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March 5/6, 2016
Jason Meyer | Psalms 22:1-21
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.
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 breasts.
On you was 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 am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and 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!—Psalm 22:1–21
Introduction: The Pain of Rejection
Human Rejection
The last two weeks we have stated the case that we are living in a culture of fear. Often what is most painful becomes most fearful. People today have been traumatized by rejection. Let’s not confuse criticism and rejection. They can’t be equated, but neither can they be separated. Rejection is criticism taken to its most extreme measure.
Let us think together about the relationship between criticism and rejection. All criticism says, “This is wrong.” When criticism targets a pattern in your life, it says, “You are wrong…this is who you are and you are wrong to be who you are.”
Rejection is the last straw of criticism—criticism taken to its most extreme level. It says, “You are so wrong to be who you are that I can’t stand to even be where you are. I must leave you. I don’t want you. I need my space from you. I have given up on you.”
Criticism would like a moment with you—a listening ear at least—to share what is wrong with you (the motive could be to help you or the motive could be to hurt you). Rejection goes much further. It says, “I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want your ear or your heart. You are not even worth my time. In fact, I view you as a waste of time. You are a lost cause. I will not give you any of me and I want none of you.”
Criticism stings; rejection wounds. Criticism can bring tears to your eyes; rejection can cause a tear in your heart. The wound of rejection is one of the deepest, longest lasting, far reaching hurts that anyone could ever receive. How many of you have unseen scars today? It could be that you put your heart out there on the line with some friends. It seemed like you were on the inside track. It seemed like you had possibly found a place to rest and belong. And then they moved on to other friends and gave you less attention, so that now you feel like you are on the outside looking in. It could be that you experienced a bitter breakup, or even a divorce. It could be that you are a child that has suffered the divorce of your parents. It could be that you are a parent and have been rejected by kids that just don’t want you to have any part of their life. The bottom line is that we live in a world where everyone has tasted or will taste the bitterness of rejection and will feel the sting of being forsaken.
Divine Acceptance?
But there is an irony. We have come to the place as a culture where we are suspicious—we expect the rejection of man, but we presume upon acceptance from God. Why is this the case? Many believe that they are entitled to acceptance with God.
There are two polar opposite reasons that some people believe they are entitled to God’s acceptance: God’s nature and our performance. Some believe that they deserve God’s acceptance despite the fact that they have not lived according to his rules. They live in a way that flaunts their freedom from God’s standards and rules still expect to be accepted by God. Why? God is love—but that love could better be defined as leniency. Love – holiness = lenient. To err is human, to forgive is divine. God will forgive; that is his job. License—a license to sin and God will accept me.
Others believe they deserve God’s acceptance precisely because they have lived according to the rules. This approach to life finds it easy to look down on all of those that fail to keep the rules like they do. They know that God will reject those who are not as religious as them. There is a religious standard. God will accept those who measure up and reject those who don’t.
But both of those approaches are fatal. I don’t even want to call them ditches. Imagine the deepest darkest canyon imaginable, deeper and wider than the Grand Canyon—an eternal fall. There is one bridge across. These two approaches represent ways to fall off the path on either side to your doom.
Why are they wrong? What do they get so wrong? Psalm 22 is the answer. But let me offer a bit of a warning. Psalm 22 is jarring. It is in fact like an earthquake; it is a seismic shift at sea that causes a tsunami.
We are going to take Psalm 22 in two parts. We are looking at the first half of it this morning. Verses 1–2 are an epic earthquake at sea that causes a tsunami of rejection. Verses 1–2 (the epicenter of the earthquake) are about God rejecting his righteous king. This divine rejection (vv. 1–2) starts a tidal wave of human rejection leading to execution.
Three lines of rejection grow in length as the rejection increases in scope (vv. 1–2; 6–8 is longer; 12–18 is longer yet) to describe the total rejection of the King. But here is something that is even more shocking and jarring. After each rejection scene, there is a scene which features the King’s trust in the Lord (vv. 3–5; 9–11; 19–21). The first half ends on the note of divine deliverance (divine acceptance) which leads to a groundswell of worship that goes to all the nations in the second half of the Psalm (vv. 22–31).
The first half of Psalm 22 is a composite picture consisting of two parts: (1) the Forsaken King, (2) Who Trusts in the Lord.
Main Point: The forsaken King, who trusted in the Lord, was rescued by the Lord.
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
You read those verses and you say, “Your main point makes no sense. How did the Lord deliver him if the Lord rejected him?” That is the first note: you have forsaken me! Why? He is groaning, but God is far off. He is crying out by day, but God did not answer. Night comes and there is still no rest! Total rejection and abandonment.
Divine rejection means that God has handed him over to human rejection and thus the king has waves of serious 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 21:7 was just savored as praise:
For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
Now the praise has turned into a taunt. But now those around the King are like animals circling for the kill. The strong close in on the weak—the many against the one.
Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and 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 my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and 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.—Psalm 22:12–18
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 before we go to Calvary, we need to go to point #2: who trusts in the Lord. We will use Psalm 21:7 as a reminder. Psalm 21:7, even while being taunted, is still true. Hear it again:
For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
The alternating stanzas show he was not moved. He continued to trust in the LORD.
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.—Psalm 22:3–5
Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
On you was 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.—Psalm 22:9–11
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!—Psalm 22:19–21
Wait a minute. Was he executed or not? The parallel was completely broken. He cried out: deliver my soul; save me—YOU HAVE RESCUED ME. Those words just jump off the page. He was rescued? Was he executed or not? How was he rescued? Now we turn to Mark 15.
Transition
The Tsunami of Rejection and Shame in Reverse in Mark 15
Here is what you will see. Mark narrates the same tsunami of rejection from Psalm 22, but he moves in reverse order. Psalm 22 starts with divine rejection and moves to human rejection. Mark 15 starts with human rejection and ends with divine rejection. We will take the story in three scenes: (1) Gentile rejection; (2) Jewish rejection; (3) divine rejection.
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.—Mark 15:15
Look at the injustice first. The Gentile ruler, Pilate, is the only one to come to Jesus’ defense. Pilate sees that the Jews handed Jesus over because of jealousy (Mark 15:10). When the mob chooses the death penalty for Jesus, Pilate the judge becomes the defense attorney and begins to interrogate the crowd, “Why, what evil has he done?” (v. 14). The crowd refuses to produce any evidence; they simply shout louder for his death. The judge seemed to be Jesus’ advocate, but then in a spineless perversion of justice, Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged and then released him to the crowds to satisfy their bloodthirsty cries for crucifixion (v. 15). Jesus’ one-time advocate rejects him because he cares more about the reign of Caesar and its demands on him than the reign of “the King of the Jews.”
Now we turn to the injury added to the injustice. The intensity of Jesus’ rejection and suffering now escalates to a new level with the report of his scourging. Mark gives one sentence to a scene that seems like it lasts for an eternity in the movie, The Passion of the Christ. Some have argued that Mel Gibson exaggerated the intensity and duration of the scourging, but one could make the counterpoint that the historical reality was actually worse. The Romans, unlike the Jews, were not limited by how many blows they could inflict (39 lashes; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:24). It was up to the whim of the torturer.
And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him...And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”—Mark 15:16–20, 24–26
Now the final blow is to add insult to injury. The Roman soldiers energetically join in the rejection of Jesus. It seems that they took sadistic delight in taking special pains to ensure that Jesus is mocked to the maximum degree. Imagine a crown of thorns pressed into one’s scull like a series of nails hammered into place. The manifold disgrace that the soldiers heaped upon Jesus probably exceeds the way in which they would have carried out the capital crimes of common criminals.
The purple robe, the crown of thorns, the chanting and acclaiming as “King of the Jews,” the reed, the anointing (spitting), the kneeling and bowing all bear royal connotations. They are clearly mocking him, but just as clearly the reader recognizes the truth hidden behind the scorn. He is royalty and thus he should be dressed in royal robes with a crown and a reed. They should anoint him, hail him as King and bow before him. The truth of His deity is suppressed, but at the same time they almost can’t help expressing it, even in a twisted and perverted way. The soldiers also fulfill Psalm 22:18 by casting lots for his garments.
| Psalm 22:18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots |
Mark 15:24 divided his garments among them, casting lots for them |
And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.—Mark 15:27–32
Mark’s narration moves closer and closer to the cross. The progression of rejection and pain for Jesus starts on the concentric circle furthest out and then keeps moving further in.
First, the mockers passing by on the road are the furthest from the cross and they do not come close to watch the drama of Jesus’ death. They cannot resist the urge to hurl insults at Jesus like a hit and run accident. They are moved to join the rejection and they give voice to it, even if it is from a distance. They wag their heads like Psalm 22.
| Psalm 22:7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their head |
Mark 15:29 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads |
Those who pass by speak more truth than they know when they mock Jesus as the one who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. If Jesus spoke of the temple of his body, then they are witnessing the destruction of the temple. Those passing by will not stick around long enough to see the rebuilding of the temple when Jesus is raised on the third day.
Second, the original accusers hurl abuse at him once again. The chief priests seem to hang around to watch the brutal results of their involvement in the plot to destroy Jesus. They have already expressed their rejection of Jesus, but they can’t resist the opportunity to repeat their rejection of Jesus when the moment presents itself.
| Psalm 22:8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!" |
Mark 15:31–32 "He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe." |
The chief priests join the fray once again and mock Jesus on the cross. They are more intimately connected with the events of the crucifixion and geographically they are also in closer proximity to the cross. They say more than they know when they say, “He saved others, but he cannot save himself. Come down from the cross and we will believe in you.” They are right. Jesus cannot save others and save Himself. He can only save others by staying on the cross. If he comes down, there will be no salvation to believe in. They could not grasp the fact that the nails did not keep Him there on the cross.
Third, the last act of human insult must have been the most painful thus far: people use their dying breath to mock Jesus. Victims on the cross would die by suffocating. One would have to push up with their legs and suffer the pain of the nail between their feet in order to get a breath to stay alive. Therefore, it is all the more amazing that they can’t resist the urge to use their dying breath to mock Jesus.
When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” which is translated, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”—Mark 15:33–34
This cry from the cross has been called the “scream of the damned.” It represents the deepest possible pain. Jesus and His Father have had perfect, unbroken harmony and fellowship in the Trinity for all of eternity—until now. In the climactic moment, the Father places the sin of the world upon Jesus, the Lamb of God. The Father, who has eyes too pure to behold sin, turns His face away from His Son for the first and only time. Jesus suffers separation from God. Jesus is now enduring not only the pain of mocking, scourging, and crucifixion—He is experiencing separation from God, tasting the pain of that separation that defines the very sphere of hell.
In my first sermon at Bethlehem, I preached on this text as Bethlehem’s center of gravity. Here is the illustration that I shared. I am not sure that I can improve upon it to make this point. The significance of Jesus tasting hell and swallowing up the wrath of God can be powerfully seen powerfully in a story from the recent California wildfires. I heard Eddie Cole share the story of a family that waited too long to abandon their home as the flames quickly came upon them. The blazing fires surrounded them and blocked every escape route. The desperate dad had an idea. He had recently burned part of the field next to their home. They went to the burned area. The children laid down first, then the mother covered the children, and the father put his body on top over all of them. The fires raged around them and they felt the intense heat, but the fire stopped at the spot that had been burned the previous week because there was nothing left to burn. The family was saved from the fire.
In the same way, we are saved from the fires of hell and the wrath of God when we run to the cross and rest there, because it is the place where God’s wrath already fell. The cross is the only safe place for sinners to stay. The picture of God’s Almighty wrath in Psalm 21—Almighty arrows aimed at the face, the divine flamethrower of wrath—are now turned upon the King in our place.
But that is not the end of the story. The first half of Psalm 22 ends on the note of divine acceptance and deliverance leading to a crescendo of worship which all the nations will join!
The same thing happens in Mark 15. The last words of Jesus are not a whimper of defeat but a cry of victory! Jesus’ victory cry is followed by the forsaking/tearing of the temple and the inclusion of the Gentiles (Roman Centurion), narrating the rest of Psalm 22:22–31. We will look much more in depth at these things in two weeks when we return to Psalm 22 for Palm Sunday and look at the last week of Jesus’ life on earth.
Application
Some of you have been rejected and maybe even abandoned by the closest people in your life. Maybe you have been hurt the most by the people that should support you most. Psalm 27:10 could be your verse:
For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.
But that verse does not say why the Lord will take you in. Psalm 22 is the answer.
You can’t earn your acceptance. We have all earned the opposite: rejection. We all deserve it. We are not just people that fall a little short and should be criticized a little. We deserve complete and absolute separation from God—rejection forever. God is perfectly holy and can only accept perfect righteousness. But there is none righteous.
So God did something so supremely shocking. The King purchased our acceptance at the price of his own rejection. The King was forsaken so that we could be accepted. We are forgiven because he was forsaken. We are accepted because he was condemned. He took our punishment. He bore the wrath we deserved.
You need to revel in this victory and part of reveling in the victory is savoring what he did to shame at the cross.
“And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”—Hebrews 12:1–2
How did Jesus win the victory? He endured the cross by despising the shame. He scorned shame. The deepest sting of rejection is the shame. You are what is wrong. You didn’t just make a mistake. You are the mistake! We are emotional wimps. Let’s face it. It is so hard to face up to shame without lashing out at those who are shaming us. Shame is baiting us to react. One eighth grade boy (my next door neighbor in Kentucky) wanted to play basketball with me and I was all set to let him win, until he began to mock me. “You played college basketball, huh—was it an all-girl school?” He didn’t win. He didn’t score another point. I could not take a single shot to my pitiful pride. Look at the greatness of Jesus.
Jesus shamed shame. It was like a heavy weight fight. Imagine them facing off. Shame is eyeing Jesus, circling around him, and coming closer. Jesus stands his ground and responds, “Hello, Shame. You are coming in for the kill, huh? You are supposedly the undisputed champion of the world. You have taken everyone down at some point. Not me.”
Shame smiles a devilish smile, strikes like a snake, and grabs hold of Jesus. But Jesus, the supreme champion, smiles back and reverses the grip and brings shame in really close into a death grip. “I scorn you, Shame. I look you straight in the face and I reject any power that you could have over me. Let them spit on me. Let them strike me and then say, ‘prophesy, who hit you?’ I am the King and deserve to be treated as such, but let them mock that. Let them put a purple robe on me and put a reed staff in my hand. I deserve the Psalm 21 crown of fine gold, but I will accept the crown of sharp thorns instead. Let them drive it into my scalp. Let them mock me and taunt me—that he saved others but can’t save himself. I, the one who could call down armies of angels and come down from the cross—I won’t. I won’t budge. Let them scourge me with a whip that cuts my back into ribbons. I will take on the nail, the spear, and the barrage of all the things you are aiming at me with the design to shame me—and I will win, Shame! I will beat you at your own game.”
“I put you to shame, Shame. I shame you, Shame. And know this. This is not just a victory for me. It is a victory for all my people. I will dethrone you and win a people who don’t need to ever fear you showing up around them while they are in God’s presence. Justice will change sides and will speak for them and not against them. I will bring many sons to bright realms of glory and wipe away every tear from their eye and rob you of the opportunity to ever make them feel the sting of rejection ever again—eternal acceptance, no condemnation.”
Conclusion
Communion—Remember the Cost of No Condemnation
Closing Song: Amazing Love (You are My King)
Outline
The first half of Psalm 22 is a picture consisting of two parts:
Main Point: The Forsaken King, who trusted in the Lord, was delivered by the Lord.
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to celebrate the victory of Christ over our shame and rejection through the purchase price of his own shame and rejection.