SPEAKER_00: Called a treasury of devotion, seven weeks through the psalms.
SPEAKER_00: And sadly, this is the seventh week.
SPEAKER_00: So I originally said we'd do it for seven weeks, and we would read three Psalms each day that will continue until next Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And we went through the seven genres of Psalms: Psalms of wisdom, Psalms of Praise, Psalms of Lament, Thanksgiving, Psalms of Confidence, Psalms of Remembrance.
SPEAKER_00: Today we will talk about messianic psalms.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just from the beginning, I said, you know, not every psalm is of the same genre with the same purpose.
SPEAKER_00: It took me decades for me to figure that out.
SPEAKER_00: That actually there's different genres of psalms with different purposes.
SPEAKER_00: And just like songs in our own church today don't need to be all of the same genre, the psalms in the book of Psalms are unique.
SPEAKER_00: Some are instructional for wisdom, some give us insight and how to lament.
SPEAKER_00: Today we'll focus on Psalms of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Last week I talked about encouraging us to just write out what does your heart sing?
SPEAKER_00: As I've been reflecting through the Psalms and reading through them and studying them, it just moved me.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what is my song?
SPEAKER_00: What do I praise?
SPEAKER_00: How am I personally impressed by God?
SPEAKER_00: When I sit alone with God, how am I impressed by him?
SPEAKER_00: What am I saying to him?
SPEAKER_00: What about him captures your heart?
SPEAKER_00: What do you think or know that why do you think or know that he is worthy of your worship?
SPEAKER_00: How do you love him?
SPEAKER_00: And I talked about last week.
SPEAKER_00: Every single day is a new opportunity just to praise him, to love him, to worship him, to know him, right?
SPEAKER_00: And that is beautiful, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we might have praised him yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: We might have praised him years ago, but today is a unique opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: We have life in our lungs where we can praise and love and know God.
SPEAKER_00: So what is your song today?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's different than it was yesterday because our life is continually changing.
SPEAKER_00: I gave some examples of just poetry in Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to kind of use these as you're reflecting in Psalms, you can't really read this, but parallel synonyms is really common throughout Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: For example, Psalms 19, the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
SPEAKER_00: There's also antithesis and wisdom psalms, there's similes, metaphors, acrostics, there's climactic psalms.
SPEAKER_00: And then last week we talked about chiasm.
SPEAKER_00: But the encouragement really is just for you to reflect, whether you use poetry from psalms, whether you write just prose, whether you just reflect in your own heart of okay, God, what is my worship to you?
SPEAKER_00: To you to take some time alone with God, just reflecting.
SPEAKER_00: God, what is my psalm?
SPEAKER_00: With that, I will just pray for us and then we will get started.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord Jesus, we thank you that you give us a song.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, as it says through many psalms, you give us a new song to sing to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So Lord, we don't sing to each other.
SPEAKER_00: We don't sing even just to ourselves over our own heart.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we sing to you.
SPEAKER_00: So Lord, just give us new songs, new hearts of worship, or we sing to you, we love you, we know you, God.
SPEAKER_00: And I just pray that our hearts would just have greater affection for you today.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you remember when we started, I talked about Psalms as being the school of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We all want to learn how to pray, right?
SPEAKER_00: And what is our tutor?
SPEAKER_00: Where is our school?
SPEAKER_00: We find it in the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: And I describe there's three ways that we we this the Psalms can be our tutor.
SPEAKER_00: One, in we're knowing Jesus, in particular, we're knowing the heart of Jesus, the prayers of Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: We see throughout the gospels Jesus continually going away, praying to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And there's always this curiosity: what did he pray?
SPEAKER_00: He was praying all night long.
SPEAKER_00: Like what he could he possibly be saying.
SPEAKER_00: Thankfully, the Psalms opens up the window into the heart of Jesus where we can know insight into what he was things he was praying.
SPEAKER_00: So as the school of prayer, we can learn the prayers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We can also know ourselves, and we can commune with God.
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about koinania, the sharing of life and resources.
SPEAKER_00: We commune with God in two ways.
SPEAKER_00: One, we know God, we experience God, we encounter God, right?
SPEAKER_00: We walk with God through life.
SPEAKER_00: Two, we participate in his missions.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but today I just want to focus primarily on that first one of knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And through in the Psalms, we find these psalms about the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: There's two kinds generally of messianic psalms.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's psalms that are just describing what the Messiah will do.
SPEAKER_00: Often the royal psalms, talking about his conquest, his victory, his reign, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's describing who he is.
SPEAKER_00: There's other psalms that are reflecting the prayers of the Messiah, the heart of the Messiah, the prayers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: For example, we read in Psalms 31:5, Into your hand I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If that sounds familiar for me for you, it's because Jesus said it, right?
SPEAKER_00: And when did he say this?
SPEAKER_00: On the cross, his last statement, into your hand I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit from Luke 23.
SPEAKER_00: But what he is doing in re in reciting that psalm, it's not just just a quote from a previous passage, he's aligning himself with the whole of the psalm.
SPEAKER_00: So when we read, I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction, you have known my the distress of my soul, and you have not and not delivered me into the hand of the enemy, you have set my feet in a broad place.
SPEAKER_00: We can see a window into the heart of Jesus throughout Psalm 31.
SPEAKER_00: So we know it as a messianic psalm that is reflecting the heart of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is aligning himself with Psalm 31.
SPEAKER_00: Another example, Psalm 41.
SPEAKER_00: Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
SPEAKER_00: Where do we find something similar with Jesus in John 13?
SPEAKER_00: He even quotes it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the scripture will be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me, quoting from Psalm 41.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I am telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am He.
SPEAKER_00: Already by the time of Second Temple Judaism, Jews recognize that many Psalms seem to be prophetically pointing to the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They're both describing the Messiah as well as revealing prayers of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Psalms that David wrote, the son of David, the Messiah, was going to come, and these were going to be a reflection of his heart.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus is saying, I'm telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am He, he's saying, You will believe that I am the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: That you're seeing in Psalm 41, that you're even anticipating that Psalm 41 would point to this coming Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Another great example in Matthew 21, when Jesus is coming down the Mount of Olives, says the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David.
SPEAKER_00: The son of David at that time was very clearly a reference to the Messiah, right?
SPEAKER_00: So they're saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, to the Messiah, he is coming into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The second statement, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a neat phrase that they were singing and shouting through the streets.
SPEAKER_00: No, they were actually quoting a messianic psalm, saying, This is it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the psalm we've been knowing, this is the moment, this is the time.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 118.
SPEAKER_00: A messianic psalm, a psalm of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They're quoting from Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the chief priest didn't like that.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the whole of the city is celebrating this, the the return, the coming of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They're quoting the messianic psalm saying he is coming into the city.
SPEAKER_00: So when the chief priest and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, they heard the children crying out in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: They were indignant.
SPEAKER_00: They were mad.
SPEAKER_00: They were angry.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it was incredibly clear to them.
SPEAKER_00: It was clear to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It was clear to the whole of the whole of the city that there was this celebration of aligning.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Messiah that we knew about, that we read about, that we were anticipating in the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is he who is finally coming.
SPEAKER_00: Why were they mad?
SPEAKER_00: Not because they didn't know what was happening, but because they didn't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They they the the city was anticipating and saying, declaring that he was the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: The chief priests and the scribes were saying, No, he can't be the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They were mad.
SPEAKER_00: So they said to Jesus, Do you hear what these are saying?
SPEAKER_00: They're quoting a messianic psalm about you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to them, Yes, have you never read, Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise?
SPEAKER_00: It's such a brilliant response.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you had a guess, right, you would be right that he's quoting another psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise.
SPEAKER_00: And that psalm, Psalm 8, is very clearly a messianic psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger.
SPEAKER_00: It continues later in that psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor.
SPEAKER_00: You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.
SPEAKER_00: You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name and all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 8.
SPEAKER_00: They the whole of Jewish leaders knew this is clearly a messianic psalm, describing, anticipating this coming Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And how did Jesus respond to the scribes saying, hey, we're upset with these people saying that you are this Messiah, aligning Psalm 118 with you.
SPEAKER_00: He responds with another messianic psalm, even a very more clearly, Psalm 8, declaring that he was the Messiah, which is why in Hebrews 2, what do they quote?
SPEAKER_00: They quote Psalm 8 when they're describing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
SPEAKER_00: So naturally, they they were upset.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus later responded in that same passage, have you never read in the scriptures the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: He is again quoting a different part of Psalm 118.
SPEAKER_00: The point is, Jesus himself was aligning himself, declaring himself that he is this Messiah that you see throughout the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: Even prior to his arrival, the Jewish people were recognizing many of these Psalms must be pointing to this coming Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is aligning himself with those psalms.
SPEAKER_00: Many of them recognized it as he's coming down the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: The Jewish leaders for some reason rejected it.
SPEAKER_00: But probably the most famous messianic psalm revealing the heart of Jesus is Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we talked about chiasm.
SPEAKER_00: I know you can't really see it, see all this, but I will email it out again.
SPEAKER_00: But chiasm being reflecting idea, reflecting concepts with a central point in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: And verses 1 through 3 kind of give one building up to the crucifixion, starting with being abandoned by the Father, a declaration of trust, despised and rejected by man, prayer for God's nearness, surrounded by enemies, with the central point of Psalm 22 being a chiasm.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go through that, that and you will see.
SPEAKER_00: Again, a very common phrase for the most of us know.
SPEAKER_00: And why do we know it?
SPEAKER_00: Because in Matthew and Mark, after he had been hanging on the cross for six hours, it says, Darkness covered the land.
SPEAKER_00: And what did he cry out?
SPEAKER_00: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: He's not just again quoting a scripture, he's declaring, he's aligning himself with the whole of Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: In the Psalms, you know, when in the early in Jewish in Jesus' day, there weren't numbered, obviously.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, I'm quoting Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: The way that they knew or titled Psalms was from the first statement, similar to many hymns today.
SPEAKER_00: We know hymns based off of the first line because they didn't necessarily give them a title.
SPEAKER_00: They called it an insipid in Latin.
SPEAKER_00: It means it begins.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of uh books in Hebrew, they're titled that way.
SPEAKER_00: So for example, Genesis was known in Hebrew as Bereshit, in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the book starts with in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus, shemut, names, these are the names.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy, Devarim, words, these are the words.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is in Jewish culture, they titled things often by either the first word or the first phrase.
SPEAKER_00: They called it an insipid, or we call it an insipid now.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, he's reflecting on, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: He's declare, he's he's he's giving the title of Psalm 22, not just to reflect on that one passage, but to show the whole of Psalm 22 that he is calling to mem to memory.
SPEAKER_00: It's thought that in synagogues, when when a choir leader would lead a psalm, right?
SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't say, hey, turn in your hymnal to Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: He would start with the first line.
SPEAKER_00: And by memory, everyone then would know the psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doing something similar.
SPEAKER_00: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Reflecting to the whole of Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have wrestled with, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Reflecting to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: How can the Son be forsaken or abandoned or left by God, by the Father?
SPEAKER_00: Most people think it's related to what we call substitutionary atonement.
SPEAKER_00: Atonement in English being at one mint.
SPEAKER_00: And substitute substitutionary atonement is the doctrine that Christ died on the cross as a substitute for the death of sinners, so that those who believe in him may have eternal life, right?
SPEAKER_00: He substituted himself to die as a sinner in our place.
SPEAKER_00: It's how God rescues his people from judgment without compromising his justice.
SPEAKER_00: So when we read in 2 Corinthians, God made Christ, the Father made Jesus, who had no sin to become sin for humanity.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reflection of this substitutionary atonement.
SPEAKER_00: So in some sense, there is a leaving of the Father from the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Or in Isaiah, when he says he was pierced for transgressions, crushed for iniquities, with the Lord laying on him the guilt of all people.
SPEAKER_00: Or Galatians, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.
SPEAKER_00: So in some sense, there is there's Jesus being abandoned or even left forsaken, punished by God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the punishment of us all was put upon him.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you so far from saving me?
SPEAKER_00: From the words of my groaning.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
SPEAKER_00: The psalm beginning with lament, with agony, with pain.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember through when we went through Psalms of Lament, the points of lament is not that we just stay in the emotion of pain, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're moving toward God.
SPEAKER_00: In the next passage, it shifts to a declaration of trust.
SPEAKER_00: Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He's declaring truth in the midst of his pain.
SPEAKER_00: In you, our fathers trusted.
SPEAKER_00: They trusted and you delivered them.
SPEAKER_00: You proved faithful to your covenant.
SPEAKER_00: To you they cried and were rescued, and you they trusted and were not put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: As we talked about through lament, lament is not just an emotional dumping or deadening or deconstructing.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're lamenting toward God.
SPEAKER_00: So we are acknowledging the pain or the agony of a moment, but moving beyond that unto truth.
SPEAKER_00: So we see that in Psalms 22.
SPEAKER_00: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Moving to yet you are still holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You are faithful, you were del you delivered.
SPEAKER_00: And moving to another section of being despised and rejected by man.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But I am a worm and not a man.
SPEAKER_00: It's a strange phrase for us in English.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a worm and not a man.
SPEAKER_00: But in Hebrew, there is two primary words for worm or maggot.
SPEAKER_00: The first, rima, is just a general maggot or a rotting worm that is generally associated with decay or graves or food going bad, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you leave food out on the table, like they did in Exodus, there was a worm or a maggot that decayed the food.
SPEAKER_00: There's another Hebrew word which is used here, which is tolaat.
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's the word that's used in verses six, and tola'at refers to a crimson worm.
SPEAKER_00: A crimson worm.
SPEAKER_00: In ancient Israel, this creature was harvested and crushed to extract a deep blood-red dye used to make crimson fabrics for royal garments, priestly robes, the tabernacle curtains.
SPEAKER_00: The word tola'at is the same word used for crimson, if you remember from Isaiah 1.
SPEAKER_00: Though your sins are like scarlet, though they are red like crimson, though they are red like crimson, it's the crimson worm.
SPEAKER_00: So I am a worm.
SPEAKER_00: I am this crimson worm that was crushed, scorned by mankind, despised by the people.
SPEAKER_00: All who see me mock me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads, he trusts in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him.
SPEAKER_00: Reminds me of Isaiah 53 that he was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces.
SPEAKER_00: He was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
SPEAKER_00: Not just them.
SPEAKER_00: Then it moves to a prayer for God's nearness in verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Yet you are he who took me from the womb.
SPEAKER_00: You made me trust you at my mother's breast.
SPEAKER_00: On you I was cast from my birth, and from my mother's wound, you have been my God.
SPEAKER_00: In ancient Near Eastern legal custom, when a child was born, often the midwife would physically place or cast the newborn onto the onto the knees of the father.
SPEAKER_00: It's called casting onto the knees.
SPEAKER_00: This gesture was a formal act of legal adoption, stating, This child is under my protection and inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: I am the father of this child.
SPEAKER_00: Find it fascinating in Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying he was cast on the father's knee from birth.
SPEAKER_00: He was adopted by Yahweh at the very moment of birth, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: God alone took responsibility for his survival from birth onward.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, On you I was cast from birth.
SPEAKER_00: You are my father from birth.
SPEAKER_00: From my mother's womb you have been my God.
SPEAKER_00: Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.
SPEAKER_00: They're bulls, they're lions, they're later dogs or wild oxen.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Many bulls encompass me.
SPEAKER_00: Strong bulls of Bashan surround me.
SPEAKER_00: They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.
SPEAKER_00: They're encompassing, they're surrounding, they're opening their mouths.
SPEAKER_00: There is no apparent escape, and we see this through the gospels.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They question his authority.
SPEAKER_00: They accused him of blasphemy, being a child of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: They criticized his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: They plotted to destroy him.
SPEAKER_00: They attempted to trap him with impossible questions.
SPEAKER_00: But also Satan was present.
SPEAKER_00: Satan tempts him in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Demons repeatedly confronted him.
SPEAKER_00: Satan entered Judas, leading to the betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: And at Jesus' own arrest, he tells them, This is your hour when darkness reigns, surrounded by enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Then the central part of the psalm moving to the crucifixion, I am poured out like water.
SPEAKER_00: Similar to Isaiah 53, he poured out his life unto death.
SPEAKER_00: It goes on, on all my bones are out of joint.
SPEAKER_00: My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast.
SPEAKER_00: My strength is dried up like a potshirt, my tongue sticks to my jaws.
SPEAKER_00: You lay me in the dust of death, bones dislocating, heart rupturing, the mouth drying out with severe dehydration.
SPEAKER_00: All of these are consistent with crucifixions, physical effects.
SPEAKER_00: Some even suggest that his heart, why did he die so quickly?
SPEAKER_00: His heart ruptured.
SPEAKER_00: Crucifixion victims experienced severe dehydration as they hung exposed, and the weight of the body pulling against nailed limbs would dislocate joints and create the sensation of bones separating, poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint.
SPEAKER_00: My heart is melting like wax.
SPEAKER_00: For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircle me.
SPEAKER_00: They have pierced my hands and feet.
SPEAKER_00: If nothing is more profound as a prophetic statement, it is Psalms twenty-two.
SPEAKER_00: They were wagging their heads, saying, You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.
SPEAKER_00: If you are in fact the Son of God, come down from the cross.
SPEAKER_00: But also are also the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: They were mocking him, saying, Well, he saved others.
SPEAKER_00: He cannot save himself.
SPEAKER_00: He trusts in God, so let God now deliver him, if God desires him.
SPEAKER_00: Even the soldiers, the Roman soldiers, mocked him, coming up and offering him souring wine and saying, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
SPEAKER_00: For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircle me.
SPEAKER_00: They have pierced my hands and feet.
SPEAKER_00: Crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: I can count on my bones.
SPEAKER_00: They stare and gloat over me, and they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
SPEAKER_00: Found it interesting.
SPEAKER_00: I've always thought they cast lots for the clothing before the crucifixion, because that's what the movies do, right?
SPEAKER_00: I read in Matthew 27, after they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
SPEAKER_00: Sure enough, same thing that's in 22, they divided my garments among them.
SPEAKER_00: For my clothing they cast lots.
SPEAKER_00: Again, if nothing is more convincing of a prophetic assurance of the Messiah, that Jesus was the Messiah, it's Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: They wrote this hundreds of years before Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_00: But you, O Lord, do not be far off.
SPEAKER_00: O you my help, come quickly to my aid.
SPEAKER_00: Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
SPEAKER_00: Save me from the mouth of the lion.
SPEAKER_00: He's crying out, deliver me, save me.
SPEAKER_00: Then it switches.
SPEAKER_00: You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.
SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew verb changes from a request, a plea, deliver my soul, help me, come quickly, to a declaration or an exclamation.
SPEAKER_00: You have rescued me, indicating the salvation is achieved and complete.
SPEAKER_00: It moves back to not being rejected by God.
SPEAKER_00: Not rejected by God.
SPEAKER_00: It says, I will tell of your name to my brothers.
SPEAKER_00: If that is another passage that seems familiar, we find it also in Hebrew 2.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 2, in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.
SPEAKER_00: Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: And it directly says, He says, Jesus says, and he quotes Psalm 22, I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: In the assembly I will sing praises.
SPEAKER_00: So the book of Hebrews, it's again saying, Psalm 22 is Jesus' words, it's his prayers, it's his heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's also moving from a personal prayer to a corporate, per corporate personal declaration in the great congregation, in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you.
SPEAKER_00: The psalm started personal with God, it moved to a declaration in the congregation, it made moved to something corporate, and then it moves to an exhortation to for all peoples to praise.
SPEAKER_00: You who fear the Lord, praise him.
SPEAKER_00: All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, stand in awe of him.
SPEAKER_00: All you offspring of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So just as you're you're personally reflecting on where you praise Jesus, what is your heart, what is your song, what is your love for Jesus, what are you celebrating today for Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: Even in this psalm, we see it.
SPEAKER_00: It starts in something personal.
SPEAKER_00: Then it moves to the congregation, right?
SPEAKER_00: And he's declaring in the midst of the congregation his praise that began with something personal.
SPEAKER_00: And from the congregation, it moves to declaring or encouraging, exhorting the people, all the peoples, to praise him.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the hope for us, is just as we're reflecting personally and how we worship, it'll move to the congregation, and then it'll be just an exhortation for all of us to praise.
SPEAKER_00: So I ask again, how are you personally impressed with God?
SPEAKER_00: What about him captures your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Every day is a new opportunity to praise him.
SPEAKER_00: And it continues, for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, though rejected by man, despised by us, according to Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: God did not reject him.
SPEAKER_00: But he has heard when Jesus cried to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It all started with Jesus feeling abandoned or left.
SPEAKER_00: My God, my God, why have you forsaken him?
SPEAKER_00: But we read in verse 24, God has not hidden his face from him.
SPEAKER_00: There's some who will say that Jesus or the Father turned his back on the Son.
SPEAKER_00: We know at least from Psalm 2022, verse 24, that no, his face was still present.
SPEAKER_00: There was still a unity in the Trinity, even though there was some sort of distance once Jesus was receiving our sin, the penalty of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: The cross does not depict a father rejecting his son, but it demonstrates Christ's ultimate confrontation with death and his solidarity with humankind, not rejected by God.
SPEAKER_00: Moving back to a declaration of trust.
SPEAKER_00: From you comes my praise in the great congregation.
SPEAKER_00: Find it interesting that from God we receive our praise.
SPEAKER_00: God is both the source and the object of our praise.
SPEAKER_00: My vows I will perform before those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: His vows, his declaration of trust, most likely thanksgiving vows, promises to fulfill vows by offering sacrifices, singing praise to God in the presence of the worshiping community.
SPEAKER_00: The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: Those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: May your hearts live forever.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about it a little bit last week.
SPEAKER_00: That there's a direct correlation in us seeking God and us praising God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so as we're given an encouragement, hey, what is your heart singing?
SPEAKER_00: What are you praising?
SPEAKER_00: What do you love about him?
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Well, go to seek him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because those who seek him praise him.
SPEAKER_00: And so it begins with a seeking.
SPEAKER_00: We seek him, we we we we seek him, and as we seek him, we praise him, and also realizing that it is from him comes our praise.
SPEAKER_00: He is the source and the object of our praise, and our hearts will live.
SPEAKER_00: This is more than a physical survival, it points towards flourishing, joy, enduring life under God's favor and nearness.
SPEAKER_00: I love you know the Psalms of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Hearts are hearts alive, human flourishing, that we should be prosperous in our soul, happy, excited.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not based on like earthly circumstance, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's based in our revelation of God, our knowledge of God, and our praise of God that we can be we can eat and our stomachs, our life can be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: Then it finally ends with worldwide worship.
SPEAKER_00: Well began with a lament, ends in worship.
SPEAKER_00: All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: All the families of the nations shall worship before you.
SPEAKER_00: It shall be told of the Lord to coming generations.
SPEAKER_00: They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to people yet unborn, that he has done it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, began with this lament, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Ends with this global movement of worship.
SPEAKER_00: It reminded me of a song by Carrie Job.
SPEAKER_00: Forever.
SPEAKER_00: Starts at the moon and stars, they wept when he was on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The morning sun was dead, right?
SPEAKER_00: Darkness covered the land.
SPEAKER_00: The savior of the world was fallen.
SPEAKER_00: His body on the cross, his blood poured out for us, the weight of every curse upon him.
SPEAKER_00: One final breath he gave, as heaven looked away, the Son of God was laid in darkness, a battle in the grave, the war on death was waged, the power of hell forever broken.
SPEAKER_00: Then the ground began to shake, the stone was rolled away, his perfect love could not be overcome.
SPEAKER_00: Now, death, where is your sting?
SPEAKER_00: O resurrected king has rendered you defeated.
SPEAKER_00: So now forever he is glorified, forever he is lifted high, forever he is risen, he is alive.
SPEAKER_00: So we sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah, the Lamb has overcome.
SPEAKER_00: All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, all the families of the nations shall worship before you, for kingship belongs to you.
SPEAKER_00: You rule over the nations, all the prosperous of the word earth eat and worship.
SPEAKER_00: Before him should bow down all who go down to the dust, even the ones who could not keep himself alive, rich and poor alike.
SPEAKER_00: Posterity shall serve him, and shall be told of the Lord to coming generations, they shall clump come and proclaim his righteousness to people yet unborn, that he has done it.
SPEAKER_00: What began with my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Ends with all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: All the families of the nations shall worship before him, for he rules over the nations.
SPEAKER_00: What began in agony ended in glory.
SPEAKER_00: What started with rejection closed in victory.
SPEAKER_00: What was despised became forever praised.
SPEAKER_00: His cry of abandonment became our anthem of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: His darkest hour became history's brightest hope because the greatest injustice accomplished God's great justice.
SPEAKER_00: The rejected stone became the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: The mocked and despised became the Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: The man of sorrows became the joy of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: The crucifixion was not the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: It was the beginning of God's victory.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 22, the suffering servant in the victory of God, pivoting on the crucifixion, a messianic psalm, revealing the heart of Jesus, revealing the life of Jesus, the prayers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We all wish, I just wish I could be in a room with Jesus to hear him pray.
SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You can, right?
SPEAKER_00: Through something like Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, it was it was decades I read Psalms, 99.99% about me, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where do I see myself in this psalm?
SPEAKER_00: What does this psalm tell me about me?
SPEAKER_00: How do I feel in this psalm?
SPEAKER_00: It was just in the last couple years I started to even realize these psalms are about our Jesus' prayers.
SPEAKER_00: This is a window into the soul of our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: This is a window into knowing Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is a window we can worship Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So instead of looking for myself in the Psalms, I began to see Jesus in the Psalms, right?
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we move to worship.
SPEAKER_00: So many of the Psalms, even in you know, 100, 200 before Christ, right?
SPEAKER_00: They started recognizing these Psalms must be about this coming son of David, reigning, right?
SPEAKER_00: Royally reigning over the nations, praying, kind of like David, written by David, but coming, this coming Messiah will live this, be this.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this anticipation in first century Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: And so when when you see a lot of Jesus' quotes of the Psalms, he's referring back to clear messianic prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: So everybody knew what he was doing, right?
SPEAKER_00: The religious leaders knew what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: Why did they want to kill him?
SPEAKER_00: Because they knew what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: So my encouragement, just as you continue on in Psalms, yes, we find how we lament toward God, process our emotions in Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: We can discover that.
SPEAKER_00: But we can also discover Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Never lose sight of Jesus, the beauty of Jesus, the prayer of Jesus, the love of Jesus, the be amazed by his prayer, by his faithfulness, how he depended entirely on the Father.
SPEAKER_00: That is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: His life is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll just say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Well, begin with my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Ends with all the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Well, remember and worship.
SPEAKER_00: With that, I'll pray.
SPEAKER_00: If you're doing communion, feel free to come up and get the plates.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, we do.
SPEAKER_00: We look to you, we are amazed by you.
SPEAKER_00: We celebrate you.
SPEAKER_00: We're in awe of just your dependence on the Father, your faithfulness, Lord, your obedience, your your faithful love.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, and so just as we continue to reflect through the scriptures, through the Psalms, Lord, that you would come alive, that we would be amazed by you, that we'd be more enamored, more just moved with affections, with gratitude, with just just just an awesomeness of knowing who you are, how you lived.
SPEAKER_00: So just Jesus, be revealed today in our own minds and hearts, Lord, that we just would continue to increase as a people of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.