OPEN: An anonymous son wrote the following observations about his mother. He said that:
His Mother taught him LOGIC...
She once asked: "If everyone else jumped off a cliff would you do it too?"
His Mother taught him MEDICINE...
"If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they’re going to freeze that way."
His Mother taught him how to BECOME AN ADULT...
"If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up.
His Mother taught him about GENETICS...
"You are just like your father!"
His Mother taught him about my ROOTS...
"Do you think you were born in a barn?"
His Mother taught him about the WISDOM of AGE...
"When you get to be my age, you will understand," AND "I’ll explain it all when you get older."
His Mother taught him about ANTICIPATION...
"Just wait until your father gets home."
And the all time favorite thing his Mother taught him - JUSTICE
"One day you will have kids, & I hope they turn out just like you. Then you’ll see what it’s like!"
APPLY: As I was looking for a passage for preach for Mother’s Day, this Psalm caught my attention. What impressed me as I read it was the apparent connection between what mothers taught us and what we now believe about God.
Look with me at verses 9-10. Talking to God, the Psalmist says “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.”
Notice, the psalmist doesn’t talk about the faith he gained at his FATHER’S knee. Noooo, he’s telling us – about the depth of his faith he found when he was with his mother.
ILLUS: There was a recent study reported in the October 2004 issue of “Psychological Science” that showed that Children who have the good fortune to interact with their mothers a lot develop healthier consciences. In that article they said that toddlers were encouraged to imitate their mothers in such simple actions as playing tea party/tending to a stuffed animal.
In that part of the experiment the researchers graded the children based on their readiness to imitate what they observed. Then, in subsequent sessions, they evaluated those same children as they were enticed with prizes for games they could win only by cheating or breaking an object that had some value to them. What the researchers found was that toddlers who eagerly imitated their mothers were more likely to follow the rules and were more likely to exhibit a sense of guilt when they broke something.
One person (commenting on that research) stated that God has placed our conscience within us to monitor our behavior. The conscience is like a thermostat, but mothers apparently help us define the settings.
There are things that children learn from their mothers - that they cannot learn anywhere else.
Here in Psalm 22, the psalmist is telling us how critical his mother’s influence was for him.
· He tells how life had become almost unbearable for him. He’s been rejected and people have mocked him. He has seen and experienced how unfair life can be. And ultimately he’s come to believe that God wasn’t near to him anymore. That maybe God had even left him.
He’s filled with despair and hopelessness… and his world is falling to pieces around him. It’s in the midst of his misery he remembers the lessons he learned from his mother. And what might he have learn from his momma?
Well, Psalms 22:10 says that “From (his) birth (he) was cast upon (God)”. In other words, his mother raised him to look to God. She raised him to lean on God for strength and hope.
ILLUS: They say that Susannah Wesley (the mother of two great evangelists of the day – John Wesley and Charles Wesley) spent one hour each day praying for her 17 children. In addition, she took each child aside for a full hour every week to discuss spiritual matters.
Because of her faithfulness in pointing her children toward God John and Charles Wesley grew up to make a powerful mark on the culture of their day.
Here are a few rules she followed in training her children:
1. She rewarded politeness and good behavior. And she punished any sign of stubbornness and selfishness in her children
2. She taught her children to pray as soon as they could speak.
3. If she made a promise to her child… she kept it.
4. And if a child freely confessed a sin, she didn’t punish him. But rebellious behavior was always quickly dealt with.
The point is: she took her responsibility as a Godly mother seriously. And she saw her role in influencing her children for Christ as crucial.
ILLUS: Davida Dalton in “Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul” wrote that one particular day in her life had been particularly hectic. Now, she had 10 children… and had one on the way. But this particular morning was more trying that others, because her son Len (who was 3 at the time) was on her heels no matter where she went.
Whenever she stopped to do something and turned back around, she would trip over him. Several times she patiently suggested fun activities to keep him occupied.
“Wouldn’t you like to play on the swing set?” she asked again.
But he simply smiled and said, “Oh, that’s all right, Mommy. I’d rather be in here with you.” then he just bounced happily along behind her.
After stepping on his toes for the 5th time, she began to lose her patience and insisted that he go outside and play with the other children. When she asked him why he was acting this way, he looked up at her with his sweet green eyes and said: “Well, Mommy, in Sunday School my teacher told me to walk in Jesus’ footsteps. But I can’t see him, so I’m walking in yours.”
Now that psychological study we mentioned earlier revealed that sometimes all a mom has to do is just play with her kids and her children can grasp some very powerful lessons of life. But the writer of Psalm 22 tells us that his mother went further than that. This mother actively “cast her child upon God”. And BECAUSE she was so faithful in this, her efforts she kept her son from tumbling over into despair and kept him from giving up on life.
Notice how he reasons. Look with me to Psalms 22:14-16
He starts by saying: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.”…
So he is describing how filled with despair he has become. But then, even though he is overwhelmed by the turmoil and tragedy of the moment… EVEN THEN he still looks to God for his help.
He writes: “But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.” Psalms 22:19-20
But that’s not all. After he prays for deliverance… and BEFORE anything ever changes in his life, he says: “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” Psalms 22:22-24
What’s going on here?
How can he shift from despair and hopelessness to an attitude of praise and worship?
BECAUSE his mother taught him about God.
* She taught him that God was powerful and worthy of praise. He writes: “… you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.” Psalms 22:3
* And she told him the stories of what God had done for others in the past: “In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.” Psalms 22:4-5
You see, THAT’S the advantage of a Godly mother. She instills the power of faith into her children. And that power of faith gives her kids courage and hope when life goes sour. Because there will be a time when life goes south
Jesus told us “In this world you will have trouble…”
And when that trouble comes they’ll have to handle that discouragement all alone…
… all alone except for God.
And that is what Godly mothers prepare their children for.
Now, this truth alone would make Psalm 22 a powerful lesson for us. The very concept that mothers can give their children hope and a harsh world is the type of encouragement we need as Christians parents.
But we’ve only scratched the surface here. Because Psalm 22 is what is known as a Messianic Psalm. It talks about Jesus. It describes (in pretty good detail) much of what took place at Calvary.
Verse 1 is quoted by Jesus as He’s dying on the cross
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Verse 15 tells of the torment He endured
”My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.”
Verse 16 tells how He was to be executed:
“Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.”
And Verses 7 & 8 describe the attitude of the crowds at the foot of the cross
“All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: “He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’”
I got to thinking this and I became a little puzzled. Here we have a Psalm that tells the story of a man struggling with despair… and ultimately triumphing over that despair with praise and hope. And in the midst of this Psalm God literally hides the story of Christ’s death on the cross.
And I got to thinking… why would He do that? Why put these two stories together?
And then I realized…
… in this world we will have trouble.
… in this world we will face opposition and disappointment.
… in this world we will encounter hardship, and pain and death.
Just like that guy in the Psalm
In fact Jesus said this would happen: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble….”
But that’s not all Jesus said about the matter. Right after Jesus tells His disciples they will have troubles in this world, He declares: “But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
OK… so WHERE did Jesus overcome the world? He did it on the cross.
Now this is where it gets good. An Old Testament mother taught her son about the power and providence of God. But no matter how much she would teach this truth to her son the God she told him about was always somewhat distant. His power was that of an all-powerful ruler who sat high in the heavens. This was a God who might care for the child… but it wasn’t a God who really seemed to understand his troubles. God was UP there… and the man was DOWN here.
But at the cross that all changed.
At the cross, God came down.
At the cross God took on the form of a mortals… like you and I
And at the cross God suffered, God was rejected, God was beaten, God was placed on a cruel cross and nails were driven thru His feet and His hands… and He died.
What Psalm 22 is saying is that the promised the Messiah was going to experience all the despair and misery and pain that you and I face in this world. And in that experience God showed us how much He really cared for us.
As one person once noted:
Someone asked God how much He cared for him and God spread out His arms on the cross and said “This much.”
Jesus went thru the valley of the shadow of death… so that when we find ourselves in that same valley we’ll know we’re not there alone.
CLOSE: That is the advantage a Christian mother has over even the most Godly mother of the Old Testament. The Christian mother can point to a God - so powerful He could experience the turmoils of life who faced suffering, rejection, and even death… and He conquered it all because death would not hold Him.
And she can point to a God who went thru all that because He loved us.
Psalm 22 is a powerful chapter in Scripture… but I believe it’s greatest power is in reminding us of our potential as parents - especially as mothers to prepare our children for the difficulties of life. To give them most powerful tool for overcoming despair.
And that is – the story of a God who cares so much for us… and for our children… that He gave HIS only begotten child… to die on the cross for us and our children.
