further into the Psalms, I sink in deep mire where there is no standing.

We often think of quicksand, it just keeps slowly taking you down. Listen, his sufferings are infinite. There was no bottom to it.

He kept sinking as he kept roaring. Just absolutely so dark. Incredible.

Like those things don't move you. You need to be saved. That's how I look at it.

I'm just black and white because that is my Savior and that should just draw me out to him. Look at what he says in verse number three. But thou art holy.

Now I want you to get this. I know the way it's traditionally explained. People will say, well this is the reason why he was forsaken.

I'm sorry, but I find that very hard to take. Let's read the verse. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Listen, what do you and I do when we're in a trial? I'll tell you what I do. I start the question, God. Is this right, God? Are you right? What you're doing to me? You want to know what the perfect servant, the attitude of his heart was? In the midst of his darkness, in the midst of him sinking, in the midst of his, of him roaring, you're still holy.

But thou art holy. And this phrase brings it, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. It's the idea of being enthroned.

You're still at the peak and you're worthy to be worshipped. This is the servant. What do I do when I'm in a trial? I tend to pray less.

There's not a whole lot of worship in this heart because I'm all so self-consumed with what I'm going through. Here is God's perfect son. Here's God's perfect servant.

We know that God got tremendous delight out of him as a man. In his life, his miracles, what he did, how he said, everything about him. But the pleasure in his suffering.

That's the fine flower we heard about this morning. That's the fine gold. This is the Lord Jesus.

Look what you have now in verse number four. Our fathers trusted in thee. Now just remember there was a point when that trust started.

You're gonna find in a minute there was no point with him. You and I, there was a moment of salvation in our life when we put our trust in him. Okay, look what he says.

Verse four. 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.

We started with the, with the red deer, the female red deer. That female red deer was known to be so quick on its feet. You're going to be introduced here in a minute to the ox.

You're going to be introduced to the dog, the dogs. You're gonna be introduced to the lions. That female red deer could outrun every one of them.

That lovely picture of our Savior. Think of him in the garden of Gethsemane. Could I not now call more than twelve legions of angels? Think of the one who willingly just stretched out his hands.

Let these go. Here, take me. I have power to lay it down.

I have power to raise it again. Tremendous. So the way this psalm starts off, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? He is reflecting back upon what has happened.

We hear this, we hear this in prayer, and I'm not trying to find somebody wrong because of a word out of place, but they'll often refer to this cry, my God, my God. It came out of the darkness. It's not what the Bible would teach.

It's after the darkness is over. You see, you might wonder about this chapter, everything is there for a reason. It's not until later in the chapter, verse number 16, where they pierced his hands and his feet, but the chapter starts out with what happened right near the end of the crucifixion.

Do you know why? We often get very taken up with the pain that men inflicted upon him. Do you want to know, dear child of God, what was the greatest pain to him? Forsaken of his God. That's why that is right at the top, and then it seems the whole order then goes out.

So he's reflecting back on this tremendous event, and this is what's on the top of his mind. Look what you have there, back to verse 6. But I am a worm and no man. Can you imagine the great I am referring to himself as a worm? That's tremendous.

So now you're moving, as I said, from a deer, quick on its feet, now you're moving to a worm. Doesn't really have feet, but it's very slow moving. At least it can move.

I want you to notice what it says in verse number 28, and he is the governor. First part of the psalm, but I am a worm. Contrasted to the governor.

That's the same person that we're looking at here. That is the Lord Jesus. Our approach of men and despised of the people.

It's interesting in the Hebrew language, you have a number of different words for man, mankind. You have men of high degree, men of low degree, common men. Look back to verse 6, but I am a worm and no man of high degree.

Then you come into the next phrase, a reproach of men, the common man. So all strata of humanity despised him. As we've been hearing, no one had appreciation for him and despised other people.

All they did see me laughing to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake head. That is a very interesting statement. They shoot out the lip.

You ever seen somebody so mad, it's almost like their lips are protruding. They got so much force behind their words. There was such rage in the heart of people for this person.

They shoot out the lip. They just stand there and shake the head. How can this be the Christ? No, no way.

That's Isaiah 53. The people esteemed him, stricken, smitten of the Lord. They looked upon him on the cross.

The lip is just shooting out hatred. The head is shaking. No way this is the Christ.

No way. Amazing to think that he tolerated it. Coming from an environment of heaven, where every single eye, every being that looked upon him, just recognized him constantly.

Holy, holy, holy art thou. That wasn't something that was just sort of a little hymn in heaven that was maybe sung every hour. That's constantly in heaven.

He's holy. Think about earth. I marveled the different gospels as you heard at the conference.

I marveled the gospel of John that brings before us the deity of the Lord Jesus, the unique son of God. And only once the spirit of God records somebody worshiping him, a blind man. You would think that there would be thousands of people that would bow down and worship him.

You're going to get more people worshiping other gospels. But here is John writing from the perspective of a son and a father. And here he is constantly referring to the Lord Jesus, referring to his father in heaven.

And if I ascend back up where I was before, the idea of I'm away from home, and he's watching this one, and to think of the dignity of this one, and just one person worships him. That's all that John records. See, dear child, what am I trying to encourage you? This is the uniqueness of the Bible.

You give the spirit of God just a little time. Do you know what he'll do? He'll fill your mind. He will.

It's not something like, like everybody gets the idea of an encouraged discipleship. So you've encouraged in all these things. And it's almost like, okay, okay, it's like a switch.

I'm gonna, that's it. I'm going to go home tonight, and I'm going to study the Bible for an hour. You'll never do it.

Start with five minutes. You'll find it'll increase to 10. It's just a habit, right? And then how many people can only handle one cup of coffee a day? Normally it's like maybe like, oh, I need another one.

And then you go get another one. Oh, I better get one on the way home for work. Oh, I'll get another one.

Oh, I need one before going to bed. See the habit? That's a bad habit, by the way. This is a good habit.

And the spirit of God that dwells inside every one of us literally is longing to fill your mind and my mind. And that love, I mean, we wish we loved him more. Isn't it nice being in a morning meeting or somewhere where you just, you just kind of let it fresh and flow over your soul.

He loves me. And I love him. That's what Christianity is all about.

It's not about all these rules and regulations. Look at verse number eight. He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him.

Let him deliver him. These are the people. Seeing he delighted in him.

This is what the people knew. They knew that there was delight. God delighted in this perfect servant.

But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope. Confidence.

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. That could never be said of one, not another person on the face of the earth.

I came out of my mother's womb a sinner. Because I was a sinner in the womb for nine months. The Lord Jesus even acknowledged his God those nine months in the womb.

That's tremendous. Coming out. Here, what a, listen, we started with the red deer.

Quite agile. We've moved to a worm. At least it can move.

Now you're looking at an infant. A newborn. What can it do? You see the increasing weakness.

But you know what you'll notice? Just running alongside of that increasing dependence on his God. Dear child, that's all that happened as the darkness of Calvary increased. His dependence on his God increased.

That is the perfect servant. We need to go quickly here. I've often thought to myself, you know, I've had children.

They're growing up now. And I used to remember holding on to the little infant and wondering, like, what is that thing thinking? Eyes are moving. What's going through its mind? I have no idea.

I can't remember when I had my first coherent thought. So whatever. Maybe I don't have too many of them right now.

But listen, this little infant. I don't know what Mary thought holding on to that child. And there is that little child drawing nourishment from its mother.

That's what we would look at. But you know what was happening in the heart of that child? He was just drawing nourishment from his God. No woman ever before nursed a sinless child.

It'll never happen again. So unique. I love to go next to that event in the temple of 12 years of age.

And there are those doctors and lawyers. Not a wonder they marveled at his answers and his questions. Because never before sat before them a sinless 12-year-old boy.

And here he is quoting his own word. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. That was often what they did at the Bar Mitzvah of the 12.

They would quote from memory the Pentateuch. Not a wonder they marveled as he just quoted his own words that he gave to Moses. My, what vibrancy he would read the Scriptures with.

We look for him on every page. He's there. But he's the one that put the whole thing together.

I just think it's amazing. Let's finish quickly here. I want you to go down.

Look at verse number 12. Okay, verse 12. Be not far, far.

There's the second time. Be not far from me, for trouble is near. For there's none to help.

Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me around. There's those, those Jewish leaders.

That's how you can picture them, the bulls of Bashan. Then you come next to, they gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. So now you got, in contrast to these animals in the first part, now you've got the ox and the bulls.

And then you've got the nose, the singular lion. You've got the plural bulls. Now you've got the singular 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. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws like water. You got like water, like wax, like a potsherd.

Like water. If I was to take that and pour it, do you know what? That liquid offers no resistance. It just, it just moves in the direction it's poured.

Isn't that a lovely picture of his obedience? What happens to you and I as we get close to heat or pain? It's instinctual. My brother mentioned about the eye. Ever notice how fast your body reacts to something you can't even see come at your eye? It blinks before you even realize it.

That's built into the human body. As the Lord Jesus pressed forward to Calvary, he never flinched once. He just kept going.

Isn't that marvelous? And we end with this. Look what you have in, like wax, let me tell you this, like wax, like wax, no retreat. How does wax get away from the flame? It has to be melted.

Christ allowed the heat. He fully experienced it, dear child of God. Never recoiled.

If I can use the figure, he just let it melt him. What a thing, eh? Keep going. We end with this here.

Verse number 16. For dogs have come, dogs of the Gentiles, you know that that's a common thread through the word of God. For dogs have encompassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.

They, dogs, pierced. Who pierced the Lord Jesus? The Jews or the Romans? See how perfect the word of God is? We're not demodoxing anymore. It was the dogs, the Gentiles.

They're the ones that pierced him. Of course, the Jews, Jews, the Romans, we know that. That's the word of God for you, dear child.

Every single line is just beaming with Christ. So maybe take a few minutes just to fill our minds with it, meditate upon it, and you'd be surprised how automatic you'll want to serve him. Not that you have to.