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The Covenant in the Psalms. Yes
sir. Normally, what we seek to do
in our preaching and our teaching is to verbally portray as graphically
as we can, and in that case, we can. The artist seeks to portray that
as accurately as he can because he's a Christian artist through
the portrait of Christ that he seeks to create. How do you make
a distinction? And that would be the first thing
that I would like to ask. Well, in preaching Christ, We
are limited in preaching to what the Bible tells us about the
Lord. We don't create imaginative descriptions
of him, for example. We don't say, Christ, look now
at Jesus with me, and you'll notice that his hair is brown,
but there's a little bit of gray around his ears. And notice that
his left eyebrow goes up a little higher than his right as he looks
at you now, etc, etc. See, we don't have information
like that. Now, those who had seen the Lord could have given
us descriptions. It's interesting that under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they didn't. So, I would say
it's as simple as that. The artist is limited in his
data by the fact that no data exists. We know that he was,
his appearance was human, fully human. We know certain things
about the fact that his face must have been covered with blood
with the crown of thorns. We know that his hands were pierced
with the nails. So there's certain things we
do know. But when it comes to portraiture,
we just don't have the information to paint a picture. And the preacher
is limited to the information he has in the scriptures. He
doesn't invent things about Christ. He describes what we're told
in scripture about him. And of course what we're told
in scripture is occasionally how Christ felt and what Christ
did. other than just incidentals,
the fact that he wore a certain kind of robe and so on, we're
not told about what his appearance was. You know, I can't help,
I don't want to get launched on this, but I can't help but
think that that's deliberate, that it's significant that the
form of revelation is verbal rather than pictorial. God in his providence could have
made it entirely different. He could have brought Christ
at a time of a visual age. But God in his own plan has determined
to give us the Word. We could go back to that. But
you have another question. We will just sometime in the
course, pick out a song and then you just go through it in your
own thinking and say, here's the process. that I go through
as I seek to find Christ in this psalm, or as I seek to interpret
this psalm in the light of the New Testament. I want to get
into the process that you're going to do. You do it very beautifully
as you pick out Samson or somebody else. I would like to go through
the process of your thinking as you just pick out the psalm. It isn't so obvious that Psalm
2 or Psalm 23 Well, thank you. Let's do that before the course
ends. Take a time and look at it and
talk about ways of working with the material. And that's good. Thank you. Thank you. Now, we have. I just might say
that perhaps this is in terms of format. Sections are being taped and
some of you wanted tapes. I think what I'll try to do now
is to make the lecture sessions more direct lectures that we
cover material and then have the discussion the third hour
each day. So if you could. I don't want
to keep you from interrupting with questions at all. If you
want to ask a question because you don't understand what I'm
saying in the lecture. Fine. because that's good. But general questions, which
I do welcome, I think it would be better if we handled in the
discussion period, which will be the third period today and
the other days. All right? Okay, now Christ as
the servant of the covenant, he's the royal servant. He is
the king. The whole point of David's calling
is that he is to be the anointed king of God's people. and the promise to David that
of his seed there would be one who would be given an eternal
kingdom. This is a theme that undergirds
the Psalms insofar as they are Psalms of David, and of course
so many of them are. And even Psalms that are not
Psalms of David, like the sons of Asaph, often celebrate the
Davidic kingship, so that the kingship of David is in view.
The Lord is the anointed King of Israel. And I call to your
attention in Hebrews, and the first chapter, the quotation
from a song which speaks of the kingship of Jesus Christ. In
Hebrews 1.8 and following, But of the Son, he says, Your
throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness
is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, your God, has
anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows."
And of course, again, the author of Hebrews is taking the ascription of praise
to God and applying it to the Messiah as the Lord's anointed. In Hebrews 1.5, there's a quotation
from Psalm 2, you are my son this day, have I begotten you?
and the divine sonship of Christ is in view. Psalm 110, the Lord
said unto my Lord, and I've already mentioned this, in Matthew 22,
Jesus accosts his opponents with that verse. How can they explain
the fact that David calls his son his Lord? that in speaking
of the Messiah, as they would agree, the psalm does, Psalm
110 is speaking of the Messiah, then how can David speak of his
son as his Lord? And then the royal procession
of the King, from Psalm 118, blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. And that, of course, was picked
up by the crowd as Jesus entered Jerusalem on the triumphal entry. He's welcomed as the king. Christ is also the cornerstone. Isaiah, of course, isn't from
the Psalms, but it is the poetic passage of the Old Testament.
And Christ is identified as that headstone of the corner. The
ascension. which is described in Psalm 24,
in Psalm 68, 18, applied to Christ in Ephesians 4, 8. So I suppose
that doesn't need much defense. It's quite clear that there's
a royal figure who's prominent in the Psalms, and that Christ
is the one who fulfills that role, who is the royal servant
appointed and anointed of the Lord. And also Christ is the
suffering servant of the Psalms. It's interesting, look for a
moment at Psalm 22. That's very helpful to consider,
I think. Christ as the suffering servant
from Psalm 22. Now, obviously, Jesus used the
first verse of that psalm on the cross. And the gospel accounts
give us his words in Aramaic, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? They give the Aramaic, not simply
to provide vividness, but also because they are impressed with
the fact that Jesus is uttering the very cry of the abandoned
servant from the Psalms. Now, Jesus utters these words,
which are found in a psalm that is quite characteristic of the
Psalms of Lament. It's the lamentation of the individual. I mentioned yesterday there are
psalms that are I-psalms and psalms that are we-psalms. And
this is an I-psalm, the individual sufferer. And he has his lamentation. Now just look for a moment at
the structure of Psalm 22. First of all, the agonized cry
and address. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou answer's not in the night season, and I'm not silent. Now there is the initial address
and complaint, which first gives voice to the lament of the psalm. The sufferer has been abandoned
by God, and cries out to God in abandonment. Then there comes
an assurance. Verse 3, but thou art holy, O
thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted
thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried
unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not put to shame. Now there you have again, very
characteristic language from the psalm. The fathers trusted
God. God is the God of the covenant.
His promises are dependable. So the fathers trusted. They
cried and were delivered. Then, in spite of that experience,
that memorializing of God's past faithfulness, there's the agony
of the present abandonment again. So you come back to the lament.
But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the
lip, they shake the head saying, commit yourself to the Lord,
let him deliver him, let him rescue him, seeing he delights
in him. But you are he that took me out
of the womb. Now, up to there, through eight,
there's the abandonment again. He is reproached. His enemies scorn him. They mock
him. They say, if he's the Lord's as he claims
to be, then why doesn't the Lord rescue him? And of course, we
know how that was fulfilled at the cross. But then notice again
another confession of trust. But you are he that took me out
of the womb. You made me trust when I was
on my mother's breasts. I was cast on you from the womb. You are my God since my mother
bore me. So you see how it's put together. Lament, confession of trust,
lament, confession of trust. And then after that, It continues
again with the laman. Be not far from me. Trouble is
near. There's none to help. Many bulls
have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me around and so on. And the laman goes on. His bones
are out of joint. His strength is dried up. His
tongue cleaves to his jaws. You've brought me into the dust
of death. Dogs compassed me. They pierce my hands and my feet. I may count all my bones. They
look and stare at me. They part my garments among them
and my vesture do they cast lots. Now of course what has made this
psalm so amazing through the centuries is the graphic description
of the very things that happened at the cross. Certainly David
is writing prophetically as he's describing his own experience
He's using simply vivid metaphors to describe it. He wouldn't be
saying that real dogs had been around him or that his hands
and feet had actually been punctured. He would be describing all the
tortures and agonies that he suffered one way or other from
his enemies. But of course, writing by the power of the Spirit, he
does make it very graphic. And then he says, verse 19, But
be not far off, O Lord, O Thou my helper, haste to help me,
deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of
the dog, save me from the lion's mouth. I think the NIV changes
that a bit, that save me from the lion's mouth, but that really
is the climactic prayer of the psalm, that's asking to be delivered. And this is characteristic of
these psalms of lament. You have lamentation and confessions
of trust. And then you have the cry for
deliverance. Save me, O Lord. And then after
the cry for deliverance, characteristically, there comes a statement of the
assurance of being heard. And that's what comes next. Yes,
from the horns of the wild oxen you have answered me, verse 21.
He gives his cry, but he's sure the cry has been answered. Then
comes the vow of praise that I talked about yesterday. I will
declare your name unto my brethren in the midst of the assembly
will I praise you. Then after his declaration of
the vow of praise, which is repeated again a little further down in
verse 25, of you comes my praise in the great assembly, I will
pay my vows before them that fear him. After the announcement
of the vow of praise and the thanksgiving that will follow,
the psalm turns to doxology. And all the rest of the psalm
is just great doxology to God for His deliverance. And the
shout at the end of it, they'll declare God's righteousness to
a people that shall be born. He has done it. God has brought
His victory. He's brought His salvation. Now,
there you see, in the psalm, there is a cry from the depths,
the anguish, the abandonment, the presence of the enemies.
And in the laments of these psalms, there are characteristically
three points of reference. I, you, and they. I am a worm and no man. You, O Lord, where are you? Why
have you forsaken me? You cared for our fathers, but
why aren't you caring for me? I, you, they. They, my enemies,
they're around me like dogs, like bulls in bastion. They're
surrounding me. And so there's this cry, and
that's brought to expression in the why of the psalm. Why
have you forsaken me? And this is a tremendous point for reflection, that Jesus
on the cross would say why. There's tremendous comfort in
that when you reflect on it. You see, he would say he knew
why. He knew he came to seek and to
save that which is lost. He knew that he was going to
go to the cross. He told his disciples to take
up their cross and follow him. He knew he was going to take
one. He knew how he would die. He knew he would rise again in
the third day and he knew why he would die. So he didn't need
to say why. He knew why. And then you reflect
on that a bit and you realize the the inevitability of the why. God says, I will never fail you
nor forsake you. God's the God of the covenant
who always keeps his word. And Jesus is the one servant
of the covenant who deserves never to be forsaken. The others
could all justifiably be forsaken. They were all guilty. They all
had forsaken God in one way or other, even David. So if you
wanted an answer for them, the answer is at hand. Why have you
forsaken me? Because you're a sinner. But
Jesus wasn't a sinner, so why was he forsaken? And of course,
it's an inevitable cry because of what it meant in Christ's
experience. It's the agony of Gethsemane. I don't know if you've had occasion
to think deeply about that, but I would invite your reflection
on it. Because there are always times in our own lives when we
want to cry out, why? Why should this come? And the
fact that Jesus cried it, and we know that there's really a
ready answer to our whys, but no answer for his. And to remember
that God in silence didn't answer. There was no answer given. And Jesus said in John 12, What
shall I say? Save me from this hour, but for
this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify your name. And the voice from heaven said,
I've both glorified it and I'll glorify it again. And the amazing
paradox is that the name of God was never so glorified as when
it seemed to be put to shame. Wasn't God's name put to shame
when Christ, his only son, cried out in the darkness, why have
you forsaken me? And God didn't answer. Wasn't
that the scandal of all scandals? You know, talk about the problem
of the righteous suffering. Here you have that problem in
full force. Why? And yet, at that very moment,
God the Father was glorified. Glorified more than in all His
work of creation. Glorified more than in all His
saving activities for His people through all the ages. Because
at that moment, the father gave his only begotten son. So, God
paid the price. Peter says we're purchased with
the price, not of silver and gold, but of the precious blood
of Christ. And who paid that price of the
blood of Christ? The father did, because he gave
his only son. And it's the blood that's so
precious to the father. So God is glorified. in the giving
of His only begotten Son. When in the silence, God doesn't
answer. God the Father doesn't answer.
He pays the price. When Jesus prays at Lazarus'
grave, he clarifies his prayer by saying, I already know what
the Father's going to do. I'm only praying this for you
so that you will know that God is doing this. That's Jesus' motivation all
the way along the line. When he quotes this song and
when he cries out, he's not crying out because he doesn't know that
you exist, but so that we will. Yes, for the sake of the recording,
the comments being made that as Jesus said at the grave of
Lazarus that he was praying for their sakes, so in a sense here
on the cross he's also praying for our sakes, he's identifying
with us. certainly we may learn to identify
with Him then, and it seems that all our whys tend to shrivel
and blow away when we stand under His why on the cross and realize
what He did for us. Well, the mystery of the Father's
will is fulfilled on the cross, and Christ is revealed as the
representative sufferer. I put in there Psalm 69.9. The
reproaches of them that reproached you are fallen on me. Christ
is the one who bears the reproach, but he bears it for our sake.
And I put in a whole stream of references there about how Christ
is the representative sufferer in the New Testament, just as
he is in Psalm 22. And he's the righteous sufferer
who finds refuge with God. I mentioned those refuge Psalms
in the Old Testament, and I've put in a couple of them there. So he's the righteous sufferer
of the Psalms. He's also the second Adam. Psalm
8, you know how the author of Hebrews applies this to Jesus
Christ. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent
is Your name in all the earth, who has set Your glory above
the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have You
established strength because of Your enemies, that You might
still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider that Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You
have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the
son of man that You visit him? For you've made him either but
little lower than God, or you've made him for a little lower than
God, and crowned him with glory and honor, and made him have
dominion over the works of your hands. You've put all things
under his feet. And the author of Hebrews, as he quotes from
that psalm in the second chapter of Hebrews, verses six to nine,
He says, we do not yet see all things put in subjection to man,
but we see him to whom all things have been put in subjection,
Jesus Christ. So he identifies the experience
of Christ with the experience of man, because Christ is the
true man. He is the new Adam, the head
of the new creation, which of course is also The theology that
Paul develops in Romans, the fifth chapter, Christ is the
new Adam. And Christ is also the victorious
mediator. And here's an interesting thing
now. We see how in Psalm 22, Christ's
cry of abandonment is heard from the cross. But notice that there's
another verse in Psalm 22 that's referred to Jesus in the New
Testament, and that's verse 22, where the psalmist says, I will
declare your name unto my brethren in the midst of the assembly,
will I praise you? And the author of Hebrews, in
the second chapter, applies this to Jesus as well. He does so in the context of
saying that Jesus is willing to call us his brethren. And
he says, verse 11, for both he that sanctifies and they that
are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name unto
my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I sing your
praise. Now as I've pointed out, this
is the vow, the vow of thank-offering that you find so often in the
Psalms of Lament, and here this is applied to Jesus. So it's
not just the opening of the psalm that applies to him, it's also
the victory of the psalm, the deliverance of the psalm that
applies to him. And Jesus is the one, the author
of Hebrews says, who celebrates the thank offering of the vow
of praise for the deliverance and the salvation of God's people.
In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise." Now, Jesus on earth sang with
the disciples. He sang in the upper room, didn't
he, before they went out to the Mount of Olives? They sang presumably
the great Hillel, which was probably already established at that time,
Psalm 116 through Psalm 118. They sang those psalms and then
went out to the Garden of Gethsemane and to the cross. Now it's a
beautiful thing to think of Jesus singing with the disciples. I
wonder what kind of voice Simon Peter had. Kind of interesting. How do you think it sounded when
Simon was singing? I mentioned the other, yesterday
I mentioned that my voice, well, not only is my voice in pretty
poor shape, but I can't sing. We, my wife and I celebrate our
50th wedding anniversary. Well, we celebrated with the
family last month because that was the time we'd get them all
together. Actually, it's the end of this month that we've
been married for 50 years. And she didn't quite make it. She hung in there for about 40,
I think about 44 years she hung in there. But then one Sunday
evening in church, she just couldn't hang it anymore. And we were
singing together, sharing a hymn book, and she burst into laughter. Now, she didn't for all those
years, but after 44 years, it was more than she could take,
and she burst into laughter. Now, of course, the people close
around us, it was in an Orthodox Christian church in Hepburrow,
Pennsylvania, I remember the scene very well, it was very
embarrassing. But the people around us, they knew why she
was laughing, because they could hear me attempting to sing the
bass, which was idiotic, since I can't even carry the melody.
But here they could understand the laughter, but people across
the church, they didn't know why she was laughing. You know,
here she's laughing, laughing, laughing. And I really think
she should have hung out until the 50th anniversary before she
laughed at my singing. But see, the trouble is she's
a musician and directs choirs and was a music major in college
and was a soloist with the Wheaton Glee Club and all that. So she's
really a singer, you see. It was really pretty good of
her, for 44 years, to hold the book with me without laughing.
I mean, you've got to give her credit. That was a long stint,
even if she didn't quite make it to 50. But I say that because,
think about that for a minute, will you? In the midst of the
congregation, I will sing your praise. And the King says that. And Jesus sang in the upper room
with the disciples. And he sings with us. And there's
going to be a great thank offering, a great time of praise, when
the vow of praise will be fulfilled. When his vow of praise will be
fulfilled. That the plan of God has been
satisfied. Jesus is the sweet singer of
Israel. Jesus is the choir master of
the heavenly choir. He's the one who leads our praise
as we sing to the glory of the Father's name. So think of that
when you sing together in worship. Remember that Jesus is holding
the hymn book with you, except he knows all the words already.
So here you are singing with him, singing with Jesus. It was
gracious of my wife to sing with me. It was gracious of Jesus
to sing with Simon Peter. It's gracious of Jesus to sing
with you. To sing the praises of the Father. What a joy. What a joy to be
able to sing. What a joy to be able to sing
to the Father of all grace and of all mercy. But what a joy
to sing with Jesus. To hear His voice. leading the
heavenly choir in the praise of the Father. It tells us a
lot, you know. For some reason, I often keep
slipping back into 1 Peter. You know how Peter puts it, but
you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. When time passed, there were
no people, but now are the people of God, who had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Showing forth the excellency. Now that's language from the
Psalms. Recounting, enumerating the blessings
of God. That's what the Psalmist does
all the time. Praising Him, offering the vow
of praise, singing with Jesus to His praise. Doxological glorification
of the Father. And see, Peter says, we're brought
out of darkness into His light. in order that we might show forth
His praise. And it's as the Psalms say, praise
Him, all you nations, glorify Him, all you people, join together
and sing. See, the Psalms invite the nations
to come and join in the Hallelujah Chorus, to come and join and
praise the Father. And that ought to affect all
our evangelism. All our evangelism ought to be
of that sort. You know, everybody has written
a book on evangelism. I don't know if you've written
yours yet. You know, I don't know what you'll call it. We've
got friendship evangelism and hospitality evangelism and evangelism
explosion and all sorts of evangelism, but mass evangelism and small
group evangelism and real small group evangelism. There are all
kinds of evangelism. But see, the kind that when I
write my book on evangelism, I'm going to call it doxological
evangelism. Now, nobody will buy that either,
because nobody knows what doxological evangelism could possibly mean,
but you know, don't you? Doxological evangelism, showing
forth the glory, singing with Jesus. I'm so glad that Billy Graham has used as his
campaign theme hymn, How Great Thou Art. That's a good choice,
you know? I mean, I'm sure most people
came down front to just as I am, but still the hymn that's the
theme hymn is the hymn of praise to God. Let God's name be glorified. That's right. Come and glorify
his name together. How great thou art. In my little book on doxological
evangelism, I'm going to have to tell you how you do one-on-one
doxological evangelism on an airplane. And the way you do
it is you hum a hymn. And that brings up the subject. Don't you think that's a good
idea? It wouldn't be a good idea for me. even if the plane were
not too noisy to do it. But anyway, you get the point. Not necessarily you start by
humming a hymn, but you better start with the praise of God
in your heart. If there's no doxology there,
there can't be any real witness here. You really sing with Jesus, not
just in glory, but you do it already. We are now come, the
author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12. We are come to the festival
assembly of the saints and the angels. And we've come to Jesus. And there, in the midst of the
congregation, I will sing your praise. with his brethren, with
his sisters, with those who have been joined to him, Jesus Christ
sings the Father's praise. Well, we'll have to stop at this
point, so you have your half hour quick lunch and then we'll
be back.
Preaching Christ from Psalms #5
Series Westminster Seminary CA
Series given at Westminster Seminary California
| Sermon ID | 12190728332 |
| Duration | 36:24 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Bible Text | Psalm |
| Language | English |
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