Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Wisdom of the Psalms for Everyday Life | Bob Deffinbaugh

Transcript

The Wisdom of the Psalms for Everyday Life | Bob Deffinbaugh · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We are really glad you're
• 0:03
  joining us for this deep dive today.
• 0:05
  Yes, thank you for tuning in. We have a lot of heavy material
• 0:07
  to unpack today. We.
• 0:08
  Do Our source material for this session is an excerpt from Bob
• 0:12
  Defenbaugh's work, Wisdom Literature The Psalms, Part 2.
• 0:16
  And the primary mission of our time together is to look at how
• 0:19
  Jesus Christ was not some passive victim of circumstances
• 0:24
  during his final week. Right.
• 0:25
  He was the sovereign active orchestrator of his own death.
• 0:29
  He used the Old Testament Messianic Psalms as his literal
• 0:33
  script. He's a massive concept to wrap
• 0:35
  your mind around. It really is.
• 0:37
  I want to start by asking you to imagine sitting in a quiet,
• 0:40
  reverent church service. The room is still, and the
• 0:44
  elements of the Lord's Supper are being passed down the
• 0:46
  aisles. I can picture that is a very
• 0:48
  solemn environment. So suddenly someone stumbles.
• 0:51
  A communion tray slips from their hands and hits the ground.
• 0:54
  Dozens of little cups. Shatter abounds.
• 0:56
  Oh wow, that is a terrible feeling.
• 0:58
  Yeah, dark purple grape juice splashes everywhere, soaking
• 1:01
  rapidly into the carpet. It is an awkward, embarrassing
• 1:04
  accident. A spill.
• 1:06
  Which is an uncomfortable thing to witness.
• 1:08
  It is. But what if I told you that
• 1:11
  viewing the blood of Jesus Christ as a spill is one of the
• 1:15
  most dangerous theological errors a Christian can make?
• 1:18
  That is a very strong statement to make.
• 1:21
  Well, it comes straight from our source material.
• 1:23
  Deffenbaugh shares that specific anecdote about a man named
• 1:27
  Martin Ball who was in a congregation when a tray hit the
• 1:30
  floor. I recall that story.
• 1:32
  It is a striking illustration. Yeah, after the service, Ball
• 1:35
  pointed out that what they had just witnessed was an accident.
• 1:38
  The juice was spilled. Right, because nobody meant to
• 1:40
  drop it. Precisely.
• 1:42
  But then he noted a critical distinction.
• 1:44
  He said Christians sometimes talk about the blood of the Lord
• 1:46
  Jesus Christ in that same way, saying his blood was spilled.
• 1:50
  Which implies a lack of control. Yes, Ball corrected that notion
• 1:54
  on the spot. He said Christ's blood was never
• 1:56
  spilled. It was poured out.
• 1:58
  That is a huge theological distinction.
• 2:00
  I. Agree.
• 2:01
  A spill is an accident. The shedding of our Lord's blood
• 2:04
  was no accident. It was His specific purpose to
• 2:07
  die pouring out His blood as a priest, pouring an offering to
• 2:11
  atone for the sins of His people.
• 2:13
  That distinction sets the theological framework for our
• 2:17
  entire conversation today. How so?
• 2:19
  Well, when you observe how many people view the crucifixion, you
• 2:23
  often find a subtle yet massive theological error regarding the
• 2:28
  nature of Christ's work. You're talking about how people
• 2:31
  see him as a victim. Yes, many individuals look at
• 2:34
  the cross as a tragedy where Jesus, after a long ministry,
• 2:38
  was finally overcome by his enemies.
• 2:40
  Like things just escalated rapidly and got out of hand.
• 2:43
  Right. Or, on the other hand, some
• 2:45
  believers recognize that God the Father decreed these events to
• 2:49
  fulfill prophecy, but they still view Jesus himself as a
• 2:52
  relatively passive participant. Meaning they think he was just
• 2:55
  swept along by the current of that divine decree, quietly
• 2:59
  enduring the cross. Precisely.
• 3:01
  But what the source material clarifies, bringing us back to
• 3:04
  the heart of Reformed theology and the Westminster Confession,
• 3:07
  is the act of obedience of Christ.
• 3:08
  He was purposefully directing the events.
• 3:10
  Yes, he was not a victim caught in a snare set by the Sanhedrin.
• 3:14
  He built the snare, walked into it on his own terms, and used
• 3:17
  the rebellion of sinful men to accomplish the salvation of His
• 3:21
  elect. I love that framing, but if we
• 3:24
  establish that Jesus was in complete sovereign control of
• 3:27
  the situation, we have to look at the practical mechanics of
• 3:30
  how he actually executed this control.
• 3:33
  Because his enemies had their own highly developed plans.
• 3:36
  Yes, exactly. I mean they were intelligent,
• 3:38
  cunning men. So how does a person in the
• 3:41
  position of Jesus force the hand of the most influential
• 3:45
  political leaders in Jerusalem? It is a fascinating strategic
• 3:49
  question. I think the best way to
• 3:50
  visualize this for you, the listener, is to look at Jesus in
• 3:54
  his final week as a chess grandmaster.
• 3:57
  That is a very helpful analogy. The Jewish religious leaders
• 4:00
  were sitting across the board from him.
• 4:02
  They thought they were playing their own game, advancing their
• 4:04
  own pieces, setting their own traps.
• 4:06
  They thought they controlled the tempo right.
• 4:09
  But Jesus, acting with divine sovereignty, restricted their
• 4:12
  options and forced them into specific predicted moves to
• 4:16
  achieve a checkmate that have been planned centuries prior.
• 4:19
  We see this friction most clearly when we look at the
• 4:22
  clashing schedules between the religious leaders and the divine
• 4:25
  script. The timelines were completely at
• 4:27
  odds with each other. They really were.
• 4:29
  According to the source material, the religious leaders
• 4:32
  resolved to kill Jesus right after he raised Lazarus from the
• 4:36
  dead in John Chapter 11. The crowds were enthusiastic
• 4:39
  about Lazarus and the Pharisees panicked.
• 4:42
  Right. They feared the Romans would see
• 4:44
  this massive gathering around a new king, intervene with
• 4:47
  military force and take away their temple and their nation.
• 4:50
  That is when Caiaphas made his cynical, pragmatic statement
• 4:54
  that it was better for one man to die for the people.
• 4:57
  Yes. So the Sanhedrin formed their
• 4:59
  plan. Their strategy was logical.
• 5:03
  They wanted to arrest him secretly, avoid the Passover
• 5:06
  feast entirely, and execute him quietly when nobody was looking.
• 5:10
  They wanted to avoid a riot among the massive crowds.
• 5:13
  Precisely. The Sanhedrin strategy was sound
• 5:15
  from a political perspective. They wanted to minimize risk,
• 5:18
  but their schedule fundamentally conflicted with the divine
• 5:21
  schedule. Because the Old Testament
• 5:22
  required the Messiah to die publicly.
• 5:24
  Yes, and he had to die specifically during the
• 5:27
  Passover, acting as the ultimate Passover lamb.
• 5:30
  So the grandmaster makes a deliberate counter.
• 5:33
  He does. Jesus kept his whereabouts
• 5:36
  entirely hidden from the Jewish leaders and surprisingly, even
• 5:39
  from his own disciples, right up to the Last Supper.
• 5:43
  That is a wild detail to think about.
• 5:45
  He did not let Judas know where they would be eating the
• 5:48
  Passover meal until the absolute last minute.
• 5:51
  Right. He told his disciples to go into
• 5:53
  the city, find a certain man carrying a jar of water, and
• 5:56
  follow him. By keeping this location secret,
• 6:00
  Jesus prevented his enemies from arresting him before the feast
• 6:03
  began. He completely blocked the
• 6:05
  Sanhedrin's preferred timeline. He did.
• 6:08
  They wanted it done before the crowds arrived, but Jesus denied
• 6:11
  them the opportunity by staying out of their grasp until the
• 6:14
  festival was fully underway. The psychological pressure
• 6:17
  that's put on Judas is fascinating to consider.
• 6:19
  Think about the tension Judas must have felt in that moment.
• 6:22
  It had to be immense. He had already made his bargain
• 6:24
  with the chief priests. He took the silver.
• 6:27
  He was looking for the right opportunity to hand Jesus over
• 6:30
  privately. But Jesus gave him zero
• 6:32
  opportunity to slip away, right? Then, while they are gathered in
• 6:36
  the upper room for the Passover meal, Jesus forces the issue on
• 6:40
  the board. He tells the disciples that one
• 6:43
  of them will betray him. And when Judas asks if it is
• 6:46
  him, Jesus identifies him directly.
• 6:48
  He does. He says the one who has dipped
• 6:50
  his hand into the bowl with me will betray me by exposing Judas
• 6:54
  right there at the table. Jesus forced Judas to flee into
• 6:58
  the night. Judas was in a terrible physical
• 7:01
  and social position at that moment.
• 7:02
  He could not stay in that room. The other disciples would have
• 7:06
  turned on him instantly. Peter was armed and we know
• 7:09
  Peter was highly willing to use his sword.
• 7:11
  So Judas had to act immediately. Yes, right at the start of
• 7:14
  Passover, utterly breaking the quiet, delayed timeline the
• 7:18
  religious leaders had established, Jesus set the stage
• 7:21
  for his own arrest at the place and time of his choosing.
• 7:24
  That forces the religious leaders into a state of panic
• 7:27
  because Judas comes to them during the feast, they have to
• 7:29
  abandon their delayed timeline and act immediately.
• 7:32
  But the Grandmaster's control extends beyond just the timing
• 7:36
  right? It dictates the very method of
• 7:37
  execution. It does.
• 7:39
  The script required a specific type of death.
• 7:42
  The source material references Galatians Chapter 3, verse 13.
• 7:46
  Which states that Christ redeemed us from the curse of
• 7:49
  the law by becoming a curse for us.
• 7:52
  Because it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.
• 7:55
  The Messiah had to be crucified to bear the curse.
• 7:58
  But the Jewish penalty for blasphemy was stoning, right?
• 8:01
  We know from the Mosaic Law that stoning was the required method
• 8:04
  for dealing with a false prophet or blasphemer.
• 8:07
  And the religious leaders had already attempted to stone Jesus
• 8:10
  on multiple occasions, such as in John chapter 8 and John
• 8:14
  chapter 10. They picked up rocks to crush
• 8:16
  him, but they were never successful because his hour had
• 8:19
  not yet come. So Jesus had to force the
• 8:21
  religious leaders to abandon their traditional, legally
• 8:23
  prescribed method of execution and adopt A foreign method.
• 8:27
  Which meant they had to bring the Romans into the picture.
• 8:29
  And the Jewish leaders despise the Romans.
• 8:32
  The Zealots and the general Jewish populace were hoping for
• 8:35
  a Messiah to overthrow Roman occupation.
• 8:38
  They definitely were not hoping for their own religious leaders
• 8:41
  to partner with Rome to execute a Jewish teacher.
• 8:44
  But because Jesus engineered his own arrest during the incredibly
• 8:47
  crowded Passover feast, the religious leaders were terrified
• 8:51
  of a massive riot. In their previous attempts to
• 8:54
  arrest Jesus, they had sent temple guards who came back
• 8:57
  empty handed, mesmerized by his teaching.
• 9:00
  They knew they could not afford to fail this time.
• 9:02
  To ensure the arrest went smoothly in the middle of a
• 9:04
  crowded city at night, they needed serious military backing.
• 9:09
  They needed the Roman cohort. Yes, by forcing the timeline
• 9:13
  into the Passover window, Jesus forced the Jewish leaders into a
• 9:16
  bizarre, unholy alliance. The Pharisees, the Sadducees and
• 9:20
  the Romans all had to cooperate. And because they involve the
• 9:23
  Romans, they had to ask the Roman governor Pilot for
• 9:26
  permission to put Jesus to death.
• 9:28
  Since Rome did not execute people by stoning, the execution
• 9:32
  would default to a Roman crucifixion.
• 9:34
  Which Florida State fulfills the ancient requirement of hanging
• 9:37
  on a tree? It is an incredible sequence of
• 9:40
  events, but if Jesus is orchestrating all of this so
• 9:44
  perfectly, we have to ask a natural follow up question for
• 9:47
  you listening. What is that?
• 9:49
  What precisely was the script He was following, and why did the
• 9:52
  Pharisees fail to catch on to what he was doing?
• 9:55
  That is a great question. I mean, these were men who
• 9:58
  dedicated their entire lives to memorizing these exact texts.
• 10:01
  Exactly. I mean, sorry, you are totally
• 10:03
  right. This requires an examination of
• 10:05
  messianic psalms. When we look at the authorship
• 10:07
  of these psalms, we find that most of them were penned by
• 10:10
  David. And David's experiences as
• 10:12
  Israel's king made him a living prototype for the coming
• 10:15
  Messiah. Yes, he suffered betrayal and
• 10:18
  faced constant military and political opposition.
• 10:21
  The Davidic covenant promised that a descendant of David would
• 10:24
  sit on the throne forever, establishing an eternal Kingdom.
• 10:27
  So it makes logical theological sense that David was the one
• 10:31
  prophesying about the experiences of the ultimate
• 10:33
  king. Yet, as the source points out,
• 10:36
  neither David nor the ancient Israelites viewed these writings
• 10:39
  as literal prophecies at the time they were written.
• 10:42
  They really did not. The Jewish people in the Old
• 10:45
  Testament era, and even during the earthly ministry of Jesus,
• 10:48
  we're entirely blind to the concept of a suffering Savior.
• 10:52
  They anticipated A conquering king who would crush their
• 10:55
  enemies, expel the Romans and restore the geopolitical glory
• 10:59
  of Israel. They did not anticipate a king
• 11:01
  who would be crushed by his own people.
• 11:03
  First, Peter chapter 1 mentions that the prophets who predicted
• 11:06
  this grace searched and investigated carefully.
• 11:09
  They were trying to figure out what person or time the spirit
• 11:12
  of Christ in them was indicating.
• 11:14
  Even the closest disciples missed it.
• 11:16
  When Jesus first predicted his own death in Matthew chapter 16,
• 11:20
  Peter pulled him aside and rebuked him.
• 11:22
  Peter literally said God forbid Lord, this must not happen to
• 11:25
  you. The disciples were thoroughly
• 11:26
  convinced the script was about a political revolution.
• 11:29
  They had no category for a crucified king.
• 11:32
  So to understand how a Psalm about Davidde earthly distressed
• 11:35
  becomes a literal prophecy about Jesus, we need to unpack the
• 11:40
  theological mechanism of dual fulfillment.
• 11:43
  Yes, specifically focusing on how prophetic hyperbole
• 11:46
  functions in the text. Let us look at the mechanics of
• 11:48
  Psalms 22 and 69. In these psalms, David is
• 11:53
  describing his own intense personal distress.
• 11:57
  He is surrounded by political enemies, and to express his
• 12:01
  anguish he uses heavy dramatic, poetic exaggeration.
• 12:05
  He talks about his bones being pulled out of joint, about his
• 12:08
  enemies staring and gloating over him.
• 12:10
  He talks about being given poison for food and vinegar for
• 12:13
  his thirst. For David, this was poetic
• 12:15
  language. His bones were not literally
• 12:17
  dislocated. No, they were not.
• 12:19
  He was using acceptable poetic description for an earthly king
• 12:23
  in severe emotional and political distress.
• 12:25
  But the reality of the text goes far beyond David's immediate
• 12:29
  situation it. Absolutely, absolutely does.
• 12:31
  If you are listening to this and wondering how poetic
• 12:32
  exaggeration translates into literal prophecy, the source
• 12:36
  material provides a brilliant comparison to help you grasp the
• 12:38
  mechanics of this concept. It points to Isaiah chapter 14
• 12:41
  and Ezekiel chapter 28. If you read Isaiah 14 at first
• 12:45
  glance, the prophet begins by addressing the human king of
• 12:48
  Babylon. The text says look how the
• 12:50
  oppressor has met his end. Hostility has ceased.
• 12:53
  It describes the human king falling from political power.
• 12:57
  It seems like a straightforward judgement on a contemporary
• 13:00
  ruler. But very quickly the language
• 13:02
  escalates and breaks the boundaries of human description.
• 13:06
  Suddenly the text says, Look how you have fallen from the sky, O
• 13:09
  shining one son of the Dawn. You said to yourself, I will
• 13:13
  climb up to the sky. I will make myself like the Most
• 13:16
  High. That language goes far beyond
• 13:19
  the ambition or the fall of any mortal king.
• 13:22
  The focus shifts seamlessly from the earthly king of Babylon to a
• 13:27
  literal description of Satan himself.
• 13:29
  The exact same mechanism operates in Ezekiel 28, doesn't
• 13:32
  it? It says the prophet begins by
• 13:34
  pronouncing A lament over the human king of Tyre, criticizing
• 13:38
  his pride and his well. But then the text elevates
• 13:41
  drastically. It says you were in Eden, the
• 13:43
  Garden of God. I placed you as an anointed
• 13:45
  cherub which guards you were blameless in your conduct from
• 13:49
  the day you were created until iniquity was found in you.
• 13:51
  Again, the human king takes on Satan like qualities.
• 13:55
  The text transitions from earthly politics into pure
• 13:58
  prophecy about the spiritual reality behind the earthly
• 14:01
  throne. In these prophetic moments, the
• 14:03
  author starts in the earthly realm describing a current
• 14:06
  event, but the Holy Spirit elevates the language until it
• 14:10
  describes a massive overarching spiritual reality.
• 14:14
  This is precisely what happens in the messianic Psalms.
• 14:17
  The Psalms begin with David's earthly suffering, using poetic
• 14:20
  exaggeration to describe his pain.
• 14:23
  But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the language
• 14:26
  elevates into pure literal prophecy regarding the Messiah.
• 14:30
  The descriptions that were poetic exaggeration for David
• 14:33
  became literal physical reality for Jesus Christ on the cross of
• 14:38
  Calvary. His bones were literally out of
• 14:40
  joint. He was literally offered
• 14:41
  vinegar. The fascinating reality here is
• 14:44
  that Jesus was the only person alive who recognized these
• 14:47
  psalms as his personal set of instructions.
• 14:49
  He read the songs of David, look through the poetic hyperbole,
• 14:52
  and recognize his own face in the text.
• 14:55
  He knew this is about me. He was the singular reader of
• 14:57
  the script, fully aware of the agonizing role he was required
• 15:00
  to play. If we know Jesus was the
• 15:02
  singular reader of this script, we need to observe the script in
• 15:06
  action under the most extreme pressure imaginable.
• 15:09
  How did Jesus recite his lines while enduring the trial and the
• 15:12
  physical torture of the crucifixion?
• 15:14
  We see the Grandmaster making his moves vividly during the
• 15:18
  trial before the high Priest in Matthew chapter 26.
• 15:21
  The Sanhedrin had gathered false witnesses, but their testimonies
• 15:24
  did not agree. And Jesus remained completely
• 15:27
  silent, refusing to validate the illegal proceedings.
• 15:30
  Finally, the high priest, deeply frustrated, commands him
• 15:34
  underoath by the living God, to declare if he is the Christ, the
• 15:38
  Son of God. Jesus breaks his silence, but he
• 15:41
  does not just give a simple yes, he quotes Scripture.
• 15:44
  He says you have said it yourself, but I tell you, from
• 15:47
  now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of
• 15:50
  the Almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven.
• 15:52
  Let us unpack the immense weight of what Jesus is doing in that
• 15:55
  moment. He's a combining Psalm 110 verse
• 15:58
  one with Daniel Chapter 7 verse 13.
• 16:01
  Psalm 110 says the Lord said to my Lord, sit down at my right
• 16:05
  hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
• 16:07
  The theological friction here is staggering.
• 16:10
  Jesus is standing there as a prisoner.
• 16:13
  He is bound. He's been beaten.
• 16:15
  He is facing imminent execution. The men sitting in judgement
• 16:19
  over him hold all the earthly authority.
• 16:22
  Yet by using this specific Messianic Psalm, he is looking
• 16:26
  directly at his earthly judges and telling them that the roles
• 16:29
  will soon be reversed. He is informing them that he
• 16:32
  will return as their ultimate judge and that they, the High
• 16:35
  Priest and the Sanhedrin will become the footstool for his
• 16:38
  feet. He uses the script to assert
• 16:40
  absolute sovereign authority in the middle of a trial where he
• 16:43
  appeared to have 0 leverage. He looked at the board, saw the
• 16:47
  Sanhedrin's pieces surrounding him, and declared check.
• 16:50
  Then the scene shifts to Golgotha and we see the
• 16:53
  meticulous fulfilment of the Psalms in the agonizing giving
• 16:56
  physical details of the crucifixion.
• 16:57
  The Grandmaster forces the fulfillment of every minor
• 17:00
  detail. Matthew chapter 27 records that
• 17:03
  they offer Jesus wine mixed with gall to drink.
• 17:05
  This is a direct fulfillment of Psalm 69 verse 21, where the
• 17:09
  psalmist writes they put a poisonous herb into my food, and
• 17:13
  to quench my thirst they give me vinegar to drink.
• 17:15
  After nailing him to the wood, the Roman soldiers divided his
• 17:18
  clothes by throwing dice. This fulfills Psalm 22, verse
• 17:22
  18. It says they are dividing up my
• 17:25
  clothes among themselves. They are rolling dice for my
• 17:27
  garments. The Roman soldiers had no
• 17:30
  knowledge of Jewish poetry. They were simply dividing the
• 17:33
  spoils of an executed criminal according to their.
• 17:36
  Customs. Yet they were acting as pawns on
• 17:38
  the board, fulfilling a script written hundreds of years before
• 17:41
  they were born. One of the most striking, almost
• 17:44
  terrifying details of the crucifixion is the mockery of
• 17:47
  the crowd. It is a dark scene.
• 17:49
  Matthew records the chief priests, the experts in the law
• 17:52
  and the elders standing at the foot of the cross mocking him.
• 17:56
  They say he trusts in God. Let God, if He wants to, deliver
• 18:00
  him now. They think they're being clever.
• 18:02
  They think they have won the intellectual and political
• 18:05
  victory. But they are unwittingly quoting
• 18:07
  Psalm 22 verses 7 and 8. Which says all who see me taunt
• 18:11
  me. They mock me and shake their
• 18:13
  heads. They say, commit yourself to the
• 18:15
  Lord, Let the Lord rescue him, let the Lord deliver him, for he
• 18:19
  delights in him. The dark irony here is
• 18:22
  breathtaking. The religious leaders, the men
• 18:25
  who pride themselves on being experts in the scriptures, are
• 18:28
  standing at the foot of the cross mocking the true Messiah.
• 18:32
  And they're using the exact words of the script that
• 18:34
  condemns them. They are fulfilling biblical
• 18:36
  prophecy with their own insults. They're reading their assigned
• 18:40
  lines without even knowing they are in the play.
• 18:42
  The Grandmaster's control extends all the way to the
• 18:44
  physical state of his body after death.
• 18:47
  The Romans had a standard military procedure for
• 18:49
  crucifixion called curaphragium. Yes, to hasten the death of the
• 18:53
  victims, especially before the Sabbath began, the soldiers
• 18:57
  would take a heavy mallet and shatter the victims legs.
• 19:00
  This prevented the crucified men from pushing themselves up to
• 19:03
  expand their lungs, leading to rapid asphyxiation.
• 19:07
  John chapter 19 tells us that the soldiers broke the legs of
• 19:10
  the two criminals crucified on either side of Jesus.
• 19:13
  But when they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, so
• 19:17
  they did not break his legs. Instead, a soldier pierced his
• 19:20
  side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
• 19:24
  John specifically points out that this happened so the
• 19:27
  scripture would be fulfilled, not a bone of his will be
• 19:30
  broken. Which relates to the strict
• 19:32
  requirements for the Passover lamb in Exodus and another
• 19:35
  scripture from Zechariah that says they will look on the one
• 19:38
  whom they have pierced. Jesus laid down his life,
• 19:42
  yielding His Spirit at the precise moment necessary to
• 19:45
  ensure His bones remained intact, fulfilling the
• 19:48
  requirements for the true Passover lamb.
• 19:51
  Then we reach the climax of the crucifixion.
• 19:53
  At about 3:00 in the afternoon, darkness covers the land and
• 19:57
  Jesus cries out. With a loud voice.
• 19:59
  He says Eli Eli Lemma Sabakhthani.
• 20:03
  Which translates to My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• 20:07
  We find this in Matthew chapter 27.
• 20:09
  Many people read the specific moment as a lapse in control.
• 20:12
  They view it as a moment of absolute despair, a moment where
• 20:15
  Jesus was finally overwhelmed by the darkness and the pain,
• 20:18
  crying out and confusion. But reading this through the
• 20:21
  lens of the messianic Psalms changes everything about how we
• 20:24
  understand that cry. Jesus is quoting the exact
• 20:26
  Hebrew text of the very first line of Psalm 22.
• 20:29
  By quoting Psalm 22, verse one, Jesus is doing something
• 20:33
  incredibly deliberate. Even while suffocating under the
• 20:37
  weight of the sins of his people, he is acting as the
• 20:40
  orchestrator. He is publicly identifying
• 20:42
  himself with the suffering psalmist.
• 20:44
  He is declaring to anyone standing there who knows the
• 20:47
  Scriptures that he is the fulfillment of this entire
• 20:49
  Psalm. He is claiming the identity of
• 20:51
  the promised Messiah. It is the ultimate public
• 20:54
  declaration of identity, not a loss of control.
• 20:57
  He is pointing the audience to the.
• 21:00
  The heavy tragedy of that moment is that the bystanders entirely
• 21:04
  missed the reference. Their theological blindness
• 21:06
  remained. They thought he was calling for
• 21:08
  the prophet Elijah to come rescue him.
• 21:10
  They completely failed to recognize the script he was
• 21:13
  reciting with his final breath. The script, however, does not
• 21:16
  end in a borrowed tomb. The Grandmaster strategy
• 21:19
  requires a final, undeniable victory.
• 21:21
  We have to transition from the agony of Friday to the divine
• 21:25
  requirement of Sunday. We need to look closely at how
• 21:28
  the early church understood this through Peter's sermon in Acts
• 21:30
  chapter 2. The source material points out
• 21:33
  that it was only after the resurrection that the disciples
• 21:36
  minds were opened to finally understand the Psalms.
• 21:39
  Luke chapter 24 records Jesus appearing to them after rising
• 21:43
  from the dead. He says these are my words that
• 21:46
  I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything
• 21:48
  written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the
• 21:51
  Psalms must be fulfilled. Once Jesus physically opened
• 21:54
  their minds to the reality of the script, the Psalm shifted
• 21:57
  from confusing poetry to the primary preaching text for the
• 22:01
  apostles. We see this newfound
• 22:02
  understanding practically applied in Peter's bold sermon
• 22:06
  on the day of Pentecost. Peter stands up before a massive
• 22:09
  crowd in Jerusalem and makes a brilliant, logically airtight
• 22:13
  argument from Psalm 16. He quotes David saying, I saw
• 22:17
  the Lord always in front of me. You will not leave my soul in
• 22:19
  Hades, nor permit your Holy One to experience decay.
• 22:23
  Peter then presents a logical puzzle to the crowd.
• 22:26
  He says, brothers, I can speak confidently to you about our
• 22:28
  forefather David, that he both died and was buried and his tomb
• 22:32
  is with us to this day. The logic Peter uses here is
• 22:35
  brilliant. It is airtight.
• 22:37
  If you ask the question how do we know David was not just
• 22:40
  talking about his own deliverance in Psalm 16?
• 22:42
  Peter answers it by pointing to the physical reality of David's
• 22:46
  tune. Which was located right there in
• 22:48
  the city. David died.
• 22:50
  David was buried. David's physical body
• 22:52
  experienced decay. Therefore, David had to be
• 22:55
  speaking about someone else. Because David was a prophet who
• 22:59
  knew God had sworn an oath to seat one of his descendants on
• 23:02
  his throne eternally, David was foreseeing and speaking about
• 23:06
  the physical resurrection of the Christ.
• 23:08
  The resurrection was not just an impressive miracle designed to
• 23:11
  prove Jesus was divine. It was a strict biblical
• 23:14
  necessity. The Davidic covenant required a
• 23:17
  king who would rule forever. No human king could rule
• 23:21
  eternally unless he was entirely free from the bondage of death.
• 23:24
  God could not abandon His Son to the grave without breaking His
• 23:28
  covenant with David. Building on that necessity,
• 23:31
  Peter drives his sermon toward a dramatic, inescapable conclusion
• 23:35
  using Psalm 110 once again. He says, For David did not
• 23:39
  ascend into heaven, but he himself says, The Lord said to
• 23:43
  my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a
• 23:46
  footstool for your feet. The source material paraphrases
• 23:49
  Peter's message in a way that highlights the immense gravity
• 23:53
  of the situation for the people listening.
• 23:55
  Peter is essentially presenting them with two realities.
• 23:58
  The good news is that Jesus of Nazareth, the man they
• 24:01
  crucified, is alive. The terrifying news is that he
• 24:04
  is currently seated at the right hand of God, waiting to deal
• 24:07
  with his enemies. And who are the enemies Peter is
• 24:10
  talking to in that moment? The very the audience standing
• 24:13
  there listening to him preach. The people who just weeks prior
• 24:18
  had called for his crucifixion. The people who stood in the
• 24:21
  courtyard and shouted Crucify him.
• 24:23
  Peter looks directly at them and says, God has made this Jesus,
• 24:27
  whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
• 24:29
  They are the enemies designated to become the footstool.
• 24:31
  They're on the wrong side of the chess board.
• 24:34
  That is a terrifying realization, and the text says
• 24:37
  they were cut to the heart. The only solution Peter offers
• 24:40
  is for them to repent, acknowledge Jesus as a sovereign
• 24:43
  Messiah, and trust in his poured out blood for the forgiveness of
• 24:47
  their sins. Moving from the historical
• 24:49
  reality of Pentecost, we have to consider the immediate,
• 24:52
  practical weight of these truths for you today.
• 24:55
  How does this script and Christ's sovereign orchestration
• 24:59
  of it apply to your daily life? The source provides A vital
• 25:03
  perspective on the nature of suffering.
• 25:05
  When we look at David in the Old Testament, his pain was a
• 25:07
  prototype for the Messiah. His suffering pointed forward to
• 25:11
  the agony Christ would endure. But for the believer today, the
• 25:14
  order is completely reversed. Christ's suffering is now the
• 25:18
  prototype for the believer suffering.
• 25:20
  First, Peter chapter 2 addresses this directly.
• 25:22
  Peter writes for to this you were called, since Christ also
• 25:25
  suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his
• 25:28
  steps. He continues by describing how
• 25:30
  Jesus committed no sin, yet when he was maligned, he did not
• 25:34
  answer back. When he suffered, he threatened
• 25:36
  no retaliation but committed himself to God, who judged
• 25:40
  justly. Because Christ suffered with
• 25:42
  deliberate purpose and total sovereignty, your unjust
• 25:46
  suffering has meaning. It is not random.
• 25:49
  The apostles understood this framework, Paul wrote in
• 25:52
  Philippians about wanting to share in the sufferings of
• 25:54
  Christ. He viewed suffering for the
• 25:56
  gospel as a privilege because it conformed him to the image of
• 25:59
  the Savior. Your suffering, when handled
• 26:02
  with faith, mirrors the act of obedience of the king.
• 26:05
  The resurrection itself carries a massive implications for the
• 26:08
  believer. The source material synthesizes
• 26:11
  Deffenbaugh's conclusions into six specific pillars regarding
• 26:15
  the weight of the resurrection. We need to walk through them
• 26:17
  carefully, unpacking the mechanics of each one.
• 26:20
  The first pillar is that the resurrection proves Jesus's
• 26:23
  claims. When the Pharisees demanded a
• 26:25
  sign, Jesus told them in Matthew chapter 12 that no sign would be
• 26:29
  given except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly
• 26:32
  of the fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man
• 26:36
  would be in the heart of the earth.
• 26:37
  His ability to rise from the dead was the ultimate validation
• 26:39
  of every word he ever spoke. Even his enemies understood the
• 26:43
  threat of this claim, which is why they asked Pilate to secure
• 26:46
  the tomb with a Roman guard. They knew an empty tomb would
• 26:50
  vindicate his message entirely. The second pillar is found in
• 26:53
  Romans chapter one, verse 4. The resurrection is God's
• 26:57
  official seal of approval. Jesus was appointed the Son of
• 27:01
  God with authority according to the Holy Spirit, by the
• 27:04
  resurrection from the dead. The Father looked to the
• 27:06
  finished work of the Son on the Cross, accepted the sacrifices
• 27:10
  of full payment for sin, and raised Him as the public
• 27:13
  declaration of that acceptance. The third pillar is that the
• 27:15
  resurrection completes his saving work.
• 27:18
  Romans chapter 6 explains the mechanism of the salvation.
• 27:22
  By faith in Christ, believers are united with Him in his
• 27:25
  death, dying to the penalty of their sins.
• 27:28
  And just as he was raised, believers are raised to walk in
• 27:31
  newness of life. The cross paid the penalty, but
• 27:34
  the resurrection secured the victory and applies that new
• 27:37
  life directly to the believer. The fourth pillar is that the
• 27:40
  resurrection provides the actual means to live a life pleasing to
• 27:43
  God. In Romans Chapter 7, Paul
• 27:46
  agonizes over his internal struggle with sin, crying out,
• 27:50
  wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this body of
• 27:54
  death? The answer is found in the very
• 27:56
  next chapter, Romans chapter 8, verse 11.
• 27:59
  It says if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead
• 28:02
  lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also
• 28:06
  make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in
• 28:09
  you. The exact same Holy Spirit that
• 28:11
  conquered the grave and raised the physical body of Jesus now
• 28:15
  resides in the believer, empowering them for active
• 28:18
  obedience. You are not left to fight sin on
• 28:21
  your own strength. The fifth pillar is a comforting
• 28:23
  reality for anyone who has faced loss.
• 28:26
  The resurrection guarantees reunion with believers who have
• 28:28
  died. First Thessalonians chapter 4
• 28:30
  assures us that we do not need to grieve like the rest of the
• 28:33
  world who have no hope. Because we believe that Jesus
• 28:35
  died and rose again, we believe that God will bring with him
• 28:38
  those who have fallen asleep in Christ.
• 28:40
  The dead in Christ will rise first.
• 28:44
  The resurrection of Jesus is the first fruits, the absolute
• 28:47
  ironclad guarantee that the grave is not the final
• 28:50
  destination for those who belong to Him.
• 28:52
  Death has been declawed. That brings us to the 6th
• 28:55
  pillar, addressing the ultimate question of status, which the
• 28:58
  source material handles with intense seriousness.
• 29:01
  The work of Christ does not save every human automatically.
• 29:05
  The concept of universal salvation is entirely foreign to
• 29:08
  the Scriptures and to reform theology.
• 29:11
  For the person who rejects Jesus Christ, the resurrection is the
• 29:14
  most frightening reality possible.
• 29:16
  It means that the universe is not an empty random void, nor is
• 29:20
  it ruled by a benevolent grandfather figure who casually
• 29:23
  ignores sin. It means the universe is ruled
• 29:26
  by a victorious living judge who has conquered death and is
• 29:29
  currently seated at the right hand of the Father, holding all
• 29:32
  authority in heaven and on earth.
• 29:33
  If you do not belong to Him, The Resurrection is your greatest
• 29:36
  read. As Peter preached at Pentecost,
• 29:39
  Jesus is alive and he's coming back to deal with his enemies.
• 29:42
  The source material warns against feeling at ease just
• 29:45
  because you were not physically present in Jerusalem to shout
• 29:48
  crucify him. We are as guilty for his death
• 29:50
  as the crowds in the 1st century.
• 29:53
  I rebellion our sins. Nail him to that tree.
• 29:57
  The cross was the penalty for our cosmic treason, but God
• 30:01
  provides a window of grace, an opportunity to acknowledge your
• 30:04
  sin and trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
• 30:08
  Romans chapter 10 promises that if you confess with your mouth
• 30:11
  that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised
• 30:14
  him from the dead, you will be saved from the wrath to come.
• 30:18
  The magnitude of the Messiah suffering is the exact measure
• 30:21
  of the magnitude of our sins. It is the measure of Christ's
• 30:24
  active obedience to the sovereign will of the Father.
• 30:27
  And it is the precise measure of God's grace and love toward His
• 30:30
  elect. Jesus was never a victim.
• 30:32
  He orchestrated his own passion using the script written
• 30:35
  centuries before to secure the redemption of his people.
• 30:38
  He held every variable in his hand, forcing the religious
• 30:41
  leaders, the mighty Roman Empire and even the betrayer Judas to
• 30:44
  play their designated parts in the divine decree.
• 30:47
  He won the game by sacrificing the king.
• 30:50
  When you look at the cross, you are not looking at a tragedy,
• 30:54
  you are looking at a sovereign king executing A flawless
• 30:57
  victory over sin and death. The darkest moment in human
• 31:01
  history was meticulously orchestrated by the victim
• 31:04
  himself. He poured out his own blood.
• 31:07
  It was not spilled. That is a staggering truth to
• 31:10
  rest on. As we wrap up this deep dive, we
• 31:13
  want to leave you with a thought to Mull over something that
• 31:16
  builds on everything we've discussed today.
• 31:18
  Think about this as you go through your week.
• 31:20
  If the Lord Jesus Christ exercised total sovereign
• 31:24
  control over the absolute worst agony imaginable, orchestrating
• 31:28
  the rebellion of His enemies to accomplish the salvation of His
• 31:30
  people, what does that mean for the unscripted feeling chaos of
• 31:34
  your own life? The script is already written
• 31:36
  and the throne is occupied. Thank you for joining us for
• 31:39
  this deep dive on reformed thinking.
• 31:41
  We encourage you to open the Psalms tonight, read them with
• 31:44
  fresh eyes, and see the face of the Sovereign King on every
• 31:47
  single page.