Narrator 00:00

Good morning! Welcome to the Lance Lambert Ministries podcast. For those who are interested in a discounted book, we are currently having a sale on the book “Be Ye Ready: Imperatives for Being Ready for Christ”. Lance preached the two messages in this short book during the Christian Family Conference in 2006. The theme of this conference was “Summing Up All Things In Christ” and Lance’s assigned portion was “Being Ready For Christ’s Coming”. It will be 25% off for the month of May, so make sure to get a copy at a discounted rate if this sounds like a book you would be interested in. There will be a link in the description. Also, if you have not yet picked up a copy of the newly released book Unity, I will leave a link in the description for that as well. Okay, podcast begin now.

Narrator 00:52

You’re listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this podcast, please visit www.lancelambert.org

For today’s podcast episode, Lance will be sharing from Psalm 22, a psalm which he calls the first and greatest of all the Messianic psalms. He will be sharing about the sufferings and triumphs of Christ. Let’s listen.

Lance Lambert 01:19

Quite well known Psalm, the 22nd psalm. The 22nd psalm. I’m going to read it in the standard

version. The 22nd psalm from the first verse: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry in

the daytime, but thou answerest not; And in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art

holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: They trusted, and

thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: They trusted in thee, and

were not put to shame. But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised of the

people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head,

saying, Commit thyself unto the Lord; let him deliver him: Let him rescue him, seeing he

delighteth in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb; Thou didst make me trust

when I was upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb; Thou art my

God since my mother bare me. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; For there is none to

help. Many bulls have compassed me; Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gape

upon me with their mouth, As a ravening and a 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 me. My strength is dried up

like a potsherd; And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; And thou hast brought me into the dust of

death. For dogs have compassed me: A company of evil-doers have inclosed me; They pierced

my hands and my feet. I may count all my bones. They look and stare upon me; They part my

garments among them, And upon my vesture do they cast lots. But be not thou far off, O Lord:

O thou my succor, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, My darling from the

power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth; Yea, from the horns of the wild-oxen thou

hast answered me. I will declare thy name unto my brethren: In the midst of the assembly will I

praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; And stand in

awe of him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the

afflicted; Neither hath he hid his face from him; But when he cried unto him, he heard. Of thee

cometh my praise in the great assembly: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The

meek shall eat and be satisfied; They shall praise the Lord that seek after him: Let your heart

live for ever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord; And all the

kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s; And he is the

ruler over the nations. All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship: All they that go down

to the dust shall bow before him, Even he that cannot keep his soul alive. A seed shall serve

him; It shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation. They shall come and shall declare his

righteousness Unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done it. This evening, I want you

to turn to the 22nd Psalm. I want us to look this wonderful psalm. I’m sure that however old we

are in the Lord there will be always something from this psalm for every single one of us. And

certainly if we’re younger in the Lord there’s very much in this wonderful Psalm. The 22nd

Psalm is the first and greatest of all the Messianic Psalms. Now, what do we mean by a

Messianic Psalm? We mean that there are certain Psalms, which are prophetic. They predict, or

they foreshow the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And these psalms we call messianic. Most of

you, even the youngest of you who read the gospels, will see especially in those last chapters,

the various verses and psalms are often referred to, and it said, “and so was fulfill this that was

spoken of by David” or spoken of by this, or that, or the other. We call these psalms, for

example, Psalm 110, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand.” We call that psalm,

a Messianic Psalm. Psalm 118, is another Messianic Psalm. “The stone which the builders

disallowed, or rejected, the same hath been made the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s

doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord hath made, we will rejoice in

it, and be glad.” It’s a Messianic Psalm. Now the greatest of these Psalms, of course, another

one, we could go on and on is Psalm 24, “Who is this King of glory, the Lord of hosts, he is the

King of Glory,” the one for whom the gates have lifted up their heads, and so on. He’s passed in

for us and taken us in with him. Now, the greatest, the first Messianic Psalm, and the greatest

of all the Messianic Psalms is this 22nd psalm. If you turn to Matthew 27:46, of course, we read

the very well known words, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, “Eli,

Eli, lama sabachthani, that is my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And of course,

when we turn back to the 22nd Psalm, this is the very first verse of this Psalm. So it was on the

lips of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the most terrible point of Calvary, the most somber, the most

mysterious, the most awful part of the work on the cross, this psalm was on the lips of our Lord

Jesus Christ. If you look at verse 18, in Psalm 22, “They part my garments among them, and

upon my vesture do they cast lots.” If you look at John 19, gospel of John, chapter 19:24, they

said, “Therefore,” we’ll read the last part of verse 23, “and also the coat: now the coat was

without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore one to another, Let us not

rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith,

They parted my garments among them, And upon my vesture did they cast lots.” Direct

quotation of Psalm 22. And then again, if you look at verse 22 of Psalm 22, “I will declare thy

name unto my brethren in the midst of the assembly, will I praise thee.” Now that word

assembly is the Hebrew word for church. And in the Greek Old Testament and the Greek New

Testament, the same word is used the ecclesia, or the church. So it really is, “I will declare thy

name unto my brothers in the midst of the church, will I praise thee.” Now if you turn to

Hebrews and chapter two, Hebrews chapter two and verse 12, we read this, we read from verse

11, “for both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is

not ashamed to call them brothers” or brethren, “saying, I will declare thy name unto my

brethren, in the midst of the congregation” or church, “will I sing thy praise.” So this psalm, we

find in the New Testament, we are told in the New Testament that it has been fulfilled again

and again, in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, will you notice two other small points

about this psalm? As we’re taking a study on it, in this psalm, there is no confession of sin.

From beginning to end, not in one single verse, is there any confession of sin. That is quite

remarkable in one way. That reveals, again, its messianic nature, the Lord Jesus says, “I am a

worm and no man, a reproach of men,” but nowhere does he say “I am a sinner.” That is very

interesting. The second thing is that this Psalm has no curses in it. Now, most of you know that

in quite a few of the Psalms, especially when the psalmist deals with people who’ve dealt

hardly or unjustly with either the psalmist, or with the people of God, there are many terrible

and solemn curses uttered upon those people, but not in this psalm. In spite of the fact that this

psalm deals with injuries done to the one who speaks, more terrible than probably in any other

psalm, there is no curse, at all, only blessing. Oh, that’s an interesting point. Now, there are

three main views of this psalm. I will very briefly just give you a bird’s eye view of them. And

then we will take the one that I believe to be the right one, and we will look at the psalm a little

more clearly. There are three main views as to this psalm. First of all, the first view is that it is a

record of personal experience. Simply and only a record of personal experience. Whoever wrote

this psalm went through some terrible experience. And out of that terrible experience, they

wrote this psalm. It might have been David, as in the superscription it says, at the beginning “A

Psalm of David,” it could be David, or others have suggested Hezekiah, and others have

suggested Jeremiah, and some say, well, one of the other exiles. Now this is one view, that this

psalm is in fact merely the record of some terrible and harrowing experience through which the

writer passed. It has great value for us, for it teaches us great lessons of trust and praise, and

the way the Lord can deliver, but it is the record of personal experience and no more. The

second view is that this psalm is the personification of the Jewish people in exile. Now, this is

the rabbinic view, the traditional rabbinic view, the exiled, persecuted, apparently forsaken of

God, Jewish people. Yet their suffering, so the rabbis say, will be redemptive. And in the end,

through the suffering of the Jewish people, through 1000s of years of their history, the whole

world will come into tremendous blessing and fullness and glory. Prosperity and glory, when

peace will reign to the ends of the earth. So this is the traditional view of the rabbis. This psalm,

then, is not personal, but is the, as it were, giving voice to the soul of the Jewish people in all

their suffering and persecution and exile. God’s will for the nations will be fulfilled in the end

through Israel, and at the point of their greatest suffering, so the rabbis say, then, at that point

will come deliverance and salvation to the whole earth. This Psalm is read always in Jewish

circles at the feast, or the festival of Purim, which commemorates Esther, and the great

deliverance of God of the people of God, then. So you see, it’s interesting, they read this psalm,

always in connection with that tremendous deliverance of the Jewish people through the

instrumentality of Esther and Mordecai. That is the second view. The third view is that this

psalm is wholly and only predictive. That is, it is completely and only to do with the coming one,

that is the Messiah, and that’s why we call it a Messianic Psalm, and that it was the Spirit of

God in some writer, expressing beforehand, the sufferings of Christ, of the Messiah, and the

glory that would follow. Now my own feeling is this, that it is, in fact, a perfect illustration of I

Peter chapter one and verse 11. Now, if you turn to I Peter chapter one, verse 11, we will read

verse 10, and 11, “concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently,

who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what time or what manner

of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the

sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them. To whom it was revealed, that not

unto themselves, but unto you, did they minister these things, which now have been

announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent

forth from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.” Well, now, I believe that this 22nd

Psalm is a perfect illustration of these words of the apostle Peter. The spirit of the Messiah, the

Spirit of Christ, which was in them was testifying beforehand, the sufferings of the Messiah, and

the glories which would follow, and it was revealed to these who thus spoke and wrote that it

was not to them, that they were really writing not, in fact, to their own generation, but in some

marvelous way, the Spirit of God made them aware, though the thing was a mystery to them,

that they were ministering something to generations which were ahead. This is very much in

this psalm. Now, my view, again, is that it may well have come, I would be surprised, in fact, if

it doesn’t, has not come out of personal experience, it seems to me that somewhere or other,

the writer of this psalm had some very deep experience indeed. I’m not at all sure that he knew

what it was to have his hands and his feet pierced, but he must have entered into some

experience, which was interpreted to him in a way that was not himself. It was beyond him. The

22nd psalm is, in fact, the most remarkable account, listen carefully to me, those of you who

are young, the most remarkable account in the whole Bible, including the New Testament, of

Calvary. Now, let me say that again, the 22nd Psalm is the most remarkable account in the

whole Bible, including the New Testament, of what happened at Calvary. I find this 22nd Psalm,

a much more remarkable account of what happened at Calvary than the eyewitness record of

the four gospel writers. All four gospel accounts are eyewitness records viewing Christ on the

cross, but the 22nd Psalm is an eyewitness account of what happened at Calvary from the eyes

of the one on the cross. I find that the most remarkable thing in the whole Bible. I feel sorry for

people who cannot believe their Bibles, who get all tied up with this and that and the other

problem. I was brought up without the Bible, I find these things, these are big things, they’re

not just small things they’re remarkable things. How can you account for the fact that you have

here a record of Calvary, not just even someone looking on what happened at Calvary, on what

was going to happen at Calvary 1000 years ahead, or even if you’re the most liberal of

theologians, 100 years ahead, whether 1000 or 100, it’s not just an account of what happened

then, was going to happen at Calvary, but an account of what happened at Calvary from the

eyes of the person suffering on the cross, the central figure of Golgotha. I find that quite

remarkable. Furthermore, let me say this, that the 22nd Psalm is a most vivid graphic, almost

journalistic, poignently revealing record. For example, take verse one, this cry of dereliction,

“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me and from

the words of my groaning?” What an account of the cross. Take again, verse seven and eight,

“All they that see me laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they make mouths, they shake

their head, saying, commit thyself unto the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, seeing

he delighteth in Him.” Verse nine, “but thou art he that took me out of the womb.” Verse 12

“Many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round, they gape upon

me with their mouth as a ravening and a roaring lion.” Here’s the person on the cross, telling us

what it looked like to see these people with their delight in what was happening. The chief

priests, the Sanhedrin, the members of the Jewish parliament, so delighted that at long last,

they were liquidating this source of so much trouble in Israel. Again, verse 16, “for dogs have

compassed me, a company of evildoers of enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet.”

Verse 14, here is an account of crucifixion. How could this possibly be in the record? This

extraordinary account of the physical effects of crucifixion, “I am poured out like water, and all

my bones are out of joint.” Exactly what happens in crucifixion, the weight of the body extends

the whole body and the bones are pulled out of joint. “My heart is like wax, it is melted within

me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd.” That is dehydration, exactly what takes place in

crucifixion. “My tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me to the dust of death.” So

you’ve got all these remarkable things. Verse 16 and 17. “A company of evildoers have

enclosed me. I may count all my bones, they look and stare upon me.” Just, as it were, as the

time went on, you remember, and they came to the worst part of the cross that the crowd

became silent, and they just stood transfixed. Staring. I think is the most remarkable account.

None of the gospels give us quite such an account as that. We may well ask, who could have

written this psalm? Jeremiah certainly never had an experience like this. His feet and his hands

were never pierced. He never had an experience like this. He had many harrowing experiences,

but not this. David certainly never had an experience like this. Hezekiah certainly never had an

experience like this. Of whom then, does the psalmist speak? Of whom does this writer speak in

these things? Verse 18, of course, “They part my garments among them, and upon my vesture

do they cast lots.” Whatever view we take of the date, and authorship of this psalm, it was

written at least two centuries before Christ. There are those who believe that it was written in

the second century before Christ. But whether it was written in the second century before

Christ, or in King David’s time, the fact still remains that it is remarkable to so accurately

predict, in a detailed manner, exactly what happened at Calvary. Furthermore, we have to ask

ourselves, why the sudden and dramatic change in the center of the Psalm. Even the rabbi’s

have wrestled and wrestled and wrestled with this problem as to why this psalm suddenly, at

the worst part of the writers experience and suffering changes into sensational triumph. So

remarkable is it, that all the modern versions with absolutely no scholarship behind them have

corrected the Greek, Syriac or Hebrew to read something else, they cannot believe that

suddenly he says, “Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog, take

me out of the mouth of the lion,” and then suddenly, “from the horns of the wild oxen thou hast

answered me.” So your Revised Standard Version says something about my afflicted soul, just

wait, I’ll find it for you. “Save me from the mouth of the lion, my afflicted soul from the horns of

the wild oxen!” And then it puts down Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, “thou hast answered me from the

horns of the wild oxen!” Or again, you’ll find your new English Bible says pretty well, the same.

They all have either conjectured renderings, and so on, but the fact remains that we have a

problem here, unless we understand this to be a prophecy of Calvary. This psalm dramatically

changes right at the darkest point, the most solemn, the most terrible point of experience of

the one suffering, suddenly it changes and something happens. And from that moment on, it’s

glory. It’s all glory. Triumph, glory, fulfillment, salvation, life, to the ends of the earth. Of course,

if we understand this, and it seems to me that we hardly need faith to believe in this when we

have such evidence, it seems that if we believe that this is a prophecy of Calvary, then here we

have an answer. This is the answer to it. This is exactly what happened on the cross. When the

Lord Jesus cried, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” A little while afterwards, he

said, “Finished!” And in that moment, the whole thing happened. The veil of the temple was

rent in two from top to bottom. Rocks were split open. There was an earthquake. The thing had

happened. The salvation of all who have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ was completed and

accomplished. Well, I find it very, very remarkable if we look at it like this, whatever view we

take of the date of authorship of this psalm, it was written by the most liberal scholarship in the

second century before Christ. Therefore, it’s accuracy, and the revelation of the inner history of

Christ crucified is awe-inspiring. Matthew, John, Peter, none of the apostles could tell us what

was happening inside of the one who was crucified. Only the Spirit of God who enabled the Lord

Jesus, so the writer through the Hebrew letters tells us, “Who enabled the Lord Jesus to offer

himself up to God without spot or blemish.” Only the Spirit of God who enabled the Lord Jesus,

to go through with the cross knew the inner history of the Son of God on the cross. And

hundreds of years before the event took place, the same spirit of God inspired someone to put

down in black and white, not just the events, but the inner history of the one who was to lay

down his life for the salvation of the world. I say that there is no other explanation for this

psalm than I Peter chapter one and verse 11. And I prefer the apostle Peter, I think of him as

the best theologian the world has ever produced in this matter. He has given us a key to this

psalm. He has said, “It is the Spirit of Christ in these men testifying beforehand the sufferings of

the Messiah, and the glories that would follow.” Whoever humanly wrote this psalm must have

been conscious of something far beyond themselves and their experience, of an infinite and

fathomless mystery through which they were passing. They must have been conscious of being

in touch with that to which the whole Old Testament pointed. The focal point of human history,

and indeed, of God’s eternal purpose. Somehow, this writer had entered into the very heart of

God. Now let’s have a closer look at the psalm itself. It is divided into two clear parts, the first

21 verses, and here we have a problem, because it is in fact, up to the first part of verse 21,

and then from the second part of verse 21, through to verse 31. The first part of this psalm is

unrelieved suffering and anguish, and the second part of this psalm is triumphant praise and

exaltation. Can you anywhere, find two such different themes in one sense, in one psalm? The

first part, “Thou has not answered me.” I hope you’ve noticed that verse two. “Oh, my God, I

cry by day, but thou doest not answer.” Thou doest not answer. “If it be possible, let this cup

pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” I believe the Lord knew what His

Father’s will was. I don’t believe he ever got an answer to that question. Some of us don’t get

answers to our questions because we know the answer. Have you found that out? We ask God

something that God says, “You know very well what the answer is on that. I’m saying nothing.”

“Thou does not answer, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” No answer. Thou doest

not answer. The second part of the psalm, we could almost entitle, the last part of verse 21,

“Thou hast Answered Me.” Thou hast answered me. The first part we could entitle, “The

Sufferings of Christ” and the second part, we could entitle, “The Glories that Follow.” Now let’s

have a look at that first part first. I’ve entitled it “The Awful, Forsakeness of Christ.” We go to

the heart of the matter, at the beginning of this psalm in verse one. We certainly have here an

account of the sufferings of Christ, as far as physical crucifixion goes, I have already mentioned

that from verses 6 to 18, we have a very detailed account of the physical sufferings and mental

suffering of crucifixion. We cannot minimize the physical and the mental suffering of our Lord

Jesus Christ, but you know, as well as I do, that, that is relatively a minimal part of what he

passed through. There have been many Christian martyrs, many who have died for the faith,

who have suffered as much as our Lord Jesus, physically. Physically. The physical side of our

Lord’s sufferings were by no means the greatest. Nevertheless, we have to say that those are

real. They are only the shallows of his experience, but they are real. Verse one, “My God, My

God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Brings us immediately, face to face with inexplicable

mystery. Nor is it the fact of being forsaken by all. “Where were the blind that he had given

their sight?” one could well ask, “Where were the lame that walked?” we might well ask, “the

dead, that were raised? the deaf that heard? the lepers that were cleansed? the immoral that

were made whole? where were they?” They had all forsaken him. Where were the disciples, but

for a little group of women, for whom we have the utmost admiration, and one of the men, and

two other half disciples, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. The rest had fled for their lives.

But the Lord was not speaking of their forsaking him. He didn’t say, My God, My God, why have

they all forsaken me? That was not his question. The question that was torn out of the heart of

the Son of God on the cross was, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” All this adds

up to no small suffering, to be forsaken by all those that we have helped, by all those that we

love, for all those that the Lord labored and lived with, those that were closest to him, adds up

to no small suffering. Some of us, all of us must have known some time or another, some little

shadow of this kind of thing. Yet as far as Christ is concerned, we have not touched his real

suffering. When we speak of his being forsaken by everybody, it was not the physical pain, or

the loneliness, or even death that was his suffering. It was there, but it was not everything. If

you look at verse 6, we read, “I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of

the people.” That verse alone sums up the words of Isaiah, a man of sorrows, and acquainted

with grief, and as one that we esteem stricken, smitten of God, we turned away from him. But

you know, that was just the very outward, outer fringe of what our Lord passed through. You

read again some other things that are in this psalm, which are quite remarkable. In verse one,

“Why art thou so far from helping me? Oh, my God, I cry in the daytime. But thou answerest

not, and in the night season am not silent. Now, first, there are two things here, first of all,

which I find very interesting. First of all, I think in your Authorized Version, it says, “Why are

thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring?” Isn’t that right? Of my roaring.

And in this, the Authorized Version is much nearer to the Hebrew, then the Revised Standard

Version, which has put groaning, and this version has put groaning, because literally, it is

exactly that, “roaring”. But the translators, knowing that it was a Messianic Psalm, later on felt

that groaning was more sort too dignified, that our Lord didn’t roar, he groaned. But the

Hebrew is he roared, just like a lion, in such pain in such distress, such pressure, that he

roared, we have no account of such physical roaring, and I don’t believe it was physical. I think

it was his heart. I believe that God heard a roaring from the Spirit of his Son, something that

was pressed out of him. That cry could only be described as a roaring. And then again, another

very interesting thing is in verse 2, “Oh, my God, I cry in the daytime but thou answerest not,

and in the night season, and am not silent”. I don’t know how they get, “and am not silent” in

my version. From the Hebrew, I see that in the Revised Standard Version, they put it like this,

“but find no rest.” The New American Bible puts it like this, “but I have no rest.” I have no rest.

The Hebrew is rather beautiful, it just simply says, “and there is no silence.” Read it again. “Oh

my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou answerest not and in the night season, and there is no

silence. Now that could quite possibly mean there is no silence of sleep. But it may also give us

a little clue to something of the oppression that our Lord went through. No silence. A thousand

demonic voices trying to deflect him, to divert him, to somehow drive a wedge between him

and the Father. Verse 11, is another little phrase you have, “be not far from me, for trouble is

near and there is none to help”. None to help. Verse 12, bulls of Bashan. We now call them

bison. Verse 13, ravening and a roaring lion. Verse 16, dogs. Now of course, we in the West

tend to think of dogs, as rather domestic and pleasant creatures. They have not got the

connotation that dogs have in the East, but for Orientals, dogs are not domestic creatures,

generally speaking. I remember how in the East, they used to organize shooting parties to go

out and shoot the dogs. They were disease-ridden, they brought the most terrible scourges

wherever they came, they always were in the rubbish dumps and garbage dumps and hanging

around the periphery of the village or the town. They were fearful creatures. Everyone was

frightened of being bitten by one of those diseased, mangy dogs. And these are the terms that

the psalmist, the Holy Spirit uses, of all this suffering of our Lord. Bulls of Bashan, ravening and

roaring lion, dogs, and then he speaks in verse 20 and 21, when he seems to sum it all up in

four things, “deliver my soul from the sword.” You may well wonder what that means, “My soul

from the sword.” My body from the sword we can understand, but how do you deliver your soul

from the sword that must speak of something other than the physical. “My darling,” this is a

little word in Hebrew that you use for a daughter, for instance, a very precious daughter, my

darling one, or my dear one, “from the power, the poor of the dog,” it is literally the poor of the

dog, “save me from the lion’s mouth, and from the horns of the wild oxen.” Four things: sword,

poor of the dog, lion’s mouth, horns of the wild oxen. It’s all summed up somehow there. But

even so, I don’t think that we have touched really what our Lord went through, these are still

only the outer shallows of it all. It was not the physical pain or the loneliness, even death itself,

that was his supreme suffering, it was the untold anguish of the sinless one becoming sin for

us. That was his supreme suffering. When he knew what it was, having become our sin, to be

forsaken by God, for the only time in his being, and entering into an unknown and unexplored

darkness as he grappled with sin and Satan. I don’t think we can ever give, and it would not

even be right to give, if we could, a scientific formula for what happened on the cross, nor some

technical explanation of how the Lord Jesus was the Lamb of God, who bore away the sin of the

world. We cannot explain it. We only know that in those six hours, filled with awesome mystery,

Christ did something that no one else could do, and he saved our souls. There is, I believe, to

be perfectly honest I’d probably get into trouble in some quarters, but I don’t believe there’s

even a satisfactory theological answer to exactly what happened on the cross. All we know is

that the sinless one became sin, the righteous one became unrighteousness. The just one took

upon himself all the injustices of world history. We are in this psalm in the Holy of Holies. And

we are face to face with the mystery of the gospel. I sometimes wonder whether in our

preaching today, we have lost what the Scripture calls the mystery of the gospel. Now, I don’t

mean by that to make it sound mysterious, abstruse, vague, ethereal. I believe that we can

preach the gospel in the most concrete terms and yet preach it in such a way from such an

understanding at least a fathomless experience that it has always and will always be the

mystery of the gospel. It is something which only God can initiate us into. That is a true

mystery, not something which remains a mystery for us forever and ever. But it’s a secret

which God reveals to us, not that we understand it fully. But we have grasped something

through the ministry of the Spirit of God, that somehow Jesus became the sin of this world on

the cross. He who knew no sin, God made to be our sin, that we might become the

righteousness of God in Him, we are face to face with the mystery of the gospel. You will notice,

again in verse 15, the last part of the verse, “And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.”

You will also notice in some of your modern versions that here, they’ve got to work on this and

we have corrected renderings, and I don’t know what else. Why? Because they cannot

understand what it means, “Thou has brought me into the dust of death”. But the Hebrew is

simply, “Thou doest lay me in the dust of death”. That’s all, in death’s dust. And that is the

mystery of Calvary. It was God who in his predestinating council laid his son in the dust of

death. Well, here we are, we come in this, we are standing like, as it were, as I’ve said before in

other studies on the shore, of an ocean of unutterable anguish, of infinite suffering. We are

facing the price of redemption beyond human computation. There are four scriptures, which

help us to understand what happened here. Here they are, for those of you who want to just

note them down, I will give them to you. Four scriptures, which I think bring us to the heart of

this mystery. Isaiah 53 and verse 6, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every

one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” And the Lord had laid

on him, all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way. And here

is the mystery, and the Lord hath laid on him, the iniquity of us all. Now the word iniquity is the

strongest word in the Bible for sin, the iniquity of us all, strongest word in the whole of the Bible

for sin. And even more wonderful is the word which really cannot be adequately translated into

English, which we have, “hath laid on Him,” you will see, some of you, in your margins and

some of the versions you have, “Caused to gather, caused to meet on him”. And that’s just the

idea. It’s as if somehow or other the Lord has caused to come from the ends of the earth, every

sin, and it’s found its roosting place in our Lord Jesus Christ, as if God has gathered all the

iniquity, and all the evil and all the sin of the whole of human history, upon the person of his

son. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, all of human

history is included in that. It’s not national, it’s not racial, it is the whole of human history, the

whole of mankind is included, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The second

scripture is in the same chapter of Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 and verse 10. “Yet it pleased the Lord to

bruise him, he hath put Him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, He shall

see his seed, he shall prolong his…” Yet it has pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put Him

to grief. So behind all the sufferings of Calvary, though there were the Jewish people, though

there were the Gentiles, Pontias Pilate, and Roman soldiers, chief priests, and elders, and so on.

They were all gathered together in this evil motley crowd, yet behind it all it was the Lord. He

hath put Him to grief. It pleased the Lord, to bruise him. “When thou shalt make his soul

offering for sin.” Then John chapter 3 and verse 14. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the

wilderness, even so must the son of man, be lifted up”. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the

wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. We are quite well acquainted with the

fact that the Lord Jesus is called the Lamb of God. We understand that in biblical typology, but

it is even more remarkable when we find here that he is called “the lifted up serpent,” the

serpent in Scripture only ever refers to Satan. What then could this mean? How could the Lord

Jesus lifted up be like this serpent? Here we have come to the heart of the mystery is not just

sins for which the Lord Jesus died. He died for sin. And sin is the root, which bears the fruit. And

sin is the very poison of the serpent. Remember the Lord Jesus said, “ye are of your father, the

devil, he lied from the beginning, he was a murderer from the beginning and the works of your

father ye do.” The serpent is in us all. We are born with the serpent in us. And when the Lord

Jesus died, the Lamb of God became, as it were, the serpent. He took the sin of us all into his

own body. And then we have Matthew 26, as the last scripture, Matthew 26 and verse 31.

“Then saith Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended in me this night, for it is written, I will

smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.” It is quite interesting,

I will smite the shepherd, because the Lord Jesus deliberately changed the prophecy of

Zechariah from “smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered,” to “I will smite,” making

it much more strong. Meaning that his father was the one who would smite the shepherd, Jesus

himself said, “I am the good shepherd, The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep.”

He said, “This night, this will be fulfilled. God has said, I will smite the shepherd,” exactly what

happened. So now we have four things, listen very carefully. First we have, “All we like sheep

have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord had laid on him the

iniquity of us all.” Then we find, “it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him into grief.”

Then we find, “even as Moses lifted up the serpent, in the wilderness, even so much the Son of

Man be lifted up.” Some strange and mysterious thing happened in the work of the cross,

where the Lord Jesus grappled with the root to this whole problem of human history, and took it

into himself. And when that happened, God struck his own son. I will smite the shepherd, he

withdrew. And in that moment, out of the anguished heart of the Lord Jesus came those words,

which the universe had never heard before, and will never hear again, “My God, my God, why

hast thou forsaken me? He passes now into darkness, he passes out of our sight, we don’t know

exactly what happened. He goes into something beyond human comprehension. We only hear

this most terrible cry. And yet, we must remember this, this cry is not a cry of unbelief, but a

cry of faith in the midst of something untold and untellable. Have you noticed that the Lord

Jesus never said, “God, God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He used a quite tender term, he

said, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” I think we’ll leave it there this evening. I

will just say this, so we don’t leave it sort of too far down. I’ll just say this in the last three

minutes. The rest of the Psalm is one of the absolute triumph. From that verse 21, where it

seems that the Lord Jesus is not answered, and no one comes to his aid or help, from that

moment the whole thing turns into a song of exultation and triumph. You see in verse 21, and

from the horns of the wild oxen, thou doest answer me, I will tell of thy name to my brethren in

the midst of the assembly, I will praise thee. These verses thrill with triumph and the change is

quite dramatic and sudden. Discount all the versions giving corrections or probable renderings

and so on, you’ll see in your margin probable rendering so-and-so, correction so-and-so. I think

that the Hebrew is correct. Thou hast answered me we understand that. Because it explains

exactly what happened on the cross when the Lord Jesus, a little while after that cry of

dereliction, said, “Finished!” and then said, “Father into thy hand, I commend my spirit” and

died. The veil of the temple was torn in two. And it was exactly at that point, when he cried,

“Finished”. Scripture says, “A loud cry,” whether it was that word “finished” or whether it

followed it. It was that cry that betokened, the veil of the temple being torn in two, from top to

bottom, we shall never know what it costs Christ. What we do know is that he finished the work.

And perhaps the most lovely thing about this psalm and we’ll leave that to another time, but

one of the loveliest things about this psalm is the way it ends. For you see, it ends like this

using a word that’s so beautiful, “They shall come,” they shall come, this seed, “they shall come

and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born that he hath done it”. And

the word “done it” is very ordinary word for he’s “accomplished it” He has “performed it”, he

has “wrought it”, he has “made it”. He’s done it. When you sit back and think how amazing that

is that hundreds of years before Calvary, we had this explicit detailed prophecy. Listen to it

again. It is quite remarkable. From verse 29, the last part, I’ll read it in this version. It says, “He

who cannot keep himself alive,” or it could be just literally translated, “And as far as him that

could not keep his soul alive, his seed shall serve him.” “Yea, to him shall all the proud of the

earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even he who did not keep

his soul alive. A seed shall serve him; men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation, and

proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, that he has wrought it.” How wonderful it is

when you think of it. Oh, we’ll leave the rest of this psalm, I think to another evening, we can

look at it a little more fully. And just see how wonderful it is that last part of the Psalm as well in

the way that it speaks of the purpose of God fulfilled. Shall we pray? Dear Lord, we do bow

before thee this evening. We know Lord that in ourselves we cannot understand thy sufferings.

But Lord, what we would pray is that somehow something of the tremendous nature of what

thou didst do for us would dawn upon us and from thy word, Lord, it may come to us in a new

way. Just Lord what thou didst pass through for us. It is amazing to us Lord that thou doest love

us so greatly. We remember that little word that we saw often, Lord, read. Likely we pass over

so quickly. But his great love for the great love with which He loved us. Oh, Father how we

thank thee for this love. It is quite beyond us, Lord. And we cannot understand why thou

shouldst have suffered so greatly to win such ugly and insignificant and unworthy creatures

such as we, for Lord, we give the nothing but trouble. Even when we’re saved, we are so

rebellious, so difficult, Lord, so indifferent, so hard. Lord, we have to say that we cannot

understand it we marvel at such great love. And Lord, we rejoice that our Lord Jesus went

through it all for us, for no one else could do it, we couldn’t do it, and no one else could do it.

But he did it. And he finished it. And we thank thee Father. Wilt thou take this little study this

evening, Lord, and for those who have perhaps some doubts about the Word of God, start to

bring home Lord, something of the wondrous nature of thy word. Help us to understand that

we’re dealing with something Lord that’s not just men, but thy Spirit’s work. And we pray, Lord,

that with a right attitude, a humble and a meek, heart, a contrite spirit, we may learn from

thee, and thy word may be to us what it is, living and active and able Lord to discern the

intents and thoughts of the heart and a divide between soul and spirit. Father, do this work we

pray in every single one of us here this evening. Take this psalm, Lord and make it live to us in

a new way. May we read it and reflect upon it and meditate upon it Lord and burn into us

something more of what it meant to thee, the sinless one, to bear away our sin. We ask it

together in thy name. Amen.

Narrator: 01:08:16

May you know more fully how much God loves you. May you know the deep deep love of Jesus.