The Seventh Prediction Of The Promised One Gives Us Reason To Praise God Series

April 18, 2003 Psalm 22:22-31

22 I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. 23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! 24 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. 25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows. 26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him -- may your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. 29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him -- those who cannot keep themselves alive. 30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. 31 They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn -- for he has done it.

For the past six weeks we have been looking at predictions from Psalm 22 as to what would happen to Jesus. Up to this point, they haven’t been very cheery predictions. In vs. 1, David predicted that Jesus’ own Father - the only one He could truly trust - would forsake Him. In verse 6 we saw that Jesus would be like a worm, getting stepped on and despised by the people. Verse 12 followed that up with a prediction that the religious leaders would attack Jesus. There was some good news in verse 8, seeing how Jesus would remain in the faith even through the bad times - he wouldn’t give up. Yet verse 17 then went on to predict that Jesus would be crucified - sapping Him of any strength or courage that He may have had left.

If I told you that in your future you would be abandoned by your parents, hated by your country, and put to death as a rebel, you probably wouldn’t be to happy. It has been a depressing six weeks, as we have seen the abuse and torture that Jesus had to go through in fulfillment of this psalm. But David was just saving the best for last. Today we will look at the final nine verses of this Psalm - the seventh and final prediction of the Promised One. You will notice that there is a shift in attitude - a shift in spirit with these final verses. Instead of talking about the death of Jesus, it now shifts to Jesus’ life. Therefore, this Easter Sunday, we will see how

The Seventh Prediction of the Promised One Gives Us Reason To Praise God

I. Jesus Would Praise God

Just a few weeks ago the flu virus worked it’s way through Topeka. The schools almost had to be closed as many of the teachers and students were down and out. A good percentage of our congregation got it as well. This flu strain was so contagious that they would only allow close family members to come to the hospital to visit their loved ones. It was almost - you could say - out of control. When you have a flu virus that is so contagious, you suddenly become very conscious of who you talk with - realizing that you could give them a sickness that you don’t want them to have.

Do you realize that you are contagious every day? What do I mean by that? I mean that we are contagious in the way we act. Even if you don’t have a virus, your actions and attitude rub off on people. For instance, I never used to sing in church - hardly at all. But then when I went to college to be a pastor - all of the students were singing in a loud voice. I thought to myself, “I guess I could try that.” Ever since, I have sung in church. I was effected by the actions of my peers - since they did it I wanted to try it. People are naturally sheep - they want to follow - they want someone to imitate - and they do just that.

This happens every day in ways that we don’t even realize. Have you ever come back from work in a bad mood, only to end up having a rotten night at home? You wonder why your spouse isn’t talking or your children are crying - maybe it was because YOU brought that attitude home with you from work and it rubbed off on your family. This can happen in a negative and a positive way. If you are in a good mood, you can also manage to cheer up your family, though this is admittedly more difficult. Your attitude and actions, whether good or bad - are contagious.