Why Have You Forsaken Me?

for the summer. And if you have your Bible with you, I'll invite you to open it up to Psalm chapter 22.

Psalms 22 · chapter mention

If you don't have your Bible with you, you can find one in the bottom of the seat in front of you there.

There won't be any words on the screen this morning, so it might be helpful to you to be able to follow along.

So Psalm chapter 22, and I'm going to read it for us this morning.

Psalms 22 · chapter mention

We'll jump right into the message, and then after that we'll go straight into the Lord's table afterwards.

So Psalm 22, for the director of music, to the tune of the dough of the morning, a Psalm of David.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?

My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer. By night, but I find no rest.

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One. You are the one Israel praises.

And you, our ancestors, put their trust. They trusted, and you delivered them.

To you, they cried out and were saved. And you, they trusted and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm, and not a man.

Scorned by everyone.

Despised by the people.

All who see me, mock me.

They hurl insults, shaking their heads.

He trusts in the Lord, they say.

Let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.

Yet you brought me out of the womb.

You made me trust in you, even at my mother's breast.

From birth, I was cast on you.

From my mother's womb, you have been my God.

Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help.

Many bulls surround me.

Strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

Roaring lions that tear their prey.

Open their mouths wide against me.

I'm poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax.

It has melted within me.

My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

You lay me in the dust of death.

Dogs surround me.

A pack of villains encircles me.

They pierce my hands and my feet.

All my bones are on display.

People stare and gloat over me.

They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

But you, Lord, do not be far from me.

You are my strength.

Come quickly to help me.

Deliver me from the sword.

My precious life from the power of the dogs.

Rescue me from the mouth of the lions.

Save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

I will declare your name to my people.

In the assembly, I will praise you.

You who fear the Lord, praise him.

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him.

Revere him, all you descendants of Israel.

For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one.

He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help.

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly.

Before those who fear you, I will fulfill my vows.

The poor will eat and be satisfied.

Those who seek the Lord will praise him.

May your hearts live forever.

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.

And all the families of the nations will bow down before him.

For dominion belongs to the Lord.

And he rules over the nations.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship.

All who go down to the dust will kneel before him.

Those who cannot keep themselves alive.

Posterity will serve him.

Future generations will be told about the Lord.

They will proclaim his righteousness.

Declaring to a people yet unborn.

He has done it.

So we'll go back to the beginning of the psalm.

And we'll start there.

We learn a little bit about the psalm in the superscription.

This is a psalm of David.

David lived about 3,000 years ago.

About 1,000 years before Jesus was born.

And this was a song that he wrote.

And then gave to the director of music.

Probably to be used for worship in Israel.

It even says the tune of the song.

To the dough of the morning.

Unfortunately, the tune, the melody, the rhythm.

All of that is lost to us today.

What we have though are the lyrics.

And they are God's words as well as David's words.

And there's enough in the words alone to touch our hearts and our minds to the core.

This psalm has two distinct parts to it, which I'm sure you notice.

There's verses 1 down to 21, which is the lament part of the psalm.

That's the part where David is pouring out his heart to God in the midst of his troubles.

Asking for help.

And then there's the thanksgiving and worship part, which is the second part, 22 to 31.

It's like the tone just changes after the deliverance has come.

And David can hardly keep it in.

He just worships the Lord.

And we'll get to that, Lord willing.

But let's start here at the beginning.

Where does this song come from?

Well, songs usually come from the heart.

And this one comes from the deep anguish in the heart of David.

My God.

My God.

Why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me?

So far from my cries of anguish.

My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer.

By night.

But I find no rest.

Do you feel the anguish and desperation in David's heart as he says these words?

He calls out to God and he basically asks him,

Why have you forgotten me?

He feels as though God has abandoned him.

As if God is just so far away from the trouble that he is in.

And I have been praying.

And I have been asking again and again.

Day after day.

Night after night.

But why haven't you answered me?

I don't know what is going on in all your lives right now.

But if you are going through a really tough time right now.

These words are a comfort.

In a world where men don't cry.

And it's considered awkward to, even inappropriate, to ugly cry in front of others.

To let what's in here come out in front of people.

David puts it on display for the whole nation.

I've been here.

I've felt like this before.

You're not alone.

David experienced it.

Sleepless nights.

Seemingly unanswered prayers.

Some people might look at this cry and think it almost inappropriate to speak to God this way.

Too intimate.

Too personal.

Except that it's right here in the Bible.

We might wonder, is he accusing God of abandonment?

Or of abandonment?

Or of ignoring him?

And it kind of raises the question.

Has God forsaken David in this moment?

Has God not been answering David's prayers?

And it kind of depends on your view of the Psalms.

And how this is both the word of man and the word of God at the same time.

We might come to some different conclusions.

Some will say that for these words to be true.

God really has forsaken David in this moment.

Perhaps because he sinned.

God really isn't answering his prayers.

Perhaps because he's done something.

And he needs to get right with God first.

Others will say, no.

These words are true in the sense of,

they're the thoughts that David really has in his heart.

They accurately describe the feelings that he has right now.

And I think that's the right way to read this.

There are a lot of things said in the Psalms

that seem to convey the feeling truth,

the inward thoughts of the individual,

rather than the fact truth of the circumstance

that that individual is in,

or what's going on between him and God.

And this seems to be the conclusion that David comes to

in the second part of the Psalm.

Just look with me quickly to verse 24.

Here at verse 24, David is praising God.

He's worshiping God, celebrating him.

And then he starts calling on all the people of Israel

to join him in praise.

And why?

David answers in verse 24.

He says,

It's as though David is saying,

how I felt earlier before,

before the answer to my prayers came,

it wasn't the reality.

You hadn't hidden your face from me.

All along, you were watching me.

You were listening to my prayers.

You were seeing me, hearing me.

There's some powerful lessons here for us.

And I think the first and most obvious one is,

don't be afraid, don't hesitate

to just pour out your heart to God.

To tell him what's going on in your heart,

how you're feeling, put words to it.

God can handle us being real with him,

raw with him.

That's lesson number one.

Second, we have to know and we have to understand

that sometimes God's answer,

God's help,

seems a long time in coming.

Feels a long time in coming.

God doesn't always give us what we ask for

when we want it,

when we expect it.

But third,

probably the most powerful lesson

of this whole psalm,

God hasn't forgotten you.

He hasn't been hiding his face from you.

If you belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ,

he does not despise or scorn you

or the things that you're going through.

He doesn't think light of those things.

He doesn't turn his face away from you

when you're in the moment of trouble

as if that's despicable.

That's despicable.

I don't want to look on that.

He sees everything that you're going through

and he hears every prayer that you pray.

He's watching

and he has a purpose

for those things in our lives.

For those who belong to God

through faith in his son Jesus,

this promise holds true

and cannot be broken.

Hebrews 13 verse 5,

Hebrews 13:5

Never will I leave you.

Never will I forsake you.

It may feel sometimes like he has,

but it's not true.

He is there.

He sees.

He hears.

Moving on from there,

David goes on to reflect

on how God has been faithful in the past.

We see that in verses 3 to 5

and we see more of that in verses 9 and 10.

And I'm just going to skip over this.

We don't have time for everything here,

but basically he thinks about

how God has answered the prayers of his ancestors

and they trusted in him

and God delivered them.

But there's kind of that conflicted tone.

You did that for them,

but what about me?

Why not my prayers?

In verses 9 and 10,

it's reflecting back on his birth.

God, you're right there with me

from the time I was born.

You've been with me all along through my life,

but it's as though he's asking,

where are you now?

As I face death,

as I come to the end,

it seems, of my life.

Some people simply don't understand

the deep anguish of soul

that can come from much suffering and hardship,

from relationship breakdowns,

chronic health troubles,

from stresses and pressures

too numerous to count,

from traumatic things

that have been witnessed or experienced,

or from devastating loss.

Sometimes people will say,

well, just look back

at how God has been faithful in the past.

And usually they mean well.

Sometimes that does work.

That gets our eyes off of how we're feeling

and onto God,

and it changes how we feel,

but sometimes it's not always true.

Try as we may,

we end up here with David

wondering why God seems to be treating me

differently from others.

Why God seems to be treating me differently now

compared to how he did earlier in my life.

Let's talk about the trouble

that David is in for a moment.

David describes it here in verses 6 to 8

and further on as well.

He says,

But I am a worm

and not a man,

scorned by everyone,

despised by the people.

All who see me

mock me.

They hurl insults,

shaking their heads.

What's causing all this anguish of soul?

It's the way that people are treating David.

According to David,

they're treating him

in a way that makes him feel

like he's less than human.

When David says,

I'm a worm,

I think he simply means,

I'm like a despised thing

in their eyes.

Subhuman.

They don't even treat me

with that most basic dignity

and respect that we all deserve.

And what are they doing to him?

They're mocking him.

They're insulting him.

They're shaking their heads.

Who is this?

This is the people,

according to David.

It's all who see me.

This probably took place

before David became king.

There was a time where

King Saul poisoned

the minds of everyone

in the nation against David.

He was spreading slander

about David.

David couldn't go anywhere

without feeling like

he was in trouble,

like people were spying on him

out to get him.

And David gives an example

in verse 8

of the kind of things

that they're saying about him.

He trusts in the Lord.

Let the Lord rescue him.

Let the Lord deliver him

since the Lord delights in him.

So whoever these people are,

it's like they see David's trouble,

but they're not sympathetic at all

to his circumstance.

They aren't going to do anything

to help him.

Just leave him.

If God wants to rescue him,

then let God do it.

After all,

he trusts in God.

They mock his faith

in the Lord.

Not only that,

but they mock

the Lord's delight in David.

Let the Lord deliver him

since he delights in him.

If I had to guess,

I would think that these mockers

probably knew about

how David had been chosen

by God

to be the next king of Israel.

Somehow the word leaked out.

Jonathan knew of it.

Saul,

the current king,

came to know of it.

And the whole people

all over started to know about this.

He's the favored one.

He's the one in whom God delights.

The one God has chosen

to be his king.

But here,

they're mocking him about it.

They're making fun of that

while David is running around

desperately

just trying to stay alive.

In verses 12 to 18,

David describes,

he goes on some more

with this

just talk and description

of what his trouble is.

Verse 12,

he says,

Many bulls surround me.

Strong bulls of Bashan

encircle me.

I guess the bulls

from the region of Bashan

were known to be

the fattest

and largest cattle

in all Israel.

And David piles

on the metaphors here.

He uses three different kinds

of animals.

Strong bulls,

roaring lions

that tear their prey,

open their mouths

wide against me.

Verse 13.

And then in verse 16,

Dogs surround me.

All of these referring

to the same group of people.

And in verse 16,

he describes them as men.

He says,

A pack of villains

encircles me.

The reason David,

I think,

describes them

using these three different

kinds of animals.

I mean,

this is a song.

This is poetry.

This is full of metaphor.

This is how things feel.

I mean,

think about each one

of these animals.

They're dangerous.

Think about the last time

you saw somebody

trying to ride a bull

on TV

or at a rodeo.

I mean,

those things are dangerous.

And here David's saying,

I feel like I'm surrounded.

By many of them.

Like they're encircling me.

Like I'm about to be trampled.

Gored.

Like lions that are roaring at me.

All around me.

Ready to tear their prey.

Ready to rip me to shreds.

Or like dogs.

Hunting in a pack.

Closing in on me.

Ready to gnaw into me

and thirsty for my blood.

And in the midst of this,

we get more from David

about how he feels.

Verse 14.

He says,

I'm poured out like water

and all my bones

are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax.

It is melted within me.

Again,

we have to remember

that this is poetry.

I think we know it

when we hear some of these words,

but maybe we're not sure.

David is not telling us

that his blood pumping muscle

has actually turned to wax.

This is metaphor.

He's saying,

my courage,

my confidence,

it's melting away.

I'm afraid.

It's melting away

just like,

just like wax

does before a flame.

Similarly,

with his bones

being out of joint,

being poured out like water,

these are all metaphors

describing how he feels.

Now,

some of these

aren't as easy to understand.

There's a huge gap here

in culture.

There's a huge gap in time.

And then there's a huge gap

in language.

And so,

some of these things

we kind of wonder,

what exactly does he mean

with these metaphors?

But all of them describe

the anguish,

the fear,

the emptiness,

the dryness

that David feels.

At the end of verse 15,

he says,

you lay me in the dust of death.

Like God,

in your sovereign working of things,

you've brought me to the end.

This is it.

The writing's on the wall.

And David goes on.

We see a little more of this

in verses 17 and 18.

David describes

just how exposed he feels.

All my bones are on display.

People stare and gloat over me.

They divide my clothes among them

and cast lots for my garment.

Again, metaphor.

Like a man who has been stripped

naked of his clothes,

I feel exposed.

Everybody's staring at me

with contempt

everywhere I go.

There was one time

a guy who helped David out

when he was fleeing from Saul.

He was a priest.

And a whole lot of priests

were killed

because of that one act of kindness.

So you have to know

that David was considered

an untouchable.

You don't have anything

to do with him

or else you'll be in big trouble

with Saul here.

Now we don't know for sure,

but possibly Saul had put out bounties,

hired mercenaries

to help go after him.

That's kind of the sense

we maybe get with verse 18

that there's a competition

almost here.

We want to get his clothes.

We want to have the spoils.

The clothes were often considered

the spoils of killing someone,

getting them.

And this is the infamous

son of Jesse.

Now some people

have a difficult time

reading this

as a real situation

of David's life.

So they might suggest

that well David

didn't actually go through

any of this.

He was just kind of

speaking about Jesus

by the Spirit

and didn't really know

what he was talking about.

I don't think that's right.

I think even though

it's difficult maybe

to imagine how

this could have been

David's song,

David's cry

in the midst of his story

or we might not know

what time of his life

this points to.

I think the key here though

is realizing that David

is speaking with poetic language.

He's speaking with metaphor.

He's not actually surrounded

by canines.

His enemies are human.

They're closing in on him

like a pack of dogs

surround their prey.

He's probably not tied up

for execution

and naked

with every bone on display.

I mean we have to read this

for the kind of writing

that it is.

It's poetry.

He's feeling utterly exposed.

People are looking at him

with the same kind of content

that they would look at

a naked criminal

that's being led off

to execution.

In verse 16

David says

they pierce my hands

and my feet.

And again here

some people look at this

and they just go straight

to the cross.

They assume that this

can't have any possible reality

in the life of David.

But again

it's probably

that we're just so familiar

with the fulfillment

and how this was done

to Jesus

that we take that meaning

and we push it back

into the text.

Now certainly

God intended

to foreshadow

and speak of the way

that his son would die.

There's no doubt about that.

But there's other possibilities here

for how this

had some meaning

in the life of David.

We might look down

to verse 20

where David says

deliver me from the sword.

Perhaps some of these men

that were on the prowl

for David

looking for him

chasing him

hunting him

we don't know

maybe David even had

some skirmishes

with some of them

and had been wounded

on occasion

and just barely escaped

with his life.

Or another possibility

David describes

them like animals

with teeth

lions

eager to tear the prey.

Verse 16

dogs surround me

a pack of villains

encircles me

they pierce my hands

and my feet

pierce with what?

With their teeth

perhaps.

That these men

are just

eager to bite

hand and foot

ready to devour him

possibly that David

was wounded

on occasion.

So these are

utterly desperate times

for David.

He feels as though

his end is near

and

God hasn't been

answering his prayers.

What does David do

in the midst of all this?

He just keeps on

calling out to God.

He keeps on

asking for God's

deliverance.

Verse 19

But you

Lord

do not be far

from me.

You are my strength

come quickly

to help me

deliver me

from the sword

my precious life

from the power

of the dogs.

This is one of

the biggest themes

in all the Psalms.

Whenever we're in trouble

what should we do?

Call out to God.

Ask for his help.

Now we come to

the second part

part two.

In verse 22

the tone of this

whole thing

just changes

instantly.

I will declare

your name

to my people.

In the assembly

I will praise you.

David is not

lamenting anymore.

He is in

worship mode

now.

I'm going to

tell everybody

about my God.

I'm going to

praise him

before everybody.

And then in

verse 23

he starts calling

on everyone

to worship

the Lord

with him.

I love that.

You who fear

the Lord

praise him.

And we're just

kind of left

wondering at this

point what just

happened here?

what changed

so drastically?

One minute

David's crying

out to God

for deliverance

from imminent

death

and the next

minute he's

the worship

leader of

all Israel.

That's actually

the story of

David in a

nutshell.

Something massive

changed.

And David

hints at it

in verse 24.

Why praise him?

Why honor him?

Why revere God?

Why am I now

eager to declare

the name of my

God to everyone?

For he has not

despised or

scorned the

suffering of

the afflicted

one.

He has not

hidden his

face from him

but has listened

to his cry

for help.

This is like

the pinnacle

moment of the

psalm.

God did

deliver David

from all his

troubles.

He answered

David's prayers.

His enemies

didn't get the

best of him

after all.

They closed

in,

perhaps even

wounded him.

They taunted

him.

They gloated

over him.

But David

cried out to

God and

God answered.

And it was

then that David

realized this

truth.

All along

God had not

forgotten him.

God had made

that promise

right from the

beginning when he

was anointed.

He would be

king.

God had not

forsaken him.

He wasn't

hiding his face

from him.

And David's

suffering was

itself precious

and meaningful

and had a

purpose.

Now David

doesn't tell us

about that

great deliverance

but the

historical books

of the Bible

do.

They tell how

God rescued

David time

and time

and time

again from

all his

enemies in

Israel,

later establishing

him as king

on Israel's

throne.

And you can

read about that

in 1 and 2

Samuel.

He did

indeed become

the worship

leader of the

nation so to

speak.

In the second

part of the

psalm here from

verses 25 to

31 we hear

David just

praising and

worshiping with

all his heart

declaring the

worthiness of

God.

And there's so

much in here I

think we're going

to have to skip

over some of

it but what we

notice is that

it's as though

David says me

praising you right

now is not

enough.

You're worthy

of more.

In fact

generation after

generation they're

going to declare

your praise,

your righteousness.

See that in

31.

Future generations

will be told about

the Lord.

They will proclaim

his righteousness

declaring to

people that

haven't even been

born what he

has done.

There's this

expansion.

It can't just be

here and now.

It's got to be

down the line

into the future.

He is worthy

of worship

forever.

Generation to

generation.

And then we also

see this expansion

of you know

it's not just

going to be

worship here

in Israel.

It's got to be

bigger than that.

One day the whole

world is going to

praise the Lord.

All the ends of

the earth,

verse 27,

will remember

and turn to the

Lord and all the

families of the

nations will bow

down before him

for dominion

belongs to the

Lord and he

rules over the

nations.

This is how

worthy God is

of worship.

He's the king

says David.

He's ruler of

the whole world.

He really does

deliver those who

look to him,

those who seek

him.

He brings them

through to that

place where they

praise him.

They give him

glory.

Glory.

We're going to

turn now to the

Lord's table.

Probably some of

you are wondering

well how come you

haven't said a word

about Jesus yet in

this psalm?

This is the Jesus

psalm.

Well I've been

leaving it for last.

We want to hear

this from David's

perspective.

But one of the

most cherished

things about this

psalm is really

the way that it

points, it speaks

to the coming

son of David

down the line

a thousand years

later.

And it's amazing

if you've ever

looked at this

psalm before

or seen this

I mean you know

the ways that it

points to Christ.

Verse 1

My God, my God

why have you

forsaken me?

These were the

very words that

Jesus cried when

he was on the

cross.

That's a whole

five or ten

minutes right there

just thinking

about what

that meant.

That some of

these kinds of

emotional realities

were present in

the very heart of

Christ as he

suffered in anguish

on the cross.

Or we could look

at verse 8

and the taunts

that were being

made, the insults

that they made

against David.

Matthew 27

Matthew 27:41

verses 41

in the same way

the chief priests

the teachers of

the law and the

elders mocked

Jesus.

Verse 43

He trusts in

God.

Let God rescue

him now if he

wants him.

For he said I'm

the son of God.

It's amazing

a thousand years

later they

fulfilled the

very same

almost the same

words they used

to insult

to mock

Jesus

the son of

David

the son of

God

as he was

suffering.

And there are

many more.

David describes

how he was

encircled.

There they were

circled around

him at the

cross

taunting him

mocking him

threatening him.

David talks

in verse 15

he says you lay

me in the dust

of death.

For David it

was imminent

death.

For Jesus it

went beyond

that.

It was the

ultimate.

He really

was.

Laid in the

dust of

death.

He died

at the

hands of

his enemies.

All my

bones are

on display.

I think

David meant

it poetically

metaphorically

describing his

feelings but

it was true

for Jesus.

They stripped

him of his

clothes and

put him up

high where

everybody could

see him.

He hung

there naked.

He bore

the scorn and

the gloating of

people.

They stared at

him with

contempt.

Just like

here in

the psalm.

And they

pierced my

hands and

feet.

The one

we're probably

most familiar

with.

A thousand

years earlier

God declared

the locations

on his

body where

he would

receive the

wounds.

It's

amazing how

this psalm

foreshadows

the ultimate

suffering.

The suffering

of the son

of David.

The one who

died to

rescue us

from our

guilt and

from our

sins.

David

found out

when God

finally did

answer his

prayer that

he is

faithful.

he hadn't

forsaken

him.

He was

delivered.

For Jesus

it went a little

bit different.

He was

delivered too

but not from

death.

Through

death.

He died and

then was raised

back to life

from the dead

and he will be

the king of this

great kingdom

that David

declares and

speaks of

when he

returns.

there will

come that

moment when

every knee

will bow

every tongue

will confess

that Jesus

is Lord

to the glory

of God

the Father.

So as we

come again to

the table this

morning I

want to

encourage you

to take a

few moments

to talk to

God in the

quietness of

your heart

to reflect on

that suffering

that anguish

that he went

through for

you.

confess your

sins to

him.

Marvel at

his plan of

salvation that

over a

thousand years

before he was

already thinking

about doing it

for you.

After a few

minutes of

quiet we'll

have Dave

and Rod

come and pass

out the

elements and

if you are

here and you

are trusting in

Jesus as the

afflicted one

who suffered

for you

then please

partake with

us in

remembering

Christ's

death.

We'll wait

until everybody

has been

served and

then we'll

eat and

we'll drink

together in

unison.

or

ilippo

and

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's eat and drink together again in remembrance of the love of Jesus, which took him to the cross for us.