All right, the Old Testament lesson comes from Isaiah 53, 4 through 6. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chest-diamond that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep has gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The Word of the Lord. And then if you'll remain seated for the first part of the Psalter lesson, I will tell you all when to stand at the end of verse 21. The Psalter lesson comes from Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? In the words of my groaning, oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest, yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you, our fathers trusted, they trusted and you delivered them, to you they cried and were rescued, in you they trusted, and were not put to shame. But I am a worm, and I am not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people, all who see me mock me. They make mouths at me and they wag their heads. He trust in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him. Yet you are he who took me from the womb, you made me trust you at my mother's breast, on you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls encompass me, strong bulls of bashing surround me, they open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and 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 my breast. My strength is dried up like a potchard, and my tongue sticks to my jaw, you lay at me in the dust of death, for dogs encompass me. A company of evil doers encircle me, they have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones, they stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots, but you, O Lord, do not be far off. O you, my help, come quickly to my aid, deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life, from the power of the dog, save me from the mouth of the lion. You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen, if you will join me standing for this remaining part, and I will tell of your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you, you who fear the Lord, praise him, all you offspring of Jacob glorify him and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel, for he has not despised or adored the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him but has heard when he cried to him. From you comes my praise to the great congregation, my vows I will perform those who fear, my vows I will perform before those who fear him, the afflicted shall eat and be satisfied, those who seek him shall praise the Lord, may your hearts live forever, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you, for kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nation, all the prosperous of the Lord, eat and worship before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Pastarity shall serve him, it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation, they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to the people yet unborn, that he has done it, the word of the Lord. Please be seated. Grace and peace to you, it is good to study God's word together with you this morning. We are continuing in our summer series on the Psalms, and this morning we have the privilege of looking at Psalm 22, but before we do that let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Father I pray now that by your Holy Spirit that you would encourage us, you would challenge us, you would convict us, we're necessary. I pray that you would open up the eyes of our hearts, that you would give us eyes to see ears to hear hearts that would respond to the grace that is offered to us, even in this very passage, I pray God that you would remove hardness of heart, that you would give us hearts of faith that are ready and willing to repent and to believe in the gospel. You pray these things in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen. I don't know how many of you have seen the sitcom The King of Queens before. It's about a guy named Doug, his last name is Heffernin, and Doug lives in Queens, New York, and he lives with his wife, Carrie, and her father, Arthur, and it's actually a comedy, it's a hilarious TV show, and the show really is centered around awkwardness. Just about every single episode there's something very awkward going on to the point where it almost makes your skin crawl when you're watching one of these episodes because you're with Doug in the moment and you don't know what to do with it, it's so incredibly awkward, and one of the things that you find out over the course of watching this TV show, I've watched it way too much, is that Doug is a very apathetic person, and Doug is somebody who just likes for life to be easy for him, he doesn't want to have to strive for anything, and Carrie happens to be someone who's very angry and very controlling, and she gets that from her father, Arthur, who's also very angry, and one of the things that I find interesting is that Doug hates pain, whether it's physical or emotional pain, Doug cannot stand pain, and he'll do anything and everything to avoid being in a place that's painful, and usually he does that by running to a place of food, Doug will eat constantly, and then he'll be bitter and resentful at his wife, thus the awkwardness. But here's the thing, Doug will do anything and everything to avoid pain, he cannot stand talking about suffering, and so when someone is suffering, when somebody is struggling with something, whether it's his wife or somebody else, and they come to him, Doug knows nothing else than to respond by going to get food and to eat, he runs from pain, he at any and every cost he will avoid suffering, and you know the more I thought about it, we really do live in a culture now, in an evangelical culture where suffering is avoided, and I think suffering is avoided politely in the church. If you think about it, most popular Christian books and songs out there, they emphasize glory to some degree, but rarely do they talk about suffering. But see, the reality is that all of us, as part of life in a broken, fallen world encounter suffering, some of you right now are suffering in relationships that you're a part of, or relationships that you wish you had that you don't. Some of you are suffering in a very difficult marriage, or maybe even a very difficult season of marriage. Some of you are suffering at work, or even in your finances, you're struggling on how to make ends meet every single month. Some of you are struggling as parents, your children are living in ways that you don't want them to live and they're chasing things that you don't want them to chase, and you're suffering as parents. Some of you are struggling in your family. You're really struggling to get along with your parents. You're struggling to get along with your siblings. Some of you don't even like your family, and you're struggling with your family. Some of you are suffering with infertility. You desperately want to have a child, and it's not happening, and you wonder why. Some of you are suffering with a painful or chronic medical issue or condition, and you don't know why. See, folks, suffering is real, and it's something that is Christians we often don't know what to do with, and so just like Doug, we run, and just like Doug, we hide, and our responses to suffering, though they're often well-intentioned, are very unhelpful, and our comments, though they're also well-intentioned, are usually fairly cliche. Think about this. Here's some of the responses I've heard over the years. When someone is going through a time or a season of suffering, these are some of the things you might hear in the church. I've heard people say things like this. Well, just praise the Lord, God is sovereign, and He has a plan. Just trust God and rejoice. It will all work out. All things work together for good to those who love God, and my personal favorite, you don't need to be asking why you need to be asking what it is that God wants you to learn in the midst of this suffering. See, folks, we tend to distance from suffering because we don't know what to do with it. We really don't know what to say, or how to be helpful, or how to enter into the pain of another person, and if we're honest, we really don't understand why it's happening. We have question marks floating around in our heads as well, and see to complicate this as reformed type, folks. We have all the answers to a question that people aren't asking. Let me explain. In the place of suffering, people don't just need to hear that God is sovereign. They know that, especially if they're good Presbyterians. They know that God is sovereign. What they're wondering is whether God is present with them in the place of suffering, or if he has somehow abandoned them. See, we're really good at talking about God's sovereignty and his transcendence, but often we forget that in Christ, God has come near. God has come close to us. He is also close to us. And as we think about suffering, I think that it reveals our struggle then to believe the gospel. Because somehow we think, or we act like, God is more present with us somehow in glory than he is with us in the place of suffering. But what the gospel reminds us that we're going to see this morning is that God is equally as present with us in both. Glory and suffering. Now I know this morning that some of us in this room are hesitant to talk about a subject like suffering for fear that it's going to feel like ripping a bandaid off of an old wound. If that's you, I hear you. And my hope in my prayer this morning is that you will find comfort and hope in God's presence. Our sermon text Psalm 22 describes this suffering and this persecution, if you will, of an innocent victim that is similar to the suffering servant that we read in Isaiah chapter 53. Now, of course, as you're reading through Psalm 22, Christian eyes cannot help, but read this Psalm without thinking of the sufferings of Jesus. Jesus quoted the opening words to this Psalm on the cross. The mockery he received was echoed by the priests. The division of clothing was done by the soldiers. We see in this Psalm the disjointed bones, the thirst, the pierced hands and feet, which are all foreshadows even of the horror of the crucifixion. But one of the things I want you to get this morning is that this Psalm is one of great contrasts of suffering on one hand and glory on the other. And what I'm going to argue is that that right there mirrors the journey of a Christian moving from a place of suffering to a place of glory. It begins with this individual who's suffering seemingly being abandoned by God and it ends with a worldwide assembly of people bowing before the Lord in worship. So here's a couple things that I want us to see this morning from this text. The first is this. If you read verses 1 through 21, what you see and what you hear is pain in the face of seemingly unanswered prayer. You hear pain. And the psalmist cries out to God with his agonizing question. He says, God, why have you forsaken me? Okay, now right off the bat, that makes us a little bit uncomfortable, doesn't it? Because we're thinking to ourselves, is it okay to talk to God that way? Is it okay to address God with an accusation like this? To say, God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you left me in this place where I feel completely and totally alone? See, one of the things you understand from this passage is that his suffering, the psalmist's suffering, is not just the physical pain and the mockery of the people that are all around him. It's actually this feeling of being forsaken by God Himself. So then his question is not asked in bitterness. It's asked in perplexity. He says, God, why have you forsaken me? In God's response, he was silent. The psalmist looks at his condition and continues in faith to appeal to God three times. He says, my God, even while he feels forsaken, but he receives no reply. God is silent. Now I think in these verses, there's three things that seem to both make this worse and at the same time uphold his faith in kind of this weird juxtaposition. Okay, one thing is this, he reflects on the experience of his ancestors' faith. If you look at verses three through five, he knows, okay, intellectually, he knows that God is holy, he's separate from, and he's exalted above all other things. In other words, he knows intellectually that God is sovereign, but when his ancestors trusted in God and cried out to him, they were delivered, not disappointed. And I want you to catch what he's saying here. He's saying, God, wait a minute, maybe you've forgotten that when my ancestors cried out to you, you rescued them. You delivered them, but you've left me in a place where I am disappointed. So he reflects on his ancestors' faith. Secondly, he hears the taunts of his enemies in verses six through eight. They were mocking him because his experience was not like the experience that his ancestors had had. I want you to hear these words of dripping sarcasm that come from these people. They say things like this, he trusts in the Lord, let the Lord rescue him. Sound familiar? It's similar to what happened to Jesus on the cross, but the question we're left with here is we read about this psalmist and the question, of course, that we're left with when we think about Jesus is, will God allow him to be treated this way? Will God allow him to be victimized in this manner? The third thing that seems to make things worse is that he reflects on his own past experience of God and verses nine through eleven. In other words, God has been his God from birth. Surely he will not abandon him now or will he? That's the question we're left with. God, you've been my God from birth. Are you now going to abandon me in the midst of all this hardship and all this pain? So these three thoughts lead him to appeal to God and he says, God do not stay so far from me. See, God is seemingly far away. Trouble is near and there's no one to help. Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever experienced this? Maybe some of you are there even right now. And one of the things this passage points us to is the fact that you're not alone. Not just this psalmist, but people all throughout Scripture have vocalized times in their life where they felt alone and they felt like God had seemingly abandoned them. See, the trouble that this psalmist was experiencing was not just external. It was internal as well. In verse 14, we're told that the psalmist's heart is, quote, melting like wax inside. Evidently, he feels like he's approaching death either physically or emotionally or probably both. He feels internally like he's approaching death. But I don't want you to miss this. There's all these evil men surrounding him, but he pictures them like this. They're wild animals who are waiting to tear him from limb to limb. And in some brutal way, think about Jesus, they pierce his hands and his feet, they stare at him, they laugh at him, they strip him of his clothes and they pass them out anticipating his death. Look at verse 19, the psalmist says, but you, O Lord, do not be far off. O you, my help, come quickly to my aid. So he appeals to God to draw near to him in his time of need and then to deliver him. There's something about wooden roller coasters that I just love. Besides the fact that after you ride one, you've gotten a back massage or lack thereof, I do enjoy wooden roller coasters and they're very different than normal roller coasters. In a normal roller coaster, you're in kind of what I call a saddle seat. It's like a form fitted sea and the harness comes over your shoulders and you're in and the roller coasters normally are very smooth. You're going through a loop or a corkscrew or something like that, but the entire thing is smooth. Well, that's not the case with a wooden roller coaster. You know this. You're not in one of those form fitted seats, you're on this thing called a bench. You've got this uncomfortable little bar that 8,000 people have touched before you. When you go over a hill, you kind of come up off of your seat, maybe an inch or so, but you feel like you're going to fall out. Then when you come to the bottom of a hill, there's usually one or two of these, for instance, in the Thunderhead at Dollywood. By the way, I just want to say Dollywood is legit. If you don't believe that, then you need to repent. Dollywood is legit. There's this roller coaster called the Thunderhead at Dollywood. There's one point in this roller coaster where when you hit the bottom of this real tall hill, you're thrown from one side of the bench completely to the other and you don't know what hit you. You're going down this hill at 60 miles an hour plus and you get thrown because you're not in one of those form fitted seats, okay? That right there, that feeling is exactly what happens in this passage. After verse 21, you're thrown to the complete opposite side and so now we've moved from suffering to glory. We're moving from prayer to praise. We're moving from suffering to a place of seeming triumph. Okay, so with that in mind, I want you to look starting in verse 22 through 31 at the second thing I want you to see from this passage and it's prayer and light of, it's praise and light of answered prayer, okay? So see, when God answers this prayer, the Psalmist here will be vindicated and will again be able to join with God's people in worship. And what this reminds us of is the fact that vindication is a very real part of the larger story of God's redemption in the world. Now note this because this is important. We're not told how God delivered David. Only that God did not despise his suffering servant and that he heard his cry when he called to him. In other words, God did not ignore or turn and walk away from David's cry for help. See, even when God was silent, God heard his cries. Even when God is silent, he hears your cries. Even when God is silent, he is with you. That's part of the message of the Psalm. There was a movie that came out a little over 10 years ago. I think it was in the year 2000 and it's called The Legend of Bagger Vance. And in that movie, it's a, the story of three golfers that happened to be Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, and a man named Junah who grew up in Savannah. And it's about this golf tournament that takes place in Savannah, Georgia. And the story centers around this guy named Junah who grew up in Savannah and he used to be an incredible golfer. And then somehow along the way, Junah loses his swing. And he doesn't just lose his swing. He also comes to a place where he encounters a lot of personal brokenness. So he begins to run to alcohol and other things to fulfill this brokenness that's inside of him. And these people convinced Junah to play in this golf tournament with Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. But Junah's forgotten his swing. And so the story is about this man named Bagger Vance who comes to Junah in the midst of his pain and his brokenness and walks with him through the brokenness. Now here's the interesting part about the movie. Bagger Vance does not give answers to Junah's brokenness. He just walks with him through it. And folks, that is exactly what God does with us. Most of the time, God does not give answers to the brokenness that we experience in this life. But he promises to walk with us through it. See, though the psalmist here had felt abandoned by God, God had been there the whole entire time, supporting his faith and hearing his prayers. And the heart that had been melting away, as the text said, now rejoices in triumph. And this is the irony, if you will, of this passage, that what we read about is the first 21 verses is the psalmist in a place where he feels isolated. He feels alone. And then now he's declaring the wonders of God's name within the worshipping congregation. And he throws open the doors to people from every nation to come and to feast in relationship with God. And now we see him as someone who's so overflowing with praise and adoration that he wants everyone to praise God with him. There's something here that I think we need to catch. And it's this, the true worshipper is always mission-minded. In other words, the psalmist here is declaring he's desiring that worshipers from the whole earth join in the celebration of this great God. See, folks, when you come into relationship with God and you come to understand what God has done for you in and through the gospel of Jesus, your heart's desire then is for everyone and all of creation to join you in that worship. That's what's being expressed here by the psalmist. The third thing quickly that I want you to see is the connection between the psalm and the passion of Jesus. Think about it. The path that David walked is the path of suffering that leads to glory. Jesus walked this same path. And because Jesus walked that path for us, we too can walk it. Romans chapter 8 verse 17 says that if we are to share in the glory of Jesus, we must also share in his suffering. Now that's a hard pill to swallow. That should make you a little bit uncomfortable. That we don't just share in the glory of Jesus, we will also share in his sufferings. But then the question begs, how do we walk through suffering faithfully? When you're in the place of suffering, how do you walk through that faithfully? What I want to argue this morning is that Psalm 22 serves as a reminder and a reassurance to us along the way in the place of suffering. It reminds us that in this present life, there will be, okay, there will be a mixture of suffering of faith and prayer. And it points us to the glory that is ours in the midst of the pain and reminds us of the glory that awaits us in the future because of being wed to Jesus. Romans 8, 18, Paul says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. In 2 Corinthians 417, he says, this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. See, folks, most of all, the suffering that we experience in this life points us to Jesus who has gone before us and will go with us to the very end. Now, it's crucial that we remember here that Jesus is not just your example. Jesus is also your Savior. See, he died for your sinful heart so that you don't have to, okay? Jesus took upon himself all of God's wrath, was completely expunged in the person of Jesus against sin. All of God's anger against sin was completely expunged in the person of Jesus. So, why does that matter? In the place of suffering, you have to remember this. God is not angry with you. God is not angry with you. Now, of course, there are consequences to our sin. That's not what I'm talking about, but what I am telling you is that all of God's wrath, all of God's anger against sin was completely taken out for his people upon Jesus. It was taken for you, totally and completely and forever. God is not angry with you. Friends, what would it look like if we began to be honest about the place of suffering and brokenness in our lives? Both as individuals and corporately as a church, believing that God is present with us in that very place of suffering. What if we began to tell people instead of using clichés, if we began to simply say, God is with you. God is walking alongside you in the place of that suffering. As individuals, as a community, how much more approachable we would be. People would begin to see us as a place that was safe and not a place that is threatening to those who are suffering. Think about Holy Week for a moment. On Good Friday, it's all about suffering, isn't it? It's all about Jesus taking the weight of our sin upon himself on the cross and dying for our sin. Then on Resurrection Sunday, it's all about glory. But what this reminds us is that suffering is a very real part of the Christian life and that glory is a very real part of the Christian life. Part of the message of Scripture and certainly the message of this psalm is that God through his Holy Spirit is present with you in both the place of glory and the place of suffering. Further, Scripture reminds us that God is actively at work transforming your suffering into glory. Brothers and sisters, be reminded today that God is present with you just as much in the midst of suffering as he is with you in places of glory. I want to close with a quote by Walter Brugam and that's in your order of worship there. He says this, because this one has promised to be in the darkness with us, we find the darkness strangely transformed, not by the power of easy light but by the power of relentless solidarity. Brothers and sisters, Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. Let's pray. Father, I pray that by your Holy Spirit you would take this word and that you would implant it deeply in our souls, that you would encourage us deeply. Remind us of the truth of the gospel, that you are present with us just as much in places of suffering as you are with us in places of glory. Help us to remember Jesus that you are walking alongside us in both and that we share not only in your sufferings but we will one day share in your glory. We give you thanks for the hope that is offered to us in the gospel. Pray these things in the name of Christ. Amen.