Make Me Understand It!

the following message is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truthfortheworld.org I invite you to turn with me to son 22 to the 22nd son and I encourage you to follow along as I read it son 22 to the choirmaster according to the doll of the dawn which I take it to be a tune but I don't know a psalm of David 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 and by night but I find no rest yet you are wholly enthroned on the praises of Israel and 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 and poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint my heart that's like wax it is melted within my breasts 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 or you might help come quickly to my aid deliver my soul from the sword my precious life from the power of the dog saved 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 and he has not hidden his face from him but he 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 and then let's read these closing verses from 27 to the end together 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 cash it belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nation's all the prosperous of the earth eat and worship before him shall bow all who go down to 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 father help us now as we turn to the Bible we turn to your word before we turn to this communion table in order that what we do with these symbols and these elements may be in keeping with all that you have accomplished once and for all for your people before we pray in Jesus name Amen well as I said at the outset our hems have been carefully chosen we've had inevitably to leave some out that we might have used and one that we emitted begins has the opening line give me a sight o Savior of thy wondrous love to me of the love that brought thee down to earth to die on Calvary and then the refrain will make me understand it help me to take it in what it meant for the the Holy One to bear away my sin in providing that kind of sight in response to that kind of request the Gospel writers are marked if you like with a sense of divine reticence those of us who saw The Passion of the Christ would have come away with a number of thoughts one of them inevitably being but somehow or another that Gospel writers chose not to make things as graphic as that and under the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit we have the events concerning Christ's death and resurrection and for that matter his birth in what we might refer to as a relatively matter-of-fact way of speaking in the new in the Old Testament we're very familiar with the prophets words particularly the prophecy of Isaiah and we are less familiar with the poetry of the psalmist and it is to the poetry of the Sammis that we turn here in this 22nd Sun which actually provides more of an insight into the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ than any other Sun perhaps than any other part of the entire Bible and the verses come to make us aware of the fact that Scripture is prepared to maintain and retain a sense of propriety in it all and when we read some 22 we discover that in many ways this is where it pushes the limits of description the way and thing the way in which things are described here is very very graphic my strength is dried up like a potsherd my tongue sticks to my jaws you lay me in the dust of death you can almost taste it and it is poetry and it is passion and it is purposeful by three points we need to move quickly first of all to acknowledge that what we deal with here in these sums is in fact poetry the opening verse of the psalm is most familiar to us found on the lips of the Lord Jesus on the cross however when we read the Psalms and not least of all this son the meaning of the son lies somewhere first of all other than in its ultimate fulfillment what we mean by that is simply this that the poem is found first of all in the world of the one who wrote it namely David and David wrote this some 1000 years before the events of the crucifixion and he was experiencing something an experience that is not defined for us but an experience that gave rise to this lament we can only say that it must have taken place in some dark of his life and of such periods there were a number in David's life just as there are dark periods in each of our lives and therefore we find ourselves grateful on occasion for the fact that the Psalms are filled with lament now I hope you have the Bible open so that you can follow me I want to move as quickly as I can you will notice that the poem opens with crying and with groaning the words of my groaning I cry by day but you don't answer I cry out at night but I find no rest so whatever is going on with David in the morning he cries in the evening he groans and he's not making much of a go of it through the watches of the night well you say what as he lost his faith no he hasn't is he in a broken relationship with God clearly no he isn't what he's describing here is a sense of disorientation a disorientation that is an account of the fact that God is silent that God is apparently absent I cry out to you and you don't hear me or if you hear me you do not answer me yet he says verse three and four and five as I think about it you are holy verse four in you our fathers trusted verse five to you they cried and were rescued five be in you they trusted and were not put to shame in other words he's aware of the fact that God has not failed those who in previous generations had looked to him for deliverance which is what makes verse six so hard I cry you don't hear I groan there's no answer I'm Restless all through the night however in the past when people cried to you you delivered them so why the exception verse 6 how come I am the exception I am a worm and not a man scorned by mankind despised by the people they see me they mock me they make mouths with me they wag their heads then he says but when I think about it verse nine you are the one who took me from the womb in other words my birth was not an accident you made me trust you at my mother's breasts from the very beginning of my existence from my mother's womb you have been my god but trouble is near and there's no one to help me that's what he says now time does not allow us to work our way through this entire poem that can be your homework but let me identify for you what changes in verse 12 through verse 21 God is not heeding his cry men are despising his person I can count all my bones they stare and they gloat over me he is subjected to anguish and to pain and that goes all the way through that verse 19 but you all Lord do not be far off or you might help come quickly to my aid deliver my soul from the sword my precious life from the power of the dog saved me from the mouth of a lion and then notice we go into the past tense you have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen now when you study this on your own you will see that there's quite a reversal here in verse 12 the bulls are attacking in verse 13 the lion is roaring in verse 16 the dogs are surrounding but now in verses 20 and 21 the great reversal is taking place you deliver me from the sword from the power of the dog from the mouth of the lion from the horns of the wild oxen and so he says what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell of your name to my brothers and I'm going to do it two places first of all I'm going to do it locally in the midst of the congregation and then I'm actually going to do it comprehensively in verse 27 when all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord okay so what is clear when you read this when you read this you realize that no experience of David's suffering no event in David's life can quite encapsulate the reality of that to which he speaks no experience of suffering no experience of deliverance other than the one to which it points namely our Lord's experience of the cross and resurrection for only in the cross and in the resurrection do we find the the universal result which we read together from verse 27 how will all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord how will the families of Nations be brought together under God how will all of this be accomplished now what we have to see is this that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit David was involved in a kind of hyperbole that that reached out beyond him if you like because he is clearly describing something that is beyond him the reality of his own experience does not encompass the totality of what his poem conveys why because the poetry reveals the passion what passion the passion of Christ and it contains and it conveys more than what the psalmist conveys of his own personal story because what it is pointing to is the larger purpose that God has in all the world and the ultimate focus of the son is on that you may remember that when in first Peter he talks about the the work of the prophets and how the prophets prophesied about things that they themselves did not fully grasp in fact he says they were at one point standing on their tiptoes those that were looking down through history and essentially saying to themselves I wonder what all of this means in a very real whay David must have been doing the same aware of the fact that whatever his real experience was in real time a thousand years before the Passion of Christ whatever that was he was caused to write in such a way so as to convey something far more significant far more catastrophic than anything he had himself known incidentally and in passing this is one of the testimonies to the authenticity of the divinity of Scripture itself how do you explain Psalm 22 in all of its prophetic detail penned by someone who lived 1,000 years before before crucifixion was ever invented by the Romans how do you explain it the fact of the matter is that God is the author of Scripture and that all of Scripture points ultimately and savingly to Jesus so that even when we read the Psalms we eventually read them wrong unless we read them in light of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done there isn't another Psalm in the Bible that actually points to Christ in the in quite the same way and it's this isn't a matter of conjecture if you think about this given that Jesus would have known all of the Psalms off by heart he would have known all of the Psalms off by heart isn't it interesting isn't it surely significant that when on the cross he unburdens his soul he does so using some 22 a sum that he would have sung as a boy in the synagogue along with the rest of the congregation that then is embodied in the reality of what he faces in the cross now I'll leave you to do this on your own but let me point it to you so that you can follow it up as I say to you this is not conjecture and the way in which we can get to this is by understanding the way in which the New Testament uses the son okay so as we read the Bible backwards we can make sense of it so verse seven all who see me mock me they make mouths at me they wag their heads if you know Matthew 27 at all you know that is exactly what you find there in verse 39 and they crucified Him and those who pass by derided him wagging their heads and say quoting some 22 in verse 8 he trusts in the Lord let him deliver him again you know that don't you hey saved others he can't save himself if he's the Son of God let him come down from the cross if God really listens to his prayers let him deliver him let's see how that goes that's exactly son 22 and I think it was perfect that we read in the course of our structure here this evening from John chapter 19 because John 19 is picking up verse 18 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 they took his garments they looked at one another in the same well with all but one each but this large one don't let's tear it let us let us let us cast lots for it and John says in John 19 and this was to fulfill what the scripture said they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots and about the ninth hour with a loud voice he cried Eli Eli lama sabachthani my god my god why have you forsaken me and in verse 22 I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation read Hebrews chapter 2 and Hebrews chapter 2 picks that out directly and the writer of the Hebrews says it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things were exist should be the one who said I will declare your praise in the midst of the congregation in other words this is Jesus this is Jesus in other words what it takes us to it's what the rest of the Bible unfolds behold the lamb of God says John the Baptist who takes away the sin of the world or in the words of another famous hymn by Kelly which begins stricken smitten and afflicted see him dying on the tree it goes on into the verse ye who think of sin but lightly nor suppose the evil great here may view the nature rightly here it's guilt may estimate mark the sacrifice appointed see who bears it's awful load tis the word the Lord's anointed son of man and son of God so that poetry is embedded in the real-time existence of the one who writes namely David David writes in such a way under the guidance of the Spirit that appoints us forward to the Lord Jesus Christ in order that we might not only understand his person but understand the purpose why why is there significance in what we're about to do why is there unless these emblems are emblems of his atoning sacrifice unless we come to it saying to ourselves at least my lord what love is this that pays so dearly that I the guilty one may go free what kind of sacrifice is this that justifies the ungodly that saved sinners that puts us in the Assembly of the righteous on the front of our bulletin he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree when the Ethiopian eunuch coming back from the precincts of the temple in Jerusalem is writing in his chariot and Philip is sent to him in the amazing purposes of God he's reading from the prophecy of Isaiah and he's reading Isaiah 53 he was wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities and and the Ethiopian asked the inevitable and obvious question after Philip has asked him a question do you understand what you read to which he replies how could I understand it unless somebody explained it to me who does he speak about himself or someone else they might have asked the same thing about Psalm 22 who is David speaking about himself or someone else well in David's case it was himself but far more someone else in the case of Isaiah the prophet it was always someone else and Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and explained to the man the good news concerning Jesus what good news that this suffering servant dies in the place of the sinner you see the great challenge for us on a night like this coming out of the environment from which most of us have come is that we live in a culture where morality is regarded as virtually irrelevant and where emotion and psychology has regarded as the great issue some of us lived at a time when the great concern of our parents was whether we were good or bad I don't want you to be a bad boy I want you to be a good boy I don't want to be scathing in my observation but I feel far more that the concern of the average young parent is I want you honey to feel good about yourself I want you to feel good about yourself whether you're going to be a good boy or a good girl is actually secondary as long as you feel good about yourself so then when we come to the cross of Jesus Christ if we then try and make sense of it in Psychological emotional terms it doesn't make any sense at all the only way makes sense is in light of what the Bible says that the problem of mankind is not an emotional problem is a moral problem it is a moral problem that we have turned our backs on God we said it in our prayer of confession that we have in the words of the prophet Isaiah we have all gone our own way we've turned to our own way we've decided no we can do it entirely on our own and the good news is that God who loves with an everlasting love pursues those who are running from him and the Lord in Jesus has lead on his dearly beloved son what we deserve what we deserve and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all he bore the wrath reserved for me you see the the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is a death of substitution and in his death the Justice of God is satisfied completely once and for all God does not just look does not just say nothing matters no God has put has planned a day when he will judge the world and he's given proof of this by raising Jesus from the dead that's what Paul says in Acts chapter 17 but the people who think they got off didn't actually get off no no God's justice must be satisfied God's love must manifestly be conveyed where is the justice and the love of God then clearly seen at the cross of his dearly beloved son because you see the cross assures us not only that there is ultimately justice in the universe but it assures us that there is forgiveness for all who trust in Christ crucified there is forgiveness for all who trust in Christ crucified it does not say there is forgiveness for all who attend church regularly that there is forgiveness for all who tried our level best to be a decent soul it says there is forgiveness for all who trust trust in other words who trusts themselves entirely to what has been done on behalf of them now by them and some 22 begins in darkness and in dereliction and it ends in triumph they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn it's a kind of missionary end isn't it to see unbelieving people becoming committed followers of Jesus Christ to see the next generation to see the generations that we ourselves will never see they will come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn what will they declare look at look at the closing phrase of the sound that he has done it that he has done it what does that sound like it sounds like it is finished that's exactly right that's what it's supposed to sound like he has done it it is finished it is accomplished trust in it so we end where we began with a song that we weren't going to sing give me a sight Oh Savior here is how it finishes was it the nails Oh Savior that held me to the tree now it was your everlasting life your love for me for me Oh make me understand it help me to take it in what it meant for thee the Holy One to bear away my sin father as we come to gather round your table grant that it may be in full assurance of faith looking from ourselves to your dearly beloved son who in his own body on the tree for our sins what a wonder we bless you we praise you in Christ's name this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with Alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

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Keywords: Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, Redemptive History, The Lord’s Supper, Jesus Christ, Atonement, The Cross, Alistair Begg, Truth For Life, Good Friday

Id: gPm_Lb2kfnA

Length: 29min 26sec (1766 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 10 2020