Psalm 22
Psalm 22
July 7
[ 001 ] If you are a guest with us, we are going through some of the Psalms this summer, leaning into how they meet us in the everyday anxieties and fears and worries and dark nights of the soul and point us to Jesus. Today, as you heard Danielle read, we are in Psalm 22, which carries the title:
[ 002 ] For the choir director: according to “The Deer of the Dawn.” A psalm of David.
Once again, this is a song written by David for the people of Israel, and apparently it has a specific tune which is “the Deer of the Dawn”. I really wish there was some way to know what tune that was, or what exactly David had in mind there. It’d be fun to know.
But as you listened to Danielle read this Psalm, you may have picked up some other wildlife references in the psalm as well – bulls, dogs, lions, oxen which are all symbols of power and death. Bulls trample, lions tear apart, dogs clean up what’s left… It's not a very pretty mental picture. With that in mind, the deer in the title gives the picture of the pursued, the hunted. And a deer at dawn is a deer that has survived the night time when the lions and wild dogs are on the prowl.
[ 003 ] If you use your imagination a little bit, you can see the storyline of this Psalm is a little bit like this picture of a deer being pursued by this cheetah. It’s that deer that’s been separated from the rest of the herd, facing danger on its own, and everyone sits up to see what is going to happen. Will the deer be caught? Will it escape?
The only thing that would make this Psalm better is if we had David Attenborough to read it for us. Maybe Danielle should come back up here and read it with an English accent.
There’s a good chance David is in a similar situation as he was last week, with King Saul and his army being the lions and wild dogs that are pursuing him like a deer all over the mountains and rocks and hills of Israel. Or maybe he’s king by this point, and he’s looking at the threatening nations all around his kingdom. Whatever it is, he’s feeling abandoned. His prayers for deliverance are not being answered – or at least not the way he hoped. And so he cries out, in verse [ 004-1 ] 1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning? [ 004-2 ] 2 My God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, by night, yet I have no rest.
The way you and I might say this same thing in our own experiences could be: “It feels like my prayers just bounce off the ceiling. It feels like when I pray, I’m just talking to myself – you’re not listening or paying attention.”
So what do you do when you’re praying and you don’t get any relief? You have two options – quit praying altogether and give up on God, or, do what David does: He recalls the truth about God. He remembers what is true. [ 005-1 ] 3 BUT you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4 Our ancestors trusted in you; they trusted, and you rescued them. [ 005-2 ] 5 They cried to you and were set free; they trusted in you and were not disgraced.
It seems like David is wrestling, this back and forth, I feel abandoned and my prayers don’t seem to be heard, but I know you are holy and history tells me you do hear prayers, and they are effective. History tells me that Israel is your chosen people, and that you have always acted on their behalf. You rescue those who call on you, and so I’m going to keep it up. But then the wrestling continues back the other way..
[ 006-1 ] 6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people. 7 Everyone who sees me mocks me; they sneer and shake their heads: [ 006-2 ] 8 “He relies on the Lord; let him save him; let the Lord rescue him, since he takes pleasure in him.”
But the conversation here is that people are putting together those first 5 verses – You’re part of God’s chosen people, his holy ones, and yet he doesn’t answer your prayers? They say sarcastically, “wow, some God he must be – really doing a great job of saving you – doing a great job of treating you like his own children here! Whoa, sign me up for that kind of God, hahaha.” And that makes you a genius for worshiping a God who doesn’t hear or help you. I don’t know how many of us have experienced that kind of thing. Maybe you have.
That’s the situation David finds himself in, and once again, as he wrestles, he swings back to what is true. And where he remembered God’s faithfulness to Israel the first time, he now makes it personal.
[ 007-1 ] 9 It was you who brought me out of the womb, making me secure at my mother’s breast. [ 007-2 ] 10 I was given over to you at birth; you have been my God from my mother’s womb.
Two verses that say that same thing four times – that he was in the hand of God since the moment he was born, and so he calls out for rescue again: [ 007-3 ] 11 Don’t be far from me, because distress is near and there’s no one to help.
Do you ever have those moments of wrestling with God? The back and forth of what you know to be true, lamenting the circumstances, repeating what is true, lamenting again. Once again, I find the Psalms to be like looking in a mirror. This just feels like my daily experience at times… that wrestling between what I see or feel or hear over against what I know to be true from God’s word. And I think some of that is simply the result of being human.
But David isn’t just wrestling with something minor. He appears to be under attack, perhaps even about to be murdered. This is serious. It’s turning intense.
[ 008 ] 12 Many bulls surround me; strong ones of Bashan encircle me. I’m the weak and helpless and all alone out here. 13 They open their mouths against me — lions, mauling and roaring. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed; my heart is like wax, melting within me. 15 My strength is dried up like baked clay; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You put me into the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded me; Scavengers are ready to clean up the pieces, and a gang of evildoers has closed in on me; they pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones; people look and stare at me. 18 They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing.
That’s pretty intense, right? My apologies if this is an inappropriate comparison, but the way he describes his physical appearance reminds me of a Holocaust victim. Skin and bones, nothing left. Captured. Nowhere to turn. It looks like it’s the end of the line for David. So he prays with what appears to be his last breath – Lord, my Strength, help me. Rescue me. Save me.
The Bible doesn’t record that David was ever literally in a situation like this where he was caught by his pursuers and about to face execution, so we’re not 100% sure what exactly all of this means for him. Is this literal, and we just don’t know about it? Is it exaggeration and hyperbole just to make a point? Is he talking about Israel as a nation, that God has abandoned Israel and the nations that surround them are threatening to wipe them out? We don’t really know, but whatever it was, things are about to change.
Most of the time, those National Geographic videos show the capture. The lion gets the gazelle, the alligator gets the calf, or whatever. But every once in a while, you’ve seen these videos too, I’m sure, the deer gets away, right? It looks like he’s caught or whatever and suddenly the music changes and he’s on the run again. And you’re cheering him on as he runs away. But this is how Psalm 22 goes, because watch the sudden shift almost completely out of the blue there at the end of 21:
[ 010-1 ] You answered me! There aren’t a whole lot of exclamation points in scripture, so when you see one, it’s pretty significant. This is a moment of rejoicing, deliverance, hope, and rescue. YOU ANSWERED ME! Yes! I was dead to the wall, but Bless your name, Lord God, you set me free! You heard me, you answered me, oh yeah! And then he bursts into several verses of praise. 22 I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters; I will praise you in the assembly. 23 You who fear the Lord, praise him… honor him… revere him! More exclamation points… [ 010-2 ] 24 For he has not despised or abhorred the torment of the oppressed. He did not hide his face from him but listened when he cried to him for help.
Do you notice the shift in who all is involved in this deliverance? It’s not just David who benefits – brothers and sisters, you who fear the Lord, Jacob, Israel – all referring to the covenant people of God, the nation of Israel, the Hebrew people all benefit from his deliverance. They gather for worship, they sit down to a meal together…[ 011 ] verse 27, and his praise switches gears yet again – it’s not only the nation of Israel that will praise the Lord…It’s all the ends of the earth; all the families of the nations; the rich who prosper, the poor who don’t, this generation, the generation that isn’t born yet – this deliverance affects all people one way or another.
[ 012 ] Do you see the story line here? One man suffers agony, but many rejoice and benefit from his deliverance. One man suffers agony, and many rejoice in the benefits of his deliverance, sitting down to a meal together that is abundant enough that everyone who is humble eats until they are full. Does that sound familiar? If you’re familiar with the Bible and story of God, you’re way ahead of me already. But if not, let’s look at this together and let me point out a few things, because you find the exact same thing is true of Jesus.
One man suffers agony, but many rejoice and benefit from his deliverance. This is a Psalm of death and resurrection that points to Jesus. And while we don’t know what David was experiencing himself, he is with pinpoint accuracy prophetically pointing to another king, another Shepherd, another Hebrew man from the tribe of Judah who would suffer extreme agony 1000 years later. The only difference being, instead of praying for relief, Jesus willingly let himself be torn apart by the bulls and the lions and the dogs, so that Israel (the Jews) and all the families of nations (Gentiles) would benefit from his victory! (14:30)
This means Psalm 22 is the blueprint for the story of redemption! See Jesus would have read this Psalm from little on up. Remember, it’s a song for the people. He would have sung it with the local gathering of Hebrew people. He would have had it memorized. And all those years growing up, he knew it was talking about him. Which means, every time he sang it, or spoke it, or heard it read, it would once again be telling him about his own future – both in the way he would die, and also in the victory he would accomplish. He knew he would be crucified, and knew he would rise again. In fact, it’s so accurate in speaking about the events of the crucifixion, it almost looks like Jesus himself would have written it after the fact.
But David wrote this Psalm 700 years before crucifixion was even invented as a means of execution. And it all starts with this one phrase. [ 013-1 ] At the end of the gospel of Matthew, you find Jesus nailed to the cross, and moments before taking his last breath, he cries out with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mt 27:45–46). The first words of Psalm 22.
Now, he’s not really asking the question as if he is looking for answers. Jesus is not saying, why me, God!? Why are you allowing this to happen? He knows the blueprint. He has it memorized. This was the reason he came to earth in the first place. He knew every second of this before it happened. But Jesus hangs there on the cross, and cries out, My God, why have you abandoned me? So if it’s not a question, what is it?
Is what Jesus said even possible, actually? Can God the Father really abandon his own eternal Son? The answer is no – God cannot abandon his own Son. It’s not like the Trinity is ⅓ Father, ⅓ Son, ⅓ Spirit, and for a few hours, God was only ⅔ of full power. Jesus is 100% God (John 1:1, 14:10). The Spirit is 100% God (John 14:23). The Father is 100% God. They are one. You can’t divide them. The Trinity is, was, and will always be fully intact. So it can’t be that God literally abandoned his Son.
Secondly, maybe Jesus saying why have you abandoned me is because God the Father turned his face away from Jesus there on the cross. Isaiah 53 says Jesus carried our sin; 2 Cor 5 says he became our sin – meaning, even though he had never sinned, he was being treated as if he had committed every sin. He had kept God’s law perfectly, but was treated as if he had broken every part of it. So there on the cross, Jesus was receiving the full wrath of God in judgment for our sins. The separation and death that should have been ours was poured out on Jesus instead of us. All of that is true. So maybe God couldn’t stand to look at all that sin, so he looked away for a while and Jesus felt forsaken or abandoned when he did.
But that can’t be right either. Psalm 22:24 actually tells us he didn’t. “He did not hide his face from him, but listened when he cried to him for help.” That’s one of the things the gospel celebrates – that God, who should have turned away his face, didn’t, but listened and acted on our behalf instead.
(water bottle?) Sometimes we act as if God can’t be in the presence of sin, so he moves when you try to come close. But that’s not consistent with scripture. According to the book of Job, Satan himself is able to be in the presence of God and God doesn't back out the door – he has a conversation! Sin doesn’t intimidate God. Just look at the life of Jesus! He moved toward sinners, ate dinner with them, touched lepers, moved toward the demon-possessed, the most unclean people of all – and when he touched them, he didn’t become defiled by them – they became clean by him! His holiness, his cleanness burned up their uncleanness.
So this moment on the cross isn’t God the Father distancing himself from his own SOn, who was completing the exact mission he was sent to complete. This moment on the cross is Jesus coming to the Father with every single sin of every single person who would ever believe in him for salvation, and God’s blazing holiness is torching it all!
The result of this moment is that when YOU come to the Father with sin, he is not repulsed by you. He doesn’t reject you. But moves toward you in compassion and grace and mercy.
So, back to our question: If Jesus isn’t really asking a question, then what is it? If God didn’t abandon Jesus on the cross, or even turn his face away, then what is Jesus doing when he cries out My God, why have you abandoned me?
If I were to start singing this jingle right now, I bet I can get you can finish it out. Let’s try this: We are Farmers…. Let’s try one a little more sanctified. Amazing Grace how sweet the sound… I only said one line, and you took it from there.
In that same way, when Jesus calls out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” he was literally starting a song that would have been in everyone’s memory. Remember the title: it’s for the choir director. He’s calling out the first line of a song, and every Hebrew person in attendance that day watching his crucifixion would have instantly been able to finish it just like you all did. Jesus was calling their attention to the words of Psalm 22 – so they would see everything in that song is literally happening word for word in front of their eyes!
They didn’t have verse numbers to help them back then, but anyone who knew the song could have seen the parallels:
- Oh, it says He was mocked by those who watched. ✅ (religious leaders are doing that)
- His body would be mangled and broken, literally exposing his bones. ✅ (the Roman whips did that)
- His hands and feet were pierced. ✅ (obviously)
- They divided some of his clothes, and gambled for others. ✅ (soldiers are doing exactly that)
What if there on the cross, instead of questioning his Father’s presence, Jesus is calling out that he is the new David! He’s the Messiah! He’s calling people to see him as the Messiah and believe in him, because his agonizing death is happening word for word in front of them!
[ 013- 2 ] But that’s not all Jesus is pointing to. Psalm 22 isn’t only about death: Everyone who knew the words to the Psalm would have to get to the second part of verse 21, right? It’s not just a song of death – it’s a song of resurrection and rescue and hope. What if Jesus is pointing out that if everything in the first part of Psalm 22 is happening right before their eyes, the second part will too! In other words – by starting this song for the people of Israel, Jesus is predicting (from the cross) that he will rise again, in victory, and on the third day, the disciples found the tomb empty!
Jesus presented himself to the disciples for 40 days, then ascended back to God’s presence where he came from. [ 013-3 ] 10 days later, the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and 3000 devout Jews repent and are baptized, and by Acts 14 where we left off this Spring, Gentiles all over the known world are coming to faith in Jesus.
One man’s agony and suffering, followed by his deliverance from death, results in praise and honor and adoration and reverence, first from the Jews and then from the Gentiles – first in Jerusalem, and then to the ends of the earth!
I can’t pretend to know exactly how the Father and Son were interacting there in those 6 hours of agony on the cross, but we can be sure that even as God poured out his righteous judgment and wrath on his dearly beloved Son with whom he is well pleased, they were still in full and joyful and un-splintered union and delight for each other as they worked together in that moment to save sinners from hell and reconcile them to the God who chose them, loved them, called them, and made them clean!
And if you’re still thinking, okay, that’s cool, okay, Jesus started a song from the cross. How does it apply to me? What about when I’m the one who feels forsaken and abandoned, when I’m the one surrounded and I’m the one who needs the miraculous sudden escape? Great – Jesus died on the cross for my sins and it lines up with Psalm 22 – what does that mean for me today?
Oh, church, the answer is in the very next Psalm – [ 014 ] What it means for you is that “The Lord is your shepherd. You have what you need.” No matter what you are facing – green pastures or the valley of the shadow of death, He is everything you need. Your all in all. He is protecting you, guarding you. Loving you. Leading you along the right paths of life.
Both David and Jesus himself are proof that there will be suffering (sometimes, intense suffering) along the right paths of life, so you can be 1000% confident that your suffering does not in any way imply that God has abandoned you, but even in that suffering you don’t ever have to be afraid of evil or danger, because He is with you. And he is using the painful situations in our lives – even the agonizing ones – not like a judge condemning a criminal, but like a loving Father correcting and training his child to trust his wisdom, and keep us in his love.
Oh our enemies are still here, we will still wrestle against the world, the flesh, and the devil – being tempted, recalling truth, being tempted, recalling truth – we will be until the day Jesus returns. But if you are in Christ, you are seated at the table of the Lord where he feeds your soul with the Bread of Life. Where he counsels you, comforts, guides, heals, restores, washes, renews, strengthens you by his Spirit and the Word, and he just keeps filling your cup over and over and over as you continue to follow him step by step, day by day.
And God’s promise that the words of Psalm 22:1 will never be true of anyone who picks up their cross and follows Jesus.
Psalm 22 sets the stage for Psalm 23. When you most feel abandoned is when you’re most pursued by God’s love and faithfulness. In your darkest hour is when your Shepherd is the most present. God has not treated you like your sins deserve, but has anointed you with oil – meaning he has set you apart as his. Called you his own. Given you the mission of proclaiming this good news to both people in the church and people outside the church so that many will come and declare his righteousness.
[ 015 ] And if you stay close to the Shepherd and let him lead you – you also realize that what has been pursuing you all along, with even more grit and determination and drive, what is coming after you with more persistence and diligence, what’s chasing you with more passion and zeal than all of the forces of hell combined, is the goodness and faithful love of God.
I’m going to put a question on the screen for you today: [ 016 ] Because of the cross, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will never abandon you. What situation/thought cycle are you in where you need to hear that? What would you like to say to Jesus?