Psalms 22, 23, 24, 15

Psalms — Steve Gregg

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Psalms 16, 40, 41

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Psalms 22, 23, 24, 15

PsalmsSteve Gregg

In this talk, Steve Gregg provides a detailed analysis of Psalms 22, 23, 24, and 15. He examines Psalm 22's graphic description of Christ's crucifixion, highlighting how the Holy Spirit inspired David's words to give glimpses of the coming Messiah. Gregg explains why certain parts of David's Psalms apply directly to the Messiah, and provides insights into the perplexing statement made by Jesus on the cross: "My God, God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Transcript

We'll turn now to Psalm 22, which is the most graphic description of the crucifixion of Christ that can be found in the Old Testament. Usually, when we think of Old Testament chapters that talk about the sufferings of Christ, Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 come foremost to our minds. However, Isaiah 53 is nowhere nearly as specific and graphic in its description of the crucifixion as Psalm 22 is.

Now, just in the break between our classes, I was asked to give a slightly clearer idea of what the relationship was between these Psalms and David's experience and Jesus' experience, because we often think that the references to Jesus in the Old Testament are all in the form of prophetic utterances. For instance, in the prophets, in Isaiah 53, there's prophecies made about the coming Messiah. But in the Psalms, it's generally not in the form of a prophetic utterance.

As you've seen probably already, the passages very many times are just David or another writer writing about his own experience, but it happens that much in his experience parallels that of the coming Messiah. And the writer himself might not have even known he was writing something that looked forward to something else. He may have just, in his knowledge, been writing only what applied to his situation, but the Holy Spirit was inspiring them to give glimpses ahead into what the Messiah would be like.

Almost all the Psalms we've studied so far are said to have been written by David, including the Psalms before us here. And we know from just various ways that David is spoken of in the New Testament, and even in the Old Testament, the relationship between David and the Christ is spoken in such a way that David is clearly a type of the Messiah. David's a type of Christ.

He was the shepherd king of Israel, as also the Messiah would be. He was God's chosen king. He reigned over Israel during their golden age, and the Messiah would come and bring a golden age of another kind.

And so, in many respects, David is seen as a type of Christ. And therefore, we read him reading of his experiences, and the things that he is thinking and agonizing through or rejoicing in are things which we could see the Messiah going through also. And that is why certain parts of David's Psalms apply directly to the Messiah.

But we don't necessarily think all the things David said apply to the Messiah, and the New Testament writers don't claim that either. And so, in a given Psalm, some of the things will apply directly to the Messiah and some won't, and it took the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, or else just the fulfillment in history to explain them. For instance, in Psalm 22, we do not have the apostles quoting Psalm 22 in the New Testament to tell us that this is about Jesus.

And we don't have a need for any supernatural spiritual insight to know it, because the events of the crucifixion, as reported in the Gospel, so clearly fulfill certain of the verses in this chapter that it doesn't take supernatural insight. It only requires that the prophecy be fulfilled in history so that we can look back and say, oh, this was described here. And so, in Psalm 22, we read David again speaking about how his enemies have surrounded him, and how he's in despair.

Now, reading these songs, you get the impression that David's always in trouble. And he wasn't always in trouble, but he was frequently in trouble, and when he was in trouble, he tended to pray a lot. And he wrote out his prayers in the form of songs that he could sing continually afterwards.

And this is yet another one, and it begins with a verse that Jesus did quote in the New Testament, and you'll recognize it. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now, we'll read this Psalm, and then we'll go back and pick out pieces that have clear reference to Christ. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not.

And in the night seasons, and I am not silent. Obviously, verse 2 applies to David, but not necessarily to Jesus. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and they were delivered. They trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me, laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb.

Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me, or surrounded me.

Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water.

All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It melteth in the midst of my bowels.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death, for dogs have surrounded me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.

They pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones. They look and stare upon me.

They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength. Haste thee to help me.

Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy name unto my brethren.

In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye that see the seat of Jacob, glorify him and fear him.

All ye that see the seat of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him he heard.

My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied.

They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul.

A seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this." Okay, now this psalm divides into two parts that are very different from each other.

The first twenty-one verses describe the anguish and the suffering of the speaker, both David and Christ, only much more specifically did Christ than David. From verse twenty-two to the end, we find that he's not talking about his suffering anymore. He's talking about praising God for deliverance, and he actually goes on into a prophecy about the church.

Now, not necessarily that David understood he was prophesying about the church, but we can see how many of these verses are fulfilled in the church, so we'll look at the two parts of this psalm this way. Now, it begins with these words, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? One of the things that has perplexed many Christians, especially young Christians I've heard it from, is why did Jesus say that on the cross? Why did Jesus say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? To many, it looks like he was experiencing a lapse of faith, that he had been strong in faith until this point, but now he really wonders what's going on. Now he says, God, where are you when I really need you? And that he's speaking out maybe in bitterness or in confusion, but of course, that's not what Jesus was doing at all.

Now, Jesus quoted this verse in Aramaic, which was the language spoken generally by the Jews of his time. The Gospels tell us he said, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which in Aramaic means, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The reason Jesus called that out was not that he was looking for an answer, nor really, David might have been looking for an answer, he might have said, really, why is it? But Jesus was not asking for an answer when he said this. He was just declaring it to be the case.

It's like when a mother says to her son, why don't you ever listen to me? Why don't you ever remember what I say? Well, she's not really asking him to give an answer. She really is basically saying, you should be remembering what I say. You should be listening to me.

It's posed in a rhetorical question. When Jesus cried out, why art thou forsaken me? He's basically stating strongly that he was at that moment forsaken of God and abandoned by God, which was true, because the Bible says that he who knew no sin became sin for us, that God turned his back on Jesus on the cross because he imputed to him our sins. Jesus, for the first time in his eternal existence, was separated momentarily from his Father.

Throughout all eternity, Jesus had dwelt in heaven with his Father, with God. When he came to earth, for 33 years, he lived with a consciousness of his Father, in obedience to his Father, without ever a break in his fellowship, always knowing that his prayers were continually heard. And the only break in that eternal fellowship that he had with his Father, which he enjoyed and maintained with great diligence, of course, even through spiritual warfare with the devil and all those temptations, through great effort, he maintained this pure, sinless, unbroken fellowship with his Father.

But on the cross, he voluntarily took upon his body our sins, which meant that the Father had to turn from him, had to reject him for the moment. Now, we know that because Jesus had not personally sinned, that it was not possible for death to hold him. But for that moment, God turned his back on Jesus, it would seem, and Jesus reflected that when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And that was a true statement.

He had been forsaken of God, though Jesus was not really confused about why, as David may have been confused why he was. Another suggestion has been made about why Jesus made this statement, and that is that it was customary, as I'm told, for the high priest on festival days to come out among the people and to shout out the opening verse of a particular passage of the Old Testament. And the people then would respond by quoting back to him either the remainder of the passage or by speaking with him the remainder of the passage, so that the high priest calling out the first verse of the passage was to call to remembrance to the people the entire passage, the whole chapter or whatever.

Now, some have suggested that Jesus, acting as our great high priest, was doing something similar to this on the cross. As he was hanging there, he shouted out the first verse of the opening line of Psalm 22, which if the people had recognized the line and had gone over in their minds or verbally repeated the whole chapter, they would have found themselves describing what they were seeing before their eyes, especially verses 14 through 16. If they were quoting those verses, they would see that they were fulfilling prophecy by nailing him up, and that he was basically calling their attention to the fact that what was happening at that very moment was fulfilling the chapter which he was quoting from in the Psalms.

Well, in any case, both thoughts may be present. Certainly, both are true. He was fulfilling this whole Psalm at that time, and he also was forsaken of God.

In David's case, he just wonders why God isn't answering his prayers at this point. Why are you so far from helping me? Why is it that my enemies seem to be prevailing over me? I'm surrounded by my enemies is the whole theme of this first part of the Psalm. They're all around me.

They mock me. They shake their head. They shoot out the lip, verse 7 says.

They esteem me as though I were a worm and not a man, verse 6 tells us. Now it says in verse 8 what the people are saying about him. In verse 8, they are saying, he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him.

Let him deliver him, seeth he delighteth in him. The amazing thing is that this was literally fulfilled in Matthew 27, 39. The people actually said this about Jesus, these actual words.

Matthew 27, actually verses 39 through 43. This is when Jesus was on the cross. They that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself.

If thou be the son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priest mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others himself he cannot save. If he be king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross that we may believe him.

He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him. For he said, I am the son of God. But note verse 43, he trusted in God, let him now deliver him if he delights in him.

That's a quote from Psalm 22, 8, though the Pharisees and scribes didn't necessarily know they were quoting that. It says, he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeth he delighted in him. Amazing that this prophecy, though David wouldn't have understood his prophecy, basically this was what people were saying about David at the time.

They were saying, here's a man who trusted in God, now look at him, he's in trouble now and God isn't helping him. But that's literally what they said also about Jesus when he was on the cross. But he expresses in verses 9 through 11, God I've been yours from the beginning.

You're the one who brought me into this world. I was nourished up from my mother's womb and on my mother's breasts to believe in you and to hope in you and so forth. But then he describes his present case of being surrounded by his enemies in verse 12.

Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan are mentioned, it's not clear. It is known of course, Bashan was known for its cattle, but why that would be mentioned here.

He's talking about his enemies being like bulls ready to get him with their horns. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. We're told in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 8, 1 Peter 5, 8, it says that Satan is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Here the enemies of Christ are gaping upon Jesus like a roaring lion. This could be a reference not so much to the people standing around the cross as the demons that were watching Jesus die and thinking they'd finally gotten their victory over him and gaping and gloating over him. So as a ravening and a roaring lion, they gaped upon him with their mouths.

He says, I am poured out like water. We know this is probably a reference to his energy is drained. He's totally exhausted.

But Jesus, when he was pierced in the side, literally had blood and water flow from his side. They poured out of him. He said, all my bones are out of joint, as would be the case of a man hanging by his arms from a cross.

My heart is like wax, which means that it's melted. It means that his courage has melted. That was David's case, at least.

It is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt. A pot shirt, of course, is a broken piece of pottery.

And a piece of pottery would have been fired in a kiln and it would have been dried out to be just totally dry with no moisture in it so that it would be hardened. He said, my strength seems just that dry. My tongue cleaves my jaws.

We remember when Jesus was on the cross, he said, I thirst. He was in extreme thirst. They offered him vinegar to drink, but he wouldn't take it.

Apparently, they offered that to him to sort of numb his pain. But the reference to his thirst, his tongue cleaving to his jaws, you've brought me to the dust of death. Then in verse 16, where it says, dogs have compassed me.

Dogs was a Jewish term for Gentiles. And that's no doubt how David meant it. He was speaking of Gentile dogs.

And that's, of course, what was true of Jesus too. It was Gentiles who stood around the cross, the Romans. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.

They pierced my hands and my feet. It's hard to imagine any fulfillment of this other than a crucifixion. The reference to bones being out of joint, reference to the thirst, the reference to being poured out like water, the reference to piercing the hands and the feet, it's obvious that this is a reference to the crucifixion of somebody.

And certainly, it's the one of whom David was a type. It's hard to know exactly what David meant when he said, they pierced my hands and my feet. But I guess we needn't sit around and guess.

It says, I may tell all my bones. That means I'm able to see them all. I recognize my bones.

He's essentially saying he's so stretched out on this cross that his bones are protruding through the skin like all his ribs. He could count them if he wished. And they look and stare upon me.

They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. This prophecy, though David was basically speaking as though this was really happening to him, yet this literally happened to Jesus in a way that is so remarkable because Jesus had two pieces of clothing, one of which was of value. It had been given to him by someone.

It was knit from the neck down, and it was seamless. It was of great value. The other one was a common cloak that was thrown over him that was of very little value.

And the soldiers got to keep the condemned man's property. So the soldiers who nailed Jesus up looked at what he had. He had two pieces of clothing.

One was a garment or just a cloak to throw over him, not worth much, but the material was worth something, could be reclaimed. So there were four soldiers. They tore it into four pieces and each took one.

But when they saw his vesture, that is his robe, it was worth too much to tear it up and just divide it among themselves. It would be worth more in one piece. And therefore they said, well, instead of just dividing this among ourselves, let's just gamble for it and whoever wins gets the whole thing.

So one piece of his clothing they parted or they tore into pieces and divided up among themselves. The other part they gambled for, and that's exactly what is said here. It was predicted that they would part his garments among them and cast lots upon his vesture.

That this was written 1,000 years before Jesus was born cannot be denied. It has never been contested by any critic that David wrote this. It is clearly his work and he lived, we know, 1,000 years before Christ, yet very graphically portrayed things.

Now some people have felt that Jesus fulfilled these kinds of prophecies simply by deliberately doing so. Some people have felt, well, Jesus wanted to make people think he was the Messiah. He was familiar with the prophecies, so he lived his life in a way to deliberately fulfill prophecy.

But it would have been impossible for him to fulfill all these prophecies by his own wishes. I mean, he could perhaps arrange for himself to be crucified. The Romans were quite glad to crucify Jews in those days.

They crucified a lot of them. And Jesus, if he wanted to fulfill this prophecy, could have perhaps arranged for his own crucifixion in some way or another. But we can see by reading the story that he hadn't arranged for it.

It was the Jews who arranged for it. Jesus, I mean, he didn't do anything to enrage the Romans to get them to crucify him. He enraged the Jews and took the risk of being stoned, because that's how the Jews would stone people.

But it wasn't his doing that they arranged to crucify him. It was a sovereign thing. Also, Jesus would never have been able to arrange for the soldiers to do with his garments what was predicted here.

That was something only God could have predicted. And Jesus could not have fulfilled it deliberately, because it was not something he did, but what the soldiers did. Anyway, it says, But be not far from me, O Lord, O my strength.

Haste thee to help me deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog. My darling, actually, literally in Hebrew, my only one. Darling means my only one.

And so my only life, in other words. Now, he's calling out for deliverance. And save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn.

Probably from the horns of the unicorns belongs to the term save me. Save me from the lion's mouth, and save me from the horns of the unicorns, or the bulls, the wild ox, because you have heard me, or because you do hear me. Now, having given such a graphic description of the crucifixion of the Messiah, we have him speaking very differently.

Since he has been brought to the dust of death, according to verse 15, for him to continue speaking as he does in verse 22 must assume that he's come through death and now he's resurrected. And now he's alive again, and he's got a new program. He's decided that he's going to associate himself with a new great congregation.

Remember, we read the expression, the great congregation, a couple of times in Psalm 40, the church, the great ecclesia. And here he talks about the great congregation, verse 25. My praise shall be of thee and the great congregation, or in the church.

So we have here Jesus died, resurrected. He now has a church and a program for them. Verse 26, I will declare thy name unto my brethren.

In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. This quote is quoted in Hebrews 2 and verse 12 about Jesus. And the reason the writer of Hebrews quotes it in this verse is that he's pointing out that Jesus became a man, which is evidenced by the fact that he's willing to speak of us as his brethren.

Because he says, I will declare thy name among my brethren. The writer of Hebrews thinks that's amazing that God could speak of people as his brothers. And the only way that could be so is if he had become a man and become one of our brothers, so to speak, in the human race.

And so Hebrews 2.12 quotes this to speak of his humanity, how that Jesus had lowered himself so low as to even speak of us as brothers by becoming a human being. But note, I'll declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I fear thee, or I will praise thee.

I'm sorry. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him.

Fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither has he hid his face from him. But when he cried unto him, he heard.

My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. Now, verses 22 and 25 both make reference to him praising God in the midst of the congregation or of the midst of the church.

That means that when we are praising God congregationally, Jesus is there. Remember Jesus said, where two or more gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. God is with us at all times, of course.

Jesus is with us forever. And each of us, even when we're alone, can be quite sure that he's near enough to hear us and to answer when we call. But there's a special sense in which he manifests himself in the corporate worship of the church.

He is there where there's two or more gathered. He is expressed. His body is there and he is in the midst of his body.

He is embodied in them. And he is through our mouths praising the father so that in a sense, those who think, well, I can be a Christian without going to church or, you know, basically feel like I can be a Christian without fellowship with other Christians are missing out on something very special. And that is the special communion and oneness that can be had with Christ in the congregation.

In the midst of the congregation, Jesus arises and gives praise. And so he says, in verses 22 and 25 here, verse 26, the meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek him.

Your heart shall live forever. Reference to eternal life, apparently, all the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the nation shall worship before thee. This is a prophecy about how the whole world will worship Jesus.

Again, it doesn't mean that everyone who's now alive will turn to him. I wish it were true, but some will. The rest of them will have to either worship him at the judgment day or be destroyed.

At any rate, there will come a time where there's no one left on the earth who doesn't worship him. And that those who do will be from the ends of the world. They will be from all nations.

Notice it's not just a Jewish kingdom that David foresees here. By the spirit, he sees people from the ends of the world, not just Israel, remembering to turn unto the Lord and all kindreds of the nation shall worship before they, not just the Jews, but all families of the world, all the nations. So again, this looks forward to the church, the church which brings in people from all nations like ourselves who are not Jewish to worship the Lord.

For the kingdom is the Lord's and he is the governor among the nations, that is among the Gentiles. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship. Now, those who be fat upon the earth, sometimes fat people are thought of in a negative sense, especially in our society where it's popular to be thin.

But also in the Bible, sometimes those who are too fat, too self-indulgent are seen as the proud, the arrogant, the ones who are exploiting the poor. But at the same time, there's a theme that runs through the scripture of the righteous shall be made fat. And that should make some of you happy.

But the righteous should be made fat in the sense that God will bless them and prosper them and give them, you know, show his favor by giving them plenty to eat and so forth. In this case, he has said already in verse 26, the meek shall eat and be satisfied. That is, they will eat to their heart's content.

What it is they will eat is not stated clearly. It might be that Jesus was explaining this verse partly when he said, you must eat of my body and drink of my blood, for it is meat, my body is meat, indeed, my blood is drink, indeed. At any rate, there's a partaking.

The people of this church that's being described, this great congregation partakes of him and they eat to the fullness, to the fatness. They shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust, which must mean those who die, shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul.

Now, this statement, verse 30 and 31, is very interesting to me. It says, a seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he has done this. Now, it says, a seed shall serve him. Now, remember in the Old Testament, a seed usually meant offspring.

In the New Testament, of course, Paul said that the seed of Abraham was one singular seed, Christ. But here, the reference probably is to plural, and that's how the Jews would have understood it when they read this, that there was a seed, that is a family, children, really, that would serve Jesus. And they would be spoken of as a generation.

They would be accounted to the Lord for a generation. Now, the word generation, in our language, in modern English, often means a period of time where people, or people who are all contemporaries of each other, people who are all living at the same time as a generation. But the word actually has more meaning than just that.

The literal meaning of generation, in the Hebrew, is of a family or a race, a people. As, for instance, when we find Peter saying, we, the church, are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. The word generation means those who are generated from the body of an individual.

The generations of Adam in Genesis means those children of Adam who were generated out of his body. And so, the generations mean the family of, or the nation of. And it says, this seed that shall serve Jesus, his offspring of his that will serve him shall be called his generation, or his family, or his nation.

And they shall come and declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born that he hath done this. In other words, future generations will hear of his righteousness from the church, from this seed of his, which is a reference to us. In Psalm 102, in verse 18, it says, well, verse 16 through 18, it says, when the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.

He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come, that the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. Now, these things are written for the generation that was to come.

Does that mean one group of people living at a particular time? Or does it mean a family that was to come, a certain nation that was yet to be created, a people that should be created, it says, who would praise the Lord? Well, that generation, I believe, is the church, the seed that should be counted to the Lord for a generation. They are a people, they shall declare his righteousness to a people that yet are to be born or come into being. Now, in Psalm 22, then, we see a very fascinating and graphic picture of the suffering of the Messiah.

In the next two psalms, which are much shorter, we have two other pictures of the Messiah. And in the 23rd psalm, which is the next one, of course, it is the favorite chapter of most people. It is probably the most popular chapter in the Bible.

The Lord is my shepherd. And in this, we have also a messianic prophecy, though it is not spoken in a prophetic sense. It's not a messianic prophecy, it's a messianic psalm.

It's about the Messiah. Because Jesus, in John 10, said, I am the good shepherd of the sheep. In John 10, 11, Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd of the sheep.

So, when David speaks of the Lord being his shepherd, it's a reference to Jesus. Now, in Psalm 22, we saw the suffering of Christ. And we saw that a generation or a family of people, a seed, a church, a great congregation would come as a result of his suffering.

And now we see his role as shepherd. So, we could see that Psalm 22 looks back to the crucifixion and the founding of the church. Psalm 23 looks at the present.

Jesus shepherding his people during this time while we wait for his second coming. And Psalm 24 could be seen as looking at the second coming of Christ as the King of glory. So, we might see here a trilogy of psalms about the Messiah.

The suffering Messiah in chapter 22, the shepherding Messiah in Psalm 23, and the returning, conquering Messiah in Psalm 24, the glorious Messiah. So, we see these different aspects of Jesus in these three psalms. And we've just studied the suffering Messiah.

Now, let's study how this applies or how the Messiah is engaged, what activity is engaged in now. We read in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Now, the word want there is confused.

Many children in Sunday school, when they've been memorizing it, why aren't we supposed to want the Lord? They say, aren't I supposed to want him? It's not saying the Lord is my shepherd who I will not want. That is, I will not want him. Want is the word lack.

Want is an old English word. It means to lack something, to be without it. And it doesn't even mean I shall not lack the Lord.

It means because the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack anything. A shepherd takes care of all the needs of his sheep. And because the Lord is my shepherd, I will never be in want or I will never be in lack.

I will always be well provided for. That's what is being said there. So, we might change that.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack or I will not go hungry. I will not lack any good thing that I need. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Now, what he's saying here is, he begins by saying, because the Lord is my shepherd, I won't lack in any of my needs. Then he gives instances of how the shepherd meets his needs. He gives him green pastures to graze in.

A sheep needs pastures to eat. He needs water to drink. So, he leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul, which probably actually means he restores my life. Probably a reference to the fact that when a shepherd goes off astray, he goes and restores it. The shepherd goes out and finds him to save his life.

In Psalm 19, in verse 7, we found the expression, Psalm 19, in verse 7, which we said yesterday, it says, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. But in the margin, if you have a marginal reference there, the word converting could be translated or should be translated restoring the soul. So, it says the law of the Lord is perfect restoring the soul.

That is, basically, like taking a soul that has wandered, like a stray sheep, and restoring it back to its proper place. The law brings our soul back for ourself, back into the proper place with God. And when he says that the Lord restores my soul in Psalm 23, I believe he's speaking of how the shepherd goes after a lost sheep and brings him back so he doesn't get lost.

And he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So, he gives me guidance. And then he gives him security.

He says in verse 24, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. So, he begins by saying that God will not allow him to lack any necessary thing, and he shares specifically how that is fulfilled. God feeds him.

He gives him water to drink. He delivers him when he wanders off the wrong way. He guides him in the right ways.

He is secure because he's with him and he's comforted by his rod and his staff. Now, these images, of course, are all taken from literal relationship between a shepherd and a sheep. But to us who are not sheep, who, for instance, don't eat grass, what does this all boil down to? What does it really mean in real life? It means, of course, when he says he makes me lie down in green pastures, it means that God really gives me all the food that I need and all the things I really need.

Sheep don't need very much more than just to eat grass. And so, everything that we need to sustain our lives, God gives us. He leads me by still waters.

Now, sheep will not drink from running water. They're afraid of running water because if they happen to fall in, their wool soaks up water so much that they're heavy. They can't get out of the water and they'll drown.

So, they have to drink from still waters. They can't drink from running water. Now, that speaks of peacefulness, you see.

It speaks of how God gives us a peaceful provision. He provides for some peace. He makes me lie down peaceably in green pastures.

I can just leisurely graze. I can drink waters without fear. It's a peaceful existence.

He restores my soul. That is, he delivers me from my own strain and my own wandering. That is, he won't let me go too far before he corrects me.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. It speaks of divine guidance. God teaches us how to walk in the right way, the righteous path.

Well, he does this, of course, through the scriptures, but he also does so through various other ways. And divine guidance is one of the great privileges of the Christian, that he has a shepherd now. Jesus said, I'm a good shepherd.

My sheep know my voice. When I take them out to pasture, I go before them and they know my voice and they follow me. And there are different ways that Jesus makes his voice and his will known to us, but it is our privilege as Christians to be led by him.

It says in the eighth chapter of Romans that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Those of us who are the children of God are said to be those who are led by the Spirit of God. That's verse 14, Romans 8, 14.

So the Holy Spirit leads us. Jesus is leading us by his Spirit in the right paths. And that's good to know.

It gives us security. Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we don't fear any evil because he's with us. Now, the valley of the shadow of death probably refers to actually being in danger of death.

The shadow of death. It's as though in our Christian walk through our lives, we're walking along with the Lord and we come to a certain place where a shadow crosses the road. But, and that is the shadow of death.

We go through a certain valley and there this shadow lies. We have to pass through it. But passing through the shadow of death is not a fearful thing because God is with us.

Even if we die, it's merely a shadow. A shadow can be frightening really, if it startles you. A shadow sometimes is much bigger than the object that casts the shadow.

You know that? If it's late in the day and you're standing out in the sun, or even a little rock can cast a very long shadow if the sun is nearly down. And so, a very intimidating shadow might be cast by something that's not very large and intimidating at all. And death is not something that we should fear, though it sometimes casts a fearful shadow.

And most people are afraid of death. Most people are terrified of death. But he says here, death is just a shadow.

A shadow can't hurt you. If God is with you, you can pass right through that valley of the shadow of death and not fear it at all. One thing that we know about shadows is the very fact that a shadow exists tells us that there's light on the other side.

Because there must be light on the other side of the object to cast the shadow. And because death casts a shadow, that means on the other side of death, for us there is light. There is the house of the Lord forever, that he speaks of at the end of the psalm.

So, he's saying essentially, I'm not even afraid of death. Partly because as I go through the valley of the shadow of death, God can deliver me from death. He can save my life.

But also because even if I must go through death, it's merely a shadow. It doesn't really terrify me because it doesn't really hold any real dangers to me because I'm saved. Now, he says, thy rod and thy staff comfort me at the end of verse four.

The rod and staff were the two tools along with the sling that a shepherd usually carried. Of course, a sling was used to throw stones, often to drive off enemies like wolves and things like that that would be after the sheep. Also, a sling was used for the direction of the sheep.

Shepherds in Israel are very, very, very good at their slings. In the Old Testament, it says there were some Benjamites who were slingers and that they could hit a target at a hare's breadth, whatever that meant. It meant they were very accurate at least.

Shepherds were very proficient with slings over in Israel and they still are. And a lot of times if a sheep is wandering off away from the rest of the herd, instead of chasing it down himself, he'll put a rock in his sling and he'll shoot it over there and drop the rock right in front of the nose of the sheep. And it'll scare the sheep and it'll turn around and come back to where the rest of the flock is.

And so, the sling is a valuable tool and weapon of the shepherd. But that's not mentioned here, but the other two tools are and they are valuable also. The rod and the staff.

A rod was a club that a shepherd carried. And it was just a short, thick stick. It was a club.

And it could be used, again, for various things. It often had a heavy knob at the end. It'd be made of hard wood.

And it'd be a rather, maybe two foot long club or so with a knob of solid wood at the end. And it would be used for knocking animals over the head, of course predators, lions and so forth. When David killed lions and bears, we don't know what weapons he used, but probably his club, his rod, was one of the things he had available to him.

Another thing the rod was used for was to beat off thieves. Thieves would sometimes come and take the sheep, but the shepherd would use the club to beat them off. But another thing, surprisingly, that it would be used for is if a sheep was constantly wandering out of the way, a club would be used, or the rod would be used by the shepherd to break its leg.

A shepherd would actually break the leg of the sheep, and then he'd have to carry it, of course, because he couldn't just leave it there. It would die. But he broke its leg to keep it from wandering off.

And with its broken leg, it wouldn't try to wander. It would let him just carry it. And while that might seem to be a privileged position for a sheep to be carried on the shoulders of the shepherd, nonetheless that's not the proper place for the sheep.

The sheep should be able to walk and follow the shepherd properly. And it's a sign of rebellion in a sheep if it had to be carried on the shepherd's shoulders and had to have its leg broken. It would heal, of course, but it was a punishment.

Now the rod was used then also for disciplining the sheep. And David says, your rod and your staff, come from me. The staff was a shepherd's crook, you know, a long pole with a hook at the end.

And that was used similarly for pulling a sheep back onto the trail if it was within reach. Also if a sheep fell over a cliff and was still alive but was caught in some shrubbery or something where the shepherd couldn't reach it, he could reach down with his crook and hook it under the leg, the front leg of the sheep, and pull the sheep up and save it that way. So these tools were used by the shepherd to keep the sheep safe, but also to discipline the sheep.

And David says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. It's comforting to me to know not only that you have tools and weapons with which you can drive off enemies, but also that you'll discipline me, that you won't let me wander off without breaking my leg. You'll actually stop me from going in a way that will destroy me.

That means that when the chastening of the Lord comes upon me, I can embrace it. I don't despise the chastening of the Lord because he does that to correct me and to save me from myself and from my other dangers I don't know about. So he's saying, it's a comforting thing to me to know that you have a club.

Even though sometimes that club may be turned on me when I'm rebellious in order to help me and chasten me, it's still comforting to know. Then in verses five and six, the metaphor changes. It's no longer a reference to a shepherd and sheep, but guests in a house.

God is now not seen as a shepherd, but he's seen as the host of a banquet. He says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Of course, this would not be something sheep would appreciate.

So the metaphor has changed. You prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.

My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Now he's talking about being a guest in God's house. The reference to preparing a table in the presence of his enemies means no doubt that in spite of the fact that there are enemies around trying to spoil him, God has given him all the hospitality that he needs. He dwells in the presence of the Lord where he will never have to leave.

He'll always be in the presence of the Lord. And goodness and mercy are the things that God bestows upon him as on his guests. Now he says, you anoint my head with oil.

Then my cup runneth over. This, again, is a picture of a guest at a feast. Remember that Jesus, when he was invited to the feast by a Pharisee, and the woman came in and wept over him and washed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

The Pharisee, Simon, said, I, he says, you, in his heart, he said, this man must not be a prophet or else he'd know this was a sinful woman and wouldn't let her touch him. And Jesus said, Simon, I have something to say to you. When I came here, you didn't greet me with a kiss.

You didn't anoint my head with oil. But this woman has anointed my feet with her tears and she's never, hasn't ceased kissing my feet. He was saying to Simon, you have not given me the common forms of hospitality that ordinarily hosts do to their guests, which was sort of a festive thing to do, I guess.

I can't imagine why a person would want oil poured over their head, but that was what was commonly done to guests, just either to honor them or something. In the East, the Middle East, you have to realize that culture is very different than ours. But here, the reference is that God has accepted us as guests into his house.

He's prepared a table for us. Our enemies have not been able to stop this from taking place. Our enemies may even be present in sense of captives, captives that have been defeated in battle, and now they have to sit and watch us eat the victory meal.

And our cup is flowing over. God has given us more than, more than we need. And he's anointed us with oil.

He's shown all the, all the gracious forms of hospitality. Goodness and mercy are the things he bestows upon us all the days of our life. And he says, now dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Now, in verse six, he's basically, appears to be saying that all my life I will have a certain experience. And then even after that, forever, I'll have an experience. My experience during my lifetime is that goodness and mercy, God's goodness and his mercy will be shown toward me.

All the days of my life. That doesn't mean I'll have no troubles, but it means that God will be on my side. God will be available to me.

He'll be hearing me when I call. He'll show mercy to me and goodness. All my life I can expect these blessings.

But even after that, forever, I will dwell in the house of the Lord. Now, that does not mean that the house of the Lord is to be equated with heaven. Usually Christians tend to equate the term the house of the Lord with heaven.

David would not probably have had that concept as we do. To him, the house of the Lord was the tabernacle and later the temple. In the Old Testament, almost always the house of the Lord refers to the temple and not to heaven.

In fact, nowhere in the Bible does the house of the Lord refer to heaven in Old or New Testament. In the Old Testament, it refers to the temple and the tabernacle. In the New Testament, it usually refers to the church, which is the Lord's house, the body of Christ.

In other places, the house of the Lord is referred to as the house of the Lord, except in this place, it seems like it may be a reference to his eternal life in heaven. Yet, he's not thinking of heaven as a place so much as a house place, I think. He's just thinking in terms of he's a member of God's household.

He will always have this hospitality from God, regardless of where it is, whether he's on earth or whether he's in heaven. Forever, he'll be in the house of the Lord, so to speak. He'll be a house guest of God.

Therefore, all these benefits of his cup running over and the anointing with oil and having a table prepared, regular meals for him, those things will be benefits he'll experience all his life and, in fact, forever. It'll always be that way. God will be providing his needs.

He's our shepherd and our host in his house at this time and forever. The Shepherd Psalm then depicts another aspect of our relationship to Jesus. Jesus is the shepherd of the sheep, as he himself spoke of himself.

No doubt, this psalm would have been in his mind when he said, I'm the good shepherd. He would have been thinking of this psalm, the Lord is my shepherd. It would have been tantamount, by the way, to a claim to being Messiah or to being Jehovah because it says, Jehovah is my shepherd in Psalm 23.1. Jehovah is my shepherd and Jesus said, I am the good shepherd, which would have been the same thing as saying, I'm Jehovah.

Now, going on to Psalm 24, we have a much even more glorious picture painted for us and that is probably the occasion of the writing of the psalm was when David brought the ark up to Mount Zion. You remember that the ark had been in the home of a man named Obed-Edom for a long time and had never been to Jerusalem and David, when he was made king, took his armies against the people who lived in Jerusalem. They were not Jews.

Originally, Jerusalem was inhabited by Canaanites like the rest of Palestine. It was one of the last fortresses of the Canaanites to be defeated by the Jews. In fact, Joshua had defeated in his day most of the fortresses of the Canaanites, as you recall, but even as late as the days of David, there were some cities that the Canaanites had never been driven out of.

One of those was Jerusalem. The people who lived in Jerusalem were called Jebusites. That was just another race of Canaanites and David decided that, and probably by revelation, that Jerusalem was supposed to be the capital and it was not right for the capital to be full of heathen instead of God's people, especially since this was God's land that he'd given to his people.

So, David led his armies against the Jebusites and drove them out finally. He was the only man who was able to do it. Then he made Jerusalem his capital and his citadel.

It was not very long after that that he decided that he wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant there to the capital. If you recall the story, he went with great pomp and ceremony. He had the Ark brought on an ox cart to Jerusalem and David went before the Ark dancing and leaping and praising God in front of the Ark of the Covenant.

There was great festivity. I'm sure there were great trumpets being blown and armies marching behind in full regalia. The whole thing was very festive.

Several psalms seemed to have been written about that. This is one of them. Another one was Psalm 68, which was almost certainly written and sung while the Ark was being transported to Jerusalem.

If we assume that that is the case here, it'll help us to understand this psalm somewhat, and most scholars believe that that was the background of this psalm. The earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he have founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods.

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul into vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.

Who is this King of glory? Jehovah, strong and mighty, Jehovah, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? Jehovah of hosts, he is the King of glory, Selah.

Now you can sort of, well there's a lot to this little short psalm, especially the latter part has some real excitement in it. The beginning part is not bad either, I mean it's kind of exciting too. It begins by saying the earth belongs to the Lord and all the people that dwell in it are his, which may be David's way of saying this is why he had the right to take Jerusalem and to drive out those people from it, because that was the Lord's territory just like the rest of the earth, and the Lord had the right to claim that piece of Jerusalem.

He's founded it, that is the earth, upon the seas and established it upon the floods. Now upon really means above here, that is he's caused the dry land to stand out above the water, which is what Genesis also says, that God caused the dry land to appear amid the seas. He's saying basically that God has founded the earth, the dry land, to stand above the level of the sea.

It says who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? Now the reference to him causing the dry land to appear of course calls to mind the idea of mountains. Mountains are coming up, and now he's talking about the hill of the Lord, which is Zion, where Jerusalem was. So they're ascending with the ark of the covenant up to Mount Zion, up to Jerusalem.

He says now who may ascend to the hill of the Lord? Not everyone has the privilege of doing this. Who may stand in his holy place? These are two different questions. One is who can go there initially, who can ascend there? And the second is who can remain there, who can stand there? So these are two questions.

First of all, who has the privilege of going, and who has the privilege of standing there, staying there? Now he gives a statement answering that, certain qualifications, he that has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. So lifting up the soul to vanity actually refers to worshiping idols. Vanities were idols according to the Jews' language.

So anyone who has not worshiped idols or sworn deceitfully, in other words, lied, made false promises. He that has clean hands and a pure heart indicates that his actions are good and his motives are good as well. We, the Jews normally, of course, felt like they would be judged for their actions, whether they ate clean foods or not, whether they kept the Sabbath or not, whether they offered these sacrifices or not.

No, it's the actions of their hands, the things they did outwardly. They thought those were the only important things, but David realized that it had to do with a clean heart also, right motives. It was not enough just to avoid adultery, but you had to have a pure heart, not an adulterous heart and so forth.

So he's saying essentially the man who's going to really stand in the presence of God and be able to enjoy the fellowship with God in an unbroken way is a man who keeps his heart and his actions pure. His hands are clean and his heart is clean also. That man, verse 5 says, will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

That man will receive righteousness from God. Righteousness is a gift that God gives to us and we are imputed righteous through our faith in Jesus Christ, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now it says, this is the generation of them that seek him.

Now remember in Psalm 22, in verse 30, it said, a seed shall serve him. It shall be counted to the Lord for a generation. David had already made reference previously to a seed that serves Christ and that that seed would be referred to as a generation.

Now he refers to it again, the church. In verse 6, this is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Actually, the Hebrew reads exactly like that, that seek thy face O Jacob, but it seems awkward because no one's seeking Jacob's face.

The Septuagint, because the awkwardness of this, had actually inserted the words, the God of Jacob. To seek thy face, O God of Jacob, which may be what is really intended. It's possible that the term for God of could have actually dropped out by ascribable error in copying at some point, so that we came, the manuscripts came down thus, saying that seek thy face O Jacob, but where the original could have said O God of Jacob.

Or it's possible also that there's a slight change that could have been taken place in the Hebrew, where it could have originally said that seek thy face like Jacob. Okay, so one way or the other, it probably doesn't refer to seeking Jacob, but either seeking the God of Jacob or seeking God's face like Jacob did. So it's saying that those who seek God's face are the generation that he's talking about here.

They are the church. They're the ones who have the clean hands and the pure heart, who don't worship false gods and so forth. Now, it would be interesting at this point to turn to Psalm 15.

I don't think we shall, simply because it would get us off on a tangent, but Psalm 15 resembles verses 3 and 4 of this psalm a lot, only it's a longer discussion of who will be permitted to stand in the presence of the Lord, and more qualifications are listed than are here. We might, if we have time, look at that after we finish off this psalm, but it is a parallel, really. Psalm 15 is sort of a protracted, lengthened parallel to Psalm 24 verses 3 and 4. Okay, now this is a call to the gates of the city to open up, to lift up their heads, so to speak, to receive this important visitor, the Ark of the Covenant, the King of Glory.

God's presence was always associated with the Ark. Now, David was the king moving ahead of the Ark, coming in, but he did not say, lift up your heads, ye great gates, that I may come in. I, the great King of Israel, David, but he's talking about the King of Glory.

Who's the King of Glory? Not David, but the Lord, and so he's talking about the Ark of the Covenant coming in, probably, which would represent the Lord coming in. Now, at the same time, this could be seen as a Messianic prophecy of the second coming of Jesus, that he would be coming back to earth, and the earth must open their gates, so to speak, to receive him, and so we could see it both ways as we read it. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be lift up, ye everlasting doors.

The King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.

Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts. The word hosts means armies. He is the King of Glory.

So, God is described here as the Lord, mighty in battle, strong and mighty, the Lord of armies. Again, God, the great victor, the one who has conquered his enemies, which, of course, would be very significant in that particular connection, where David had, in the name of the Lord, gone and conquered the Jebusites, who were the enemies of the Jews, showing that God is mighty in battle and had given him the victory here. So, we could see in this sort of a call to the earth to receive the coming of Jesus.

Let him come in. He will come back. He's the King of Glory.

He's referred to in the book of Acts as the Prince of Glory, Jesus is. But again, those terms could be considered interchangeable. So, we see in Psalm 22, the Messiah, the sufferer.

In Psalm 23, the Messiah, the shepherd. And 24, the Messiah, the King of Glory. And we can see also that that focuses on the past, present, and future, because he suffered once for all.

He'll never suffer again. That's in the past in Psalm 22. Today, in our present age, he is our shepherd, guiding us.

That's Psalm 23. In Psalm 24, he has yet to come and display his glory and come mighty in battle and to show himself the King of Glory at his second coming. Maybe because we do have the time to do so, I will turn your attention to Psalm 15.

It will save us going through it on another occasion, because Psalm 15, as I said, does amplify what is said in Psalm 24.4. Now, there is one other place in the Bible that also speaks similarly, and that's in Isaiah 33. And maybe I should read that to you, or you can look at it with me if you want to. But, in Psalm 33, I mean, Isaiah 33, I'm sorry, verses 14 through 17, we have a very similar passage to this.

Isaiah 33, 14 says, The sinners of Zion are afraid. Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with everlasting fire? Or, who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? In other words, who will be able to dwell with God? Our God is a consuming fire.

The same kind of question is, who may ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? Who among us may dwell with devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? The answer, verse 15, He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, He that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of blood, or of plots to kill, that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high. His place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks. Bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure.

Thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. Now, you can see the similarity between this passage in Isaiah 33 with the psalm we read in Psalm 24.

Who will be able to dwell there? Who will be able to dwell on high and have their place in the defense of the munitions of the rocks? Well, those who walk uprightly and speak uprightly and despise bribes and the gains of oppression and so forth. In other words, who do not stoop to dishonesty in order to get rich and so forth? They shall behold the king and his beauty, the king of glory. Okay, now going back to Psalm 15, which is only five verses long, we see a similar question asked and a similar answer given, though more complete than any of the ones we've studied so far.

Psalm 15, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Same question from Psalm 24. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart, he that backbites not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not, he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved.

That is, never moved from his position in God's holy place, never moved from the presence of God, he that does these things. Well, what are these things? Some of them in the King James English are a little hard to work through, but we can figure them all out. In verse 2, the man who walks uprightly, of course, speaks of a man who walks according to the ways of God.

That's uprightly is a term that the Bible uses frequently about doing it in a shameless, walking in such a way as won't bring shame or embarrassment. You can stand upright, stand tall before God because you're walking in a holy way. Working righteousness or justice, meaning that your actions are just, you don't do unjust things to people or unrighteous things.

Speaking the truth in his heart means that he is actually speaking the truth from his heart is another way that could be translated, saying essentially that he is a truth speaker and that he is not a deceiver. His heart agrees with what he's saying. It's something that comes from inside.

He that does not backbite with his tongue, which would be a gossip, would not be accepted in. Someone who backbites his neighbor or who does evil to his neighbor. Anyone who gossips or does some sin against his neighbor has got to be excluded.

Nor anyone who takes up a reproach against his neighbor. This could be translated as who casts a slur or who digs up something discreditable about his neighbor. That is, tries to bring some discredit or some kind of a slander upon his neighbor.

If a person is doing that, they disqualify. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned. Now, contempt is a word that is kind of unusual to us, but it means held in contempt.

It means that a person, he does not admire wicked people. He holds them in contempt. That doesn't mean he hates them exactly.

It simply means that he thinks of them as something low and something vile. He doesn't honor them. He doesn't honor the wicked.

He doesn't try to seek the favor of godless people. He doesn't seek to be friends with the world, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that swears to his own hurt and changeth not.

Swearing, of course, has to do with taking an oath, making a promise, binding yourself to some obligation. Now, it says he swears to his own hurt. What that means is he makes a commitment.

He binds himself with an oath to do something, but he doesn't realize at the time that he makes that commitment that it's going to hurt him more than he realizes. It's going to cost more than he thought. When you promise to do something for someone, then you realize it's going to take a lot more time or cost a lot more money than you thought you would.

Then you've sworn to your own hurt. You've made a commitment. You've sworn, but it has turned out to be to your own hurt, because it's going to cost you more than you wanted it to.

But he says the person who's going to dwell with God is one who swears to his own hurt and doesn't change. That is, he doesn't try to get out of it. He found out that he swore to his own hurt, but he goes ahead and keeps his commitment, even though it costs him more than he planned, more than he reckoned on.

He's loyal, then. He's faithful. He can be trusted.

He can be trusted that if he tells you he'll do something, he'll do it, even if it turns out to be more costly than he hoped or knew it would be. He'll still do it. He's a faithful person, or she is a faithful person.

A lot of times marriage is a good example of this. Most people, when they get married, of course, they're swearing. In a sense, they're taking oaths, vows.

They're swearing to be faithful for life and all that. But most people, when they're married, do not know what they're getting into. I mean, even people who've been married before don't know what they're getting into, because you really never get to know a person until you really live with them.

That's why a lot of heathens feel like it's better to live together unmarried, sort of a trial marriage, but that's, of course, against the rules. And the reason it's against the rules is that if you do live together with someone, you're likely to find out all the undesirable things and you won't marry them. The point of marriage is that God binds two people together, that he wants them to be together, so that they can't just split on each other when they find out they have a hard time getting along.

The fact that they have a hard time getting along is God's method of perfecting both of them. It brings trials upon each of them to change them and to bring them around to be more perfect people. But if they could just split off the marriage, then they wouldn't change.

And God so binds them together, and they very often learn things about each other after they're married that they never would have learned in a million years, just dating, because you don't learn certain things until you actually live together. So many people have found that they've sworn at the marriage altar, and it's turned out to be to their hurt, that is, their spouse turned out to be much worse a person than they planned. And almost every unhappy marriage is a case like this.

The people, when they got married, didn't think it was going to be unhappy. They thought it was going to be good and happy. Turned out there was something hidden, something that they later discovered.

They'd sworn to their own hurt, but they don't change. And if they keep their commitment, they're faithful. Even though they have found that their commitment got them into deeper trouble than they wanted or anticipated, yet they continue faithfully in it, because they did swear, therefore they'll keep their word.

Those are the kind of people. And also verse 5, he that does not put out his money to usury, which means interest. The Jews were permitted to charge interest on loans that were made to outsiders, to Gentiles.

But to fellow Jews, they were not permitted to charge interest on loans. This was largely to avoid rich people oppressing the poor. The people who need to borrow money are usually poor.

And sometimes a rich person would oppress the poor by charging interest. And if a poor Jew came up to a rich man and said, listen, I'm starving to death. My family needs clothes and food.

Could I borrow some money from you? He could say, yeah, you can borrow $10 from me, but you need to work for me or pay back to me $20. And the poor person was in a position, he had to go ahead and agree to it, because he needed that money so badly, so that the rich would oppress the poor that way. They would use their money to make money off the poor and exploit them.

Rich people usually didn't borrow money. It wasn't like our society where you buy everything on credit. It was like nowadays, you can buy things you can't afford.

And even if you're rich, you probably go into debt buying a house or a car or something like that. They didn't do that back then. Back then, they didn't buy all these things on credit.

The people who borrowed money were people who were hungry and needed to borrow money. But a rich man didn't ever borrow. In fact, it was a reproach to have to borrow.

It was humbling. It meant that God's blessing was not on you. That's why you had to borrow and not lend.

In fact, God had told the Jews that if they keep his laws, they will lend and not borrow to other nations. But you see, what the law of the Jews was given was that they could not oppress the poor with this kind of usury, with this kind of interest. And so he says, the man who doesn't do this, the man who doesn't lend his money out for interest, he's also qualified and who does not take reward against the innocent person.

That means he won't allow himself to be a false witness in court against an innocent person for some pay. He won't take money to be a false witness. So in other words, what is being said about the person who will be permitted to stay and fellowship with God continually, he does righteous things.

He doesn't hurt his neighbor either by doing evil or by black-botting or by taking up a reproach against him. He is faithful. He keeps his commitments, even if it's difficult to do so.

He does not exploit the poor. He lends money when people need it without charging interest. And he won't take any money in any way to do injustice to an innocent person.

And so these are the various things that David points out here. So we find that Psalm 15, like Psalm 24, gives us qualifications. Not just everybody can just kind of traipse into the presence of the Lord and hang out there.

You need to have a clean heart and clean hand to do so. Well, that ends this portion of our Psalms. And then when we got to Psalm 15, of course, we're no longer talking about Messianic Psalms.

But because Psalm 24 and Psalm 15 have these resemblances, it's justified, I thought, going into that one. When we come back to the subject, we will be probably not looking at Messianic Psalms particularly, but another group of Psalms. We will find there are other Messianic Psalms besides the ones that we've just covered.

We've only covered really probably seven or eight Psalms so far that were Messianic. There are many others, and there are many other parts of the Psalms that have statements that apply to Christ. But we'll just find those in the course of going through.

They are not instances where the whole Psalm is considered to be Messianic in most cases. So we'll close with that, and we've run a little over our time.