Psalm chapter 22. Psalm 22. Lord willing, we will
look at this chapter in its entirety. And the title of the message
this morning is, The Psalm of the Cross. the psalm of the cross. And I've titled it this way because
there are many others who have given this title, and I believe
rightly to this psalm, that it is the psalm completely of the
cross. Now surely David is the author
of this psalm, and his afflictions were most definitely great. I know that none of us really
even can enter into a lot of the the pain and suffering that
David went through being king of a nation, being cast down
by his own son, and being chosen of God. There
are many things that David in his affliction being chased by
Saul. But nowhere in David's life history do we read some
of the things that are written in this psalm. Take for example
verse 16. For dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. Now that we may see. But
this last part, they pierced my hands and my feet. Nowhere
in David's history were his hands or his feet pierced. So this
most definitely is speaking not of David's experience, but rather
by prophecy concerning Christ and His crucifixion. Also notice
in verses 8, it says, He trusted... I'm sorry, look at verse 9. But Thou art He that took me
out of my mother's 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. Now we know this, David like
us was born in trespasses and sins. He did not believe God
from the womb. This could only be the Son of
God. This could only be He who was
before all things. He who was made flesh. So this
we know is speaking of Christ. We are sure then that all of
this Holy Psalm is the Lord Jesus Christ as He
hung upon the tree. We can see this clearly from
the first and the last verse. Look at the first verse. My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? This is the words of Christ
as He hung upon the tree. It is His first words as the
darkness came in. As God began to pour out His
wrath for the sins of His people, He said, My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken Me? And now look at the last verse,
verse 31. The last part of that, let's
read the whole verse. They shall come, they shall declare
His righteousness unto the people that shall be born, that He hath
done. That can most easily be translated
and has been by some, it is finished. Can you not see that's exactly
what the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ was before He gave
up the ghost? So we have His first words, My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And His last words, It is
finished. So then, from first to last,
These can easily be seen and clearly displayed as the very
words of Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross, as He suffered
on the tree. John Trapp asked this question,
I believe rightly. He said, is this a prophecy or
a history? My answer is yes, it is. It is both a prophecy and a history. You could not have set the stage
more clearly. You could have not designed a
play and set actors upon the stage to fulfill it in such precision
as it is written in this psalm. I mean, even consider that the
people that took His robe and His coat are written here. They part My garments among them
and cast lots for My vesture. Do you not see that's exactly
what they did at the cross? They did that exact thing that
God purposed some 700 or more years before Christ came into
the world. So this is clearly both a prophecy
and a history. Our Lord Jesus Christ. And now,
let me give this a division for you. This psalm can be divided
into two parts. The first part is verses 1 through
21. These, this part is the cries
or the pleadings or the groanings or the sighings of the suffering
Savior. These are His, the words of His
great agony, both of body and the torment of His soul. When
He was made sin for us, we read the very hells that He suffered
in this passage of Scripture. We see then in verse 22, something
breaks. There's a distinct difference
between the voice of him who is suffering and now in verse
22, it is as though the morning breaks. It's though the dark
clouds have now passed. And now he speaks not with a
crying voice, but rather one of boldness and determination. I will declare, you see, He's
now, oh my God, the sufferings, oh the pain, the agony, the disgrace,
and then all of a sudden, I will. Now he's no longer the suffering
Savior, but the victor. The victor. In verses 22 to the end of the
chapter, this is after God is satisfied with His offering. After God in vengeance put away
the sin of His people, now the presence and deliverance of God
is restored to Christ. Then He declares the whole reason
of His suffering and salvation. What is the whole reason and
the suffering? Look at that in verse 30, "...a
seed shall serve Him." What is the whole reason of this suffering?
The salvation of His people. That's the whole reason of this.
The gospel then is preached by Christ after His suffering. So first of all, let's look at
the first section of this. A suffering Savior. The first
verse of this scripture declares with great expression. the most sharp and piercing pain
of our Savior on the cross. The whole reason of His suffering,
the greatest pain that He felt upon the tree was based on this,
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? The Lord Jesus Christ
who was one with God from the beginning, one with God and was
God. He and the Father are one in
person, one in essence, one in deity, one in will, one in power,
yet distinct in person. Yet He who is rich, rich in glory,
rich in honor, rich in praise, God, very God, equal with the
Father and Spirit, for your sakes became poor. Right now, in this
verse, you see the greatest of His poverty. The lowest that
Christ had ever been before was upon this point. Surely in the
garden He began to weigh what was about to happen. But at this
point, it was actually happening. God forsook His Son. God forsook His Son. Now all His life, Christ had
the presence and power and deliverance of the Father in all things.
In all things, Christ had Him always. He said in John 8, He
that sent Me is with Me. The Father hath not left Me alone,
for I do all those things that please Him. I do always please
Him. And God had testified of His
being with him when He said, This is My beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. So why then was Christ, the righteous, holy Son of God,
forsaken of God? Why was he who had no sin, knew
no sin, did no sin, was loved of God, one with God, and yet
now forsaken completely of God? How is this possible? Surely it was by no commission
of sin. The Scripture says he knew no
sin. Christ even challenged his foes. He said, which of you convinces
me of sin? Who? Of Satan, he said, the prince
of this world hath found nothing in me. Nothing. He was not forsaken for lack
of faith in God. Look at what he says, my God,
my God. He says in verse 2, oh my God,
I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not in the night season,
and am not silent. You not see that Christ here
even in this darkest place where God had left Him alone, He even
then was believing God to deliver Him. He cries to God. In verse 11,
he said, Be not far from me, for
trouble is near, and there is none to help. Who did he trust
to help? He believed God to help. He trusted
God. In verses 19 to 21, he says,
Be not far from me, O Lord, my strength. Deliver my soul from
the sword. Can you not see then that he
believed God, that he trusted in God, all the while he was
forsaken of God? So he was not forsaken because
of lack of faith. Not forsaken because of sin of
his own. And what a lesson this is for
you, believer. Is this not a lesson for you?
Even though, believer, listen, God will never forsake you like
this. When I'm talking about Christ
being forsaken, I am telling you about something I've never
experienced and never will. Being a believer in Christ, you
will never be forsaken of God. Why? Because He was. In your stead, Christ was forsaken
of God for your sins. And so God says to you, I will
never leave you nor forsake you. Yet, do we not experience times
where we feel forsaken? There are times when He hides
His face from us and we don't feel His presence. His Word is
concealed. Have you ever looked at this
book and cannot pull one thing from it? That is the most fearful
time of my life when I read this book and I cannot find anything. When the book is sealed and it's
closed, He hides His face and we cannot find Him. Surely there
is no greater pain to a believer's heart than we cannot hear the voice
of Christ. because of our sin or refusal
to fellowship with Him. We, like the bridegroom, the
Shulamite bride, He leaves us because of our slumber. And we
cry like David, hide not thy face from me, put not thy servant
away in anger. When God's presence is not felt
or known, we fear. We fear that we are lost. "'Tis a point I long to know,
often it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? If I am, why am I thus? Why this
dull and lifeless frame? Hardly could they be worse who
never knew its name." Is that not often our fear? That He's
left us never to return? O God, be not angry with Thy servant. We know that God is angry with
the wicked, and then we look within, and all we find is what?
Wickedness. Surely He's forsaken me now.
Surely I've fallen too far. And what do you do then? Do you
say, oh well. No, that's the apostate. The
apostate can leave it, take it, or leave it. Oh well, no big
deal for me. Not for us. Not for us. We plead. We try to find some
ground by which to be accepted. David did. He said, cast not
thy servant away in anger. You have been my help. Is that
not a plea? You bet it is. It's a good one.
What? Have you not been my Savior before? Have you not helped me? Have
you not been with me? Have you not loved me? Have you
not opened your word to my heart? Have I not loved thee and believed
on thee before? And look, this is what your Savior
did. When He was forsaken, it's exactly what He did. Look what
He said in verse 4. He said, Our fathers trusted
in Thee, they trusted and You did deliver them. They cried
unto Thee and were delivered. They trusted in Thee and were
not confounded. What did Christ use when He was
forsaken of sin as a plea? He used the Word of God. And
that's what we should use when we feel as though God has forsaken
us. What a help! Use the Word of
God as your plea. Remember, this is what Israel
did often. They did that often. They forsook
God. They sinned and did evil in the
eyes of God. And listen, when they cried,
He sent them a Deliverer. You go to judges and find out
how many times He does that. Every time. Every time. They
did evil. They cried. He sent them a Deliverer. That's a good basis, isn't it,
for a cry, a plea. Believers plead upon God's own
Word. Father, You've delivered Israel.
Deliver me. Weeping believer, behold and see, God has not forsaken
you. He surely may hide His face, but this is only to stir your
heart. It's only meant to stir your
heart for affection toward Him. If He did not do this, what would
you be like? Where would you be if He did
not do these things? If He did not chasten you, where
would you be? But listen, He will never forsake
you. Why? Because Christ said, My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? This is the cause then of
Christ's anguish, that for all His chosen people, He was made
sin for them. This is the reason God forsook
His only Son, is because of our sins. Our sins God made to be
His own. God imputed our sins to Him. And the sinless Son of God was
made to bear our sins in His own body. He was made a curse
and being a curse, what more could God do than turn away from
such a cursed thing? He could do nothing else but
pour out His justice. for our sins. Therefore, see,
the greatest transaction of redemption was that He who knew no sin was
made sin. Now, as you read these words,
as you hear His cries to God, Can we not tell by the words
and faith of Christ that this had no influence or effect on
His person or His deity? Can you see that? It had no influence. It had no effect. Though He was
made sin for us, yet it did not affect His personal righteousness
or deity. You see, he did not, being made
sin, lose his faith. He did not commit sin, being
made sin. He was still the impeccable Christ. He still was the sinless Son. Read his words. He's crying to
God. Does such a wicked man who is
so full of all the sins of his people, Can He do that? I tell you, it's a mystery. But
it's so. He never lost any of His righteousness. Therefore, see the great transaction. He still trusted in God and was
strong even during the pouring out of infinite wrath. He declares
this, I am a worm and no man. Verse 6, I am a worm and no man. He was a helpless and low as
a worm, a writhing piece of flesh, forsaken of God, defenseless
and helpless. But, look at that next, but thou. Verse 9, but thou. He trusted. Though he was made as a worm,
he trusted God. He leaned upon the object of
his faith. The one that he had trusted from
the womb. Even though they stared and gaped
upon him in blasphemy, he said, though my heart is melted
within me, my strength is dried up. I am pierced to this cross,
O Lord, my strength save me." Does this sound like our sin
changed His holy nature at all? Not one bit. Not one bit did
it change His holy nature. Not as divine or as human. He
was still the spotless Lamb, yet God had made Him to be sin,
so much so that in strict justice was made to meet on Him and press
Him. He was made to tread the winepress
of the wrath of God all by Himself. Was this suffering of Christ
then? What was it for? Why should the Son of God endure
such wrath to be separated from God? Was it as the world pictures
it, to make salvation possible? Is that what He did? Did He,
by His writhing and pain and hell that He suffered, make salvation
possible for all men? Was He made sin and suffered
the penalty so that if man would just accept His work, then they should be redeemed?
What does the Word of God say? I don't care what they say. What
does God's Word say about His death, about His suffering, about
His being forsaken of God? What did He accomplish? Go to
Hebrews chapter 1. And I could go to many places
in Scripture, but I'm just going to take you a little bit through
the book of just a few places in Hebrews. That way you can
stay in one book here. Look at chapter 1, verse 3. God spoke to us in the last days
by His Son, who being the brightness of His
glory, verse 3, and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down." Oh, to the Hebrews, this was a miracle
of miracles. Why? Because we're going to find
out that in the law, the priest that purged sin, the priest that
offered the sacrifices of sin, never sat down. They were never
finished. This says, "...he hath purged." You don't need to be an English
scholar. That's past tense. Purged. Hath. Purged. Already purged our sins. And did what? Sat down. Finished the work. Go to Hebrews
chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. As I just said in verse 6, now,
when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into
the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But in the
second they went, and the high priest only once every Every
year. So what is that saying? They
never finished. It was never done. Look at verse 12. And when they entered in, it
says, neither by the blood of bulls or goats or calves, but
Christ by His own blood entered in, how many times? Once. Once. Once. Into the holy place
having what? Obtained eternal redemption. You see, it says nothing about
making redemption possible. It says everything about accomplishing
redemption. Obtaining redemption. Eternal
redemption. Look at verse 15. "...For this
cause He is the Mediator of the New Testament." that by means
of His death for the redemption of the transgression that were
under the first testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance." You see, He has made the mediator
of a new covenant. Verse 24, And Christ is not entered into
the holy place made with hands as the figures of the true, but
into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest
entered into the holy place every year with the blood of others."
That does away with every bit of the Catholic Church right
there in all their mass. That completely annihilates it, does
it away. For then must he have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the
world he hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. And as it is appointed a man
once to die, and after this the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sin of many. And unto them, the many that look
for Him, Shall he appear the second time
without sin unto salvation? Verse 12 of chapter 10, But this
man, after he had offered up one sacrifice for sin, sat down
at the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his
enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Does anything like that make
it sound like he made it possible? No. Every bit of that shows us
that His one sacrifice accomplished redemption. Accomplished redemption. See then the glory of our text
is this. He that was forsaken of God for
the sin of His people accomplished redemption for them. Accomplished
redemption. Obtained it. This redemption, this payment
for sin, was it a cooperative effort? By no means. He suffered alone. He suffered
by himself. He was forsaken of God. You see,
this was a payment to God. How many fools run around and
think that Christ paid the debt to Satan? Don't deny it. There are many
who believe such foolishness. The debt of our sin was to God. And Christ, in the transaction
on the cross, paid the debt of sin to God by His own blood. And you know what God said? God
said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. Who then can lay any charge to
those for whom Christ died? Seeing that He suffered and God
was pleased, who then can condemn one of those
for whom He died? Who can ever condemn those that
God before purposed to justify, and whom Christ had redeemed? Now the importance of this cannot
be overstressed. Jesus Christ then is a victorious
Savior. He's a victorious Savior. He
has redeemed all those that the Father gave Him. And because
of His success, because of His one offering, He has purged our
sins by His suffering and now is risen victorious. And this
is what we see in verse 22. His sufferings we see in verses
1 through 21. for our sins. But now in verse
22 we see the risen Savior. We see the victorious Savior.
It is as though Christ upon the cross now seeing the clouds of
God's justice parting, seeing that He had accomplished it,
He now is seeing what is next. He said, I will declare Thy name
unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation
will I praise Thee. Even there upon the cross, knowing
God was satisfied, Christ was seeing what He should do. And isn't this exactly what He
did when He came to His brethren on the road to Emmaus? He said,
I will declare. That's what He did. "...ought
not Christ to have suffered and entered into His glory? And beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in the
Scriptures all things concerning Himself." And now that Jesus Christ is
personally, bodily ascended to the throne of God, yet He testifies
of His death, that He alone is the only way to God. He said, neither, the apostle
said, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none
other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Well, who is this message to?
Who is he going to declare this to? He says, my brethren. My brethren. My brethren will
hear and believe my word and follow me. Over in John chapter 17, our
Lord in His high priestly prayer said, All power is given to me
over all flesh. For what purpose? That I should
give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Me. And this
is eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God
and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. You should hear the Word of God. What will He declare? Verse 23,
Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him. Fear the Lord. What is that but to reverence
God? How shall you reverence God? Believe His Son. Trust His
Son. Rest your soul upon Christ. And that is fear, reverence of
God. That is praise to God, to believe
on His Son. Who's going to do that? Look
at this. All you seed of Jacob, glorify
Him and fear Him, all you seed of Israel. He's calling to His
elect, to Jacob, to Israel. And the joy of this gospel is
this, found in verse 24. Look at this. He calls sinners
to himself. Verse 24, he says, 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 Him." What is he talking about? He's saying, because
of my suffering, God did not despise me, but has accepted
me. And because I am accepted, you
that are in me are accepted. God hath not despised His afflicted,
but rather honored Him, magnified Him, raised Him from the dead,
glorified Him, and now He tells you, believe on Him, trust Him
with all your soul, and you shall be accepted. You shall be accepted. God declares He is accepted. Christ who was wounded and bruised,
crushed by God, God is pleased. And now Christ, who pleased God by His death, is
now ascended. And look what He says. He says,
verse 25, "...My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them
that fear Him." What is this? Pay His vows. What are His vows?
His promises. What He swore to do for us. He
is going to show us by the resurrection of the dead, by the resurrection
of those dead souls that He promised to give life to. He promised
to save them. And look who those are. His elect,
the meek, shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek Him. Your heart shall live forever. Who are these elect? Who are
these that He will pay His vows to? They're the meek. Those who are
humbled before God. Those who are exposed of sin. Exposed and helpless before God. meek. The humble shall seek the Lord
and praise Him." You know, only the lost need to be saved. If you've never been lost, but always been saved, you're
lost. That's why you don't need Christ.
You think everything's fine. But only those who are without
life need resurrection. And only those who are raised
from the dead seek Christ by faith. And notice what he says
about this. Look at verse 29. and worship. All they that go
down to the dust shall bow before Him, and none can keep alive
his own soul." Believer, you who are believers in Christ,
do you not realize this? You're rich. You're rich. You're rich in righteousness
before God. You're rich in all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You are rich
with the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God. It
is all yours. You not know that? It's all yours.
It's all yours. When did we experience this? We experience this now on the
earth. We experience this by the calling and it's by faith,
not by outward things, but by faith we know this to be true.
We're chosen of God. You are the elect of God. Now, should this cause us to be proud? The world thinks we are. Well,
you people think you're the elect. You think you're so much better. That's not at all what we're
preaching. No, these fat upon the earth,
they shall eat and worship God, and they shall go down to the
dust and bow before Him. Is that not where we spend our
days? Be bowing before... Is this not the mind of Christ
that is in us? He who was in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made of Himself
no reputation. That's the mind that we have. We bow before Him. And you know
this, we recognize this, none of us can keep our soul alive.
None of us. Can you? Can you keep yourself? If left to yourself, could you
keep yourself? The more I grow in grace, the
more I know I need Him to keep me. That if one hair's breath is
left up to me, I would surely fall off into hell. I cannot
save my own soul. I cannot keep it alive. But herein
is the promise, a seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted
unto the Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare
His righteousness unto the people that shall be born." What are
you supposed to be doing here? You and I are to declare His
perfect righteousness to those who are not yet born. Talking
spiritually. Those who are not yet born again.
What are we to do? Preach the gospel to them. Christ's
suffering and Christ's victory. Isn't that what our text is all
about? Christ's suffering and Christ's victory. And we declare
that to them. This is what we declare. He hath
done this. Done what? Everything. He had done everything for us. We have done nothing. He's done everything. He did the living. He did the
dying. And now He gives to us eternal
life. And no one can pluck us out of
His hand. Why? He suffered. He's been accepted. And because He is, you are. What more is there for you to
do? Nothing. Therefore, we declare
His name. We declare to others, it's done.
Stop doing. And look to Christ. And you know
what? They shall come. They shall come. This is not an iffy statement.
Remember, He didn't make it possible. He actually accomplished it. And He will call His people.
May God give us such grace to hold on to that for our assurance
and comfort. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.