Friday slowdown

 We've had an intense two weeks of study on a precious passage of our Bible: Psalm 22. I hope that we have learned and been blessed; I know I have!

Let's relax and meditate on the blessings of His love and the hope He brings . . . . 

Applying Psalm 22 to our lives

 

How to apply this psalm to our lives?

Well, the message of Psalm 22 is clear: Christ suffered on the cross to provide us with our salvation. Because of His suffering and resurrection, we must praise Him and proclaim the gospel message to all nations.

How can I do that from where I am? Right here. Right now.

There are two important things for us to do. And I mean "do." Not just think about! 

First, I need to put the cross at the center of my walk with God. I need to focus daily on the cross. (Well, we all need to.) Why? Because when we focus on the cross, our hearts will be filled with joy and thankfulness for the priceless gift that God has given us! When I keep the cross in focus, I'm more aware of my own sinful nature, and so I don't trust myself -- I stay closer to Jesus. That helps me to resist temptation as I remember the price of my redemption......Jesus' blood. Then, I ask myself, how can I knowingly, rebelliously sin against the One Who loves me?

The second important thing to do is to emulate God's heart for the lost. To make it an action item each and every day, as I walk with Him.

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:17)

The closing verses of Psalm 22 said that God wants all the ends of the earth to turn to Him and to worship Him. That means that when I'm around other people, I need to actively focus on my testimony before them; am I living a godly life? Am I speaking a word for Him when the Spirit makes an opening? When I have a chance (and the financial resources) to contribute to a missions effort, do I cheerfully give?  If I'm not focused on spreading the gospel, I am WAY too self-absorbed. I need to retune my thoughts to be in line with God's purpose of being glorified in all the earth. His command is to go; His promise is that all the families of the nations will worship. 

But how can they worship if they have not heard?  How will they hear unless we give, send, and go? Missions is not just for SOME Christians. It's for EVERY Christian!

We started this study with tears in our eyes at the suffering of our Savior.

We end this study with joyful praise for God's deliverance and resurrection of our Savior. 

Praise the Lord with me, as we prepare for Christmas!

Proclaim His glory!

We're winding down our studies in Psalm 22, and this last passage is so triumphant! Let's dive right in!

The psalm now switches gears, so to speak, and is prophesying the resurrection of our Lord. Here's why I believe this (it's not right here in black and white): at the end of verse twenty-one, the scholars translate it as "You have heard," or "You have answered." It's a sudden note of announcement, of confidence after the verses of suffering. 

Also, in verse twenty-two, the Messiah says, "I will declare your name to my brothers." Now, Jesus never called the disciples His brothers before the resurrection. However, immediately after the resurrection, He told Mary Magdalene to "Go to my brothers and tell them 'I ascend to my Father and your Father...." (John 20).

Lastly, the blessings and glories that are described in the remaining verses of the psalm are things that resulted from Christ's resurrection. They are way beyond David's experiences, and so they seem to fit the prophetic view of the passage.

The first blessing is fellowship. Because of Christ's resurrection, we are children of God, and we are His brothers and sisters.

For you are all sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)

Next, in verses 22-23, we are exhorted to praise God. 

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. (Psalm 22:23)

If Jesus only suffered and died, there would be little reason for praise, since we would still be lost in sin. But He is risen! Praise Him!

and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. (I Corinthians 15:17)

Also, we can testify that God heard Christ's cry. 

For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard. (Psalm 22:24)

He did not abandon Jesus, but brought Him out of the grave. We can testify to God's deliverance in raising Christ from the dead.

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;

before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.

The poor will eat and be satisfied;

those who seek the Lord will praise him—

may your hearts live forever! (vs. 25-26)

The Hebrews would have been familiar with this portion of the prophecy - this pictures a thank-offering. Whenever someone prayed and God answered that prayer, the worshiper would offer a thank-offering at the temple. In this way, they fulfilled their vow in gratitude to God. Then, the poor would be invited to share in a feast, also giving thanks to God. The worshipers would greet each other with, "Let your heart live forever!" In much the same way, we participate in a feast of thanksgiving when we gather for the Lord's Supper and offer thanks for God's gift to us -- deliverance from sin through Jesus' death and resurrection.

The next two verses outline a prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled:

All the ends of the earth

will remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

will bow down before him,

for dominion belongs to the Lord

and he rules over the nations. (Psalm 22:27-28)

When Christ returns, every knee shall bow before Him. Just as the other prophecies have already been fulfilled, this one will come to pass, as well.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;

all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—

those who cannot keep themselves alive.(v. 29)

Lastly, there is a need for evangelism laid out in verses 30 and 31:

Posterity will serve him;

future generations will be told about the Lord.

They will proclaim his righteousness,

declaring to a people yet unborn:

He has done it! (vs. 30-31)

The good news of our risen Savior will be proclaimed to all people and to succeeding generations. The message applies equally to the poor and the rich alike; it applies to all who acknowledge their need of salvation.

The glories of Christ Jesus' resurrection require us to praise, to testify, and to proclaim (spread the word!) God's great plan of salvation to everyone, everywhere!

Tuesday

 

Not only should this glimpse of the cross make me keenly aware of my sin and His mercy, but I should trust Him when He ordains suffering to come into my own life.

That's a tall order.

But it's do-able. With His help.

Look at verse fifteen:

My strength is dried up like a piece of pottery,
And my tongue clings to my jaws;
And You lay me in the dust of death. (v. 15, NSAB)

The Hebrew word used there for "lay" also has the meaning of "ordain" or "appoint." Evil, hate-filled, godless men crucified our Lord Jesus, but they did it in accordance with the plan and the fore-knowledge of God.

this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. (Acts 2:23) 

There are sections of this psalm that show Christ's response to the Father. A human being might have cried out in anger and bitterly shook a fist in God's face. Not our Savior: He affirms the holiness of God in verse three, and recalls God's faithfulness in these verses:

Yet You are holy,
You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
4 In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You rescued them.
5 To You they cried out and they fled to safety;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed. (v 3-5)

How do we respond when trials come? When we go through hard times, we learn to obey; we learn to submit and to trust God. 

Jesus endured by entrusting Himself in the hands of a loving Father. So can we!

 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:3)

Our other response to this look at the cross should be that we continue to trust God when our prayers seem to go unanswered. Jesus went through crucifixion and death before the answer to His prayers was revealed. Sometimes God will answer our prayers in a better time - or in a better way -- from His perspective.

But sometimes we don't understand.

We must continue to trust Him as our God . . . recently I have been praying for something that I truly believe to be God's will, but it seems sometimes as if things couldn't have gone worse if I had not asked in faith for an answer! It's so, so easy to slip into doubt when we pray and don't see His answer with our human eyes . . . 

It's at times like that we need to turn back in our Bible to the miraculous prophecies in this psalm. Read other prophecies and promises, too, and let them bolster our faith. If this psalm could accurately describe crucifixion hundreds of years before that horror was practiced . . . if this psalm could predict specific details of Jesus' death, even the words said and the gambling for His robe . . . this is solid evidence that the Bible is real and true! It's God's Word! We can trust His Word, even if we are going through trials and our prayers seem to be unanswered.

Psalm 22 doesn't end on a down note. 

It goes on to victory! Join us tomorrow.

His suffering. Our response.

 

We are working our way through an extremely meaningful psalm, Psalm 22. Here are our verses for today:

Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. 

 Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. 

 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. 

My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. 

Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. 

All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. 

They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. (vs. 12-18)

His enemies are compared in these verses to ferocious animals: bulls, lions, and dogs. Jesus' enemies stood at the foot of the cross or circled around it, snarling their hate and snorting their ridicule and lies. In spite of the fact that He could have called ten thousand angels to His side, our Savior suffered silently.

The humiliation and the agony of the cross is almost more than we believers can bear without breaking down into tears. We cannot read this and remain unmoved at how our Savior suffered.

As we read verses fourteen through eighteen, we read amazing prophecies of Jesus' crucifixion. I've read several commentaries that say they prove the divine inspiration of the Bible -- because this was written hundreds of years before crucifixion was known to man. It arose as a means of torture somewhere in the East, maybe in the time of the Medes and Persians, and Alexander the Great appears to have brought it to the West. The Romans learned it from the Phoenicians and they perfected it as a means of execution. The Romans reserved it for the worst of criminals; it was a way to humiliate the victim as death approached, and a way to intimidate others into submission. Crucifixion was brutal, torturous, an exceedingly slow and painful death.

The psalmist could not possibly have known about the experience, yet he wrote about it:

"Poured out like water" - points to the excessive perspiration from the suffering in the sun, as well as the feeling of weakness as life ebbed away. Jesus cried out, "I thirst!"

"Bones out of joint" -- the feeling of being stretched out by the arms as He hung on the cross; each time He would push up with His legs in order to inhale, the pain and weakness would cause Him to slump back down, pulling on his shoulder joints and pierced hands.

"Heart turned to wax and melted" -- His heart was struggling to supply blood to His body.

"Strength dried up like a potsherd, tongue sticks to roof of mouth" -- extreme thirst as His body was dehydrated.

"Surrounded by evil men" -- at the scene of the cross, His enemies awaited His death.

"Pierced hands and feet" -- we know that they nailed His precious hands and His feet. 

"Count all my bones" and "people stare" -- His body was stretched naked on the cross; it was a public execution, designed to humiliate and intimidate.

"Divide my clothes and cast lots for my garment" -- this is a specific prophecy given to David; it describes the activity of the soldiers at the foot of the cross.

Yes, David prophecied this. I don't know if the Spirit allowed him to know that his words would someday describe the Savior of the world. But David described the physical and emotional agony of Christ's crucifixion.

Through my tears, I must ask all of us -- how should we respond to Christ who suffered for us?

Our first response should be to truly understand the greatness of our own sins, and the greatness of Jesus' love. 

Our sins put Jesus on the cross. 

His love made Him willing to be on the cross.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

I went to high school at a private school that is a part of a university. You may have heard over the years of Bob Jones University.  Bob Jones, Sr. was an evangelist of the early twentieth century, and his son, Bob, Jr. was a great admirer of religious art and purchased paintings to add to the Fine Art and Religion departments of the school.  I visited the gallery several times and learned a lot (which I have mostly forgotten, I'm sad to say) about art and history. In the gallery was a Rembrandt etching - perhaps a sketch or idea-piece for his famous painting, "The Crucifixion." 

The focus of the painting was, of course, our Savior on the cross. But there is a group of people, a crowd, in fact, gathered about the foot of the cross. Standing there at the foot of the cross is a figure that art historians say looks like paintings and self-portraits of . . . . Rembrandt himself.

We all need to join Rembrandt at the foot of the cross. Our sins put Him there. We need to make it personal - my sins put Jesus there. 

Take a moment and let that sink in. If I (or you) were the only person on earth, our sins would have put Jesus on the cross. Wait, whoa, hold on, you say? After all, I was raised in a Christian home; I went to church every time the doors were open; I'm not a bad sinner like some other people I know. 

But here's the thing . . . 

The more I grow as a Christian, the more I realize how utterly wicked my heart is. And realizing how sinful I am makes me cling ever more tightly to the cross, and ask Him for His mercy.

That's not popular today.

We've even changed Isaac Watts' awesome hymn in some of our hymnbooks to read "for someone such as I?" instead of "for such a worm as I?" 

Alas! and did my Savior bleed?

And did my Sov'reign die?

Would He devote that sacred head

For such a worm as I?

But that is what Jesus called Himself when He bore our sins . .  . . I'd rather be identified with Him, thank you very much.

No, it's not popular to call attention to our sinfulness. But we need to be careful not to exalt ourselves. Do we think we are pretty good folks? That God just needed to give us a teensy boost to get us into heaven? 
Then we won't love Jesus much. 

But if we realize that we were lost in rebellion against our holy Father, and that He saved us from hell IN SPITE of our sin, and we are now forgiven -- then we will love Him oh, so much.

“He who has stood before his God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honour of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed”  (Charles Spurgeon's autobiography)

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, this glimpse of the cross in Psalm 22 should impress upon us the greatness of our sin -- and the greatness of God's love.

Friday slowdown

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas all around us. Trees are trimmed, lights and candles lit, presents wrapped and stowed in closets to stymie the efforts of children who would open and re-wrap them. (Grin)

Seriously, though, the greatest Christmas gift was God's Gift to humans . . . wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, Christ Jesus was that gift. Years after his mother "pondered" in her heart and dreamed about what her baby boy would become, He hung on a Roman cross and offered His lifeblood for sinners.

I'm a country girl, and I like this rendition of an old favorite: "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus." 

His blood is our only hope. 

It is life. 

It is Christmas.

Scorn, insults, and hate

 

Is my title perhaps a little too graphic? Are we uncomfortable thinking about Christ's crucifixion? I would say that if we are, there is hope for our hearts. We are not so callous as to shake it off - it affects us.

We are continuing our study of Psalm 22 with verses 6-8:

But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
 All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
    “let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
    since he delights in him.”

We'll concentrate today on verse six - anyone here know what a "remez" is? I bet at least one of our readers knows! In Jewish studies and interpretation of scripture, a remez is a deeper meaning, a hidden message in a verse or passage. It's said to be a treasure just below the surface of the words that we read; it's kinda like reading "between the lines."

Verse six says "a worm and not a man." That's a little confusing at first, since Jesus was a man. Not a worm. A worm is a wriggly, weak, easy-to-get-rid-of organism. What does David mean? 

In Hebrew, the word usually translated "worm" is "rimmah." This means maggot or worm. Here in this psalm, though, a different Hebrew word is used: "towla," or "tola'ath." This is one particular worm - a grub-like creature called the crimson or scarlet worm. This worm was common to the Middle East, and was known for the intensely crimson color resulting from using it as a dye (when crushed).  Scholars tell us that this is the scarlet noted in Exodus 26, when instructions were given for the Tabernacle fabrics.  And the colors crimson and scarlet make us think of blood; they are very deep, intensely red hues. And it's in this special worm that we find our "remez."

The female crimson worm only lays eggs once in its life, and when the time comes, she finds a tree or a fence post and attaches herself to it. Once her body is attached to the wood, an extremely rigid, crimson shell forms. It is so hard and so completely attached to the wood that it can only be removed from the wood by tearing apart the creature. The crimson worm's eggs are laid under that protective shell, and when they hatch, they remain there for three days. The mother worm's body excretes the remarkable crimson dye when she dies, and it stains both the wood and the new crimson worms. What remains of the adult worm looks more like a white wax on the wood, and later, it flakes off like snow.

In Bible times, the crimson dye was used to color the High Priest's robe and other threads or fabrics used in the temple. The dye is still used today for dye, shellac, and even medicine.  The tiny creature is crushed to release the scarlet dye . . . 

Jesus was crushed so that His blood might cover our sins. From humankind's point of view, He was scorned, despised, insulted, and hated. Verses 7-8 describe the exact words and actions of Jesus' enemies when He was on the cross -- they even mocked His claims of trust in God, as the psalm says. 

Just as the crimson worm attaches herself to the tree or fence, Jesus put Himself on a wooden cross. He willingly allowed the nails to be driven into His hands. Don't get the idea, though, that those nails held Him there . . . it was His desire to fulfill the purpose and plan of the Father to redeem man from sin. 

who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, (Galatians 1:4)

Just as the activities of the crimson worm is part of God's design, so also it was God's plan before the foundations of the world to send His Son:

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (II Timothy 1:9)

When the mother worm is crushed, the crimson dye covers the babies and marks them, just as Jesus was bruised for our iniquities, and His blood marks us as His own:

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)

The crimson worm young are dependent upon the mother to give them life; repentant sinners must depend on the blood of Jesus to receive new life:

knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. (I Peter 1:18-19)

Jesus Christ, God's Son, became poor. He became as a lowly worm. He gave His blood - the blood that washes us clean and gives us life.

“Come now, and let us debate your case,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They shall become as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)