"Suffering and Glory"
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Transcript
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I think if we are honest with ourselves this morning, and I mean truly honest, this Psalm should loudly relate to us. The struggles of life are real for each one of us, no matter how much of a face we put on. Physical suffering. Mental suffering. Spiritual suffering. Loss. Loneliness. Crying out to God in prayer, yet the suffering still continues. Forsaken.
And it’s this reality that I believe drives some people to rethink who God is. If God is good, why does he not answer my prayers? Why did he allow such evil things to happen? Is he really there, and if he is there, does he really care? “
“It is not a lapse of faith, nor a broken relationship, but a cry of disorientation as God’s familiar, protective presence is withdrawn.” - Derek Kidner
Contrasting this with Psalm 8 from last week, rather than asking “who am I, that you would care and be mindful of me as man,” we ask “God, why do you not care about me?” The whole gamut of emotions are presented throughout the Psalms. None speaks louder than this one, and yet it is quoted by one whom would be forsaken for us...
CTS: The suffering of Jesus gives us great confidence that we are not forsaken, but gloriously saved by Him who took away our sins to make us live forever.
Background: There can be no event in the life of David that would encapsulate this Psalm. There are two ways to look at this, and I think both have their merits. 1) David is summarizing all of what he has gone through, writing a song for Israel to encapsulate for them a way to express suffering, yet also praise to the One who delivers us from our enemies. 2) David is writing in such a way as to point to one who would suffer in such a way, pointing to one of His offspring.
The question is, did David know this in clarity that he was writing prophetically? I think the answer is a combination of both ideas here. No doubt, David is writing in such a way as to give God’s people a way to express forsakenness and suffering in a bold yet needed way, while also praising God who through it.
I. Why Have You Forsaken Me? (1-21)
I. Why Have You Forsaken Me? (1-21)
A. I am confused (1-10)
A. I am confused (1-10)
1-2 Complaint: There is a duality involved here in these first 10 verses. The first line establishes the tone, and really, the purpose behind the Psalm: to give voice to those that are forsaken. The boldness of the prayer is that it addresses God first and foremost, which I think is most important in our struggles? Whom do we cry out to first? It must be God. It can be easy to go to other places and lay out our struggles and begin to question God. No, it’s not family, it’s not my friends, it’s not social media. When we feel forsaken, we cry out to the one whom we feel forsaken from. The boldness of the prayer is that it acknowledges that only God can answer this. When everything is falling apart, do you go to God or do you complain about God to others?
3-5 Commendation: “Yet” David writes, acknowledging that deliverance of God for His people in the past. He remembers what he has done. Yet…I know the right answer. I know you have done great and mighty acts Lord. Your people praised you for them. They cried out to their Savior from the bondage of slavery, and you delivered them Lord. They were not put to shame because they trusted in the Lord and not themselves.
6-8 Complaint: David understands his position though. The fallen world he lives in, the own sin he has done and the sin of the world has brought brokenness. A worm, sinful in our own right, and in light of that, scorned and despised. Mocked. We are the forsaken, and no doubt, throughout history, God’s people have been looked at and people have wondered “Look at them! They are judged and broken!” Ha, the God of creation has left them. If he knows God, where is he? Why won’t they be delivered? Why won’t God rescue them, they one whom they are supposed to delight in?
9-11 Commendation: Yet again, David acknowledges that is it God who created him, sustained him. From the womb, God has taken care of him and provided for him. And that is the reality of every human being, even the most sinful. Made by God, provided for by God. And for God’s people, this is the reality of us all.
B. I am layed in the dust of death (11-21)
B. I am layed in the dust of death (11-21)
The reality of forsakenness (11-18) And now David clearly sets up the scene. Again, this isn’t one particular instance in David’s life, but could be a summary of all that he has experienced. His many near death experiences, the things has faced, the sin of others and even of his own making. The enemy has surrounded him. The enemy who has mocked him is also looking to devour him.
The mockers are closing in. The Enemy is ready to strike and to kill. Bulls. Lions. Dogs. All encompass David. And verses 14 and 15 act as the center of the Psalm. Death is at the door. It is the enemy that has brought his death. The enemies of God’s people are sin and death, brought forth by the first who sinned against God, the serpent, Satan.
Death has come for the forsaken one. The strength and the will to keep going is melted. David cannot deliver himself. He is too weak. We as humanity too weak to defeat the enemy. We are laid down in the dust of death.
Death is the ultimate forsakeness of God. It is sin that has brought it about. Nothing can stop it. Its closing in. It is often in the face of death that we often wonder if God is really there. Whether it is us personally or a loved one who faces death, and there is nothing that can stop it.
The need of a Savior: (19-21) And David rightly cries out in verses, just as God delivered his people in verses 3-5, it is only God who can save. Draw near God! May your presence deliver us! From the enemy I face, from the forsakeness I feel. Save us o LORD, Yahweh. Save me from the beasts, save me from my enemies, save me from myself.
Application: It is only God who can deliver and save. Only he can save us from the enemy. Nothing in this world can save us. And how does God save us? By becoming one of us to save us. To become forsaken so to save us from our own forsakeness.
Jesus quoted the very first line of this Psalm, and it was when he was on the cross. It was at that very moment that he was forsaken for us. Why? Because He was taking on what caused on our forsakenness. Sin. And he was dying to deliver us from the enemy. The wages of sin is death. The enemy that we brought upon ourselves. He was dying to take away that sin by putting it upon himself. It is this very Psalm that can be described of Jesus, as though Jesus is saying these very same things. Here is the glorious truth that you can know today: Jesus was forsaken for you so that you won’t be forsaken.
Jesus knows every hurt, heartache, and suffering that you feel because of sin, whether its from your own doing or the doing of others. He was taking it on. He knows what it feels like to be forsaken by his friends, to be alone, to be abandoned. And I know its artistic license, and I know that some don’t like the idea of “the Father turned his face away,” but to some extent, Jesus was separated from the Father as He was on that cross, taking upon our sin. That’s why He cried this Psalm. He took on the enemy, the consequences of sin, and was forsaken.
Yet...He defeated sin. He defeated death. He defeated the serpent. He crushed him, as the one who was born like us. The snake crusher had to be forsaken to deliver us from being forsaken.
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Do you wonder if God really cares, that he knows what you are going through? We can say from the Scriptures, emphatically, YES.
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
II. How Can I Not Help But Praise You? (22-32)
II. How Can I Not Help But Praise You? (22-32)
A. Festival of personal praise (22-26)
A. Festival of personal praise (22-26)
Jewish tradition was that when a person cried out to God and He delivered them and answered their prayers is that they would gather God’s people around their own personal table and witness of His goodness and grace. They would celebrate the answer to their prayer, that God delivered them from their troubles.
David says he will tell of the name of God, His saving name, to God’s people. This would be a feast in which David in song tells God’s people to give the praise rightly due to the Savior God that Yahweh is.
Verbs abound: Praise him. Glorify him. Stand in awe of him.
Reason abound: He did not despise us. He did not abhor us. He has not hidden his face from us. He hears us.
For it is God who satisfies our weary souls, that causes our weak selves to live forever. Our hearts our strengthened by Him, for He satisfies us. The Lord God, our Jesus, is our satisfaction. When everything and everyone else fails us, our God does not. We praise him. We vow to live for the one who took on our forsakeness, to be satisfied in Him, and to praise Him with our lives forevermore.
In the midst of our darkest hours, know that God hears you. He doesn’t leave you or forsake you. His presence is there. He saves us to the uttermost. That even when it feels like, I can have confidence that this suffering is only temporary. Even if it is years, it is nothing in comparison to what is to come, the deliverance we experience.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
We gather around the table today, as a festival of praise to remember and witness the glory of the forsaken Jesus for us, the one who crushes the enemy, and saves our weary souls from death. Wretched men and women that we once were, we come with praise.
B. Festival of global praise (27-31)
B. Festival of global praise (27-31)
And the promise of Gen 3:15 and the promise to Abraham are fulfilled. God will gather the world around this table, to festival of praise and worship. All nations will bow before the King, the King who suffered for them, to deliver them, save them from their own forsakeness. The one who died, we bow to Him. The King who died so we didn’t have to.
His story will be told to the coming generations. This is the Gospel. The Gospel of King Jesus. Once forsaken, we are now called to proclaim His glories. To those yet unborn. He has done it. He has saved us!
Church, we are no longer forsaken, for Jesus has been forsaken for us. Yet he didn’t stay forsaken. He defeated that snake. He defeated our sin. He defeated death. He is alive, and He is proclaimed powerfully to the world. We do that this morning. We declare the Lord’s death until He comes…
Now our part is clear. We gather God’s people, the church, to praise and to worship the one who delivered us, to give witness around this table today in praise. We are then called to leave this table and to proclaim the goodness, the grace, the mercy of God to the world in desperate need of it. No matter what the cost. We gather as one today. We tell it to the coming generations, to the nations.
What do we declare? He has done it. Jesus has saved us!
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.