Introduction 

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Alright. Today I'm going to continue the second night service. Alright, the sermon title is “Forsaken for forgiveness”. I guess you probably can guess why I asked Yiren to read Matthew 27 instead. Okay, later you will find out more. So I titled this sermon as “Forsaken for forgiveness” for obvious reason.

Now let's look at this Psalm. This Psalm, the first verse, first verse read as, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Does this sound familiar? Have you heard from anywhere? Yeah, I'm sure it sounds familiar to you, because Jesus, when He was on the cross, He shouted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And just now when you read, when Yiren read Matthew 27, he actually read this verse, Matthew 27:46, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” So that is this story, Matthew 27 verse 46. When Jesus was on the cross, so when, after three hours of darkness, and He shouted, “My God, my God, why have forsaken me?” So why Jesus shouted the same, exactly the same words as Psalm 22? Why?

Have you watched a program called “Name That Tune”? Have you watched that program? “Name that tune”. Basically, someone sing and play some, play a song from the beginning, and you're supposed to guess what song is that? What's the title of the song? They called “Name that tune”, I guess in some of the other programs, it's similar kind of game you watched before, some music game or you may play before. 

So in Hebrew Bible, there is no chapter, no verse. So whenever they want to sing that particular Psalm of passage, they will read it out the first verse, the first sentence. So when they want to sing Psalm 22, what will they do? They will say, they will read it out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and they start singing Psalm 22. So when Jesus shouted, cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, he's pointing us to Psalm 22 and telling us that Psalm 22 is referring to him. So it's actually a Messianic Psalm. Messianic Psalm actually talking about Christ, talking about Messiah. So Psalm 22 is a Messianic Psalm. 

Let's go into this Psalm, going to the detail. Before we go, let me pray. Father, we thank you. Thank you for how you gather us together in this camp. Thank you for so far there's nice food, nice fellowship, nice time together, because in this environment, we can focus on the camp, and we can fellowship with one another. And thank you for all the preachers you have used thus far to preach your word and thank you that we can go in the deeper way of and a broader way to understand the Psalm. Pray that you will be with us now and pray that you will hide me behind your cross and use me as your mouthpiece. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. 

Two distinctive parts – Lamentation verses Praise and Thanksgiving 

So Psalm 22 can divide into two distinctive parts. The first part is from verse 1 to verse 21, is about suffering and agony, and the second part from 22 to 31, the Psalmist is talking about the praise and thanksgiving. So it's a very distinctive two part. One is lamentation, the other one is praise and thanksgiving. So let's look at this verse, first two verses, he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me?” And here he said, “My God, my God”. 

Our close and Intimate relationship with God and with believers in Christ

When the Psalmist cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He's saying that you are my God. We have the relationship. Why are you? Why have you forsaken me? So there's an intimate relationship with God. That's why he called “My God, my God”. 

When you introduce PJ, Pastor Jason, to your friend, you will say, “This is my pastor." Right? Would you introduce JP your pastor? You know who is JP, right? You will not introduce JP your pastor “Oh, this is my pastor.” In China, when you are in the northeast part, especially in the village area, they will introduce their family members. Sometimes they will say, “Oh这是我媳妇儿, 这是我媳妇儿.If you translate, it's basically like, “this is my woman”. So who will you think she is? Let's say I introduce someone, “This is my woman”. Who do you think she is? She's my wife, right? May. So when he said, “My God, My God”, there is this intimate, personal relationship. And here Psalmist called it out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 

I was a property agent, I think some of you know, and I was with Denny Swee. And Denny Swee a few months ago, he just passed away and he's a Catholic. I have not seen him for 20 years. Ever since I left the company, I went to China for mission, I have not met him for many years, and many of my former colleagues, I have not met them. So I was praying, should I go? Should I go? So I thought maybe I should catch up with old friends. Maybe there's some gospel opportunity, I don't know. Just want to see how God can brought me there and open door for me. So I went. 

So when I was there, I was sitting on the table with my former colleagues. Then they started talking things that is, I'm not interested at all, and I just feel so alone. Then suddenly, someone patted on my shoulder. “Hey, Pastor”, I turned back. Hey, it's Gordon, Gordon Hu. “Hey, why are you here? Okay, come you're alone. Sit on the same table”. So Gordon sit on the same table and Gordon being Gordon. Am I always mad? Am I Gordon? He is so bold and very natural. It's not easy. And he just sit down, introduce himself very naturally. And then suddenly he turned to me and tell my friend, say, “This is my pastor”. Well, suddenly I feel so close with him, though. Wow, we have different relationship. “My pastor”, so close,

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Wow. And Gordon said “You all must come and listen to him preach.” Then there's a silence. You know, this kind of setting of silence, the girls then like so silent must say something like, “Oh, I'm a Catholic. Do you know what's the difference between Christian and Catholic?” Then I follow up with my show, telling her the difference of Catholic and Christian. God opened the door for me to share the gospel. But my point is, when Gordon said, “This is my pastor”, I suddenly I don't feel alone anymore. I have someone that's so close with me. We are brothers in Christ. 

Alternating pattern between David’s feelings of suffering and agony and David’s praise and thanksgiving to God

So the psalmist likewise say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He had that kind of close, intimate relationship with God, and…then, oh, I forgot to mention. This Psalm the first part from verse 1 to 21, there's this alternating pattern. That means they switch from agony, suffering to praise, praise-giving thanks. So there are these two patterns switching from this first part. So this part, the first part, is about the suffering and agony. It said, “My God”. He cried out,” My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me?” 

Then after that, he said, “Yet…yet..” Then they move to another pattern. The alternate pattern is “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted.” Yet you are holy God. You set aside, you set apart the Israel, my forefather, you separate them from the world and to be your people. And he follows, said that “Our fathers...In you our fathers trusted; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.” So the Psalmist is talking about, it turned from “My God”, cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” to “my forefather trusted you because you set them apart, because they belong to you, and I can trust you.” 

Then followed by “But”. “But” that means he turned to another pattern again, the alternate pattern. Then he cried out again, “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me.” So this, he said, “But I am just like a worm.” Like we are human, we are human, look at the worm is so insignificant, so worthless, is nothing. So the Psalmist said, “I am a worm and I am not a man, scorned by mankind.” You are like mankind looking at me and scorn me, despise me and mock me. And “they wag their heads and say, “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him. He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him.”

“Yet”, turn again, he said, “Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breast.” He turned just now, the praise, the prayer, he talked about my forefather. Now it's become personal, personal that “you know me, even I was in my mother's womb and from my mother's womb you have been my God.” That means you know me even when I was in my mother's womb. So become personal, and I can trust you. I can trust you. 

Symbolic of David's feelings points to the crucifixion of Jesus, 

Then turn again, he said. Over here, there are eight verses. The eight verses here, please take note, because the Psalmist David is going to describe something that in historically, no evidence that happened on him. He’s describing an execution. He's describing execution. 

He said “The strong bulls surround me like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.” I'm just stretched. I'm out of joint and “my heart is like wax.” The burning sensation, my heart is burning like a wax, and “it is melted within my breast”. Maybe he's describing heart attack, and “my strength is dried up”. I am exhausted, and my tongue sticks or I'm so thirsty, “my tongue is stick to my jaws.” I'm dying. “You lay me in the dust of death.” 

Then he followed by saying, “Evildoers encircle me and they pierced my hands and feet.” He pierced my hands and feet. The Psalmist is describing execution through crucifixion. They pierced my hands and feet. And please note, execution has not been invented during David's time, until few centuries later, but he vividly described that the enemy, the evildoers, pierced his hands and feet, and they cast lots and divide my garment. They cast lots, divide my garment. All this may sound very familiar to you because it is a script written by King David with the inspiration of God, will be played a thousand years later on the cross, but only the suffering part, only the agony and suffering part. So what King David is prophesizing something going to happen one thousand years later, and is like a script and going to play out on the cross accurately and precisely. Let's see, let's see. Go to New Testament, Matthew. 

Just now, Yiren also read all these verses. Let's look at, before they crucified Jesus. Him is referring to Jesus. Before they crucified Jesus, Jesus already been whipped 39 slashes. He was beaten by a battalion of Roman soldiers, which was about 600 of them, and he was put a crown of thorn. And then he was tortured. He was disfigured and full of wounds on his body. So and then he said,“Then they have crucified Him. They pierced his hands and feet on the cross. They divided his garment among them by casting lots.” Does it sound familiar to you just now we read these verses in Psalm 22? “And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and they mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God, let God deliver him down now”.”

All these have been described in Psalm 22 and Psalm 22 like I say again, is a Messianic Psalm, and pointing to Jesus, and pointing to Jesus His sacrifice on the cross. Then later, at about nine hours after three hours of darkness, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  At this point, we also want to ask why? Why God forsaken Jesus? I want to also know the answer. Why God forsaken Jesus? 

Jesus was forsaken for our forgiveness.

We are all condemned before the law

Jesus was forsaken for our forgiveness. That is today's sermon title, Jesus was forsaken for our forgiveness. How he do it? He became a curse for us. Here said, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us”. Brother Hanniel preached Psalm 19, talking about the law. And the law is pure, law is perfect, and Paul, Apostle Paul also said that law is holy, and because the law is holy, is pure, is perfect and we are unworthy, we are sinners, and we, when we stand before the law, we are all condemned. We are condemned. So there's a curse, there's a curse because of the holiness of law, that when we stand before the law, we are all condemned.

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We are made righteous because we had the righteousness of God

So Jesus, he become, becoming the curse for us. He went on the cross to take our sin and died on the cross for us. Well, what happened if we sin again? When he redeemed our sin, what happened if we sin again and when we sin again, are we going to be sinner again? No, the redemption, redemptive work, is not stopped there. 

2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus took our place, died on the cross for us, bear our sin. At the same time, he switched, he swapped, he credit, he imputed the God's righteousness in us when we trusted Jesus. So when we sin again, because we have got righteousness in us, and we have this righteous standing before God, and we, even though we sin again, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us, and we are made righteous again because we had the righteousness of God in us. Forsaken for forgiveness. So we are forgiven because Jesus died on the cross to forgive us. 

God wants us to have a relationship with Him

You know, in Bible, there's this main theme talking about God always want to be our God, and we want to be His people. Throughout the whole Bible, from Old Testament to New Testament, even to new heaven and earth, God always promised it that “I want you to be my people. I want to be your God.” So when Jesus said “My God, my God”, and he was forsaken. And today, when we say “My God, my God”, we can have the relationship with Him, because Jesus has been forsaken for us on the cross, so that we can call out “My God, my God”, and to have the relationship with Him. And He can be my God. I can be His people. 

Jesus forgives our sins

So when Jesus was forsaken for my forgiveness, he's saying that. Okay, friends, this verse, I'm trying to show you in Mark 2, there's this sick man and four friends trying to bring the sick man to Jesus, because they have faith, that they know Jesus can heal him. And when Jesus saw that and said, saw their faith and said to them, look at the paralytic said that “Son, your sins are forgiven.” When Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven”, he said, “Your sins are forgiven because I'm going to be forsaken for your sin on the cross.” I'm sure Jesus is looking at the cross when He said that your sins are forgiven. 

Okay, before that, then you know the Scribes and the Priests, they said that, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And because Jesus is God, we know who can forgive sin, but God alone. Jesus can forgive sin. And on top of that, Jesus is the one who went on the cross for us. And Jesus, he went on the cross, and he is the only one qualified to say that, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

From personal confession to public proclamation 

Next we're going to look at the second part. The second part is from verse 22 to verse 31. The second part is from prayer to praise. The second part is from death to resurrection, from Good Friday to Easter. And from death to resurrection, God has raised Jesus up, and we know the redemptive work is not stopped. It didn't stop there. Three days later, God raised Jesus up, and today we are worshiping a risen King. Today we are here because he has risen. Jesus has already resurrected. And the second part, the key verse is verse 22. Verse 22 is hinged between the suffering agony and the celebration praise. 

First thing to read is like this, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. I will tell your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” This is a celebration, because Jesus has risen so they can celebrate. We can celebrate.  Today we can celebrate. And there's a congregation, there's a great assembly, because Jesus had risen. That's why we are here. We are gathered, we are congregated together to worship a risen King, to worship our Lord, Jesus Christ.

In Hebrew 2 verse 12. “That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers” saying, he quote this verse, verse 22 of Psalm 22 and he said this, “He's not ashamed. He's not ashamed to call them brothers”, because Jesus blood has cleansed them. And those who are in Christ, those who believe in Christ, they already belong to Christ. So the verses, two verses above, say that, “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering”. He bring many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation prefect through suffering. So Jesus is the founder of our salvation. And here also talked about that, “For he who sanctifies,” Jesus sanctifies, “and those who are sanctified all have one source”. We have one source. We have the same Father, same Holy Spirit live in us, and we have the same Lord Jesus Christ, same savior. 

Now I want to jump to the last verse. Last verse, very interesting. The last phrase is that he has done it. Jesus has done it. It is finished. It is finished. So Psalm 22 the first verse, started with “My God, my God, why have you? Why have you forsaken me?” He started with Jesus on the cross, and he cried out to God the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was bearing our sin, and until the last verse of Psalm 22 and he said, “It is finished.” The job has done. I have done it, that he has done it, and we can proclaim His righteousness.  Now we have the confidence that Jesus had done it. We can have the confidence to proclaim God's righteousness, His righteousness. We can proclaim the gospel to the people around us. 

Application

Now, what can we learn from this psalm? I have four applications here. 

Assurance

First, assurance. When I look at the psalmist so precisely described a script and played out one thousand years later, that give me the assurance, and I can see Jesus already died on the cross and already paid my sin. And Hebrews 13:5 say, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” I know that I will not be forsaken because Jesus already paid the sin. Jesus already forsaken on, was forsaken on the cross. 

Hope for Christ’s return

Two, hope for Christ's return. Like I said the script played out thousand years later, exactly like exactly we can see the verse just now that give me the confidence that there's another part of script going to play later when Christ return. He's going to reveal to us that give me the hope I know that Christ will be returned. Christ will return one day, and because that is his promise. And I have hope to look forward to Christ's return. And this hope will help me to be holy in my conduct. This hope will help me to live for our Lord Jesus Christ. 

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Be in Christian community 

And Christian community, just now we read the verse 22. The key verse, he said, “Tell your name to my brother; in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you.” We know we are, we are serving, worshiping a risen King, and because Christ, He was forsaken on the cross, and we are now forgiven, and we belong to him. We are in Christ, and we should congregate together to worship him. And I, I hope that you will look into how can I be part of Christian communities. It can be CG(Care Group), it can be DG (Discipleship Group), it can be in your ministries and in part of the Christian community, because we have a reason to gather and to celebrate, because we are celebrating a risen King. 

Declare the gospel

And we can declare the gospel because he's risen and we shall come and proclaim His righteousness. We must have, we will have the boldness and to declare His gospel, because we know that Christ has paid for our sin, and today we through him, we really reconcile with God. 

Conclusion – God is a faithful God

Alright, later, I guess they will give you the three questions, and you all can go to your small group and discuss. I hope this Psalm will not just preach on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I hope this Psalm will give you a better perspective and deeper way to look at it that God is a faithful God, and when God promised and he will, he will fulfill what He had promised even thousand years, thousand is a very long time. And David, when he wrote this Psalm, and when Jesus carried out one thousand years later, and give us the confidence that this is a faithful God we are serving. And it is not just on Easter Sunday or on the Good Friday. 

Okay, let's pray, Father, we thank you. Thank you again for this camp that we can come and to learn and to worship and to fellowship and thank you again for your church, because you established this local Church on earth that we can congregate together and to worship you and to know you in a deeper way through the one anothering. Again thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for how he loved us so much and willing to come down and died on the cross for us when we are yet sinner, we are so unworthy. So Lord help us, help us to meditate, not just this Psalm, the Psalms that we are learning through this camp and to know you in the deeper way, to have this intimate relationship with you and we pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.