From Despair to Praise: A Pattern for thanksgiving.

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Song : 10,000 reasons

As we read this Psalm together I want you to highlight the reasons we have to be thankful and at the end of this Psalm, I am going to ask you to share them together.

Psalm 103 CSB

Of David. My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget all his benefits. He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from the Pit; he crowns you with faithful love and compassion. He satisfies you with good things; your youth is renewed like the eagle. The Lord executes acts of righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He revealed his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever. He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithful love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field; when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known. But from eternity to eternity the Lord’s faithful love is toward those who fear him, and his righteousness toward the grandchildren of those who keep his covenant, who remember to observe his precepts. The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, all his angels of great strength, who do his word, obedient to his command. Bless the Lord, all his armies, his servants who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works in all the places where he rules. My soul, bless the Lord!

Song : Man of Sorrows

From Despair to Praise: A Journey of Thanksgiving

When Jesus was on the cross, He quoted from this psalm. For those who were paying attention the Psalm would have given them incredible hope. For while it starts off in terrible suffering. In fact, most scholars put the writing of Psalm 22 about 1044 BC, about a 1000 years before Christ birth. Even those who give it a later date still land to around 587 BC.

In it we see the details of Jesus Crucifixion. yet it ends with eternal victory.

So today we are going to take a look at this passage together.

Summary: Psalm 22 opens with a cry of anguish but transitions into a proclamation of faith and thanksgiving,

In other words, it looks a lot like real life. In life there are times of great hardship but there are times of awesome praise.

highlighting both personal suffering and worship.

Application: This Psalm serves as a reminder that even in our darkest moments, we can find hope and reasons to give thanks to God. It encourages believers to approach God with honesty about their struggles while also affirming His goodness and sovereignty, fostering a spirit of gratitude in all circumstances.

Teaching: This sermon teaches that thanksgiving is not just a response to blessings but a choice we make, even in the midst of trials. It illustrates the importance of expressing our pain to God while ultimately trusting in His salvation and plan for our lives.

Big Idea: In our journey from despair to gratitude, we learn that thanksgiving emerges from recognizing God’s faithfulness in our pain and trusting in His ultimate deliverance.

1.Thanksgiving begins with honesty.

Psalm 22:1–5 CSB

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning? My God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, by night, yet I have no rest. But you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. Our ancestors trusted in you; they trusted, and you rescued them. They cried to you and were set free; they trusted in you and were not disgraced.

You could highlight the raw honesty of David's anguish expressed in these verses, paralleling it with times when we feel abandoned or unheard by God. Suggest that rather than hiding our pain, we should, like David and ultimately Jesus on the cross, pour out our hearts to God. Emphasize that thanksgiving begins with honesty before God, acknowledging our need for His deliverance and recalling His faithfulness to our ancestors as evidence of His unwavering presence.

2. Remembrance of God’s past faithfulness is the foundation for praise in hardship.

Psalm 22:6–10 CSB

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people. Everyone who sees me mocks me; they sneer and shake their heads: “He relies on the Lord; let him save him; let the Lord rescue him, since he takes pleasure in him.” It was you who brought me out of the womb, making me secure at my mother’s breast. I was given over to you at birth; you have been my God from my mother’s womb.

Here David feels like less than a man. He feels like the whole world despises him. He feels like everything is going wrong.

Have you ever felt this way? Like maybe even God himself despises you.

yet David remembers. He remembers who gave him life. He remembers that God does not despise those who are his. He remembers his identity in the midst of his pain. In this he begins regain his confidence in the Lord.

We are to call to Remembrance who we are in Christ. We are to call to Remembrance the assurance of God’s love even in hardship.

Remembering Who God is and what he has done is the foundation for a weary heart. It is this foundation that we can rest on. It is the foundation of thanksgiving.

Trans: Next we see:

3. We are most thankful when we recognize our absolute dependence on God.

Psalm 22:11–21 CSB

Don’t be far from me, because distress is near and there’s no one to help. Many bulls surround me; strong ones of Bashan encircle me. They open their mouths against me— lions, mauling and roaring. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed; my heart is like wax, melting within me. My strength is dried up like baked clay; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You put me into the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; a gang of evildoers has closed in on me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people look and stare at me. They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing. But you, Lord, don’t be far away. My strength, come quickly to help me. Rescue my life from the sword, my only life from the power of these dogs. Save me from the lion’s mouth, from the horns of wild oxen. You answered me!

Here we see the intense Anguish and the cries for help. While David uses vivid poetic language to describe his suffering. He is prophetically proclaiming the reality of the suffering Christ himself would endure on the cross.

In fact the reference to the Bulls of Bashan is a reference of the cosmic battle that begins in Gen 3 and is described in Gen 6. Bashan is an area in the Golan heights at the foot of Mount Hermon. The very place where the sons’ of god began their rebellion against Yahweh God. It is also the mount of transfiguration where Jesus reveals to his disciples and to the spiritual world his true identity and nature.

This Psalm is prophesying the death and suffering of Jesus Christ and his victory over all.

But....

This anguish reflected in Christ’s suffering urges us to trust God, who understands our plight intimately.

We can be thankful because we have a God that understands human suffering because he suffered. His mercy and rescue are all the more sweeter when we remember that He himself knows our pain.

In this we can be thankful. This thankfulness helps us move from cries of help to praises of thanksgiving as we remember the ultimately victory that is coming.

4. A Heart of thankfulness reminds us of the reality of our true deliverance.

Psalm 22:22–31 CSB

I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters; I will praise you in the assembly. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! All you descendants of Israel, revere him! For he has not despised or abhorred the torment of the oppressed. He did not hide his face from him but listened when he cried to him for help. I will give praise in the great assembly because of you; I will fulfill my vows before those who fear you. The humble will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will praise him. May your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will bow down before you, for kingship belongs to the Lord; he rules the nations. All who prosper on earth will eat and bow down; all those who go down to the dust will kneel before him— even the one who cannot preserve his life. Their descendants will serve him; the next generation will be told about the Lord. They will come and declare his righteousness; to a people yet to be born they will declare what he has done.

this passage foretells Christ's victory and the ultimate praise that will come from all nations.

Thanksgiving arises when, like David, we move beyond ourselves and recognize that our story of deliverance feeds into the greater story of God’s redemption through Christ. No matter what we face here on earth one day all things will be made right. There is hope

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