Palm Sunday 2021 (2)

DISCLAIMER STATEMENT AS WE START:

GOD SAYS:

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts. [1]

(Is 55:8–9).

LET’S BEGIN:

Psalm 22

Palm Sunday 2021

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (MATT. 27)

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: (Matt. 27:42-43)

8 “He trusts in the Lord;

let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

since he delights in him.”

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;

you made me trust in you

even at my mother’s breast.

10 From birth I was cast upon you;

from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

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.

20 Deliver my life from the sword,

my precious life from the power of the dogs.

21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;

save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will declare your name to my brothers;

in the congregation I will praise you.

23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

24 For he has not despised or disdained

the suffering of the afflicted one;

he has not hidden his face from him

but has listened to his cry for help.

25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;

before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.

26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;

they who seek the Lord will praise him—

may your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth

will remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

will bow down before him,

28 for dominion belongs to the Lord

and he rules over the nations.

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;

all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—

those who cannot keep themselves alive.

30 Posterity will serve him;

future generations will be told about the Lord.

31 They will proclaim his righteousness

to a people yet unborn—

for he has done it. [1]

3 pts. taken from John Piper’s Website, Desiring God...

WHY DID JESUS CRY OUT?

Truly Abandoned

First, this was a real forsakenness. That is why. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” means he really did. He really did. He is bearing our sin. He bore our judgment.

The judgment was to have God the Father pour out his wrath, and instead of pouring it out on us, he pours it out on him. That necessarily involves a kind of abandonment. That is what wrath means. He gave him up to suffer the weight of all the sins of all of his people and the judgment for those sins.

We cannot begin to fathom all that this would mean between the Father and the Son. To be forsaken by God is the cry of the damned, and he was damned for us. So he used these words because there was a real forsakenness. That is the first reason.

I Cor. 5:21

Romans 5:6-11

Isa. 53:5

2) Expressing the horrors of abandonment

Second, the why, it seems to me, is not a question looking for an answer, but a way of expressing the horrors of abandonment. I have a couple of reasons for thinking this.

“The judgment was to have God the Father pour out his wrath, and instead of pouring it out on us, he pours it out on his Son.”

Jesus knew ahead of time what he was doing and what would happen to him and why he was doing it. His Father had sent him for this. This very moment. And he had agreed to come, knowing all that would happen.

Listen to these words: “Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’” (John 18:4). He gave himself up. So he knew. He knew it was coming. He knew everything.

Another reason is the moment was one of agony, not theological curiosity. The moment was one of agony.

3) According to Plan

Third

And I think the last reason we should say is that this psalm was his life. Crying out reflexively in agony with these words of this psalm shows that, as horrible as it is, it was all going according to plan.

1 Peter 1:18 NIV84

18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers,

Acts 2:22 NIV84

22 “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

“Crying out reflexively in agony with these words of this psalm shows that, as horrible as it is, it was all going according to plan.

All of it was the fulfillment of Scripture — even the worst of it was the fulfillment of Scripture. That moment was probably the worst moment in the history of the world, and it was Scripture-fulfilled.

So he said these words:

There was a real forsakenness for our sake.He was expressing desolation, not asking for an answer. He was amazingly fulfilling Scripture in the horror of it all and witnessing to the perfection of the plan of salvation.

The whole gamut of our experiences is here: desolation, hostility, pain, death—for he was tested in every way just as we are (Heb. 4:15).[1]