We'll open your Bibles, if you would, to Psalm 22. The Psalm we just sang, Psalm 21, can sound vindictive and triumphalistic. Wow, this religion is all about shooting people in the face, vanquishing enemies, and of course, if you've been oppressed by enemies, the more you've been oppressed, the better that sounds to you. But the compilers of the Psalter understood that that is only one side of what we believe. It's an important side of what we believe. We don't deny it or say, no, God would never take vengeance on anyone. Scripture clearly says that He has and that He will. But we balance it with the truth that the same King who has the power of fire and the power of arrows also has the power to suffer and die, or the weakness to suffer and die. And we go straight from Psalm 21 you will burn them up and the fire will devour them to Psalm 22 describing how the fire of God's wrath devoured his own beloved. Psalm 22 to the chief musician set to the deer of the dawn, a Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear, and in the night season, and am not silent. But you are holy, who inhabit the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them. They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. All those who see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip and they shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him. But you are he who took me out of the womb. You made me trust when I was on my mother's breasts. I was cast upon you from birth. From my mother's womb, you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They gape at me with their mouths. as a raging and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it has melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death, for dogs have surrounded me. The assembly of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, do not be far from me. O my strength, hasten to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen. You have answered me. I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him and fear him, all you offspring of Israel. For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him. But when he cried to him, he heard. My praise shall be of you in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before those who fear him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nation shall worship before you, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who cannot keep himself alive. The posterity shall serve him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation. They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born that He has done this. Let's pray. Father, we need Your help. Give us the true reverence to contemplate the sufferings of our priest-king. Help us to see the death of Christ. Help us to be moved by it, transformed by it. Help us to see the glory of Christ as the King over the nations and as the one who tells of Your name in corporate worship. We thank You that You delivered Him from the horns of the wild oxen and that in His salvation lies our salvation. Father, strengthen our commitment to Your Son through this sermon. Free us from distraction. Help us to be spellbound by what Jesus Christ has done for us and to tell it to the next generation that He has done it. We pray these things in His blessed and glorious name. Amen When I was 12 or 13 years old my parents started visiting a Presbyterian Church in Fort Collins This church had a psalm singing Request time before evening worship every Sunday and every Sunday the first song requested was Psalm 22 My God my God Why have you forsaken me? After a couple of months, we started to look at each other. What is with this church? Why do they love this song so much? Well, it turned out to be a pretty decent church. Because this psalm is all about Jesus. It shows us the suffering of Christ. The Gospel writers draw from it to say this is how Jesus died. And therefore, we should read this psalm and say, this is what our king did. This psalm is a portrait of him. How he suffered and died in your place. Psalm 22 speaks very clearly of the sufferings of Christ and the worship to follow. The psalm starts with a question. A haunting and unforgettable question. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? A verse, of course, that our Lord said word for word from the cross. And a verse that in its emphasis and intensity matches or surpasses anything else in scripture. Notice the double address, my God, my God. To say it once sounds peevish, or not grand, not really suitable to the occasion. To say it twice indicates the depth of the misery in which the king's soul has fallen. Rhetorically speaking, it's just like David's lament for his son in 2 Samuel 18. When he said, oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I had died instead of you, oh Absalom, my son, my son. To say my son Absalom is dead doesn't begin to convey the same level, same depth of passion. that we hear with the repetition, Absalom, my son, my son. And in the same way, the king calls on God twice, my God, my God. And then again, in verse 10, from my mother's womb, you have been my God. And he says it in verse two, oh my God, I cry in the daytime. Four times he calls on God as his God. And He's indicating, of course, that He is in the deepest distress and trouble of His life. Even if He manages to come out the other side, He is going to be forever changed, because He has gone through this experience of being forsaken by God. What does that mean? In what sense did God forsake His Son? Obviously, not in the sense that would preclude a connection of some kind between the two of them. Though he says in verse 1, you have forsaken me, he continues to pray to his father through the entire rest of the psalm. He doesn't cease talking and he also not only talks to God, but he affirms very clearly that God heard. Verse 24, when he cried to him, he heard. And thus, the king says, you have forsaken me. But he also affirms this forsakenness is more in how I feel than it is in reality. The Trinity was not broken. The father did not cease to beget the son. And in fact, he even, you might have heard, God turned his back on his son. This Psalm also explicitly denies that. He has not turned his face from him. When he cried to him, he heard, verse 24, the king feels left by God. And he is surrounded by enemies who are piercing his hands and feet, who are truly, literally killing him. And thus He says, where are you, Father? Why have you forsaken Me? Of course, the psalm presents a partial answer to that. Why did God forsake Him? Because He was pouring out the wrath on Him that you and I deserved. Jesus felt this experience of God-forsakenness because we deserve that experience of God-forsakenness. We have done things to drive God far from us. Our sins stand between us and Him. Those sins were laid on Christ. This is a very far cry from the glowing affirmation of Psalm 23. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For You are with me. Here, the King says, I am in the valley of the shadow of death. The dogs, the bulls, the lions, they're here, they're attacking me. Where are you? Why aren't you standing here to dispose of dog and lion and bull? I am in the valley of death's shadow and I fear the evil that pierces my feet and hands. That's how the king cries out. That's what He says to His Father. Jesus was God-forsaken or felt God-forsaken, but at the same time, He continues to pray to the God who is really there and who really hears, who does not turn away His face even at the very worst moment. Jesus experienced this loss of His Father so that you and I would never have to. Our king appeals to God on the basis of his history. Not just, my God, we are in relationship, we are in covenant with each other. My God, my God. But he appeals on the basis of who God has been. You saved our fathers. Verse 4, our fathers trusted in you. And you delivered them. They cried and you, they were delivered. And of course, what is the king saying? I'm crying, and I haven't been delivered. Where are you? This is not like you, God. You're not a quitter. You're not a forsaker, and yet you have forsaken me. You're not flaky, you're faithful. Where are you? He describes, this is not, I prayed once and God didn't do anything, so I'm mad. No, my God, I cry in the daytime, but you did not hear. In the night, and am not silent. Though he's not heard, he affirms the holiness of God. You are holy. Israel praises you, and that's where you deserve to be. This holy God who set apart from everything else to glorify himself, including by rescuing the one who cries to him. Though he's holy, he's not answering. King says, I don't get it. Where are you? You save sufferers. You answer prayer. But You're not answering me, and I am reduced to this status of a worm. I am a worm and no man." What does he mean by that? Well, he explains, I'm a reproach. I'm despised. They're laughing at me. They're gazing at me. And he quotes some of the mockery. He trusted in God. Let Him deliver him if He delights in him. The king is being laughed at, that's become a punchline. Oh, that's the one God delights in. Oh, good one, good one. The one God delights in is nailed to a cross. The one God delights in is clearly not delighted in enough to be saved from an experience like this. Trusting in God has made him into a worm. Our fathers trusted in you and they were not ashamed, but I am ashamed. They scorn me. He describes the motion of their face. They make silly faces at him. They stick their lip out at him. They waggle their head in a disrespectful fashion. And they mock him as, oh, this is God's beloved. Uh-huh, you look pretty beloved to me, beloved. That's how they speak to your king. He was made a gazing stock. They look at him, and that's what he says. Verse 17, I can count my bones, they look and stare at me. He's the center of attention and not in a good way. In a terrible way, he appeals to God once again. God, we have a history, we have a relationship that's not like this. Our relationship does not involve you abandoning me. You are He who took me out of the womb. You made me trust you when I was on my mother's breasts. King says, I had faith from the beginning. The day I was born, the day I first found the breast and drank the milk, I knew you were my God. I did that in faith. I trusted you and you never let me down. He's affirming his relationship. You are my God, not just today, not just since yesterday, but from my mother's womb. This is why in our church we believe that very young children can become members of the church and can not only profess saving faith but possess saving faith. Because Psalm 22 affirms that there is at least one baby who had saving faith from birth. Jesus believed from his mother's womb. It's possible then This doesn't say that any particular infant other than our Lord has this faith. It does say it is possible for a newborn infant to trust in God as his God, and that is exactly what our Lord did. He walked by faith. You have been my God from my mother's womb. God is the Lord of Jesus, the God who belongs to Him, the God who is tied to Him by an unbreakable covenant and that makes the abandonment worse. Where are you? Sometimes you'll be on an airplane and your seatmate will be a very interesting person and you'll have a great conversation and talk the whole flight. If it's really, really good, you might even exchange phone numbers at the end of the flight. But, you know, you have your conversation, you go your separate ways in the airport. That's life. You don't think another thing about that person. But imagine someone who's been your best friend for 35 years, who suddenly isn't answering the phone, or coming over anymore, or having anything to do with you. What happened? Jesus is not saying, you've been my God for the last three hours, and what happened to our relationship? He's saying, you've been my God my entire life. But though God has forsaken him, he says, he keeps praying to that same God. He pushes through what he feels, the God-forsakenness, and he affirms by his prayers the truth that God will not forsake him, but will answer him in his own good time. That's your king's faith. Is that your faith? Do you have the ability to say, I feel God-forsaken, But I will keep praying. I am a worm. Everyone scorns me for trusting in God. They all tell me that I'm incredibly stupid to keep trusting in God when He lets me down like this. But I will keep trusting Him. The king brings out his metaphors. He names four different enemies in the next 10 verses. They're listed in the order that I have them on your sheet. Bulls, lions, dogs, and evildoers. And then at the end of the section, they're listed again in reverse order in verses 20 and 21. sword, dog, lion, bull. As if to say these enemies are a totality all of them are attacking me and I need you to deal with all of them. Get rid of them for me God. Four different metaphors all representing the extreme ferocity and deadliness of the enemies. The first one he mentions is the bull. Many bulls have surrounded me. Now if you've ever been walking across the pasture and you realize that you're sharing that pasture with the bull, that's a terrifying place to be. One bull and you. Nothing between you and the bull. The bull is very large and it can be very angry and aggressive, but the king doesn't say, There's one bull, he says, there are many bulls. I am surrounded by bulls. There's no place to run away from the bull because to run away from one is to run towards the other one. And he reveals later on that this is not just an ordinary domestic cattle kind of bull. He describes it in verse 21 as a wild ox. This wild ox was an incredible animal. The wild ox was native to Western Asia, the Palestine, Syria area. Julius Caesar saw the wild ox while he was campaigning there. The wild ox, he said, was enormous, almost as big as an elephant. This is Caesar. He's not prone to exaggerating. Caesar also records that, of course, in our day there are two kinds of elephants, the African and the Indian. The African is bigger. The Indian is smaller. In Caesar's day, there was a third kind of elephant that lived in the area of Egypt and Israel. There were a few of them there. That was one size smaller than the Indian elephant. And then the wild ox is one size smaller than that. So you could say perhaps two sizes smaller than an elephant. That's still far, far bigger than any bull that any of us would wish to tangle with. The archaeologists call this bull the Urus, but it's also known as the wild ox. Our early translators in the 16th century, 17th century, didn't know what to do with this word, so they called it the unicorn, and your King James Version Has that saved me from the horns of the unicorns? It's not a unicorn, it's a massive, massive bull that would dwarf a bull bison. Something you don't want to meet in a cow pasture anywhere. The king says there's not just one of them, there are many of them. They have nasty horns, they have the disposition of an angry rottweiler, and they are coming after him. No wonder he's saying, where are you, God? Why have you forsaken me? I can't deal with the bulls on my own. But then, of course, in case the bulls are not enough, well, he describes the next enemy. They're like a lion, a raging and roaring lion where a lion opens his mouth to roar. What do you see? He opens the mouth and inside are all of the teeth. This isn't a quiet lion with its mouth closed, digesting after lunch. No, this is an angry lion with its mouth open, ready to tear him to shreds. And that's what he describes. I am poured out like water. My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted, run down into my boots somewhere. I can't find it. I don't have the spirit to stand up to the bulls and the lions. I'm petrified. The king is terrified by these enemies. His strength is dried up like a broken piece of pottery. And if you're strong, if you have weapons, perhaps you could dare to take on the bulls and the lions. You could open up on them with your weapons and you could leave them dead, right? Psalm 21. Your hand shall find your enemies. The king will swallow them up and his wrath and fire shall devour them. Where is the mighty king of Psalm 21, who has the power of fire to burn up and consume his enemies? Here, he says, my strength is gone, my tongue clings to the roof of my mouth, you lay me in the dust of death. Who has the power to bring this kind of pain and suffering on the king, right? This is the heart of the matter. This is not bulls and lions. The king could deal with those. This is God Almighty laying our sins on Him. You have brought me to the dust of death. The one whose hand can find out all his enemies, the one who has the power of fire to consume and destroy, the one who could call on twelve legions of angels to slaughter an infinite horde of bulls or lions recognizes that that's not what's going on here. The enemy that has to be killed is sin and the way it has to be killed is through sacrifice. Being laid in the dust of death. Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul and now that operation has to be unraveled. King has to be brought back to dust. The hand that does it to him is the father's hand. No lesser hand could do that. In fact, he says, I lay down my life for myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up. This command I received from my father. His mission is to let the bulls and the lions tear him apart. He describes the enemies further as dogs in verse 16. Dogs have surrounded me. In the ancient Near East, the dog is not a pet. The dog is a scavenger, a wild dog roaming the streets of the city, an animal you don't want to meet in a back alley. Their annoying and vicious curse, this dog is pathetic and greedy. Dogs have surrounded me. The king's attitude toward dogs goes way beyond dislike to the point that at the end of the Bible, we find dogs listed as those excluded from the new Jerusalem. This is not because God hates canines, but because they represent what is low, evil, degraded, and nasty. Dogs eat dirty diapers. That's the kind of being that fights with the Lord's anointed. Not a majestic, noble wild ox, but a pathetic and nasty dog has surrounded him. And of course, he explains, the assembly of the wicked has enclosed me. The others are metaphors describing human enemies. The chief priest describes the elders and the Roman soldiers. They have enclosed me and they pierce my feet and hands. The powers of this age, the rulers of this darkness, they crucified Christ. with the permission of His Father and with His own permission, He laid down His life in the dust. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief. Our King is mighty. He is omnipotent. But He does not fight His Father. He does not fight this fate. Because this is how He has to save us. Letting them pierce His hands and feet. Nothing that could have happened to King David. Something that is a prophetic reference to the death of the Son of God. He describes what it was like. I can count all my bones. In that sense, the artists showing us the emaciated Christ on the cross have been correct. But then He adds, they look and stare at me. You've heard my rant before about the painters and sculptors across the last many centuries who have united to perpetuate this notion that Jesus was wearing some kind of loincloth on the cross. He wasn't. He was naked. And he was hung up in public. And this was not the least of his sufferings, that they look and stare at me. He was a perfectly modest man. And yet to humiliate him, He was hung up naked in front of a gloating crowd. He did that for you. He prayed through the whole experience on the cross. He describes not only being stared at, but here's why they're staring at me. Verse 18, they took my clothing. They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots. not just to have your clothes removed and stolen, and not just to be mocked. The purple robe is not mentioned here. The purple robe, of course, is extremely valuable, the equivalent in money terms of a supercar today. $250,000, $300,000 item that Herod loaned for the purpose of mocking Jesus. It tells you what kind of person Herod is, what kind of dog, lion, or bull. he is. They take the purple robe, they take his own clothing, and leave him naked and ashamed, humiliated like a worm in front of everyone. So the king cries out, O Lord, do not be far from me. O my strength, hasten to help me. And he names the enemies in reverse order, deliver me from the sword wielded by evildoers. My precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen. He hasn't stopped praying. He hasn't given up. He hasn't surrendered to the mockery. He says, God, come. And the end of verse 21, he says very simply, You did come. You have answered me. He skips straight from the crucifixion to the resurrection. When God answers him, when God delivers him, what does he do? He pleads for an answer in verses 1-21. In the last part of the psalm, he describes what he does when he has been answered. You have answered me. I will declare your name to my brethren." That's the first thing out of his mouth when he's raised from the dead. I have got to get down to church and tell them about this. I can't wait to be in the midst of the congregation to sing the praise of the God who delivered me. Nothing about, I don't know if I trust you anymore after that experience, God. The bulls, the lions, they killed me. Where were you? There's no anger, there's no outrage. There's exultation in the victory that He had over sin through dying as a sacrifice, and in the victory He had over death through rising again on the third day. I will tell of Your name to my brethren. That's what He wants to do. to sing praise, to say, this is what God has done for me. It's important to remember that our prayer request time every Sunday in this church is an answered prayer time as well, not just what we mean, but what God has done to tell of his name to our brethren. And then the king not only says, I will do this, but he urges every God-fearer to join him. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him and fear him. All you offspring of Israel. He describes it over and over. Everyone who fears God should love to gather and praise God above all for this, for the resurrection from the dead. If you are a believer, you need to be a worshiper. He says why we should praise is because God has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Where was God? He was there. He was watching. He didn't turn away His face. He didn't look away as if to say, I don't care. He looked. When He was cried to, He heard. The Lord says, I will praise you in the great congregation. Christ leads the church in the worship of the Father. He is our great worship pastor, the one who leads us into the Father's presence and teaches us to praise. Verse 26 repeats it. The king's sacrifice will result in worship. And he speaks of the sacrifice now in terms of the aftermath, the meal. The poor will eat and be satisfied. The king represents himself as the sacrificial lamb, the one who dies in his people's place, who is the Passover feast for them. The afflicted get to eat. We eat the sacrificial feast that He purchased for us through His death. This is ultimately a reference to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Those who suffer with their Lord below will feast with Him above. Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. So he describes congregational worship all God's people, all the God-fearers gather to praise. Then he describes kingdom worship and he says the outcome of this suffering will be worldwide revival. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. So that's geographically described. All the families of the nation shall worship before you. that's ethnographically described. Every place and every family will remember the sufferings of God's anointed and they will turn to the Lord as their God because He is King. Verse 28, the kingdom is Yahweh's and He rules over the nations and He will make that clear by teaching them to worship His Son through this sacrifice. The kingdom will flourish as a seed rises and progresses through the generations. Verse 30, a posterity will serve Him. Verse 29 says, who will be saved? Both rich and poor. The prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship. Those who go down to the dust shall bow before Him. The people who are starving to death all the way up to the prosperous of the earth will be saved through this sacrifice. This is a prophecy written down by King David and fulfilled a thousand years later. Parents, this is what we should tell our children. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation. They will come and declare His righteousness to a people yet unborn that He has done it. Our King gathers with us for worship every week. He tells us how He overcame, how God rescued Him from dogs, lions, bulls, and evildoers. He has conquered by dying and then by rising when God hears him. We've come a long way from my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The king was forsaken so we could be rescued. Our children need to hear the king's cry. They need to know this psalm and come to love it and maybe even request to sing it every Sunday. because they delight in the King, in His sufferings, and the worship that follows. Tell the people who are just born, He has done it. Father, we thank You that You rescued Your Son from the dogs, the lions, the bulls, and the evildoers. We thank You that He is alive, that He is seated at Your right hand, and that he reigns. Father, we pray that the ends of the earth would remember and turn to you and that the families of the nations would worship before you. Let your kingdom come. It is your kingdom. You do rule over the nations. Consummate that rule, we ask. That the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ that He might reign forever and ever. We thank You for His sufferings. We thank You that He came out the other side and that He tells of Your faithfulness in the great congregation. Help us to do the same, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.