Sermon Tone Analysis

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Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22:22-31.

As you know, we’ve been working through the book of Psalms every Wednesday for quite some time and for the past few weeks, we’ve been working through Psalm 22 itself because it’s a bit longer of a psalm.

Over the past three weeks, we’ve taken each section of Psalm 22 and worked line-by-line and phrase-by-phrase through the text and we’re now in the last third of the text, which almost completely changes gears.

Remember with me the previous two-thirds of the text before we read the last bit of Psalm 22.

In Psalm 22:1-11, David cries out to God to express how he feels during a time of great distress.

David explains that he feels as if God had forsaken him and that God hasn’t been responding to him.

He makes the statement that day and night he cries out to the Lord, but the Lord doesn’t answer him.

He expresses the sentiment that he feels as if he is completely worthless—like a worm and not a man.

He states that people mock him.

But in the midst of all this, he does continually remind himself of the Lord.

He reminds himself that God is holy and faithful; and that God is the one who cared for him while he was yet in the mother’s womb—God is the one who led him and directed him to genuine belief,

In Psalm 22:12-21, we then see David give some specificity to what has caused such great distress in his life.

Why does he feel as if God has forsaken him, that he’s all alone, and that God isn’t listening to his prayers?

Because his enemies are surrounding him, ready to attack him, and ready to harm him.

His enemies are near him, ready to hurt him, and they’ve already hurt him.

It’s no wonder that the psalmist feels as if he’s alone and that God isn’t listening to his prayers.

Nevertheless, he prays again, “Lord, do not be far off,” “come quickly,” “deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!

Save me.”

We’ve spoken at length through the first two sections about it is perfectly acceptable and expected for Christians to have times in life that are discouraging, depressing, and distressing especially in times of great difficulty in life, but my exhortation and encouragement has been consistent through each section, to keep in mind how David responds to those hardships in life.

This evening, is no different because the context remains the same.

Psalm 22 ends with David praising the Lord, but he’s still physically in a situation in which he’s concerned that his enemies will kill him or at the very least hurt him; and he’s still in a situation in which he feels as if God has forsaken him and is refusing to hear him; and yet, again, he ends the psalm by praising the Lord.

Keep this in mind as we read Psalm 22:22-31 together.

As we study the remaining verses in Psalm 22, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) vv.

22-26, The Congregation’s Praise for the Lord and (2) vv.

27-31, The World’s Praise for the Lord.

Now that David has expressed the pain and suffering that he had focused on in vv.

1-11 and now that he’s prayed for deliverance in vv.

12-21, there’s nothing left for him to do but praise the Lord.

In doing so, he praises the Lord, he calls the congregation of Israel to praise the Lord, and then he reminds us that in the end, everyone will praise the Lord.

This evening’s message will provoke us to praise and it will convict us for our lack of praise.

The Congregation’s Praise for the Lord (22-26)

After expressing all the pain and suffering that David is going through, he starts to end his psalm and he ends his psalm in a way that might seem surprising after reading all the struggles that he chooses to talk about in vv 1-21.

If we’re being honest with ourselves, we might think of David’s struggle like our own struggles and when we struggle in a manner similar to David’s, we typically don’t end by praising the Lord.

Rather, we typically choose to focus on the negatives at hand and like I mentioned last week, we tend to sulk in despair, be discouraged, and stay in our depression, but David doesn’t do that.

Now, clearly, David recognizes that there are significant issues at hand; and I’ve already mentioned this evening that it is acceptable for believers to experience great hardship and express their discouragement, despair, and depression to the Lord.

But David doesn’t stay in his discouragement.

We do see glimmers of hope in his prayers through the text:

In v. 3 despite feeling forsaken, David reminds himself of God’s character, “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.”

It was God who his forefathers trusted in and it was God who delivered them.

In vv.

6-8, David speaks of how he feels as if he’s worthless, but in vv.

9-10, he reminds himself that God is the one who “took [him] from the womb” and God is the one who led him to genuine belief.

We see David describe his enemies who surround him and explain how he physically feels, but in vv.

19-21, while praying for deliverance, we see both David’s desperation and his absolute confidence in the Lord.

Because he has such confidence, he has hope in God.

V. 22, continues that trend of having hope in the Lord, by David focusing on his own praise of the Lord.

Despite all the pain, suffering, and hardship that he’s described in vv.

1-21, he says “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:”

V. 22 is the thesis statement for the rest of the psalm; or in other words, now that David has expressed his emotional state, his pain, suffering, and hardship; he’s making a declaration or proclamation of what he’s going to do in light of or maybe even despite everything in vv.

1-21.

Despite all the hardship, pain, and suffering, David says, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

This declaration or proclamation of David is very literally a vow for him to praise God and it does beg the question, what does it mean to praise the Lord?

The book of psalms includes a plethora of statements concerning the idea of praise: Psalm 9:2 “2 I will rejoice and be jubilant in You; I will sing praise to Your name.”

Psalm 18:3 “3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.”

Psalm 21:13 “13 Be exalted, Lord, in Your strength; We will sing and praise Your power.”

The Bible speaks at length about the need to praise God and even in the New Testament, we see believers praising Jesus, but what does it mean to praise?

If you were to look the word praise up in the dictionary, you would see multiple definitions, but the definition meant by the biblical authors is usually the second definition.

The American Heritage Dictionary says that praise is “the extolling or exaltation of a deity, ruler, or hero.”

To praise means “to express a feeling of veneration or gratitude to; worship or glorify.”

If you want to be more specific, you might want to look it up in a Bible dictionary or wordbook.

The Lexham Theological Wordbook combines praise and thanksgiving and says, “Praising God is the activity of God’s creatures in honoring God because of the acts and the nature of God.

Thanksgiving is an expression of gratitude to God for his care and concern, especially as shown through his redemptive acts.”

(John Frederick, “Praise and Thanksgiving,” Lexham Theological Wordbook.)

We can really sum it up by saying that praising God involves the idea of glorifying or extolling God.

It’s a means of veneration to show gratitude because of who God is and what he has done.

With that in mind, what David is essentially stating in v. 22 is that despite the hardships that he’s facing, he’s still going to worship the Lord, he’s still going to glorify God, he’s still going to show gratitude to the Lord.

He’s still going to be thankful and he’s still going to praise the Lord.

Why?

Because he knows who God is and he knows the character of God; and he recognizes that even in the midst of such despair, that God is still a good God who works all things to conform him into his image.

He knows that God is still able to save him, that God is still able to give him aid, and that God can still answer his prayers.

How does he know this?

Because that’s what God did for him previously in his life and that’s what God has done for his forefathers, and that’s simply who God is.

Because he knows who God is, he vows to praise the Lord in the midst of the congregation.

He promises to tell the people about the Lord.

And then he does, starting in the very next verse to the end of the psalm.

Vv. 23-24, “You who fear the Lord, praise him!

All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.”

David vows to praise the Lord in v. 22 and then he calls on the whole congregation to praise the Lord with him.

Notice first of all, that he’s speaking specifically to the believers in Israel first.

“You who fear the Lord” clearly speaks of the reverential awe that all believers are to have.

Those who don’t fear the Lord don’t believe—consider Proverbs 9:10 “10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

and Proverbs 1:7 “7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

He’s calling on all who believe to praise the Lord—give him thanks, extol him; and then he gets very specific in v. 23, “All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel.”

David calls them all to praise the Lord and to glorify the Lord.

And the reason for this is made clear in v. 24, “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.