Psalm 22:22-24 - I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You. You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, and fear Him, all you offspring of 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 Him, He heard.
Alright, here is an important truth we must remember as we get started. The way we study the Bible will have a direct effect on whether or not we obey the things that are written in it. True story. The Bible commands the people of God to praise Him for who He is. This means that if we DON’T know who God is, we WON’T be able to praise Him for who He is. If we don’t praise, we aren’t obeying the command and expectation of God. We aren’t fulfilling our life’s purpose. The scriptures explain that God created us to praise His name. So, we must study the scriptures to know who God is. The more we understand who God is, the more it should pluck the strings of our hearts to praise Him and speak well of Him. Knowing God’s character and nature should spark joy in our hearts concerning His eternal purposes and promises. Acknowledging His past works provides present trust in His integrity, giving us confidence and assurance in the LORD to do what He says. That gives us rest and peace for our souls. As a result, we praise God.
One of the key reasons our approach to the Bible is so critical is that our praises should COME BEFORE God fulfills His promises. We have not seen God but should speak well of Him in anticipation of seeing Him. We have not enjoyed the full benefits of His eternal promises, but we are expected to rejoice over the future fulfillment of those promises. We should trust that God is faithful and will do what He says. This means that we’re called to thank God and praise Him for things He hasn’t done yet, looking at the past as evidence of what He WILL DO in the future. We’re supposed to rejoice in the LORD for things He hasn’t completed, trusting in who He is. We should trust that He is able and faithful to finish the job.
The difficulty is that our current circumstances don’t always inspire praise. Our current circumstances can often be filled with difficulty and suffering, so “praise” becomes hard. It can be hard to thank God when we question why He allows certain difficulties into our lives or if we hate our current circumstances. Still, the scriptures are clear. Whether our circumstances are favorable or not, we’re supposed to praise the One who WILL save us from condemnation and pain, eventually blessing us with eternal life! Our continual understanding of who God is according to His Word helps us speak well about God when our flesh might not be emotionally compelled to do so.
An example of this truth is provided in the testimony of Psalm 22. In Psalm 22, David began by writing,
“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”
Even though the LORD never forsook David, he felt like God was distant. The difficulty of David’s circumstances made David feel separated from God, which amplified his trouble. David went explained the depth of his suffering. When he described his difficulties, we saw that his suffering paralleled Jesus’ suffering on the cross. The emotional, mental, and psychological distress that David suffered was a prophetic picture of the literal physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual suffering that Jesus suffered. Even though David’s suffering was FAR less than Jesus’, it was still pretty intense! But, while David felt emotionally distant from God and was in great pain, he wrote in Verse 21,
“You have answered Me…”
David wrote that God had answered him WELL BEFORE God actually answered. It’s not like God changed all of David’s circumstances between Verses 20 and 21. David wrote, “You have answered Me,” BEFORE his trials were removed. Since Psalm 22 is also a Messianic psalm that speaks prophetically about the crucifixion of Jesus, the same must be true of Him. Jesus also cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Even though David was never separated from the Father, Jesus was. That’s how He paid the true spiritual penalty of sin. David wrote in a poetic sense to describe the extent of his suffering, but Jesus had to ACTUALLY endure the pain of spiritual separation from The Father. BUT, even though Jesus died on the cross, it could be said that The Father answered Jesus too, in His suffering.
How could David have truthfully said that God answered him, even though his circumstances hadn’t changed yet? David trusted that God was faithful and heard his cries. To David, God’s willingness to hear the cries of His people was as good as answering the cries of His people. David knew that God was able to hear. David knew that God was merciful to hear. David knew that God would be gracious to respond eventually. David knew that God was able and faithful to respond. It didn’t matter whether God had delivered him at THAT time. He might have preferred immediate deliverance like most of us, but that didn’t keep David from remembering the truth about God’s integrity overall.
David knew that God made SPECIFIC promises. He knew God was faithful AND able to fulfill them. To David, it wasn’t a matter of “if” God would respond but “when.” So, David confidently stated that God answered him, in ANTICIPATION of God’s future response to ACTUALLY change his circumstances, leveraging God’s faithfulness and power as collateral.
The same is true of Jesus. Jesus ultimately died on the cross, but He could also say that the Father had answered Him. Why? Like David, the Father made certain promises to the Son, and Jesus knew that The Father was faithful and able to fulfill those promises, regardless of the circumstances.
For example, in Psalm 16:10, The Father promised, “For You will not leave My soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”
This is a promise about the resurrection. The Father promised that He would not allow the Messiah to be left in Sheol, the place of the dead. This statement shows that the Holy One of Israel would go to Sheol but wouldn’t stay there forever. Jesus died, but He didn’t stay in the grave. Psalm 16 says the Holy One of Israel would die, but He wouldn’t see corruption or decay. Jesus died and was buried but was raised from the dead on the third day. In Jewish culture, the 4th day is the day in which a dead body is considered corrupted. Jesus was raised before that day according to The Father’s promise. So, He could say that the Father answered Him, even though He died because He anticipated the fulfillment of the Father’s promises in the future.
This is why David wrote about the praise of the LORD in Psalm 22:22-24. Even though David’s circumstances hadn’t changed yet, he still wrote:
“I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You. You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, and fear Him, all you offspring of 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 Him, He heard.”
David was ready to praise God even though his circumstances didn’t inspire praise. David was prepared to speak well about the LORD and rejoice in Him anyway. David was prepared to proclaim the greatness of God in public, even though his circumstances were shameful. David was so emphatic and confident about the LORD’s faithfulness and power to deliver him that he was poised to recruit others to praise the LORD with him. David wanted everyone around him to praise the LORD, anticipating what he knew the LORD would do eventually. David wanted to speak about the greatness of God to other people and then wanted those people to tell others about the greatness of God also.
Notice that David pointed to the fear of the LORD as a reason to praise. This is REALLY important to think about. Even though David was suffering, He knew that God was righteous and just to deliver him from the oppression of his enemies. If David suffered, he knew that God would make his enemies suffer more! If David’s suffering was a sample of the suffering his enemies would encounter, it’s no wonder the Bible says this in Hebrews 10:31: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. The wisdom of God reveals the character and nature of God’s integrity. The fear of the LORD and His righteousness should be the catalyst of our praise. This is why many people struggle to praise the LORD when times are tough. We forget about the fear of God. We forget what we deserve as sinners. We forget about God’s promise to judge. We forget about the wrath of God that He will administrate soon and how terrifying His wisdom and power can be if we’re not in good standing with Him. We forget His glory is so incomprehensible that scripture says He conceals His glory with light! What does that even mean? We might be in a different headspace if we spent more time thinking about these truths concerning God instead of our problems. Right?
Think about it, if God’s people suffer, how much more will His enemies suffer?
It’s scary to think about the quality of suffering that will take place when God pours His wrath into the world. If Jesus suffered to the extent that He did to forgive sins, how much more will people suffer if they refuse His offer of forgiveness? God will exercise the same quality of power to deliver His people as He does to judge His enemies. If David anticipated God’s deliverance, he also anticipated the revelation of God’s power to judge, which is scary. Yet, it’s also a reason to rejoice. God’s judgments are how God’s people are delivered and blessed with peace.
The spark that ignited David was understanding God’s faithfulness. David trusted the LORD to deliver and save him because God made certain promises, and David was confident God would keep them. David knew that God doesn’t change. He doesn’t go back on His Word. David knew that God looks out for the poor, weak, and humble people who cry out to Him in dependency and repentant faith. Even though God is holy, righteous, and powerful, He is not arrogant to separate Himself from all creation. God knows He is highly exalted above all but is not pompous to distance Himself from sinners, leaving us to fend for ourselves, and then die. In fact, Philippians 2:5-7 says this about the nature of Jesus as God in flesh:
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, [and] coming in the likeness of men.”
Even though Jesus is the KING of kings and LORD of lords, He didn’t come into the world to flaunt His power and glory over everyone. He’s God-in-flesh, but he didn’t parade Himself around to impose His will on everyone as a prideful and arrogant overseer. Instead, Jesus came to be a servant to all people, dying to Himself to pay the penalty of sin based on mercy and grace. David knew about the mercy and grace of God and understood that God doesn’t hide from people who cry out to Him as if He’s too good for them, even though He is. When David cried out to God, he was confident that God heard. David knew that it would have been out of character for God to turn, forsake, and ignore those who love Him, desire Him, seek Him, and humbly trust Him. No matter the pitiful condition that David was in, he knew that God was faithful and would respond with power and righteousness at some point.
The same is true of Jesus. Even though Jesus was marred so badly that He was unrecognizable as a man, the Father never fully forsook Him. We talked about the details of that reality in our last episode. Just because the Father and the Son were separated for some time doesn’t mean that the Father forsook Him outright and departed from Him altogether. Just because Jesus went into the grave for some time doesn’t mean that the Father wrote off the Son until He could prove Himself and dig Himself out of that situation. The weight of the world’s sin placed upon Jesus was not enough to change the character and nature of the Father. That weight wasn’t enough to overcome the power of God’s Oneness as Father and Son. All of the sins in the world, at all points in history, were placed on Jesus to separate Him from the Father. The Father was STILL able and willing to hear Jesus, acknowledge Jesus, and eventually answer Jesus through the power of the Resurrection and Ascension!
THESE are the sort of truths we’re supposed to remember so we can praise the LORD. If all of the world’s sin couldn’t keep the Father away from Jesus, and Jesus died while we were still sinners, then what can separate us from the love of God? What can keep us from God so that He grows deaf to our humble cries for help? If the Father was faithful to fulfill His Word to deliver David from opposition and Jesus from death, why would He change because of us, or our circumstances? Think about that.
Even though the LORD might not respond to our prayers in the time that we’d like Him to, our job is to praise Him for the glory He will receive when He DOES deliver us, unto the fulfillment of His eternally unconditional promises in the future – remembering the lengths He went to prove His power and faithfulness in the past!
And, THAT’S what the Bible teaches about the One, WE know, as God.
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