He Will Never Leave or Forsake - Ps 22

Make your way, if you would, in your Bible to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Um, many people have Psalm 23 memorized, don't they? That's probably the most memorized Psalm, um, and for good reason. It's one of the most comforting Psalms in all the Bible. Uh, but what a lot of people don't realize— I mentioned this in Sunday school— is that Psalm 22 is quoted most by Jesus. Uh, he quotes Psalm 22 a lot. In fact, you're gonna see in the first verses something very familiar. That Jesus said from the cross. And so it can be hard. This is— I want to be really careful here because I, I've heard this many times, and I used to think I was a young preacher, but now I know better, that sometimes, uh, preachers and teachers and even Christians who have a limited number of miles on the tires can talk really authoritatively about how other people should go through suffering. They can say, you know, how to have faith and how to be strong and all of those things. And I want to just be really upfront that I will tell you that David is going to say some very strong things about suffering, but one thing you will not hear in Psalm 22 is that he's weak in any way for saying what he's saying. And I think there's a lesson in that.

There's a lesson that no matter how many times and how sure we are that God never forsakes us, that suffering is suffering and people go through things that are bad. And if it isn't the kind of suffering, it might be the amount of suffering where a regular ongoing— even a small thing that under normal circumstances could be easy to handle, but because it's every day, that kind of suffering can be bad, or a big thing that might overwhelm you. Suffering is real. So I hope that you have a good balance as a Christian, first for yourself, that that you think of suffering correctly, but also that we're just careful with other people going through things.

Like, I've, I've talked before about struggling with depression and anxiety and those kind of things. And when I say that, that sounds like the words that clinical people use. I don't necessarily mean it the way the clinical people mean it. But there is some version of it that there are some real physiological things related to those things. And if somebody is going through that— I don't like the mental health industry. I don't. I don't trust it that much. I don't think it's all that good for people. I think they're too quick to prescribe medications that are really unknown in what they do and all those things. But man, I also know that people are hurting. And if someone's hurting enough to need that kind of help, the least we can do is show some charity on the hurting side.

And I love what David does here because David hurts really loudly, right? David in Psalm 22 hurts out loud. And he says things that you might— if we were his friends, we might go Job's friends and say, "You can't say that, David." You know, but it's David. And so— and even further, oh, you get all the way fast-forwarded to the cross, and you're not going to correct Jesus for saying what David says, right? So we want to suffer well. I've never preached the book of Job, and that's because I'm afraid to, because I don't want to get up here and tell everybody else how they ought to suffer if I'm not sure I'm going to suffer well. And I've suffered plenty, but as we unfold this, unpack this, You'll notice if you're, if you're paying close attention that the title of my sermon has a question mark at the end of it. Did anybody notice that? Nobody mentioned it. That He will never leave us or forsake us? Are you sure? That's the question mark. Now I know the answer is, of course He won't. But David acts like he's forsaken and it hurts. So I just want to find out that right balance to not question someone's faith if they're hurting. To not be a doubter. To not, um, be quick to give counsel and advice when somebody is hurting, just to be thoughtful. But also, hey, real quick before we move forward, to also not allow for blasphemy when people are suffering, right, in ourselves or anybody else.

Suffering does not allow us to shake our fist at God or yell at God. When the disciples were preaching the gospel and they went through many troubles, we read in Acts 14 that we must go through many tribulations to enter the Kingdom of God. Now, that's persecution tribulations. Right? Uh, but that's— it's absolutely real that tribulation comes. And then Jesus says himself, in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So there's lots of lessons, uh, in Psalm 22. Lots. And I'm going to try to do something. I have it in my head to do it. I don't know if I'll succeed at it. I hope I'm able to do it. But if I don't, the least you could do is put Psalm 22 in your pocket. Even if I don't effectively stick it in your pocket the way I want to, because I have a thought that I'm hoping to— a refrain I'm hoping to give the whole evening tonight that will drive home what to me is very valuable about the psalm. So, um, I hope, hope I'm able to communicate that.

Let's pray. Father, uh, people who suffer have found great comfort in passages like Psalm 22 and Psalm 23. We have such good examples in scripture of people who have gone through the worst things in Job and others, and Jesus himself And we have lots and lots of, uh, examples of how to suffer well. But Father, we're still able, even though we have those examples, even though we've been instructed, to potentially lose our way when we suffer, to question you, or to think about, um, giving up. And I would just ask, Father, that there would be tools here. It may be today we don't need them, but we might need them in the future, or somebody we know and love needs them. So just help us take Psalm 22 with us today as we give it a survey, uh, look, and try to take the principles home. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, it's the first time I've ever preached Psalm 22. I've never preached it before, and I felt weird about that when I started preparing the sermon. How did I— how have I never preached this before? It's a strange one to not preach because it's a— it's one of those self-evident psalms that sort of has all the truths right at the surface, you know. So you're going to see something very familiar. Look at the first, uh, verse in, in this— words that you know, we all know really well because they come up again in the New Testament. To the chief musician, set to the deer of the dawn. That's a song that we don't know. I wonder what it sounds like. Um, a psalm of David. And what are the very first words? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear, and in the night season and am not silent.

You know those words? Those are the words that Jesus uttered from the cross when he— when the Father turned his back on him. There's a doctrine actually associated with that called the dereliction of the cross. There's debate over whether Jesus— or the Father actually turned his back on Jesus or it just felt like that to Jesus. We don't need to discuss that here, but whatever happened at the cross, uh, Jesus sensed being forsaken, and he got those words from his grandfather David. Now David here is pouring his heart out, and he's saying something that is really important to catch. Um, I don't want to get too technical and lose the, the weight of the text, but I do want to say The Bible always records everything truthfully, right? We all understand that, that the Bible's record is always a true record. But it also— the Bible, it's true that the Bible records lies. That doesn't mean that the Bible lies. It means that the Bible accurately records things that are not true. So if I were to ask you at this moment, and I'm gonna— I'll clarify this in a second, so I'm not gonna throw David under the bus. Is it true that God didn't hear David? Is it ever true that God's ears are plugged or closed? So is David accurate? No, but I don't think this is to be taken literally like it would be in a New Testament passage. David is pouring out his heart. I think what he's saying is something like, "It seems like you're not hearing me." You know, "I'm crying and I'm crying, but it— I have the sense that I'm not heard." So we know that it's not true that God doesn't hear, but I do want to get to the core of David here. And instead of seeing a flaw— I've seen people do this, they've done it with Moses and with I've seen people do it with Job, where they said that Job was, uh, proud. They've said things like that. Or that Moses was sinful because of things he did when the Bible never said he was sinful in doing those things. I've even heard people, so-called Christians, say Jesus failed when he asked God to take the cup from him of the pers— of the suffering. And people say those things, and that's why I say young— the younger preachers and the younger tough teachers who think they have it all figured out and who have not been through some things are quick to say those kind of things. So I want to just kind of temper that if you have any of that in you.

But I do want us to see as we start here— and here's the thing I want to Velcro to you, the thing I want to stick to your forehead, and I want you to take with you if you can, if it's helpful. This is Pastor Jonny talking, not the Holy Spirit or anything. Please remember verse 1 and 2 the whole time we go through the psalm, because it's amazing how this psalm ends given how it just began. It's amazing. Like, it's, it's, it's almost incredulous. If we— if it wasn't Scripture, if it wasn't Scripture, it would be hard to believe that this— the way this psalm ends compared to how it begins. So put it in your pocket, try to remember. I'm gonna keep trying to echo back to the beginning as we move on through it because I really believe that the lessons of the psalm are seen in how it starts and the lessons that David is giving us as it unfolds.

Before us. It isn't just, "I know what pain is like, now let's move on to the next subject." No, he's saying, "I know what pain is like." In fact, look at verse 3. He already starts it. He already begins the correction. But you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them. They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed. Isn't that crazy that those are the next couple of verses? Like, I'm crying and you don't hear me, but the fathers trusted you. Now, I— this is the silliest— it's not silly. It's just, it might seem like a childish application I'm gonna make, but would you please take it? Would you folks please take it? You know who I thought of when I read those verses? I thought of people who are casual in their Christian life. And here's what I mean by that. The people who don't bank the goodness of God over their life. That when God takes care of them, and they pray, and God blesses them day after day, day in and day out, that they are around God's people, and they not only see God working in their own personal life, but they see God working in the lives of others, right? So that they are in the holy huddle, as it were, watching God deliver time and time again. They're praying for their fellow Christian, they're praying for their family members, and they see God come through over and over again so that they're building this bank account of faith. David had the bank account, and he needed it because he didn't have it in his own account. Do you see it? David is saying, "I know the people have trusted you. I know you have heard your people. I know they— you have delivered them over and over again." But you notice he's saying, "I'm not being delivered yet, but I know you deliver." Because he banked it, because he counted on the past work of God. And you don't know the past work of God if you take your Christian walk casually. If you're not regularly relying on the Lord, or regularly praying, right? Regularly being in the lives of other people where you see God deliver. Because sometimes— I say this all the time, we talk about the piston where when one of us is down, the other one is up, right? In our lives, like I'm down in the valley right now, but you're on a peak right now. And I might be on the peak later when you're in the valley, and we're, we're just being there for each other. Well, David right now is down, but he remembers God delivering the people and that they had been up at times. So Please be faithful in your Christian life so that you are banking these things. Not just your Christian life, but the lives of other people. Be praying for others. Be looking at God work in other people's lives. And when God does something good for your fellow brother and sister, put that in your pocket too. That if he'll take care of them, he's gonna take care of me.

David isn't just feeling bad for himself here. This is real heartache. Look at verse 6. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All those who see me ridicule me. They shoot out their lip. They shake the, the head, saying, "He trusted in the Lord; let him rescue him, let him deliver him, since he delights in him." It sounds like the cross, doesn't it, when they were mocking Jesus? Uh, this isn't directly quoted that I know of, but it seems to be alluded to. So David is saying, they sneer at me, they put their lip out like, "Where's your God?" That's the idea, right? Here you are and the whole world is against you. Here you are down in the, in the dirt and your enemies are surrounding you and you're feeling bad. And where's your God now? And people do that, don't they? Do you know how hard that is? It's— do you know how— uh, yes you do. I'm, I'm asking rhetorically. You in the room who've suffered know how hard it is. That you're already having a tough time trusting the Lord. You're already trying to work to stay faithful and to lean on the Lord. And then somebody comes along and says, "Where's your God now?" Like, hey, I'm already having enough trouble. I don't need you trying to tell me to doubt God too, you know. And it makes you sometimes want to yell at them, "Where's your God?" The god of money or the god of lust or the god of the— you know, where's your god? The god of alcohol, he hasn't delivered you either. Don't do that, by the way. Don't be snarky like me. But it does say they, they're saying, where's the LORD? You notice if your Bible does it, it's all capital. So the critics David is saying are actually naming God. They're not just saying where is a god, they're saying where's Jehovah, the real God? He's not taking care of you. Really tough. So it's painful what David is going through. He's not just feeling sorry for himself. He's not just crying unfair. And it bothers him that people are questioning God even when he is down. So, so far David has said, "I am forsaken. I'm crying and I don't sense that I'm heard. I'm crying to you and I ha— I'm not finding relief. But I remember and know for sure that you have relieved your people. You have delivered your people. But now these people are turning against me. These people are—" are mocking you, and I'm— they see me hurting, and they're using my hurting as a weapon against you, God. So David still, even in his pain, cares about the honor of God. That's, that's one of the, the telltale signs— or if it's telltale signs— of a real believer, is a real believer, a true believer that actually cares about the character and nature of God, even if they themselves are hurting. Do not want their God blasphemed. So instead of questioning God, like, "Why are you doing this to me?" they hear other people saying, "Why is your God doing this to you?" Like, you know how it is, right? Like, if you have siblings, like, you and your siblings can box and fight all you want, but anybody outside the family better be good to your brother or sister, right? Like, I might— I might— you and I might be fighting, but no one else can pick on you and I'll defend you. That's how it is. It's like that. Like, yes, I'm struggling right now with the Lord and I'm crying out and I— I want him to be close, and I don't sense that he's close, but you don't criticize him, right? He is honorable. I'm just trying to figure things out right now. It's really helpful if you're thinking about all that nuance there.

Verse 9, but you are he who took me— and now this is amazing what he says here, uh, side note, I'm— I'll say it, I'll read it and then I'll say it. You are he who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breasts. I was cast upon you from birth. From my mother's womb you have been my God. Now, I already said that he looked to Israel's history and had that in his bank account. Like, I am feeling deserted. I am sensing I'm alone and I'm suffering and the enemies are against me, but I know you have delivered your people. I know you do what's right. I'm a worm and not a man. I'm down in the dirt. I'm— I, I feel like less than a man. They're mocking me left and right. And then he says something amazing. But I know the truth. The truth is you have always been my God. David can actually say with some degree of honesty when some people I think can't, I've been a Christian my whole life. Do you see where he says, from my mother's womb? Now, I want to just say a side note. This is just a side note that, um, you all know that I'm a Calvinist. I'm an unapologetic Calvinist. I very strongly believe in the doctrines of grace. And one of the criticisms that will get leveled at Calvinists is that we must believe that an unelect baby goes to hell. Like, we know that. I do not believe that, but I also don't believe that there are innocent babies. So follow me. I don't know if babies go to heaven or hell. I know the Bible never says a baby goes to hell, so because it doesn't say that, I'm not going to say that. But I do know that there's occasion— for example, John the Baptist doing cartwheels in Elizabeth's belly, belly, when Jesus comes up, and David right here and the grown-up David saying he's going to see his baby again. I have biblical warrant that God loves babies, and it isn't because they're innocent. They're not innocent. I'm going to suggest to you that babies can have faith. I'm going to suggest to you that babies can believe. And how do I suggest that? You must be just pulling that right out of your ear, Pastor Sloan. Do you see what that says? You made me trust you. What's another way of saying that? For by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift. So I'm not making that up. I wouldn't just say that so I could feel better about babies. I think God loves babies. But I want— I want you to see if there's biblical warrant for that idea. There's biblical warrant that from the womb, even though we're sinful from the womb, I think God can grab the heart of a baby. I really do. And David's saying that he did that with me. It's, it's David's testimony that God was already in David's life from the beginning. And for— and to whatever degree he was able to, he understood those things. But I can tell you one thing, David now in his heartache and in his pain is looking back over his life and saying, "You've always been taking care of me." I really love that idea. And I also love that idea— you all know I've been talking about being a grandfather and how important it is to me and how gracious God has been to me in these years, that I, I sense, even though I got saved in my 20s, I sense now that God had planned this in eternity. Now, I know he did because I know the doctrine of, you know, predestination and things, but I'm, I'm talking more personally now that I need to remember things like David needs to remember things. I need to do what David is doing in my life and remember, look at where God has brought you. I always say this to you, that on my computer screen at home, on my main browser webpage— I've made my own homepage— and on that homepage, in tiny little print, it says, "Safe thus far." Why does it say that? His grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will what? Lead me home. That little phrase, "Safe thus far," I have to remind myself every day that as difficult of a time as I might be having, God has taken care of me up to this point. He's gotten me to this point. And He has been faithful to this point. So we sang earlier about that.

Well, now David is going to really pour it on and kind of give some very descriptive language. And I— under normal circumstances, we'd break each of these down like the bulls of Bashan and the dogs and the language and stuff. I'm not going to do all that. I think it's safe to say that what David feels like is a poor animal being attacked by other animals, right? He's being— he's being— he's the prey and the predators are coming after him. So let's look at him being surrounded here in verse 11. "Be not far from me, for trouble is near." Uh, for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They gape at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. A potsherd is a— like a broken piece— piece of clay pot that's broken. And my tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. That also might be alluding to the cross. That might be something that is foreshadowing the cross of Jesus being pierced. Look at the language there, animals coming after him. It's interesting to use the language of a, a cow or a bull. Uh, that kind of language often has the idea of— not here necessarily, but can have the idea of the bull's horns, uh, goring. Stabbing, you know, and, and trying to kill you. And, and they're after him with like lions. It says the, the bulls are like lions. The one thing I will point out is the dogs. Um, you know this, we talk about it a lot, but dogs in the Bible are filthy animals. They're not, they're not pets, even though they probably had a pet here and there. That dogs were not like what we think of as, you know, purebred domesticated little things. These were animals and they were disgusting to— in most cases, and dangerous in most cases, because they were always scavenging for food. And so when you hear, "The dogs have surrounded me," you're not going to think of poodles. These are like— these are like the filthy, you know, uh, rabies, you know, disease-infested, uh, animals that would probably be hanging around garbage heaps and things like that. So David is giving very strong language. This is the way he's describing the enemies that are surrounding him. Now, I don't know if that's okay for us to do that, you know, to call somebody we don't agree with a dog or an animal. But I think that language is poetic. And of course, remember, this is a song, so he's using figurative imagery, right, to, to bring across— it's lyrics, it's poetic in nature. And so, uh, it's very clear that David is hurting very badly, and he's, he's giving a description here of enemies that are real enemies, dangerous enemies. And he is— he has, he has that sense that, uh, like maybe you've been there before where you might not feel there's an escape, you know, it's— you can almost feel the bad guys closing in on Him here.

But I do want you to notice how He started verse 11 in this section. How did He start it? He started it by saying, "Be not far from me." And I've already failed in not doing this. I wanted to do this the whole sermon. But remember how this started? "Why have you forsaken me?" Those are the first words. And how many times already has He already started correcting any thought of God being far from Him? You've been good to Israel. You took care of me from birth. He's— so I want us to learn from David that even in the midst of the worst hardships, and this is a very descriptive hardship here with the bad guys around him, he says he's melting internally. His heart is like wax, it melts. That means it's— his heart is losing its strength, like he doesn't have fortitude anymore. Meaning he's— and I don't mean physical strength. I mean, like, he had— he doesn't know if he has the will to keep going because his heart is— falling apart inside of him. I don't know if I have the stuff to keep going here, right? He's saying all this, but notice he's saying, "Be not far from me." So David, again, he's always in his worst moment still looking for the good God. And that's a problem sometimes for us. It can be a problem when things get bad. We cry out to God and ask why he's not taking care of us and forget that he has taken care of us, forget that he has a plan, forget that there is a future and a hope in our future. And it's important for us to see that.

Verse 17, "I can count all my bones; they look and stare at me." Do you know what that means? That means he's starving. It means he's scrawny and starving to where he can see his bones, you know, through his skin. I don't know if he's physically going through something, but he's definitely saying like, "I feel like I'm starving to the point of being emaciated and, and falling apart." And he says, "They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing cast lots." Again, obviously another potential allusion to Jesus' suffering on the cross when the enemies cast lots for his garments. But David is in a bad way here. He's hurting. These are extreme things he's saying. These are, these are not, "I woke up on the wrong side of the bed." These are not, um, "My neighbor didn't wave to me and that really hurt my feelings." He's really, really going through it. And we don't know— I don't think we do anyway— the events surrounding this psalm. But I think it's safe to say that David is hurting and he's hurting very badly. And if that were the psalm by itself, you might be sort of left kind of hanging. Like, I, I don't know if— do I feel good having read up through verse 16 or not, or 18? Do I feel better now that I've read that? That I hear David saying his bones, you can see his ribs popping through his skin and he's hurting. Does that make me happy? Do I feel ready to tackle the world today? By the way, it would be okay if it ended there. That wouldn't be wrong of God to end that portion if he did it, right? But that is not how it ends.

Now let's— he already said, "Be not far from me" in verse 11, right? So David started out by saying, "Do not forsake," or, or, "Why have you forsaken me?" Presumptively saying he was forsaken. You didn't forsake your people Israel. You've been close to me since birth. And now he says, "Be not far from me." Verse 19, "But you, O Lord, do not be far from me. O my strength, hasten to help me." See, this is what I mean. A— this is indicative of genuine faith. When somebody's hurting, do they turn to God or do they turn from God? When somebody's hurting, do they cry out, "Why is this happening to me?" and turn away from the Lord and get distant and get out in the cold? Or do they say, "Why have you forsaken me? I, I'm alone and I need help," and then do what David does? Help! Help me! I think there's a lot to learn here. A lot to learn. Which is it? Why have you forsaken me? Or don't be far from me? And the answer is, yeah, it's both of those. That's our life. That's our life when things fall apart and we hurt and we suffer and whatever the issues are— people we love, your country that you love, disease, everything else— when you sense that you're alone and struggling, you might say, Lord, you feel far away. But what does David do? But I know you're not. I know the truth that you're close to your people and you love your people. Get close to me. Look at it. It says, "Hasten to help." He's telling God what to do. Did you catch that? He's bossing God around. Now, whenever you see a command to God, it's always a request. But he seems, seems very bent on telling God, "Hey, I'm not okay and I can't have you being far from me right now. You need to get close to me." Verse 20, "Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth and the horns of the wild oxen. You have answered me." Do you see there's those horns of the oxen I was talking about? The bulls of Bashan. Save me from the killing weapon of the, the animal, the cow or whatever it is, the ox, the teeth, the mouth of the lion, the power of the dog that wants to tear me apart. So he's sort of summarizing and saying, "Lord, they're— if you don't help me, they're going to get me." But to me, the lesson and the thing to take away is he, in David's mind, is ready to save. Save me. And again, I, I have to do it. This is what I wanted to do. This is what I wanted you to take with you.

This is all one psalm. I could have just preached the first couple verses. I could have just preached the verses about God being good to Israel. I could have just preached the verses about David being chosen from birth, right? I could, I could cherry-pick verses and make a sermon out of it, but I love the flow of thought. I, I love connecting all this back to the beginning. How does it start? I'm forsaken. Where are we now? Get close to me. He's already said it multiple ways. Now again, with that in mind, verse 22 and following is really strange. It's strange that these are all in the same passage, in the same psalm. If it— like I said, if it weren't— if somebody else were doing this, if somebody was just talking and they were to say, "God doesn't love me and He's not near me," and then they were to say, "I'm going to praise God," you would— might— you might think that person is schizophrenic, like somebody who's mentally not okay. If they say, "God's far from me and I'm alone," and then the very next things you hear them saying is, "I'm going to declare praise to the Lord." Well, which— which is it?

But David has a flow of thought and it's a song, and it's a song that probably starts out in a minor key and then later turns into a major key. Verse 22, "I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly I will praise you." Now, do you see why I'm trying to do what I'm doing by connecting these later verses to the first verses? 'Cause if you jump into the Psalm and you were to go Psalm 22, verse 22, it sounds like a lot of the other Psalms of victory and praise. And it is a song of victory and praise. It absolutely is. But in its context, when you see how he started the psalm, and he's talking about the attack of the enemies and the life just ripping him apart like dogs, and then you hear him saying, "I'm gonna praise the Lord." That's our lesson. That's the way we're supposed to take it.

We're supposed to take it that, yes, you can be in a sense forsaken. You might be low, you might be in a valley, things might be very, very bad. But if we're gonna learn from David, we turn back to the Lord and we get back to praising him. We try to get right with him and get close to him again and call him to be close to us and hasten to us and and be near me. And just like Israel before, just like me from birth, I'm gonna declare your name. I'm gonna praise you.

I always remember C.S. Lewis. I've re— quoted him a million times in this area where he says nothing is worse, uh, for the devil's cause than for people to look around in a world and see no reason to obey God, but to do it anyway. Like, there's nothing worse. The devil doesn't have anything worse than that, than if you're hurting and struggling and you don't have any measurable blessing or anything you're going to chalk up to being— life being good. Life is really bad. You're down. You're hurting. You're suffering. And what do you do? You praise God anyway. The devil really hates that. I don't know about you, but I like doing stuff that the devil hates.

In verse 23, you— now he's, now he's telling the people, right? So now David turns to the people, the audience, okay? He's already done the soul searching. He's already said he's going to declare his— God's name to the people. Look at him do it. He does it. "You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him and fear him, all you offspring of Israel! 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, he heard." Uh, my— the Bible capitalizes those because I think that's a potential prophecy. This is messianic of Jesus in the future. But even if it is only about David, or mainly about David in our context, how about the idea that right now the same guy that a few verses earlier was saying, "I am forsaken and you don't hear me," he's now telling people, "Turn to him because he hears you." In the same psalm. This isn't chapters later. This is in the same psalm.

He is not despised, or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted? In other words, I was saying earlier I was afflicted and wondering where he was, but I know the truth. He never abandons the afflicted. He loves his people. I love that David is teaching us. He's teaching us to put ourselves in check. He's teaching us to be careful to question God, or at least if you're going to question God, do it correctly. It's such a simple fine line. I say it all the time, and I don't, I don't even mind that I'm repetitive. This is a thing we need to repeat over and over again. It is okay to look to heaven and say, "Why, God?" That's okay to do that. As long as you're ready for his answer. What's not okay is looking to heaven and saying, "You are failing, God." That's not okay.

Totally okay to say, "I am stretched to the point of— I don't know what to do here. I'm hurting. I don't have answers. I don't even know where to look anymore. I don't even see the will of God very clearly." But I know God tells the truth and he loves me. So it's, it's a, it's a fine line to walk where you pour your heart out to God in trust, or you pour it out to your heart out to God in doubt or in criticism of the Lord. So stay on the right side of that and cry out to God all you want. God, you don't have a lack of faith if you say, God, I don't know if I can handle this. That's not a lack of faith. Jesus did that. It's a lack of faith to say, God, you are not giving me a way of escape. 'You are not helping me. You are failing. You are not doing the right thing.' That would be doubt and a lack of faith and cursing the Lord. Don't do that, because he will take care of the afflicted.

Verse 25: 'My praise shall be of you in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever.' All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. Man, this is amazing. It almost sounds like Revelation. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who cannot keep himself alive. A posterity shall serve him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation. They will come and declare his righteousness to a people who will be born, that he has done this.

How different is the last verse from the first verse? I— is there a bigger narrative swing in scripture than this? To start out saying I am forsaken, and end by saying, nobody who loves you will be forsaken in the whole wide world. The nations are going to worship you. Not only have you not failed me, the individual who's crying out to you right now, but in the future you will succeed on a national, global, and I might even say cosmic level. What an amazing thing David does here.

I want to give you something, please, to take with you. I said earlier that I think of people who are casual in their faith when I think of that section where David is talking about Israel praising the Lord, right? That, that David is recounting in his head before he gets into his own personal life and his personal testimony, he's recounting, "Peop— your people have called out to you and you have answered your people. You've delivered Israel. I know that's a thing you do." 'Lord, that you deliver Israel.' So David is saying, 'I am not in this— I don't have the sense right now that I'm delivered or okay, but I know you've delivered your people in the past,' right? Well, David is crying out. Then he gives such a heavy-duty description in verses 11 and so on of how bad it is, like the attacks of the enemies and being attacked like animals attack prey, and lions and the bulls and everything, and him struggling like the dogs are going to rip him apart, right? He's talking about being pierced. He's talking about his bones being exposed from starvation and struggle. His heart's melting within him.

So he's saying all of that, but then the way the corner turns ultimately in the Psalm, all of the negative goes away. All of it goes away, even in the Psalm, to the point of the last part of the Psalm is almost 100% positive. Now the reason— what I want to do right now is— We've been joking about this in my family for a long time, that the, the idea that someone can make assumptions, they can have a first impression or have an assumption about anything, doesn't matter what, it could be a person, first impression of a person. Uh, I joked about it that somebody thought— this cracks me up— that when they— the first time they came to our church, they thought that because, you know, they— not because, but I was wearing a suit and I'm in order, whatever that means Uh, that they thought that I was sort of like a, an aloof, prim and proper person, which is hilarious. That is hilarious. I spend most of my time in sweats, okay? I'm sorry if that disappoints you. And when I do— go to the store, I don't go in a tie. I'm very sorry to hurt you if that's how that goes. When I do my yard work, believe it or not, don't have the suit jacket on out there, okay? But they had a first impression of me that was pretty much 180 degrees wrong. Right?

But the thing that I see in people— and this has to do with a psych— psychological phenomenon, okay? It's called metacognition, the lack of self-awareness. That people will have a first impression, they will make a conclusion based on limited information, and then here's the amazing thing, they will be proven wrong. Okay? They will be proven wrong about their impression. They'll— they will even say, "I was wrong about you," or, "I was wrong about that. I thought I wasn't gonna like that meal, and I really liked it." I thought I wasn't going to enjoy doing that thing, that event, or going on a roller coaster, or whatever it is. I, I thought one thing. I had a first impression, my first thoughts. I drew conclusions. And then I did the thing, and I now know I was wrong about that thing. People go through that all the time. But the part that is missing is the part that they never question their first impressions after that. That they don't question their ability to think when they just said they thought all wrong.

So you say, what are you talking about, Salome? What are you— what are you rambling on about? David just said, why have you forsaken me? And then he ends the same psalm with, you're going to win over the whole world. And I'm gonna ask you, what would your Psalm 23 look like? This is his Psalm 22. What would your Psalm 23 look like? You get through something, you get on the other side of it, God rescues you in a major way, He takes care of you, you've been safe thus far, you're all right today, and then the trouble comes around the corner tomorrow and you say, "Oh no, why have you forsaken me again?" We all do this. I'm not picking on you. I do it. I do it daily. And I'm ashamed of it. I wish I didn't do it.

But I want us to learn the lesson. The lesson isn't, "Oh wow, God delivered me." The question is, "I need to be careful how I question Him on the next one." Take it with you. Take it with you. Learn the lesson. Not just the lesson that he will deliver me, but learn the lesson I don't need to ever doubt if he'll deliver me. We've been down this road. We've already been down the road where I doubted him, or I wondered, or I questioned things, and he took care of me. So now the next time comes around, I'm gonna be a little slower. Maybe the question will be a little less. Maybe it'll be a little faster. Maybe I won't have to get to verse 22 before I'm saying positive things. Right? Maybe I can have the positive things happening like in verse 3.

So you're going to go through suffering. There will be tribulation. But how fast, how reflexive will it be? The lesson isn't just that God does deliver. The question is, how reflexive and automatic will I be one who knows he will deliver? I qu— it isn't just he will deliver. It's I know he will, and I know it quick. And I know he'll get me through the— this valley. I know he hasn't forsaken me. So I'm asking, did he forsake me? Was David right in the first couple verses? No. Thankfully, it only took David a couple verses of hurt to get to the answers. He already started self-correcting. He already started getting the ship back steered straight, you know.

So please take that with you. The idea is know what you know or what you don't know. That's the idea. It's like, I— there was a thing I didn't know, and when I learned, I want to make sure the next time the thing comes around, I'm, I'm knowing a little more a little faster. I'm not having to learn the same lesson every 50 times. Oh, here I was again doubting the Lord, and then he came through again. Next trouble comes up. Oh no, I'm doubting the Lord. Oh, is he going to deliver? Oh, he delivered again. Eventually you can just, if you want, not have to doubt him. You can get right to verse 22 if you want. You can get right there if you want. You can just get right to verse 22, that the Lord will take care of me. And somebody might say, well, where's your God now? He's right next to me. What are you— what are you talking about? Well, where's your God? You're hurting. Yeah, I know. I'm glad he's here. He knows I'm hurting too. You might want to ridicule me, but he loves me. Yeah, but shouldn't he be delivering you? He will. He does it every time. You're not worried? I don't know if I'm worried. I just know God's good.

Can you imagine if that was our attitude? I'm alright. God's gonna take care of me. David t— goes on a— quite a journey in Psalm 22. He really does. I, and I don't know that I had ever connected those dots before. So can I say this to you, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church? Thank you for letting me preach. Hahaha. Thank you that I got to do that work. It's a privilege to do it, and I learned a lot, and I'd like to think I'm gonna take the lessons with me that I'm trying to share with you.

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for David, his testimony. It, it really is refreshing, Father, that David bears his soul like this, and you saw fit to include the hard parts.— that we don't just have stories of heroes that only ever do right, that we have real humans in our lineage of faith, and these people that really relied on you even in the toughest times. Maybe people that even failed, but they turned to you after their failure. Such good lessons. Thank you for them. Thank you for David and those like him. And we just ask, Father, that we would be like him, that even when we're hurting, we would be ready and quick to get close to you. And we know for sure you haven't forsaken us, and we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.