Episode Transcript
If you will turn to the psalms, to the 22nd Psalm. The 22nd Psalm. I will read this psalm this evening in the New American Bible.
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Far from my deliverance of the words of my roaring?
O my God I cry by day, but Thou dost not answer, and by night but there is no silence.
Yet Thou art holy, o Thou who art enthroned upon the praises of Israel in Thee our fathers trusted, they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. To Thee they cried out, and were delivered. In Thee they trusted and were not disappointed.
But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me. They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, commit thyself to the Lord. Let Him deliver him, let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.
Yet Thou art He who didst bring me forth from the womb. Thou didst make me trust when upon my mother's breasts. Upon Thee I was cast from birth. Thou hast been my God from my mother's womb.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan 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 is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. And Thou dost lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers have encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me, they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But Thou, O Lord, be not far off.
O Thou 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 and from the horns of the wild oxen, Thou dost answer me. I will tell of Thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the assembly, I will praise Thee. 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 has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither has He hid His face from him. But when he cried to Him for help, He heard. From Thee comes my praise in the great assembly. I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him. The afflicted shall 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 Thee. 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 did not keep his soul alive. Posterity will serve Him. It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born that He has performed it.
Introduction
Now this evening we will come to this second and last study on the 22nd Psalm. I will not go over what we said last week. You will remember that we simply said that this psalm is perhaps one of the most remarkable parts of the Word of God, in that we know that it was written at least in the second century before our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet we have here in this psalm the most detailed, almost journalistic account of the scene at Calvary anywhere in the Bible, including the Gospel records. Even the gospel records are not so vivid and graphic as this psalm. And it is, of course, remarkable for this reason, that whereas the records in the Gospels are the records of eyewitnesses beholding the sort of events, the incidents that were taking place around the cross and on the cross, this psalm is an eyewitness account from the eyes and through the eyes of the One who is suffering on the cross.
That, I think, is the most remarkable thing of all. And, well, I can't say any more about that. We said quite a bit about it last week. And then another thing we pointed out was that this psalm is quite remarkable. No one of reputable scholarship has ever suggested that this psalm was anything but the work of one hand. And yet this psalm, perhaps more than many other parts of the word, is clearly divided into two: the first half of the psalm, right up to verse 21, and the first part, "save me from the lion's mouth," is really all dark. It's darkness, distress, affliction.
It can be summed up in those words, "Thou hast not answered me," or in the old version, verse 2, "but Thou answerest not, but Thou answerest not." And from the last phrase of verse 21 right through to the end of the psalm, we have the most marvellous paean of praise. There is no darkness here, no distress, no affliction at all. It is all joy and praise and worship and triumph. And of course, we can take as the sentence that covers that last part of the psalm the phrase in the last part of verse 21, "Thou hast answered me." "Thou answerest me not." "Thou hast answered me."
We have already dwelt last week upon the first half of this psalm. And we have said… We've looked at it. We've seen something of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ for us. We must say again that those physical sufferings of His, the sufferings of His mind and of His body, whilst we cannot devalue them for one single moment, are the very smallest fraction of what He passed through.
His real suffering was not physical death, nor being crucified. It wasn't the nails that made Him suffer. It wasn't just the jeering of people or being a reproach of men despised by the people, not esteemed.
That was not the thing that made our Lord suffer. The thing that made Him suffer was the fact of the sinless One being made our sin. When, for the first moment in His being, He was alienated from God, divorced from His Father, when, as it were, the Father turned away from Him, when He became the sin of the world. We have no scientific formula, not even a theological formula which is satisfactory as to what our Lord passed through. We only know that this universe, heaven itself, heard the most terrible cry that has ever left the lips of a human being: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
Now this evening we come to the second part of this psalm. We have been on the shore of an ocean that is fathomless, that is really… We are not able to explore it. We are on the brink of something which we see, something which we partly understand, and something which is totally incomprehensible to us. There's the paradox.
When we come to the last part of this Psalm, from verse 21, the last part of verse 21, right through to verse 31, we have come to this wonderful song of triumph. I've entitled it "The Absolute Triumph of Christ." The first part we entitled "The Awful Forsakenness of Christ." Now these verses thrill with triumph. It doesn't matter where you look, every verse seems to thrill with triumph. When we start, "I will declare Thy name unto my brethren. The midst of the assembly or the church 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." It goes all the way through - the whole thing thrills with triumph, thrills with fulfilment. The change is dramatic.
If you read through the psalm, the change is absolutely dramatic. Sudden, without almost any warning. There's no build up to it. First the Lord is saying in these words, "deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power, or paw, of the dog, save me from the lion's mouth." And then suddenly, without warning, the whole thing changes. "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 church will I praise Thee." And then the whole great psalm, as it were, of praise begins. It is sudden, seemingly inexplicable, quite out of place. "Thou hast answered me." The whole cry of the first part of this psalm is, "Thou hast not answered me. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Thou hast not answered me. Our fathers cried out, they were delivered."
Suddenly this shout of triumph.
"Thou hast heard me." And what a remarkable phrase itt is. No wonder some of our more modern translators, without too much living faith, have decided that they ought to correct this verse. You will notice in some of your versions it says at the bottom, "correction" or "conjectured rendering," or one or two other things like that. Take no note of them.
The Hebrew is exactly this: "From the horns of the wild oxen, Thou hast answered me," or "Thou dost answer me."
What an extraordinary combination.
I can quite understand that those who have no faith and no understanding should say, well, this can't be it. There must be another meaning. So your Revised Standard Version puts "deliver my afflicted soul from the horns of the wild oxen." You will see that correction on the basis of the Syriac.
And there are one or two other things. You'll find your modern versions where they've… there's a conjectured rendering.
The fact of the matter is, it's quite extraordinary. The horns of the wild oxen - on the horns of the wild oxen. Not just simply the horns of the wild oxen charging towards me. He is on the horns of the wild oxen. They've got Him. They've got Him. And at the very moment that the powers of darkness have savaged Him, at that moment, God answers Him.
In the moment that He became the sin of the world, in the moment that it seemed that Satan triumphed, at the moment the darkness filled the whole universe, even the sun hid its face. In the moment that God turned away from His Son, in the moment that the sword of God fell upon His own beloved and only begotten Son, in that moment God answered Him.
And how did God answer Him? He didn't save Him from death.
Remember, this was the cross. This isn't speaking of the resurrection.
How did God answer? I suggest that God answered Him by answering the deepest longing of the heart of our Saviour. What, may I ask, was the deepest longing in the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ to save us?
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends," He said. In another place, "I lay down my life. It's not taken from me. I lay it down of myself. I will take it again."
I suggest that the deepest longing of the Saviour's heart was answered by God not answering His more superficial cry.
"From the horns of the wild oxen Thou hast answered me."
Oh, what a mystery we're up against here.
Something so inexplicable, so incomprehensible, so utterly beyond us. If the sufferings of our Lord are beyond us, so is this wonderful scripture. "From the horns of the wild oxen Thou hast answered me."
How and why is there…. In what way do we… What is the reason for this dramatic change from darkness and distress and affliction and forsakeness to the cry of triumph?
It comes so suddenly, as I've said, so unexpectedly. There's no build up to it. There's not an inkling anywhere in the first 21 verses that suddenly the mood is going to dramatically change and all is going to be praise and fulfilment and joy and salvation to the ends of the earth.
What is the reason for it? What is the key to it? I suggest that the key is simply found in the Gospels, that after the Lord Jesus cried with a loud voice and said, "It is finished," the veil of the temple was rent in two.
In that moment the salvation of us all was accomplished. The way into the holiest place of all was made open. The veil was torn in two. We shall never know how much it cost Christ.
What we do know is this, that He finished the work. The veil was rent in two. Now the whole of human history can be described, interpreted by a lock and barred door into the kingdom of God. From the moment man fell, when those cherubim with the sword of flame stood by the tree of life and guarded it, from that day onwards, all through Scripture we find a barrier between God and man. Now, symbolically, it was found in the veil of the tabernacle. It was found in the veil of the temple. That great heavy veil that hung between the holiest place of all and the holy place through which no one could pass. And on that veil were embroidered great cherubim.
Of course, that was symbolic.
The fact was that there was an impassable barrier, an impassible gulf, an unbridgeable chasm between God and man.
Man could never achieve his utopia. He dreamed of a golden millennium. He dreamed of a paradise that was just round the corner. He dreamed always of some glorious utopia that would, in the end, come to earth. He would produce it. He would produce it by his own energies, by his own resources, through his own ingenuity, somehow or other, he would overcome sickness, he would overcome corruption, he would overcome cruelty, he would overcome strife, he would overcome the breakdown of human relations. He would overcome all these things and bridge himself the chasm between this unhappy life and this paradise that men all always dream about.
No one is a human being if they do not have within them the dream of a utopia.
When that dream is extinguished, we become subhuman.
Every human being has that dream. The younger you are, the more idealistic you are. Life usually takes its toll as we go through it, and the utopia tends to vanish.
But when we're young, we still believe that man can build that tower that will reach unto heaven, that, like the Tower of Babel, some construction out of human resources and through human energy that will bridge the gulf between earth and heaven, which will bring heaven onto earth and overcome sin and the curse.
But God has put a barrier between man and Himself, between a fallen mankind and Himself. And the barrier is there not through any harsh hatred or severity on the part of God. But the barrier is there because of the love of God.
God will not allow that thing which has destroyed human life and robbed millions of joy and peace and eternal life. He will not allow it to pass over into the kingdom and so destroy that like some cancer.
The barrier is there. You find it all the way through the Bible. The barrier is there, whether the tabernacle, whether the temple - there is the barrier. Standing, resolute, firm, strong, unyielding.
It never budged an inch.
Once a year, symbolically, the high priest went through that veil and he went through first with blood for himself, because he himself was a sinner. And he took through the blood of the sacrifice for the sins of the whole people.
It was a symbolic token that one day, by the grace of God, the blood of a perfect one would win our salvation and do something about the barrier.
No prophet, no patriarch, no holy man of God, no king.
None of them were able to cause that barrier to yield until Christ came.
And although there was an open heaven for Christ, there was no barrier between Him, even as a man, and God. There was an open heaven. He was transfigured in glory, meaning that He reached the zenith of human perfection, meaning that He got to the place where Adam should have got to in the beginning, but fell. For it says he sinned. We all sin. There's no difference. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus did not fall short of the glory of God. On the mount of transfiguration, He was glorified. He was transfigured in glory. And not, as I've often said to you, but I'll say it again for the sake of those who have not heard it before, that glory was not like some spotlight coming out of heaven shining upon Him and sort of somehow or other showing up every feature. That glory came from within Him. And it was so amazing that His very skin, His very flesh, His very body became different, and the clothes became different. It radiated out of Him. He became the kind of man that the first Adam should have been.
The first Adam should have come there. After Adam served a probation, he should have come to the point of glory, and he would have. His body would have undergone a physical change. He would have got a kind of what we now call a resurrection body. But that's by the way, the fact of the matter is that the Lord Jesus reached that point as a man and then deliberately came down from that mount of transfiguration and went to Calvary, His face set like a flint, because He was perfect. Not only sinless, but perfect. Now He could go forward to Calvary to be the sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.
All hell came out against Him to stop Him. That's why I'm interested in that rendering which seems to be quite faithful to the Hebrew, where it says, "O my God, I cry by day, but Thou dost not answer; by night, but there is no silence." What a mysterious phrase - "but there is no silence." Did that mean that all the time there were a thousand demonic voices screaming in His ear, whispering in His ear, seeking to deflect Him, divert Him? We don't know. But all we know is this, that the whole of Hell was mobilised to stop Him from getting to Calvary. Gethsemane was the great battle, the great conflict of the ages, to stop this man from getting to Calvary.
And there are those who believe that the Lord Jesus nearly died physically under the sheer pressure of the satanic powers. An angel came and strengthened Him, it says, that He might go through. Before the worst part of Gethsemane, an angel appeared and strengthened Him.
The battle was won.
Jesus had peace.
He went forward from that moment, no more battle. He went forward that moment with absolute peace to Calvary. We never hear a word of complaint. We don't hear a cry out of His lips. Only, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do."
Or some other beautiful words from the lips of our Saviour.
Then on the cross He enters His life work.
And it was at that point when He cried, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" Upon which this whole psalm is based.
A thousand years before it happened, when He cried that, when He lost His peace because He'd become the sin of the world, your sin, my sin. "All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
Now it was at that point when He was on the horns of the wild ox. And we don't know what they did to Him. We don't know how they savaged Him. We don't know what it meant for His soul to come into the hands, the clammy, cruel hands of the power of darkness. Jesus said, "Now is the hour of the power of darkness."
Their hour had come.
We don't know what it means. But suddenly we hear in the psalm something we don't hear on the cross: "Thou hast answered me."
The deepest longing of His heart had been answered.
He'd gone through with it.
He had accomplished the work of our salvation - finished. And at that moment, the veil which symbolised the impassable barrier between God and man, the unbridgeable chasm between heaven and earth, suddenly that veil was rent in two from top to bottom. It was torn open.
I think, I said, in the studies on the Gospel of Mark.
How do we know that? I think it must have been from the company of the priests that got converted. You know, it says in the Book of Acts that shortly after the day of Pentecost, a great company of priests were converted, born of God and became true believers. Somewhere amongst those courses of priests, there must have been those who were on duty that day who'd never seen such a thing. For them, it was sacrilege, blasphemy. For them, while going about their duties, suddenly to hear that sound. It must have sounded like a great wind. Some great noise, we would say today, like an express train roaring through the building. And then they looked, and the thing was torn open from top to bottom, hanging as it were, down. Now let me just say that this veil was no small thing. It was twice the height of this room and almost twice the breadth of this room, and was a man's hand thick.
That's what Josephus tells us, a man's hand thick.
So thick, I suppose that would be what, six, seven inches?
Huge thing.
It was torn open.
Now of course, you see here is the wonder of the word of God. I can't understand people who have questions about the Bible.
Where in the [Old] Testament do we find what the Lord Jesus said?
We don't, but here, a thousand years before, if it is by the hand of David, or at least two centuries before Christ died, if we take the most liberal scholarship, we find the very words of the Lord Jesus.
"I will declare Thy name unto my brothers; in the midst of the church will I sing praise to Thee."
That time there was no church. What a cry. What a cry of faith. What a cry of triumph. It had been done. From henceforth an innumerable multitude from the ends of the earth would come in an endless stream to God through Jesus Christ.
At that time it was only Jewish people.
Good believing Jewish people with a long history of the ways of God.
There were those faithful ones who had waited and waited and waited. There was that little band of disciples. Disillusioned, they'd all denied their Lord. There was just that little group, the mother of our Lord and the other women, the Marys and John and Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea that were a way off from the cross.
They were a little token of what was going to happen. 3,000 on the day of Pentecost. Within weeks, 5,000. It spread out and out and out and out and out until every tongue and tribe and nation was touched.
In that moment, according to this psalm, the Lord Jesus, in faith, in triumphant faith as it were, says these words. "I will declare Thy name unto my brothers; in the midst of the church will I sing Thy praise." And what wonderful words they are. "Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him." Well, that includes everybody who fears the Lord. Whatever background, nationally or racially, "all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him and stand in awe of Him. All the seed of Israel."
And so it goes on. "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 or church." Oh, oh, how wonderful it is when we see this sudden change. It's a long cry of glorious triumph and praise. If our Lord had gone to the depths of hell, He now ascends to heaven's highest place.
If He had gone into the blackness of darkness, now He is crowned with glory and honour. If He was crucified in weakness, He is raised in power.
If He is one single being on the cross, in His death He is to multiply into an innumerable company of the redeemed.
No man can number that great multitude. Christ returns, in the words of the old hymn, with the foiled usurper's crown.
It had cost everything to wrest from that usurper, the crown that was not his but Christ's.
He comes back with the blood of an everlasting covenant.
Oh, there are so many scriptures that we can think of. I think of those wonderful ones where it says again and again He was waiting till His enemies become the footstool of His feet. All this we find in this psalm. If you will take it now we'll just have a quick look at some of the wonderful thoughts that are in it. First of all, we'll go to the very end of the psalm to verse 31. "They shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done it." He hath done it. Or the American, the new American Bible says "He hath performed it." And another version says, "He hath wrought it." But the word is simply, "He hath done it." He hath made it. He has accomplished it. The thing is finished.
How wonderful that is. The work of our salvation is completed. You don't have to add one single thing to the work of your salvation. You don't have to cross a T. You don't have to dot an I. It's all done.
He did it. All done - the work of your salvation. What a wonderful word. "They shall come," it says, "they shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done it." Are you in that?
Can you say, "I am in this verse. By the grace of God, I am one of these people that shall be born who'd been born many generations afterwards. Someone came to me and declared His righteousness. They told me that my righteousness were as filthy rags. My righteousness meant nothing as far as salvation was concerned. By my righteousness, I couldn't win a way into heaven. Someone came and told me that the word of God gave me the good news concerning God's Son, came to me that it is His righteousness and His righteousness alone that counts with God."
"They shall come and they shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born." What about… What do they say? Just tell us that His righteousness is the only righteousness that will ever get anyone into heaven.
How can anyone of us get into heaven? Clean hands and a pure heart. Who has clean hands? Some have got clean hands. But have they got a pure heart?
Doesn't it find everyone out?
Who will ever find their way into heaven? If God says "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." That's not a relative thing. It's not that I am better than so and so, that this person over here is a pretty rotten type, but I'm better than him. Therefore I stand more chance of getting into the kingdom of God or into heaven.
Here is an absolute standard. Holiness.
"Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord."
That closes heaven to every one of us, shuts us all out. There's no way in for others.
We've fallen short of the glory of God. We may have come even near to it, some of us, by our decency and goodness, one way or another. But we've all fallen short of it. Whether by far or by little, we've all fallen short of it. The perfect standard of God's righteousness is Jesus Christ. And if I don't measure up to that kind of righteousness, there's no hope of my getting into the kingdom of God. There is no hope of my beholding the face of God. There is no hope of me standing in an acceptable way before God. But listen to the Word again. Let me read this word. So many thousands coming down from the years, thousands of years ago. "They shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born." What? To mock us? To mock us. To tell us that He was the only righteous one that ever lived. That to Him belongs the kingdom of God. That to Him the gates have lifted up their heads that He has passed through. No - that He hath done it.
He has performed it. What has He performed? What has He done?
He has wrought our salvation.
He was not content that He should come to glory. He was not content that He should be transfigured in glory as a perfect man.
He wanted to bring many sons unto glory.
And so the Word comes. "They shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born that He hath done it."
Oh, dear, dear friend. Where is your trust tonight? Is it in that work that the Lord Jesus has accomplished? In that work that He hath done - the work of our salvation. We tend to think of this as kindergarten stuff, as if it's just evangelistic in the sense that it is for those who know not the Lord, but oh child of God. I think something like at least 75, perhaps 80%, perhaps a higher percentage of our problems go back to the fact that we are weak on the matter of our justification. We are weak on the matter of our standing before God. I stand before God not because there is one whit of righteousness in me, but because He is righteous and He has saved me. That is my standing before God.
Is it yours?
There is no other plea. There is no other way. Then again, look at these wonderful verses in verse 22 and verse 25. We've mentioned them once or twice. I'll come back to them in a little moment. Verse 28. "For the kingdom is the Lord's and He is the ruler over the nations." Oh, what a wonderful thing. Then we've come to here first. We have a church. We have a church. And in the midst of this church He sings the praise of God. Who is the He? It is the Lord Jesus. Did you ever know that the Lord Jesus sang? He sang.
Well, come to that again a little later. But here you have the realised purpose of God. It says in Ephesians 3 and verse 10 and 11 it says, "according to the eternal purpose which He realised in Christ Jesus our Lord, which He has set forth in Christ Jesus our Lord, which is purposed in Christ Jesus." The thing has not only been purposed, it's been set forth. It's been realised.
Here we have it. The kingdom is the Lord's. The foiled usurper's crown is back in the rightful hands.
The kingdom is the Lord's and He is ruler over the nations. Not He shall be. He is. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.
And then again you think of Psalm 47, where it says God reigneth over the nations.
It comes again and again and again. The eternal purpose of God is realised. We are in the in-between. The thing is done and yet not fully yet publicly manifested. But what a wonderful thing it is when the Lord Jesus said, the kingdom of God has come to you.
Don't look for it here or there. It is within.
The kingdom of God has come. What does He mean? He means that first of all, the throne of God has moved into your inside of your life. It's come into you. The King has come in His power to you.
That's what it means to say Jesus is Lord.
No man can say Jesus is Lord, but by the Spirit. But many people can say Lord in a kind of outward way they can. Although sometimes you'll find people find it much harder than you imagine. Nevertheless, I'm not too sure about this test that some people give, some people say He's Lord, to see if there's any evil there.
I think that what it means, no man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Spirit means no one can yield himself, surrender to the headship and lordship of Jesus Christ. But by the work of the Holy Spirit.
We have a terrible battle over this. Sometimes we want to surrender, but we can't. We are saved people. We want to, but we can't.
Oh, there's rebellion in us. It's the work of the Holy Spirit coming upon us and right into us and upon us that will help us to yield to Jesus as Lord.
There's no other way. I don't know of any other way. I know many people got. Quite honestly, people who've got lots of spiritual knowledge. You wait, you see it happen. Suddenly the law begins to move and they resent it. They rebel against it. They start sort of getting all prickly.
But it's strange. These are people who know the word. These are people who are spiritual people. But. Yes, but sometimes it's not so easy to yield to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord. Only the Spirit can help us.
What a wonderful thing it is when the Holy Spirit really does something in our hearts so that He really is Lord. We're prepared to go right with Him all the way. Oh, there are so many other things that we could look at here. Verse 29 and verse 30. Look at these words. All the fat ones of the earth. Maybe that's a comfort to some. All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship. Now, so often we tend to think of those who are fat as something evil. You know, we think of someone who's fat as a picture somehow of perhaps evil. But the scripture doesn't. May this be a comfort to those of you who are plumper.
The scripture looks upon plumpness or fatness as prosperity.
And those of you from the east will know that. You will know that in the old days, not so much now, a large lady was much in demand because they were looked upon as coming from a very good family, someone who was well fed, someone who was plumpish and sort of thing that was sign of prosthetics, a sign of. Of heaven's favour. And that's really, in one way what this means. All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship. I mean, you wouldn't think fat ones would need to eat, but here they are. These ones, they can eat and worship.
All they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him.
That is, those who finally will die. They also will worship Him. What a wonderful thing. They will bow before Him because they found the one who has eternal life. And then it says, even he who did not keep his soul alive. Here again you've got some different renderings because not everyone has been able to understand it. But it is even he who did not keep his soul alive. Or it can even be another rendering. You can render it. And as for him that could not keep his soul alive, his seed shall serve Him. You can render it that way as well.
A seed shall serve Him. It shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation.
A seed shall serve Him. Now you must remember that this one who died on the cross, there was no seed.
Indeed, when He came to die upon the cross those who were nearest and dearest to Him had denied Him.
All had fled. Only His mother and a few other of the ladies.
And John, after his first collapse, evidently was the first to recover, kept at a good distance. Although he did move up to the cross one point with the mother of our Lord. But they. There was no seed. You couldn't really call that a seed.
But you see, here is the great cry of triumph. A seed shoe. And what a seed.
What a seed.
I think of the good. The Quakers. They always used to speak of the good seed and the bad seed, the good seed. Those who have been born of God.
And then you will see in verse 26, another wonderful thing. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek after Him. Let your heart live forever.
What a wonderful word that is. Let your heart live forever.
That seems to me to speak of some joy, some eternal life. Something in the nature of eternal life. Something in the nature of eternal joy and satisfaction. Peace.
Surely all of this is summed up in those words in verse 22. I will declare Thy name to my brethren. In the midst of the church will I praise Thee. You will see that one or two of your versions is congregation, and in other versions it is assembly. But in the New Testament, where this is quoted in the New Testament, it is always quoted in Hebrews, for instance, Hebrews 2, it is quoted in the midst of the church. Well, I praise Thee, quoting the old Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, which uses the same word for church as is commonly used in the New Testament in the midst of the church. Well, I praise Thee. Now it seems to me that these are matchless words, words that I think most of us take far too lightly because we are familiar with them to a certain extent, they've never really sunk into us. It was to obtain the church that Christ suffered so terribly. If you turn to Ephesians 5, to well known verses, Ephesians 5 and verse 25, 27, we read these words.
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for it. That He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word. That He might present the church to Himself. A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Christ had suffered in a way that is beyond human computation to obtain this church.
And now we hear these matchless words in the midst of the church. Will I praise Thee. No wonder the Lord has joy. I don't think it just means those gathered in glory. I think on a Sunday morning the Lord is the most joyful person in our midst. When there's no sin and when our lives are right with God. Oh, the joy of the Lord. The most joyful person in the morning gathering of the people of God, or any gathering of the people is the Lord.
He looks and says, you know, you have no idea what it costs me to bring you to this place.
And if no one else sings a hymn of joy, it is He. He is the one who sins.
I wonder whether we ever think of that. I've often thought we talk in terms as if the Lord will bless us and if the Lord will come and stand in our midst. And if we are the people who rule running everything, and we ask the Lord, come in, Lord, you know, be with us, Lord, and so on. I don't think it's like that at all. I think the Lord's here long before any of us. Standing here, maybe that would cure quite a lot of misbehaviour. I don't know. If we thought that here was the Lord here, my word would be a bit more punctual and there'd be many other things that would change. He's here waiting for us. Oh, you don't know how glad I am to see you. You see, that's the whole value sometimes of prophecy. When the Lord says a word to us, See, people are so, you know, when they just got the word, they come in and they get so familiar. They come in, they don't. They don't think, the Lord says. Suddenly the Lord breaks to us and says, I'm here.
I've been here waiting for you.
I love you. I've been here waiting with such joy to greet you this morning. You know, it cost me everything to make this possible, that we, you and I together, we might have a time of praise.
And the Son is praising the Father in the midst of the church. Will I praise Thee?
It is if the Son is saying, Father, look in, Father. Thank you. Here they are, all of them.
Every one of them. It's cost me my lifeblood, I put such a value on them. Some of them don't put much value on one another.
Who says? One over there saying, good old so and so.
Shame they don't clean up a bit.
Oh, so and so should do this and should do that for the Lord.
No, no failing, no mistake in any way. No sin passes.
The Lord sees it all in one sense. But, oh, He knows the value He's put on every one of us. There's not a bit of human flotsam or jetsam that the Lord doesn't love, and that doesn't mean something to the Lord. And when He there in the gathering, He's such a joy in the midst of the church. Well, I praise Thee. I thought so much about this. I thought, well, you know, where did that church come from? Where did it come from? Well, it's interesting. If you look at John 19, you will remember that after He cried, finished, after the veil had been torn in two, after He. He commended His spirit, Spirit into the hands of His Father and died, a soldier came up and pierced His side, and out of it there came blood and water. Now if you look at John 19, you will see that the apostle John makes very much of this.
I will read you these verses 34 and 35. How be it? One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and straightway there came out blood and water. And he that hath seen, hath borne witness. And his witness is true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that ye also may believe. Now, what is John getting so excited about? Why is he emphasizing this thing as if to him this is of tremendous importance? Someone says, well, isn't it our salvation? No, it isn't. In one sense. I don't think it is our salvation. Here our salvation was one when the Lord Jesus had finished by His death.
What then is the meaning of this blood and water that John speaks about so much? If we turn to 1 John, chapter 5, we have very mysterious words. 1 John 5, verse 6. Now here is John again writing. Now, obviously this matter of blood and water meant a lot to John because He says in 1 John 5, 6, this is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ.
Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness. Because the Spirit, Spirit is truth. Now, isn't that funny? It's just what John said before. He said about his witness. And he saith, true, that ye also may believe. For there are three who bear witness. The Spirit and the water and the blood.
The Spirit, the water and the blood. What does it mean? What does it mean? I can only believe it means this, that just you remember going right back to Genesis 2, when there was no help meet found for Adam, when there was nothing that answered to Adam. You remember God brought before Adam all the animals of the creation for him to name, with the idea of trying to find out whether Adam knew that there was an emptiness in his heart and in his life. And Adam named these animals, and it says two, three times, and there was no help meet for found for him. Nothing that answered him. Nothing that answered him. They were lovable creatures, some of them. Others perhaps not quite so lovable. But he gave them names and they went on their way. But there was nothing that answered to him. And then God put him to sleep and opened his side and took out flesh and bone. And with that flesh and bone formed woman.
Now He woke Adam. And Adam didn't say, oh, now this is lovable or unlovable. I call it so and so goodbye. He said, this is me.
It was an essential difference. He didn't say, oh, very nice. We'll call it such and such. Where is it going to graze?
Or he didn't say, well, I don't. That's nothing to do with me. That's okay. That's a good creation. Lord. I don't know where it came from, but it says it's remarkable creation.
His first words were, if you look in Genesis 2, this is me. He said, this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. This is woman because she's been taken out of man. She is the other half of man.
Not an unequal half, but the other half, the complement of the man, the other half of the human being, in one sense the complete. Well, isn't that amazing? Now we come right down through the ages to the Lord Jesus Christ, and God puts Him to sleep on the cross. If we use the words of Genesis as if He was put to sleep. And then His side is open. And out of His side is taken water and blood.
And the Spirit takes the water and the blood and forms a bride.
These three bear witness. The Spirit, the water and the blood. Now do you understand the last words of the Bible? And the Spirit and the bride say, come.
You see here we've got this word again. I will declare Thy name to my brethren. In the midst of the church will I praise Thee, formed by the Spirit of God from the water and the blood that flowed out of my side. Water, His life and nature. Blood, His finished work.
The blood stands and represents the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. His soul poured out unto death for us.
And the water speaks of the Spirit of life, His life, for us, His resurrection, life and power, His nature. If we have been saved by His death, how much more shall we be saved? If we've been reconciled, I think it is by His death. How much more shall we be saved by His life?
What a salvation.
Here we are, the Church of God. Do we understand how much it cost the Lord to do this for us? Do we understand what it means to God to have brought us into this relationship with Himself and with one another? But I must go on so that I can finish this. In the midst of the church will I praise Thee. What wonderful words. Again we've thought of the word church. In the midst of the church will I praise Thee. I thought of those words we sang in Zephaniah. What marvellous words they are. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.
He is in the midst of thee. A mighty one who will say, that's my version. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in His love.
He will joy over thee with singing.
It goes the whole gamut of. Well, I was going to say of excitement, but that perhaps is to devalue the Lord. I don't know. But what I mean is this, that when a person's in love, they go through all kinds of emotions, don't they? First they sing, then they talk, and then they're silent. But it's all love, so you can judge that sometimes. Don't think that when a person's in love, they all talk. Because sometimes he says, the Lord will be silent in His love. He will rest in His love. He will be silent, so overjoyed that there comes times when He just sinks back into quietness and reflects.
He sees something so wonderful about us. I don't know what He sees in us.
Some people say He sees Himself in us. Well, I suppose that's so. But I'm not so sure the Lord's quite so self-centred as that. I think He sees in us qualities. He sees something. He sees, of course, His own nature. But He sees something so original, something which is you. And He loves it.
He just loves it.
So it says, He will joy over thee with singing. He will be silent in His love. He will rejoice over thee with joy. Oh, what a picture of our Lord. I will declare Thy name to my brothers in the midst of the church I will praise Thee.
And then again of the.
Is my praise in the great church or great assembly or great congregation?
I think that's the most wonderful word. I found it. Again, some of you might like to take. Take this matter up and look through scripture and find out every time it talks about God rejoicing over us, God shouting over us, the Lord singing over us. But here's another wonderful verse. Isaiah 62, verse 5. For as a young man marrieth a virgin social Thy sons marry thee. And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
What a marvellous picture.
God rejoicing over us as someone that He's waited for. Someone that He's waited and waited and waited to obtain. And now He just absolutely beside Himself with joy over us.
So shall I, God, rejoice over thee.
In my margin it puts it like this. And as with the joy of the bridegroom over the bride, so shall I God rejoice over thee. And then I thought of another scripture. Isaiah 53. Oh, very well known word. Isaiah 53, verse 10 and 11. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him He had put into grief. When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed. A seed shall serve Him. He shall see His seed. He shall prolong His days. He shall live again in us and the pleasure of the Lord. The pleasure of the Lord. There's singing for you. There's praise for you shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. He shall rest in His love. What a wonderful picture all this is. Well, now I must end. Look, we've got just three, four minutes, I think before nine. I will declare Thy name to my brethren. That's the last point I want to make. I will declare Thy name to my brothers.
Well, I wonder whether we understand this. You know, I've been coming to see that what I thought I knew and saw. I think I've only got the fringe of it.
I've always fondly thought that I understood what the name of the Lord meant, but I am increasingly coming to see that I really haven't understood what it means.
Think. What are these wonderful words? The very first words this our Lord Jesus says in this psalm. The Spirit of Christ that was in the prophet, whoever it was, said, speaking of His sufferings and the glories that would follow. The very first words He said was, I will declare Thy name unto my brothers in Hebrews 2.
And we get a little bit of light here, at least on one thing. Hebrews 2:11. For both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one. For which cause, course, He's not ashamed to call us brothers.
How marvellous. The Son of God calling us brothers.
Not ashamed to call us brothers. When you think of yourself. When I think of myself, well, I would be ashamed of myself if I was the Lord. I would be ashamed of knowing a person like me.
I mean, when you think of the Lord and when you think of yourself, you would think, surely He'd be ashamed to say I'm His kith and kin.
But in the midst of the church, He declares, we are brothers, His brothers, His flesh and blood, His kith and kin. He's not ashamed of it. He says, these are my not my friends, not just my servants, these are my brethren.
The Lord once said, one day He will say, this one is my mother, this one is my sister. These are my brother, didn't He?
And then I thought of John 17 and this is what has set me thinking before. I thought of Psalm 22 that I don't really understand. I think fully what this means, but here it is in our Lord's great prayer. Before He died, verse 6, I manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to me, and they have kept Thy word. Now what is interesting to me is I have manifested Thy name.
Now what is that? Thy name.
God has a number of names. El, Shaddai, Elyon.
And I can think of another other names that the Lord has. Of course, the greatest of all is Jehovah.
I am what does the Lord mean, I have manifested Thy name.
Which name?
I have manifested Thy name unto them. Then again, look at verse 11 and 12, even more wonderful and mysterious.
And I am no more in the world. And these are in the world. And I come to Thee, Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, which Thou hast given me.
Now does that mean the name is Jesus.
Keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given me. Jesus. Yeshua. The Lord is salvation.
Verse 12. I'm sorry. Holy Father. Keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given me, that they may be one even as we are. While I was with them, I kept them in Thy name which Thou hast given me. He says it again. And I guarded them and not one of them perished. But the Son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled kept through His name. He kept them through the name of His Father.
I find that very wonderful. I don't about you. So now we. I begin to think. Do I understand what this means? I don't think I do. And yet evidently this is one of the fundamental cornerstones of a day.
The very first thing our Lord says, according to the Spirit of Christ which was in the prophet, was I will declare Thy name unto my brethren. Do we?
Has He declared the name of God to you?
Has He? You begun to see what it means?
Go on. One further scripture which I think is even more wonderful.
Chapter 17, last verse. And I made known unto them Thy name and will make it known. Now listen. Here's the reason that the love wherewith Thou lovest me may be in them, and I in them.
I made known unto them Thy name and will make it known. That's rather what? Lovely, isn't it? And will make it known. That meant after His death and resurrection. Evidently I have made known Thy name and will make it known. And this is the reason that the love wherewith the Father has loved the Son may be in us and He in us.
Well, I don't pretend to understand what this means, but I can only say that surely here is a cause to ask the Lord for revelation.
Years and years ago, I remember brother Patterson once saying about an old missionary who worked in the northwest frontier of India.
He once turned to another brother who told me this and said, I would give everything I've got to see what Ms. So and so has seen in the name of the Lord.
There was something that sister Orwin, she was a mighty woman of faith, had seen in the name of the Lord, which just somehow revolutionised our whole life. I will declare Thy name unto my Father.
What a wonderful thing. If the declaration of that name to us should mean that the love the Father had for the Son might get into us.
Wouldn't that be wonderful? Perfect love casts out fear for a start.
Think of that.
What a thing it would be if that love that. And not just a poor love, not just a little love. Not even just a human love. This is divine love, the love which the Father has for the Son. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Have you thought about it? This is my beloved Son, the love which the Father had for Him in us, and He in us.
Well, there we are. There's the end of that study on Psalm 22. Isn't that an amazing thing, that there you've got something which may well come from the hand of King David. Myself, I'm not least bit persuaded that it came from any other hand. In all likelihood, it came from the hand of David. Which means that 1000 years before the Lord Jesus was born, these words were uttered. There's only one explanation for that. The Spirit of Christ that was in him did testify beforehand of the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories which should follow. What a wonderful psalm it is. There's more in that psalm, I suggest, than many other parts of the Word.
A clearer insight into the work of Calvary, into what happened at Calvary and into the triumph that followed. May the Lord help us, every one of us, and may it transform our gatherings in the new way. When we think the Lord's here, not just going to come in late, some people got the idea when we're all gathered 10 minutes afterwards, the Lord wafts in.
Not at all. The Lord is here to meet the very first person that unlocks the door and gets the place ready. And He's there to meet them. And He watches everything and every single conversation and every single action and all the fellowship that would divorce the Lord's healing. Here to see. He's here as Lord, not here as guest. He's not here as one who just blesses us. He's not one who just supports us. He's not one who just visits us.
He's the Lord head over the church. He's here. He's here to meet us and all what joy there is in His heart. Sometimes it must take a little bit of that joy away. When He sees us so gloomy, so down, so turned in and all the rest of it, He must think, well, I don't know.
I've done so much for so and so, laid down my life for them. They don't seem to be aware of it. Here I am, full of joy and I've saved them. They can't even look up.
May the Lord help us. May it transform some of our gatherings to know that the Lord is here before us, ready to meet us, and here to praise His Father in the midst of the church. And may it also be the reason for an inquiry of the Lord. What does it mean? He has declared His Father's name unto His brother.
Are you a brother of the Lord? A sister of the Lord? You His kith and kin? He says He declared His Father's name to you.
What a tragedy if having died for you and ready to declare that name to you, to tell that name to you, you should be totally unaware, indifferent, almost ignoring Him. No inquiry, no supplication, no asking of Him to do this. Oh, what we're missing. What we're missing. If we would only ask He have not because He asked not. If we would inquire of the Lord and ask the Lord, surely He would declare this name to us and give us an understanding. Something will overwhelm us. I dare say it would completely overwhelm us for a while. And then after a while, He'd tell us a bit more about that name that will overwhelm us again. And then a little later, when we've got over that, we'll be overwhelmed again by further revelations of what it means, His name.
Shall we pray together?
Lord, how we thank Thee for this marvellous psalm. Oh Lord. We don't want to use terms about this psalm that in any way would make it cheap or familiar. But Lord, how we thank Thee for fills us with wonder that, Lord, in this way Thou couldst have revealed something so long before the Lord Jesus came. And Father, how we pray that somehow or other we might enter into the joy of our Lord. That we might be those, Lord, who really know the joy of the Lord is our strength. If He joys over us with singing, if He rest rests in His love, O Lord, that somehow we should taste something more of it. Thou hast said that that love that Thou hast, Father, for the Son may be in us and He in us, O Lord, may it be so of every one of us, the masses of peace. Fill us anew with that love, Lord, we pray that perfect love which casts out fear. Oh, hear us, Lord. May we know in a new way what it is to be indwelt by the risen Christ, by the Spirit of God. Father, then we commit this time to Thee. Watch over Thy word what we don't understand, Lord. Reveal to us what Lord, is not for us at this time. Store in our heart and memory and reveal it the right time. But let nothing of it be lost. Lord, all that is of Thyself preserve it. And we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
