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March 19/20, 2017
Jason Meyer | Psalms 22:22-31
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,
and 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,
and all the families of the nations
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.—Psalm 22:22–31
Introduction
The Forsaken King
The last time we were together in Psalm 22, we looked at the first 21 verses. Our main point had three pieces of a puzzle: (1) The Forsaken King (vv. 1–2, 6–8, 12–18), (2) Who Trusted in the Lord (vv. 3–5, 9–11, 19–21), (3) Was Delivered by the Lord (v. 21). But there was one puzzle piece we hadn’t seen yet: (4) In Order to Forever Purchase a Forever Family from all the Nations (vv. 22–31).
The whole psalm is driven by the question of verse 1—Why have you forsaken me? The answer finally comes in verse 22. Here is the answer, the main point of this message, and the main point of Psalm 22: He forever purchased a forever family from all the nations.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.—Psalm 22:1–2
Verses 1–2 highlight this horrible sense of total rejection and abandonment by God. Divine rejection means that God has handed him over to human rejection and thus the king has waves of shame and scorn wash over him and try to drown him.
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!”—Psalm 22:6–8
Psalm 18:19 was savored as praise (”…he rescued me, because he delighted in me”) and now is turned into a taunt in Psalm 22:8 (“…let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”). The strong, bloodthirsty beasts now close in on the weak—the many against the one.
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.—Psalm 22:16–18
It is impossible to hear the prolonged torture found here and not be transported right to the brutality of Calvary. There they pierced Jesus’ hands and feet. There they divided his garments and cast lots for his clothing. But when wave after wave of scorn and shame hit, the King is not moved. He still trusts in the Lord.
For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.—Psalm 21:7
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.
… you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
Deliver my soul from the sword…
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!—Psalm 22:4–5, 9, 20–21
Wait a minute—was he executed or not? The parallel was gloriously broken. He cried out, “Deliver my soul; save me; YOU HAVE RESCUED ME.” Those words just jump off the page and take us to point three: (1) The forsaken king, (2) who trusted in the Lord, (3) in the end was delivered by the Lord.
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.—Psalm 22:21, 24
The forsaken king was not despised, abhorred, or ignored, but rescued in the end. God heard his king. In the end, he has not hidden his face. Jesus’ sacrifice was accepted. He did not die with a whimper, but with a victory cry. Listen to Mark 15:37:
And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.
And the very next verse signals that a momentous sign occurred to show that his sacrifice was accepted.
And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.—Mark 15:38
This was a total tear—from top to bottom. The whole temple system came to an end when the temple of his body was destroyed. What does all of this mean?
Link With Palm Sunday
I want to make a simple observation about Palm Sunday and Jesus’ visit to the temple. Mark, the gospel writer, was a Sandwich Artist long before Subway employees started using that label. He loves to make sandwiches to help bind stories together. One of the most interesting is in Mark 11. He begins with the cursing of the fig tree and ends with the cursing of the fig tree. What is the story in the middle? The ESV subtitle says, “The Cleansing of the Temple.” It is not being cleansed; it is being cursed and replaced.
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.—Mark 11:15–16
Jesus is performing an acted out parable of judgment on the temple. But why is he there? It helps to go back to Mark 11:11:
And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Why did he go to the temple? Because that is what prophecy said he would do.
Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me [Elijah, i.e., John the Baptist]. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple [i.e., Jesus] and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?—Malachi 3:1–2
Why did he go? Answer: to fulfill prophecy. But what was he looking for? The previous story gives us the answer.
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat from you again.” And his disciples heard it.—Mark 11:12–14
He was looking for fruit or figs. The point of this story is not that Jesus was looking for literal fruit or figs. Some miss this point and thus miss everything. One commentator says, “It is a tale of miraculous power wasted in the service of ill-temper (for the supernatural energy employed to blast the unfortunate tree might have been more usefully expended in forcing a crop of figs out of season); and as it stands is simply incredible.” One commentator even called it a gross injustice on a tree which was guilty of no wrong and had but performed its natural function. This was not irrational, ill-temper on the part of Jesus. Jesus knew it was not the season for figs. This knowledge causes the reader to read more deeply into what it signifies.
Therefore, the biggest problem with all these views, however, was that Jesus was not trying to reform or “cleanse” the temple—he was cursing the temple. Look at the next story.
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.—Mark 11:15–16
The tables were set up to receive the annual half-shekel tax that was required of every Jewish male and that funded the daily sacrifices in the temple for the atonement of sin. One Jewish scholar, Jacob Neusner, catches what was going on here. This was not a mere reform of the temple:
Only someone who rejected the Torah’s explicit teaching concerning the daily offering could have overturned the tables—or …someone who had in mind setting up a different table, and for a different purpose: for the action carries the entire message, both negative and positive. Indeed, the money-changers presence made possible the cultic participation of every Israelite, and it was not a blemish on the cult but its perfection.
And Garland notices (Garland, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, p. 271):
If money cannot be exchanged into the holy currency, then monetary support for the temple sacrifices and the priesthood must end. If sacrificial animals cannot be purchased, then sacrifice must end. If no vessel can be carried through the temple, then all cultic activity must cease.
Why would Jesus put all temple activity under a curse? You can usually answer questions like that by reading the very next verse.
And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”—Mark 11:17
Remember that the whole temple system was defined by divisions. There were divisions that defined the distance one had from God as holy. The Court of the Gentiles, the court of the women, the men, the priests, the high priest once a year in the holy of holies. Now it has all come to an end. Torn apart. Replaced now.
Watch with me as the poem of the forsaken (Psalm 22:1–21) leads to the songs of the forgiven from all the nations (Psalm 22:22–31).
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,
and 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,
and all the families of the nations
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.—Psalm 22:22–31
Verse 22 ultimately answers the opening question of verse 1 (Why have you forsaken me?). He purchased a family! He purchased a people that he is not ashamed to address as his family. Hebrews 2:11–12 quotes Psalm 22:22:
That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying,
“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
Psalm 22:22 is the reason that there is a “congregation of the righteous” in Psalm 1:5. Jesus comes to us in the chair of the wicked and says, “Excuse me, you are in the wrong chair. Come with me and sit with me because you belong to me—you are united to me. You belong to me and so you belong with me in my family.
Most people can’t understand how radical this truly is. A Gentile confessing the identity of the Jewish Messiah, while the Jews reject him. Someone accepts!
And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”—Mark 15:39
The earthquake of divine rejection, the tsunami of human rejection, divine rescue, now an eruption of worship as the ends of the earth turn to the Lord and are saved and worship and come under his kingship.
Psalm 22:22–31 introduces us to the forgiven family of worshippers from all the nations. They are saved as a family and they become a vast choir—a family of worshippers. This song never ends. We keep hearing the strains of this song from the Psalms to the last book of the Bible, where we hear the heavenly worshippers singing this new song in Revelation 5:9–10:
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.“
Application: Your Kingdom Come on Earth as It Is in Heaven
The King purchased and accomplished reconciliation between God and man. Now this reconciliation that our king accomplished must be applied family-wide. Black and white. Male and female. Young and old. The church has to lead the way by showing the world a different way—a better way. All that the world has to offer right now is tolerance. The world’s message of, “I tolerate you as different” is so weak and watered down compared to the gospel message in the family of God that says, “I love you as family.” We participate in the political process, but we are not vainly trusting that our political parties can lead the way to this new day. We tell this country and these cities something I saw someone say this week: both the elephant and the donkey may fail you, but the Lamb never will!
The church must lead the way. At the night of spirituals and lament, the most moving moment for me was hearing the life story of the Rev. Billy G. Russell, the pastor of Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis. The heartache of the story for me was hearing about how one white preacher in Mississippi said, “No black man will ever preach from this pulpit.” And he looked at all of us and said, “Look at us now—here I am speaking to you and nothing could stop me from loving you.”
You are going to hear more from him when we do a pulpit swap April 30 and May 1. Dear friends, the church of Jesus Christ can lead the way and say to these cities, Jesus saves! Jesus saves a forever family from all the nations. And he teaches them to love and forgive each other as he has loved and forgiven us.
Conclusion: What About Those Outside the Family?
But how shall we interact with those outside the family? Two weeks ago, we marveled at the way Hebrews 12 says that Jesus endured the cross: he despised the shame. In other words, Jesus defeated shame by putting shame to shame. Instead of lashing out against those shaming him with legions of angels, Jesus invited shame to come closer and closer until he held it in a death grip that squeezed all of the shame out of shame.
He did all of this for the joy set before him—that he might be seated at the right hand of God and bring many sons and daughters to glory. This week we take a step further. What about the shame people try to inflict upon us?
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.—Hebrews 13:12–13
Rather than lash out at others to keep them at arms distance, we say, come closer…I don’t hold it against you. You are not my enemy. Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” The first Christian martyr prayed the same prayer: “Don’t hold this to their charge.” Forgiveness sets you free from a vindictive spirit.
We say to our neighbors and to all the nations, “Even if you despise us, we will not despise you. We will not close our hearts to you—we will point you to the One who was forsaken so you could be forgiven and become part of the family—never be forsaken, never be left out in the cold.”
When we disagree, we will remind them that agreement need not be a prerequisite for relationship. We may have to answer to their wrath, but they will not answer to our wrath in this life, but to His wrath in the life to come. We would rather face their wrath than his. We don’t mention his wrath in order to condemn them, but in order that they may be saved.
Author Sharon Cress shared a story that really stood out to me this week. She grew up on a farm and was more interested in horses than chickens—until a mother hen had some adorable baby chicks. She said:
Mother hen seemed to have a terrible time trying to get those fast-moving, hardheaded chicks to obey. She would cluck them to her, settle down on them to keep them warm, and then, one by one, we would see heads start peeping out from all directions. She would settle down again and fluff out some more, and in a moment, heads would all pop out again. Hard as she would try, those chicks were determined something was more interesting than staying warm and safe under her wings.
The chicks were only a few days old when the weather forecaster predicted a hard freeze. We threw extra hay in the barn, shut all the windows and doors, and watched as the horses snuggled together in their cozy stalls. The chickens all nested for the evening in their chicken house side. The hen and her brood settled in their soft nest. As we could have predicted, those curious little chicks would not stay under her. She went all through the routine fluff and rearranged several times, but heads continued popping out. We left for the night, wondering if the hen would ever get a wink of sleep because of these 14 rebellious chicks.
When we opened the farm doors the next morning, the mother hen’s usual patience gave way to panic. With agitation and frenzy, she cackled incessantly. Strewn around her were eight frozen dead chicks. The other six were huddled together deep under her feathers, never moving.
We don’t know what it was that attracted their attention away from the mother hen, but we know it was fatal and foolish. What is it today that has drawn you away from the only safe place in the universe: the cross of Christ? Listen to Luke 13:34:
“How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
I am praying that there will be none that leave here with those words still hanging over your heads as condemnation: “You were not willing.”
Closing Song: "Your Great Name"
Sermon Discussion Questions
Outline
The outline of Psalm 22 is a picture with four parts:
Main Point: Verses 22–31 form the final answer to the “why?” of verse 1. The answer is the main point of this message and of Psalm 22. He was forsaken as a sacrifice for sin in order to forever purchase a forever family from all the nations.
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to worship Christ as part of his forgiven family and to apply his accomplishment on the cross in our relationships with others.