Psalm 22

²²             I will tell of Your name

to my brethren;

I will praise You,

in the midst of the congregation.

²³             You who fear the Lord,

praise Him!

             you offspring of Jacob,

glorify Him,

you offspring of Israel,

stand in awe of Him!

²⁴             For He has not despised

or disdained the suffering of the afflicted One,

             has not hidden His face from Him,

                        but has listened to His cry for help.

²⁵             From You comes My praise in the great congregation;

                        My vows I will perform before those who fear Him.

²⁶             The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;

                        those who seek Him shall praise the Lord!

            May your hearts live forever!

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May Your Hearts Live

For the Lord’s Day:  the 14^th of November 2004

 

Introduction:  Here in tis section, the whole focus of the psalm changes from despair to hope.  Whatever his personal travail, David’s hope here is well founded in the merciful kindness of God.  Delitzsch notes that this “great plaintive prayer closes with thanksgiving and hope.”  In the “certainty of being answered [there] follows the vow of thanksgiving.”  David firmly promises to share the fact of goodness received with all of those who know the Lord of hosts.  As is always so common to the Hebrew poetry, David repeats himself in the second division of verse twenty-two.

 

“I will tell of Your name to my brethren;

I will praise You, in the midst of the congregation.”

 

We may well understand that not only do the individual brethren, but also to the sacred assembly as well: he will speak in solemn words of thanksgiving about the providence and protection of the Lord God Almighty.

 

In Hebrews 2: 12 the Apostle applies these words to Christ.  Calvin tells us that the argument means that while Christ “was a partaker of the same nature with us, and joined to us by a true fellowship of the flesh” therefore in naming us as brethren – he does honor us magnificently.

 

There is also something else here, in the travails of David the king, his cause was not only his own – but also that of the nation.  Over the years I have noted the incredible aging of those responsible American presidents who went toe to toe with our enemies, even to the brink of nuclear war on behalf of the nation.  And in refusing to blink and eye – they did their nation, world and the Lord, a great service.  That hard service weighed upon them and afflicted their emotions as well as their physique.

 

Again, I have known ministers of the word who gave hard service over many years to the Lord of the Church.  My own father claimed that Harold Kuhn deserved special notice in this regard, for having served in the worst church in the former United Presbyterian presbytery back in the fifties.  On several occasions, I have had to counsel young men, who like Audie Murphy of World War Two fame – have literally been to hell and back.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to pin any medals on them in this regard, but must leave it to the Lord’s plan and providence to bless them according to His will.

 

And so like, David – we can know a little of not only the suffering, but also the good hope that Christ too experienced on the cross.  It was only three days later that Jesus spoke again to the individual brethren and then in a larger group settings as well.  As many as five hundred may have seen and heard the risen Lord and all of these like David here – could hardly wait to testify before other brethren.

 

Development:  We move on to the twenty-third verse to see how David would admonish the saints of old and if we are willing to hear the admonishment of the risen Christ as well.

 

“You who fear the Lord, praise Him!

                 you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him,

you offspring of Israel, stand in awe of Him!”

 

The admonishment is threefold in its instructive passion.  First, everyone who fears the Lord is called to praise Him.  In the sense of the Old Covenant nation – the praise to the Lord was for the providential working out of David’s kingship and the blessings that came to the people through the faithfulness of their king.  If you do not think that the blessings and curses of the Lord trickle down through the faith and foibles of the nation’s leaders – think again.  I still have raw memories of the “Monica spring” during the reign of the last president.  I saw a real coarsening of the teenagers who learned more from the news than they could gather from the perverted antics of their friends.

 

And what a refreshing thing it is to sense, as the pundits frame it – an election driven by moral absolutes and character.  Already, some of the worldly commentators are saying that there is a real bounce in general appreciation of morality as a result of the recent outcome?  This remains to be seen of course, but we are always to be praying for revival and reformation – no matter how it begins.

 

Second in this twenty-third verse, the Lord’s people are to glorify the King of Kings and sing praises to His Holy Name above all names.  For more than a century, the French people glorified the memory of Napoleon in the layout of the nation’s capital, in the inspiring architecture and in the grandeur of the actual improvement in the laws of the nation that flowed from the object of their affection.  Also, in the former provinces of the Austrian House of Hapsburg, the elderly were claiming clear down to the seventies of the last century – that they had never known a better political administration than that of the old Emperor Franz Joseph.

 

In Western Civilization, very many peoples and nations were able to aim a little higher in this account and thereby organize their cultures under the influence of the ordinances and beatitudes of King Jesus.  Giving glory to His Name is not only a proper calling for all cultures, but especially to those who are accounted as His own brethren in the Church of God.

 

Third, the phrasing in this verse instructs us to “stand in awe of Him!”  By this we mean not only that we should fear the God of heaven and earth, as well as His only Son, but also that we should plumb the depths and heights of what was really and finally accomplished on that terrible cross so many centuries before.  Remember the price exacted for our souls and in our comprehending that, let us appreciate the lengths to which Christ took upon His shoulders the sins of the elect, as well as the incredible weight thereof.  Also, we should learn to appreciate the incredible accomplishment of the Second Adam – that He fulfilled the law exactly in order to qualify as the supreme sacrifice of Adam’s race.

 

Our next verse, the twenty-fourth tells us that God has indeed taken notice of every suffering acknowledged in faithful service to Himself, His Son and His cause.

 

“For He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted One,

                 has not hidden His face from Him, but has listened to His cry for help.”

 

David’s cause God has taken as His own.  Calvin encourages us to see in David’s statement an important purpose which “serves to encourage every man to hope that God will exercise the same mercy towards himself.”  Not only in the cause of David, but also in the cause of Christ, we are to have hope in our work and our witness that God will use it according to His good pleasure and purpose.

 

Delitzsch focuses this verse more narrowly to the cause of Christ on the cross, sensing that these phrases here encapsulates the gospel message itself.  “We see that the sufferer felt the wrath of God, but this has changed into a love that sends help; God did not long keep His countenance hidden, He hearkened to him, for his prayer was well-pleasing to Him.”

 

For over sixty years – the saints in the Soviet Union labored under incredible threats and whole congregations were dismissed into the Gulag or shot out of hand.  And yet, there is still a church and from some reports a rather vibrant one at that in many places.  Persecution the last forty-some years has served only to increase the Chinese house churches many fold since the missionaries were forced out.  Where ever the Lord’s people give faithful and honest service – there eventually the Lord revives not only their hopes but also His own church – the very bride of Christ: for whom Christ died meditating on this very Psalm.  In His time, and according to His purpose the prayers of the Church are heard and His tribes increase in number.

 

Application:  Now, we must always remember where the purpose of the Lord is accomplished.  David remembers as he traces the source that allows and encourages him to bring praise before the people of God.  In this way, the whole church can be encouraged at what God has accomplished in the lives of His saints.

 

“From You comes My praise in the great congregation;

                My vows I will perform before those who fear Him.”

 

In the second line of this twenty-fifth verse, David affirms that the works of the Lord must be shared with the people who believe and trust in God.  In this way, the whole church can be encouraged at what God has accomplished in the lives of His saints.

 

In the last verse in this section, the twenty-sixth, we see a further prophetic sense of the gospel of grace.  In the Lord’s Supper all of the afflicted of every race do indeed eat and are satisfied in and through the race and mercy of our Father in heaven.

 

“The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;

                those who seek Him shall praise the Lord!

May your hearts live forever!”

 

Further, we understand that all of those who are brought to the feast, they may find their all in all in the Lord of heaven and earth.  And in finding the Lord’s appointed Messiah – thereby they have a great cause for praising the Lord.

 

In our last line, David’s implied blessing must remind us of what is now called the Puritan hope in our doctrines: eternal life in heaven with the Lord.  “May your hearts live forever!”  With that blessing, let us end our meditation this morning!  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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