Psalm 69. Now, this is actually
the second part, but we skipped, we missed two Thursdays, so you
might have forgotten quite a bit of what we covered in the first
few verses here. But when I think about this psalm,
And I read through it. Hopefully you've had a chance
to look at this psalm. I'll read a few verses here.
I'm going to save reading the entire psalm tonight since we
did read it in the first part of the Bible study on this psalm. But I want to read just a hymn
that really, to me, summarizes a great deal of what this psalm
is talking about. As we saw last time when we looked
at part one, this psalm is talking about the sufferings of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The New Testament quotes this
psalm in, I think, at least five different places. And each one
of those is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're confident
that when we say that this psalm speaks of Christ, because of
those quotations in the New Testament from this very psalm, that we
know for certain that this psalm is speaking about Christ, and
that it's speaking about his sufferings and his death. And
all of that, of course, was by the will of God, and that will
is accomplished in this very psalm. of course, in prophecy,
but as we see from Scripture, whatever the Lord says, we know
that it's done. God doesn't say something that
has any uncertainty to it. It's always certain, and whatever
he says is as certain as God is God. It can't fail because
his word cannot fail. God himself will uphold it, and
because God has spoken, and he can't lie, and he can't fail,
therefore we know that it's right. Alright, so this psalm is about
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we know that, first of all, because
it's quoted in the New Testament in several places, all of which
speak of Christ and His sufferings and His death. The other thing
is that we have assurance that this psalm is speaking of Christ
for several reasons, because He is the Word of God. In John
chapter 1, he's called the Word, and in Revelation 19, he's called
the Word of God. So, if he is the Word of God,
then most certainly, Scripture is speaking by him, and we know
that it also speaks of him. In John 5, 39, Jesus told the
Pharisees, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, and these are they which testify of me. So that's
just one scripture, and we could quote many scriptures. Hebrews
1, verse 2 says, in these last days God has spoken to us in
son, literally in son. In translation, it usually says
something like, in his son or by his son. But in the original,
it was just simply in son. So we know that he's the word
of God and God speaks by him. The father spoke on the Mount
of Transfiguration and said, hear ye him. So it's all about
Christ, isn't it? And from beginning to end, it's
called the volume of the book. In the olden days, they kept
the scriptures in a roll, and that roll was rolled up, and
when they wanted to read it, they had to unfurl it. And from
the top of the volume to the bottom, it says, in the volume
of the book, in Psalm chapter 40 and verse 7 and 8, it is written
of me. And that's quoted again in Hebrews
chapter 10, where we understand that the message of that volume
of that book is Christ and Him crucified because in Hebrews
10 it was about Him coming and doing the will of God for our
salvation. Now I say all that just to give you more support
for the fact that this psalm is speaking of Christ on the
basis of several things in scripture. And I've tried to enumerate some
of those. It speaks of Him because of the quotations in the New
Testament, and also because He is the Word of God. The Scriptures
speak of Christ. The Scriptures are just a written
form of Christ, who is the Living Word. And in so many ways, God
has said we must hear His Son. All right. Now, the other thing
about this psalm is that it's speaking about Christ and Him
crucified. Now this most certainly has to
be the topic of scripture, Christ and Him crucified. Because, I
mean, if you just think about it for a minute, If in 1 Timothy
3.16 it says, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the
spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on
in the world, that This is all about Christ, isn't it? It's
everything that He did. He came, God, the Son of God,
He came and He took on our nature for the purpose of all that He
did on earth. And then this is the reason He's
exalted in glory. This is the song of the redeemed
in heaven. Thou hast redeemed us by thy
blood out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation. And that's
in Revelation chapter 5. So, The subject of Scripture is not
only about Christ, but it's about Christ and Him crucified. And
that's why we see in the New Testament the culmination of
the revelation of all of Scripture. The Apostle Paul says, I have
determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And we have it here in this psalm
too. Now, because we have this so strongly given to us in this
psalm, it's showing us that the Lord Jesus himself is giving
his church this revelation of his sufferings for their sins. And we see that he's fulfilling
this will that God gave him to finish, really. He says in John
4, 34, I came to finish his work. And that wasn't the only place.
But he said that. He said that all throughout the
book of John many times. And in chapter 19, verse 30,
I have finished the work. what you gave me to do." So he
finished that work God gave him to do while he was on earth,
while he was hanging on the cross, he said, it's finished. And so,
because this work was given to Christ to do and he did it and
he's telling us about that in this psalm, he's giving this
to the church, to us, believers, as the greatest treasure, isn't
he? He's letting us in on what he suffered in order that he
might do this will of God. And we see not only did God give
him this will to do, which he did and finished, and he now
speaks about it in this psalm and throughout scripture, this
is the message of scripture, the gospel of Christ, that we
also see in this psalm the the fact that he did this in the
role of a surety. Okay, surety. Now that's a word
you're probably familiar with, but just to recap what that means,
it means that someone, like a bail bondsman in our day, agrees to
fulfill responsibility on the behalf of this person for which
they are a surety. They're a guarantee that that
person will appear in court, for example. And the bail bondsman
puts up the money, and court holds the bail bondsman responsible.
And if the person doesn't appear in court, even one time, then
the bail bondsman has to pay the full amount. Now, in that
case, the bail bondsman will go out and find that person and
try to get it back out of them. But still, the point is, is the
bail bondsman is acting like a surety, making the court sure
that the person will appear. And if that person fails to appear,
the bail bondsman then has to provide the payment to the court.
So, this is carried into our day by God's providence in order
to underscore and to make more concrete to us what is in Scripture
an eternal role that Jesus Christ fulfilled for his people. But
scripture doesn't just leave it to a modern interpretation.
In the book of Genesis, recalling that account where Jacob, the
father of his children, they were in Canaan and they were
out of food because God sent a famine throughout the land
and he had to send his sons to Egypt to get food. And there
they met Joseph, unbeknownst to them at the time, the one
that they had cast in the pit. And so the whole drama that unfolds
there shows us that Jacob was unwilling to let his youngest
son, Benjamin, go down to Egypt. But yet they were going to starve
to death if they didn't. So he was resolute. He wasn't going to let Benjamin
go until a surety was found. Judah stepped forward and engaged
with his father to stand for Benjamin to make sure Benjamin
to his father because that was the concern that Jacob had. So
this love that Jacob had for his son Benjamin teaches us the
love that God the Father has for his people and how that he
would not let them go. He would not have the entire
will of God throughout time, all of creation. He wouldn't
put that into force. He wouldn't carry it forward
until a surety was found, which was the Lord Jesus Christ, His
only begotten Son. And Christ in eternity approached
His Father and engaged with Him to make sure his people to the
Father. They were the children of adoption. In Ephesians 1 verse 4 he says
that God has chosen us in Christ from before the foundation of
the world and that he has predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ. And so that was done in the role
of surety when Christ made sure his people to God the Father
when he obligated himself to do whatever was necessary for
them to make them sure to bring them again to his father in freedom. And so when in Genesis account
Judah goes down to Joseph with his brothers and with Benjamin
and stands before Joseph. Now Joseph, of course, if you
remember in the historical account there in Scripture in Genesis
43 and 44, he loved his brothers. He most especially loved Benjamin
and he very much loved his father. But Joseph was in the role then
of governor, and he was very careful to do precisely what
only justice would allow him to do. So even when his brothers
offered to be held by Joseph, he said, no, I'm not going to
do that. I only am going to hold the one who's got the cup, my
cup in his sack. And that's why he put it in Benjamin's
sack, because he wanted to keep Benjamin. But then Judah enters
the scene as a surety, and he makes the plea to Joseph. And his plea is so compelling.
Because Joseph loved his father, loved his brothers, and especially
loved Benjamin, Judah, who was involved in sending Joseph to
Egypt as really a prisoner, a slave, now pleads in love for his father. Judah pleads in love for his
father, pleads in love for Benjamin, and he tells Joseph about the
love, the long-standing love of his father for his son of
his old age by the wife of his beloved wife who died in childbirth.
And then he also pleads the fact that he had engaged with his
father long beforehand to be a surety, so this wasn't just
something he thought up on the fly. This was a long-standing
engagement Judah had made in love to his father for Benjamin
to bring him back again at the cost to himself. And then Judah
pleads to Joseph, not only his father's love and his own engagements
as surety for Benjamin, but he pleads himself. He says, take
me. He substitutes himself to pay
the full price that Joseph would demand of Benjamin in the place
of Benjamin. And he also, in doing that, requires
that Joseph let Benjamin go back to his father with his brethren.
Again, this is all about the justice of God in Joseph standing,
and since that's part of God's own nature and character, we
see here that God is not only just, but He's gracious and loving
towards His people, but He's not going to compromise His justice
so that He requires a surety also. So not only the love, the
adopting love of the father in Jacob, but the justice of God
with that love and compassion of Joseph for his brothers and
his youngest son Benjamin and his love for his father. This
is all representing what happened within the Godhead. for his people
so that this psalm now is depicting the role that Christ fulfilled
as a surety for his people and in that role now in this psalm
where we are in that role that he fulfilled is that he is actually
not only offered himself But he is now experiencing the full
payment that he had to pay in fulfilling that role in order
to have his people. Okay, now that's a long introduction
to summarize what's going on in the psalm, but I think it's
important that we see that. As we begin to read it and as
we look at this together, Christ here is praying in this psalm
prophetically. It's speaking of what he actually
did when he was under trial, when he was suffering the hit,
the blows of those soldiers and the whip on his back. and taking
his clothes off, and crowding him with thorns, and then leading
him to bear his cross, and nailing him to that cross, and the mocking
of the soldiers while he's suffering there in soul and body at the
hand of God, by the hand of wicked men. This was all in God's will
that he do this, yet in this entire process where he's suffering
in the Garden of Gethsemane and then in his trial and his beatings
and his mockings and his scourgings and his being nailed to the cross,
all of that is now revealed, the curtain is taken back, so
that we hear now the heart of Christ in communication with
his God as our mediator, the surety now, pleading for us as
our mediator. And so we see him calling out
to God personally, suffering what he obligated himself to
suffer, because this is what God's justice demanded and would
not let go what we deserved. And so Christ himself died for
our sins according to the scriptures. And that's what this is talking
about here. This is one of those scriptures that 1 Corinthians
15 is talking about. Christ dying for our sins, buried,
rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And as we
saw in 1 Peter chapter 1, the Spirit of Christ testified the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. And
as Brad was in his sermon on Luke 24, it was saying, ought
not Christ to have suffered these things and enter into his glory
from Luke 24? All these scriptures are talking
about the same event, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow. This is not only the subject
of prophecy. This is the subject of the Gospels.
This is the subject of the epistles. This is the song of glory. This
is what the Bible is about, the Lamb of God. slain for the salvation
of his people to the glory of God, setting forth all of God's
glorious attributes in that event, in his work. All right, now with
that as a background to understand this psalm, I want to read a
hymn to you. It's called, O Sacred Head Now
Wounded. You may know this hymn, but I
was thinking about this as I was studying this psalm, and I thought
it would be helpful. At least it is for me. It says, O Sacred
Head Now Wounded. with grief and shame weighed
down." That means a burden laid on Christ, pressing Him down. Now scornfully surrounded by
the men at the cross, the chief priests, the Sanhedrin, all the
people, the Gentiles, the Romans, the Jews, scorned. Now scornfully
surrounded with thorns, thine only crown. O sacred head, what
glory, what bliss till now was thine? Yet, though despised and
gory, I joy to call thee mine. What thou, my lord, hast suffered,
was all for sinners' gain? Mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain. Lo, here I fall, my savior, tis
I deserve thy place. Look on me with thy favor, vouchsafe
to me thy grace. That word vouchsafe means condescend
to grant to me your grace. He goes on. What language shall
I borrow to thank thee, dearest friend? For this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end. Oh, make me thine forever, and
should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love
to thee. Alright, so you can see in that
psalm, that hymn, that the hymn writer is capturing, really,
that sight of Christ suffering in my place. That's what this
psalm is about. It's about our surety. Fulfilling
the obligation he pledged himself to fulfill on behalf of his people. Doing everything God required,
because this is the very nature of God. God's own character and
nature demanded this. And God's, not only His justice,
but His love, His grace, His mercy, His judgments, His faithfulness,
His wisdom, everything comes down on this one point of Christ's
suffering for His people to bring them to God, to set them free
and to make them the children of God. All right. So let's read
now from verse 1, and I want to read through verse 5. It says,
save me, O God. Notice in this psalm. And I cataloged
this, I actually went through and counted these things that
the Lord speaks of himself in the first person here. He uses
the word me in this first verse. Later we see him use the word
I, a personal pronoun I. And he also speaks of me and
my, I'm sorry, my, he calls God my God. So there's, he says,
mine eyes fail. Five times he uses the word mine,
and he uses these other words like, 22 times he uses the word
my, and let's see, where's the, some of these counts. Oh, 18
times he uses the word I, and so we see that in all of these
cases, there's a very strong case that could be made that
this is the prayer of Christ personally. There's a message
that just popped up on our computer screen. Can you read that, honey?
I don't know if we've lost everything or what. Oh. On the computer? It's not plugged in? Oh, dear. I'm sorry. I forgot
to plug in the PC. Let me do that. That's important. Nothing will work without the
battery. There, sorry. Whoops. Hopefully that didn't
disrupt anything. No, okay. So anyway, let's see if we can
get through this part. Hopefully you're all still there.
Our battery on our computer is complaining that it wasn't plugged
in. The point I was trying to make
is that in this psalm, it's the personal prayer of Christ. Christ
himself suffered. And I know that sounds obvious,
but the emphasis here on this is made so strongly with the
numerous times that he uses the personal pronoun referring to
himself, mine, my, me, and I in this psalm. And it's probably
over 40 times where he speaks of himself. So he himself suffered. The son of God in our nature
suffered. He suffered for our sins. And
think about the implications of that. If Christ suffered for
our sins, then our sins really were made His by God, because
He required Him to suffer for them. It wasn't just a pretending
suffering. It wasn't a transfer that was
just on paper. He actually bore our sins. So
that's something that we really should contemplate and let that
sink in. Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
suffered for the crimes, my crimes, my offenses, my transgressions
against God. God required that justice be
satisfied. Christ stepped forward to satisfy
justice for what I did against him. That's incredible, isn't
it? We see that sometimes in just
a faint, dark shadow of human interactions. A father, out of love for his
son, will absorb the damage that his son does in his rebellion
in so many ways. And he does it because he doesn't
want to lose his son. He reconciles his son to himself.
by paying the cost that His Son deserved to pay but couldn't
pay. And this is what God has done for us. God so loved His
people, a world of sinners, that He gave His only begotten Son.
That's what the word world in John 3.16 means. It means those
who were sinful. God's people, the elect of God,
sinners, the world, of them. They were like everyone else
by nature, under the wrath of God by nature, and they were
living like everyone else, and they were subject to Satan and
idolatry like everyone else, but he loved them and gave himself
for them. That's incredible. But here we have it in the very
pronouns used here by the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it. He did
it by himself. And that's the other aspect of
this. Because these personal pronouns
are so prolific here, so much emphasis is placed on the fact
that Jesus Christ not only suffered, but He alone suffered for our
sins. There was no one with Him. And
you can even see that in this psalm in verse 20. He says, he
says, reproach has broken my heart. I'm full of heaviness. I look for some to take pity,
but there was none and for comforters, but I found none. No one helped
him. And as one preacher said, there
was no one there at the cross who could catch his eye and send
in, looking at him, a glance to let him know, we're praying
for you, we're there. No, they weren't. The disciples
in the garden couldn't pray one hour with him. They fell asleep.
And so there were a few women who were lamenting, but they
were far off. The whole band of disciples forsook him and
fled. Peter denied him. Judas betrayed
him. The Sanhedrin condemned him to
death. And, of course, the high priest
conspired with them. This was something Christ did
by himself. He purged our sins. He actually
had to suffer for our sins in the flesh. And so we see that
here in this personal pronoun. The emphasis is throughout this.
And you can read this psalm for yourself and see this. How many
times he says, save me, O God, for the waters are coming to
my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I come into deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat is dried. Mine eyes
fail while I wait for my God." You see, this is the solitary
sufferings of Christ for actual sufferings for real sins. Real
sins made his. And this is consistent with his
role as surety. Judah said, if I don't bring
Benjamin back to you, Jacob, my father, I'll bear the blame
forever. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
bear that blame in order to bring his people back. And so he interposes
himself, he steps in, and he comes to God's justice and his
judgments. And he does, for God, he magnifies
the law and he satisfies, he brings great pleasure to God
in his righteousness and his truth and his justice and his
judgments. by his own sufferings for his
people. Now, I'm pointing that out as
an introduction here, but I also want to point out something that
is very, very significant in this psalm. And it confirms for
us that in Christ's personal sufferings, he acted as a surety
so that what he suffered was not only taking the load of our
sin and the burden, enduring the wrath of God for us, so that
He substituted Himself in our place with our sins before God
and suffered all that God required of us because of our sin, and
fulfilled all righteousness in doing so out of love for His
Father and for His people, and thus establishing an everlasting
righteousness by this love that caused Him to give Himself as
God the Son to stoop to become man and then as man to become
a servant and as a servant then to fulfill the will of God and
then in that fulfilling that will to bear our sins as his
own sins and confess them as our high priest over his own
head and then to be sent out as the scapegoat to never to
be seen again in our sins being taken away. All that Christ did
was not only in substitution, but I want you to see this also
in this psalm. Look at these verses at the end of the psalm.
He says in verse, let's see, let me take
you to... I will pick it up at verse 26. In verse 26 it says, for they
persecute, now he's actually, this is called an imprecation
I think it's called, imprecation, it's an intercession by Christ
against his enemies. A terrible thing. You don't want
to be on the receiving end of this mediatorial pleading of
Christ against his enemies, because his prayers are going to be answered.
And this is fulfilled in Romans chapter 11, where God shows that
this was the prayer that was against. He was pleading to God
against his enemies. But that's the Spirit of God
telling us what God's justice is going to require of those
who murdered Christ. And when God allowed men by their
wicked hands to take Him, some of those men were saved. Some
of them were left to receive the due reward of their sins.
And that's what He's praying here in this verse, verse 26. For they persecute Him whom Thou
hast smitten. Now, there's a great lesson in
that, just those words, and I can't pass by it right now. God the
Father was smiting Christ. Just like Isaiah 53 says, the
chastisement of our peace was upon him. The beatings from God
that we deserved came upon Christ. He was smitten of God and afflicted. And here he says it, for they
persecute him whom thou hast smitten. But when God was smiting
him, here's the evil of our nature, they talk against him, it says,
they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. So here
we see, while God was smiting Christ, they were persecuting
him. They were joining him in this. They were joining against
Christ in this. If we see somebody enduring some
chastisement or trouble in life, never add Never attempt to add
to that chastisement by also condemning them, by bringing
pain on them, by suggesting things that would add to their affliction. If God's hand is in it, step
back. and consider yourself and pray
for them, but don't add to it by persecuting them. But that's
what these men did, because this is our nature. We jump on the
back of those who are being smitten and afflicted by God, as Christ
was here in righteousness, and they persecuted Him. But this
was, again, according to the will of God. But I'm going to
read on. In this very verse, now, this is the point I was
trying to get to. Notice, they persecute him whom
thou hast smitten and they talk to the grief of those. Now all
the personal pronouns are shifting. It came in the beginning, me,
my, I, mine. But now, he introduces those,
he says, they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. And then he goes on, in verse
28, look at that, let them be blotted out of the book of the
living and not be written, where? With the righteous. So Christ
suffered alone. He actually suffered because
He actually bore our sins and He suffered unto death, the death
of the cross. But notice, in His prayer for
Himself, He's not thinking of Himself alone as a private person. But he's thinking also of all
of his people as the surety, as the mediator, because he calls
them those and here the righteous. All right. So what we learn from
this, and we're going to go on and see some more of this, but
I want to draw a point to it right now, that when Christ prayed
to God because he suffered for our sins and he prayed personally,
for himself to be saved. He wasn't praying for himself
alone. Because of the role that he was
fulfilling as surety, he really had his people with him in that
plea. Just like Judah, when he stood
before Joseph, if Joseph didn't accept the plea of Judah, then
what would have happened to Benjamin? Well, he would have been taken.
He would have had to endure whatever Joseph demanded for finding the
cup in his bag. Now, we know that Joseph loved
Benjamin, and he had good intentions towards him. But Joseph was not
going to let justice go unrequited. He was going to require it to
be satisfied. And when Judah pleaded, he saw
in Judah the love of Christ for his people, the love of Christ
for his father, the love of Christ for righteousness and justice. And his own brethren, because
he pleaded, take me instead of the lad and let him go up with
his brethren. So he couldn't withstand it anymore. Suddenly justice received his
full due and he cries out. Joseph did in Genesis 44. He
cries out and he made himself known. I'm Joseph, your brother. We're on the same side, the same
father. And so we see the joy, unbelievable
joy on Joseph's part because now Benjamin is brought to him
and Judah and all of his brothers and his father are going to be
brought to him all in perfect reconciliation because the surety
did everything. So here, when Christ is pleading
as a personal individual, He's not just pleading for Himself,
but He's pleading as a surety, and therefore the weight of all
of His people are with Him. He's pleading to God to deliver
him, to save him, to redeem his soul out of the hand of the enemy. And in so doing, he's really
pleading for his people. Because though he personally
suffers, his prayers are for them with him. And you see this
revealed very plainly in the New Testament in Galatians when,
for example, in Galatians 2.20 when the Apostle Paul says, I
am crucified with Christ. Crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. How do you live if you are crucified?
Well, because Christ lives in me. He rose. Therefore, I live. because he lives, as Jesus told
the disciples in John 14, 19. Because I live, you shall live
also. So now, I'm going to read on
in the psalm. We saw it in verse 26, those
whom thou has wounded. And then here in verse 28, he
says, don't allow these men he's praying against to be written
in the book with the righteous, because those are the ones he's
praying for. You see? And then he goes on, he says,
I am, verse 29, I am poor and sorrowful. Let thy salvation,
O God, set me up on high. Now he's speaking about being
resurrected, ascended, and exalted. And then he says, I will praise
the name of the Lord with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
And this also shall please the Lord better than an ox or a bullock
that has horns or hooves. Now notice in verse 32, who?
The humble. Now he's not talking about himself
alone, he's talking about his people. He calls them the humble
shall see this and be glad. How are they humble? Well, they
weren't humbled by any natural goodness in them, but because
they were humbled because of their sin. God brings his people
to recognize their utter depravity and helplessness and their utter
sinfulness, and then the gospel comes to them and gives them
life by declaring to them Christ's perfect righteousness. and that
He gives them this righteousness freely by His grace, and is worked
out so that not only are they given righteousness, but He gives
them His Spirit, that they might live and believe on Him, and
so glorify God for His grace to them in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the humble shall see this,
not just Himself, the humble with Him. They shall see this,
they'll hear the thanksgiving, they'll hear of Christ's victory,
They'll know that he is thanking God as the surety for releasing
him with his people, and the humble shall hear this and be
glad. Your heart shall live that seek
God." They that seek God are the Lord's people. They didn't
seek God in themselves, but when the Lord saves them, then they
seek Him. When the Lord said to me, seek my face, then my
heart said, thy face, Lord, will I seek. That's from Psalm 27.
And then he goes on, verse 33, the Lord hears the poor and despises
not his prisoners. Again, he's referring to the
people now that he stood as surety for. And goes on, and notice
in the second to the last verse, verse 35, for God will save Zion. That's the church. And he will
build the cities of Judah. Building cities. He's not talking
about bricks and stone and sticks and jewels. He's talking about
people. When Christ builds the cities,
he's talking about building the church. And you can, for example,
see that in Acts 15 when James is preaching in Acts 15 verse
14 through 18 about how God had promised in the book of Amos
how he was going to build the temple again and he was referring
to the Gentiles being saved by God's grace when the preaching
of the gospel was given to them. Okay, so we can see that all
the language here now has shifted from the personal sufferings
of Christ to the sufferings of our surety on behalf of his people
to obtain their eternal redemption through the sacrifice of himself
made to God for them. for their sins, and that he joins
in the celebration of that when he, in his prayer, at the end
of the prayer, he begins to bring them in and he calls them those
who were persecuted, and the righteous, and Zion, and the
humble, and all these different terms that refer our names for
the church of God for whom he suffered these things. All right,
now I hope that you can see that because This is helpful to me to see
this message that's in this psalm as we look at the details of
it, which we're not going to really take time to look at those details
tonight, but take a look at that hymn if you have access to an
internet search and can't find it in your hymn book. Oh, sacred
head, now wounded. And I'll just read a few of the
words again. What thou, my Lord, has suffered
was all for sinners gain. Mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain. Lo, here I fall, my Savior, tis
I deserve thy place. Look on me with thy favor and
vouchsafe to me thy grace. What language shall I borrow
to thank Thee, dearest friend, for this Thy dying sorrow, Thy
pity without end? O make me Thine forever, and
should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love
to Thee. We don't want to outlive our
faith. And the only way we won't outlive our faith is if God by
His grace gives us that faith, which out of that faith produces
love for Christ. Isn't that true? So when we read
this psalm, recall what Jesus said in the Last Supper. He said,
do this in remembrance of me. And He gave them the cup, He
gave them the broken bread, He gave them the wine. They were
to take it. This is my body broken for you. This cup is the New
Testament in my blood, which is shed for the remission of
sins, for many for the remission of sins. So, now those things
are overlaid on this chapter in the Psalms. We see this. Here
in this Psalm, Christ is giving us this great gift. to help us
to remember Him and then say to Him, as the thief on the cross,
Lord, remember me. There's this mutual, you know,
this will be the last thing that I say tonight. I want you to
get this. There's a mutual... How shall I say it? On Christ's
part, there's nothing that delights Him more than to be all for His
people that they need in salvation and in life. And on the part
of His people, there's nothing they desire more than that Christ
would be all in their salvation and their life, all in glory,
all in these things, all in their trust and confidence, all in
their assurance, all in their love, all in their devotion to
God. Christ is all, isn't He? And
Christ loves to have His people utterly dependent upon Him, because
when they are dependent upon Him, they see that He is indeed
everything that God Himself requires for them. Not only did He meet
what was needed to deliver us from our sins, but He did everything
way beyond what we could ever have imagined to make us the
heirs of God as children and joint heirs with Christ to give
us all things with Him. What a wonderful Savior and His
salvation. all by his sufferings, all by
his death. And we'll read through this next time and try to get
to some of the details of these verses. I don't think we're really
going to be able to examine each verse in detail, but we'll try
to get through that next time. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for the blessedness of the Gospel preached to us throughout the
Bible and in this psalm of our Lord's suffering and His death
and His advocacy for His people as our surety to obtain our eternal
redemption and to do so at the cost of His own blood which He
offered by the eternal Spirit to God in glory And Lord, we
thank you that this salvation that you have devised according
to your eternal will is so far beyond our wildest comprehension,
immeasurable, incomprehensible. The wisdom of God, how could
we ever plumb the depths of it? The love of God, we can't measure
it. The grace of God that stooped so low to bring us so high and
the riches of this grace, all in concert to the magnification
of the justice and righteousness and truth and judgments of God.
What a wonderful Savior, and how we find our hearts running
out to Him and pleading with Him to be our surety, to save
us from our sins, to the uttermost. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.