Tag Archives: psalm 22

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Why Going to Church Is Important, Part 2

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The church exists for three purposes: The Glorification of God; The Edification of the Saints; And the Evangelization of the World. In other words, “Upward, Inward, and Outward.”

The first purpose of the church is to exalt God (upward). God put us on this earth to know Him and to glorify Him. According to Ephesians 1:12, we are here to praise our glorious God! This is why we worship the Lord in song. Worship is an important part of service. A worship leader/team is not there to perform for you. They “perform” for an audience of One: God! And they are not a warm-up act either. They are here to lead us in worship. They are leading us in prayer set to song. That is why we should never be late to church. When we are late, we miss out on glorifying God together. He inhabits the praises of His people (see Psalm 22:3).

One of the most powerful things I had ever seen when I first came to church was worship. Back in those days, the choruses and chords were very simple, but the worship was positively supernatural. Did you know that your worship is a witness? Acts 2:47 says that the early church was “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (NKJV). There was a direct connection between worship and witness. We are being watched, both inside and outside the walls of our church. The outside world marvels when a child of God can rejoice in hardship.

Sitting next to you on any given Sunday may be a visitor or a nonbeliever. They are essentially sizing everything up by what they see. Not just what happens on the platform, but the people around them. During times of worship, do you sing out to the Lord? Or did you sit in silence? Worse yet, do you talk with the person next to you or spend the time texting? What message are you sending to those visitors? Can you not tune those things out and just glorify God?

When we glorify God in church with other believers, it gives us perspective. When we come to God in prayer and in worship, we see things correctly. This is why Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father in heaven” (see Mathew 6:9 NKJV). It causes me to remember, whatever I am facing, that the all-powerful, all-knowing God of the Universe who loves me is listening to me right now. But when I isolate myself from other believers, I lose perspective. I can become fearful, confused, angry, and even bitter.

You recall when Jesus was crucified, the disciples initially scattered. But they quickly gathered together again to encourage one another. Thomas was not there and missed out on an appearance of Jesus. When told of it, he essentially said, “Unless I touch the wounds in His hands, I will not believe.” But the next time they were meeting, Thomas was there and his perspective was quickly corrected.

Asaph was grappling with the age-old question, “Why do the wicked prosper?” And then it dawned on him. “When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin” (Psalm 73:16 NIV). Asaph is essentially saying, “I didn’t understand why things are the way that they are until I came into God’s presence to study His Word with His people. Then my questions came into a proper perspective.”

Why should believers go to church? To exalt God—to reach upward.

 

 

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Alistair Begg – Has He Forsaken You?

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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Psalm 22:1

Here we view the Savior in the depth of His sorrows. No other place displays the griefs of Christ like this, and no other moment at Calvary is so full of agony as when His cry rends the air–“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” At this moment physical weakness was united with acute mental torture from the shame and ignominy through which He had to pass; His grief culminated in suffering the spiritual agony beyond all telling that resulted from the departure of His Father’s presence. This was the black midnight of His horror–when He descended the abyss of suffering.

No man can enter into the full meaning of these words. Some of us think at times that we could cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” There are seasons when the brightness of our Father’s smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness; but let us remember that God never really does forsake us. It is only a seeming forsaking with us, but in Christ’s case it was a real forsaking. We grieve at a little withdrawal of our Father’s love; but the real turning away of God’s face from His Son–who can calculate how deep the agony that caused Him?

In our case, our cry is often dictated by unbelief: In His case, it was the utterance of a dreadful fact, for God had really turned away from Him for a season. Poor, distressed soul who once lived in the sunshine of God’s face but now in darkness, remember that He has not really forsaken you. God in the clouds is as much our God as when He shines forth in all the beauty of His grace; but since even the thought that He has forsaken us gives us agony, what must the suffering of the Savior have been when He exclaimed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

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Alistair Begg – Bruised and Broken

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I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.  Psalm 22:14

Did earth or heaven ever witness a sadder spectacle than this? In soul and body, our Lord felt Himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground. The placing of the cross in its socket had shaken Him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all His bones. Burdened by His own weight, the impressive sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general weakness were overpowering, and He felt Himself to be nothing but a mass of misery and swooning sickness.

When Daniel saw the great vision, he describes his sensations in this way: “No strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength.”1 How much more devastating must it have been for Jesus when He saw the dreadful vision of the wrath of God and felt it in His own soul! Sensations that our Lord endured, we could not have faced, and unconsciousness would have had to come to our rescue. In His case He was wounded and felt the sword; He drained the cup and tasted every drop.

O King of Grief! (a title strange, but true,

To Thee of all kings only due)

O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for Thee,

Who in all grief savest me!

As we kneel before our ascended Savior’s throne, let us carefully remember the way by which He prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink of His cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness whenever it may come. In His natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the spiritual; just as out of all His griefs and woes His body emerged uninjured to glory and power, similarly His mystical body will come through the furnace with not so much as the smell of smoke upon it.

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Born to Die – John MacArthur

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“We . . . see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9).

At this time of year, it is difficult for us to see Jesus other than as a little baby. We of course know why He came, but we usually focus on His death on the cross at another time of year. But we must never forget that He came to die.

Those soft baby hands fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb were made to have two great nails hammered through them. Those little chubby feet were to walk up a hill and be nailed to a cross. That sacred head was made to wear a crown of thorns. His tender body wrapped in swaddling clothes would be pierced by a spear to reveal a broken heart. The death of Christ was no accident; He was born to die.

Jesus died to remove the curse so we could regain our dominion. But to do that, He had to come as a man. Even though in doing so He temporarily became lower than the angels, He accomplished something no angel could: our restoration.

The first and foremost reason for the incarnation is that Christ might taste death on behalf of every man and woman. He came to die in our place–to be our substitute. God had two options: Either let us die and pay for our own sins, or allow a substitute to take our punishment and die in our place. He mercifully chose the latter.

It is vital that we affirm the fact of Christ’s substitutionary death because modern liberal theology claims Jesus died merely as an example, like a martyr dying for some cause. But He died as a substitute for you and me. As a result He freed us to live for and with God. Rejoice that the creator of angels, the Lord of hosts, would become lower than His creation for our sakes.

Suggestion for Prayer:   Thank the Lord for His willingness to humble Himself to become a man to save you.

For Further Study:  Read Psalm 22 and note which verses prophesy Jesus’ suffering on the cross.