Welcome to the Food for Your Soul podcast, where we apply the Word of God to the hearts of men and women to stoke the fires of your delight in Christ. What should you do when God is distant, He's far away? You cry out to Him and receive no comfort. No strength. Just seems like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. That actually happened to Jesus, and when it did, he quoted a psalm that teaches exactly what to do in times like that. Psalm 22 gives us insight into what was going on in Jesus' mind, inside Jesus, during the worst agony of the cross, and how we can follow his example when we feel abandoned by God. And so far we've looked at the numerous references to Psalm 22 in the crucifixion accounts in the Gospels, but there's also one in the book of Hebrews that I just mentioned in passing, and we haven't looked at that yet, but it's especially interesting. It's in Hebrews 2, and Hebrews 2 is just a fascinating chapter. The context of Hebrews 2 is about how Jesus fulfills all that God intended for humanity, even though the rest of humanity is failing to fulfill that purpose of the human race. So we're falling short, Jesus fulfills that in our place. So he brings up Psalm 8, where mankind is supposed to be ruling over the whole creation. And he says that we don't see man ruling over the whole creation, but Jesus rules over the whole creation. And so that's the explanation of how Psalm 8 is fulfilled. Jesus rules over the whole creation and fulfills everything humanity was supposed to be. Everything we were supposed to do, Jesus does. Just as Jesus fulfilled God's purposes for Israel as the ultimate Jew, And so he became the embodiment of Israel and fulfilled what Israel failed to fulfill. It's the same way for humanity as a whole. God created the human race for a purpose. And everything that mankind fails to accomplish, Jesus fulfills as the ultimate human. He's the ultimate Jew and he's the ultimate human. Just as he's the Jesus of the embodiment of Israel, he's also the embodiment of the human race. He's the last Adam, the representative of all humanity. And so when he reigns over all creation, he fulfills the promise that mankind would reign over all creation. That's the context leading up to this section in Hebrews 2, where he quotes Psalm 22. So what does Jesus fulfill on behalf of the whole human race in Psalm 22? In Psalm 8, it was about how the whole human race was supposed to reign over the creation, and Jesus did that in our place. In Psalm 22, what does it say that the human race is supposed to do? Answer? Suffer. suffer in a certain way. Part of what it means to be human in this life is to suffer. And Psalm 22, along with a whole bunch of other psalms, teach us exactly how we are supposed to handle suffering the right way. to fulfill our role as humans, what God wanted the human race to do. And all the Psalms that teach about how the righteous man should endure suffering and all the other passages in the Old Testament, the book of Job and everything else, teach about how a righteous man is supposed to respond to suffering and handle it. All those passages all put together paint a picture of an ideal righteous sufferer, okay? But when you look at all the characters in the Old Testament, even the most godly ones, none of them fulfill that model of the righteous sufferer. David and Job and whatever other Old Testament saints, they were like a kind of prototype of the righteous sufferer, but none of them fulfilled that role perfectly. And it built up this hope and expectation that someday the perfect, ideal human would come along and fulfill all that God intended for humanity, including all that He intended to accomplish through human suffering. One reason why there's so many connections to the crucifixion, in the crucifixion accounts, pointing us back to Psalm 22, is to make it clear that on the cross, Jesus finally came and fulfilled the role of the righteous sufferer, the ultimate, perfect, righteous sufferer. Somebody finally came and suffered the right way, and he did so on behalf of the human race, okay? So that's just kind of basic. Now here's what's really interesting about Hebrews 2, the Hebrews 2 passages. The point that the writer of Hebrews draws out of there is the fact that in Psalm 22, and Psalm 22 describes Jesus' perfect suffering, that righteous sufferer in Psalm 22, who is the Messiah, calls us, in Psalm 22, calls us brothers, brothers. So Hebrews 2.11. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says, and here comes the quotation from Psalm 22, I will declare your name to my brothers in the presence of the congregation, I will sing your praises. Now that's from Psalm 22, it's from section two, the celebrative praise portion of Psalm 22. And that whole entire section two of that Psalm is all about how the righteous sufferer calls all of God's people to praise God with him because of the way God rescued him from his trial. And what the writer of Hebrews is saying is that everything the Messiah accomplishes in Psalm 22 for us, we're involved in that as his brothers. Now think about that for a second. That's just an amazing truth. It means that not only does Jesus win all the victories of accomplishing everything that God intended for humanity on our behalf and in our place, not only is that true, but Jesus also invites us into that victory with him as his brothers. Jesus says, I will be perfect humanity for you in your place. I'll accomplish it for you. But he doesn't just leave it at that. See, sometimes when preachers talk about how Jesus accomplished everything for us and we contribute nothing to our salvation and they talk about that, they say that and then they just leave it there as if our response is just, oh, thanks for handling everything for us, Jesus. I guess I'll just sit here and turn on the TV. No, no. He doesn't just say sit back and watch me fulfill everything that humanity is supposed to be. He says, I will fulfill it. I'll fulfill it for you in your place. But then he extends his hand and says, now, brothers, come and join me in this victory as my brothers, as my own family. I'll be the ultimate human on your behalf, but then I want you to join me as my co-humans. And he draws us in to share in that ideal humanity, that trail that he's blazing for us of the human walk, what the human race is supposed to be. He blazes a trail, but then he invites us to follow along. And so we follow him down that trail. Remember we talked about how we all need a king a few sessions back. We need this glorious victor who will be a champion on our behalf so that we can ride the coattails of his glory. We have such an innate need for that that we'll invent it. In our country we don't have a king, so we just sort of invent our own kings. Someone who is exuberant because Patrick Mahomes won the Super Bowl and that's his team. He's happy, why? Because my team won the Super Bowl. And so you can jump up and say, we won. He says we because it's his team. And the reason it's his team is because his wife's cousin is from Missouri and is a huge fan. See, it doesn't really take much of an association for us to adopt a team and then ride on the coattails of their glory. If I'm happy about the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl because I live in Colorado and the Broncos are in the AFC and Missouri is also in that conference and so the Chiefs in that sense represent me, that connection that I have with Patrick Mahomes is 100% in my imagination. There's no real connection. It's just imagination. But this isn't like that. We're not just fans of Jesus. He calls us brothers. If your brother won the Super Bowl and you were involved in the game, that would be a real victory, right? Jesus didn't just accomplish everything for us. He now involves us in that victory. So how does He involve us? He accomplished a lot of things for us, a lot of things on the cross, and He involves us in a lot of different ways, but how specifically does He involve us in the righteous sufferer part of what He accomplished on the cross? Well, he involves us in that by teaching us how to follow in his steps when we suffer so that we handle it the way he handled it when he was on the cross. That's how he involves us. And how did Jesus handle his suffering when he was on the cross? Well, that's laid out for us in Psalm 22. It's the purpose of Psalm 22. That's why he pointed us to that psalm when he died. So let's see what we can learn, some lessons that we can glean from Psalm 22 about the right way to handle suffering. Go back to those questions I asked at the beginning. When you feel distant from God, how should you handle it? How do you deal with that? And I'm gonna resist the temptation of going verse by verse through the whole psalm, because it would just take too long, but let me just draw some basic principles just from the surface from the three sections of the psalm. I'm going to draw out four principles for how you can respond in those times when you feel abandoned by God, okay? Number one, first thing we learn from Psalm 22 is how to complain properly. Most complaining is evil, sinful, we shouldn't do it, but there's one kind of complaining that is not only allowed, but actually honors God, it glorifies God, God delights in it. Is it okay to complain about the weather? No, it's not. About money? No. About people? No. About your job, traffic, aches and pains? No, no, and no. Now, all that kind of grumbling is sinful. It dishonors God and it angers God. But there's one thing that you can complain about. And the more intensely you complain about it, the better. Mordauner's gone. You say, what is that? Distance from God. Distance. Whatever the problems the righteous sufferer was having in Psalm 22, the only thing that made him cry out was that distance from God. Verse one, 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. Look, God, I can't handle this distance. All this other suffering I can handle. Everything else I can handle. Not that distance. And that's Jesus on the cross. Of all the things that happened to Jesus at the crucifixion, there was only one thing that he complained about, right? Not one word of complaint about the whipping, the scourging, the punches, the injustice, the lies, the beatings, the cross, the nails, the mocking, none of it. He didn't complain about any of it. One thing he complained about, it was that distance from God. And can you see how that kind of complaint honors God? Because it shows him to be valuable. It's like if you said to your wife, you know what? The one thing I really hate about our marriage is I don't get to see your beautiful face nearly enough. We're close, and I love that, but I wish we were even closer and more intimate than we are. She wouldn't say, ah, you're so negative, complain, complain, complain, it's all you ever do. No, she'd be honored by that kind of complaint, right? It would honor her, the same thing with God. And the more our eyes are open to reality, the more all of our complaints will distill down to this one complaint. Whether it's triggered by an illness, or a financial problem, or the weather, or whatever. Here's what I mean by that. Think of something you might be naturally inclined to complain about. Suppose you fell, and you broke your knee, you broke your leg, and it's not healing right, and you're in a world of pain, and the doctor botched up the whole thing, and now it's not healing straight, so he's gonna have to re-break it, and reset it, and your insurance isn't gonna cover it now, and whatever, all this stuff. That's a situation that would cause most people to complain, right? But let's look deeper than just the leg problem. Imagine all that happened to your leg, but God allowed you, through all of it, to draw so near to him, to have experiences of his presence that you've never experienced before, better than anything else, and so much so that you were full of joy. Full of joy! Even more joy than you had before you fell. If you're happy, then there's nothing to complain about, right? I mean, why would you complain if you're happy? You don't complain when you're happy. So suppose you have some other problem, maybe a lot smaller problem. You stub your toe. You stub your toe, and for whatever reason, you just have no comfort from God at all. No closeness to God, no fellowship with him. Maybe it doesn't even occur to you to seek comfort, because it's such a small thing, so you don't even try. Or maybe you try and draw near to him, but for whatever reason, he's so far away and distant, you don't receive any comfort, you don't receive any joy for whatever reason. Could be lots of reasons. And so you just get kind of irritated and you feel empty and you feel unhappy and just don't feel good. If you realize what's going on, if you see reality, your eyes are open to see reality, you'll say, wait, I was happy when I broke my leg. Now I've stubbed my toe and I'm unhappy. Why? Why? The only difference is the other time God was close, now God's far away. That's the only difference. So what's your complaint about the toe? It's Psalm 22.1. God, why are you so far from me? That becomes your only complaint about anything. A minute ago I said it's sinful to complain about an injury or a financial problem or traffic or people or whatever. It's sinful to complain about those things. It's not sinful to complain in response to those things as long as your complaint is about the lack of closeness you have with God and the lack of joy you have because in the midst of this hardship you're not having nearness to God. So that's the first lesson we learned from Psalm 22. Only complain about distance from God, nothing else. Because that's your only problem. It's your only real problem. Another key principle to learn about how to make that shift, here's a second principle. We need to make the shift from section one to section two like the writer, the psalmist did. If you like to mark up your Bible, you could bracket this first 21 verses of Psalm 22 and title it section one, groaning. Okay, this is section one, this is all groaning, that whole, it's very clear, first 21 verses, that's section one. Section two of the Psalm is from verses 22 to 26, and that you could bracket off and title it praise. It's all about praise. This shift from section 1 to section 2 of the psalm is one of the most abrupt pivots you're going to see anywhere in the Bible. It's very abrupt. You're just reading it at 21 verses of just abject misery and groaning, and then out of nowhere, suddenly exuberant praise. Very, very dramatic, very noticeable shift. God made it so you absolutely cannot miss it. He wants to get your attention by the way he instructed the psalm. He wants us to notice that shift. So in section one, he does nothing but groan, not a whisper of praise. In section two, he does nothing but praise. He calls for praise eight times in five verses in section two. The only verse in that section that doesn't mention praise is the verse that gives the reason for the praise, which is verse 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. And that's why he says, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise. In other words, all that stuff I set up in section one about how God was forsaking me, it's not reality. He's affirming, that's not reality. God didn't forsake me. Reality is, God does care. He does. He has listened to me. He hasn't abandoned me. and he will follow through on his promises to me. When Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It wasn't a statement of belief, it was a statement of feeling, okay? It was a statement of feeling, not belief. And when he shifted from focusing on how he felt to what he knew, his bitter groaning turned to exuberant praise. This is what was going on inside the heart of Jesus while he was on the cross. Now, that's not to say that praise is the only good part. It's not like section two is the only good part of the psalm. Section one of the psalm is also important, that groaning. Pour out your heart to God. Tell him everything that you're feeling. Groan, lament, that's biblical. There's nothing wrong with that. If we're honest in prayer, we'll have to admit that very often what we feel is the exact opposite of what we know to be true, right? Well, let's be honest. God doesn't want us to pretend our feelings always match up to our knowledge. They don't. So be honest with God about how you feel. God cares about what you know, but he also cares about how you feel. He does. He has compassion. And it's good to enjoy. Seek that compassion and enjoy his compassion. So be honest with God and be honest with yourself. If you're not honest with yourself about how you feel, and you pretend that your feelings always match up to your knowledge of the truth more than they really do, you're gonna lack understanding about what's really going on inside your heart, and you're gonna miss a lot of things. The way you feel tells you a lot about what you really believe and what's going on inside your heart. And so don't pretend your feelings are anything different than what they really are. So be honest about your feelings, but be honest about them, but don't get stuck there. That's where a lot of people really go wrong. They get stuck in section one of the psalm, the groaning section. They just groan, and that's all they do, is just groan and groan and groan. And they focus on how they feel, and that's it. It's fine to pour out your heart and tell him how you feel, and it's fine to do that for a long time, for 21 verses, but don't ever stop there as though your feelings somehow represent reality. We must not only be honest about ourselves, we must also be honest about God, right? We need to tell the truth about God. You say, God, I feel like you abandoned me. That's me being honest about how I feel. But then always move on to section two and say, I feel abandoned by you, but of course I know that's not really true. I'm going to tell the truth about you. You haven't abandoned me. What I feel isn't reality. Never make assumptions about God that are contrary to scripture based on how you feel. One surefire way to shipwreck your life is to live by feelings. you start deciding what's true based on how you feel, that will ruin your life. It will ruin your life in so many ways. It's so crucial to follow the lead of this Psalm and make that shift from section one to section two, from feeling to knowing, that's so crucial. We always have to work to draw how we feel into line with what we know is true from God's word. It's a constant battle. What are you gonna do? When you feel condemned, you feel like a piece of garbage, but the Bible says God delights in you and that you're a treasure to Him. Are you going to go by how you feel or by what you know? How will you respond when you feel like your spiritual gifts are negligible? They're a joke. They're not worth all that much. Or you don't even have any spiritual gifts, maybe, or whatever. Your contribution at church is expendable. You're one of the non-essential personnel there. You know, if they sent home all the non-essential personnel, you'd get sent home, because you're just like, yeah, you don't matter that much. You feel all that, but the Bible says your gift comes from where? The Holy Spirit, which makes it priceless. And the Bible says, and it also says that your gift dispenses grace to other people, which is priceless. And the Bible says there's no part of the body that can point to the rest of the body and say, you have no need of me, right? You can't say that. So you feel worthless, you feel unimportant, but the Bible says you're vastly important in the church, What are you going to do? Will your actions be governed by how you feel or by what you know? What if you go to church and it feels like what's happening there isn't really all that important? It's hardly worth going. But the Bible says that the church, even crummy churches with serious problems, the church is the headquarters of His presence on earth and in this world, and functions as the very body of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world. And it's the pillar and foundation of the truth. And it's built on the rock so that the defenses of hell won't prevail, they won't be able to stand against it. That it's the household of God. And it's the repository of all the spiritual gifts in the people. And it's the center of God's plan for this age. That's what the Bible says. It feels unimportant. It feels like a joke. The Bible says all these fantastic things about it. What are you going to do? Are you going to operate based on how you feel or based on what you know? How about when you feel a superiority complex, like you feel superior to others? Somebody rubs you the wrong way and your gut tells you to look down on that person. That's how you feel. But the Bible says that that person is a child of God, in whom God delights. Will your attitude toward that person be shaped and governed? Will it rise from how you feel or by what you know? What about in the moment of temptation, when it feels like sin would be satisfying? Whatever consequences God might send? Ah, so what? It's okay, I'll deal with those, I'll take the consequence. I wanna do this sin, it'll be worth it, you know, whatever. That's how you feel. But the Bible says no, it's never worth it. Sin is never worth it. There is 100% chance that you will regret it. When you have that, it feels worth it. Bible says it's not. Are you going to act on how you feel or by what you know? When you face danger, There's a financial crisis that's looming, a health crisis, a marital crisis, some really scary threat is on the horizon, something scary, and you feel like your safety and your happiness are at risk. But the Bible says that God is your refuge and your fortress and your protector, and no matter what hardships happen to you, you'll still have access to happiness and joy through fellowship with him, no matter what. When that happens, do you let your feelings drive you to fear and anxiety, or do you focus on what you know to be true and rest in security and the peace of God? Go by what you feel or by what you know. I could do this all day. I could give you an example after example all the way through every aspect of the Christian life of feeling versus knowing. Why? Because every single aspect of the Christian life is accomplished by faith, right? We live by faith, by trusting God. Living by faith means acting according to what you know and not according to how you feel. Living by faith means focusing your attention away from the things that seem true onto the things that are actually true. That's living by faith. Living by faith means doing exactly what the writer of Psalm 22 did when he shifted from section 1 to section 2 and his groaning turned into exuberant praise. That's living by faith. Jesus endured that darkness on the cross by faith and invites us now to follow in his steps. So that's the second lesson we learn from Psalm 22. We follow in Jesus' steps by complaining the right way and by making the shift from feeling to knowing. Live by faith. Third principle. When you're suffering, shift from the why question to the who question. Section one of the psalm begins with why. And when we're responding to our feelings, our natural impulse when we suffer is to ask the why question. We always want to know, why? God, why is this happening to me? Why me? Why this? Why now? We want to know why. We want to know the reason. And that has to be, I think, one of those common questions people ask in times of horrible suffering and tragedy. That's how it was for Job, right? When he started to slip. His initial response was fantastic. I mean, he was excellent. He was right on. But over time, as the pain and the misery dragged on, Job started to slip and he started drifting toward that why question, right? He even gets to the point in chapters 9 and 10 where he wants to cross-examine God in a courtroom. And Job 10.2, he says, I will say to God, tell me what charges you have against me. Tell me why. I just want to know why, God. Well, God does finally speak to Job at the end of the book. And he says a lot. He talks for four chapters, God does. But he never does answer the question, why? He never answers the why question. He answers it for the reader. So the reader of Job, we know right off the bat, chapter one, the reason why. But he never tells Job. He never does tell Job. Why not? Because that's not what Job needed. Would knowing the answer why really have helped Job when he was in all that misery? No. No, in fact, it would have ruined the whole point of the test, right? It would have ruined the whole point if he knew why. When you find yourself asking God why, ask yourself, wait a minute, would it really help me to get the answer to that question? Would that really help? Okay, so now I know why. Does that take the pain away? Does it take the loss away? Does it strengthen you to endure the trial? No, no, it just gives you information. It might even add to your pain. It might even make it worse if you knew why. So God didn't tell Job why. What did God tell Job? Job asked the why question, but when God showed up in chapter 38, instead of answering the question that Job asked, God answered the question Job should have asked. which was the who question. God gives Job a four chapter discourse on who God is. He talked all about his power and about his wisdom and his love and his goodness. Four chapters of God's works and God's attributes. Job asked the why question. God answered the who question. What does that tell us? It teaches us what questions would really help us to ask. What questions should we ask? Knowing why isn't gonna do you any good, but knowing the nature and the character of the one who sent this problem into your life, that changes everything. That changes everything. that will give you strength to endure. When you catch a glimpse of his wisdom and power and love and goodness, that's what will give you strength and comfort. That's what will turn your groaning into praise, because again, it shifts you from the feelings to the faith. So learn how to complain the right way, shift your feelings to knowledge, ask the who question instead of the why question, and then one last one, Section three, everything in section three of Psalm 22 is about the future. It points to the future. Psalm 22, 27, he says, all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations will bow down before him for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. What really matters in the climactic part of this Psalm is, isn't the trouble I'm having right now. What really matters a lot is not the trouble that I'm having right now. What really matters is the future glory of Christ. And thinking about that is what got Jesus through. In Hebrews 12-2, remember, he said, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, thinking little of its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. You can get so wrapped up in your current struggle that you end up getting locked into the present. And you forget, this isn't forever. This trial, this suffering, this isn't forever. What I'm going through, it's temporary. It'll pass. I'm ultimately headed to glory. Right now, I just need to persevere through this and fix my sights on God's promises. You know, the 23rd Psalm talks about going through the valley of the shadow of death right after it already talked about God being, he's my shepherd that makes me lie down in green pastures. If I'm a sheep and he's my shepherd, what am I doing in the dark, scary valley? Why would I be in the valley of all these shadows? Why would the shepherd lead the sheep there? Only one reason, to get them to the next pasture. You know, sheep don't like leaving a pasture, even when the grass is all gone. They still don't want to leave. They like it, they're familiar with it, they don't want to leave. But the shepherd knows they have to, and so he leads them away from their familiar, comfortable pasture, and it might be some rough going between that pasture and the next green, lush pasture where there'll be lots of food. If you get from here to there, you'll pass through a dark valley or two. But rest assured, when you're in that valley, the purpose isn't the valley. The purpose is to get to that next pasture where God is leading you. When you're in the dark valley, trust your shepherd. This darkness is not forever. Proverbs 4.19, the way of the wicked is like deep darkness. I don't know what makes them stumble. But the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, growing ever brighter until the full light of day. That's the path of the righteous. The first gleam of dawn in the morning, the very first gleam, it's still really dark out, right? But it's a hope-filled darkness, a darkness you know 100% is going to give way until very soon, the full light of day. Thank you for listening! We pray these principles from the Word of God are helping you find the peace of God as you draw near to the God of peace. Please remember to pray for this ministry, and remember that we're a crowdfunded ministry, so every gift helps. Just go to treasuringgod.com. Until next time, rejoice in the Lord always, and set your mind on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. you