Jesus The Lamb Of God

Author Guardian

Lord Father Shepherd of our lifes we give you this time tonight and every day, we give you back the time you have given us and speak now Lord whatever our circumstance or situation In Jesus name amen

And so we look at Psalms 20 to 23 together and you may wonder why we are looking and glancing through these four songs to God.

Well the Lord was speaking to me about trust and about trusting Him and as I worked away I began a kind of dialogue with the Lord and I saw a vision

I felt God speaking to me about intimacy, He wanted me to draw nearer to Him

This scripture came to me

Matthew 6:31-33 31 So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat or What shall we drink or What shall we wear? 32 For the pagans run after all these things,

and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (NIV Bible)

To seek Him through the noise and fears and worries, to seek Him and to simply seek a close and real relationship, putting aside the " Lord do this and Lord do that and Lord I have this problem and that problem and this thing and that thing "

To seek Him for whom He is and not for what He might do

As I worked away and talked to Him I saw a vision of steps, the steps were cold and concrete and hard and I looked for a meaning and a voice but there was none

And so as we walk on our journey of life things can seem hard and cold at times and difficult but God longs to have intimacy and to take us up those steps . not looking to what we can see , but looking to Him alone.

A few days or so later, again this word about trust came to me and so I turned to what this message might be about and saw that Psalm 21 was about King David singing to the Lord about how he rejoiced in Gods strength.

This was confirmed by meerkat in our chat rooms speaking about strength in God

Then I saw that David went on to sing to God about trust in Psalm 21

And so a few days later again God began to speak to me and this time again it was about trust and how His rod and staff guide us and guide me and how He is the Shepherd of the sheep.

And so as I looked at these psalms so I saw how they came together and how maybe we were to look at psalms 20 - 23 as a continious song and Psalm of David together.

And so this week we will look at Psalms 20,21 and 22 and next week we shall look into the Father heart of God as the Shepherd Father.

The week after we will be looking at Psalm 23

so lets begin this week under the usual theme of " Cross references "

You know David was a man after Gods own heart, David being a shepherd Himself would have sang from His heart , to the Father God, Psalms that were new songs and David is known to sing out later in the Psalms " sing a new song to the Lord all the earth"

This is exactly what David was doing, He was composing from his heart new songs of praise and worship all the time, he was composing psalms or songs of the heart, inspired by the Holy Spirit within Him.

David sang psalms,songs to Father God that were prophetic and spoke of things past, presentt and future... things that were to happen as we see in Psalm 22

You could say the Holy Spirit was singing through David to God

And In Psalm 20 we read a few verses

Psalm 20

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 May the LORD answer you when you are in distress may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

2 May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.

3 May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings Selah

4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

5 We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the LORD grant all your requests.!!

6 Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand.

This Psalm reminds us of Gods steregth , you can change the word "support" in verse 2 to "strength"

And in verse 6 we see the "right hand " strength

We also see here that David sings of God giving us our hearts desire and make all our plans succeed !! wow

As we walk in Gods will ...as we pray in Gods will...when we seek God above all else ..

Not looking at what is in front, but looking to God alone for who He is and not for what we might get ....as David indeed did ...then we find Gods strength as we trust in Him alone.

Note this

4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

And verse 5 , May the LORD grant all your requests.

Trust is hard, trust requires that we trust in Him that He knows what is best.

Its trusting that no matter what pathway He may lead us down with His Rod and Staff that He knows the path we should take

And while we walk down this faithwalk path we do what His voice tells us and we then speak back to Him ...(May the LORD grant all your requests.)

Then the Shepherd will give us what we need, He will hear us speaking back to Him, ( He will hear our prayers ) as we walk with Him in His will.

Do not always expect Him to do this ...if you are not walking with Him, in the way..

Do not be a King Saul, but be a King David.

And so we begin to look at Psalm 22 and we hear the new song from the heart of the Shepherd King David singing a prophetic song looking into the Future being inspired by the Holy Spirit David sings of " The Lamb of God " the servant King.

The Holy Spirit sings through David and David composes a song about the Saviour to come.

The Great Shepherd who would lead His people , a shepherd who would be a Servant King and be like a Lamb led to the slaughter.

We again see in Psalms 22 and 23 some more simple pictures or images, this imagery displays before us the picture of The Shepherd and the sheep and the LAmb and the rod and the staff, but we shall look more into this when we look at psalm 23 in two weeks time.

Lets now look and focus on Psalm 22 and go through some Cross references as we look at " The Lamb Of God " and again you will notice the word "trust"

I shall post a few verses as the Psalm is 31 verses long

Psalm 22

For the director of music. To the tune of "The Doe of the Morning." A psalm of David.

1 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?

2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.

4 In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.

5 They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

8 "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."

and

12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13 Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me.

14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth you lay me in the dust of death.

16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me,

they have pierced my hands and my feet.

17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.

18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

19 But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

Indeed David hear is singing about Jesus on the Cross, he utters the very words of Jesus who was to come, the Lamb of God led like a Lamb to the Slaughter ,

The servant King, the Shepherd of the Sheep ,

And so we look at Cross references and we glance at the book of Matthew as we hear the words uttered once more

Matthew 27:46 (New International Version)

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi,[a]

lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Psalm 22: 1 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?

You see sin separates, our sin, my sin separates us from the Shepherd Father, it is as if He cannot hear us, as if He is not there, it is as if the earth has grown dark, it is as if He has turned away from us and we cry out to Him ...

Jesus took our sin and the sin of the world upon Himself and the punishment He bore, that we might be free, He paid the price, and He cries out to the Father,My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And again Matthew

Matthew 27:39 (New International Version)

39Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads

Matthew 27:43 (New International Version)

43He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' "

Now

Psalm 22:7 and 8, All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

We see comparisons in Job...could Job be a type or kind of Christ ?

Job 25:6 (New International Version)

6 how much less man, who is but a maggot— a son of man, who is only a worm!"

Psalm 22:6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

You see God lives outside of our time and we read and hear the same words spoken out by the Holy Spirit through mouths

And Davids mouth and heart sing a prophetic song of the suffering servant in Psalm 22, who now lives and moves in our hearts as we sing out songs of prasie to our God the great Shepherd,

We may sing a song of " Where are you God ? why does it seem you are not there ? "

We might know the pain of rejection, of suffering, of bitterness, of feeling like a worm, we may give all we have and yet people mock and scorn, we may be persecuted, we may go through a similiar journey as Job and loose everything.

We may be led by the rod and staff on a journey of correction, we may be led by the rod and staff on a journey of discipline, we may be led by the rod and staff on differnet and unique journeys.

You know you might read about sparing the rod and spoiling the child, but the Staff was used to direct amongst other things, the Rod was used against those wild beasts who come at night and try to tear the sheep apart.

It was also used to prod and direct the sheep on the journey, and we know that sheep are timid and shy and that they huddle together seeking a haven and they walk by still quiet waters because they do not like raging noisy waters.

And the Shepherd would never hit the sheep with the rod or use it in that way because He knows that the sheep would scatter, He knows that the sheep would loose trust, He knows that the best way to train His sheep is to lead them on journeys with His rod and staff,

that may have pitfalls and snags if only to train and teach them.

I always wondered about the scripture , " Do not lead us into temptation " ?

Would God lead us into temptation ? ....and the answer is " YES "

You see the Shepherd does'nt use the rod to beat up the sheep ...to discipline by hitting.

He disciplines the sheep by directing then on a different journey...

And there are many roads in life that can cause us to turn back to God the Shepherd, there are many roads in life that are more than able to discipline and correct.

You know Jesus was led out by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil ?

Do we think His rod will spare us of this ? maybe..maybe not,, and so we pray " Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one "

Psalm 22:12 and 13

12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13 Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me.

Bashan was a land of plenty,the cattle there were strong and without need, it was known for its well fed cattle ( Amos 4:1)

Here the Shepherd would use the rod against the enemy to defend the sheep

And so We now can sing a new song of praise from our hearts to God and so David continues..

You see in the middle of these two Psalms that we have glanced at is Psalm 21..... The Victory song !!

I wonder what happened to job after His sufferings ?

Psalm 22;14 I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.

Job 30:16 (Amplified Bible)

16And now my life is poured out within me; the days of affliction have gripped me.

16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me,

they have pierced my hands and my feet.

17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.

18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

Matthew 27:35 (Amplified Bible)

35And when they had crucified Him, they divided and distributed His garments [among them] by casting lots [a]so that the prophet's saying was fulfilled, They parted My garments among them and over My apparel they cast lots.

Hebrews 5:7 (Amplified Bible)

7In the days of His flesh [Jesus] offered up definite, special petitions [for that which He not only wanted [a]but needed] and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was [always] able to save Him [out] from death, and He was heard because

of His reverence toward God [His godly fear, His piety, in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father].

Psalm 22:24 (Amplified Bible)

24For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither has He hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him, He heard.

And so we turn to Davids song of Psalm 21 right in the middle of Psalm 20 and 22 and we read how the Shepherd was welcomed back to the Throne and clothed in splendour and majesty

You see these pictures and peoples can be seen as interchangeable, David can be a type of God shepherd or A Jesus singing to The Great Father Shepherd.

We Also see David welcomed and His prayers and desires met as He seeks after Gods heart, so we see David established and His Kingdom reigning and the Crown upon His head.

We can identify with Christ, be identified with Him,He is your identity, you are unique, you are a unique individual, but you also identify with Jesus.

You are as David...

"You And I have been crucified with Christ," Galatians 2:20

"You died with Christ,"...Colossians 2:20

"God raised us up with Christ" Ephesians 2:6

"God made you alive with Christ" Colossians 2:13

"You have been raised with Christ" Colossians 3:1

Could the Holy Spirit have uttered through David your words ?

You are rejected ? aha, identify with Christ

You are presecuted mm ..Idenfity with Christ

But also as Christ is raised up , we are raised up, and we soar with wings as eagles

The Strong Tower at the right hand

In Psalm 22

We see the suffering servant , despised and rejected in David as He is fleeing from His enemies, we see one who betrayed David to His own men and Davids own men coming up against Him in battle, we read that Davids own son led a rebellion against David and so too we see the comparisions over and over again as the King of Kings the Lamb of God is betrayed by one of His own disciples and the very ones whom he loved handing Him over to the Cross .

We see David trusting in God Alone, not looking at what layed before Him , not looking at the stairs in front,but looking to God

And so as we walk on our journey of life things can seem hard and cold at times and difficult but God longs to have intimacy and to take us up those steps . not looking to what we can see , but looking to Him alone.

Lets pray

Father Shepherd of my heart who directs me in ways I cannot comprehend and does things I can never imagine, Father Shepherd of my heart teach me the right way to go and lead me by the still waters of your voice instead of the rushing waters of the world.

Teach me not to fear your rod that may direct me in ways I might not always want to go, but help me to see that you know best and teach me to trust you.

Lead me into those green pastures,,the land of milk and honey, where my want is a want for more of you and my needs are met Jehovah Jireh.

Lead me in ways that I must go because you know best and even though I may not always want to go, help me to see that in so doing I am following you and then you will hear my prayers,

and see the inward desires of my heart and answer me.

Help me not to be a Saul, but A David and to seek after your heart in all things.

In Jesus name amen

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