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.