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Tonight I'll be speaking largely from Psalm 22, but I'll be spending some time in Isaiah leading up to it. You know, in the mornings, we've been spending a lot of time talking about Christ's suffering. We talked about the contest in which he underwent and was then wreathed in glory.

We talked about the accomplishment of bringing many to glory. We talked today about his continuing ministry in glory and keeping his people. So we've talked a lot about God's purpose for Christ's suffering. Tonight I want to look at the actual suffering itself. Isaiah prophetically described his suffering. You know, in the writer of Hebrews, he really has an incredible mind and depth and understanding of Old Testament texts and the flow of thought.

And when he cites a verse, he brings in its contextual freight with it. He really understands and is making some really Correct and connections that are really monumental and helpful to understand what the Bible is all about. Last week, last evening, we looked at Emmanuel or trusting Emmanuel.

Isaiah called upon Ahaz to trust in Emmanuel, or yeah, to trust God. And in the process, he gave him a sign. That would be for the Davidic house and for all the world. In chapter 7 and verse 14 of Isaiah, he says, Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. Emmanuel, God with us. And as we keep reading through the book of Isaiah, time and time again, this individual, this special individual, this Messiah, will be described in a variety of terms.

In chapter 9 and verses 6 and 7, he is, I read these words, for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, prince of peace.

There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his. Kingdom to establish it and to hold it, uphold it with justice and righteousness. From then on and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish it.

So there's this mighty individual that is coming on the scene, Messiah. He's going to rule. He's going to reign. His kingdom is going to be glorious. In chapter 11, verses 1 and 2, he will be the righteous branch. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And you come to Isaiah chapter 40, and I'm just giving you a few highlights. In chapter 40, he is one who will shepherd his people.

Like a shepherd, he will tend his flock, and in his arms, he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes. He's this shepherd, gentle shepherd, caring shepherd. He's a prince of peace, the righteous branch. He is the shepherd. And when you come to Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 1, he is a servant of Yahweh, the servant of the Lord.

Isaiah 41, Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. This individual, this servant of God, this righteous one, this prince of peace, this child, he is going to rule and reign.

And the readers got that part. It was the suffering part. As you keep going in Isaiah, he's going to be described as a one who has suffered. And this breaks the mold of the idea of the Jewish Messiah. The Messiah is to reign. He is not to suffer.

And even today, in many Jewish settings, Isaiah 52 and 53 are omitted from the readings. And let me read to you, beginning in Isaiah 52 and verse 13: Behold, my servant will prosper, and he will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any other man, and his form more than the sons of men.

In other words, He will go undergrow an astonishing disfigurement. He will be marred and front. Thus he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him. For what had not been told them, they will see, and what they had not heard, they will understand.

Isaiah 53, for who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, no appearance that we should be attracted to him, just a man.

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, but he was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to. Fall on him.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before his shearers. So he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgressions of my people to whom the stroke was due?

His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief, if he would render himself as a guilt offering.

He will see his offsprings. He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. That's Isaiah's picture of this suffering servant.

The prince of peace, this child Emmanuel, righteous branch, the one, the great shepherd, the servant of God in whom his soul delights, is also going to be one who suffers for the benefit of his people. And so far, we think about what's happened in Isaiah, and certainly what Isaiah has described in the suffering of the Messiah is from the outside.

In other words, he's looked at the suffering of the Messiah from a third party standing on the outside, looking at this individual, this great king, this Lord, this shepherd, this prophesied one, yet a crucified one. He's described him from the outside. Now, if you go to Psalm 22, David describes, also prophetically describes the suffering of the Messiah, but he does so from the inside.

In other words, Isaiah, if he looks at the suffering of God's anointed one from the outside, As a third party, David takes us behind the scene and looks at the suffering from the inside as one actually going through the suffering. And so that's what I want to spend our time tonight.

I want to look at the suffering and triumph of our Lord as described in Psalm 22. The Old Testament's very clear that the great one will come, but the great one will have to suffer. You know, suffering for somebody or suffering in general, is kind of fallen on hard times, hasn't it?

We don't like to suffer for somebody else. But how different that was the thinking of Christ. He saw it as a privilege to suffer for somebody else. I mean, think about it. If you don't suffer for somebody else, are you really giving them anything? It's only when we enter into that zone of suffering, really extending ourselves in our serving somebody till it hurts.

Now, that is noble, and that is Christ-like. And so, what I want you to see tonight is: I'm going to walk through Psalm 22. And obviously, I don't have near the time to do any kind of judgment. In depth on this, but I want you to see the suffering as we go into this Christmas celebration that we and we talk all around the suffering, that we step in and look at his suffering from the inside.

And so that's what I want to do tonight. I want to look at the suffering of God's anointed one in Psalm 22. It's obviously something that David has gone through in his life, something, but it's something that goes beyond just David's time, but it prophetically describes the suffering of God's anointed one.

David was certainly one of God's anointed ones in the sense that he was king and anointed as such at the time, but it looks to a greater David and also speaks of a suffering in very graphic terms of what he is going to go through. And so let's just step in that for just a moment.

And I'll show you where we're going, and then we'll come back and walk through it. There's the psalmist's initial trust in God. It's all about trust. Remember Emmanuel. Remember the message of Isaiah? Trust. God is with us, and you can trust Him. And so Psalm 22 is going to echo the very thing, but it's going to be God's anointed one also has to trust in God.

Not just us, but ultimately Christ himself. And so you're going to see that in the psalmist's initially trusts in God, and then you're going to see the psalmist's continued trust in God, and then you're going to see the psalmist's exhortation for others to trust in God. So that's where we're going.

Just the psalmist's initial trust, continued trust, and then his exhortation to trust. So let's look at the psalmist's initial trust in God. Look at Psalm 22:1. It starts out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So there's a challenge that we're met in verse 1, a challenge to his trust.

And these are the words of Jesus that he quotes in Mark 15 and Matthew 27 when he's on the cross: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me? The idea is, why have you relinquished me? Why have you left me behind? Why have you abandoned me?

Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Far off in the distance is my victory. That's what he's far off, far from my victory. Far off in the distance, my deliverance are the words of my groaning. It's a long way off. Abandoned. Just as a side note, we looked at Christ being the perfect high priest and what suffering did for him.

As our perfect high priest, you know what? Jesus knows what it was like to be abandoned by the Father. And when the weight of the sin, the world came upon him, and even the Father turns away in a way that we can't fully get our minds around. He understood what it was like to really be relinquished by God.

He experienced that and the horrors of it. But you know what? Jesus promised to never leave his people, didn't he? You see, he experienced such abandonment on the cross for our sin, and he aggressively does not intend for us to experience the same. He knows what it's like, and he's not going to put us through that.

Look at verse 2, 3, 4, and 5. Let me read those. Oh, my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. You do not seem to care. 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. In you, they trusted, and were not disappointed. His opening verses, you can see it sounds like a person who's about to abandon his faith. He's being tempted, and he's being challenged at the very core of his trust in God.

Perhaps you get a little window into what Christ's last temptation was. Cease waiting, come down off the cross, take matters into your own hands. Have you ever been there? God, I cry out, but you don't seem to care. Well, he's been there. And he knows how to come to those help who experience the very same things.

In you, our fathers trusted. They trusted. They trusted. You see that? It's coming back. And they were not disappointed. They trusted in you. And they were not disappointed. They were not embarrassed for trusting in you. They were not shamed publicly because they put their trust in you. So that's where the psalmist is.

Challenged. And he's saying, Look, you delivered them, but you seem to be far from my groanings. Second, I want you to look at the cost that he pays for trusting in God. The cost he pays. Verses 6 through 8. But I am a worm. Literally, I'm a maggot, not a man.

It's a metaphor for the perception of the way people see him. I am a worm, a maggot, not a man, a reproach of men, and despised by the people. I am the one being detested, hated. I am looked upon by the people. I'm loathed. Notice what it says in verse 7.

All who see me sneer at me. All. He's in a public place. He's experiencing this in a public place, and all who see him mock him or sneer at him. They're mocking him. I like this expression. 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. They separate. It's literally the words of a floodgate opening up. That's what it means. Separating a floodgate. And what happens when you open up a floodgate? What flows out? Lots of water. And that's what he's saying about these people.

All who look at him, they open their mouths, and what comes out? Torrent of vicious insults. This is what he's going through. They wag their head, saying, Commit yourself to the Lord. Commit. The idea of this word committing is to drag off. It's weird. Roll away. In other words, you trust him.

Be dragged off in your trust. Wallow in your trust. That's the expression. Commit yourself to the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him because he delights in him. You know, Jesus knew what it was like to be publicly despised. Nothing that you and I will ever experience will come near to this kind of disgrace.

He was despised to an extreme degree. And listen, if Jesus is not ashamed of us before his father, let us never be ashamed of him in this world before sinful men. Look at what he went through. Well, look at the cause. Of his trust, the cause of his trust.

In verse 9, yet you were he who brought me forth from the womb. You made me trust when I was on my mother's breast. Upon you I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother's womb. Psalmist has a trust in God, and that trust is being challenged.

And it's costing him a lot. It's publicly humiliating him, making him public enemy number one, because he trusts in God. But ultimately, the cause, where did that trust come from? Well, it came from God himself. You're the one who brought me forth from the womb. You're the one who caused me to trust upon you, to trust in you.

Verse 10, upon you I was cast. The word is, I was flung. I was flung like something you fling through the air. I was flung to you from birth, and you have been my God from my mother's womb. I know no other God, nor can I know no other God, because my trust in you has come from you.

And this is what the psalmist is saying: is I trust in you. I can't go anywhere else because ultimately it comes from God. And that's where our faith, we talk about what it means to be born from above. And this is really what it means: is that God puts a divine faith in him, in you.

This is why we have to be born from above. This is what Nicodemus couldn't understand. We think religion is something about moral improvement. And somehow, if you just get everything right, that somehow that commends you to God. And Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, Look, you're a Jew of the Jews, and you don't understand.

Fundamentally, what has to happen is an inner change. A trust in heaven comes from heaven. It isn't something that is born from earth. And that is why we speak in terms of you have to be born again. Something the world won't get. But if you've been born again, you understand when a clean spirit comes over you and comes in you.

And that's the psalmist. He was born from above. The cause of his trust wasn't anything of earthly origins. Well, that's his initial trust. So the psalmist then continues to trust in God. Look at verse 11. Be not far from me. You see, he's, be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.

In other words, there's not anyone else surrounding me for my well-being. Only those who are surrounding me are there for my harm. And so, what he does is he goes through the next six verses, beginning in 12, he recounts his sufferings. His sufferings. Verse 12. Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and roaring lion. So, notice the animal metaphors. There are hostile enemies. His sufferings begin, are described in terms of these hostile enemies. There's bulls, and there's a lion. The bulls have encircled him. Now, think about various kinds of bulls.

What do you say? Many different bulls, strong bulls. Now, you think about if a bunch of bulls have encircled you, guess what? You're pinned in. You can imagine them keeping you in. So you can think about the confined space. Verse 13, they open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and roaring lion.

A roaring lion is loud, raging. A ravening lion is tearing its prey to pieces. That's the idea that. Teeth. So those are the hostile enemies described metaphorically, bull and lion. But then he goes on to describe his bodily affliction with many more metaphors. Look at verse 14. 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 potshirt, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. And you lay me in the dust of death. Notice the word like water. I am poured out. My life is being poured out like a glass of water.

All my bones are out of joint. It's an interesting expression. All my bones have separated. They've scattered. That's the pulled apart. They're out of joint. My heart, my inward self, is like wax. We're melting a lot of wax this time of year, burning a lot of candles. And you know what happens when Max wax is heated?

It melts. It dissolves. He's saying, my very inward self is dissolving. It's despairing. It's discouraged. Keep in mind of Christ on a cross. What's going on? The anointed one. He's really suffering. My strength is dried up. It's withered. Strength is withered like a potchard, like a piece of clay.

After a piece of clay has been fired, there's not any moisture in it. My tongue cleaves to my jaws, and you lay me, you have reduced me to the dust of death. And death is the result of being poured out. So he recounts his hostile enemies, his bodily affliction, and it's all caused by his enemies.

Look at verse 16: for dogs have surrounded me. So again, these enemies are described now as dogs. They have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and 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.

You couldn't write a more prophetic script of what happened on the cross. And this was written hundreds years prior. I can count all my bones. Dogs have surrounded me. A congregation of evildoers has encompassed me. Wild dogs. Evil people. They pierced my hands. It's really an interesting thing.

They lioned my hands. Weird in Hebrew. If you got life, think about a lion opening his mouth, ravening, what's happening? Piercing. Piercing my hands as a lion would pierce with teeth when it bites. Verse 17, I can count. Literally, I am checking off all my bones. I can count my bones.

They look, they stare at me. It's interesting to know which they, there's two they're there. They look. Why can you count your bones? Because see your bones. Maybe it's an expression, his bones are looking at him. So fleshed, so described. You put this together with Isaiah, and someone who's marred beyond, it's disfigured, shredded.

Certainly a Roman crucifixion would expose bones. But it's clear that at least one of these they's are his enemies. They stare at me. They divide my garments. Verse 18, and for my clothing they cast lots. They are portioning out my clothes. Now, is that about as tense of a suffering, tense of a humiliation?

And then there is his cry for help. Verse 19. But you, O Lord, be not far off. O 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 of the wild oxen.

There's his prayer. Deliver my soul from the sword. You must snatch me away. You must rescue me. Deliver my soul. My body is spent, but my core being is still essential. I love this individual, by the way. I pray that you think about this low point. I'm glad the Lord heard his cry.

We need to preserve this kind of humanity that will trust in God no matter what. That's what's really remarkable about humanity, is this kind of trust. Look, God put us here for a purpose, and it's good. He's thought through it all. He can be trusted. Let this spirit be in us.

Save me from the lion's mouth. Put me in a state of victory, is what he is saying. Encircle me with the intent of helping me. They have encircled me with the intention of harming me. You, Lord, my trust. You are my help. Do not remain far off. You put me in a state of victory, a state of spaciousness.

You think about that. Save me from the sword. Deliver me from the sword. From the power of the dog. Talked about dogs already. The lion's mouth, the one ravaging, from the horns of the wild oxen that have hemmed him in. That's his cry. And then at the end of verse 21, God's answer.

Just three words. You answer me. You answer me. God has heard his prayer. And the psalmist don't know what happened historically. In Psalm 22, we do know what happens at the cross. God delivers him. And so then the next section is the psalmist's exhortation for others to trust in God.

Notice his vow in verse 22. I will tell of your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. He's experienced God's deliverance. And now he is, and this is the verse that is cited in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 12. I will tell of your name to my brethren, those of the same spiritual parentage as I.

I will tell them, I will praise your name, I will tell of your name, I will certainly be making your name known. A minute ago, he was counting his bones. It's the same word, and he's saying, Now I am going to be counting the reasons why you are to praise Yahweh.

And that's what he's going to do. He has, he is, corner has been turned, he has been delivered, and now he is going to speak. And so the psalmist is going to call out of that vow. That's his. He makes, I will tell your name, I will publish your name, I will make it known, I will make the world know who you are.

That's his vow. You see the whole enterprise of Christ going into the going to the cross, going into the grave, going and coming out. And what does he do? He entrusts the truth to his disciples. And the world thought they had shut down this little Jesus sect. And in just a few short centuries, the whole pagan empire of Rome was out of business because his disciples heard.

They believed and they trusted. They didn't fear death. They suffered. They became like their master. And so he, and they did what he does, published and calls people to trust in him. Look at verse 23 and 25. 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.

Notice it's directed at a particular nation, it's not limited to them. Fear him. Fear the Lord. What does fear mean? Be afraid of him, not in a sense that you take flight, but a fear of being disobedient to him. Fear not trusting in him. Fear not giving him honor, the honor that he is due.

That you should fear. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him. Put him into a state of honor in your life and in your nation. That's what Isaiah was calling them to do. And stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel. And the reasons, the reasons. Look at verse 24:4.

He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. He hears our cries, nor has he hidden his face from him. But when he cried to him for help, he heard. God hears. Remember, this morning, as we looked at the promise that our perfect high priest, because he has passed through suffering and this kind of suffering, He knows how to help those who call upon him on his name.

He knows how to help us in our times of temptation and suffering and strife. And no matter what, he knows how to help. You can trust in him. Emmanuel is his name. God is with us. You can trust him. Call upon him. Look at what he says in verse 25, for from you comes my praise in the great assembly.

I shall pay my vows before those who fear him. Now here's an individual who has gone through great suffering, cried out to God, was delivered by God. God heard his cry, delivered him. And now here he is praising God. And he says, I shall pay my vows. He's already vowed to publish God's name far and wide.

That's what he's going to make his enterprise about, making God's name known. And then he says, I shall pay my vows before those who fear him. In other words, I will pay my vows. I will make good on every promise I have made. No, Christ made a lot of promises.

You read the Gospels. He made promises only God could make. Come to me, all you are thirsty, and I will. Will give you rest. He knows how to keep his people. He calls and he says, I will certainly not cast out anyone who comes to me. I will raise him up.

Come to me. He is. And this is what he is currently doing as our high priest, and he will continue to do forever. He is going to make good on every promise he ever made. I shall pay my vows. Isn't that good to know we have a high priest who's experienced this kind of suffering, experienced this kind of anguish of soul, and has experienced God's answer to his prayer, and then has promised to make his name known and has promised to be with his people and to respond like God did to him.

So come. He made promises about answering our prayers, about satisfying our needs, our desires, about delivering us, about forgiving us, about helping us. Well, the results of trusting in God. He exhorts people to trust in God and look at the results of him publishing God's name far and wide.

Just as we go through. Here, look at all who's impacted. Verse 26, the afflicted will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. Verse 27, 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 will bow down. Posterity, verse 30, 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. When you look at this, the afflicted, those who seek him, all the ends of the earth, all the families of the nations, all the prosperous, all those who go down to the dust, even those who cannot keep his soul, all posterity.

This is the results of Christ's suffering, of his publishing ministry. God can be trusted. And we have God's anointed one who has gone through this kind of suffering. As we that was the psalmist, but as we look at these words, we're certainly reminded of the cross, the intensity Christ trusted in God, and then Christ continued trusting in God.

And Christ exhorts us to trust in God. Listen, good things came out of the suffering of the Lord's anointed one. Don't be surprised if you're not called to suffer. But be encouraged. He knows what it's like to suffer. And he will not turn a deaf ear to us because God answered him.

You can expect he will certainly answer us. Let us not be ashamed of him. Let us trust God in our times of suffering. Let us go here tonight in confidence that every promise Jesus ever made, he will honor. And let us go marveling that God. His goodness has given to us such a high priest, such a savior, that this child who would be born among us, so much more than a baby in a manger, the hope of the nations, the glorious Messiah, the king of all kings, God of God, our brother, and our help in time of need.

Something to marvel at, something to be thankful for, and something for us to celebrate. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, indeed, we give you thanks for recording such vivid detail of Christ's suffering, and you did it all way in advance. A thousand years, hundreds of years in advance, because you wanted us to know.

You wanted us to know him. You wanted us to understand the purpose of a king, and that you and your sovereignty have good purposes for suffering if he can suffer for our benefit. Father, help us to suffer for the benefit of our brothers and sisters around us. Go with us now.

In Jesus' name, amen.