Sermon

The Psalm Of The Cross

June 29, 2025 Lakeside Bible Church Sermons

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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me?
From the words of my groaning.
! Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer.
By night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted, they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued.
In you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me.
They make mouths at me.
They wag their heads.
He trusts in the Lord.
Let him deliver him.
Let him rescue him, for he delights in him.
Yet you are he who took me from the womb.
You made me trust you at my mother's breast.
On you as I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me.
For trouble is near and there is none to help.
Many bulls encompass me.
Strong bulls of Bashan surround me.
They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.
I'm poured out like water.
All my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax.
It's melted within my breast.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd.
My tongue sticks to my jaws.
You lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs encompass me.
A company of evildoers encircles me.
They have pierced my hands and feet.
I can count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me.
They divide my garments among them.
And for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O Lord, do not be far off.
O you, my help, come quickly to my aid.
Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
Save me from the mouth of the lion.
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.
I will tell of your name to my brothers.
In the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him.
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him.
And stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel.
For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.
He has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation.
My vows I will perform before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.
Those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever.
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.
All the families of the nation shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.
Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust.
Even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him.
It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn.
That he has done it.
Amen.
Well here again we have a beautiful psalm penned by King David.
Sent to the choir master for use in Israel's worship.
And here again is a psalm that is fundamentally about neither David nor the people who would sing it.
Nothing we know about David's life can account for all that is written in this song.
And we must resist that kind of relentless urge to make every text about ourselves.
To insert ourselves somewhere in Psalm 22 as if this is merely a model prayer for us to pray when we go through difficult seasons.
That's not what this is.
Psalm 22 is about Jesus.
And it's one of the most compelling and important portrayals of Christ's sufferings and subsequent glories in all of the Old Testament.
And we talk often about how we preach Christ from the scriptures.
That all of the scriptures are meant to point us to Christ.
That's what we're looking for is the gospel for where Jesus is.
And sometimes when we come to David's Psalms.
Like next week we get to Psalm 23.
We see that David is singing and he's writing and he's praying about the Lord.
And we can see the fulfillment of that prayer in the person of Christ.
It's much more explicit in Psalm 22 than that.
As we understand the New Testament's teaching, Psalm 22 is not ultimately being prayed from the lips of David.
It's being prayed from the lips of Jesus himself.
It's all about him.
But to ensure that we stay within the bounds of appropriate biblical interpretation, just a couple preliminary notes will be necessary.
First, we need to remember that the Bible is the best commentary on the Bible.
So we need to ask ourselves, we come to a passage like this, we're trying to sort out its meaning and its purpose.
One of the questions we ask is if and how other portions of Scripture comment on the Psalm.
And what we find is that direct quotes, allusions, thematic continuity with Psalm 22 are abundant in the Scriptures.
They're not hidden at all.
They're abundant, especially in the New Testament.
Let me give you just a few.
The most crucial of them all come from Jesus himself as he hangs on the cross on Golgotha.
He quotes both the first and the last verse of the Psalm.
Why?
He does that for us.
He wants us to understand that what he is enduring in that moment in the crucifixion
is represented for us so that we might enter into it with him here in Psalm 22.
The gospel authors also pick up on this.
They underscore various moments of Jesus' crucifixion and what was happening around the crucifixion.
The people that are there, what they're saying, what they're doing, what they're like.
The gospel authors picking up on it and helping us to understand that Psalm 22 is not about David.
The apostles later on in the New Testament, they do the same thing.
They reference it often.
The author of Hebrews in particular quotes verse 22 as if spoken by Jesus himself.
So based on the New Testament, the Psalm 22, the fact that it's all about Jesus is undeniable.
So if we're looking at how does the scripture refer to this psalm, how does it help us to understand this psalm,
well, it's really unmistakable.
This isn't about David.
It's not about David's experience.
It's about Jesus.
But what does that mean for David?
And what does that mean for the Israelites who would have sung this song or prayed this prayer in their worship?
Did they sing something that they couldn't have possibly understood?
Sometimes I think we get this idea that we come to Old Testament texts like this and psalms like this,
that there is one meaning that David and the Israelites would have had,
as if they would have come to temple and they would have sung this song meaning one thing that was appropriate for them.
And then later on, maybe the apostles and the New Testament authors come to that same passage
and they say, well, for David and Israel, it meant this, but for us beyond the cross, it means this,
as if there's two different plausible and right interpretations.
And that's wrong.
There's not multiple interpretations for scriptures.
There's one meaning to each passage.
And what I want to suggest is that even in David and Israel's minds, as they sing Psalm 22,
they understand that this is not about them, but this is about Messiah.
They wouldn't have had a category for comprehending Roman crucifixion.
I don't want to overstate the point.
But they were well aware, like the psalms that preceded this one,
that this song was about the suffering and the exaltation of the promised Messiah.
When they sang this song, they didn't sing it to reflect on David's life.
They didn't sing it to somehow fit themselves into it,
as if it would be a prayer that would bring them comfort in their own distress.
That's not what they would have had in mind.
No, they sang this to look ahead to what would happen with their Savior.
Here's what we know they knew.
They knew that David would not be the source of global victory and triumph
that is expressed in the second part of the psalm.
They knew that.
They knew David would die.
David knew he would die.
All of that triumph, that victory, that glory would not come from him.
It would come through the future son that was promised to him
in the covenant that God made with David.
They knew that.
They wouldn't have sung the second half of this thinking this is going to happen now.
No, they knew this was coming later.
They knew that the Messiah's glory and their participation in that glory would follow immense suffering.
We've seen that in several of the psalms up to this point.
We see it in the pictures of the Old Testament.
Always the whole point of the picture of the lamb slaughtered as an atonement for sin.
The suffering of the future king.
Even in Genesis 3, the very first prophecy of gospel hope that we find,
what is it that we find will be true of the seed of the woman?
That his heel would be bruised.
He would suffer.
There would be hardship for him.
They knew that.
They knew that theirs as a people generally,
and David's experience as an individual in particular,
that his life foreshadowed what the Lord's king would experience in its fullness.
And we might come to Psalm 22 and say,
there is a sense in which David went through difficulties that might be described,
at least in part, the way this psalm speaks.
But even David would have known that the future son will fulfill in the fullest
what his life only foreshadows and points to.
They knew that.
They knew that all of this was part of God's covenant to save sinners
and establish an eternal kingdom.
Did they have a cross in mind?
Of course not.
When they read of pierced hands and feet,
do they think massive spikes holding someone to a piece of wood?
No, probably not.
Did they know that this wasn't about David,
but it was about a greater king who would lay down his life for their salvation?
Yeah, I think they knew that exactly.
And I think it's why they sang it.
Spurgeon says this about Psalm 22.
I love this.
This is beyond all others, the psalm of the cross.
David and his afflictions may be here in a very modified sense,
but as the star is concealed by the light of the sun,
he who sees Jesus will probably neither see nor care to see David.
Therefore, Spurgeon says, we should read it reverently,
putting off our shoes from our feet as Moses did at the burning bush,
for if there be holy ground anywhere in Scripture,
it is in this psalm.
The Gospels tell us what happened to Jesus physically in his crucifixion and his sufferings.
Psalm 22 reveals to us what Jesus was thinking and feeling as a man hanging on that tree.
The psalm invites us to enter into the darkness of his sufferings.
It invites us to begin to comprehend exactly what it was that Jesus went through
in order to provide us with eternal salvation and forgiveness.
What he felt and what he experienced in order that that eternal kingdom would come for all who believe.
That's what the psalm is for.
That's what I want to point out to you this morning.
The shape of it is straightforward.
There's really two parts.
In the first, it tells us of Christ's anguish.
And then in the second one, it tells us about his resurrected glory.
And we want to walk through both things this morning.
First, I want you to see the anguish of Christ for his people.
The anguish of Christ for his people.
The first part of the psalm spans verses 1 to 21.
As I said, it intends to draw us into the anguish of Christ and his sufferings.
David composes it in three sections.
And each section follows a particular pattern.
It begins with a cry of anguish.
And then is followed by an expression of faith in the Lord God.
And the whole point, as I said, was to invite us in whatever way possible into the darkness of the cross.
Into the depths of Christ's endurance and suffering for our salvation.
Let's just walk through it.
In the first section, verses 1 and 2, we see Christ forsaken.
Look at verses 1 and 2.
Matthew and Mark both record that Jesus cried out these very words from the cross.
As he hangs there, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Not only was this his real felt experience, this distance with the Father here.
But he quoted the psalm for us.
He wants us to know that this is fulfilled in him.
He wanted us to understand his agony, I think.
As the fulfillment of what was written by David a thousand years beforehand.
Here's how Matthew says it.
Matthew 27, 46.
About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying,
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.
That is my God, my God.
Why have you forsaken me?
And indeed, it was a loud cry, even according to the psalm.
Verse 1, this term groaning, it comes from a verb that means roaring.
Like the roaring of a lion.
It's akin to screaming.
These are not whispers from our Lord as if to give a silent prayer as he hangs on the cross.
These are screams of agony from the cross.
Agony over what?
What?
Being forsaken.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
What does he mean?
Christopher Ashe, I think, helpfully points out that forsaken is a covenant word.
Like often in the Psalms, we see steadfast love is a covenant word.
It's the faithfulness of God to his covenant.
Well, forsaken is also a covenant word.
To forsake is to break covenant.
God has placed under the curse, under his wrath,
the one who has been perfectly faithful to the covenant.
Do you sense that?
That's why Jesus cries out in anguish.
He understands what's happening in the moment.
The faithful one is forsaken.
Not the sinful one, the faithful one.
How can this be?
How is it possible?
How is it even right for God to do it?
Well, again, the New Testament helps us here.
2 Corinthians 5.21.
He has made him to be sin who knew no sin.
Why?
So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.
That's why.
The righteous one is forsaken so that we might be accepted.
Jesus doesn't quote the verse as if to truly ask the question,
trying to ask the Father, why are you doing this?
Why are you allowing me to do this?
No, he knows exactly why he's there.
And he's there willfully.
He knows.
He doesn't quote the verse to ask the question,
but to express the reality of the wrath of God
that he was experiencing for our sake.
On the cross, Jesus, the Son of God,
he experienced something that we cannot possibly comprehend
apart from suffering ourselves in eternal hell.
However you and I and David might have ever thought to experience
the feeling of being forsaken by God,
it is not worth comparing to what Jesus truly experienced in this moment.
In Christ, any feelings of being forsaken,
if you're a believer,
is not a real or objective curse or wrath.
Why?
Because on the cross, Christ takes the full curse,
the full wrath.
Every drop of the cup of God's wrath
is consumed by him there.
He experienced in those moments a darkness
that we will never have to experience ourselves,
not if we are in Christ.
He's forsaken so that we are forgiven.
That's his cry of anguish.
But beyond his forsakenness,
there comes this cry of faith, doesn't there?
In verses 3 to 5, we see him trusting.
Trusting.
Verse 3.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted.
They trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued.
In you they trusted
and were not put to shame.
Though forsaken as our sin-bearing savior,
Jesus endured the curse
with unmatched faith.
Notice his language.
Why have you forsaken me?
Yet you are holy, he says.
Says Christopher Ashe again,
speaking to the God
under whose curse he screams.
He addresses him yet as holy,
morally pure,
distinct from sinners,
the one who is enthroned
on the praises of his covenant people
who praise him because they trust him.
Though the righteous one was facing the curse,
he never charges the father with injustice.
In his suffering,
he remains faithful,
acknowledging the perfect character of God,
and fully entrusting himself
to the will of the father
in this moment.
1 Peter 2, 23,
when he was reviled,
he did not revile in return.
When he suffered,
he did not threaten,
but what did he do?
He continued entrusting himself
to him who judges justly.
And as the psalm affirms,
those who trust in the Lord
will never be put to shame.
Jesus, in his darkest moments,
trusted that the father
would not abandon him to death,
but would raise him up.
Which brings us to the next cry of anguish.
In verses 6 to 8,
we see that he is shamed.
He's shamed.
Look at the verses with me.
But I am a worm,
and not a man.
Scorned by mankind,
despised by the people.
All who see me mock me.
They make mouths at me.
They wag their heads.
He trusts in the Lord.
Let him deliver him.
Let him rescue him.
He delights in him.
Not only did Jesus experience
what it was like
to be forsaken by the father,
but he anguished under the shame
of public humiliation
in his suffering.
His enemies treated him
as less than a man.
They dehumanized him.
Scorned him
as nothing but a worm.
The gospel authors,
three of them,
they quote this,
these verses directly
as they recorded
what took place
with Jesus in his crucifixion.
Let me read to you
Matthew's account
in Matthew 27.
Those who passed by
derided him,
wagging their heads,
saying,
you who would destroy
the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself.
If you're the son of God,
come down from the cross.
So also the chief priest
and the scribes
and the elders,
they mocked him,
saying,
he saved others,
he cannot save himself.
He is the king of Israel,
let him come down
from the cross
and we will believe in him.
And then notice
what they say.
He trusts in God,
let him deliver him now
if he desires him.
The robbers
who were crucified with him
also reviled him
in the same way.
His enemies mock his faith,
believing that there is
no actual rescue for him.
So blind were the chief priest
and the scribes
and the elders
that they quote the very psalm
in their ridicule of the Savior
and fail to realize
that they are the ones
whom the psalm condemns.
They are the mockers
and the scorners.
What does Jesus do?
He simply endures it.
He endures it.
Why?
Well, he does it for us.
He takes our shame.
That moves us into 9 to 11.
We see him again believing.
Verse 9,
The Savior cries out to God,
Yet you are he who took me
from the womb.
You made me trust
at my mother's breast.
On you was I cast from my birth.
And my mother's womb,
you have been my God.
Be not far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is none to help.
Do you see the contrast here?
In the anguish,
he acknowledges
that all the mockers around me,
they say that I'm hopeless,
that I have no rescue,
that you will not hear.
And then he responds,
this moving moment,
answer of faith,
and he responds to the Lord
and he says,
But you have been with me
from the very beginning.
I have trusted you from birth.
At my mother's breast,
you cared for me
and you watched over me
and I have trusted you.
You have been my God.
He's not deceived by the mockers.
He's not tempted by them
to question the Father.
No, he remains faithful
even in the shame.
He voices the lifelong,
unshakable trust he had in the Father
going all the way back to Bethlehem.
Throughout his entire life,
there was never a moment
that Jesus did not act in full faith,
believing that the Father
would be faithful
to accomplish his work
and to deliver him from death.
And despite the darkness,
Jesus faced his suffering with joy.
Knowing that trouble was near,
God would be faithful.
How do we know that?
Well, because the writer of Hebrews
tells us that for the joy
that was set before him,
he endured the cross,
despising the shame.
Well, that leads us
to the third cry of anguish
in verses 12 to 18.
This is the most detailed portion of it.
What do we find in here?
In the first cry of anguish,
we find Christ forsaken.
The second cry of anguish,
we find Christ shamed.
In the third cry of anguish,
we find Christ killed.
Look first at verse 12.
Many bulls encompass me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me,
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion,
and poured out like water.
All my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax.
It's melted within my breast.
My strength is dried up like a pot shirt.
My tongue sticks to my jaws.
You lay me in the dust of death.
It's in this third section
that the details of the Messiah's death
are described for us.
Just as Jesus was dehumanized as a worm,
so are his enemies dehumanized here
as wild beasts ready to devour.
First are the bulls who have surrounded him,
opening their mouths like a lion ready to devour.
If you've ever watched those videos
of a pride of lions attacking their prey,
you know what this illustration is meant to communicate.
It's vivid.
What does it communicate?
Inevitable death.
When the whole group surrounds the prey,
the prey has no hope.
Death is inevitable.
Messiah cries out from the cross,
and he says,
they've surrounded me.
Death is inevitable.
You have laid me in the dust of death.
Verses 14 and 15,
they graphically portray Christ's weakness
against these enemies.
He says,
I'm poured out like water.
My bones are out of joint.
My heart is melted like wax.
My strength is like a pot shirt,
which is like a dried up,
broken piece of pottery
that you might find at an archaeological dig.
Extreme thirst.
Christ speaks of weakness
and instability and insecurity.
But again, in verse 15,
death is inevitable.
But notice who the Messiah says
is ultimately responsible.
He says,
you have laid me in the dust of death.
Not the bulls or the lions.
You have.
Well, who's he addressing in this prayer?
He's addressing the Father in this prayer.
I think this is important.
As the dust readies itself
to receive the lifeless corpse of the Savior,
he knows that it's all part of the Father's eternal plan
to save sinners.
He knows.
Isaiah 53, 10.
It was the will of the Lord
to crush him.
Acts 2, 23.
This Jesus delivered up
according to the definite plan
and foreknowledge of God.
You crucified
and killed.
And then in verses 16 to 18,
we see this description carried on even further.
Look at the verses with me.
Now he says,
dogs have encompassed me.
A company of evildoers encircles me.
They've pierced my hands and feet.
I can count all of my bones.
They stare and gloat over me.
They divide my garments among them.
And for my clothing,
they cast lots.
Here the enemy is now
not a pack of wild bulls.
They're a pack of wild dogs.
How are we to understand?
I tend to think that
the bulls here are probably,
if we're looking from a New Testament perspective,
are probably representative of
the leadership of the Jews.
The mob of Jews
who cry out for his crucifixion.
But then we get to the lions,
I think,
or not the lions,
but the dogs.
I think we have here
represented the Romans,
the Gentiles,
who actually carried out
Christ's execution.
And again,
he's encircled
as if to secure his death.
And they are indeed successful.
They pierce his hands and feet.
Crucifixion.
They beat him
so as to deform his body
and expose his bones.
That's the flogging.
They callously
put him to public shame.
All of these things
are referenced multiple times
in the New Testament
as the fulfillment of Psalm 22.
I want you to meditate
on the picture
that is drawn for us here.
Nailed to a tree
by his hands and feet
is the Lord Jesus.
His naked and dying body
hangs publicly
as his flesh is ripped to pieces.
But let your eye
move below the cross now
and what is it that's there
according to Psalm 22?
Below his feet
is a group of soldiers
who cast lots
to see who gets to take
what little possessions he has.
It's tragic.
Dismissing
the broken figure
of the incarnate
Son of God
they find
more value
in his clothing
than in his life.
John 19
24
quotes it directly
and says
this was to fulfill
Psalm 22.
How callous.
How blasphemous.
How damning.
And yet the same thing
it plays out
in front of us
every day.
Every Sunday
countless people
flock to churches
caring only
for what they might
get out of Jesus
and caring nothing
for Jesus himself.
They're no different
than the soldiers.
They roll the dice
to see what they might get.
What prosperity
might he bring me?
And one day
they will awaken
in hell
having stared
directly
at their only hope
but failing
to have eyes
to see it.
How tragic.
And then we find
in the end
the Savior
is still
hoping.
Verse 19
But you
O Lord
don't be far off
O you
my help.
Come quickly
to my aid
deliver my soul
from the sword
my precious life
from the power
of the dog
save me
from the mouth
of the lion
and then there's
a sudden shift here.
It goes
to past tense.
You have
rescued me
from the horns
of the wild dogs.
And what is that?
It's hope.
Confidence.
The first five lines
they reiterate
the cries
for help
that we see
elsewhere
in the psalm
but it's in this
last line
that we find
this explicit
assurance
of salvation.
You have
rescued me.
He's so confident
that God
will deliver him
from death
that he speaks
of it
as if it's
already happened.
The forsaken
one
knows
that his prayer
will be heard.
he knows
that in spite
of death
he will be raised.
He will see
life
again.
And it's here
that the psalm
prepares us
for the glory
that is expressed
in the second part.
So we see
Christ's anguish
for his people
and then we move
to the final part
of the psalm
and we see
Christ's glory
with his people.
This takes us
to 22 to 31.
In the first
21 verses
it's intense
anguish
but in 22 to 31
it is
this amazing
incredible joy
and the shift
in extremes
that can only
be explained
by resurrection.
This is the
theological pattern
of the Bible.
We see it
over and over.
Glory
comes through
suffering
and in the
passages
that are most
explicitly meant
to direct us
to Jesus
and his atonement.
Text like this one
life is promised
to him
and to those
who are in him
after death.
Hear it from
Isaiah 53
when his soul
makes an offering
for guilt
he shall see
his offspring.
That's life
after atonement.
He shall
prolong
his days
he will
live again.
The will
of the Lord
will prosper
in his hand.
All of that
coming after
the suffering
coming after
the death
and in the
last part
of the psalm
we find
the risen
king
being glorified
and exalted
in the midst
of his people.
Here we have
a glimpse
of the promised
kingdom
led by the
promised
king.
We might
break it up
into two
sections I think.
First we
see the risen
king leads
his people
in worship.
He leads
them in
worship.
Verse 22
this is still
the Messiah's
words to God
I will tell
of your name
to my brothers
in the midst
of the congregation
I will praise
you.
And then he
turns to
the congregation
and he says
you who fear
the Lord
praise him
all you
offspring of
Jacob
glorify him
stand in awe
of him
all you
offspring of
Israel
for he has
not despised
or abhorred
the affliction
of the afflicted
he has not
hidden his
face from him
but he has
heard
when he
cried to him
and again
he turns back
to the Lord
from you
comes my
praise
in the great
congregation
my vows
I will perform
before those
who fear him
the afflicted
shall eat
and be
satisfied
those who
seek him
shall praise
the Lord
may your
hearts live
forever
he says
in verse
16
earlier
Jesus
was encircled
by a company
literally a
congregation
of evildoers
but beginning
in verse 22
the risen
Lord stands
in the midst
of the congregation
of the saved
his church
and what
is it
that he's
doing
leading us
to worship
the Lord
to worship
God
and when we
get to
verse 24
we find
what that
worship
is rooted
in
look at it
again
for he
has not
despised
or abhorred
the affliction
of the afflicted
he has not
hidden his
face from him
but he
has heard
when he
cried to him
do you
remember
what he
expressed
in his
faith
when he
felt
forsaken
he
recognized
the character
of God
and the
pattern
of God
with his
forefathers
and he
says
they cried
to you
in faith
and you
delivered
them
you heard
them
and what
is it
that he
says
here
he says
praise him
because he
has heard
me
he heard
my cry
he did
not despise
the affliction
of the afflicted
remember
what the
verse said
earlier
that those
who trust
in him
will not
be put
to shame
it's not
that he
wasn't saying
that they
wouldn't be
put to shame
by the
world
he's saying
that God
would not
put them
to shame
that God
would not
reject them
and here
he says
look
God has
proven
faithful
I am
the afflicted
one
and he
has not
abhorred
my affliction
what is
this
it's the
atonement
of Christ
on the cross
it's the
resurrection
of Christ
from the
dead
and he
leads the
congregation
of his
people
and he
says
all you
who will
believe
praise the
Lord
because he
has done
it
this is
gospel
praise
he did
not despise
Christ's
affliction
instead
he accepted
it as a
full atonement
for our
sins
propitiation
is the
New Testament
term
God's wrath
fully appeased
against us
because it
is poured
out on
the righteous
one
the one
who was
forsaken
so that
we might
be
accepted
and Jesus
leads us
to praise
God
for accepting
that atonement
he leads us
to praise
him
for raising
him from
the dead
to give us
this amazing
assurance
of salvation
and then we
find in 25
and 26
the picture
of a great
feast
that the
Messiah
puts on
for his
people
and it
includes
all who
will trust
in his
atoning
death
and resurrection
and is
this not a
picture of
what we
will enjoy
in eternity
we will
worship
with triumphant
joy
because of
what is
declared
in Psalm
22
and fulfilled
by Christ
in the
gospels
so the
risen king
he leads
his people
in worship
but the
risen king
in the end
he leads
his people
in mission
27
to 31
all the
ends of
the earth
shall remember
and turn
to the
Lord
this is
again
the words
of the
Savior
all the
families
of the
nations
shall
worship
before him
for kingship
belongs
to the
Lord
and he
rules
over the
nations
all the
prosperous
of the
earth
eat
and worship
before him
shall bow
down all
who go
down to
the dust
even those
who could
not keep
himself
alive
posterity
shall serve
him
it shall
be told
of the
Lord
to the
coming
generation
they shall
come and
proclaim his
righteousness
to a
people yet
unborn
here
Christ
reaches all
the way
back to
God's
covenant
with Abraham
in Genesis
12
to remember
the covenant
and we'll
give you a
son and
in you
shall all
the nations
of the
earth
be blessed
and here
David
reminds us
that that
will be
fulfilled
in the
Christ
that through
Jesus'
death and
resurrection
all the
families of
the earth
will be
blessed
and that
through the
proclamation
of this
gospel
people from
every nation
and tribe
and language
will worship
with him in the
great congregation
in eternity
what does the
Messiah lead us
to do
he leads us
in mission
and what is
that mission
to proclaim
this gospel
to the
world
and then in
verse 29
we're reminded
that all kinds
of people will
be included
in the feast
no one will
be excluded
on the basis
of who they
are or
their standing
in the world
I think that's
the significance
of the
threefold
breakdown there
the prosperous
of the earth
that worship
that's the
living
the healthy
before him
shall bow
down all
who go
down to
the dust
that's the
dying
even the
one who
could not
keep himself
alive
that's the
dead
all
gathered
around the
throne
to worship
the king
for what he
has done
for our
salvation
all who
come to
Jesus
in repentance
and faith
will be
welcomed
but how
will they
come to
know him
because he
leads his
people in
30 and
31 to
proclaim this
gospel of
the kingdom
thus we
are to
preach this
gospel to
the world
inviting
whosoever
will to
come and
receive Christ
by faith
it's a
wonderful
picture
but as we
close we
we shouldn't
quickly overlook
the last line
of the psalm
it's a bit
odd isn't it
at the very
end of verse
31
what is it
that they
will proclaim
that he
has done
it
he has
done it
Hebrew
scholars note
that the
phrase is
oddly abrupt
because it
lacks an
object in
the original
language
a very
wooden
translation
or literal
rendering would
be he
has done
he has
done
the sense
of it is
he has
performed
or as
Jesus said
it is
finished
which is
exactly why
Spurgeon
called it
the psalm
of the
cross
because it's
what was on
Jesus'
mind
and it's
what was on
Jesus'
lips
as he
suffered
and died
for our
sins
what does
it mean
it means
everything
that was
necessary
to accomplish
your salvation
was done
in full
on the
cross
there's
nothing
left over
do not
be mistaken
it's not
that you
come to
Jesus
and then
you bring
something
with you
in order
to finish
the job
no
he has
done
it all
it's
not
that you
come to
Jesus
and then
say
well
I'll
do
all
of
these
other
things
as
well
I'll
give
and I'll
worship
and I'll
serve
and I'll
do
these
things
and I'll
try to
do my
best
and try
my
hardest
to
live a
good
moral
life
and if
I do
that
because
of
Jesus
then
maybe
then
I'll
be
accepted
no
what
he
means
here
is
that
he's
done
it
all
every
sin
atoned
for
every
work
fulfilled
what
does
that
mean
for
us
it
means
we
simply
turn
and
believe
and we
trust
that
that's
true
that
he
has
indeed
done
it
that
it
is
indeed
finished
because
it
is
that's
the
glory
of
the
cross
is
it
a
dark
picture
the
darkest
that
you'll
ever
hear
or
see
unquestionably
dark
but
that's
what
it
took
to
finish
the
job
and
he
has
finished
it
you
say
well
what
is
really
the
purpose
of
this
psalm
at
the
end
of
the
day
what
does
any
of
this
mean
for
me
Augustine
who
lived
a long
time
ago
he
said
that
psalm
22
helps
us
to
view
the
crucifixion
afresh
so
that
we
might
come
to
the
cross
no
longer
as
mockers
but
as
believers
and
perhaps
that's
why
you
need
the
psalm
today
maybe
you
need
to
be
confronted
with
the
depths
of
Jesus'
suffering
and
what
he
endured
to
bring
salvation
so
that
you
will
finally
turn
and
believe
will
you
turn
and
believe
he
said
it
can't
be
that
easy
well
I
didn't
say
it
was
easy
but
it
is
that
simple
turn
and
believe
he's
done
it
and
you
can
trust
him
he
said
you
don't
know
how
you
don't
know
how
bad
I've
been
I
don't
care
how
bad
you
been
he
took
it
all
and
he
promised
that
all
who
come
to
me
I
will
never
cast
away
I
won't
turn
them
away
never
what
does
this
do
for
the
believer
though
well
I
think
you
probably
already
know
a
fresh
meditation
on
Christ's
sufferings
helps
us
to
follow
the
risen
!
King
in
his
worship
so
that
we
might
praise
our
Lord
that
our
worship
would
be
rooted
in
the
gospel
of
Christ
and
his
death
and
his
resurrection
and
it
should
motivate
us
also
to
follow
him
in
mission
why
would
we
not
want
people
to
know
that's
what
Kathy
said
this
morning
in
the
earlier
class
just
being
confronted
recently
with
just
the
reality
of
death
and
how
death
reigns
in
this
life
and
I
just
I
just
want
my
family
to
know
I
just
want
them
to
hear
the
truth
the
gospel
the
good
news
that
he
has
done
it
and
if
they
will
just
trust
him
they'll
be
forgiven
they'll
be
saved
surely
a fresh
meditation
on the
cross
will
increase
our
worship
and
our
mission
consider
all
that
he
has
done
and
join
him
day
by
day
in
the
!
salvation
ho