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Stepping into the Psalms
Part IV: Jesus Steps In
Psalm 22
March 24, 2013
PRAYER
SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 22:1-5
FAMILIAR WORDS
Q Does that passage sound FAMILIAR?
Where have you heard it?
These are in fact Jesus’ words on the CROSS.
I have talked a lot about STEPPING INTO the Psalms, making the words our own and that is what Jesus is doing here.
~* But he is doing MORE than that and we will see why Psalm 22 is perhaps the best Psalm for “PASSION WEEK.”
LAYERS OF MEANING
As I said a couple of weeks ago, the Psalms sometimes have “LAYERS of MEANING,” applying both to the original audience and having prophetic meaning later.
I think Psalm 22 has three layers of meaning:
1.
The individual lament.
At the most basic level, this psalm was written to GIVE WORDS to any of us when we feel forgotten by God.
Psalm 22:1-5 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.
4 In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
We spent a lot of time on laments when we studied PSALM 13, and I would encourage you to listen to that sermon again, but the basic point is that sometimes we feel like God has deserted us.
The godly response is not to PRETEND everything is ok, but to honestly express your pain.
~* Far better to HONESTLY EXPRESS something you shouldn’t feel than pretend to feel something you should.
But we move from expression to TRUST, remembering that God is good, even if we don’t feel it.
~* Our “FATHERS” trusted in God’s unfailing love, his HESED.
God had promised to be their God and to care for his people.
He had bound himself to them like a LOVING HUSBAND.
2. Israel’s plea
Another common type of psalm is “CORPORATE LAMENTS,” psalms that are prayers for God to protect the entire nation.
~* Psalm 22 is an individual lament, but also expresses the way that the JEWS in JESUS’ day felt – like God had forsaken them.
Again, the Jews knew that God has COVENANTED to be their God, his hesed meant that he would not forsaken then, no matter who much it felt like he had.
~* Just as it is UNTHINKABLE that AMERICA would be WILLING subject to FOREIGN POWER, so also that God would forsake them.
Jews looked forward to GOD’S DELIVERANCE, not only as individuals, but even more as a NATION.
But at the time of Jesus, they were overrun by the Romans.
~* “My God, why have you FORSAKEN us?” was in the mind of EVERY JEW – this is the context of Jesus’ day.
PASSOVER
I said earlier that today begins the PASSION WEEK, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter.
It is filled with events that are were PROFOUNDLY MEANINGFUL and SYMBOLIC.
~* Nothing more so than his “WHEN”: Passover
But the biggest symbol of all was the Passover.
Jesus chose this week of all weeks to be crucified because he was reenacting the Passover, promising God’s deliverance.
~* It would be like a TEA PARTY member walking into Liberty Hall and reading the Declaration of Independence.
We can speak of a NATIONAL IDENTITY – the stories of a nation that form who they are and why they think the way they do.
The REVOLUTION shapes who we are and our fierce independence.
~* The EXODUS from EGYPT formed the identity of Israel.
The exodus had KEY THEMES that every Jew instinctively knew:
a) A wicked TYRANT oppressing God’s people.
b) A leader ANOINTED by God to miraculously deliver them.
c) A SACRIFICE, namely the Passover lamb.
d) God’s DIVINE PRESENCE dwelling with them.
e) The CALL to be HIS PEOPLE and REPRESENTATIVES to the world.
Jesus GREW UP with STORIES of Moses and the exodus, and of the other saviors in the past.
In God they had put their trust, so we will do the same thing.
~* Jesus FAMILY would have TOLD stories about all the failed Messiahs and prayed for the real one to arrive.
By doing WHAT he did, WHEN he did, HOW he did, Jesus was claiming that he was brining in a SECOND EXODUS.
THE CONQUERING KING
Those who followed Jesus knew there was a WICKED TYRANT: Rome.
They believed that Jesus was the anointed deliver --> Messiah --> Christ.
They believed they would soon be able to go from Psalm 22:1-2 to vv. 23-24:
Psalm 22:23-24 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
~* TRIUMPHANT ENTRY as a king.
~* CLEANSING of the temple
The cleansing the temple was the KING’S JOB (in the past has cleansed the temple and the land); Jesus was doing the same.
THE TEMPLE
But he wasn’t only the anointed leader – he was also the DIVINE PRESENCE that would dwell with us.
We have a mental picture of Heaven being above and earth being below, but that was not how the Jews saw it.
In their mind, they were two separate realms, but the TEMPLE was where they MET.
~* Beginning with the PILLAR of FIRE, they the ARK of the Covenant and the TABERNACLE, the TEMPLE was were God dwelled.
When Jesus CALLED HIMSELF the TEMPLE, he was making a radical claim: Jesus himself was the temple, where God dwelled with man.
THE SACRIFICE
~* But Jesus knew something else: Not only was he the deliverer and the temple, we was also the SACRIFICE.
What Jesus knew was that that the REST of PSALM 22 also applied to him, which leads us to the THIRD LAYER of meaning.
3. Messianic prophecy
Psalm 22 is not only an individual lament or corporate lament, it is also a MESSIANIC PROPHECY.
The GOSPELS frequently QUOTE the Psalms, and this Psalm more than any other.
It’s not the first very, but passage after passage foretells Jesus’ death.
~* It is sometimes called “THE FIFTH GOSPEL.”
As we remember the crucifixion this week, Jesus said something that has troubled us ever since:
Matthew 27:41-46 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him.
42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself!
He’s the King of Israel!
Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
43 He trusts in God.
Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”
– which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Q Is this starting to MAKE more SENSE to you?
I think that two things are happening here, and both of them show that Jesus has “STEPPED INTO” this psalm MORE COMPLETELY and fully than anyone else ever could.
1.
Personal expression
On one level, Jesus is using the words of Psalm 22:1 to EXPRESSES the AGONY of his soul.
He feels as if God has indeed abandoned him.
~* This may indeed mean that for the first time he felt the deep CONNECTION between him and the FATHER RIPPED apart.
From this has come the belief that at this moment God poured HUMANITY’S SIN upon Jesus.
That is possible, but not certain.
~* What is certain is that Jesus did indeed FEEL ABANDONED by God, yet he pours out his heart to God.
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