Please turn your Bibles to Psalm 22. Psalm 22, we are working through the Psalms here, the second part of this year, and they've been such a blessing and encouragement to us. Different sections we've gone through, songs of the night, songs of praise, and we're finishing the year here with songs of hope. And as Matt already mentioned in the songs of hope, specifically this morning, we are focusing on the idea of a weary world, but the opportunity to rejoice at the thrill of hope that we have. And so before we go to the Lord's table, I want to look at this psalm because I think it does really speak to where many of us have been this year and where many of us probably are here at the Christmas season and Although we have this one thing in common that I'm going to speak about we do have a lot of differences in a group this size We're very different. We had very different schedules yesterday. I'm sure of that. We like different sports teams. I'm sure of that We like different kinds of houses we have different interests and We don't hear things the same way. Even in a marriage relationship, the same conversation can happen and people hear things very differently. We don't eat the same things and we don't see things the same way. Last night at our Christmas party we played a game of get to know you where you had to find someone, learn their name, and then introduce them to the group later and remember their best or worst Christmas gift ever in their life. And so when it came time for the game, and everyone was doing introductions, in a group of 40 people almost, there was not, I don't think there was one particular person who had the same favorite gift in all their years of life, or the same worst gift in all their years of life, because we live different lives, and we have many different things that happen to us, and we go through very different experiences. But one thing that is universal to all of us, one experience, there are others that are universal, but one experience that is universal is suffering and hardship. And there are degrees of that in our experiences. There are sometimes where the suffering is smaller and then other times it feels much larger. Perhaps this week you got your feelings hurt. by something that someone said, maybe someone texted you something, but you got your feelings hurt. And that's a big deal. Some of you have trouble sleeping at night because of all of the pressures, perhaps at work, stress, things that are happening, maybe even in a relationship, and you find yourself sleepless from time to time. With the holidays coming, no doubt there are many of us here who have at least one or two dysfunctional family members. And that brings a very unique dynamic to all of the family planning. And so it does bring hardship and it is sometimes hard to navigate the waters when those relationships are so strained. So I'm not minimizing those in any way, but those can be in the smaller category. Traffic, a pulled muscle, angry at a family member, etc. But there are larger things that then come about in our lives, like the loss of a job. Perhaps even at the end of this year, there are those who have experienced that. Broken relationships are very difficult. Not just the dysfunctional ones, but actually ones that are broken and there's really no end in sight in the repair of them. And the absence or void of that relationship can weigh very heavy. Perhaps it's been some sort of an accident, maybe a car accident that has brought about permanent damage. Maybe it's been the death of a close friend or family member this year. Maybe it's just the fact you've never gotten over the issue when you were a victim of sexual assault. Maybe it's chronic illness. Maybe it's regret. Maybe you've been a victim of prejudice or injustice. Maybe it's overwhelming temptation. Perhaps it's a wayward child. Maybe it's cancer. Maybe it's the struggle of same-sex attraction. Maybe it's addiction. Maybe it's anxiety. Could be depression that does not seem to end, even perhaps suicide. All of those examples, or the thoughts of suicide, all of those examples are what people in our church are experiencing or have experienced just this year. We live in a weary world because of the suffering. And sometimes in the weariness, as we have talked about earlier this series, August-September time, The overwhelming feeling comes from time to time that God has left you. That he is silent. And sometimes those doubts come that he may never even exist. I had a great lunch this week with a brother in our church who reached out after a video that we showed not long ago and it talked about at the end when all of our questions go silent when God is there. And his response shortly after that video was, hey, can we get together or can we text or chat about when it doesn't seem like those questions ever go silent. So we got together for lunch this week and it was great because we could just talk frankly and speak openly about doubting and just the questions in our faith. And he was able to share just real raw thoughts that he experiences. And many of us, myself included, go through times and seasons of serious doubt and question. And hopelessness sometimes creeps in. And we have in this Psalm, Psalm 22, a place where David himself is in a similar stage. If you would look there in the text in verse 1, David wrote this at a point of suffering. And as we go through it, if you can try to follow, he'll go from present time to past thoughts about God, to present time feeling, and then he'll end with future belief and trust but in the first part which will start with my God my God why have you forsaken me far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning oh my God I cry by day but you do not answer and by night I have no rest yet You are holy. Oh, you are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted. They trusted you and you delivered them and they cried out and were delivered. In you they trusted and were not disappointed. But I'm a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by people and all who see me sneer at me They separate with the lip, they wag their heads saying, commit yourself to the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him because he delights in him. Yet, you are he who brought me forth from the womb and you made me trust upon my mother's breast. Upon you I was cast from birth You have been my God from my mother's womb. Be not far from me for trouble is near for there is no help. So we have here a situation where David is honest. It's a psalm of lament and we have walked through some of these this year and they're so helpful because they really bring us to the point where I would suggest, number one, the Bible understands our suffering. The Bible understands our suffering. When we feel like this, when we feel like, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He doesn't say, if you have forsaken me. He says, he really believes in this moment, his God has forsaken him. Now, is that true? No, it's not true. Will he counteract those thoughts with truth? Yes, he does. But that does not negate the fact David felt real things about the weary, broken world that he was experiencing, and it brought him to places like this where he thought God was completely silent. He asks for things. or implies four things, couple questions, but I think all can be put in that category. He says, why have you forsaken me? Why are you not delivering me? Why have you not answered me? And why don't you give me rest? In the first few verses there, first two verses, that's the idea. Those are the godly complaints that David is taking before the Lord. You've left me. you're not delivering me, you will not answer, and I have no peace. Why is this happening? And I ended with verse 11, that trouble is near me and there is no one to help. That's what David says. And as we go through these hard times, David describes some of them, verses 6-8, not all of these things happen to David, but we see here that he talks about being mocked by others and scorned by others. Verses 12 through 18, we didn't read it, but we can now actually. Many bowls have surrounded me, strong bowls of Basham have encircled me. They open wide their mouths at me as a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a postured. My tongue cleaves to my jaws and you lay me in the dust of death. The dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil doers have encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I count all my bones. They look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among them. And my clothing they cast lots." David here is experiencing, he's using a lot of different language that we'll find out in a minute, actually happened to our Savior. But David is using language that describes a place in his life when it is extremely difficult and he is going through a lot of suffering. He says, my heart is like wax. He feels like he is melting. He feels like he is once again at the end. And verse 15 seems to indicate that his belief would be like he cannot take any more. He's done. He wants to give up. Verse 17, he says, I can see my bones. He is in such a place where even his health is a concern. And so we have here a beautiful picture that the Bible understands our suffering. We can relate to the writers of scripture inspired by God to help us in dark and hard times when we are just flat out weary. And there have been throughout church history all throughout the scriptures and then you study people in church history and you find out story after story of those who go through suffering and hardship and depression through the ages. This is common to man. This is the main universal thing we all have in common. Tremendous suffering in this life. Verse 2, he says, I cry all day long. He is weary. But lament gives us a pathway to express to God, and that's what we should be doing, how we feel and how weary we are, how worn we are, and yet we can share our struggles with Him. Now, we don't say whatever we want. Job learned that lesson. He said way too much. But there are examples like this of godly lament or godly complaint that really helps us to communicate to our Father. We keep running to Him, asking perhaps the same questions. Why do I still feel this way? And what this does for us is help us, in those moments, then remind ourselves of truth, because that's what David does to himself. Look at verses 3 through 5. He starts in the present in his misery, I cry all day. But verse 3, he tells himself that really healthy self-talk, yet you are holy. you are enthroned upon the praises of Israel in you our fathers trusted and they trusted and you delivered them to to you they cried and you and were delivered in you they trusted and were not disappointed so he remembers his history with God or the history that others have had with God In those moments of hardship and suffering he's bringing truth back to perspective to help him. Yet you are holy. You are other. You are different than I am. You have a much bigger and better plan. You are enthroned in the heavens in the praises of your people and you actually are the all-powerful God. You have delivered and you are able to deliver. I don't feel it. But you can do that. Perhaps he has not delivered you yet, but that doesn't keep us from asking him. Because his timetable is actually what is most important. Look at verses 9 and 10 as well. He talks about even his own personal history. Yet you have brought me forth from the womb. You made me trust When upon my mother's breast, upon you, I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother's womb. So he is in this midst of going back and forth of how he currently feels. He goes back to the past and what he knows about God. God, you have been with me from my mother's womb. You have always been with me. You have never let me down. Your presence is there. even though it doesn't feel like it. And then in verse 22 through 24, we have another section here where he will talk about truth and he says, I will tell of your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will praise you, you who fear the Lord, praise him and all you descendants of Jacob, glorify him and stand in awe of him, all you descendants. 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 help for him he heard so it feels like God has forsaken him in verse 1 that God is silent and is not answering him that God is not delivering him and God is not giving him rest that's what it feels like But then his mind and truth then corrects his feeling and tells him, actually God, you've always been there. You have been there for your people. You are a deliverer. You are holy. You are other. You do have a plan. So I will praise you in the midst of this suffering. I will continue to trust you and I will tell of your name among the people. We sang that song a couple weeks ago, I'm going to sing until my heart starts changing. And that's the idea here. When you feel a certain way, let the truth of the scripture correct your feelings and set you back to that solid place of truth where you are anchored, your soul, to God and His Word. when you end up suffering, even in your crying, you still run to the Father. You keep running to Him. And in your doubts, you still believe that He hears you and that He is there. Verse 21 talks about, save me from the lion's mouth. from the horns of the wild oxen, you answer me." So there is the answer from the Lord, but it's not always on our timetable. But I'm going to say it. He says, I will tell of your name to the brethren. I'm going to say it even when I don't feel like you are there. And I'm going to see your presence even when it is hard for me to sense. I will praise you in the assembly. So the Bible understands our suffering, but actually this passage speaks beyond David's experience to the experience of our Savior that we have been rejoicing in and singing about this morning. It speaks to the suffering of Christ. And so not only does the Bible understand our suffering, but Jesus understands our suffering. This baby who came experienced the brokenness and hardship of the world, and he was tempted in all the same ways that we are, and he went through the cross experience for us and experienced suffering like none of us have experienced. Many of us have had a rough year, and I get it, but there's not one of us, myself included, who have been through anything like what Jesus went through. And so our own Savior, who we celebrate and rejoice in this Christmas, He understands our suffering. He understands it from a very personal way. Because even though David did not experience all of the things that is described in this psalm, all the details, our Savior actually did, because this psalm is actually predicting what Jesus would go through, and the other passages in the New Testament tell us what actually happened, that He actually did go through all of these details. So the same words that David felt and experienced in a real way, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Our own Savior experienced that in a greater way on the cross when he quoted Psalm 22 and said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because God did turn His back on Him and all the wrath of all of our sin was placed upon Jesus in that moment. And He felt the full weight of the wrath of the Father like none of us have ever felt. And so our own Savior has felt what it feels like To have the Father not be there. To have the Father be silent. His body was broken as is portrayed in this passage. And He was pierced for us. See, God has this redemptive plan in suffering. And it's not enjoyable. But we can either submit to it or rebel against it. And many of us start in the rebellion phase. and it becomes more than just lament, godly complaint. It becomes downright murmuring. God, this is not fair. I don't deserve this. I deserve better. Take it away. So many of us do let our hearts get bitter and then God in His grace softens us, brings us back to truth, back to repentance, but many times the cycle goes over and over. And so we have passages like this that tell us our Savior knows. He was mocked and rejected, as it says in Psalm 22, and it's confirmed in Matthew 27. He was so thirsty, as it says in this text that David says, my tongue was clinging to my teeth. I was so thirsty. And in Matthew 27, we have the same where Jesus thirst. Jesus was pierced, his hands and his feet. They did, as it says here in the text in verse 18, it says they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots I doubt that happened to David but as the prediction and prophecy is about our Savior it did happen to our Savior as confirmed in the New Testament so all of these experiences our Savior went through he sympathizes with suffering as he experienced the same thing now in our text the glorious thing is that we have victory as is predicted here in verses 24 and following for you did not despise nor abhor the affliction of the afflicted nor have you hidden his face from him but when he cried for to help to him for help he heard From you comes my praise in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him. The afflicted will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. This is looking to the future and the hope because of what Jesus did and what he went through in his suffering. All the ends of the hope will remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations will worship you. The kingdom is the Lord's and he rules over the nations and the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship. and those who go down to the dust will bow before him. Even he who cannot keep his soul alive, posterity will serve him. It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and declare his righteousness to the people who will be born that he has performed it." And many would believe that this is the second quote that Jesus did on the cross when he says, it is finished. Many believe It's that last verse, kind of the bookend of Psalm 22, where it says, He has performed it, or maybe a translation that you're reading from, He has done it. Because Jesus did finish it. He finished the ultimate suffering that you and I no longer have to face. We do experience the hardship, the depression, the difficulties in relationships, all of the temptations. We experience them in the here and now, and they are real. But we don't have the ultimate suffering looking us in the face. We don't have judgment ahead of us, because Jesus, in this moment, he performed it. He accomplished it. He finished it. So there is a thrill of hope in the midst of the weariness. And the thrill of hope is Jesus understands and He took care of our ultimate suffering for us. And if He did that for us, He can help us day by day, provide grace to handle what comes our way until we see Him. Our Savior. is near you may not feel like it this Christmas he may have not delivered you yet but he is fully able and he is holy and he is victorious and so there is hope There is hope. We are going to partake of the Lord's table. And before we do so, we're going to sing that song that we sang a couple weeks ago, and it's been popular the last couple years. Oh, come all you unfaithful. And I wanted to just end this morning by reading the story behind that song. And it started with a lady who was struggling for a year and a half or so. She describes their situation as being difficult and the fact that finances were stressful. She says, I miscarried twins and on top of that I was battling deep relational bitterness. My church was having their annual service to kick off the Christmas season with carols and special songs and I was asked to sing and I told them I would not be singing this year. What they didn't know was that I was too overcome with shame to stand on stage before the church. That Sunday morning I stood at my seat as they began to sing, O Come All Ye Faithful, And the first line of the song just clobbered me. It hit me like a giant wave of guilt. Oh, come all ye faithful, joyful, and triumphant. She said, I remember hearing those words and thinking, I have been so unfaithful. My joy has dwindled, and I am certainly not triumphant. I am a failure. She said, I didn't sing the rest of the service. I drove home and my mind was still churning. Is this really who is invited to come to Jesus? The faithful, the joyful, the triumphant? If so, she said, then I am hopeless. Thankfully, later that afternoon, the Holy Spirit reminded her of Jesus' invitation in Matthew 11, 28, Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Rest is found in the life and death and resurrection of Christ. Not our own effort. Not in our accomplishments. Not in our performance. That evening, she said, I had a conviction to sit down and write a song for myself and for the weary, the broken, and ashamed. And that is where the song came from that we will sing in just a moment. So as we go to the Lord's Supper, as perhaps the year has traveled on, you may still be weary. still be hurting, still discouraged, and maybe even still depressed. And my encouragement to you from Psalm 22 is to follow the pattern of scripture that goes from expressing your true feelings to Jesus, but letting truth then flood over your heart, remind you who God is, that he does have a plan and that he is fully able to take care of you. And if you have to go through that cycle multiple times a day, the invitation is there to do it. And because of what he did and what he understands, we can keep going. there is actually a thrill of hope through the death and resurrection of Christ, our Messiah, our baby Jesus. And so would you take a moment and just reflect on Psalm 22 and where you are personally this Christmas and perhaps lament if necessary Get those godly complaints out. God, where are you? I don't feel you here. But then replace them with these types of truths that we find in Psalm 22. But I know you are present. And I know you are able. You've taken care of me all my life. And you promised to all the way through. And the day is coming when you will, in full victory, make all things new. And let that evaluation take us to our table today, rejoicing in the fact that Jesus understands. And because he did finish the job, we can keep going. So take a moment, a quiet reflection. Bow your heads there quietly in the seat. And as the music plays, we will respond to the truth. Jesus said in Luke 22 15, He said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now until the kingdom of God comes. And when he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which is for you. do this in remembrance of me and in the same way he took the cup also after they had eaten saying this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.