Psalm 69 and we'll begin in verse
8 this evening and we'll just, instead of reading it at the
outset, we'll take it a verse or two at a time and then several
verses together at times. But you remember in the first
seven verses of Psalm 69, we saw that the Lord Jesus Christ
took our place. He cries out when the waters
of sorrow and trouble and the consequences of sin flooded his
own soul though he had done no sin. We know that he's in our
place because there's no trouble without sin and there was no
sin in him. So he's in my place, he's taking
my trouble and sorrow and the waters are flooding his soul
for my sake in my place. In him was no sin and yet the
reason for waters flooding anyone's soul can only ever be sin. There's
no trouble, there's no unrest, there's no fear, there's no need
for salvation. He says, save me. Oh God, that's not necessary without
sin. And so, though the sin was mine, this cry of anguish comes
from the Savior. We know that these words of Psalm
69 are his because of references made to New Testament passages
that we're very familiar with. He owns my sin as his in verse
five, calls it his own because he's responsible for it. We talked
about that. It's my debt, but he got to pay
it. It's my failure, but his responsibility. And then he prays for those.
And this is this is very important. He prays for those who fear God
who wait on God. We see that in verse six. Let
them not them that wait on the Lord God of hosts be ashamed
for my sake let not those that seek the be confounded. For my
sake Oh God of Israel those that seek God those who. Fear him
the weight on him. He prays for them. Let them not
be ashamed or confounded. And in verse seven, he gives
the basis of his prayer. He gives the reason. I have borne
the reproach and the shame hath covered my face. So don't let
it fall on them. So we see our substitute taking
our place under the wrath of God for our sin. This is just
simple gospel. He's praying for us on the basis
of substitution. He's in my place as my substitute,
bearing my sin, bearing the reproach of my sin, crying out in trouble,
which can only be caused by sin. And he's praying on the basis
of substitution. Since I've borne the sorrow,
don't let any fall on them, don't let any reproach fall on them,
I've borne it. And this is the teaching of all the word of God. All the Word of God. Adam and
Eve did not die and go to hell immediately when they fell in
the garden because an animal died in their place and their
nakedness was covered with its skin. Substitution. No Israelite died on the night
of the Passover because a lamb died in their place. The people of God were perpetually
spared and blessed with God's presence in their camp Because
on the day of atonement, the high priest entered into the
presence of God every year, into the most holy place, and not
without the blood of a victim which had died in their place. It's all through the scripture.
The Lord Jesus Christ, how is he able to say to that thief
on the cross, the one on his right hand, today thou shalt
be with me in paradise? Because he's dying in his place.
He's paying for his sin in his place. The Apostle Peter wrote
in 1 Peter 3.18, Christ also hath once suffered for sins.
And this is verses 1 through 5 of our text. He's crying out
in anguish. The waters are flooding my soul.
He's suffering for our sins. He hath once suffered for sins.
The just for the unjust. This is verses 6 and 7 in our
text. I've borne it, Lord, let not
them bear it. The just for the unjust. The just in the place
of the unjust. that he might bring us to God.
That's the result of it. He died not just as a contingency
plan. Some say he came to set up his
kingdom, and when that didn't work, then he had to become an
example and die for us to make something possible. He came down
here to die in our place to bring us to God, that we might be reconciled
to God by his precious blood. That's why he came. Now in the
next verse of Psalm 69 we continue to see our substitute and what
he endured for us. Verse 8, I'm become a stranger
unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. Now we know this is true from
the New Testament. The Lord's earthly brothers,
when he was teaching his people in Matthew chapter 12, he's in
there delivering the gospel, teaching those who cared enough
to hear. The truth of God, the gospel
of salvation by God's grace in himself and his mother and brethren
on the outside trying to interrupt what he's doing, calling for
him. And he said, my family's right
in here with me. You see that even my own brothers
are strangers to me. They don't know who I am. They
don't know what I came for, what I'm doing, why. His spiritual brethren forsook
him even at the cross. Did they not? The Lord, the Father,
spoke the shepherd and the sheep were scattered. And even before
he was arrested, he was as a stranger to them at many times in that
they didn't understand the things that he said often and things
that he did and why. He did them, and why? Why was
he a stranger to everybody? Verse 9, two reasons are given
in verse 9, why he was misunderstood and not known to be who he was,
and what he was doing wasn't understood, and why he was doing
it. Two reasons, for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me
up, number one, and number two, the reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me. Now two reasons, he was so zealous
for his God and the house of his God, that he seemed like
a lunatic to those who were not. Even in our own experience, people
don't understand, Paul said that in 1 Corinthians 2, that the
people of God are not understood, they're not discerned by those
who are not spiritual. They can't understand us, they
can't understand the things of God. And just a simple and not
necessarily very good illustration of this, but we used to drive
to church for about an hour each way, and nobody that didn't know
the gospel understood that. People would ask me, why are
you passing 100 churches on the way to that, and why would you
go way out there? Unless you know who God is, you're not gonna
understand that. And our Lord was like that so
much more so. In everything that he did, he
was misunderstood because the kind of zeal that he had for
God. He said, I've got meat to eat that you don't know anything
about. And so he was misunderstood in that sense. A stranger to those who don't
know the difference in which church to go to. Paul said, as
I mentioned in 1 Corinthians 2.15, the natural man cannot
discern or understand the spiritual man. He's a stranger to him. And our Lord, you don't get any
more spiritual than Him. He was given the Spirit without
measure as a man. And so He was misunderstood because
of that. The second reason Christ was not understood, that people
didn't realize who He was, is because of the reproach that
fell upon Him. Can the Son of God be treated
so? Can God's Son be despised and rejected? Can He be so lowly? Can He be born in a manger? And
for this reason He was a stumbling block to many. Can this One who
everybody hates, especially the religious authorities, the ones
who claim to be authorities on God and His Word, they hated
Him the most. Can He be God's Son? You see
why? He's a stranger because the reproach
of those that would reproach God fell upon him, and for good
reason. Now let's talk about that last
phrase, the reproach of them that would reproach thee fell
upon me. Let's talk about it not as a
reason for verse eight, but just as a truth on its own. Those
who hated God, now, They would have never said, I hate God.
You ask the Pharisees, how do you feel about God? Oh, we love
God. We serve God. We read his word every day. We
worship God. We're his servants. But they
hated God. And it became evident that they
hated God because when God came down where they were, when God
stood toe to toe with them and looked them in the face, They
despised him and rejected him and opposed him in every way
that they could. All of the anger and hatred that men held toward
God was acted out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it exposed
the hypocrisy, didn't it? We say we love God, but God's
standing there and you're spitting on him. You're picking up stones
to stone him. What are you talking about you
love God? He said, if God were your father, you would love me.
Oh. Man can't get to God on his throne. And so men can hate him in their
hearts and pretend to love him. Cause he's, you know, he's on
his throne. We're down here and we can pretend to love. But now
Christ came down and stood right in their faces. And what are
you going to do now? You can't pretend anymore. He
said, you've got no cloak for your sin anymore. The lights
come to you. And how you treat God's son is how you treat God. He that honors not the son honors
not the father. Do you see what our text is saying? It exposed their hatred of God.
They were reproaching God and didn't have any idea they were.
But when the Lord Jesus Christ came down, their hatred for God
was focused upon him. And they had no cloak for their
sin. The Pharisees said, we love God, God is our Father, and all
the while they're plotting to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. They tried to discredit Him in
every way that they could, but what our text reveals and what
our Lord told them while He was here is that they truly despised
God in their hearts, and it became evident in their reaction to
Him. And that's what's on display in their
reproach of Christ, their hatred of His Father. He said, you neither
know me nor my father. How we treated Christ in our
reproach of him, our disgust for him, our rejection of him.
It puts the lie to all of our hypocrisy. If you want to know
how man feels about God. Read John chapter 19. Don't don't
listen to their braggamonies. Don't listen to them saying,
oh, how I love Jesus. You want to find out how man
feels about God. Read John chapter 19. Find out
what God said about it. Now, as new creatures in Christ,
we do have a love for him. By his grace, we have a heart,
a new heart. We're a new creation in him.
But I'll tell you this, if you're walking around with a heart of
flesh in you that nailed the Son of God to a cross, I wouldn't
go around bragging about your love for Jesus if I were you.
And I don't want to do that. Let's talk about his love for
us. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved
us and sent his son, and here he is in our text, being the
propitiation for our sin, being our sin offering, taking our
place, and the floods coming in under his soul and not mine.
Verse 10, he said, when I wept and chasing my soul with fasting,
that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment,
and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gate speak
against me, and I was the song of drunkards. Everybody despised
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody, without exception. No matter what he did, he was
misunderstood and opposed and mocked. When he ate and drank,
he was called a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. When he wept
and fasted, he was beneath their notice. He was despised and thought bad of in that case.
Those that sit in the gate, that's the magistrates and the judges,
the big shot. We know that all those in authority
look down on him. And they feared him, and everything
in between that. Verse 13, but as for me, he said,
let's read a fairly lengthy passage here, but as for me, my prayer
is unto thee. If you're hoping for man to be
something they're not, our Lord wasn't that naive. He didn't
look to man, he looked to his father for comfort, for help. For wisdom. For strength. Don't look to man for those things.
Our Lord didn't. Our example didn't. My prayer
is unto Thee, O Lord, when everybody is down on me. My prayer is unto
Thee. Didn't look for their acceptance.
Not up for man's acceptance. He said, My prayer is unto Thee,
O Lord, in an acceptable time. O God, in the multitude of Thy
mercy, hear me in the truth of Thy salvation. Deliver me out
of the mire, and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from them
that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water
flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let
not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O Lord, for thy
lovingkindness is good. Turn unto me according to the
multitude of thy tender mercies, and hide not thy face from thy
servant, For I am in trouble, again, there's no trouble without
sin. This is my substitute now, bearing
my shame, my reproach, my iniquities. I'm in trouble, hear me speedily.
Draw nigh unto my soul, verse 18, and redeem it. Deliver me
because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach and
my shame and my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all. Isn't
it good to pray to a God that knows? He knows. In that our Lord Jesus Christ
prayed when he was so greatly opposed, he's our great example in that,
that he prayed. In all of our trouble in this
world, we have a refuge, we have a rock, we have a hiding place,
we have an advocate with the Father. Let us pray as our Savior
did, casting all of our care upon Him, because He cares for
us. He cares for us. This world don't. I'll tell you that right now.
And if there's another human being in this world that cares
anything for your soul, it's because of Him. In what He prayed,
in that He prayed, He's our example. In what He prayed, He's our substitute
and our scapegoat. We see that again. He was despised
because I'm despicable. How can you despise God's son?
How can you despise him who went everywhere doing nothing but
good? For which of my good works are you stoning me, he said?
They hated me without a cause, no? Well, there wasn't a cause
in him, but there was a cause in me to be despised, so he took
my place in that. He was despised because I'm despicable. He bore shame because I'm shameful.
He was in trouble because I'm a sinner. Verse 20, he said,
reproach hath broken my heart. And I'm full of heaviness. You
remember what he said to his disciples when he entered the
garden of Gethsemane with them? He said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful. The scripture says there was
a great heaviness, a great weight upon him. And he said, I'm sorrowful
even unto death. And here that is, I'm full of
heaviness, reproach hath broken my heart, and I looked for some
to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, they were
all asleep, and then they forsook me. I found none. And that was my friends. My enemies
were mocking me and spitting on me and beating me and murdering
me. And my friends were nowhere to
be found. Here's the culmination of his
bearing of our reproach. The reproach hath broken my heart. I've told you before in Isaiah
53 where it says it pleased the Lord to bruise him. That word
is crush. God crushed him. And his very
heart, not just his body now. I know there's medical reality
here. And I wouldn't want for a second
to make light of our Lord's physical sufferings. But a heart is much more than
a physical organ that just pumps blood. There's much greater suffering
than physical suffering. This is our Lord's very soul
made an offering for our sin. Reproach hath broken my heart. He bore our sins in such a way
that his heart was broken. And men want to argue about what
that means. And nobody seems to much care
that our Lord's heart was broken. While we're arguing, I think
we forget what's important. My Lord's heart was broken. I
broke God's heart because of my sin. And if I wasn't such a wretch,
such an unfeeling, callous wretch, that would break mine. And as I said, I know there's
a physical aspect to this. His heart physically was damaged
because he bled drops of blood, he sweat drops of blood through
his skin and Gethsemane as he was bearing my sins. So I know
what was taking place there. And I don't want to minimize,
I don't want to dishonor my Lord in any way by making light of
his physical sufferings. But this heart is deeper than
that. And I can't pretend to understand this, I'll just make
one observation about it. I'm pretty sure that your heart
can't break unless it's a heart of love. You think about that. How is
your heart gonna break unless you love somebody? And I know this, the son loved
his father. And for his father to despise him for my sin, to
punish him for my sin. I know that's part of what broke
his heart. More than anything, that broke his heart. And I know
that he loved me. And had he not so loved me, his
heart never would have broken, I know that. Look at verse 21. They gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. This makes
it so evident that this whole psalm is our Lord bearing our
sin on Calvary, our substitute, taking our place under the wrath
of God for our sin. Let their table become a snare
before them, and that which should have been for their welfare,
let it become a trap Let their eyes be darkened that
they see not, and make their loins continually to shake. Pour
out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take
hold of them. This is strong language now.
There's not any mistake in what he's saying here, is there? Let
their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents.
For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they talk to
the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity,
and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted
out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous."
That's pretty clear. We briefly mentioned this last
week. It was not everyone that our Lord spoke of from the cross
when he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. He did say that, and he was talking
about specific people. He can't be saying father forgive
them of the same people he's saying cut them off and let them
not Be let them be blotted out of the book of the living and
let them not be written with the righteous He can't be saying
what we just read in psalm 69 to the same people for whom he
prayed father forgive them For they know not what they do But
he prayed both And this right here now, this
is the determination of life and death. This is what we need
to see here. What determines life and death
is not your decision, it's the intercession of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If he prays for you, Father forgive,
you're forgiven and you have life. If he prays of you, Father
cut him off, you cut off and you'll die forever. That's it
right there. There's no difference in you
in the different ones. There's no difference in the
ones in the right hand and the left hand now. The difference
is Christ and His intercession for you. If He represents you
as your high priest and He offers His precious blood unto God on
your behalf, then it's life. And He prays forgive on the basis
of that shed blood. He can't just say forgive and
forget and just let bygones be bygones. He prays on the basis
of his substitutionary sacrifice. Father, forgive. So as high priest,
he makes the offering and he intercedes or he doesn't. And he says, cut them off. Let
them be blotted out of your book. Let them not ever be written
down with the names of those who are righteous before thee
because of my precious blood. difference now. People talk about
the difference between Peter and Judas. I've even heard people
compare them and mention in that discussion that the sins they
committed were not the same. Let me tell you something the
difference again between Peter and Judas there is just one. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
Peter, Satan hath desired thee that he might sift thee as wheat
just like he did Judas. But I've prayed for you. There's
the difference. I've prayed for you. Let your
faith fail not. So whether my faith fails or
not is up to Him. And whether I live
or die is in the power of the intercessory virtue of my Lord
Jesus Christ. There's the difference. I'll
tell you this. Christ prayed, Father, forgive them. And he
prayed, cut them off. And there was no difference in
any of those that he prayed for or against. I know that their
sin was not different. Their character was not different.
There was no difference. Christ made the difference. Verse 29. But I am poor and sorrowful. Let that salvation, oh God, now
I want you to notice. We're just gonna read this passage
and make one final observation tonight. But as we read this,
I want you to notice the wills and shalls in it. This will be
a blessing. I am poor and sorrowful, and
think about now where our Lord is, where he is when he's saying
this. He's saying this as our substitute, as our high priest,
as our sin bearer, as our scapegoat, as the one into whose very soul
the waters, the floodwaters are pouring in. Instead of me, I
am poor and sorrowful. Let thy salvation, O God, set
me upon high. I will praise the name of God
with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also
shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath
horns and hooves. The Father, What did our Lord
Jesus Christ say? Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not, but a body thou hast prepared for me. Then said I, lo, I come
to do thy will. This is a better sacrifice than
bulls and goats. This is the precious blood of
the Savior now. God will be satisfied. He will
be pleased. The Lord, this also shall please
the Lord. That's satisfaction. Substitution
and satisfaction. He took my place as my substitute.
And he fulfilled the law of God in his righteous life. And he
satisfied the justice of God in his sin-atoning death. In
my place, the Lord shall be, this all shall please the Lord. Better than ox or bullock that
hath horns and hooves. And the humble shall see this
and be glad. And we do, don't we? We see the Lord as our substitute
in making satisfaction for our sin. That makes me real glad. And your heart shall live that
seek God, and that's why, not because you seek God, but because
Christ took you place and pleased God for you. For the Lord heareth the poor
and despiseth not his prisoners. The Lord heareth the poor because
our Lord became poor. The Father heareth the poor because
Christ said, I am poor, as my substitute. Verse 34, let the
heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that
moveth therein, for God will save Zion. You see that? He will build the
cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants
shall inherit it. Paul said, it is of faith that
it might be by grace that the promise might be sure to all
the seed. And that's what David's talking
about right there. The seed shall inherit it because of the grace
of God in Christ. And he saved us by that grace
through faith in his precious blood. They that love his name shall.
You see the wills and shall? This is a certain thing. How
sure is the salvation of God? He will save his people. He has
saved his people. He is saving his people. The
message of Psalm 69 is the message of this entire book of God. Because
my sorrow flooded his soul. Because he is my substitute. Because he bore my shame and
my reproach, because his heart was broken for me, I shall be
saved. I am saved, I'm being saved,
I have been saved, I shall be saved, I'm eternally saved by
the eternal blood of God's Son. And that's the message of this
book. It's the message of Psalm 69. He laid down his life for
me and I shall never perish. I will inherit the land. All that he obtained for me in
the covenant of grace when he met the terms of it. Unconditional
for me because he met the terms of it. And I benefit with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's
the simple message of this book. And isn't it clear in this song?
From start to finish. Thank God. That's why we sing
about the blood. That's why we preach Christ in
him crucified. Let's pray.