A Move from Dim Anguish to Radiant Joy - Psalm 22

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about our church and visit Nate Holderidge.com for additional Bible teaching for my lead pastor Nate Holderidge. Teaching today is our lead pastor Nate Holderidge.

[00:00:25] Hey, before we get into the word I wanted to mention a little staff change here at the church. Some of you may have noticed over the last few weeks that our beloved Daniel Reed, who many of you know and love has not been up on the platform here with us

[00:00:39] Daniel is just very quickly has shifted his life to Nashville, Tennessee like many Californians have done and we're very excited for him and his beautiful wife Natalie and their new baby boy Jed.

[00:00:55] Basically Daniel was kind of in a process with us of what is the future going to look like for you here in this church. We were putting him through a growth plan.

[00:01:05] Like we've done for many young men who have served here in the church and about halfway through this six week very intentional growth plan. The Lord just used that I think to help Daniel realize actually my heart is stirred to move elsewhere and to do something else.

[00:01:20] He's going to be doing video for a ministry out in Nashville and pursuing his music career. He hired an agent and everything and you can I think follow him on Spotify there. So we loved him.

[00:01:32] I wanted to mention it to you kind of caught us flat-footed a little bit because I was hoping for a longer amount of time for him to kind of be here and work through some things.

[00:01:43] But he's gone. He's moved away and we're excited for him, but I wanted to mention it partly because I don't know what you guys think that he did anything bad or wrong or anything like that. He's a good brother.

[00:01:55] He's qualified for ministry. I think God's gone his hand on his life and I think the Lord just used these last few months to help him realize okay this is not the long term place for me and as his family was growing he's saw out his next opportunity and he took it.

[00:02:11] Pray and burdened excited for him and Natalie and we'll definitely miss both of them. Okay, what we're going to do today is we're going to read through like I said Psalm 22.

[00:02:22] It's a long one 31 verses we're going to read through the whole thing so because would follow along either in your bibles or on the screen I'm reading through the English standard version.

[00:02:33] Let's start out with the pre-script it says to the choir master according to the dough of the dawn, a Psalm of David my God my God. Why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? From the words of my groaning?

[00:03:00] Oh my God I cry by day but you do not answer and by night but I find no rest yet you are holy and throned on the praises of Israel.

[00:03:16] In you our fathers trusted they trusted and you delivered them to you they cried and were rescued in you they trusted and were not put to shame but I am a worm and not a man.

[00:03:31] Scorned by mankind and despised by the people all who see me mock me they make mouths at me they wag their heads he trusts in the Lord let him deliver him let him rescue him for he delights in him.

[00:03:48] Yet you are he who took me from the womb you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

[00:03:55] On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my God be not far from me for trouble is near and there is none to help.

[00:04:06] Many bowls encompass me strong bowls of bachon surround me they open wide their mouths at me like a raving and roaring lion.

[00:04:15] I am poured out like water all my bones are out of joint my heart is like wax it is melted within my breast my strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws you lay me in the dust of death.

[00:04:36] For dogs encompass me a company of evil doers and circles me they have pierced my hands and feet I can count on my bones they stare and glowed over me they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots but you all Lord do not be far off.

[00:04:56] You my help come quickly to my aid deliver my soul from the sword my precious life from the power of the dog save me from the mouth of the lion.

[00:05:08] You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

[00:05:17] You who fear the Lord praise him all you offspring of Jacob glorify him and stand in awe of him all you offspring of Israel.

[00:05:26] For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted and he has not hidden his face from him but has heard when he cried to him.

[00:05:36] From you comes my praise and the great congregation my vows I will perform before those who fear him the afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord.

[00:05:51] May your hearts live forever all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord in all the families of the nations shall worship before you for kingship belongs to the Lord.

[00:06:06] He rules over the nations all the prosperous of the earth eat and worship before him shall bow all who go down to the dust even the one who could not keep himself alive.

[00:06:21] Posterity shall serve him it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generations they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it. Let's pray together Lord we thank you for this beautiful song preserved for us these many years.

[00:06:45] Now in the Lord we pray that you teach us from it as we read there on the front half of the Psalm of the dim anguish that the Psalmist was in suddenly replaced by this radiant joy.

[00:07:01] Lord our hearts and desires is that you would take us Lord through that process over and over again.

[00:07:11] Lord in this life that you have given to us and so we pray Lord that you'd use this passage this morning in our lives we thank you Lord and Jesus name we pray together amen amen.

[00:07:25] Well the Bible is filled with many stories that I think express what's happened here in Psalm 22 to the Psalmist many stories where there was darkness and difficulty and pain and tragedy and then suddenly something happened.

[00:08:16] He was a great prison in Egypt seemingly forgotten as if the promises of God were no longer applicable to this man.

[00:08:26] One thing led to another and a dream was interpreted and pretty soon in a moment the most powerful man in the world Pharaoh brought Joseph into his kingdom to be his right hand man his second in authority it was a moment of radical shift.

[00:08:45] There's David's victory over Goliath or Esther's intercession for his people or Joes restoration after a trial worse than death.

[00:08:56] In the New Testament there's the day of Pentecost Jesus a sins a small group is in prayer and then the spirit is poured out and 3000 people in a moment give their lives to Jesus and the church is born.

[00:09:11] There's the conversion of Saul or Paul who was a vehement persecutor of the body of Christ but on the road to Damascus was not to the ground by a bright light and heard the voice of Jesus saying Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me and he immediately pivoted and became a champion of the gospel.

[00:09:32] There were prison escapes there were moments where people died and were risen from the grave and then you get to the book of Revelation and you discover the new heavens and the new earth. Where a moment comes where dim anguish is replaced and becomes instead radiant joy.

[00:09:55] I think Psalm 22 captures another one of those moments. You guys saw the pre-script there, the little description of the Psalm at the outset.

[00:10:07] It doesn't give us the scenario that David was in. We don't know what portion of his life this came from. We don't know if this was in his early years or his latter years but if you know the story of David, you know that he could have written this at many different moments of his life.

[00:10:24] Many times where he felt surrounded by the bulls of Beshan felt that he was dying, that his heart had melted like wax and the Lord proved his faithfulness to this man time and time again.

[00:10:38] So what I want to do today is I want to first give a little analysis to this Psalm. It's a big Psalm 31 verses we don't have time to think about each and every line but let's give some analysis to this Psalm.

[00:10:54] Then we'll inspect the Psalm a little bit for what I want to call an inflection point. What happened? Where did it happen? Why did it happen? And then lastly, I want to think about our participation in this Psalm from a unique angle.

[00:11:13] So there on the screen you guys have got a little chart. I'm going to be chart happy this morning. I hope you guys can handle that.

[00:11:19] These charts are actually online if you'd like to get these charts and you don't want to take notes today at Nate Holderj.com. You can just go there there right now for you. But here's the before and after of the Psalmist.

[00:11:34] Okay, and on the left hand side, I think the first thing that we could say is that the Psalmist felt forsaken. Have you ever felt forsaken?

[00:11:43] I mean, he wasn't forsaken by God. He wasn't forgotten by God. But he asked that question at the outset of the Psalm God. Why have you forsaken me?

[00:11:54] He says in verse 1, you're so far from saving me. You know, it just feels like I'm off your radar. It feels like you see everyone else but you don't see me.

[00:12:11] He said, you do not answer in verse 2. You know, I'm praying. I'm trying to commune with you. I'm trying to connect with you but I'm not hearing your voice.

[00:12:24] He would agree with the prophet Habakkuk who opened his prophecies by saying, Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear? Have you ever been brave enough to pray like that to God?

[00:12:38] I mean, the prophet Habakkuk did it in the Bible. David did it in the Bible. You know, there wasn't true God did hear but that's what they felt in that moment. How long am I going to bring this issue to you?

[00:12:52] This pain to you. How many of you have had prayers that you've uttered to God for decades? Things that you're waiting for God to do for decades.

[00:13:03] Pain's in your heart that you're looking to God to solve for a huge length of time. This man felt forsaken. Job said it this way in Job 23 verse 3, when his friends came to him and the midst of his trial and tried to give him counsel. He said, if I knew where to find God, I would come to his seat.

[00:13:27] He just felt that there was a distance, a disconnection. So he felt forsaken. He also I think there in verse 3 to 5 felt abandoned by God.

[00:13:42] If first glance of verse 3 to 5, it kind of looks like the solmist is having like some hope. You know, he's recounting like you did all these things for Israel in the past.

[00:13:52] You were faithful to them in the past. You parted the waters of the Red Sea in the past. You kept your promises to them in the past.

[00:13:59] But in the context of what he's saying, the next line is, but I am a worm and not a man. It says, if he's saying, I've seen your faithfulness God in the lives of others, but I'm not seeing it in my own life.

[00:14:14] I feel abandoned by you. Our fathers trusted in you. They cried and were rescued. They trusted and were not put to shame.

[00:14:24] But what's he doing here? He's comparing himself to others. I've seen you be faithful to the lives of others, and I'm not seeing it in my own life.

[00:14:35] Have you ever had that moment where you look at what God is doing for someone else or has done for someone else, and you quietly say why doesn't that happen for me?

[00:14:46] That's what the solmist is going through. He was also not only abandoned but he was mocked in verse 6 through 8. He felt he was a worm and not a man as I said, but in verse 6 and 7 he says, I was scorned.

[00:15:02] I'm despised. I'm being mocked. Part of the mockery was people saying in verse 8, let the Lord rescue this guy. He says he trusts him a Lord. Let's see what the Lord will do in his life. He felt mocked. He felt as well desperate in verse 9 to 11.

[00:15:25] He's basically saying to God in that little section. God, I've known you since I was a little baby. You made me from the very beginning dependent on you. You've been my God.

[00:15:36] I needed you like I needed my mother's milk. I've been leaning on you. Don't be far from me when trouble is near because there's no one to help me. He's basically saying to God, God there's nothing I can do.

[00:15:51] There's nothing anyone else can do. You're the only one that can do it. He's desperate. Verse 12 to 13 he also felt overpowered. He says, many bowls encompass me in verse 12, strong bowls encompass me like a roaring lion there there for me. He just felt surrounded outnumbered and outgunned.

[00:16:14] If you ever felt this way and I don't have what it takes, I'm beyond my limitations. I don't have the energy, the strength, the skills, the might.

[00:16:24] Then he says in verse 14 and 15, I'm also totally spent. I have nothing left to give this situation. He says in verse 14, I'm poured out like water. He says,

[00:16:38] my heart is like wax. The heat has melted my heart. My strength is dried up. He says, like a pot shirt. It's like he looked at a piece of baked clay and said, that's me.

[00:16:51] That's my life. That's how much moisture and life is inside of me. I've been burnt up by the fires of life.

[00:17:00] It reminds me of the spirit of Elijah in 1st King, chapter 19. I don't know if you remember this story but Elijah had an incredible encounter with the 450 prophets of bail. He challenged them to a contest for all of his real to see.

[00:17:21] He said, the God who responds to his people with fire consuming the sacrifice he is God. The prophets of bail for hours danced around their sacrifice and no fire was poured out.

[00:17:36] And then Elijah at the time of the evening sacrifice prepared the altar in a very specific way set the offering on the altar covered it with water saturated it with moisture and then prayed a simple prayer to Yahweh and fire fell down from heaven and consume the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the water that had been poured into the basin all around the sacrifice. It was an incredible victory.

[00:18:04] Can you imagine the adrenaline rush that you would have felt if you were Elijah in that moment?

[00:18:11] I mean, just a God is alive kind of experience. But after that victory he ran out into the desert. He went underneath a broom tree. He knew that the queen Jezebel still wanted him to die and he was just exhausted.

[00:18:32] And he cries out to the Lord and in 1 Kings 19 and he says, it's enough now, O Lord, take my life for I know better than my fathers.

[00:18:44] He's like, God, I'm spent. I've laid it all out there for you. You know, I've been the lone voice in the wilderness confronting A. Ab and living out in the wilderness letting Ravens bring me food every single day like I am done with this.

[00:19:01] Just kill me, just take my life. I'd rather go and be forever with you than have to continue in the pain that I'm enduring. He fell spent.

[00:19:11] The Psalmist in verse 16 to 18 also felt killed dead. He says, dogs encompass me. They pierce my hands and feet. They stare and glowed over me in verse 17 and 18.

[00:19:24] And then in verse 19 to 21, it's like there's a little glimmer of hope. God, don't be far off deliver my soul from the sword and save me from the mouth of the lion. That's his prayer.

[00:19:39] Okay, what happened though after? That's the before picture. That's the before photo. You have a man that is at the bottom of the bottom. But the after you have a man that is at the top of the top.

[00:19:52] A look at verse 21, the second part of it all the way through verse 24, he considers himself a rescued person. He says, you've rescued me past tense from the wild oxen. He says, I'm going to praise you in the midst of the congregation in verse 22.

[00:20:09] He says, in verse 23, we are all going to glorify God, stand in awe of God and praise God. And then he says, in verse 24 that God has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. In other words, he says, God saw everything I was going through and was faithful.

[00:20:29] He's also confident in verse 25 to 28. He's like, I'm going to praise you, verse 25 in the great congregation. He's like, I'm going to church and I'm going to praise God for what he's done in my life.

[00:20:46] He says, in verse 26, the afflicted will eat and be satisfied. All the ends of the earth, verse 27 will remember and turn to the Lord. He says these outrageous things like in verse 28, God rules over the nations.

[00:21:00] He's a king over everyone and then he's hopeful. He says in verse 29, even the prosperous person is going to honor God someday. He says, there's going to come a day when all future generations will serve God.

[00:21:15] He says in verse 31 that everyone will declare the righteousness of God. It sounds very similar to what Paul said to the Philippian church, that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord.

[00:21:30] And I think what you have here in the latter half of the Psalm, the after is just this radiant joy. Okay, here's my theory. My theory is that this is the story of the whole Bible, that there is this dim anguish that has entered in through sin, that an event occurred that produced or can produced radiant joy and one day will be fully revealed

[00:22:00] radiant joy is all that is experienced by God's people. I think this is also not only the major or meta story of scripture, but I think it's the minor story of our own lives and hearts, perhaps even hundreds of times every single day as Christians.

[00:22:21] The other day I was out for my morning, just like I'd like to read my Bible and then I'm just like praying out loud and I like walking while I'm praying. So I was out for a morning prayer time.

[00:22:34] And I don't know if you've ever had a prayer time that has turned into a complaining to God, time. You ever had that?

[00:22:43] And that's what was happening for me. I felt a little justified by the Psalmist. I was like, okay, you know, I'm not alone here. And I was throwing a little pity party for myself before the Lord.

[00:22:55] And I was just talking to him about a handful of things that, you know, like all human beings, I'm wrestling with asking God to do prayer requests, I'm waiting on him.

[00:23:07] And as I was having this prayer slash complaint time, I rounded the corner and I started going up this hill.

[00:23:14] And I hope she's not embarrassed by me talking about her this morning, but yesterday at the Women's Gathering Carmella Coova, she shared her testimony via video of what God has been doing in her life the last few years.

[00:23:29] Capable, strong intelligent woman in the medical field and she suffered a very severe stroke. They thought that she wasn't going to make it. And God has given her life and is helping her to slowly but surely steadily recover.

[00:23:46] But she has limitations and all of that. And so as I was going up this hill, it's like God just said, I'm going to send you this little angel named Carmella Coova to be running down the hill. She was so happy.

[00:24:02] She just sent so much joy. And it's like God was just whispering in my ear really, you're complaining. Really.

[00:24:14] And it was just the message that I needed from the Lord and it was just what happened there. It was a moment of dim anguish boom, radiant joy. God, thank you for this sister and Christ that I have. Thank you for the beautiful joy that she has for just the simple gift of letting her run down this hill.

[00:24:33] Thank you for giving me how thank you for the family of given me. Thank you for the church you've given me. It just came rushing in in that moment. And I think we are given opportunities a hundred times a day for this to occur in our lives. So I want to consider with you just for a second the inflection point of this song. Here's a little chart that Bernard helped me make that gives you the

[00:25:03] emotional state and graph form of the Psalmist. Okay, there's not scientific. This is just me kind of grading the mood of each stanza of this song.

[00:25:16] Just grading the mood. It starts down low. Oh God, why have you forsaken me? It climbs a little bit and three to five with some talk of what God has done for others, but still it's not ascending yet because he knows God hasn't done that or feels that God hasn't

[00:25:33] done that for him. He's going through death and despair and then it gets real low. And I'm being crucified. My hands are pierced my feet are pierced. They're casting lots from my garments. My heart is melting.

[00:25:48] I'm poured out like water. I'm done. And then right in the middle of verse 21, it's like he says, God saved me from the lion and then it just changes inexplicably to you saved me from the wild oxen.

[00:26:02] Just this like moment, we don't know what happened, but something happened to this Psalmist. And he just shot up into and climbed into this incredible hope. This incredible hope.

[00:26:18] A hope that was not just for his own life by the way, but a hope that was like I think I could say at this way, universal in scope. He's like there is no problem that the king Yahweh will not solve. It's all going to be fixed.

[00:26:37] It's all going to be remedied by him. I mean, that's the spirit or the attitude that he's seen with at the close of this Psalm.

[00:26:47] I don't know what happened to spark this in him. All I know is what preceded this moment. And if I could say it like this, I would just say it was honest prayer before God.

[00:27:02] It was honest prayer before God. I mean he's lamenting before God, even complaining before God. He's remembering things before God in prayer.

[00:27:15] He's desperate in prayer. I could even say it like this, he's like a little bit dramatic in prayer. It's like, oh man, really? That's what's going. You're like, I'm dead. No, you're not. You're writing a Psalm right now. You're still very much alive.

[00:27:30] He's a little dramatic with the whole thing. And he's specific. Don't be far off.

[00:27:36] Conquicly to my aid, deliver my soul from the sword. Save me from the mouth of the lion. You guys so often the inflection point that we're looking for it does come as we press into the Lord.

[00:27:53] You know, want to be a pastor who is beating the same message over and over again. But I just got to keep telling us, encouraging us as a church, pursue the Lord.

[00:28:08] When I get back from a time away and we're back in the book of James, we're going to see James say, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

[00:28:19] We're going to hear James say, but he gives a more grace, more than what more than already is there. Just what's needed more grace.

[00:28:29] We're going to see him tell us to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts and to pursue the Lord. And I would encourage you in that direction.

[00:28:39] For whatever the Psalmist is doing here, he is doing that. He is crying out to God. He is praying to God. He is faithful to lay his burdens and concerns and cares before the Lord.

[00:28:53] And I love this from the Psalmist. Okay, but the last thing I want to think about today, not just the analysis of the before and after or inspecting that inflection point.

[00:29:05] But I want to think about our participation in this Psalm. And some of you are upset with me at this point of the teaching because you're like, does he even know that this is about Jesus yet?

[00:29:20] Yes, I do know that. I know that when Jesus died on the cross after three hours of darkness, the fourth thing that he said on the cross was, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? A direct quote of the first line of this Psalm.

[00:29:39] I have wondered over the years if part of the reason that this was happening or part of the reason that Jesus did this is because he wanted to alert his followers to the beauty of Psalm 22 which so clearly depicts what was happening there upon the cross.

[00:30:01] It would be a comfort to their hearts to know God is sovereign, God is in control. But really, I think what you see in this Psalm are the before and after of death and resurrection.

[00:30:15] I mean, you've got death, alluding to the death of Jesus with that first line, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The line in verse 6, I'm a worm and not a man.

[00:30:30] Might remind us of Isaiah 53 verse 3 which says that Jesus was despised and rejected by men. He was very low. Verse 7 and 8 where he's mocked and they say, he trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him is literally what they said to Jesus when he or of Jesus,

[00:30:52] he was dying on the cross and Matthew chapter 27. The statement, my heart is like wax doesn't that remind you of Jesus in the garden of Geth's 70 when he cried out to his father.

[00:31:05] He's sweat like great drops of blood. His heart is just broken. There's a perplexion that has come upon him.

[00:31:14] They pierced my hands and feet. He says in verse 16, you got to remember this Psalm was written well before crucifixion had ever been invented, let alone perfected by the Roman Empire.

[00:31:28] And so David is peering it seems into the future and seeing something that is about himself in the first writing, but beyond himself into the Messiah who would come. He said in verse 17, I can count all my bones.

[00:31:46] That's a statement that deals with Jesus not having to have his bones broken at the end of the day.

[00:31:54] He was crucified to expedite his death, but he was already dead when they came to do that and so they just pierced his side and out came blood and water according to John's gospel. And then in verse 18, for my clothing they cast lots.

[00:32:13] Alluding to what the soldiers did at the foot of the cross taking Jesus's garment and casting lots to divide it among themselves. That's the death column, but the resurrection column. Starting in verse 22, I will tell of your name to my brothers.

[00:32:32] Chapter 2, verse 12, actually attributes this very line to Jesus. This is what Jesus did when he rose from the grave. He declared the name of his father to his disciples who were now his brothers because of what he had done for them on the cross.

[00:32:48] He says in verse 26, the afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Doesn't that just sound like Jesus's ministry? The one miracle that Jesus did outside of the resurrection that appears in all four of the gospels. The only one is the feeding of the 5,000, the miraculous feeding of hungry people.

[00:33:09] The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Verse 27, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship before you.

[00:33:21] What does that sound like? That sounds like the great commission to me. Jesus gathering His disciples together and saying, Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations teaching them what I've taught you and baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and spirit.

[00:33:38] Verse 28, kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. What do we pray? Jesus your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[00:33:51] Verse 30, it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. Again, our job to tell people about Jesus.

[00:34:00] They will verse 31 come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn. And again, in verse 31, that He has done it which sounds so much to me like the statement from John 19 that Jesus when he proclaimed on the cross, it is finished.

[00:34:18] This is a song that's alluding to the death and resurrection of the Messiah. So like I said, we have here the Bible in miniature.

[00:34:28] This is the story of humanity. This is the story of what God is doing. This is also the story of what we can go through hundreds of times each day.

[00:34:39] But it's ultimately all made possible because of the story of Jesus. What Jesus has done for us. It makes me think of what Paul the apostle said to the Philippian church in Philippians chapter 3. He was just talking about his own life, his own longing for progress in the Christian life.

[00:35:05] He wanted to be changed, he wanted to be transformed. And he said this to them. He said, I know that my goal is to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection and share His sufferings becoming like Him in His death.

[00:35:28] My any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. The Bible teaches that if you've become a Christian today, it's as if you died with Jesus and were buried with Jesus so that you might experience newness of life with Jesus, Roman 6.

[00:35:52] That newness of life is fueled by the resurrection power of Christ. But I think what I'm trying to say today is this very simply, there is no resurrection power without a little bit of death.

[00:36:13] And the Psalmist here went through all that death, but as he prayed and pressed and pushed towards his God, the resurrection power of Christ infused His body.

[00:36:27] And he became filled again with hope, not just for Himself, but hope that was universal in scope. I believe that as Christians we have the capability and the calling to be the most hopeful optimistic,

[00:36:52] confident, joyful, expectant people that have ever graced this earth because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But when we don't feel that way, we just gotta go through this Psalm 22 process again of Him taking us through the dim anguish into that radiant joy. Amen.

[00:37:22] Thank you for listening. If you would like more teachings and information about Calvary Monore, please visit Calvary.com. You can also find books teachings through the Bible and articles from our lead pastor at natholderage.com. Thanks again for tuning in. See you next week.