Yet You are Holy: Psalm 22

All right, if you would turn with me please to the 22nd Psalm. Psalm 22. Psalm 22. A very familiar psalm. I would imagine that Pastor Fry will be getting to it pretty soon. In fact, what were you, Psalm 21 last week?

Something like that? 20, 21? Somewhere around there. So I'm not trying to step on anyone's feet here with Psalm 22. It just happens to be where I went this evening. Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. O my God, I cry by day and you do not answer, and by night but I have no rest. Yet you are holy, O you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

In you our fathers trusted, they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were delivered, and you they trusted and were not disappointed. But I am a worm and not a man. I reproach of men and despise by the people.

All who see me sneer at me. They separate with the lip. They wag the head saying, commit yourself to the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him because he delights in him. Yet you are he who brought me forth from the womb.

You made me trust when upon my mother's breast. Upon you I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother's womb. Be not far from me for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bowls have surrounded me.

Strong bowls of bastion have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me 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 has melted within me.

My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. And you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet.

I can count all of my bones. They look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, oh Lord, be not far off. Oh, you, my help, hasten to my assistance.

Deliver my soul from the sword, my only life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, from the horns, the wild oxen. You answer me. I will tell of your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.

You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him and stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel. For he is not despised, nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him.

But when he cried to him for help, he heard. From you comes my praise and the great assembly. I shall pay my vows before those who fear him. The afflicted will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him will praise the Lord.

Let your heart live forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations will worship before you. For the kingdom is the Lord's and he rules over the nations.

All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust will bow before him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. Posterity will serve him. It will be told to the Lord of the coming generation.

They will come and will declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has performed it. The 22nd Psalm is of course a psalm that we are very familiar with, mainly because of all of its messianic properties.

There are so many fulfilled prophecies, so many times that the writers of the New Testament turned to this particular text and saw in it, especially the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

It is important for us to remember, I think, that the concept of crucifixion would not have been in the experience of David at his time in history. That was something that was yet to be developed. It probably came out of Persia.

The Romans took it and they perfected it, and it was a gruesome means of execution. It was reserved only for the very worst criminals. But it would not have been something that David would have observed.

So to see the statements that he makes, especially concerning they can count all of my bones, they surround me, they divide my garments, they have pierced me through. Some of you may not have been here, but about a year or so ago in Sunday school we talked about the actual reading there.

Most of the Hebrew manuscripts actually don't say they pierced me through. It talks about a lion, and the lion is mentioned a number of times in Psalm 22. But the oldest manuscript we have of the Psalter, which comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Greek Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, both have the reading that we have and that the New Testament might make reference to, and that is the piercing through, in I believe it's verse 16.

But I'm not looking at all the fulfilled prophecies this evening. I do mention this just simply to once again direct our thoughts just for a second to how amazing the concept of prophecy is, and how amazing it is to listen to modern men and how they get around this.

Some of you will recall about seven years ago now, I did a debate with a very well-known scholar by the name of John Dominic Crossan. Dr. Crossan is a very intelligent man. I've said many times he is the nicest heretic you'll ever meet.

I've told him that, by the way. The last time we corresponded he signed his email, Dom, your favorite heretic. So I've been up front about it. He knows where we're coming from. But I mentioned that from his perspective, that all you have in the New Testament, in the Gospel stories, is backwards fulfillment.

It is looking back at text like Psalm 22, and then creating a story to fulfill it. Now there are all sorts of problems with that, a massive number of problems with that, given how these folks normally have to make the Gospel stories very, very late, because if they were early, that wouldn't have worked.

Making up a myth when the people who were alive at the time this supposedly happened are still around doesn't work too well. But the amazing thing is, and I know that Dr. Crossan, if you just sort of step back and think about this, the amazing thing is that if you're trying to make up a religion in the first century of the Roman Empire, you the last thing that you would make the foundation of your entire religion would be a crucified leader.

There was nothing, I cannot possibly think of anything in our society that would be more reprehensible than the concept of a crucified leader. There would be no attraction in that whatsoever. And isn't that exactly what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1?

He says, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. And the whole idea of making it up and going back and, well, okay, this writer wouldn't have ever seen crucifixion, but we'll make it fit.

It just amazes me the lengths to which people will go. Now you know that these first words in the Hebrew text is actually verse 2. But Eloi, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. That's the Aramaic form. In Greek it's eli eli, my God, my God.

Repeated twice very frequently that is the way in the Hebrew language of emphasizing something. Like the holy of holies doesn't really mean the holy of holies. It means the holiest place. My God, my God.

Why, lama, why have you forsaken me? This is a psalm of David and there is a cry coming from the heart of a person here who truly does feel abandoned by God. And though we know the end of the story, though we know the end of Psalm 22 and the fact that this psalmist speaks of worshipping God again in the congregation and there's a vindication of the suffering servants and all of those things which is all very important because I think this is vital as to why Jesus says these words on Calvary's cross himself.

Still we cannot just skip over the fact that there are times even in the godly person's life when one does feel abandoned. When one does feel very much alone. Anyone who has read much in the way of spiritual literature, if you've read, and of course it is a requirement of membership here to have read Pilgrim's Progress, and every year at the business meeting I have to work very hard to keep Pastor Frye from bringing up a motion to have Pilgrim's Progress added to the New Testament, at least in our experience.

But you read literature like that and you know innately and you know by experience of reading it over and over again that no matter who we're talking about, no matter how great a man or woman of God, there are those times, even if the words do not come forth from the mouth in the way they do here at the beginning of Psalm 22, they exist in the mind.

They exist in the prayers. They exist in the honesty of the heart. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Not really the words of someone who has experienced just an immediate and brief difficult situation.

Those are the words of someone who has been walking through the valley for a period of time. It does seem that modern men get to the point of this complaint faster than men of the ancient world seem to.

It might only take a few hours before we are repeating these words. But it does seem that many, many are those in the history of faithful men and women of God who have experienced those times, sometimes lengthy periods of times, when they could say, far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.

Oh my God, I cry by day but you do not answer and by night but I have no rest. So this is something that's been going on and there is a continuing, a continual outpouring of the heart to God. And though, as I said, Psalm 22 provides an answer by the end of the psalm, there are some psalms that we have read that do not provide an answer by the end of the psalm.

Those are the ones that, if we're honest with ourselves, are not amongst our favorites. We like the ones that have a resolution. We like the ones that, by the end, we see the path. But there is one or two where the complaint of the psalmist goes to the end and there is no resolution.

Even in those, the resolution is meant to be understood. What do I mean by that? The psalmist says in verse 2 that he has been crying out. And notice it's interesting, even though he uses words of abandonment, why have you forsaken me?

Notice that the first words of verse 2 are in the second person. They're directly addressed to God. He has not actually lost faith that his words are known to God. In the same way, the very next words of Jesus from the cross are directed to the Father.

And so there remains, I think, even when the honest expression of heartfelt pain on the part of the believer, even in the context of that, there remains, in true saving faith, a confidence not only in God's existence but in his purposes.

And so even in the midst of this continual crying out, notice verse 3, you who are holy, O you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel, in you our fathers trusted, they trusted and you delivered them.

To you they cried out and were delivered. In you they trusted and were not disappointed. Now, I think what we need to take from the psalmist experience here is that the character of our God is something that we should consider to be very precious.

One of the things that separates true Christian worship from the religions of the world is so many of the religions of the world worship that which is merely a mystery, an unknown God. That's what paganism is all about.

And the people of Israel, one of the reasons they were disliked by the nations around them is they made the claim that they knew their God and their God had revealed himself and in fact he was the God of all the earth.

Those were all offensive things to the nations around about them. And the Christian people have always insisted that the most amazing element of our proclamation is that God has not only made himself known, he has actually made himself known by invading human history in the person of Jesus Christ.

And so a conviction about who God is, a knowledge of his nature, his attributes, his trustworthiness, his character is the first thing the psalmist turns to. The psalmist does not turn to an emotional experience.

He doesn't say, well I remember when I was on the mountaintop. I've had mountaintop experiences. I imagine every Christian in here has. Sometimes it's been on a mountaintop. You know, you go off to one of those wonderful camps and you're out in the woods and you have those spiritual experiences and they can be very powerful.

They can be life changing, but then you have to come down from the mountain. And yes, they can impact you and they can have a long lasting impact and you can look back upon those things. God can use all those things, but you don't look to your own experiences in the darkest part of the valley.

Instead the psalmist turns, not to himself, but the first words of positive affirmation, yet you are holy. You are, and that is a tremendous assertion. Kadosh, the very same word that the angels were saying as they fly around the throne in Isaiah chapter 6.

Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, holy, holy, holy is Lord of hosts. And I think what we can learn from this, when we talk about theology, when we take the time to look at our Bibles and we emphasize the holiness of God and his characteristics and his attributes and we look at what he's done in the past and we draw strength from all these things, that's not just some historical survey to give us something to do on a Sunday morning.

We need to know our God. We need to know that he's holy. How many people today who struggle with the message of Christianity do so because they don't have even a basic understanding of the attributes and character of God.

If you really know God is holy, you don't struggle with the idea of the necessity of the cross. And you look at the evil of mankind in a very different way than the humanist does because you see it in the light of God's holiness.

You don't judge God in the light of man's goodness. You judge man's evil heart in the light of God's holiness. And you see so many people have it backwards. So many people who call themselves Christians have it backwards.

And if we have it backwards up here, it's probably because we have it backwards in here as well. And so the first thing, you are holy, O you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. He recognizes, you know what, I am the creature of God.

He made me and he will fulfill his purposes in me and I will never be more fulfilled than when I am exactly where God's will has placed me. And I am happy with that and I am content with that and I recognize that and I'm thankful for that.

I recognize that my God has been the object of the worship of many generations before me. He is worthy of that worship and I dare not put him in the position of judging him in light of obviously the psalmist's very difficult situation.

And he takes courage in you our fathers trusted. Now we have a real tendency to lose balance. Not only do we see the tremendous imbalances that have been introduced by Roman Catholicism and its exaltation of early writers and the creation of a whole pantheon of demigods called saints.

But most of you know, Kelly and I just spent some time in Hawaii and you cannot help but see the discussions of the religions, the religion that the Hawaiian people had. And there is a very strong emphasis upon what?

Ancestor worship. The ancestors. The connection you have to the past. I even had a Hawaiian woman come up to me and her family is still very much involved in that kind of stuff and she was talking with me a little bit about that when I was in Hilo.

So we tend to lose balance here. Either on the one side we think that we are just smarter than anyone who has ever lived before. I mean I've got an iPhone that makes me better than anyone who has ever lived before, right?

Or we go the other direction and somehow we invest in the people of the past, some kind of religious authority that the scriptures never give to them. There is a place of balance. And what we can recognize, in you our fathers trusted, they trusted and you delivered them.

To you they cried out and were delivered. In you they trusted and were not disappointed. Even though I'm still in the middle of needing deliverance and I'm crying out to you day and night, I have not forgotten that my forefathers did this and sometimes they did it longer than I have, but you eventually delivered them.

And so since you're holy, since you're unchanging, then I am going to trust in your nature. And I'm not going to look at my own situation, I'm not going to judge God by my timetable, I am going to look and I am going to learn from those who have come before me.

They may not have been perfect, but this is what God did with them. I can learn from their wisdom. I can learn the wisdom of calling upon God and being confident in so doing and continuing to do so. I don't have to elevate them to do that.

Recognize that they were human beings and yet God was at work within them. And so the first words out of our mouths in the midst of trial and tribulation, what are they? Do we question that God really loved us?

God has really loved me, you wouldn't be putting me through this. I think any believer has to very seriously recognize that God's love for us cannot be questioned. If you understand the cross, you can never question God's love.

If you have cast yourself upon Christ in that way, if you find in him the only possible way of salvation, his righteousness is sufficient for you and you cling to nothing else. There can never be a question of God's love.

We can never entertain a question of the goodness of God. Clearly the psalmist give us the go ahead to express to God the deepest feelings of hurt, abandonment and pain in our hearts. But that's not the same thing as doing something different than what the psalmist here does, because even in the midst of his saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, he says, but you are holy.

I know the one I'm crying out to. I know you've delivered others before me. Deliver me, please. And yet so often, so often we find that our complaints to God are tinged with unbelief. They're tinged with complaints based upon, well, immaturity.

And how many times have you gone through a lengthy trial and lengthy tribulation and you said to yourself, I will never forget the lessons I've learned here. God brings you through. You see how he did it.

You look back upon it. You just go, my, how God worked in that way. I'll never forget this. And how many months was it until you were packed in the same situation and you're saying, how did you know that?

Because I've been there. Every one of us in here, if you've walked with the Lord for any period of time, knows exactly what I'm talking about. How quickly we forget the lessons we're supposed to be learning.

We can't get out of our minds things from our past. We exposed ourselves to evil, but we can't remember the godly things that we've learned from those difficult situations. Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing?

And so, my emphasis this evening, simple question. When you express your complaint to God, Lord, you haven't delivered me. I've been crying by day. You haven't answered. By night, I have no rest, is the next line out of your mouth, yet you are holy.

That's the believers, unbelievers will say things like, do you care? Are you there? Do you not have the power to deliver? Do I need to be looking to some other God? Those are all the statements of unbelief.

The believers' response is, yet, despite my experience right now, I know you are holy. You are set apart. I will not bring you before my tribunal and judge you. I know that I will stand before yours. That truly, I think, is something we can take from this particular.

Now, I'm really hoping, of course, that that wasn't last Wednesday night's text. It wasn't. It may be a couple of Wednesday nights yet to come, but we'll see. We'll see.