In Psalm 88 tonight, if you want to look there, I want to point out at the outset that this is part two. Last week I tried to emphasize that this psalm is speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ and His sufferings. And I believe that it's really talking about Him only.

But at the end of the study last night, Tim raised a question, and it was a good question, and it was about verse one. where it says, O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried unto thee day and night before thee, and as Tim pointed out, he finds it in his own experience that Tim finds it, as every believer does, in his own experience, this uprising, this cry to God as His God and the God of His salvation. So Tim's question was, can we not take this psalm as a psalm to believers, as a believer crying out to God?

And so I want to address that tonight, and I want to do that by still holding to the fact that I think that this psalm is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and His sufferings, but given that, I want to look at the reasons why God has given us this psalm, why God would give us this intimate a cry of the Lord Jesus Christ as His Son to His God and Father when He was in the days of His flesh and His time on the earth.

I think particularly when He was in Gethsemane, when He was on the cross, praying thus to His Father. His cries were earnest. His need was intense. It can be described by this psalm, but can we really understand it I think that it is really well beyond our ability to understand.

So that raises the question, then why would God give us this psalm that gives us such a descriptive disclosure of Christ's prayer suffering in the days of his flesh, a prayer to his Father as one who is described by the words of this psalm as sufferings under the wrath of God. Why would God tell us this if this psalm is just about Christ?

I think the first thing we want to see here is that in what God has revealed here in this psalm, he tells us, first of all, about himself. God the Father is the one who gave his son. And that speaks volumes to us about who God is. So in this psalm, what we see is the revelation of God in his own nature, in his own character, through what he has done in giving his son. for us, and bringing upon him this suffering, because it was God the Father who did this.

As you well know, he says in Romans 8, 32, that he delivered him up and did not spare his own son. So it was God who brought this trouble upon Christ. And he says so throughout this psalm. He says that he was, thy wrath lieth hard upon me, thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, and so on. So it's definitely God who did this, and he acknowledges that.

And so we see that because it is God the Father, his God and Father who did this, it tells us about God's own will and God's own character. In short, it tells us about the glory of God our Father. But we see that glory, really, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the second thing that we learn from this psalm is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And seeing His glory, we see God's glory in Him. So those first two things, I think, must be understood as primary reasons why God has given us this psalm about the intimate cries of the Lord Jesus Christ and His sufferings under the wrath of God for His people. is to see the glory of God in his sufferings. The glory of the Father, the glory of the Son, the glory of God in Christ. And that's what the scriptures talk about. The Lord Jesus said over and over again, if you've seen me, then you've seen him that sent me. And this is something we're going to look at in just a second in a little more detail. But the third reason here I want you to see is that these are real sufferings. These are not pretended sufferings. And so because they're real sufferings, a real deliverance is asked. That's the supplication for a real deliverance because of real sufferings. And the Lord really did deliver the Lord Jesus Christ and really did justify him.

And so that what we see is that under these sufferings, even though he suffered at the hand of God, it wasn't a suffering to bring him down in the eyes of his people, but actually to elevate him and to exalt him in these sufferings. We would think, like Job's friends, for example, they thought because Job suffers he must have some horrible sin and God must be displeased with him. But in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, even though we see the outpouring of God's displeasure, Yet it was a displeasure that was a judicial displeasure because of the sins of his people, so that it was not because God didn't have a favor towards him, but actually God was well pleased in his sufferings.

And so it speaks volumes here about the fact that Christ actually did suffer, he actually was delivered, and because he actually was delivered, then the reason why he suffered And the glory that should follow was a real glory. A real salvation was obtained here. So those first three things here, I think, are evident in this psalm. And we can compare this to the rest of scripture, that it's God's glory that's revealed here in the Father and in the Son. And it's a real suffering with a resulting real salvation because of the real glory given to Christ out of these sufferings.

And then the fourth thing I want to bring out here is that in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, he did not suffer as a private person. He did not suffer and he did not pray as a private person. So this gets more closely to Tim's question. If the Lord Jesus Christ didn't suffer as a private person, but as the head of his body, in other words, the representative head of his church. All that he did, he did not only for his people, but it was counted as them suffering and dying and being buried and raised again and justified. and exalted and given the reward of Christ's inheritance because he didn't suffer as a private person, but he suffered as one with his people.

And so that's why the glory of this is so great because we see in his prayers, we see ours answered. He was heard. He was heard. He actually prayed out of these sufferings and God heard him and answered him. So that's the next thing I want to bring to your attention, that not only is this the glory of God the Father, the glory of God the Son, real sufferings and real salvation and real glory given to Christ because of these sufferings, out of that real obedience and a real righteousness being established, but this was not as a private person, but as Christ with his people and for his people. All right, so that's the fourth thing.

And the fifth thing I want to point out here is that in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, we learned that it wasn't pretended sufferings. It was real. He felt these things, and it was a felt guilt. It was a felt shame. It was a felt affliction, felt wrath, and all these things. He really felt these things, and that's comforting to us because as God, He cannot feel these things, but as man, He felt them acutely. He felt them intensely. As no man ever suffered, He felt these things. And so that teaches us that He's able He's able to come to the aid of those who suffer because He Himself has been tried. He's been tempted, as the scripture says, tried in every way that we're tried. Because no one ever suffered as is described here but Christ. And so we see that.

We see that this gives us great comfort because the throne of God which is unable to be approached to by us as sinners, in our mediator now is a throne where Christ sits and is a throne of grace. And now we are exhorted to come to him and to know that he who suffered for us can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and therefore we are to come to Him and trust Him.

And here's another thing I want to say in that regard, that the Lord Jesus Christ was in every way without sin, and yet He suffered by the will of God. And so he was a son, he was the son of God, and yet he suffered. And so we see that God's will for his people does not exclude them, does not preclude their sufferings. And their sufferings are no indication of God's displeasure, but actually the fulfillment of His will. And since God is good and He's able to deliver us, He will keep His promises. He cannot lie. He will keep all that He promised to us in Christ before the world began. Therefore we can trust Him that He will fulfill His word and He will bring us to Himself. He will hear us.

And so what we find here, let me take you to a scripture in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 23. because this uses Christ's sufferings as an example for us, because as he was in this world, we are going to be, by God's grace, conformed to his image. He says in 1 Peter 2, verse 23, when he was reviled reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not. He did not threaten those who caused his sufferings, and he certainly didn't murmur against God in unbelief, but he committed himself. There's faith. He committed himself while suffering. And as we saw last week, there was no light from God here. He cried, and it was silent. And he suffered the wrath of God, and yet he trusted, because God had committed, God was the faithful creator, and Christ had committed himself to do his Father's will, and so he entrusted himself to him. And I'm going to sneeze here in just a second, so hang on. Excuse me.

But in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 23, he committed himself to him that judges righteously. So now, back to Tim's question and to our own concerns and our own troubles and sufferings. What are we to do then? As we are conformed to the image of Christ, we're to commit ourselves, aren't we? We're committed to commit ourselves in all circumstances. the good and the bad, in temptation and in deliverance. In every way, we are to give ourselves to trust our God and Savior. And as the Lord Jesus Christ came to God the Father as His God and Father, so we come to the Lord Jesus Christ as our mediator, and so come to God by Him, don't we? He, as the Son of Man, came to God the Father as our mediator, not as a private person, but with His people, and so when we come to God, we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we come to God by Him, we come by His blood, and we are given access through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So those are things that I think that help us as we look at this psalm to see why the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and also why God the Father has told us these things in his word for our great instruction and comfort. It teaches us how we're to take God's word like the Lord Jesus did, trusting God who gave him that word and those promises and commit himself under the worst kind of circumstances even though to all appearances He was brought into humiliation and his disciples were actually, as it says here in this psalm, in verse 8, he says, I am an abomination to them, to his familiar friends, to his lovers and his friends. They looked on him with abhorrence because of these sufferings and yet, It was not that he should be abhorred, but rather that he should be adored, right? There's no greater love than the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I want to look at some of these things with you tonight as we consider this again in Psalm 88.

First one I want to look at is in John chapter 12. John chapter 12. You want to turn in your Bibles to John chapter 12. And look with me at verse 27. He says in John 12, 27, Now is my soul troubled. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a time in the history of His life, in the days of His flesh, while He was on this earth. And He says, Now is my soul troubled. Isn't that what Psalm 88 is describing for us? the troubles of his soul. He says in Psalm 88 verse 3, my soul is full of troubles. And here in John chapter 12, now is my soul troubled. Do you see how that fits? You see how this is fulfilled, fulfilling the prophecy of Psalm 88 in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now is my soul troubled. Why was it troubled? He says, What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, this hour of sufferings, as he was about to suffer. Remember in the garden, he said, my soul is, and I'll read this to you from Matthew 26 and starting at verse 36, he says, Jesus, then cometh Jesus with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, which would be James and John, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy, sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he to them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. That's exactly what Psalm 88 is describing. carry ye here and watch with me." Okay, so he goes a little further, he falls on his face, he prays saying, oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Okay, so this is the trouble. John chapter 12, he's speaking of it in verse 27. He says, now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, that's not what he says. He says, but for this cause came I unto this hour. Everything that preceded this hour was leading up for the purpose of fulfilling this hour. This hour. This is so significant here. Verse 28, he says, Father, Remember our first point? Why did God give this? To glorify himself in his son. He says, Father, glorify thy name. Glorify thy name. He prays that the reason for his sufferings would be fulfilled in God the Father being glorified in his person, in his honor, in who he is, in his name. the way we know him, the way we see him through God-given eyes of understanding. And then he says in verse 28, then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

Now, how had God glorified it up to this point? Well, in everything really, but specifically in sending his son. in ordaining in his eternal will that the Lord Jesus Christ would satisfy, would fulfill all of his pleasure in his death. As Hebrews 10 says, I come to do thy will, O God. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He takes away the first, that he may establish the second. And that's the will by which we are sanctified, by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. So here he says that.

His father said, I have both glorified it in the promise, in the eternal purpose, in the promise, in the sending of his son, in giving his son a body, in filling him with his spirit without measure, enabling him to speak his word, giving him the revelation of his own heart to him, to speak it and to fulfill it. And now, he says, I have glorified it and will glorify it again. How is he going to do that? Through what Christ would suffer, you see. He said, this hour, this is the reason I came to this hour, and it is for this reason that Christ came and suffered, and what would result from this hour is that God the Father would be glorified in the death of His Son.

Because it was a death that was going to do what? What would it do? Well, imagine, not imagine, but realize that the infinite person of God, in all of his attributes, is perfectly and completely pleased and at joy with what Christ did in fulfilling his will. So this is why Christ is so precious. to the father, because he glorifies his father. In all that he is, his justice is infinitely satisfied in the death of his son. His righteousness is perfectly fulfilled in the obedience of his son unto death, in taking our sins and answering God for them in full satisfaction. The severity of God's wrath is fully displayed in the wrath he poured out on his son." God's faithfulness to fulfill his word and promises and to make his glory known is fully fulfilled and seen in his faithfulness to give his son and his grace and his love and his wisdom and his power, his power to actually do for God all that God in his infinite person would be pleased with in the infinitude of what God is.

I don't know how to say this. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ did in His death and in all of His prayers. And He did not do it as a private person. It was real. And He really did glorify His Father and really did obtain an eternal redemption for us. He really did justify His people in His own justification when God raised Him from the dead. And He really did enrich His people with all the treasures that were given to Him when He ascended and was exalted and sat down on the throne of God, which is for us a throne of grace, because our surety, our substitute, our mediator now sits on that throne to rule the Son of God's love, ruling over the objects of His love.

And what I was thinking about that verse in Colossians 1.13, and to remind you of it, let me just read it to you in Colossians. We're looking at Colossians on Sundays, but he says here in Colossians 1.13, who hath delivered us from, this is God the Father, has delivered us from the power of darkness, the reign, the rule of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom or the reign of the son of his love, his dear son.

Now, I happen to have had the experience of being a manager over other people and having managers over me in my work career. And one of the things I noticed is that if you had a good manager, things were pretty good for you. But if you had a not so good manager, things could be really rough for you. So what would you do for someone that you truly love? Take, for example, your child. You're sending your child to their first day of school. If you truly loved your child, what would you do within the ability, your own ability? You would find someone who was a teacher, who was the most wise and loving and compassionate and skillful teacher that you could find, wouldn't you? That would be the greatest blessing you could give to your child.

And so much more, infinitely more, God the Father, because He put over His people, who? The son of His love. Therefore, He's saying here, He rules over them in love. the son of his love. His love for his son and his son's love for his people that would lay down his life for him and he would give his son all these things and do it according to all the perfections of God so that God in his glory would be seen in all of this.

It would be perfectly in line with God's infinite perfections so that nothing would be lost and all would be brought securely and given the eternal will and life and glory that God had determined for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. No greater blessing, right? And that's what he's saying here. God is going to glorify himself in his son.

All right, let's read through this psalm just briefly here because there's points in here that we need to look at a little bit. He says in first verse, Lord God of my salvation, this is the Lord Jesus, When I say, in the days of his flesh, I mean in the days while the Lord was on the earth. It doesn't mean that Christ no longer has a human nature. He is. He is a man. The one who sits in heaven is still a man. But it means that there was a time that he was in the world. And while he was in the world, this is the way he prayed.

There's a time when we're in the world. but there's going to be a time when we're no longer in the world. Isn't that true? And so here the Lord Jesus Christ is showing that as he was in the world, and the days of His flesh, and this was His attitude, when we're conformed to the image of Christ, what is our attitude? In the days of our flesh, while we're in the world, before we reach glory, then we're going to say these same things from our heart to our Savior as He did to His God and Father as His Savior and ours. because as God delivered him and justified him, so God delivered us and justified us in him.

He says in verse 1, O Lord, God of my salvation, and I love that phrase, my God, the God of my salvation, and I never get tired of hearing that. There's nothing about me that doesn't need saving. Everything about me needs saving. I was reading And mentioning this to Denise as we were talking about this just the other day, Martin Luther was said to have said this, he said, believers are 100% righteous in Christ right now. And we are 100% sinners in ourselves. And he was trying to emphasize the truth that our righteousness is in Christ and it's real. And in ourselves, we're still, in the days of our flesh, need saving in every way. There's never a moment when we can't say, I don't need to be saved as a sinner.

And so he says, O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee. It's not like we're imperfect. That kind of softens the truth, doesn't it? I'm imperfect and sometimes I mess up. That's not the way it is at all, is it? Do you find it that way? Or do you find it more like, I'm continually experiencing in myself these things that frighten me and give me the greatest anxiety, which is my own defiant pride in rebellion against God's authority and glory, and my own seeking, my own desires for my own covetous, idolatrous self. This is opposed to God. And I find these things in everything that I do. And my only hope is that in the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm 100% as God sees His Son, righteous in Him. That's the message of the Gospel.

And so He prays. And this is the reason that we have this assurance that because God was His God and His Savior, as our mediator, the one who is the son of man, who actually was in heaven and descended from heaven in obedience of humiliation, and then ascended again to heaven, taking his rightful place on the throne of God. God gave him all that is his, all the authority of heaven and earth, so that he could bring his people to himself He's the one who's praying here, and his prayer was heard.

He says, O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee. Let my prayer come before thee. Incline thine ear to my cry, for, here's the reason, my soul is full of troubles, and here's another reason, my life draws near to the grave, and here's a third reason, I am reckoned or counted or imputed to me with them that go down to the pit. The pit is my place. That's the way that it is. I've taken the sins of my people. I'm not reading it from scripture. I'm just telling you the truth of it.

According to the gospel, God, Christ was made sin for us. He knew no sin. We, because He was made sin for us and suffered under the wrath of God, are made the righteousness of God in Him because it was His obedience. that was given to us as our righteousness. And that's what he's saying here. He was imputed as a transgressor. He was numbered among the transgressors. He was made sin for us. He who knew no sin, they were not his sins, he didn't commit them, yet he owned them because God laid them upon him. He was counted with our sins and therefore he was numbered, he was charged with, he was counted, he was reckoned as those that go down to the pit.

I am, he says in verse 4, I am as a man that has no strength, zero, none. and therefore he utterly depended upon his God and Father in his prayer, didn't he? That's perfect faith. He goes on, and by the way, that's a hint to us. When are you most strong? When you have no strength in yourself and you find all of your strength, therefore, in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone.

He goes on, verse 5, free among the dead, Is that freedom? How free are the dead? They're free from life. They're free from memory. They're free from hearing. They know nothing. There's nothing that they can desire. There's nothing. And that's not freedom. That's death. So he says, free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy hand.

In Daniel chapter 9 and verse 26, he says this about this being cut off from God's hand. In Daniel 9 and verse 24, he says, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression. Now notice how he's wording it here. Thy people, thy city. Who are they? Spiritually, it's the Church, the Israel of God, the elect, those called the children of promise, those chosen in Christ, and therefore those predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, those for whom Christ died, those given the Spirit of God to trust Him, and those called the children of God because by birth and adoption and by redemption they're children of God. So he says here, seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, upon thy holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy Christ.

He says in verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and three score, or sixty and two weeks, sixty-two weeks, the street shall be built again, the wall, even in troublous times, and after three score and two weeks, Messiah shall be what? Cut off. Cut off. But not for himself. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with the flood. Unto the end of the war desolations are determined."

It's describing the work of Christ in history at that point when He was cut off, when He put away our sins. He made an end of transgressions. He fulfilled everlasting righteousness.

And so he says in Psalm 88, I am free among the dead, verse 5, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, they are cut off from thy hand. He was cut off, but not for himself, for us.

Verse 6, thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy ways. Nothing is left out. All is poured out. He drank the cup of God's wrath to the dregs. No one ever else did this, only Christ.

Verse 8, Thou hast put away mine acquaintances, or my acquaintance, meaning his friends, those who are familiar to him. far from me, that has made me an abomination to them. I am shut up. I cannot come forth."

Until he finished the work God gave him to do, they would be separated from him. He would look abhorrent to them. They would fear. He was in fear. He feared because of the terror of the Lord that had come upon him. That's why he's praying like this.

Verse 9, Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon Thee. I have stretched out my hands unto Thee."

Lifting up his hands in supplication from his heart, because in that posture of lifting up his hands, he's seeking help from God, his only hope. And that's what the term lifting up the hands in scripture refers to, not a physical lifting up, but it's the attitude of the heart. Believers don't lift up anything to God except Christ and Him crucified in looking to Him. Christ lifted Himself up in sacrifice, and so we come to God only by what He did, and that's what our lifting of our hands is, Lord, look upon the sacrifice, receive Christ for me. as a sinner to your glory and for my salvation.

He says this, he goes, I've called daily upon thee. Wilt thou show, verse 10 through 12, listen to this. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? Or thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?"

You see, those are incongruent, aren't they? That doesn't happen. Loving kindness is not known in the grave, is it? Faithfulness is not seen in destruction. In fact, the opposite is the case. You don't know about loving kindness. You're dead. You're in the grave. You're rotting. You're decaying. You've been put out of the mind of people in the living. They're going to forget you. You certainly have forgotten everything. And wonders are not known in the dark. Wonders are seen in the light. And righteousness is not known in the land of forgetfulness, which is the grave.

So he's saying here, It's like Moses, when Moses interceded for Israel to God. He pleaded God's character. He pleaded God's purpose. He pleaded God's covenant. He prayed for the Lord's sake. And so, in order for God to make known His loving-kindness, and faithfulness, and wonders, and righteousness, what is He going to do? He's going to deliver His Son, Christ, from death. And He's not going to deliver Him only, but He's going to deliver all of His people with Him.

And this is why in Ephesians chapter 1, he speaks about this as the exceeding great power of God. In Ephesians 1, let me read that to you. He says that Paul wants them to know, the saints to know this. What is the, verse 19, Ephesians 1, 19, what is the exceeding greatness of his power? It always amazes me when God adds adjectives to His attributes as if there's something that could be greater than just saying His power. But He does it. He says, the exceeding greatness of His power, and then He goes on, and I want you to know this, to us-ward who believe. According to what? The working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Because when He did that, He raised His people in Christ with Him to the same place, in heavenly places.

And so the Lord is saying here in verses 10 through 12 of Psalm 88, your loving kindness, your faithfulness, your wonders, your righteousness, all of your goodness will be seen not in the grave, but in the deliverance from the grave, from death. by delivering us from our sins, you see. Because Christ was delivered for our offenses, but he was raised again for our justification. That's Romans 4, verse 25. He was delivered because our offenses were laid on him, and he owned them, and they became his. God counted them to him because they were his, not by commission, but because he was one with his people in God's eternal will. and therefore he bore their sins.

All in Christ shall be made alive. Remember 1 Corinthians 15 verse 22? As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And so he's saying here that how the life comes because Christ who bore our sins and endured the wrath of God unto the satisfaction of justice and the magnification of God's wrath in all of its severity and answer of himself to God in love and in obedience, in humility, in faithfulness, all these things. By the power of God, God in his authority, he raised his people with Christ from the dead. He did declare his loving kindness, he did show his faithfulness, he did set forth his righteousness, and he did all of this because he saved us with Christ from his sufferings.

Verse 13, But unto thee have I cried, O Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. Before he was raised from the dead, in the morning of his resurrection, he was praying for his own deliverance with his people.

Verse 14, Lord, why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from me? You see, here's a real, this is real. He's cast off. God has hidden his face. He doesn't see his glory in the present condition as a man suffering for us. He doesn't see. He's left in the dark. Verse 15, I'm afflicted, ready to die from my youth up. Sometimes we think Christ only suffered on the cross. Here he says, from my youth up. That tells us something, doesn't it? It tells us that he bore our sins, he bore the plague and the infirmities of our sins, and that's when he was healing people on the earth. He was showing that he was already bearing our sins.

He came as a man and he says, I didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many. And that giving of his life began The moment He took our nature and took a body as a baby and He grew and He learned obedience through the things which He suffered. He learned obedience through the things which He suffered.

Look at Hebrews chapter 5. Just briefly here, I don't have time to really go into this, but just look at the way that God is affirming to us how the Lord Jesus, as the Son of God, suffered for His people, and it was according to God's will, and He became perfect as our Savior. He says in chapter 5, verse 7, who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears." This is describing what the Lord Jesus did when he was living in this world, especially in the garden of Gethsemane, especially on the cross.

In the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers with supplications, strong crying, and tears to him that was able to save him from death. That sounds like Psalm 88, doesn't it? And he was heard in that he feared. What did he fear? Well, he feared the wrath of God. He feared the terror of God. Remember 2 Corinthians 5, he says, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Christ knew the terror of the Lord in himself. And so he's saying here, he feared. Because he feared, he had to be delivered from this terror. God delivered him. He was crying, he was praying with supplications and prayers, with strong crying and tears, to be delivered, to be saved from death, and he was heard in that he feared. He feared. He feared the wrath of God that came upon him. It was a real wrath. It was real fear. He felt it.

Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." This principle holds even for our children, doesn't it? Children learn obedience through tiny afflictions. We don't have to bring afflictions. They just experience them. They want something, they don't get it. I'm sorry, I can't make it happen. You're just going to have to endure. And cry and cry, and pretty soon they get a little stronger, a little stronger through the years of their development, and they learn that life isn't just, you know, me getting everything I want, and that's good for them. That's part of God's plan.

But the Lord Jesus Christ was giving himself two sufferings. so that he could fulfill the will of God in obedience, but the full extent of the sufferings that he would experience wasn't known until he entered them, and it was because of his heart of faith and trust and love for his father that even when he couldn't see, when he was experiencing that wrath in himself, that was the obedience of faith that fulfilled the righteousness of God, and that's our righteousness. And so he says here, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect as our substitute, our surety, our redeemer, our mediator, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him. Looking to Christ, that's the obedience of faith. Back to Psalm 88, he said, I'm ready to die from my youth up, while I suffer thy terrors, I'm distracted. Thy fierce wrath, distracted means he was as one who was confused. He didn't have this light from God, God had to give it to him. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me, thy terrors have cut me off. There's the terrors again. They came round about me daily like water, they compassed me about together.

It's almost like He saved the most painful for last. You see here the glory of God the Father, that He would give His Son, He would deliver Him up and not spare Him, in order to give life to the dead, to those who had offended Him. See, our sins are against God only. That's a fundamental principle. And the trouble because of our sins come from God. He might use intermediate things, but they come from God. Christ in this psalm prayed according to that. He said, you have done this. Your terrors, your wrath, your afflictions from my youth up. Thy terrors.

And so the third point here is not only is our sin against God only and therefore the troubles come from God's hand, but guess what? Therefore only God can save us because our sins are against God only. That's why he says at the beginning, O Lord God of my salvation, Okay, so we see that here, that we see the God's glory. We see Christ's glory, His faithfulness unto death, His faith, His trust, His love, His hope. He never stopped crying. He never stopped praying. He never stopped coming to God alone who could save him. He didn't trust another. He had no help from friends. It was him alone who could do this. He was the only one worthy, the only one able, and the only one willing who knew the mind of God and could do it. because of the strength God had given to him as a man, the Spirit of God without measure given to him. He's the Son of God and the Son of Man.

And then we see also not only the glory of God the Father, the glory of God in Christ's glory, But we learn also that it was Him as a public person, the head of His people, and therefore His sufferings were real, it was a real substitution by our surety who represented us in all that He did so that we were with Him, and His justification by God is our justification. His life, our life, His resurrection, His glory given to us with Him. So it's all bound up in the bundle of God's love. The bond between Christ and his people is a bond of love, eternal love, made in Christ, in blood, and so that covenant God made with him before the foundation of the world was fulfilled, and we're saved by that.

And therefore, in the days of our flesh, what do we do? We come to his throne, who sits on the throne because of his sufferings now. Because he's exalted, having done the will of God, it's now for us a throne of grace. Our mediator sits there, he's able to be touched with our infirmities, the feeling of them too, because he felt them in himself. And we therefore commit ourselves to the hand of a faithful Savior, as he did to his God and Father. We come to God by him. And when He came to God, He brought us with Him. All these things are seen in the Gospel as is foreshadowed for us here in the prophecy of Christ's sufferings.

Let's pray. Father, your word reveals things to us that are beyond comprehension and yet we see dimly something of them and we're amazed at the fact that you would be so glorious in your person and Christ so glorious in his love, in his justice and righteousness and all that he is, his heart beating one with yours. and we see you in our Savior and so Lord we see such wonders and such glorious things that you would so save us that you would join us to your son in his humanity that we would be bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh and he would love us as he loves himself and so that all that he did, he did with us and for us and we are going to be with him and help us Lord not to doubt all manner of trouble comes against us, but to remember your words that it is God who justifies, it's Christ who died, therefore we cannot be condemned being in Him, and to come to you by Him, and so find all of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us now to be able to worship Him and to thank Him, adore Him in all of our life. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.