“THIS is my experience, Sir. I own myself a sinner, a guilty sinner; I have looked to the Lord Jesus as my Saviour; yet I am still full of doubts and fears. So I am come to the conclusion that I must take my darkness from God, like pious David of old who complains of God’s forsaking him in Psa. 22:11<<To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.>> My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (Psalm 22:1).”
“My friend, you are grievously wronging God thereby; for David in these words speaks in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus on the cross. It was His experience when made sin for us, that it might not be yours or mine who believe in Him. Our Lord took up these opening words of the Psalm as fulfilled in Him crucified, uttering them as His own, when Jehovah made His soul an offering for sin in that darkness which shrouded Him from other eyes.”
“The truth is, that you have simply to read all the Psalm to see that the first part (vv. 1-21) is far too deep and awful, and that the second part (vv. 22-31) is far too high and all-embracing for David’s experience, wonderful as were God’s ways with the shepherd King. On the one hand David was one of those who cried unto God and were delivered; David trusted in God and was not confounded. It was the portion of the Lord Jesus, the Holy one of God, to be abandoned, not merely of men and His own disciples when all forsook Him and fled, but of God, His God whom He had served unswervingly and in this He justified God, whatever it cost Himself; for He was suffering once for all for our sins, which must be judged unsparingly in Him, if God were to be vindicated and we to have our sins remitted righteously. “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” The experience of Christ on the cross then is in full contrast, according to the Psalm itself and all other Scripture, with the experience of all others including David. Others might suffer for righteousness, or for Christ’s name; they might even be martyrs for the truth. Christ, and Christ alone, in whom was no sin, suffered for our sins; and so it is that He is here crying to God, when men pierced His hands and feet, and God was bringing Him into the dust of death. All this was incomparably deeper than David or any other saint ever knew.
“Now let us glance at the latter part (vv. 22-31), where you cannot avoid seeing that the glory and blessing go far beyond David, even if Scripture were not as careful here too to appropriate, as the opening words, to the Lord Jesus alone (Heb. 2:11Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. (Hebrews 2:1)2 Compared with John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17)). The Man of sorrows is now the Man of praises, the leader and the spring as well as the ground and object of praise, in praising God whose name is now declared by Him. So it was and is “in the midst of the congregation,” or church. So it will be “in the great congregation,” when all Israel shall be saved, and when all the ends of the world (now alas! so heedless or forgetful) shall remember and turn unto Jehovah. For the world, when blessed by Him who will be Governor among the nations as well as King on His holy hill of Zion, will not know, as we who are not of the world know, the name of Father. He of whom it will be then said, “that He hath done this” is not David, but self-evidently a greater than David, even great David’s greater Son.”
“I confess that I have been in error, and that the Psalm can rightly apply only to Christ. Still it remains true, that, though I hate myself and own my sins, and look to the Saviour, I am wretched because of what I find in me, so unlike what He was and what I feel I ought to be as a Christian.”
“You cannot too much condemn yourself, provided you believe and hold fast what Christ and His work entitle you to. This you have never done. Though you believe in Him (I doubt not), you immediately turn round on yourself and your unworthy ways, instead of looking off to Him only and always, believing what He has done for you before God. What do you., a believer, want? Eternal life? He has given it, and you have it in Him. (John 5:24; 6:4724Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)
47Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (John 6:47); 1 John 5:11-1311And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:11‑13)). Justification? If we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who “was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25); vss. 1, 2.)
“Why then am I, as you say a believer, so miserable and weak?”
“Because you are an unbelieving believer. Believing in the Son of God, (and God be thanked for it,) you are ever looking into yourself to see the fruits of faith, instead of resting on His work and learning your deliverance in Him dead and risen, with whom you too are dead and risen. Look only to Him, believing in all He has done; and though you may judge yourself more deeply than ever, you will enjoy settled peace; for then you will treat all doubts and fears as a wrong against Him and His sacrifice accepted of God, who forsook Him that He might never forsake you nor any soul that believes in Jesus.”
W. K.