If you would turn with me in your copies of God's word to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. And we'll commence our reading there at the superscription. To the chief musician, upon a yaleh shahar, a psalm of David. 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 hearest 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 and 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 and there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me around. 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 pot shirt. And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the doths 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. Oh, 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 hast 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 can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him. It shall be counted 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. Amen. May the Lord bless us as we take up this portion of his word this evening. We have seen the king. In the 20th and in the 21st Psalms, we have seen him. We saw him, first of all, in the 20th Psalm as one suffering. We saw him there singled out by Jehovah for adversity. And in the 21st Psalm, we saw there that this king cried out to God for life. And in that same 21st Psalm, we find that the king has his request granted and that he is given life and life forevermore. In the 20th Psalm again, we find that indeed the king is accepted. And the church cries in that 20th Psalm that in his salvation, we the church would rejoice. And again, in that 21st Psalm, we're told why. Because in his salvation, the church has her blessings secured. He was set up as blessedness for her, as a conduit of blessing. And as he is established, she is established. All of these themes we've seen already. A king in suffering and then delivered. And in his deliverance, the safety and the security of the church. All of those themes are not only present in this psalm this evening, they are epitomized. You might even say amplified, but with one major distinction. In this 22nd Psalm, it's not words about the King, but these are words by the King. This 22nd Psalm takes all of those themes that we've considered these past several weeks and places them in the most intimate and the most personal way possible. You and I hear the agony of the king. And you and I also see in a brilliant way, the blessing that accrues to the church in his deliverance, in his securing of our salvation. This 22nd Psalm is perhaps more personal than we recognize. And with God's blessing this evening, it should be our prayer that we would see it so. As perhaps you well know, this psalm easily divides into two major sections. Verses one to 21 constitute the first. In this first section, you recognize the running theme is that of suffering. The king's affliction is that which comes to the fore verse after verse. But what I want you to recognize friends is that in these 21 verses you have a very clear picture of contrast. Really these verses are formed around a tension between opposites. What do I mean? I want you to look just at the first verse. He says, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Friend, if this is, if Jehovah is his God, wherefore the dereliction? Why can he describe himself as being forsaken? There's a palpable tension there, but that's not all. As he continues through the lines, he says, I cried, but thou hearest not. Then he makes a comparison. He says, they, the fathers, they cried and were delivered, but I, I am a worm and a reproach. And then there's a further contrast, as you note, that as he describes those who are mocking him, they say he trusted. He trusted in the Lord, but then the Lord, he says in the very next line, but thou didst make me to hope. He turns their mocking on its head, but the contrast is there still. He goes to God and he says, be not far, and then for trouble is near. Be not far, thou art my strength. In these 21 verses, you have a tension between opposites. And friend, we need to be mindful of that because the sense, the overwhelming sense of that is that, well, in these 21 verses, we encounter something contrary to what we might expect. You might even say that this is the tension between the expected and what has transpired. But then from verses 22 to 31, the final section of the Psalm, you have, One, a section that is characterized by triumph. It is the triumph, the glory of the King. But as you note this friend, it comes to us in two ways. It comes to us, first of all, as the King prays, as he addresses God, but that's not all that we see. He turns to the congregation as well. And friend, the simple reason why you have both prayer and exhortation here is because Well, friend, we find in these verses that that which has gone before, and that deliverance that the king here has, is for the good of the church, those whom he addresses, and for the glory of God. And so friend, that's the 22nd Psalm. But we needn't ask. Of whom does the psalmist write, do we? Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. The words of the cross and in Aramaic, the first words of the psalm. Of course, the Lord Jesus takes this very psalm upon his lips because he is the king of Psalm 22. But I want you to remember, friend, that it's not just the first section It's not just these verses of suffering that the apostles attribute to Christ and that Christ himself takes upon his lips. Perhaps you remember that in Hebrews 2.13, the very last words of our psalm, the very last section rather, those words are also attributed to Christ. It is Christ who says that he will stand among his brethren And so friend, this is a psalm, not only of the Lord Jesus Christ, but the entirety of the New Testament in one voice, gospels and epistles alike. Hold forth that these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. One thought I want to hold forth this evening before we go any further, is really that which comes to us through a question. We know that this is looking toward the Lord Jesus. Friend, have you ever asked, why is this part of the praises of God's people through the running centuries in the old covenant and in the new? What significance does this take? Recognizing that this belongs to Zion's hymnal, her perpetual manual for praise. A friend, I think, to lead us at least to think about that question and leading us in our meditations this evening. Perhaps the most straightforward answer to that is that the church is especially interested, uniquely interested, and friend, of course, as the benefits here describe, she is exclusively interested in this work. This is a Psalm that is intensely personal. I want us to take this up this evening briefly, seeing, friend, an obvious theme, but one that predominates both sections of our text. And that is that Christ's death and resurrection secured the church's salvation for God's glory. Christ's death and resurrection secured the church's salvation for God's glory. And I want us to see that under three headings, and very briefly this evening. I want us to see first of all, Christ's description of his dereliction. And that you have in verses one to 10. Friend, even before we take up that theme, we need to be very clear in our own mind that even in these first 10 verses, while prevalent, the theme is of suffering, there is a theme that is genuinely more predominant. Just again, look with me, cast your eyes down back on the page and note these phrases. He begins, my God, and then he says, my God, I cry. And then quoting the mockers, he says, he trusted in the Lord. And then the Lord responds and he says, thou didst make me to hope, you are my God from my mother's belly. Now friend, what you note there is that there's a single thread that joins all of those clauses together. These are all statements of faith. Every single one of them. And friend, that is the prevailing theme of these first 10 verses. In fact, we see that whenever we see the great contrast between the Fathers and Christ in these verses. Again, beloved, see how this highlights the uniqueness of Christ. The fathers trusted and were delivered. But I, who trusted in the Lord, who called thee my God from my mother's belly, I am a worm and a reproach. Friend, the only reason that contrast makes sense is because here you have Here you have friend, one who is endowed perfectly with faith. And all of these statements in these first 10 verses are threaded with this theme. What does all of that tell us? Friend, as you look to verses one to 10, the prevailing idea coming from that is that Jesus, his sufferings are utterly unique. It's a theme I think we often miss, but it's crucial to the beginning of the psalm. As he makes that contrast between himself and the fathers. The contrast is not between the faithful and the faithless. Both are endowed with faith. Both are exercising faith, calling Jehovah my God. But the one category is delivered. The Lord Jesus is not. And friend, I want you to know here, that certainly in the Lord Jesus Christ, His case, that's utterly and absolutely so. Beloved, have you ever thought, have you ever thought, that none have tasted the pains of the second death who have looked to God with faith, but He. Have you ever thought, friend, that none who called Jehovah my God in truth have ever or will ever know those pains but He? Friend, He is utterly unique. None with faith perish. Friend, none with faith ever will or have felt the pains of hell. But he. We can go even a step further. And none have ever suffered with a perfect faith, as does Christ and in our song. Friend, I want you to note that as here we find Christ describing the pains of hell upon his soul, you never find one despairing. Never one complaining. No, in fact, friend, as you look at other texts in the Psalter, like Psalm 77, you find one afflicted, plagued in soul, and this leads him to despair. But not so, friend, the Lord Jesus Christ. No, as you look at verse 10, notwithstanding all of the pain, notwithstanding all of the sensible distance between him and that sensible love of God, He says this, thou art my God from my mother's belly. Not thou wast, thou art. He knows him, hopes in him still. Beloved, he entered nothing less than hell, its pains and its sufferings in Golgotha. He encountered all the pains of the second death in his soul. And still he cries, my God. No complaint and no despair. Friend, I want you to notice in this text, you do see the uniqueness of Christ in a way that we shouldn't forget. Remember here that he cites the experience and the example of the fathers who trusted. My friend, just think about that for a moment. Here you see Christ reflecting on the deliverances which they enjoyed. Oh friend, do you remember on the plains of Mitzvah, Whenever the Philistine army gathered around and would have decimated the people of God, Samuel, he took out a lamb and he slaughtered him and he supplicated before God on behalf of the church. And there God came and delivered them. But yet our Christ, with a perfect faith, yet says, my enemies beset me around. There's no lightning, no earthquake to discomfort those His enemies. Or remember Abraham centuries before, when he had the dagger hanging over his son Isaac. There was a hand and a call from heaven to stay the knife that would have drunk the blood of Isaac. But our Christ, he prays, yet deliver my soul from the sword. The church enjoyed water from the rock. Christ says his tongue cleaves in his mouth. Friend, the utter uniqueness of Christ is so much to the fore in these verses that we mustn't forget it. But what you and I also must see is that here though utterly unique and though drinking to the dregs the wrath of Almighty God, Friend, there is no sinning in his suffering. There is no diminishing of his faith in God. He has stayed. And here analogies fail miserably, but friend, think about this just for a moment. Think about yourselves. When you and I, when we're encountering severe affliction, tell me, how is your patience? How is your willingness to be under the rod, your submission to God and his providence? How is your love toward others? Friend, how is your faith? Are we not like stagnant waters, putrid waters that whenever they're troubled, all that that troubling does is diffuse the foul smell? But friends, see in these 10 verses that Christ, beloved, he is a pool of living water. And when troubled, all, friend, that came from him was hope and faith in God. When he was troubled, it was a sweet aroma, only sweet. We see his dereliction in these first 10 verses. Come with me then to the next section, verses 11 to 21. In verse 11, he cries, be not far, trouble is near. And what follows friend is a very real and a very physical description of his sufferings. But I want you to note something, that 11th verse is crucial. Because it reminds us that the principal sting of his physical sufferings was the spiritual sense of desertion. It was the absence, friend, of that love and of that joy that he enjoyed from God his father upon his soul that made, friend, his sufferings what they were. This is something so much lost. Strikingly, this is one of the aspects of the Reformation that was so very crucial. Rome had lost this. Rome had taught that the principal sufferings of Christ were in his flesh. But it was the reformers in one voice that cried no. It was him as he poured his soul out as an offering for sin that made all of his physical agony all the more amplified. And you see that in this text. It is because God is far and that trouble is near that makes all of this so agonizing. Friend, it would do well for us to remember this, though it's hard for us to fathom. Because friend, what we find in this 22nd Psalm is that Christ is holy, is harmless, is undefiled soul. It was destitute of that ineffable consolation and joy, which arose from a sense of God's paternal love and the beatific vision of his countenance. Friend, in other words, here you have one. Yes, his human soul had experienced that ineffable love and consolation of God his father. And friend, you and I, as we say it here, is ineffable. It's something we cannot fathom. But what made Golgotha, what made Gethsemane so dark, was that he who ever and rightfully enjoyed that sensible love, friend, he had it taken from him. And friend, that is what heightened all of what we read. Men or angels know nothing really of this. But in verses 14 to 16, you find a description that baffles the unbeliever. It's such a lively and such a real description of crucifixion that it staggers. And this puts us well without the experience of David, by the way. Friend, I want you to notice all that we find in this text. Verses 14 to 16 very briefly. He says, I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. Precisely what Roman crucifixion was aiming to do, to pull bone from joint. so that the muscle and only the sinews and the liniments were holding one's weight. Then he says, verse 15, my strength is dried up like a pot shirt. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Dehydration has set in. They've pierced my hands and feet. The friend there in that 14th verse, you find also these words, my heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of my bowels. Men and women who are not believers who have studied the effects of crucifixion have found that that's precisely what takes place. Eventually the heart ruptures. From here you have a very clear description of the Lord Jesus Christ and his sufferings. And our older divines rightfully describe these sufferings in soul and in body as a million deaths. His pain and his agony, again spiritual and physical, far exceeds what you and I could ever know. And was so many deaths in one moment. Allow me just to read to you how one divine put it. He says, Christ in bearing the pains of the second death did suffer that which all the elect should have sustained in their souls forever. And so Christ did bear many millions of bodily deaths. So though Christ died but one death for all the elect, yet in the height of pain, it was many deaths to him." We'll come back to that quote at the end. My friend, I want to hasten here to the end of this psalm. Verses 22 to the end. Here you have the king delivered. And the cry is, as he turns to the church, praise him. And why? For he that is God hath heard. My friend, I want you to notice in this exhortation to the church, after the king's deliverance, he says that the praises of God's people, the praises of God's people are to be grounded in the fact that he indeed has been delivered, making inextricable his deliverance and the church's praise. Do you see that this evening? Praise Him for He has heard. The church, He says, her praise is to flow. Her rejoicing is to be grounded upon this, that He has been heard. That He has been delivered. Now friend, what I want you to notice in that 20th verse then. Well friend, it's, sorry, in that 22nd verse. that he describes himself among his brethren as he speaks to the church. And that tells us why the praise of God in the church is grounded upon this work. As the writer of the Hebrews puts it, here you have an idea of union. He's not ashamed to call them brethren. He is united to them. He is their elder brother, and so in His deliverance, they are delivered by that inextricable union. We can go even a step further, can't we? Look down with me at the 27th verse. All ends of the earth, all ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. and all the kindreds of the nation shall worship before thee. Is this not the Lord Jesus Christ drawing the nations to Himself? Creating a people who would praise Him, who would praise the Lord God who has wrought such work through His Son. And friend, what are the benefits that apply to them? I want you to notice this, it's staggering. In verse 25, he says, I will pay my vows before them that fear him. What are these vows? What has he undertaken? What is he taken upon himself? Verse 26, the meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever. Friend, do you see the indelible connection between verses 25 and 26? He says, I will pay my vows. And what does that mean for the meek? That they shall eat and be satisfied. What does it mean for those who worship the Lord that their heart shall live forever? Friend, that inextricable union must be remembered. Because as we look at this last end, friend, all of those benefits that accrue to the church are ultimately for the glory of God. to make a people that will worship him, a people that will say that he hath done this. He will raise a godly nation. By his own merit, by his own sufferings and resurrection, he will satisfy the need. He will have a willing people in the day of his power. As we close, friend, I said to you at the beginning that this 22nd Psalm is more personal. And I think we appreciate, but it's not just the 22nd Psalm that I mean there. I mean, it's subject matter. Friend, remember that quote that I read to you from Samuel Rutherford that he, he, in bearing the pains of the second death did suffer that which all the elect should have sustained in their souls and so bore many millions of bodily deaths. The older writers, Rutherford only being one example, urged the believer to remember Friend, that as you read in the gospel accounts, the agony of Christ, as we take up these words upon our lips, your interest in his death is such that you can say, he died my death. His agony was mine. And so when you take these words on your lips, friend, you are to remember that. Paul, friend Paul would say as much, wouldn't he? When he thinks of the dying love of the Lord Jesus Christ, he doesn't think in abstracts. He thinks concretely and personally. He died for me, which is the same as saying he died my death. And now friend through the running centuries upon the lips of God's people, these are the words that you and I sing. And certainly beloved, all those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ should sing these words. Not thinking abstractly about the atonement. The friend thinking just after the apostle Paul, I sing of my death that he died. that I might have life. If you see it so personally, friend, this 22nd Psalm will grip you. You'll be able to say, I assure you, more with the Apostle Paul, it's the love of Christ that constrains you. But can I leave you one last thought? Something that has held my mind this past week. You and I will see him one day. He who suffered all of this, who wrought this victory, surely as you and I sit here, we will see him. And so don't let this be abstract. Don't let, friend, these themes that we've contemplated tonight, howsoever familiar they may be, Don't let these things lose those personal dimensions. Beloved, he died your death, you who lay hold of him by faith. And moreover, you will see him face to face. May the Lord so personally impress this upon us to make us more like him.