Psalm 44, verse one. We have heard with our ears,
O God, our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their
days in the times of old. So here in this psalm, right
away, we see that there's a reflection on the historical work of God
for those who went before the psalmist called the fathers,
those who were also believers. He says in verse two, how thou
didst drive out the heathen with thy hand and planted them, planted
God's people in the place of the heathen in the land of Canaan
is what he's talking about. How thou didst afflict the people
and cast them out. God afflicted the people that
were in the land of Canaan and drove them out and gave that
land to the Israelites. For they got not the land in
possession by their own sword, neither did their own arms save
them. So the Israelites went into Canaan
and it was given to them by God. The people that were in that
land were defeated by God. The sword of the Israelites and
the arm, the strength of the Israelites, was not the reason
that the Canaanites were dispossessed and put to subjection. He says,
but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance,
because thou hast a favor unto them. So the reason given here
why the Canaanites were dispossessed and the Israelites were given
that land is explained as because God had a favor, he had a distinguishing
favor of grace towards the Israelites, but he did not have that same
grace towards the Canaanites. In verse four, Thou art my king,
O God. Command deliverances for Jacob. This is a great verse. This is
maybe my favorite verse in the entire psalm. He says, Thou art
my king, O God. So the Lord is my king. And remember,
later on in the history of Israel, they asked for a king, King Saul.
And God gave them a king. He said up to that point, he
had been their king. And it was wrong for them to
ask a king. But here, the psalmist says, thou art my king, O Lord.
And here's what the king does for his people. And notice how
endearing this is. Command deliverances for Jacob. Command salvation for your people. You can read it that way. In
verse five. Through thee will we push down
our enemies. Through thy name will we tread
them under that rise up against us. Notice the confidence the
psalmist has in the Lord as the one who would defeat their enemies. It's through you, it's through
your name that we will push down our enemies and we will tread
them under that rise up against us. In verse six, for I will
not trust in my bow Neither shall my sword save me, but thou has
saved us from our enemies and has put them to shame that hated
us. Salvation is of the Lord and
God's people know it. And so they say, and this is
what they ascribe to the Lord in their praise and their thanksgiving,
in their adoration and awe of God. and the Lord Jesus Christ,
is that you have saved us from our enemies, you have put them
to shame that hated us. That's a summary, really, of
all God has done for his people. He has saved us from our sins,
from Satan, from the deception of Satan, from the death the
murderous cruelty and merciless death Satan intended for his
people, all of God's people, and the world is against us,
and death is against us, the grave, hell is against us, everything
is against us, but God has saved us from our enemies. Verse 8,
in God we boast all the day long and praise thy name forever,
Selah. It's in the cross, isn't it?
Because it's through the cross that our God has saved us. And
that's what Paul the apostle said in Galatians 6, 14 and 16
of Galatians chapter six, that he glories in the cross, his
boast is in the cross of Christ because by the cross God has
saved his people. All right, now, at this point
in the Psalm, there's a great transition. Up to this point,
there has been a celebration of God's salvation and how he
had given them their inheritance, their promised inheritance, and
that it was not for any strength in them, or not by their ability,
but entirely by God's strength, because of his grace, because
he had a favor to them. And if you see that, you can
see that historically, that was all about what God did for Israel
as a nation in the land of Canaan. All right, so when we look at the gospel, what
we see is that it's really about what God has done for his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the land of Canaan, God brought
Israel into that land by Joshua. Joshua, the name Joshua in the
New Testament is Jesus. So Jesus not only typified Joshua,
but he has the same name. It was Joshua who brought Israel
into the land of Canaan. It was Joshua who was the captain
over Israel to defeat their enemies. It was Joshua who defeated their
enemies and gave them rest. So in all those things we see
a type, a foreshadowing of God's promise, first to Abraham, Remember,
he promised Abraham he would give him, he would bless all
the nations of the earth would be blessed in him, which was
speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. And more particularly,
it was speaking about our justification by the Lord Jesus Christ, God
promised would be the seed of Abraham, the one to whom God
would give all the promises and who would actually justify his
people and they would be justified in him. This was the promise
God gave to Abraham, but not only justification and eternal
inheritance, God would give us eternal glory. Because of Christ,
the Lord Jesus would purchase us. He would purchase us out
of bondage, deliver us from our enemies, and give us an eternal
inheritance. And so the land of Canaan was
a physical and historical shadow, really, of our salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ and all of the eternal glory and blessings
God gives us for Christ's sake and by Him. And so we see that
up until this point in the Psalm, God is using that shadow, that
type, as the context, the historical context. that the church of God,
not just the nation, the physical political nation of Israel, not
the physical seed or the children of Abraham, but the true Israel
of God, who were the true people to whom God gave the true promises,
which was through the Lord Jesus Christ, So if you understand
that, then it makes sense that we see that these first eight
verses in Psalm 44 are really the church of God, the believers,
the elect of God, God's sheep, who are praising Him for His
salvation and giving them that salvation out of His grace and
by His power, His strength alone, not by their own sword. Okay,
so that's the first thing we need to notice here. It's the
church and we say, well, when? When are they giving him this
praise? Well, it's really the church throughout time. Abraham
was, he saw Christ's day and he was glad, it says in John
chapter eight. So it's the church throughout
time. So all the way back to Adam and Abel and every believer,
between Adam and the end of time is being spoken of here in prophecy. So that we see that this is God's
elect, the sheep, Christ's church, his bride, praising God, their
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, for giving them the promised
inheritance, which was the land of salvation, the eternal redemption
that's in Christ, our glorification with Him, everything that God
has for His people. Like Ephesians 1.3 says, God
the Father has given us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Him. OK, that's what God is saying
here. So the Church of God is praising God, and now if we understand
that, it helps us to understand the rest of this psalm. Although
I admit, the rest of this psalm actually is more complicated
than the first part, for me at least. So let's read from verse
9. through verse 17, it says in
verse nine, after all these wonderful things, the people of God are
praising him for, and these people are being led in their song by
the psalmist here, the Holy Spirit of God is speaking through David,
I presume, and it's written in scripture for our benefit, Notice
now, and we're gonna see this all tied together in the New
Testament and explained in a minute here, but look at verse nine.
But thou hast cast off and put us to shame and goest not forth
with our armies. Now, that's a huge transition. In the first part, the church
or Israel in history was celebrating God bringing them into the land
of Canaan and how God had favored the Israelites and drove out
the heathen in verse two with his powerful hand and how he
afflicted the Canaanites and cast them out of Canaan and brought
Israel in without their sword, without their strength, because
he favored them. But now in verse nine, it seems
to be the exact opposite, the very reverse of what he said
before. He says, but thou hast cast off
and put us to shame and goest not forth with our armies. Historically,
Israel turned to idols. As soon as, in fact, they were
idolaters in the land of Egypt. If you read Ezekiel chapter 20,
we're not gonna take time to do that, but Ezekiel 20 catalogs
it. It gives the history of Israel
from while they were in Egypt, God brought them out, and even
after he brought them into the land of Canaan. He describes
them as idolaters during every phase of their history. But here,
he says, thou hast cast off and put us to shame and goest not
forth with our armies. That's exactly what it seemed
like God did to the Canaanites. So now the church's praise is
turned, it seems like, in the opposite direction, and they're
complaining in this psalm, in their supplication. In their
supplications, they've been praising God and thanking God, and now
the church. The people of God, those God
has brought into an eternal salvation, that we're praising Him for that,
are saying what God has done, and it seems like He has cast
them off. In fact, that's what He says
here, "...but thou hast cast off and put us to shame," and
now we're going to read through this, "...and goest not forth
with us, with our armies?" Thou makest us to turn back from the
enemy, and they which hate us spoil for themselves. They enrich
themselves and plunder us after we've been defeated. They take
what's ours to enrich themselves, and we've been defeated by them. In verse 11, Thou hast given
us like sheep appointed for meat, and has scattered us among the
heathen. Thou sellest thy people for naught. God, it's like Denise and I are
wanting to get rid of stuff. And we want to get rid of it
so bad that we're willing to give it away just because it's
in the way. And it's things that have somehow accumulated over
the years. We just want to get rid of it.
But here God is said to sell his people for nothing. It's
like he put it out on the curb and gave it away. So that's what
God has done here. And does not increase thy wealth
by their price. He didn't get any money for them.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a
derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword. The word byword means a proverb.
And in a negative sense, oh yeah, we know about them. When I was
a kid growing up, there was always some group of people who had
a bad name. We had a lot of jokes when I
was a kid. What did the little moron say, blah, blah, blah.
So there's somebody who's called a moron. I'm just using that
as hopefully not an offensive term because I haven't used that
towards you. This is a byword. God is saying
that the Israelites were made a proverb in the mouth of their
enemies so that they derided them in their everyday talk,
in their jesting. Thou makest us a byword among
the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. My confusion
is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered
me. for the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth by
reason of the enemy and the avenger. And this has come upon us. Notice
now, verse 16 has been saying, all the things it seems like,
they didn't seem like coming to them. God really had delivered
them into the hand of their enemies, and their enemies had their way
with them. They were spoiling them, taking
their goods, and God, it was as they're comparing God treating
them this way as God selling them for nothing, and not even
getting rich by selling them. He says in verse 17, all this
has come upon us, now notice, Yet have we not forgotten thee,
neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is
not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way. Though thou hast sore broken
us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of
death, if we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched
out our hands to a strange God, shall not God search this out?
For he knows the secrets of the heart. Yea, for thy sake, Are
we killed all the day long? We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? This psalm is very, what would
you say, raw. It doesn't, it's almost scary
the way that it's worded here, isn't it? Why are you sleeping,
Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. In other words, change things. Rescue us, turn around. Wherefore,
hidest thou thy face, and forgetest our affliction and our oppression.
For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth
unto the earth. Remember, that was the curse
of God on the serpent. You're gonna go on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life, you're treating us
like we're cursed. He says, arise for our help and redeem us for
thy mercy's sake. Okay. So how are we to understand
this psalm? I think when we understand this
psalm, we'll see now a more panoramic view of God's dealings with his
people throughout time. First of all, think about historical
Israel. They were brought into Canaan.
They were not faithful to God. They served the idols of that
country. They didn't drive the people out that they were told
to drive out. They didn't obey God's law that
he gave Moses. And so God, according to the
law of Moses, he turned them over to their enemies. But here
in this Psalm, the prayer of the people, and this is by the
Spirit of God, they're saying here, you brought us into Canaan,
and then you turned us over to our enemies. You cast off and
you put us to shame and did not go with our armies. You made
us turn back before our enemies and those which hate us spoil
for themselves. And then in verse 17, and this
has all come upon us and we haven't forgotten you. It's almost like
they're saying we were faithful, but our God has changed. So you
see here the honesty of the psalmist. You see his boldness to come
before God and to pour out his supplication. Is he using hyperbole? Is he saying, this just seems
to be the case, but it didn't really happen? No, it really
happened. These people, the historical
nation of Israel, really did come under the judgment of God. And you can say, well, yeah,
that was because of their disobedience. And I would have to agree with
you. If you read the book of Lamentations, in fact, which
is the book that follows Jeremiah, and if you understand that the
book of Jeremiah is God's prophecy through Jeremiah the prophet,
of how he brought the nation, the Jewish nation,
Judah, as captives to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and
brought them to Babylon for 70 years. And they suffered horribly. And Lamentations is reviewing
how horribly God's people suffered. And you could say, well, look
at that. The people were delivered to the hand of the Babylonians
for 70 years because their kings and the people were idolaters.
They didn't heed God's warnings. And again, I'd have to agree
with you. And throughout history, the nation
of Israel was delivered in so many ways. Assyrians took Israel, the 10
tribes, captive, and basically they were decimated. After that,
only a few were ever brought back into the land. So the nation
of Israel has really been beat up, you would say, by God for
their iniquity. But here we understand this to
be a tale, not a tale, the account God has given of the church,
not the nation of Israel historically, but spiritually of the church
itself, the people of God, God's elect, God's sheep, because notice,
Notice here, he says in verse 22, if you look at verse 22,
yea, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. And who are the sheep? The sheep
are those that God the Father has given to Christ. The sheep
are those Christ has given eternal life. Christ calls them, they
know Him, they follow Him, and He doesn't let them perish. And
no one can take them out of His hand. The sheep are God's people. And so he says, we're counted
as sheep for the slaughter. And this is actually in Romans
chapter eight. And if you want to look there
with me, because this helps us, Romans eight, really the quotation
of this helps explain the entire psalm. So in Romans chapter eight,
notice, he begins with all the sufferings
God's church goes through in this world. If you look at verse
17, If children, if we've been made children, then heirs. If
we're children of God, then we're heirs of God. That should blow
our minds, right? Heirs of God. Heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. Verse 18 picks up. the subject of sufferings, for
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us, for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the
manifestation of the sons of God." All of creation is waiting. What are they waiting for? For
God to reveal His children, His sons. because that's going to
be the consummation of time in history. That's when Christ is
coming again to reveal his people and his glory, and all the world
will stand in awe and honor Christ and actually honor his people
too. Verse 20, for the creature, all of creation, was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected
the same in hope. So all of creation was subjected
to a curse And that was done that all of creation would wait
in expectation for God to fulfill his word to Christ and to his
church. Because the creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. Because, remember, everything
that was created, Psalm 8, was put under the feet of Christ
and his people. Hebrews 2 verse 5 through 9 teaches
this. Everything in creation was put
not under angels, but under Christ and His church. And so this is
saying that that creation was subjected to the curse of sin
until the children of God are revealed. So what's happening
until then? Well, the children of God are
suffering. And how are they living while they're suffering? Verse
22. says this in Romans 8, 22, for we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not only
they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
because we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, meaning that what
comes next is the resurrection of our body and our glorification
with Christ, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption to it, the redemption of our body. So at the end of
time, God's going to give us the redemption of our body. Christ
is going to redeem the whole person. Until then, we have the
firstfruits, which is the Spirit of God, and by Him we live, and
by Him we look to Christ. Verse 24, for we are saved, it
should say, in hope. We're not saved because of hope,
but we're saved in hope. But hope that is seen is not
hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" What do
we hope for? The redemption of our body, our entire person,
saved to the uttermost, conformed to the image of Christ. But we
don't have it now, so we're waiting. But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, now these
are the children of God. We're waiting, we're the heirs
of God in joint heirs with Christ, but we have not yet received
the open manifestation of our inheritance. But he says in verse
26, likewise, the Spirit also helps our infirmities. For we
know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. So not only have we received
the first fruits of the Spirit to look to Christ and have this
life, of Christ in us, but the Spirit of God is actually in
us, interceding for us according to the will of God. Because we're
from eternity, that will was put in place in Christ. And we've
been made the children of God through adoption and then by
birth. Okay? By adoption, redemption, and
birth. and then eventually, at the end
of time, in our full being, our whole body. Okay, so the spirit
itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered, and he that searches the hearts, which is Christ,
knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he makes intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. Amazing that God
the Son and God the Holy Spirit are making intercession for his
people, the children of God, according to God's will until
the consummation. Meanwhile, what's happening?
Suffering. Verse 28, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. It's all about
God's purpose. For whom he did foreknow. Now,
he didn't just know of us like he knows that there's trees and
ocean and mountains and people. or know us by name, he knew us
in love. Because to those who are told
to depart at the end of time, Jesus says, I never knew you.
He knew them in the sense where he knew who they were. Obviously,
he knew their works. He knew their hearts, but he
didn't know them in love. Notice, and remember this, known
unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world.
If God knows us at the end, It's because he knew us from eternity.
If he loved us at the end, if he loved us in time, he loved
us from eternity. He says so in his word. I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, Jeremiah 31.3. Okay, let's
go on. So, for whom he did foreknow,
know in love, he also did predestinate. To be conformed, this is what
they were predestined for, to be conformed to the image of
His Son that He, Christ, might be the firstborn among many brethren. Here it is, tying it back to
us being the children, the sons of God. Moreover, whom He did
predestinate them, He also called in time, the Spirit of God called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, 2 Timothy 1.9.
but according to his own purpose and grace which were given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. And here he says, predestined,
called. And whom he called, then he also
justified. And whom he justified, then he
also, past tense, glorified. In other words, there's an unbroken
chain. It's all unbroken in God's predestination. And it's unbroken
in the accomplishment of it in Christ in time. but we have to
receive it in the experience. And the first experience of it
is the first fruits of the Spirit given to us in regeneration by
which we see Christ as our all and all in salvation and in glory. But until the full redemption
of our body, we just live in hope, in expectation, looking
to Christ. And verse 31, what shall we then
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now, use those words in comfort
to the people who were bringing their earnest, heart-rending
supplications in Psalm 44. They said, you haven't gone out
with our armies. Our enemies have spoiled us for their gain. You sold us for nothing. You
didn't enrich yourselves. Everything's against us. We're
treated like those who were sheep for the slaughter. So he says,
but if God be for us, think of it not in the moment. Think of
it from eternity. Think of it at the cross in history.
Think of the foreshadowing of it in the nation of Israel throughout
all their history and how God was pointing forward to the church,
the true Israel, the spiritual people of God, the elect. If
God be for us, who can be against us? Notice, he that spared not
his own son. This helps us to understand Psalm
44. But delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Okay? They had the Canaan. We
have all things in Christ. And He's going to give everything
to His church, His children, that He gives to His only begotten
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything. If He gave His Son
for us, He'll give us everything with His Son. That's what verse
32 is saying. And this also shows that if Christ
died for us, we shall be saved. There's no such thing as Christ
dying for someone and them not being given eternal glory. Because
here he says, if God didn't spare his son, it means God is for
us. And if God is for us and did
not spare his son, but delivered him up for us, then he will without
fail and without a doubt, give us all things with his son. That
seals it up, doesn't it? Verse 33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Okay, now these are the people
in Psalm 44 who are crying out in supplication. Who's going
to lay anything to their charge? It is God that justifieth. No
one can lay anything to their charge. God has already justified
them. Besides, even if He hadn't yet,
He says He is, He will. But this is speaking about a
past tense act. Who is He that condemneth? This
is like John chapter 10 where Jesus says, no one can take them
out of my hand, and my Father's greater than all. No one can
take them out of his hand. Here he says it kind of in the
same way. God the Father has justified his people, therefore
no one can lay anything to their charge. Christ had died for them,
therefore no one can condemn them. Who is he that condemneth?
Here's the answer to every question. It is Christ that died. yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also makes intercession for us, the us, the children,
the elect, in verse 33, the elect God justifies, those God foreknew,
predestined, called, justified, and glorified, those the Spirit
of God is given to, who makes the Spirit of God intercedes
for, and Christ intercedes, that's the people being spoken of here. All of God's people, the sheep,
he says, he's at the right hand of God. He makes intercession
for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Just keep
going. You can put anything in that
list. As it is written, here's from Psalm 44 verse 22, a direct
quotation, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all
the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. And
then he says this, nay, no, no, listen, in all these things,
we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." If
God loves you, nothing can separate you from His love because it's
in Christ our Lord. I don't know a more glorious
place in all the Bible than Romans chapter 8. But this is explaining
Psalm 44. You see, throughout time, now
think about this, throughout time, throughout history, especially
at the cross and especially shortly after the cross, The church of
God was persecuted, and you would think persecuted to death. Read
Revelation chapter 12. The woman gives birth to a son.
The dragon tries to kill the son. The son is caught up to
glory. All that speaking metaphorically
of what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into the
world. He was born. He was born to the true seed
of Abraham through the flesh. And he accomplished the will
of God. He laid his life down for his
people. He conquered Satan. He put away our sins. He ascended
to glory. He took his place at the right
hand of God. And then after that, in Revelation
chapter 12, it celebrates the salvation of Christ. But then
the church, the woman, And metaphorically, the church, the woman goes out
into the wilderness and God takes care of her. So this is the church. This is God's elect throughout
time. And what happens to them? Suffering. Romans 8, suffering. Who are they? Children of God.
How do you know? Well, you don't know. I can't
tell who they are. At the end of time, it'll be
clear. But is there no way of knowing? Yes, God gives us his
spirit. And what is the evidence of his
spirit? We don't walk after the flesh. Instead of walking after
the flesh like we used to, trusting ourselves and our righteousness,
we look to Christ alone. But in the meantime, the church
suffers immeasurably. They're persecuted. People are
killed. They're hung on crosses. They're
tarred, and feathered, and burned, and fed to lions. And those who
translate the scriptures into English are killed. Those who
stand against the Catholic Church are killed. You know, you can
see this throughout time. And it seems like the Church
of God, more than any other entity on earth, is persecuted, and
you would think they shrink and grow weaker and weaker. And in
fact, they are weak. They're like sheep. And they
appear to be sheep counted for the slaughter. But God's purpose
is in this. And what is his purpose? to take
the weakest, the off-scouring of the world, those who find
their boast in Christ alone, and through them Christ builds
his church and the gates of hell do not prevail against them. And even though they pour out
their heart-rending supplications to God throughout all the persecution
and trouble that they experience, and it would seem like it's going
to destroy them and God has cast them off in the eyes of the onlooking
world, they're treated like sheep counted for slaughter, God says,
no, no, far from it. In fact, they're going to be
more than conquerors through Christ who loved them. Now, so
first of all, when we read Psalm 44, we can see that. We can see
the celebration of God's salvation in type in the first eight verses
through the land of Canaan and the whole history around that.
And then we can understand verse 9 through 16 as the affliction
and the persecution typified again in the nation of Israel
suffering for their sins in Egypt, in the wilderness, in Canaan,
and later in their captivity by the Assyrians and the Babylonians,
and throughout time. and the woe, and they were like
a dry ground, and yet Christ, like a root out of a dry ground,
came out of that people, and he was born, and he was the prince,
he was the everlasting father, the prince of peace, he came
into the world, he overthrew Satan by his own obedience to
God, by answering God's justice and in his obedience, and he
conquered death, he put away our sins, but notice, We can
see it in some sense applying to the church here in their own
personal experience. But here I think is the key to
understanding the psalm in the full head-on view of it. So that if we look
at it through this lens, we really see the clarity of what it means. And that is in this, that whatever
the Lord Jesus Christ did, He did as the Master, and as the
Master, the Church can at best follow Him. Remember He said
in John 15, let me read that to you, He told His disciples
in John chapter 15, beginning at verse 18, He said, If the world hate you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world,
the world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hates you. Remember the word that I said
to you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted
me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also. But all these things they will
do unto you for my name's sake." Notice, whatever the believers
experience throughout time and history is done for Christ's
name's sake. Because, but all these things
they will do unto you for my name's sake, because they know
not him that sent me. They don't know my father. If
I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin. But
now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hates me hates my
father also. And they hate God's people. So
the master, I mean, the servant is not above his Lord. Our sufferings
as believers, as the church of God, as the elect of God throughout
time, the children of God presently suffering, waiting for that revelation
of their sonship through the redemption of their body, when
the first fruits of the Spirit in us give life not only to our
souls, but our body, and Christ changes our body so it's no longer
vile, but like His glorious spiritual body. When that happens, then
we have the consummation of it and we have it. But notice, as
I'm trying to drive it home to us, whatever we experience in
these things, it's only because we're following the Lord Jesus
Christ. And in particular, God justifies
us for the righteousness that we didn't work out, but the Lord
Jesus Christ did." In other words, God justifies us for what Christ
did. Now, if God justifies us for
what Christ did, then we did it in Him. And that is how we
understand this Psalm. When in verse 9 through 16 it
describes the horrible sufferings and afflictions of the people,
contrary to what it would seem would come to them, think of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered, but not for his
own sins, for ours, for the church, for the elect's sins. He bore
our sins in his own body on the tree. Isaiah 53 talks about how
he was stricken for the iniquity, the transgressions of my people
was he stricken. God laid our iniquities on him. But not only did the Lord Jesus
Christ suffer for us, but the New Testament teaches we suffered
with him so that all that he did in his life and his death,
we did it in him. And this is what God justifies
us for. What Christ did, God counts us
as having done. We did it because of our union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the gospel in its bright
glory that Christ has taken into union with Himself, all of God's
elect as a body, we're the body of Christ, one with Him as the
wife to her husband. And in all that he suffered,
it says in Isaiah 63, in all their affliction, he was afflicted. So that Lamentations, which cries
about how, I am the man that has suffered more than any man
at the hand of the Lord. He talks about it in the historical
context of the nation of the Jews. But in the reality of it,
it was Christ, and we suffered in Him and with Him. His obedience,
our obedience. By one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, even so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. He knew no sin, yet were made
the righteousness of God, because He was made sin for us. So both
in His obedience and in His sin bearing, He fulfilled the righteousness
of God and made us the righteousness of God. If we understand this,
then when we read about the sufferings here, We're ultimately reading
about the Lord Jesus Christ in the garden, on the cross, at
the hand of the wicked. When he says in Isaiah 50, I
gave my back to the smiters, my cheeks to them that pluck
off the hair. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.
He's describing this, isn't he? And notice in verse 17, when
he talks about the faithfulness, all this has come upon us, yet
have we not forgotten thee in the Lord Jesus Christ? We didn't. even flinch. We didn't even hesitate. We didn't just believe some or
obey some. We fully fulfilled the law in
Him. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. And if we see that here, then
when we see our sufferings in our present life, all of the
church's sufferings throughout history, we see that Christ will
be glorified in making them more than conquerors. We're going
to be saved in hope, looking to Christ, expecting. Christ
in you, the hope of glory, even though outwardly it doesn't yet
appear what we shall be, when he shall appear, we shall be
like him. So reread this psalm and take a look at the notes
I sent out, and maybe as you meditate on these things, each
one of us will be blessed by the fact that the Lord Jesus
Christ as our captain and our master He is the captain of our
eternal salvation, has obtained it for us. And in whatever we
suffer, in our setbacks, in what seems like disappointments or
failures or the contrary of God's promises, we know that it's not
contrary to God's promises, even though it may seem so to us,
because in hope, we wait for the manifestation of the sons
of God. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
your word, for this psalm that is a song of your purpose throughout
time, that the Church of God is saved not by their own strength,
but by your grace and your power. And even though they are saved
by your grace and power, yet it pleases you that they are
saved through sufferings, preeminently in the Lord Jesus Christ, And
they obeyed in Him, they suffered in Him, they died, they were
buried, but they also rose again justified because of Him, because
of His righteousness. And they were given the Spirit
because of Him. That promise of Abraham came
upon us because Christ bore our curse. Not only the Spirit, but
the redemption of our body. We wait for that. That promise
also will be fulfilled, and we will be saved to the uttermost
by the risen and reigning life of our great High Priest who
makes intercession for us. Help us to apply these things,
Lord, by Your Spirit, so that we might fulfill this greatest
privilege of all, to live by faith on the Lord Jesus Christ,
Him living in us, Him our hope of glory. In His name we pray,
amen.