Open your Bibles with me to the
22nd Psalm, Psalm 22. Many of you probably know from
your Bible study and from the preaching here that this Psalm
is probably, as the Holy Spirit inspired King David to write
it, is probably a trilogy including Psalm 23 and 24. And as you know, Christ in his
mediatorial offices, there's one God and one mediator between
God and man. In his mediatorial offices, we
say that he is our priest, our great high priest who offered
himself the sacrifice without spot unto God for the sins of
his people during the work of a priest. The high priest, the
great high priest he's called. and the only true high priest
eternally. And then Psalm 23 represents
Christ our prophet. He is the good shepherd who leads
his sheep. He died for his sheep. He gives
his sheep lives. He finds them. He guides them
by his word. He makes us to lie down in green
pastures. You remember I preached on that
last week at our Sister Sue's memorial service. And then Psalm
24 represents Christ our king. the victorious king who ascended
unto the hill of the Lord as the surety, the substitute, and
the redeemer of his people, the life giver, the keeper, or the
protector and preserver of his people. And he is the one who
is worthy. But today what I want to do is
go back to the Psalm of the Cross. Psalm 22, written by King David
as he was inspired by the Spirit To speak of his own troubles
and sorrows over persecution, some say it was the persecution
that David went through as he fled from King Saul. And then
others say it was the persecution that he went through from the
rebellion of his son Absalom. And either way, David was in
trouble and he spoke this Psalm or wrote this Psalm out of that
trouble. But we see here mainly David as a type and a picture
of Christ suffering for the sins of his people. His people who
were given to him by the Father before the foundation of the
world. And so many of these things would apply in a limited way
to King David, but in a perfect eternal way to our King of Kings,
our great high priest, our great prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ as our surety, our substitute, our Redeemer. Suffering for our
sins imputed to Him. And this is important. Our sins
charged, accounted to Him. As He was made sin for us, as
Paul wrote, for us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. That great, legal, beautiful
exchange. Our sins for His righteousness.
Our sins imputed, charged, accounted to Him. His righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to us. And all legal obstacles of God,
the just and righteous judge, saving us and bringing us into
eternal communion with Him, bringing us to glory. All those legal
obstacles, our sin, our rebellion, our transgression, our trespasses,
our debt is all finished, removed out of the way by Christ, our
great sacrifice, our substitute, the Lamb. Upon Him, all our sins
were lain. all our iniquities were lain
and He was made a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of
the law so that we might receive what the Bible calls the blessing
of Abraham and what is that blessing? It's justification before God
by grace and the promise of the Spirit, the new birth through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and we see in these words that
His suffering was real. He drank the cup his father's
wrath as expressed from this first verse." Look at it, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from
helping me and from the words of my roaring? Now in David,
as it applies to David, David was expressing the fact that
he almost come to a point where he thought God had forsaken him
and that's unbelief. But as it pertains to Christ,
he's not asking this question for information. You know, he
spoke it on the cross in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 46. It says,
and about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, and
he speaks in the Holy Spirit here, it's in Aramaic, which
is the language that Christ spoke. And it says, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. what does that mean? My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? As it's written in Hebrew
here in Psalm 22, the father forsaking the son and literally
what it means is this, it's like Christ is crying out of His suffering,
out of His humanity, His perfect sinless humanity under the suffering
of the cross, hurting crying, sweating, bleeding, all of this. He's crying this way, he says,
why are you so far from helping me? And then there was an appointed
time that he the Son of God would suffer unto death and it would
be the equivalent of eternal death and damnation for his people.
spoke this in the garden in this way, Matthew 26 and verse 42,
it says, he went away again the second time and prayed saying,
oh my father, if this cup may not pass away from me except
I drink it, thy will be done. Now in verses like this that
appear in the psalm, and there's a couple of others I'm going
to deal with later on, you'll read verses here where Christ
And you look at it and you'll say, he'll say something like,
my sins. Now we can easily see how that
applies to David, King David, as it would apply to us. Because
we're all sinners, and if we're saved, we're sinners saved by
grace. We've never done anything in ourselves that you could call
perfect. Or that you could call righteous
in the sense that it equals the perfection of the righteousness
of the law. that can only be found in Christ.
But how does that pertain to Christ? And I'm gonna get to
this verse in just a moment. Look at verse six. Now David, when he speaks it,
there's a limited application to him. But I want to apply all
this to Christ because that's where it comes to. He says, but
I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. He says, I am a worm. And there
are passages of scripture where men are actually described as
worms. I'm going to show you one here
in just a moment. It's real significant because it helps you to understand
the Bible. But I've heard preachers take these verses like this,
like there's a verse over in Psalm 69, which Christ is speaking. He says, my sins have surrounded
me, engulfed me. How could they be called his
sins? How could he call himself a worm? And I heard a preacher
use this one time and he said, Christ, in order to save me from
my sins, he had to become everything that I am so that I can become
everything that he is. Well, my brother, that's heresy. And we need to be able to recognize
that. Christ did not have to become everything I am order
to save me and I certainly even in my saved state, regenerated
state, I don't become everything that He is. What am I? I'm a sinner. Christ is not a
sinner. Now He had to become as I am
in one sense. He had to have a true human body
and so a true human nature, the Word made flesh dwelling among
us. God manifests in the flesh. He had to be a man. He had to
take on over and over in the book of Hebrews chapter 2, it
speaks of this when it talks about His identification with
His people who were given Him by the Father before the foundation
of the world and it says this in verse 14 of Hebrews 2, it
says, for as much then as the children, that is the elect of
God, the children of God, are partakers of flesh and blood. He also, Christ also himself,
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil. In order to
save us, he had to take part of the same. Christ did for our
sins, to die for our sins. But there's a difference. Christ
did not have to become a sinner He did not have to become sinful.
He was made sin, the scripture says. But how was he made sin? He was a worm, but in what sense? In the same sense that I am,
that I'm corrupted, contaminated? And the answer's no. Christ had
to be the spotless, pure Lamb of God, without blemish, without
spot. yet he was made sin, he was made
a curse. All of that's true and so we
see that. Look back at Psalm 22. Now he's not asking this to find an answer that he doesn't
know. He knew what he had to do but this statement is made,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me to make a point.
that he had to drink the cup of the wrath of his father against
the sins of his people in order for that wrath to be totally
removed, for justice to be satisfied. It took death, the death of the
cross. That's why I call this the psalm
of the cross. He had to die, he had to suffer
had to bleed, he had to die to remove our sins, to pay our debt,
to bring forth everlasting righteousness by which God justifies us and
that's why the father forsook the son or was far from helping
the son. He could not deliver him from the experience of suffering
unto death. And that's what Christ said.
He said, if it be possible that this cup be removed, then okay. But he said, but thy will be
done. He knew it wasn't possible. He knew he had to do this. And
he told his disciples this when he would speak of his death on
the cross and even his resurrection, they would get distraught and
try to stop him. And he told them, he said, this
is the reason I came to earth. He signified that in his own
baptism when he told John, suffer it to be so for us to fulfill
all righteousness and he went down into the water which signifies
his death and his burial and he came up out of the water which
signifies his resurrection. But in going through the experience
which is something that he had never experienced before in his
humanity. And this is what he said back
over here in Hebrews chapter two again. Let me see if I'm
gonna keep my finger there this time so I won't have to hunt
for it. But in Hebrews chapter two, this
statement is made concerning the death of the Son of God.
And if you look at verse 10 of Hebrews chapter two, It says,
for it became him, which means it was appropriate to him, for
by whom are all things and by whom are all things, that is
the Father. This was equal to the glory of
the Father in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Now that word perfect
there means complete. In order for Christ to be a complete
Savior, order for Christ to be a complete Redeemer, in order
for Him to accomplish a complete righteousness, a perfect righteousness,
He had to go through the experience of suffering unto death and He
suffered like nobody else has suffered. The nails in His hands,
the crown of thorns, the stripes on His back, nails in his feet,
the spear through his side, all of that sweating. Look, even
in the garden of Gethsemane, the Bible says he sweat great
drops of blood. Now, I've sweated before and
you have too, but have you ever sweated so much that the blood
came through your pores? That's how much he had to suffer.
But here's the key, All of this was for him to drink the cup
of God's wrath. I heard a preacher say one time
that he drank the cup of our sin as if to say that our sins
contaminated him within. You know how the Bible says that
man by nature drinks iniquity like water? And we do. Our humanity,
our human body and soul is contaminated with sin. Now sin is not a substance
or something that runs through our digestive system or our blood. Sin is in things that come out
of the heart, our evil thoughts, evil motives, evil desires, all
of that. But we drink it like water because
it's so, it tastes good to the flesh. Sin does. Think about it. Somebody does
you wrong and you want revenge. And let's say you get it. Doesn't
that taste good to the flesh? Oh boy, give it to them more. Give me another drink of that
stuff. That's us by nature. Well, Christ did not drink the
cup of our sin. The cup that he speaks of in
the Garden of Gethsemane when he said, this cup, that this
cup is the cup of his father's wrath. And he drank that dry. without being made a sinner himself,
without being contaminated himself. He was righteous within and without
and he remained so and sin became his, he was made sin, he was
made a curse in one way and that's by the imputation, the accounting
of our sin, the reckoning of our sin debt to him. And in order
to pay that debt, he had to say, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He knew exactly the answer to
that question. Look on verse two, oh my God,
I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not the father turning
away from the son. And in the night season, I'm
not silent, but thou art holy. Oh thou that inhabit us the praises
of Israel. That's why he had to be forsaken,
because God is holy. God is just. Yes, He's gracious. Yes, He's merciful. Yes, He's
loving, but in order to show mercy and grace and love to His
people, His justice had to be satisfied and that's why God
the Son incarnate was forsaken by God the Father. It had to
be. If not, there'd be no salvation,
there'd be no forgiveness, Forgiveness comes to us by the blood of Jesus
Christ. That's the payment of the debt.
There'd be no righteousness. There'd be no righteousness before
God. There'd be no right standing with God. There'd be no blessings
of salvation and eternal life and glory. That all had to come
based upon His suffering under death as our surety, having taken
our debt of sin, as our substitute, having taken our place under
the wrath of God, and as our Redeemer. having satisfied justice,
paid the debt, worked out perfect righteousness. Remember what
Daniel said in Daniel? He made an end of sin, he finished
the transgression, he brought in everlasting righteousness,
and in order for us to be justified before God. And that was all
in play throughout eternity by the Son of God. Look at verse
four, Psalm 22. Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. Now, There were
many of the Israelites who didn't trust him and they perished,
but there were a few, a remnant, and said, verse five, they cried
unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. But now here's the verse, but
I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. Now all that's true as it applies
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody asked me one time, well,
how does that apply to David? Well, I know this, when Absalom
rebelled against David, it was almost as if the whole kingdom
turned against him. And so David might be describing
that. But this applies to Christ in a perfect, eternal way. I am a worm, and no man, a reproach
of men, and despised of the people. Well, now this word worm is an
interesting word. You didn't think you might be
coming to church this morning to hear about worms. It's the Hebrew word that we
would transliterate it this way. When I say transliterate, I mean,
this is how we might say it in English. It's the word tola.
And it refers to a worm that was commonly used to produce
a red dye, blood red. They used this dye to anything,
for example, in the tabernacle. Anything, any cloth or anything
that was to be colored red was made with this tola, this worm,
this dye. The priest robes, anything that
was red was made right here. But there's another word, and
I want you to turn to the book of Job. Job chapter 25. And I want you to look at this
and mark this in your Bibles, because this will help you. Job
chapter 25. Now I've preached on this before
and some of you probably, you may have notes on or you may
remember it. But Psalm 25 is, I mean, Job
25 is just six verses and it was spoken by one of Job's miserable
comforters. One of his legalistic friends
who was trying to say, Job, let's figure out what you've done to
make God so mad at you, so angry. Buildad the Shuhite. Verse one
of Job 25. Then answer, build dad the shoe,
hide and sin. Now he's answering this in light
of Job trying to justify himself. And Job did get into that now.
Job was a sinner saved by grace who believed in the coming Redeemer.
Remember he said, I know my Redeemer liveth and shall stand in the
latter day. Speaking of Christ. But Job was a man who suffered. And you know about Job's suffering.
It's truth of scripture, but it's almost legendary even in
the world. People talk about the trials
and the troubles and the sufferings of Job. Job had everything, he
lost everything. And even his wife turned against
him. Won't you just curse God and die? That was her commentary. That was her answer to the problem. you remember Job said, he said,
the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, the Lord maketh alive,
he killeth, he said, blessed be the name of the Lord. But
Job did get when these three friends of his including Bildad
came to him, he got into justifying himself and he was wrong and
God chastised him for it. But listen to what Bildad says
here because what he says here is true. He says, then answered
Bildad the Shuhite and said, dominion and fear are with him.
He maketh peace in his high places. Is there any number of his armies
and upon whom doth not his light arrive? How then can man be justified
with God? What a good question. How can
a sinful man be justified with God, be made right, be forgiven? declared righteous, justified. Or how can he be clean that is
born of woman? Those who are born of woman that
he's talking about are those who are fallen in Adam. How are
we born? We're born spiritually dead. We're born spiritually depraved.
We're born in sin. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies, thinking lies, living lies, deceived. That's why we need
a righteousness we can't produce. That's why Christ came to produce
one. And that's why we have to be
born again, be given a new heart. If we believe, that faith's a
gift from God. So how can he be clean that is
born of woman? How can I be forgiven? verse
five, it says, Behold, even to the moon and it shineth not,
yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. This is a metaphor
to show, look, God requires a perfect righteousness that cannot even
be found in creation, let alone in sinful man. How are we going
to get there? It's got to come from God, it's
got to come from above. got to come from God manifest
in the flesh. So look at verse six, how much
less man that is a worm. Now the word worm here is a different
word than the word worm in Psalm 22 6. The word worm in Psalm 22 6,
remember it's the tola. that worm from which the red
dye, and you know what that red dye represents and symbolize?
The blood of Christ, the pure, perfect blood of Christ, His
sacrifice. We're gonna be talking about
that in the Lord's Supper. This is my blood, which was shed
for you. That blood is His death, that's
satisfaction. But the word worm here in Psalm
25, six, the first word is another Hebrew word, and we would translate
it as rimah. And it's like a maggot you find
in the garbage can. Good description of us spiritually.
I don't want to offend your sensibilities. But how much less than man that
is a worm, a maggot. And then it goes on, here's what
Bildad says, and the Son of Man, speaking of the Messiah, which
is a worm, And that word worm there is the same as the one
in Psalm 22 6, the Tola. Speaking of Christ as the Redeemer,
by His death. You see that? My point is this,
that Christ was made sin because of our sins, but there's always
a vital distinction that we must keep in order to glorify and
honor Him. The sins that he experienced,
the wrath of God for, were only imputed to him. He did not become
contaminated in his mind or in his heart or in his thoughts.
Listen to what he said on the cross as he went through. Even my God, my God, he still
calls God his God, the Father, that's the Son, as the mediator
of his people. He had perfect faith as he hung
up on that cross. He had perfect thoughts. Every
thought he had, even when he was in the garden sweating great
drops of blood, they were perfect thoughts. No sinful thoughts
in him. All his motives were perfect. The glory of his father
and the salvation of his people. all of his thoughts, all of his
motives, all of his thoughts, all of his plans, everything
about him was without blemish and without spot, but he was
the Tola. He was the worm. He was the one
who shed red blood unto death for the sins of his people. Let
me show you one more scripture here, Isaiah chapter one. Here's
a scripture that you're most familiar with. starts out, come
let us reason together. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18. He says, Isaiah 1 and verse 18,
come now and let us reason together saith the Lord. Now this is reasoning
based upon God's truth and revelation. It's not sinful men getting together
in some kind of a discussion group trying to figure this thing
out because that wouldn't do us any good. You see, salvation
is a revelation from God. It's got to be revealed. Man
in his philosophies, in his intelligence, in his ethics, he will never
figure it out. Only God must intervene and show
us the way. So he says, come now and let
us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as
scarlet, that's red, they shall be white as snow. This issue
of sin is going to be taken care of. Though they be red like crimson,
guess what that word crimson is? Tola, like the crimson worm. Christ said, I am a worm. I am
a crimson worm. They shall be his wool. How's
it going to be taken care of? By the blood of Jesus Christ
for the sins of his people. That's amazing, isn't it? What
a blessing. Go back to Psalm 22. I'll read
a few more verses here. But you can see, as you go through
here, you can see things that are mentioned in passages like
Matthew 27. For example, it says in verse
seven, all they, Psalm 22 now, all they that see me laugh me
to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake their head saying,
who trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him
deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him. thou art he that took
me out of the womb thou didst make me hope when i was upon
my mother's breast i was cast upon thee from the womb thou
art my god from my mother's belly be not far from me and trouble
is when for trouble is near for there is none to help you see
that christ forsaken as the mediator the sacrifice the offering He
was made sin, a sin offering, the dead of our sins. Verse 12,
many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me around. That's the best of all the bulls,
talking about people like the Pharisees and the scribes. They
gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water and
all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted
in the midst of my, bowels, my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
like a piece of a broken pot. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws,"
Remember he said, I thirst. "...and thou hast brought me
into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierce my hands and
my feet." Isn't that what happened? "...I may tell all my bones,
they look and stare upon me, They part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture. You see that? All this applies
to Christ's suffering unto glory. Verse 19, be not thou far from
me, O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me. See, he still
had faith that his father would deliver him, even though for
a time he was forsaken. He didn't doubt this at all. Verse 20, deliver my soul from
the sword, my darling, from the power of the dogs, save me from
the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the
unicorns. I had a fellow tell me one time
he didn't believe the Bible because it had the term unicorns in there.
I said, well, the Bible uses mythology to make a point, just
like any other piece of literature. There's no such thing as a unicorn,
but he could have been talking about another kind of animal.
Like some people say like a rhinoceros or something like, it doesn't
matter. Why get bogged down in silly details like that and deny
the whole word of God? Verse 22, this is quoted in Hebrews
chapter two. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the congregation while I praise thee.
The good, the priest, high priest, the great high priest,
as the good shepherd will find his sheep and declare his name
to his people, the elect of God." He calls them his brethren and
you can see that in Hebrews 2. And how does he declare his name?
Through the preaching of the gospel wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed by the power of the Spirit. Verse 23, you
that feared the Lord, praise him, all ye the seed of Jacob.
That's the same as the seed of Abraham. Hebrews 2 speaks of
that. That's the elect of God, both Jew and Gentile, who come
to know Christ, who are given the gift of faith and repentance.
Fear him, worship 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. praise," Verse 25, "...shall
be of thee and the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them
that fear Him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied,
blessed are the meek. 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." That's not everybody
without exception, that's His brethren, the elect, the sheep,
the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him. God's elect
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. For the kingdom
is the Lord's, and he's the governor among the nations." Sovereignty
of God. Working all things after the
counsel of his own will. And all they that be fat upon
earth. Now, fat there means healthy. That's what that word means.
They're healthy. They shall eat and worship. They'll
hear the Word of God, feast upon it, feed upon it, and worship.
And all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him,
and none can keep alive his own soul. And then those two verses. A seed shall serve him. It shall
be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come
and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born. That he had done this. This is
the work of God. Salvations of the Lord. Well,
I hope that was helpful to you.