Psalm 22

Introduction

You may wish to turn your Bibles to the 22nd Psalm. The 22nd Psalm. I don’t know about you, but I very much enjoy. In fact, I find these 9 o’clock services very uplifting to me as we begin our day in serving the Lord. And certainly it is good to see so many of our number, and we all, I think, would wish that more of our number were here at the 9 o’clock. So let me give you a challenge today. Just talk to people about how much you enjoy coming together and praying to God and singing these wonderful songs of praise and going together to God in devotion as we look at his word. We understand that some of our number cannot be here for three hours.

We are not trying to place a burden on anybody. But let’s encourage each other, though, to continue to come together as we come together to worship our great God, our Savior, and what God has done for us. Michael, did you know I was going to do Psalm 22 today? Thought so. We have sung songs that have expressed our reliance on God even in our darkest moments. Even though it seems like we are so alone, and yet we express this desire that God be with us and this confidence that we have that God knows, God cares, and God understands and continues to love us. When you read Psalm 22, the opening line is what jars us. And of course, we think of our Lord on the cross.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It is a picture of hopelessness almost, it seems, to our minds. And I don’t want to look at Psalm 22. In particular, I want to look at that statement. But we will finish not by looking at that statement, but at the final statement of the Psalm. He has performed it. From my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? To He has performed it. As we have been talking about in these Psalms, that many of these psalms could have had an immediate context in the life of David or in the life of others, and yet they would still have messianic application. It may be that Psalm 22 vaguely fits that picture. I do not doubt that this could have been a time of great distress for David.

It may have been during the days of Saul’s persecution of David. It could have been during the days of Absalom’s rebellion. We are not told.

At least not in a literal sense. His hands and his spirit and his feet were not pierced. While the expression of that they divide my garments, they cast lots for them, could express the idea of David’s enemies already beginning to divide the plunder. We know that was literally fulfilled in the days of our Lord.

This has to be application to our Lord. Let’s read the Psalm, if you will. I know it’s a little bit of a lengthy psalm, but let’s begin this morning by reading it. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest. And you are holy. O you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted. They trusted in you, delivered them. To you they cried out and were delivered. In you they trusted and were not disappointed. But I am a worm and not a man. A reproach of men, despised by the people, all who see me sneer at me, they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, Commit yourself to the Lord.

Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, because he delights in him. Yet you are he who brought me forth from the womb. You made me trust when upon my mother’s breast. Upon you I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother’s womb. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help me. Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me, they open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potchard, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws, and you lay me in the dust of death.

For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierce my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me, they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, be not far off. O you my help, hasten to my assistance, deliver my soul from the sword, my only life for the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth and the horns of the wild oxen. You answer me. I will tell of your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel.

For he has not despised, nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him. But when he cried to him for help, he heard.

Those who seek him will praise the Lord, let your heart live forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before you. For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust will bow before him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. Posterity will serve him. It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and will declare his righteousness to a people who will be born, that he has performed it.

1. My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Our Lord said relatively few things on the cross, and we have studied those in the gospel accounts. Of course, this statement is found in multiple, but Matthew 27 being one such occasion. It is this statement that has brought many questions to our minds. What does it mean for our Lord to cry out on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Is he truly forsaken by the Father here? Can the Father, as we might sometimes say, no longer look on his son, so he must turn his face away? Has the essential unity of the Father and the Son been destroyed so that they are no longer one, even as our Lord would say in John 17 that we are one. I’ll confess to you, I do not know the full answer to this question.

There are passages throughout the scripture that do speak of our Lord becoming sin on our behalf. We think of the words in Isaiah 53 and verses 11 and 12, that he bore our iniquities and our sins. So our sins, our iniquities were on him. We think of 1 Peter 2 and in verse 24, that he bore our sins in his body on the cross. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21, that he made him who knew no sin to be sinned. And of course, Galatians 3 and verse 13, speaking of our Lord hanging on the cross, that he became a curse for us. And so it may be that the forsakenness of Jesus on the cross does in fact point to the fact that he became sin for us, and God who is holy, cannot be a part of sin.

But Psalm 22 does not speak to that.

The idea is that God is not with him. As David laments this, and speaking prophetically, I believe, and as our Lord says this on the cross. That is the idea that the Lord can help, but the Lord has not come to his rescue. You look at the words that surround, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, verse 1? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but I have no rest. If we’re going to allow the scriptures to define this, and then the scriptures are simply saying that the forsakenness of this person of the Messiah, even is the fact that while God could rescue, God has not rescued.

Of course, our minds go to the garden. My Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me. When they come to arrest our Lord, and Peter takes his sword and he cuts off the ear of Malchus. Do you not know that I cannot summon twelve allegiance of angels? I could be delivered. I’ve cried out to God. I have prayed earnestly to God. I have prayed that if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me. But as Jesus is on the cross, what does he know? It is not the Father’s will that this cup passes from me. And so it is a picture of one forsaken by God in the sense that God does not rescue in this case. You go further in the Psalm and you see this refrain come over and over again in verses 6 through 8.

I am a worm and not a man. A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me, and they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, Commit yourself to the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, because he delights in him. You may recognize that this is what, in fact, the people did say to our Lord. Over in Matthew, the 27th chapter, and in verse 43, as our Lord is hanging on the cross, the elders and the scribes from verse 41, we understand the chief priests as well. They have come, and they say in verse 42, in Matthew 27 and verse 42, He saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him.

He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now, if he delights in him, for he said, I am the Son of God. But yet God does not come to his aid. The very mocking that the people give is that since you have trusted in God your whole life, and you have said that God delivers, and yet here on the cross he is not delivering you. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Verse 11, the call again, be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help me. Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open their mouth at me as a ravening and a roaring lion, and I am poured out like water. And all my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax that is melted within me, my strength is dried up like a potter, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. And note, you lay me in the dust of death. Who was it that crucified our Lord? Well, we think of this, the Jews who were there and the Romans, and we talk about even our own sins, but whose will was it? It was God’s will. You lay me in the dust of death. I call out to you to be near to me, but where are you as all this has happened to me? We need not try to think of this literally. That I am poured out like water. While, okay, our minds may go to when the spear entered our Lord’s side.

That’s not probably what the psalmist intends. It is his idea of one who has no hope, who has no vitality left in his body. We can scarcely imagine what our Lord looked like on the cross as he’s endured all the horrors of the past few days. In fact, I would say all the horrors of the past few years. The three years of Jesus’ ministry would not have been a light ordeal. It would not have been an easy thing to do. But the last few weeks leading up to his crucifixion, I dare say any of us would have looked on his body with favor. And now, as he’s there on the cross, having been beaten multiple times, having been scourged. There is no vitality left in his body.

The Lord has laid him in the dust of death. Dogs that surrounded me, a band of evildoers have encompassed me. They pierce my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me.

And for my clothing, they cast lots. Forsaken by God. In the greatest hour of trial he would ever know. The Lord who had been with him throughout, we even know from the gospel accounts, there have been times when the Lord’s life was in danger, and yet miraculously it was seen. He just walks right through the danger, not this time. What we have here is again the fulfillment of when Jesus asks, if it be thy will, let this cut pass from me. This is the Lord’s answer. He is not rescued from the cross. He must die. A horrific death on the cross. But do not think that when the psalmist pins this, and I would urge you, do not think when our Lord utters this on the cross, it is a cry of despair.

2. Hope Remains

For it is not. It is an acknowledgement of what has happened. It is an acknowledgement that God has not come to the rescue in the greatest hour of trial. But throughout the psalm, and I wonder, as our Lord utters that, it may have fed the fuel, the fire of those who are standing around. But if a Jew would have thought as they stood at the cross, thought of the rest of Psalm 22, would they have come to the conclusion that Jesus had ultimately been forsaken by God? Hope remains. You may have picked up on that as we read through the Psalm. First of all, in verses 3 through 5, as he has cried out, and it seems that the Lord is not coming, he is not being answered, he is not being rescued.

He says, Yet you are holy. Everything that He’s petitioning is on the holiness of God, the very character of God. And since you are holy and you are enthroned upon the praises of Israel, and since in you our fathers trusted, they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were delivered. In you they trusted and were not disappointed. There is an idea of hope there as he calls upon God to rescue. Our fathers trusted in you. You are holy and you have never disappointed. You go again to verses 9 through 11. Yet you who brought me forth from the mother’s womb, from the from the womb, you made me trust. Upon you I was cast from my birth, and you have been my God from my mother’s womb, and so be not far from me.

Here’s this acknowledgement that since infancy, his trust has been in God. God has not disappointed him before, and so he continues to cry out, be not far from me. And then you go down to verses 19 through 21. But you, O Lord, be not far off. Oh you, my help, hasten to my assistance. He’s already acknowledged I’ve been forsaken by God, and yet he continues to cry out, Come to my assistance. Deliver my soul from the death, my only life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth, from the horns of the wild oxen. In verse 21, you answer me. I believe the new King James says, and rightfully so in this case, you have answered me. It’s a past perfect. You have answered me.

Even as he describes himself, all the horrors that he has experienced, all these terrible things that has happened to him, and he cries out, Why have you forsaken me? And yet he calls out as well, You have answered me. Some of you may be thinking, even in your New Testament, Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. And note what it said there in verses 7 through 10. Hebrews chapter 5 and verses 7 through 10. In the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from the death. And he was heard because of his piety.

It still seemed as to the whole world he was forsaken by God, and yet he was heard. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. And having been made perfect, became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. You have heard me. Here is the elements of hope, the constant reflections on God’s faithfulness and the acknowledgement that you go back to the Psalm in verses 22 through 24. And now it seems as if the hour is trial has passed, but they not me that the hour of trial is passed. It’s just looking forward to the fact that God has delivered, and this is what will occur.

3. Not Deliverance From Death, Deliverance Through Death

I will tell of your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel. For he has not despised, nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him. But when he cried to him for help, he heard. But Jesus died on the cross. But was raised by the power of God. Not deliverance from death, deliverance through death. You heard. You did rescue. Did not rescue Jared from the horror. Did not rescue Jesus. Have I said that more times today? I hope not. Did not rescue Jesus from the horrors of the cross.

But rescued him from death. Rescued him through death. And so I will praise you. Not only I will praise you, go forward to verse 25. Others will come and praise you. From you comes my praise in the great assembly. These next few verses that bear in mind the idea of Old Testament vows that are made, and when God answered, and so you fulfill your vow in the midst of the assembly, not just so that you could praise God, but so that everyone could praise God. And so I shall pay my vows before those who fear me. The afflicted will eat and be satisfied. And those who seek him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before you, for the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he rules over the nations.

All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust will bow before him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. What is the result of this forsaken man? God hears. God answers. And so not only would he give his praises to God, the congregation of Israel would give their praises to God, the nations will give their praises to God. Even those going down to death will give their praises to God. If you’ll think back in your mind to that passage in Hebrews 5, 7 through 10, what was the point? He was heard, but he died, but he became high priest forever. Through him now the nations can come to God. Through him now the nations can come and give their praises to God.

4. He Has Performed It

Through him, even those who face death continue to give their praises to God. So posterity will serve him. And it will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. What was done on that day has been told throughout the generations and remains so today. They will come and will declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has performed it. And it’s that final phrase that I want to focus on now. He has performed it. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me was not the only thing said by Jesus on the cross, was it? You may also think in your minds of John 19 and verse 30, it is finished. It is finished. The equivalent to he has performed it in Psalm 22.

What has God performed? As Jesus calls out on the cross, it is finished. What has God finished? That through Jesus’ death, as it seems to the whole world forsaken by God, now true praise will come to God. Not just by Jesus, but by all who will come to God. The nations, those who go to death, coming generations. Our Lord says on the cross, it is finished. And I would submit to you that that is more or less a quotation from Psalm 22 as well.

It is finished. Forsaken by God? Yes and no. Forsaken in that, as we know again from the garden. If it could have happened any other way, then yes, let this cup pass from me. It could not. He must suffer. He must die. He must have all of his vitality taken away. He must have his enemies around him. His hands and his feet must be pierced. So, yes, forsaken by God in that sense. But delivered by God. Delivered through death. That praises would come to God from Him and from all those who had come to God through Him. Because God has performed it. If there is an application for us today, other than simply being impressed yet again with what our Lord has done for us on the cross, I would submit this application to you.

Conclusion

The experience of life often points to a conclusion. The experience of life often points to a conclusion of, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As we go through the trials and the horrors of life, as we go through even the persecutions for trying to follow God, and yet it does not seem as we are delivered here and now we might cry out, why have you forsaken me? What God would say, and what our Lord would say is, wait till it is finished. Wait till he has performed it. Wait till the conclusion of the matter. And see whether or not your God has forsaken you. He did not forsake our Lord who was there on the cross. He delivered him even from death. He will not forsake you.

In spite of anything you go through in this life, in spite of the trials, the persecutions, the horrors, the sickness, and ultimately the death that you and I will experience, he will not forsake you. Wait till it is finished. Will you go to me with God to God in prayer? Our God, we come before you in praise, giving you thanks for what your Son did for us, what you have done for us. And we come to you, Father, acknowledging that this was your perfect plan, the redemption of us from our sins through your Son, that He did, in fact, bear our sins on the cross. He became sin for us. But Father, we also praise you, because even though it seemed as if in that moment, in that hour, he was forsaken by you, that your plan was defeated.

And yet you delivered him. You raised him from the dead. And now he is enthroned at your right hand. He is now our high priest, Father, and the means by which we can come before you. And so, Father, we offer you our praise this day. But we also, Father, bring our cares and concerns to you as we live in a difficult and a trying world. How often we may ask, Father, why have you forsaken us? Why have you left us here on our own? We would pray, Father, for the perseverance. We would pray, Father, for the patience and the hope. To wait until it is finished. To wait until you have performed it. For Father, our trust and our hope is in you, just as our Lord’s trust and hope was in you.

That you will deliver, that you will raise us up, and that you’ll bring us to you. And so, Father, it is in the name of your Son that we bring this prayer, that holy Son, who died for us. Amen. You just missed your classes.