SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Glad you're here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: We are in Psalm 22, and as you know, we're doing a summer in the Psalms, and in the fall, I'm feeling like we're going to move into Romans, the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's going to be really, really fun to do.
SPEAKER_01: Probably Psalm 22 is one of the more complex Psalms in the sense that David is really suffering in Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_01: He's going through some major hurt, major pain.
SPEAKER_01: He's being maligned by people, maybe those even that have loved him in the past, I think he feels ripped off.
SPEAKER_01: It's really, really tough for him.
SPEAKER_01: But simultaneously, what he doesn't realize is he's actually writing a prophetic psalm that will be used of the Messiah Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus will actually quote Psalm 22 while expiring on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a picture kind of of a of a living hell.
SPEAKER_01: And it's really powerful in that regard.
SPEAKER_01: And so Psalm 22 is like many prophetic passages in the Bible, where in most cases I think the writer did not even know they were prophesying of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't even know they were prophesying of the end times.
SPEAKER_01: They were just under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writing stuff that the Spirit gave them.
SPEAKER_01: And just so you know, inspiration of Scripture, God breathes Scripture, the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture does not mean that it was dictated by God, like they just heard something and just wrote it like word for word, but it was a, it's that inspirational aspect of how God works in our lives sometimes when he speaks to us, except it was more deliberate.
SPEAKER_01: They could sense, those writers could sense that something different was happening here as they wrote a letter.
SPEAKER_01: Or something was different as they wrote that sermon like Jeremiah would or Isaiah would, and many of the Old Testament prophets.
SPEAKER_01: So David is before the Lord, I would imagine, and he might even be in a cave somewhere, because I don't know where this was.
SPEAKER_01: Could be that he's in his palace at this point.
SPEAKER_01: And as he writes, Jesus is gonna go to the cross and he's gonna quote this psalm in his most desperate hour.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe that as we read this, you will come to understand in a greater way.
SPEAKER_01: I hope so, that sometimes you go through times that feel like a living hell.
SPEAKER_01: That you go through times of deep suffering.
SPEAKER_01: That every one of us in this room has gone through times where you feel like you're separated from God.
SPEAKER_01: Like, where is He in this dilemma?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a death of a loved one, maybe it's a heart attack, maybe it's cancer, maybe it's just people attacking you, and you want to justify yourself so much, but it's not gonna work.
SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna listen, and you feel trapped.
SPEAKER_01: So may Psalm 22 be inspirational to all of us that there is a way out.
SPEAKER_01: And the way out is not necessarily the change of your circumstances, but the change of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a change of the direction of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna continue to just look at your circumstances or just look at what people are saying, or just look at what the doctor's diagnosis is?
SPEAKER_01: Or will you change direction and look up and choose to praise him and thank him?
SPEAKER_01: And in no way let God off the hook in the sense of crying out to him.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're gonna see David does not let the Lord of heaven and earth off the hook.
SPEAKER_01: He he really goes after it in his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Probably one of the greatest, most humble, most stark, real prayers in all of the Bible is in Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_01: So let's begin.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_01: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: Why are you so far from helping me?
SPEAKER_01: And from the words of my groaning, oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear.
SPEAKER_01: And in the night season, and I'm not silent.
SPEAKER_01: So David is crying out, these are the words of Jesus on the cross as he cried out to God in some mystical, mysterious way, as Christ expired on the cross, the sins of the world came upon him.
SPEAKER_01: All of the sins of the world came upon him.
SPEAKER_01: The death that you could not die, Christ died on your behalf.
SPEAKER_01: So that you could live a life that you cannot live except through his power.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in that expression of Jesus' heart, he turns to Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_01: And you could do a lot worse in your own life when you're going through suffering to go and read and pray Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_01: You could do a lot worse.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Psalm 22 captures what I would consider, because there's really a hell on earth and there's a hell or literal hell in the heavenly realm.
SPEAKER_01: Some believe it's actually below us.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But whether hell is below us, like some of the descriptions we see in Scripture, it's actually below us in some way, and the heavens are above us, there is a hell on earth.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you have been through that.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are going through that right now.
SPEAKER_01: Hell is the desperation of separation from God on earth and into eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: Hell is the desperation of separation from God on earth and into eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So, in some mysterious way, God the Father is turning his head away from his son.
SPEAKER_01: For the first time in Jesus' life, his relationship with his father is broken.
SPEAKER_01: And he's crying out, why have you forsaken him?
SPEAKER_01: God has to forsake him because he's taken on your sins and my sins upon his body, soul, and spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And he's gonna descend into hell.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just say, when I talk about that from the apostles' creed, descending into hell.
SPEAKER_01: The church fathers, historical Christianity believes that.
SPEAKER_01: We do not believe he suffered for sin in hell, but he did go to hell.
SPEAKER_01: And I've talked about that.
SPEAKER_01: If you were at the Good Friday service, you heard my summation of those three days and what happened there.
SPEAKER_01: But he did not suffer in hell, but he went to hell.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he announced his victory in hell to set the captives free.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why, right after Jesus dies, and he says to the he says to the thief, You will be with me today in paradise, that he went down, Lazarus the rich man being a very beautiful picture, the parable of a real place of torments and a place of paradise being in the same location and there being a big separation between the two.
SPEAKER_01: So he comes and he announces that, and that's why, as soon as Christ died, many of the saints of old were resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: Because you could have faith in the Messiah, faith in Christ distant, even in the Old Testament, too.
SPEAKER_01: It's always by faith that we are saved.
SPEAKER_01: Suffering and loneliness haunts all of us, it's the culture of this world.
SPEAKER_01: So we're always going to go through suffering and loneliness.
SPEAKER_01: There's nobody in their right mind who can't admit that you've been through suffering and loneliness, and that actually that's part and parcel with being on this earth.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're going through that right now, Psalm 22 is for you.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a lesson to be learned here that could set you free in a new way.
SPEAKER_01: And I know many of you in this room already do this because I'm around you and you share stuff with us, you know, from time to time, and I see praise on your lips, and you really are authentic.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming from your heart in the midst of tremendous suffering.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of the greatest signs of maturity.
SPEAKER_01: One of the great signs of Christian maturity is what you do with loneliness and suffering.
SPEAKER_01: If you move to blaming God, you got a lot of work to do.
SPEAKER_01: And we all do it.
SPEAKER_01: We all do it sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not saying you ever are completely free from that.
SPEAKER_01: But I believe it has so much to say about how you view God.
SPEAKER_01: And for many of us, our God is too small.
SPEAKER_01: Our God is too small.
SPEAKER_01: Our God, because of the theology that we've kind of grown up with, is kind of, I should always be healthy.
SPEAKER_01: I should always be moving forward in my wealth.
SPEAKER_01: I should have lots of friends.
SPEAKER_01: The church should never ever do anything really bad.
SPEAKER_01: We're all just a really good thing because it's Jesus' church.
SPEAKER_01: It's a Christian church.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't, we can't handle suffering.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to challenge you that suffering and loneliness is a part and parcel with this world.
SPEAKER_01: Satan is really alive and well, he's really working.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is the test of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Peter would write, we count it all joy when we go through trials.
SPEAKER_01: Because what does he say?
SPEAKER_01: The testing of your faith is producing endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result that you might be perfect, lacking in nothing.
SPEAKER_01: So, really, suffering, loneliness, those struggles, that's actually the anvil.
SPEAKER_01: That's the anvil that's chiseling out Christ-likeness in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look what happens.
SPEAKER_01: There's a shift in verse 3, but it's only brief, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: It's just, it's almost like he's making a theological statement in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Now the two most important words in the Bible are but you, capital Y, or but God.
SPEAKER_01: But God is the foundation of the miraculous.
SPEAKER_01: When we can say, okay, this is how I feel, this is what I'm going through, but God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's the beginning of the miraculous.
SPEAKER_01: Because most people will not do that.
SPEAKER_01: They'll just continue to blame God or they'll continue to be mad at people or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: But that transition, if we can make that paradigm shift, a theological paradigm shift to but you, but God, is the beginning of miracles starting to happen in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're opening up your heart, you're opening up your mind to the possibility that God's gonna actually move in the midst of your suffering, your loneliness, your struggles, and the battle of your life.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, but you are holy.
SPEAKER_01: I think what David is saying is what I've learned is that God, your sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: All things are working together for good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna trust you.
SPEAKER_01: You are holy.
SPEAKER_01: And like we talked about last week, one of the secret places of God is praise.
SPEAKER_01: That when we praise Him in some powerful way, He manifests Himself in your praise.
SPEAKER_01: Not just in congregational praise, like we're going through right now here as we finish the sermon.
SPEAKER_01: We go into congregational praise.
SPEAKER_01: God's presence and his enthroned, manifest power is with us.
SPEAKER_01: That happens in your own life too.
SPEAKER_01: That happens in your individual life also, that as you begin to thank him and love him and bless him, he comes.
SPEAKER_01: He loves that.
SPEAKER_01: It's his living room in heaven, Revelation 4 and 5.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, Jesus could do anything, God the Father can do anything, the Holy Spirit can do anything to create a heavenly place of the fellowship of the triune God, and he chose to make heaven a place of praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I find that really theologically and practically interesting.
SPEAKER_01: That's very interesting to me.
SPEAKER_01: That he could do anything, and he creates praise and worship as his living room.
SPEAKER_01: So when we enter into praise and worship as a church and we really get into it and you really focus, you're lining yourselves up with the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: You're lining yourselves up with the living room of God.
SPEAKER_01: So you come to my house, and our living room, our great room, is designed the way Liz likes it.
SPEAKER_01: I've had very little say in that, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: But we know kind of where we sit and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you come in, it speaks of something about who we are, right?
SPEAKER_01: And in your house is the same way.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are more modern, some of you are more traditional, some of you like antiques, some of you like uh the cheapest thing you can find.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: It says something about you, and you're comfortable there.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: It's your living room.
SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to be that way.
SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to design it that way.
SPEAKER_01: Well, God's designed heaven where he's the most comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: And he's most comfortable with people who praise him.
SPEAKER_01: So somehow, in some way, when we praise him, we get God's attention.
SPEAKER_01: It gets God's attention.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the secret places of God.
SPEAKER_01: So David, I believe, here, is making a theological statement, but he's not there yet.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Our fathers trusted in you, they trusted, and you delivered them.
SPEAKER_01: They cried to you and were delivered, they trusted in you and were not ashamed.
SPEAKER_01: So he's looking back to remember what has happened in the past.
SPEAKER_01: He's, I think what he's trying to do is David is really trying to pick up his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He's trying to pick up, he's not there yet.
SPEAKER_01: So he's now looking back.
SPEAKER_01: Look, look, God, look what you've done in the past.
SPEAKER_01: I want to praise you for that.
SPEAKER_01: I want to thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of the beautiful things about biographies.
SPEAKER_01: In reading biographies, and I was preparing for this man, I'm trying to think how many biographies have I read, how many biographies do I have?
SPEAKER_01: I have about 50 biographies, both secular and Christian, and I've probably read twice that many.
SPEAKER_01: I love biographies.
SPEAKER_01: I'm always reading a biography.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and what's fun about reading biographies, if you have particular people in history that you've come to appreciate, um, after you've read a few, you kind of know the, you sort of know the mantra, you kind of know what they did with their life, and so you can read them quickly.
SPEAKER_01: But, you know, I love stuff on Teddy Roosevelt, I love stuff on Winston Churchill.
SPEAKER_01: I've read almost everything on those two guys that's out there that's worth its salt, you know, from the early days to the later lives of their lives.
SPEAKER_01: And Jay Hudson Taylor, because I was a missionary.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to, I just saturated myself with Jay Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, and C.T.
SPEAKER_01: Studd and David Livingston, and I could go on and on.
SPEAKER_01: And so something about biographies is it takes you out of our little reality, which is so limited in view, into the great exploits of people exactly like us who made choices to do great things.
SPEAKER_01: And the price they paid, and the sacrifice that they had to endure, and even the persecution they went through to do what they did takes us out, and we go, wow, it puts us in perspective, kind of gives you perspective to our lives, but also kind of lights your heart on fire for more.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what I believe David is doing here.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then he continues.
SPEAKER_01: So this is why I tell you he's not there yet.
SPEAKER_01: But I am a worm.
SPEAKER_01: That's where David that David called himself a worm.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's like any psychologist, almost any church today would say, You're not a worm.
SPEAKER_01: You're a king, you're a priest of the most high God.
SPEAKER_01: How dare you call yourself a worm?
SPEAKER_01: Well, David calls himself a worm right here.
SPEAKER_01: I am a worm.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not even a man.
SPEAKER_01: A reproach of men, despised by people.
SPEAKER_01: All those who seek me ridicule me.
SPEAKER_01: They shoot out the lip.
SPEAKER_01: They shake the head.
SPEAKER_01: This is before there were memes.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about shooting out the lip, man.
SPEAKER_01: He trusted in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let him rescue him, let him deliver him, since he delights in him.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody ever feel that way?
SPEAKER_01: Be honest.
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand if you've ever felt that way.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: And if your kids come to you and they're having a hard time at school and it's really tough and people are bullying them and all that stuff, you know, you just have to say, you know, David, the guy who killed Goliath, felt that way too.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay, son.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay, my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna make it.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Psalm 22 says that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is the accuser of the brethren.
SPEAKER_01: I believe demons, and I'm gonna explain in just a second why I think this.
SPEAKER_01: I think demons are messing with David's head and heart right now.
SPEAKER_01: He is really, really going low.
SPEAKER_01: And um Revelation 12 says, now salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren who accuses them before God day and night has been cast down.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess where he's been cast down to?
SPEAKER_01: Here.
SPEAKER_01: The accuser of the brethren is here, and he's gonna accuse you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care how spiritual you are, how godly you are, there's gonna be times where thoughts are gonna come your way, where you consider yourself a worm, where you consider yourself defeated, where you feel like you're never gonna get there, that you don't have what it takes, and you're gonna look around and you're gonna compare yourself to others, and you're gonna feel like a loser.
SPEAKER_01: And so that is the way demons work.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a little kind of a fun exercise to start trying if that's where you're at.
SPEAKER_01: Send Satan to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: So look, you can say this.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I don't know, Satan, demon, whatever you are, I'm not a loser.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a worm.
SPEAKER_01: I send you to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to make accusations, go to the cross of Christ and tell him about it.
SPEAKER_01: Tell him about it, and let's see how you do up there.
SPEAKER_01: So go take care of that, Jesus, for me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sending Satan to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna listen to the accusations of the enemy anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Now you will because you're normal and you'll do it again, but if we start making that our exercise, it becomes quicker and quicker to get out of depression, to get out of anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Depression, anxiety, oftentimes, some of it's chemical.
SPEAKER_01: Some of it is chemical, and we've got so many ways to deal with that.
SPEAKER_01: But a lot of times the chemical is an expression of the spiritual, and when we start spiritually taking care of it, God begins to heal us in a mighty and powerful way.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in verse 9 to 21 is the most humble, most authentic, and real prayer in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: This is my opinion, but let's read it.
SPEAKER_01: This is what David then prays.
SPEAKER_01: So he's really trying to get out of the funk, man.
SPEAKER_01: He's trying to get out of it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But you are he who took me out of the womb.
SPEAKER_01: You made me trust while on my mother's breast.
SPEAKER_01: I was cast upon you from my birth, from my mother's womb.
SPEAKER_01: You have been my God.
SPEAKER_01: Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there's nobody to help.
SPEAKER_01: There's nobody's helping me.
SPEAKER_01: And now look at some of the word pictures he has here.
SPEAKER_01: Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Many bulls I've circled.
SPEAKER_01: Bulls have surrounded me.
SPEAKER_01: Strong bulls of Bacian have encircled me.
SPEAKER_01: They gape at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion.
SPEAKER_01: A bull.
SPEAKER_01: Batian bulls.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of the beautiful grazing grassy areas east of the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: It was beautiful up there.
SPEAKER_01: When I think of Bacian, I think of my grandfather's ranch.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, when you come into South Carolina where my granddaddy's ranch was, it's just green everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: You know, thousands of acres, and that where he'd have his cattle.
SPEAKER_01: But he's talking about bulls of Bation.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone here ever been attacked or had to run from a raging bull?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone in here?
SPEAKER_01: All right, just a few hands go up.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was my lot in life when I was a kid.
SPEAKER_01: Because we lived on this cabin on my granddaddy's ranch for a while, and I was always hunting and I was always fishing, and I had to pass through this pasture.
SPEAKER_01: There was no way around it.
SPEAKER_01: And I was always looking for the bulls, and he always had a few.
SPEAKER_01: And every time they chased me, I mean, I tried everything.
SPEAKER_01: I went like this, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I try to go like that to see if I he would think I'm one of them.
SPEAKER_01: And they would come and I'm like, and I'm running with a shotgun or a fishing pole, you know, and the bull would come.
SPEAKER_01: And it's really scary.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember one time diving under a barbed wire fence and just ripping this really cool hunting vest that I had.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, that's the picture.
SPEAKER_01: I think David, either he had experienced it, or he knew others who had experienced a raging bull or a roaring lion.
SPEAKER_01: I'm poured out like water, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: And all my bones are out of joint.
SPEAKER_01: My heart is like wax.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is not a guy who's standing strong.
SPEAKER_01: This is a guy who feels incredibly weak.
SPEAKER_01: It has melted.
SPEAKER_01: My heart has melted within me.
SPEAKER_01: My strength is dried up like a pot sherd.
SPEAKER_01: My tongue clings to my jaws.
SPEAKER_01: You have brought me to the dust of death.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't even know what to say.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's another image.
SPEAKER_01: Dogs.
SPEAKER_01: Dogs are always seen as negative in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: For dogs have surrounded me.
SPEAKER_01: The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me.
SPEAKER_01: They pierced my hands and my feet.
SPEAKER_01: Again, we're moving into that prophetic part toward the Messiah Jesus and his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: They pierced my hands and my feet.
SPEAKER_01: I can count it all, I can count all my bones.
SPEAKER_01: They look and stare at me.
SPEAKER_01: They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
SPEAKER_01: So he moves into that prophetic nature.
SPEAKER_01: But you, O Lord, do not be not far from me.
SPEAKER_01: O my strength, and hasten to help me, deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
SPEAKER_01: Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen.
SPEAKER_01: So David is just, he's just crying out.
SPEAKER_01: He feels, I think he feels exhausted about whatever this, whatever's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: He feels like he can't win for losing.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's a shift in verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: And this is where the psalm teaches us the greatest lessons of praise and worship in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: He says here, you have answered me.
SPEAKER_01: Look at that.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 21B, you have answered me.
SPEAKER_01: Again, but God, He's shifting.
SPEAKER_01: There's a shift here.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what I think we can learn from this.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll go through the whole thing in just a second.
SPEAKER_01: But one thing we can learn is I think God is okay with you sharing your heart with Him about how you feel.
SPEAKER_01: God can handle it.
SPEAKER_01: Now He's not a glorified psychologist, but there's something powerful about vulnerability.
SPEAKER_01: Vulnerability breaks the power of shame.
SPEAKER_01: Vulnerability has the potential to break the power of depression.
SPEAKER_01: It's who you share it with you have to be careful with.
SPEAKER_01: If you're sharing with everybody and their mother, then you're probably not going to get the greatest advice.
SPEAKER_01: But if you share it with the Lord, if you share it with the Lord and you pronounce it as a prayer up to him, if there then becomes this shift, a miracle can happen.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, You've answered me.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this.
SPEAKER_01: I will declare.
SPEAKER_01: So here he is, he makes his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Now he's going to make a declaration.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly, I will what?
SPEAKER_01: Praise you.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to start praising God.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to quit looking out and he's going to start looking up.
SPEAKER_01: You who fear.
SPEAKER_01: Now he's preaching.
SPEAKER_01: So first he declares it to the assembly, to others, and now he begins to preach.
SPEAKER_01: You who fear the Lord, praise him.
SPEAKER_01: Exclamation point.
SPEAKER_01: You need to praise him too.
SPEAKER_01: All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him, fear him, all you offsprings of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you a phrase.
SPEAKER_01: When I was working on this, I kept thinking, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_01: I was grappling with the passage, and I want to call it faith praise.
SPEAKER_01: What if we called it faith praise?
SPEAKER_01: Where you praise him by faith even when you don't have a feeling or desire to praise him.
SPEAKER_01: Faith praise is lifting up the name of Christ even when we don't feel like it, even when we feel defeated and beaten down.
SPEAKER_01: He cries out to God with this faith, praise, and then he, David's the consummate preacher.
SPEAKER_01: He just starts to preach it to everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: You need to praise God.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have half the problems that I have.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you what I've been through, but you need to praise him.
SPEAKER_01: Learn to glorify him with your life if you fear the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty good stuff, right?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25 My praise shall be of you in the great assembly.
SPEAKER_01: I will pay my vows before those who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: The poor shall eat and be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Those who seek him will praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let your heart live forever.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this next part, I believe, is the purpose of the cross of Calvary.
SPEAKER_01: So isn't it interesting?
SPEAKER_01: Go back, you know, if you just if you have your Bible and you look back at verses 1 and 2, that's the pronouncement of separation by the Son from the Father in the midst of the sins of the world falling upon him.
SPEAKER_01: It talks about his hands and his feet being pierced in this prayer of David.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I think 27 and 28 is the purpose of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And all the families of the nations shall worship before you, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the cross is going, folks.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the resurrection is going.
SPEAKER_01: All the ends of the earth will worship him.
SPEAKER_01: Every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth through the cross of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The goal of the cross is verses 27 and 28.
SPEAKER_01: You should circle it, underline it, highlight it.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27 and 28 is where this is going.
SPEAKER_01: David doesn't have any clue.
SPEAKER_01: I'm convinced he doesn't even know what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's just worshiping the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He's turning from all his despair and suffering to praise, and God is prophetically telling us this is what the cross is all about.
SPEAKER_01: This is why we're here.
SPEAKER_01: This is why you're here.
SPEAKER_01: It's because for 2,000 years in historical, biblical Christianity, men and women have shared Christ with their neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women have raised their kids and discipled their kids in this book.
SPEAKER_01: They have raised them up.
SPEAKER_01: And as a result of that, we have young people, we have folks that are retired, we have many that are in middle age.
SPEAKER_01: You are here because of the faithfulness of all the saints that have gone before us to say that we're gonna bring the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: We're being used by God to bring the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 29 All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship.
SPEAKER_01: All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him.
SPEAKER_01: Even he who cannot keep himself alive.
SPEAKER_01: A posterity shall serve him.
SPEAKER_01: It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation.
SPEAKER_01: It will come and declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has done this.
SPEAKER_01: Four generations are mentioned here.
SPEAKER_01: David, sons and daughters, those that are coming up as even grandchildren is mentioned here, and then even those that haven't been born yet.
SPEAKER_01: That's Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: That's the message of Psalm 20.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what you're going through, no matter how hard it is, praise him.
SPEAKER_01: Thank him, worship, know that he's gonna work all things out together for good.
SPEAKER_01: Even in America, with what we're going through.
SPEAKER_01: We are under the judgment of God.
SPEAKER_01: America is a Babylon, it is under the judgment of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we don't give up.
SPEAKER_01: Because we want to transform it into a beautiful place again.
SPEAKER_01: And if we are able to do that, we will look back and say, we we were part of that.
SPEAKER_01: If we can't do that because it's too far gone, we tried.
SPEAKER_01: But we're gonna praise him.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna and we're gonna communicate this book to our children that they might translate this book to their our children's children, children.
SPEAKER_01: So until the Lord tarry, if he continues to tarry, may the may the great name of Jesus go forward through people like you.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom is coming, the kingdom is here.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.