Psalm 22

₀₆          [Considered] a worm and not a man,

I am scorned by men

 and despised by the people.

⁰⁷          All who see me mock me;

they make mouths at me;

they wag their heads;

⁰⁸          “He trusts in the Lord;

let Him deliver him;

let Him rescue him,

since He delights in him!”

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Considered a Worm

For the Lord’s Day:  the 17^th of October 2004

Introduction: Here, in these three verses, we begin the second cycle of depression and recovery that characterize the dynamic prayer life in this epic psalm and indeed in all of David’s prayer life.  In this instance – David’s depression were probably related to a current spate of misfortune in his life, of which we have no solid substance to hazard a guess.

 

Earlier this late spring and early summer, I had had a run of misfortune for multiple weeks on end, financial, professional, mechanical and an increasing “adventure index” on the road – with more than one close call while driving.  Providentially, I was able to reduce my driving time considerably for a couple of weeks and eventually worked my way out of the financial slump.  Even the computers in my life finally came back to some form of sanity.  And the professional situation worked itself out.  However, all too well did I realize the emotions of David in the roller coaster emotions here demonstrated.

 

In David’s case, the unanswered prayers before his mind seemed to estrange him from the very people who should have regarded and supported him through thick and thin.  I am reminded partially of the recent presidential debates – where in many of the questions fired at the president, only he and his closest advisers could know the full truth that must for security reasons be kept close.  This fact, more than once appeared to hamstring his ability to debate fully on a level playing field.

 

Accordingly, he has joked about being told to stand up straight and not scowl, but the closer evaluators of the contest can only sympathize with his dilemma.  Like David’s experience – the vast uninformed public opinion must doubt everything that is left unsaid, and thereby wonder if the necessary skills of leadership are still evident.  A whole year and a half of constant public drum beating by adversaries has taken its toll on our man in the White House.  And just like David – our elected leaders today need the support and encouragement of those who pray to the Creator God.

 

Development:  In David’s case, even this ongoing consideration seems to have fallen on hard times:  “[Considered] a worm and not a man, I am scorned by men and despised by the people.”  In David’s mind, he is so unpopular that he appears to doubt his calling even as a human.  Well can I remember in the educational system how certain individuals, faculty, staff and students – could be shunned by those who controlled the system and thereby made to feel the brunt of the whole social focus of the collective institutional population.  Many times, it was an uphill battle to continue providing excellence in instruction day by day in that hostile environment.

 

Spurgeon and Calvin quickly move to the essential point in David’s poetic prophecy.  Calvin takes us to the prophet Isaiah’s description of the coming Messiah (53:3):  “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hid their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Certainly, in this context we can see the emotional agony of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, when this psalm was so much in evidence in the Gospel record.  Spurgeon reminds us that in Christ’s endeavor on the cross: “How utterly did the Saviour empty himself of all glory, and become of no reputation for our sakes!”

 

Delitzsch moves the imagery here in a slightly different direction.  Taking Isaiah 52: 14b seriously, he quotes: “His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance.”  In this regard, we must remember the incredible beating given to our Lord by the pagan soldiers of Rome.  In the portrayal of this gruesome reality – the popular movie of last spring may not have been enough in its dramatic effect?  “[Considered] a worm and not a man, I am scorned by men and despised by the people.” 

 

In another take on this scene, we may be reminded that the comedian Rodney Dangerfield passed away recently. He it was who made a comic career of complaining that he never got any respect.  In that familiar diatribe, he touched the emotions of countless people who knew exactly what his signature phrase meant.

 

Do we, can we - comprehend the situation of the Lord of glory on the cross?  Here was the very Son of God, nailed to the tree for no crime that He had ever committed.  He was to be destroyed for challenging the leadership of the Old Covenant community and church.  He was whipped and persecuted only because He came to fulfill the prophecies of old.  And even with all the miraculous events displayed in His life and person – He was despised and rejected.  To all who gathered there in the suburbs and precincts of Jerusalem on Good Friday – it appeared that His career and purpose on earth were finished.  The glad crowds of the week before had all disappeared and the King of Glory was given over to the fate of a condemned criminal.

 

Well does David perceive the future agony of his own greater Son in this psalm.  Our second verse for this morning takes the tragic scene further.  “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their head.”

 

Mockery is learned early on in human life and much grief is accounted to its sinful practice.  When I was growing up, whenever one of us children took on the facial expression described in this verse, Mom or Dad would place two fingers on our protracted lower lip and announce that there was enough room for a rooster to perch on the “limb” so extended.  The very thought of such a possibility was usually enough to bring a smile instead of the gloating self-righteous disdain.

 

Mockery is also a refined art form practiced in every school secular and sacred where it takes many and varied forms.  I remember that in Seminary a whole flock of chickens could have roosted on the disdain of liberal lips who doubted the cause and purpose of Christ just as much as those who surrounded our Lord on the cross so many centuries ago.  There were professors and pastors, whose only response to even the mildest “evangelical” concerns” – was a profound disgust in the shaking of their heads to indicate the incredible fundamentalist ignorance into which some of us had fallen by the grace of God.

 

Application:  But, even as David and our Lord must have realized in the midst of their prayers, all of the profound disdain for their own purpose and cause was in reality aimed higher than the person who received the rejection and disdain so vividly portrayed in this Psalm portion.  Look carefully at our final verse for the morning:  “He trusts in the Lord; let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, since He delights in him!”

 

Well do we remember the words of the scoffers of the Sanhedrin who observed on the cause of Christ in extremis:  “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”  (Luke 23: 35)

 

One of the thieves on the cross also railed at Him: “Are you not the Christ?  Save yourself and us!” (Luke 23: 39)

 

This is how the worldly regard our Lord in every age and place, show me – as the low-life pop opera of the seventies supposed Pilate to invite the Lord of all the earth to just “walk across my swimming pool.”

 

In David’s case as well as in the cause of Christ – the Lord of heaven and earth did indeed hear both their prayers summed up in this glorious Psalm of the Cross.  But it was not in the context that was humanly expected – all along the Creative Father God and King of the Universe had planned, in conjunction with the willing agreement and compliance of His only Son – to turn the world upside down by allowing the promised Messiah, the Lamb of God, to die on the cross in order that we might thereby be saved.  Thus and so: God’s providence was worked out and the sober, sorrow filled prayer here displayed was answered in a way that changes God’s people forever and ever.  May the God of David be praised.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

The Westminster Confession & Catechisms.

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