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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Sjirk Bajema > So Overpowering – Because He’s Done It! | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
PSALM 22:27-31
(Reading: Revelation 19:1-10; Psalm 22:1-31)
So Overpowering – Because He’s Done It!
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
This great psalm is drawing to its logical end.
In fact, this psalm has drawn out for us the planned end of the entire human history!
For what we have here is what the world is soon coming to.
The blessing extended to physical Israel in Palestine at the end of verse 26 is going to go out to the spiritual Israel found throughout the world.
Because there can be no doubting that we see here the Messiah’s missionary spirit.
This prophecies the coming Pentecost and the New Testament age.
This is seen especially with the word “remember’ in verse 27.
For what is it those pagan nations will recall?
Ah, it can be nothing less than what was lost in paradise.
For what hasn’t been in their lives for thousands of years has always been known in their hearts.
However pagan they may have been, each one of them has the sense of the divine within them.
In the words of Romans 1 verse 19, this is what has been plainly shown to them by God.
As verse 20 goes on there, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
It’s the world-wide spread of the gospel which will make them turn aside from their paganism – their worship of themselves.
They will turn to what they knew was right in their hearts all along!
Paradise lost will be paradise restored!
Because not only will they return to the Lord in repentance, they will stay with him in obedience!
Congregation, it’s all coming to a head.
But totally unlike earlier in this psalm when it all came upon the suffering servant’s head, now it is what was on his head all along.
Because he wears the crown!
THE SUFFERING SERVANT IS THE KING!
This is our first aspect this morning.
It is what we see in the verses 27 and 28.
You see, the previous five verses had quite rightly raised up the thanksgiving of the congregation through the public worship of God’s people then – Israel.
The suffering servant is their ruler.
He is ‘The King of the Jews,’ as Mark 15 verse 26 tells us was written on the cross.
But Christ was always much more than this.
Verse 28 declares that “he rules over the nations.”
The Hebrew word for his ruling here describes a king being exalted above others by virtue of his office.
He is the King above all kings.
He is “the ruler of the kings of the earth”, to quote Revelation 1 verse 5.
Congregation, the suffering servant expects that as a result of his rescue the conversion of the nations will take place.
So the work he has done, when it’s proclaimed throughout the nations, will mean many more coming to worship the Lord God through him.
It may have sounded quite wrong to many Jews before and after Christ.
They mistakenly thought that the Greater Son of David would only be their king and would rule in their Jerusalem.
There’s no denying these words, though.
Jeremiah 16 verse 9 and Zechariah 14 verse 9 confirmed that to the Old Testament Hebrews.
And Revelation 11 verse 15 stated it clearly in the Apostle John’s symbolic vision of the end of this time.
For there we read, “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voice in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.’”
A true knowledge of the Scriptures would know what Psalm 22 really meant when it speaks of all the earth turning to the Lord.
The nature of God will be known and revered throughout the world.
This will be nothing less than the Tower of Babel reversed.
That situation will be completely turned around.
Because then man turned against God and set up his own god.
But now man will turn from his own gods and return to God.
Charles Spurgeon draws a series of analogies out of verse 27.
So he describes similar things.
Thus he says the remembering is like the prodigal son who came to himself, in Luke 15 verse 17.
Then he says the turning to the Lord is like the repentance of Manasseh who left his idols, in 2nd Chronicles 33 verse 15.
He says next that bowing down before the Lord is the worship which is like the holy service of the apostle Paul.
Wasn’t it the Saul who once abhorred God who became Paul the one who adored God?
This is what we see in Acts 9 verse 21.
And in verse 28 we see why it is verse 27 will be fulfilled.
Because “kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.”
It’s not something that still needs to happen.
It is happening.
What the suffering servant is going to do is all part of the plan of the God who will bring it to fruition.
For the disciples of Jesus, that became known to them through the resurrection.
That’s why THE SUFFERING SERVANT IS THE KING.
He has conquered the enemy of everything!
Sin, the devil, and death, have been vanquished!
Just think, dear friend.
Mary Magdalene in John 20 verse 11 is weeping outside the tomb of Jesus because it was empty.
But, you know, she would really have been balling her eyes out if the tomb had not been empty!
In the words of 1st Corinthians 15 verses 17 and 19, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins … If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”
This is what David prophecies here.
No other experience of suffering and divine deliverance other than our Lord’s experience of the cross and resurrection has had such a universal result.
I mean, for David to think that what he individually experiences of God would have such a universal and eternal effect would be unthinkable.
True, David is the king of God’s covenant people.
As he faithfully served the covenant God he foreshadowed what was to come.
But he was only a shadow.
The substance was still a long way from coming.
Still that substance is coming.
That is so clear here.
And so let’s turn to sing of this now with the words of this text – Psalm 22 Version B.
“The ends of all the earth will hear and turn unto the LORD in fear…”
Sermon #2
Fellow believers…
That substance is coming.
The verses 29 till 31 end on this most decisive note.
In the words of the second aspect to this passage, THIS KING WILL HAVE ALL WORSHIP HIM.
Now, someone could say here that not all will literally come to faith in Jesus Christ.
It’s already too late for that!
That’s not the sense of these verses, though.
For the “all” which verse 29 begins with is a representative term.
This is the “all” of Psalm 87 where it is prophesied that those of other nations will be recorded in the registers of Zion also.
Verse 29 actually begins with a contrast to verse 26.
For in verse 26 it has been the poor in Israel who are feasting with the Lord.
Now it’s the rich of the world who are sitting down at that table.
Those in the world who are so full of what they have and what they’ve done have to put all that aside in joining the poor at this meal.
That’s truly humbling.
That’s when a king is so powerful all are worshipping him.
And this king is alone that One.
For this is the spiritual meal brought about by the mighty act of rescue God has done!
This is why it can seem those who come to the gospel out of a dark pagan night can embrace it so joyfully.
Because it is good news!
This is the life!
This is what Robert Browning poetically describes.
He wrote:
Easter day breaks!
Christ rises!
Mercy every way is infinite!
Earth breaks up;
Time drops away;
In flows heaven with its new day
Of endless life!
Congregation, this is the feast that those rich and powerful from all over this world will forego their own massive banquets to attend.
They will choose to come and bow down in worship before another one.
How humbling it is for them is further brought out in the rest of verse 29.
There it says that “before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Now, these are words which have been understood differently.
Some have said that the one who cannot keep himself alive is the one who rejects the gospel, whereas those who do kneel before him, rich and poor, will be saved.
The end of verse 29, though, is best understood as a commentary on what’s just been said.
So it’s the rich and the poor who see that they cannot keep themselves alive who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who have been brought to that overwhelming sense of their complete sinfulness are granted forgiveness.
It’s quite a scene!
All over the world God’s Spirit is moving; all over the world the gospel is convicting and converting, just as the prophet said would be.
What this suffering servant has gone through isn’t to be held down.
For the people all over the world aren’t to be held back!
The depth of this is brought out in verse 30.
“Posterity shall serve him” it says, “it will be told of the LORD to the coming generation…”
You see, though the Church of Jesus Christ has gone through some tough times, times when it almost seemed that the light would be extinguished altogether, yet a remnant remained.
And through that remnant the gospel has been passed down to children and grandchildren.
It is nothing to be ashamed of that our churches continue and grow through our children.
It’s quite scriptural, in fact!
Psalm 22 verse 30 declares it!
Through the ages and in different places this has always been the way the reign of the Lord Jesus takes effect in this world.
And while there are still others who need to hear the good news, they themselves will teach it to their children.
It’s the whole heart of this biblical faith that the psalmist concludes so decisively with!
For he’s leaving us in no doubt!
Martin Luther helps us in his comment on the phrase, “a people yet unborn.”
He says, “What is this?
“What people is there that is not born?
“According to my understanding I think this is said for this reason – because the people of other kings are formed by laws, by customs, and by manners.
“But these are not the things by which you can move a man to true righteousness: it is only a fable of righteousness, and a mere theatrical scene or representation.
“For even the law of Moses could form the people of the Jews unto nothing but unto hypocrisy.
“But the people of this King are not formed by laws to make up an external appearance.
“They are made by water and the Spirit into a new creature of truth.”
How very true!
The psalmist is taking a glimpse into the most glorious future.
That’s why he wraps up this psalm with the word that answers the question he began this psalm with.
For, remember, the suffering servant cried out in verse 1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
It was the very deepest pit of despair – the situation of being so totally outside of God’s care.
And now look at what we have here.
The last word says, “that he has done it.”
Congregation, this last word of the psalm is no less than the last word of the cross.
All of what the suffering servant went through was for you.
And it was enough.
“It is finished,” Jesus cried out on the cross.
Those last words he spoke in John 19 verse 30 proclaim his righteousness through all the ages of human history.
God has accomplished what he planned when he anointed the Son of Jesse and the Son of David as mediator in his work of redemption.
He did it by leading David through affliction to the throne.
And he did it by making the cross to Jesus the ladder leading up to heaven.
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O Mighty and Marvellous God,
We too bow before you.
We are among those from across the face of the earth who have been saved by your grace in Christ Jesus.
We thank you for the rich feast we have enjoyed already from your table.
For many generations you have blessed us and kept us.
And we pray that you will continue to guide us and be pleased to work through our children and their children.
Because you have done it – once and for all time in your one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
In his saving Name we humbly pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2020, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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