THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

XXII. Trusting In God When Severely Attacked

(Psalm 22:1-31)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

In a variety of realms, we, or people we know are facing severe attacks:

(1) Many face severe physical or emotional attacks: At a recent pysanky Easter egg workshop at the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago, instructor "Anna Chychula began the class by recounting one of the many legends surrounding pysanky: There is said to be an evil monster shackled to a cliff and each Easter egg – singular pysanka – creates another link in the chain that binds him. The fate of the world depends on the survival of these fragile eggs . . . or the beast will be unleashed upon the world. Today, this mythical monster is widely believed to be embodied in Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose war on Ukraine continues . . ." (Angie Leventis Lourgos, "Ukrainian Easter eggs preserve nation's culture, history," Republican-American, April 22, 2022, p. 3B)

Consequently, the "war has ignited waves of egg decorating around the globe . . ." (Ibid.)

(2) The unborn face severe threats on their lives: Connecticut Representative Trenee McGee, a Democrat from West Haven and a black woman, explaining her vote against House Bill 5414 on abortion access on April 19, said, "I want to speak to the history of this industry and why I think it's destructive to my community. Black women make up 14% of child-bearing population yet obtained 36.2% of all reported abortions. Black women have the highest abortion ratio in the country – 474 abortions per 1,000 live births." ("Quotable," Ibid., April 26, 2022, p. 8A)

(3) We face the severe threat of the lawless undermining of the resolve of conservative justices on the Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, an undermining by public intimidation: On "the furor over the leak of a Supreme Court opinion drafted for a majority by Justice Samuel A. Alito," syndicated columnist Rich Lowry asserted, "The leaker . . . clearly intended to engender a huge reaction to try to intimidate a member of the majority into changing his or her mind . . . Never mind if, as Alito's draft opinion devastatingly demonstrates, there's no constitutional basis for Roe whatsoever." (Rich Lowry, "Shocking assault on high court," Ibid., May 4, 2022, p. 6A)

(4) We face the threat of attacks on the issue of disinformation: A letter by Tom Horrigan of Morris, Connecticut to the Republican-American (May 3, 2022, p. 8A) warned about the new "Disinformation Governance Board, under the Department of Homeland Security," its purpose according "to CBS News" being to "'focus on disinformation coming from Russia as well as misleading messages about the U. S.-Mexico border.'" The problem with such a board is that "(g)overnment officials, social media and the media have shown consistently that they are more than happy to provide disinformation" as in the case of "Hunter Biden's laptop just before the 2020 election and spreading the false Donald Trump-Russia collusion story." Mr. Horrigan added that the "Disinformation Governance Board is chillingly reminiscent of the '1984' Ministry of Truth" in George Orwell's book, 1984! (Ibid.)

Need: So, we ask, "What would God have us do if we face severe attacks on various levels?!"

I. Psalm 22 is a "typico-prophetically Messianic" psalm where David dealt with a severe threat of death he faced from his foes while also predicting Christ's death. (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Psalm 22)

II. Thus, we first trace the prophetic fulfillments of this psalm in Christ's death as an apologetic for our faith before drawing application in facing severe attacks from our foes from David's experience:

A. First, Psalm 22 made the following predictions on Christ's death 1, 045 years before they were fulfilled:

1. Psalm 22 was written by David around 1012 B. C. (Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, 1990, p. 211-212) and Jesus was crucified April 3, A. D. 33. (H. W. Hoehner, Chron. Asp. of the Life of Christ, 1979, p. 139)

2. Regardless of this vast time span, Psalm 22 has 7 prophecies of Jesus' death that were precisely fulfilled:

a. In Psalm 22:1, David's cry on why God had forsaken Him was spoken by Christ in Matthew 27:46.

b. In Psalm 22:7, David's foes shook their heads at him, what was fulfilled of Christ in Matthew 27:39.

c. In Psalm 22:8, David's foes mocked him, saying he trusted in the Lord to deliver him, so let Him deliver him now if He delighted in him, what Matthew 27:43 records were fulfilled of Christ on the cross.

d. Psalm 22:14-16 describes the agony of crucifixion when this type of execution was unknown in the Roman world until 800 years later. (Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Psalm 22:11-18; Ibid., McDowell, p. 212)

e. In Psalm 22:18, David claimed his foes parted his garments and cast lots for his clothes, what was fulfilled of Christ in John 19:23-24 as Jesus' coat was woven in one piece, requiring lots to decide who obtained it!

f. Psalm 22:22 has David claiming he would yet declare the Name of God among His brothers, and John 20:14-18 reports Jesus' spoke of God the Father to Mary Magdalene and to His disciples after He arose.

g. Psalm 22:30-31 predicts the day when believers yet to be born would testify how God had rescued David from his foes, that God had "done" it, and Jesus changed the tense to cry, "It is finished!" before dying to provide our redemption (John 19:30) only to rise again the third day in the Father's victory over His foes!

B. Second, we draw application in suffering severe attacks from foes from David's experience in Psalm 22:1-31:

a. To handle God's seeming failure to answer his prayer for help amid being attacked by his foes (Psalm 22:1-2), David found consolation and direction in recalling God was separate from sin, He was perfectly righteous in how or when He chose to respond to David's prayer, Psalm 22:3.

b. To handle God's seeming failure to answer his prayer for help with his foes (Psalm 22:1-2), David also recalled how his ancestors obtained answers to prayer, an encouragement for David to pray, Psalm 22:4-5.

c. To handle the painful mockery of his threatening foes (Psalm 22:6-8), David relied on his childhood training always to trust in the Lord to do so at this difficult time in his life, Psalm 22:9-10.

d. To handle his intense suffering at the hands of threatening foes (Psalm 22:11-18), David thus called on the Lord for deliverance (Psalm 22:19-21), confident that the Lord would indeed deliver him, Psalm 22:22-26.

e. To stay encouraged amid suffering, David hoped in the blessings of God's future righteous Kingdom of blessing when a people yet to be born would praise the Lord for delivering him, Psalm 22:22-31.

Lesson: (1) In defense of the validity of the Christian faith, Psalm 22:1-31 predicted the crucifixion sufferings of Christ and His hope of God's deliverance from death in His resurrection one thousand years before it occurred. (2) This psalm ALSO shows how David handled severe threats to his life from his foes by (a) recalling God's righteousness in how or when He would answer David's call for help, (b) recalling his ancestors got answers to prayer when they asked God for help, (c) recalling he had always been taught to trust the Lord as the reason to trust God currently, (d) calling on God in confidence that He would help him and (e) hoping for God's coming Kingdom when his deliverance would be realized by fellow believers to the glory of God.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) May we (a) rejoice in the validity of the Christian faith that was so accurately predicted by Scripture long before Christ and (b) follow David's lead in handling severe threats.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

In heeding David's example in handling severe threats, we recall from Psalm 22:3 that God is holy, that He is separate from sin as a righteous God, so we must live righteously as 1 John 3:22 claims for Him to answer our prayers. We view Scripture to know how to align with God's righteousness regarding the issues in our introduction:

(1) On the practice of making pysanky Easter eggs to restrain "monster" Putin from harming Ukrainians, the Bible does not mention such a practice! Rather, Revelation 3:21 with 7:17 predicts a "Mini-Great Tribulation" that we now face where oppressive leaders full of intrigue like President Putin afflict people as God's permitted means of driving them to Scripture truth! God wants us to focus on discipling concerned people to HEED GOD'S WORD!

(2) On the plight of the unborn with today's government sanction of abortion, we should pray for an end to this evil but recall that 2 Timothy 4:3-4 predicted the world would increasingly depart from God's truth, that our response to this problem is to obey 2 Timothy 4:5 and fulfill our individual ministry assignments from the Lord.

(3) On the effort by a leaker of the majority conservative opinion paper of a Supreme Court justice to try to intimidate conservatives on the court to switch their vote in favor of preserving the Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion, Ephesians 5:16b claims we live in evil days. In response, we must make the most of the time we have to fulfill God's calling in living wisely before the world (Ephesians 5:16a). This wisdom takes using gracious but insightful speech to answer questions that upset or hostile people in today's world might ask us (Colossians 4:5-6).

(4) On the federal government's "Disinformation Governance Board" that is "chillingly reminiscent of the '1984' Ministry of Truth" in George Orwell's book 1984, 2 Timothy 3:13 ESV predicted that evil men and impostors would go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived! Our only reputable source of truth is God's inspired Word in Scripture (2 Timothy 3:15-16), and it sufficiently, permanently equips us for every good work! (2 Timothy 3:17) We thus need to saturate our minds and hearts with Scripture for the truth that God has provided in it for us!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life. May we rejoice in the credibility of our faith seen in Scripture's accurate prediction of our Savior's suffering and death and follow David's example of handling severe threats that we face today.