I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Psalms 22. Psalms chapter 22. I've prepared a message and Lord
willing I'll preach it. I'm scheduled to preach for Brother
Don Fortner this Sunday. Brother Neil will be scheduled
to preach for us this Sunday, 9.30. And I prepared a message
on Psalm 22, the first 10 verses. And I began to look at the opening
verse of this particular passage, verse 1 of Psalm 22. And I'd like to make just a few
comments on that on the first part of the first verse of Psalm
22. And then Lord willing, when I
come back, we'll look at the rest of the verses. Psalm 22,
this will be my text for this evening. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Let's pray together. Our Father, as we come to the
end of this year, Lord, we thank you for your sustaining grace. Thank you for the mercy and the
compassion, the long suffering that you've shown to us, your
people. I pray this evening, Lord, bless
the word, bless it to our understanding. Help us. And Lord, forgive us
where we failed you. We pray for Mark and for those,
Lord, in the congregation who are going through trials, and
pray that you'd have mercy for Christ's sake. Amen. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? As I looked at that portion of
that scripture, I looked back at the title or the inscription
or who this psalm was actually addressed to. It was a psalm of David, that's
what it says. But if your Bible has an inscription,
my Bible says, to the chief musician, upon I Jaleth Shehar. And that intrigued me. I looked
at that and I thought, now, who was that? This, this psalm, this poem,
this song was a song of prophecy, a song of praise, and it was
to be sung, directed by the chief musician. Now, just knowing the
words. Now this, you know that these
are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some have said that,
that The Lord actually quoted the whole 22nd Psalm of David. I don't know. I've never read
that. Maybe so, I don't know. But I
do know this, I do know that he said these words, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But as I looked at that,
the title to whom it was written and directed, You, the chief
musician, I want you to take this psalm because it is about
Ai Jaleth Shehar, which means the hind or the deer or the roe
of the morning or of the dawn or the early light. This is a
song about the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's obviously concerning
His glory, just because of the wording of this song. The heart,
H-A-R-T, the deer. This is what it's about, the
deer of the morning, the heart of the early morning, the early
light, and that song of Solomon. Solomon was moved upon by the
Spirit of God to write concerning the Lord Jesus Christ being referred
to as the heart, H-A-R-T, the deer. Song 929, my beloved, is
like a roe or a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our
wall. He looketh forth at the window,
showing himself through the lattice. And so it speaks of the Lord,
who is this deer. This heart is strong, but mild,
peaceful animal. But as He would reveal Himself
to them, and this is what that word means, the word, ijeleth,
means heart, the heart, the deer, the roe. And shehar means of
the morning. So He is the deer that reveals
Himself as the morning star. the bright and morning star,
the one who is the light of God's grace and God's glory and his
express image. Solomon wrote again in Psalm
chapter two, verse 16, 17, he said, my beloved, speaking of
the bride, said, my beloved is mine and I'm his. Now I know
this, we're his, being chosen in Him, given to Him by the Father
before the foundation of the world, we're His. The Father
gave us to Him. We're His because He betrothed
Himself to us. Having been given to the Lord
Jesus Christ by the Father before the foundation of the world,
Christ betrothed us to Himself. And we're His by purchase. He
bought us. shed His own precious blood that
He might reconcile us to God through His sacrifice. So we're
His, but He's ours. The Father gave Him to us as
the head of the church. The Father gave the Lord Jesus
Christ a bride, but He gave the bride something too. He gave
her a husband. gave her a Redeemer, gave her
a Savior. And so we are His, we are the
Father's gift to Him. And He's the Father's gift to
us. So she says, my beloved is mine, and I'm His. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ,
the heart, the mighty gazelle spoken of in the scriptures,
the light of the morning, He, in covenant mercy, came into
this world to save His beloved bride and to have her eternally
in His presence. Back in Psalm 216, the bride
continues and says, He feedeth among the lilies. He feedeth.
That doesn't mean He eats. That's not what it means. It
means He does the feeding. He is the shepherd, he governs,
he rules, he nourishes, he guards, he feedeth among the lilies,
that is, his people. Song of Solomon refers to the
people, the bride of Christ, as the lily among thorns. He's talking about the lily being
those that he's made pure. washed us in His blood, robed
us in His righteousness. So He made us so. He made us
to be the lilies. And He feeds us by the preaching
of the Word. This is how He feeds among the
lilies. This is what He's doing. The
mighty gazelle Himself, the heart. He feeds His people. as they come together in this
precious assembling of ourselves together in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this, He's gathered us together,
and He raises up a pastor. He gives a pastor a heart to
study, and then He sets forth the Scriptures, and the Spirit
of God blesses it, and it's the bread of heaven to God's people. And they feast, and it's Him
feeding. So He feeds among the lilies. And how long? Song of Solomon
2.16 says, how long shall he feed his blessed flock? Well,
continuing, it says until the day break. Either that gospel day when it
dawned the first time he came, that dawn, when it broke, that
glorious day when Christ, the son of righteousness, triumphantly
appeared, it says, until the day break and the shadows flee
away. That is, the shadows of the ceremonies,
and the types, and the pictures of the law, until they flee away. Or it means the glorious day
of His second coming, when our full and complete salvation has
come and we'll forever be with the Lord. He's going to feed
His people, He's going to feed among the lilies until the day
breaks. The morning star comes and the
shadows flee away until the shadows of our weakness, the shadows
of sin, the darkness of unbelief, until it's no more. That's how
long He's going to feed His people and keep His people. And then
she says, turn my beloved, surround me. encompass me, my beloved. Be thou like a roe or a young
heart. Be my strength. Be my comfort. Be my beloved. Help me, protect
me. And she says, upon the mountains
of Bither. That means divisions. How long
is he going to feed his lilies until the daybreak? Until the
shadows are all gone. Until there's nothing but the
bright and morning star. And then she says, protect me.
Protect me. Be my young heart. Be my strength upon the mountains
of bither. It means separation or divisions. Until this time right now, while
we're separated. We know Him, we see Him by faith,
but we know Him part. And we prophesy in part, we see
through a glass darkly. And right now, we don't see Him
face to face like we will. So there's a separation right
now. Though we know Him, not like
we will. But she says, continue to surround
me and protect me until these divisions are no more. Until
that time when we're forever together. So realizing now, to
whom this psalm was instructed by the Spirit of God, told David,
you tell the chief musician, this poem, this psalm, this song
is to be sung to the glory of the mighty Gazelle himself. the youthful heart, the protector,
the strong dear of the Lord Jesus Christ who will keep His people,
the hind of the morning, the glorious Messiah who is the Savior,
the Redeemer of His people. Now, it is Him. He's the one. He's coming to this earth to
save His people from their sins. He's gone to the cross. He's
laid down his life. He's been made sin. He now bears
all of the guilt of all of the elect for all of time. All of it, he's bearing, the
scripture says, in his own body. He's made what they are. And now, Here is the mighty gazelle
himself, the morning star, hanging upon a cross, made sin, and cries
forth these words. He's been there for about six
hours. And the scripture says, he cries out with a mighty voice,
my God, my God. You, who alone are the all-sufficient
support, my only reliever, my only help, why hast thou forsaken
me?" He was forsaken of men. They wagged their heads. They
mocked him. He saved others, he couldn't
save himself. He called out to God. Let him
call out to God now if he'll have Him. He was forsaken of
men. His own disciples forsook Him.
Even the sun itself, that light in the sky, forsook Him. It didn't shine. Three hours,
but for God for God. Now, at this point, I would like
to only make a few comments and some thoughts on this precious
wording of our Lord because why Almighty God forsook the Lord
Jesus Christ We know that and we can make some truthful statements. He was made sin. That's exactly
right. But there's so much that we don't
know about that statement. I look at that and I thought
that is such a deep mystery. A mystery that no mortal man
can fathom. Now here's God dealing with God. Almighty God, and he's crying,
here is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here is who is on that cross. It is the Son of the living God,
who according to covenant mercy, was made flesh. Now, here is
the man. Christ Jesus, the man. And we
cannot, we never can separate, make a separation between His
divinity and His humanity. He is totally God, one with the
Father. One with the Father. And He is
truly man. He's flesh. He's got feelings. He felt those nails in His hands,
in His feet, He felt that spear. He thirsts. And here is the man,
God, man, mediator, and he is doing something that is so amazingly
marvelous on our behalf. You know, the scripture says,
your sins have separated, your iniquities have separated between
you and your God. Almighty God is a just God. The soul that sinneth is gonna
die. And here is the Lord Jesus Christ,
very God of God, and man. bearing all of the sins of all
of his people for all of time, all of them. And he's going to
approach God. He's going to approach God. Now,
you and I, we approach the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have a mediator. He is going
to approach God on His own merit with our guilt in His body made
sin and He's hanging there on that cross and He approaches
Jehovah. He is crying out to Jehovah,
the triune God. Now here's the mystery. All I'm saying, I mean, you talk
about when God told Moses, He said, you take off your shoes.
This is holy ground. Now here is holy ground, right
here. Jehovah God, Jehovah, I Am, the
I Am. The three in one God. is who the Lord Jesus Christ
is crying out to. And God Himself, the Son made
flesh, hanging on that cross, the man,
Christ Jesus, God, man, is crying out to Jehovah of whom he is
the fullness thereof, but has submitted himself, made himself
of no reputation, humbled himself. Here is the sacrifice. Here's
the sacrifice. And these words that he cries
out as the substitute, the great high priest appointed of God,
One who can only, the only one that can represent man and being
a man approaches God Himself on His merit. Here is the only
man born of woman, not born of Adam, but born of woman who could
approach God on His own merit. And He does so here on our behalf. And now the one in whom we call
for deliverance. Lord, you pray. I told you how
the Scripture says the Spirit of God helpeth our infirmities
and the Lord Jesus the great high priest with the great golden
censer, and in the incense of his own merit, he presents our
prayers to God, and they're accepted before the throne of God on his
merit. Now here he is, and he calls out unto God the one who
sent him into the world for this purpose, and he calls, knowing
the full and exact demand for righteousness and judgment, I'm
convinced that this cry, a cry that was absolutely out of total
faith, total faith. He wasn't asking something that
he didn't know. He knew exactly what he was asking,
and he knew why he was there. This is for us, on our behalf. Our mighty, glorious heart of
the morning, the gazelle himself cries out knowing that there's
no other way. He cried out in an agony and
those words that he asked, those words in the garden, he said,
Father, if there be any way that this cup, that being made sin,
can pass from me, nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done."
That was for us. Is there any other way? No. Is there any way to the Father
but by Him? No. I am the way, I'm the truth,
I'm the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. And this is the way. This is
the mighty heart Himself. And here the Lord Jesus Our great
husband, our great priest, the friend of sinners, as man, as
the man, Christ Jesus, appeals to God in the indescribable agony
of His soul. Not in suspicion, not in doubt,
not in mistrust. He believed God. Abraham believed
God, the Lord Jesus Christ believed God. Knowing that no man can
fathom the depth of these words, we respectfully hear the words
of our intercessor, our great substitute. And here in the declaration
of his assurance of knowing that Jehovah had chosen Him to be
the suffering servant in perfect faith. The Lamb Himself, in the
indescribable suffering and anguish, knows that He's being forsaken. He must be forsaken. Again, these
words are for us. My God. My God. I notice He didn't say, My Father. He is talking to the covenant
God. He's approaching Jehovah, of
whom He's equal. But He humbled Himself, bore in His body the sins that
had separated us and God. And therefore, He knows for us
to never be forsaken. Because of our sins, He's got
to take all of them and approach God with them and be forsaken
of God because of them. Because the soul that sinneth
is going to die. Now if these were the words of
a mere man, they would be without a doubt the words of total despair. God who never changes. If He were to forsake me, how
can God forsake me and I have any hope? And I must be, in my
substitute, I must be forsaken because of my guilt. I must be. What my guilt deserves, He must
bear. He must put it away. He must
suffer. This is not swept under the carpet. This is wide open before God
and men. It's absolutely displayed before
all of glory. The Lord cries out the very words,
my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? I'll tell you why. He's made sin. God's holy. God's holy. This is how trying
to make a little easy decision and just a little quick, you
know, mumbo-jumbo words and stuff like this will never suffice
between us sinners and a holy God. Him being found sin, the law
demanded death. That's the only thing it gets. The only thing that the law will
accept for satisfaction of disobedience, this is it. Not a second chance,
not a plea bargain, death. There's no compromise, justice
must be satisfied, and truly the one into whom whose hands
the Lord Jesus submitted Himself, the God that He trusted, the
God that He cried unto to sustain Him and uphold Him, the one that
He loved and obeyed, His Father, the one to whom He said, My meat, My food, My sustenance, My livelihood
is to do the will of Him that sent me. He was the one that
forsook Him. For God's immaculate glory and
the eternal good of His sheep. There is one believer that has
been forsaken of God for our guilt. The guilt of His people. The guilt of His elect. We have
been, in a substitute, forsaken of God. And he paid the debt. And now, that debt being paid,
that debt being put away, there is the foundation of him saying,
I will never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Almighty God will not demand
payment twice for one guilt. the guilt of our sin, the totality
of our sin. He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. And now, the most respectful
thing that we can do is admit that any attempt to explain all
I have done is declared what has happened. And to explain
His cry, to explain the depth of what was actually happening,
what was being paid for, what God Almighty, the knowledge,
the freedom to know the depth, we probably never will. I don't know, but I can tell
you this, the best thing that we can do is to bow in adoration
and to say, Lord, for that which you've been pleased to do, for
that we're thankful. In closing, the prophet Isaiah,
in Isaiah 53, declared what was happening. The depth of which,
like I said, we may never know. But listen to Isaiah 53, verses
10 and 11. He pleased the Lord to bruise Him. May I just stop
for a minute and just say this and not His people? He pleased
the Lord to bruise Him and not His people. He hath put Him to
grieve and not us. When thou shalt make His soul
an offering for sin, and not ours. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah, the
pleasure of Jehovah, what? To save his people through the
substitute. Shall prosper, shall be made
to prosper in his hand. The one that cried, my God, my
God, is going to prosper in his power. He shall see the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them that be in Christ Jesus. He's born at all. And by his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for or because
he shall bear their iniquities. And the believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ, they hear these words of God's justice, God's
satisfaction, Christ's sacrifice, and they say, repeat, I think
of these words of Thomas, my Lord, my Messiah, and my God, my covenant
God. That's what Thomas said. That's
who you are. You are the fullness of a Godhead
bodily. You're my Messiah. You're God. You're God in human flesh. You are my Savior. There's no greater proof of the
sinfulness of sin. God forsook God. No greater proof of the heinousness
of sin. And the sad part is how little
we think of it. There's no greater revelation
of sin's due. God would forsake God. No greater exhibition of love. God so loved the world all kinds
of sinners out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. You
know, that doesn't mean all without distinction. We know that. But
he bore the wrath that would absolutely surely was due us
and would have been ours, except I will have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. He experienced the absolute due. of our rebellion. And if you
want to know what did we really deserve, he was forsaken of God. What would be our end? He suffered the complete equivalent
of eternal separation. When I think of that, what was
due to all the elect for all eternity, He suffered what was
due in one sacrifice for sin. Oh, the efficacy of His blood
that He would humble Himself before Jehovah and approach Jehovah
being made sin and would give himself into the hand of Jehovah
and say unto him, that which is due, do to me. And then would say for our benefit,
my God, my God, him knowing why, him knowing why, why hast thou
forsaken me? And we say, Lord, you were forsaken
that we would never be. I pray that the Lord give us
some understanding and a heart of thankfulness for Christ, for
His glory and our good. Amen.