Psalm 22 is presented as a profound Messianic psalm, offering a detailed prophetic account of Jesus Christ's crucifixion and suffering. The sermon explores three interpretations: symbolic, Messianic, and prophetic, highlighting the psalm's title, "The Hind of the Dawn," as a metaphor for Christ's purity and vulnerability. It delves into the various enemies that afflicted the "hind," representing the forces that attacked Christ, and examines four key Messianic titles for Jesus: the "worm" (humanity and humility), "my darling" (deity), "leader of praise" (his future role), and "governor among the nations" (his ultimate reign). The sermon concludes by emphasizing the prophetic accuracy of Psalm 22, particularly the cry "It is finished," as a testament to Christ's completed work on the cross and his ultimate victory.
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Shall we read together the twenty-second Psalm? Psalm twenty-two. I will read from verse one. The twenty-second Psalm. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why are thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry on the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season, and I am not silent. 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 were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despise 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 He would deliver Him. Let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou dost make me hope when I was upon my mother's breath. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Do not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.
Many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gift upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of my boughs. My strength is dried up like a pot-shirt, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed 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 the seat of Jacob, glorify him, and fear him all ye 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 nation shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord, 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 down before him. And none can keep alive his own soul. A seat 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 it is finished. That he hath done this. I thought it might be profitable during these evening meetings to take some simple devotional portion from the Word of God and try to bring out some truths concerning the person of the Lord Jesus. And I don't think that there's any section of the Word of God that more comforts the heart and brings joy to every believer than this beautiful, poetical book of Psalms.
Now there are fourteen Psalms altogether that speak of the Lord Jesus. There are what are called Messianic Psalms. And I think we better define our terms right at the beginning. Just what is a Messianic Psalm? Now, the Messiah, of course, is incorporated in this word, it's Psalms about the Messiah, about the Lord Jesus. And I think that the definition of a Messianic Psalm is one that's quoted in the New Testament scriptures and expanded in relation to the person of Christ. You know, sometimes portions are taken from the Psalms and applied to the Lord Jesus, and sometimes I feel a little bit nervous.
Some of the expressions that are applied to him. Now there's no doubt at all that the sixty-ninth psalm is a messianic psalm. There are certain expressions in it that speak of the Lord Jesus and that are quoted in connection with him in the New Testament. But there is an expression in the sixty-ninth psalm that very often I've heard taken and applied to the person of Christ, and I've been very nervous about doing that. Now the expression is this, O Lord, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee. Now David could speak about that in connection with himself, but I never would apply that in relation to the Lord Jesus. Oh, but somebody says, didn't he take our sins upon him upon the cross?
He certainly did. But to quote that other portion of the verse, O Lord, thou knowest my foolishness, David could say that about himself, but I have been very, very careful in applying that to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I think that when we take a portion from the Psalms that we find in the New Testament that is expounded and applied to the person of Christ, we are in absolutely solid ground. We can't make any mistake there at all. And if we take that as our test of the Messianic Psalm, there are fourteen of them altogether that speak about Christ. And every phase of this personal work from this beautiful poetical book is taken and applied to him.
Whether it's His incarnation, we get that in the fortieth Psalm. Or whether it's His death upon the cross, we get that in the twenty-second Psalm. Or whether it's His burial and His resurrection, we get that in the sixteenth Psalm. If you take the ascension of the Lord Jesus, we get that in the sixteenth Psalm. On His priesthood at God's right hand, we find in the one hundred and tenth Psalm, is coming back again in glory. To take up the throne of universal dominion, we get that on the twenty-fourth psalm. And then in the eighth psalm, applied to the Lord Jesus in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we get him as a risen man.
The last Adam. The one who will take the throne again of universal dominion, and with the crown upon his head, and the scepter in his hand, everything will be beneath his feet, and on that day, as the last Adam. Where the first Adam failed, our Lord Jesus Christ will of all creations below his feet. He will be... Lord of Creation, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And then the second Psalm, where there are four beautiful titles of the Lord Jesus, it's all brought to a head on a climax. There you get the official glory of the Lord Jesus in the second Psalm. Now there are fourteen of them all together. And I thought that what I'd like to do this week is to take some of these beautiful, beautiful compositions.
And just for about half an hour, each night I would like to point out some things connected with the person of Christ in them. Now the one that we want to look at tonight is the great psalm that deals with the death of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary, the twenty-second psalm. You know, when you think that this psalm was written one thousand and fifty years before the crucifixion took place, and many, many centuries before crucifixion was invented, It was an invention of the Roman army, and yet when we read these words, Don, I don't think that any true believer would have any doubt at all about the inspiration of Holy Scripture and reading these precious words, Don.
You would almost think they had been written at the foot of the cross. Now, this is what we want to look at tonight. The twenty-second Psalm is a description of crucifixion. It's a lifeline of the death. the atoning vicarious death of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary. It has often been pointed out that the death of Christ, the atoning vicarious death of the Lord Jesus upon the cross, is one of the great outstanding subjects of Holy Scripture. In the five portions of the Bible we find it in a different way. Now in the first five books of the Bible that are called the Pentateuch, we get the foreshadowings of Calvary.
In the book of Psalms, we get the feelings of Calvary. We're taken into the sanctuary here, and we get the feelings and the expressions of the Lord Jesus when he was upon the cross. The Pentateuch, we get the foreshadowing. In the book of Psalms, we get the feelings of the Lord Jesus. And in the four Gospels, Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, we get the thanks. It's given to us in a fourfold way, a fourfold picture. of the death of Christ upon Calvary. We go over to the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, and there we get the fragrance of Calvary. Oh, hearts expounded for us.
In so many of these great doctrinal epistles of the Apostle, there we get the fragrance of Calvary. And then we turn over to the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation, and there we get the fruits of Calvary. So at the whole of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, one of the great outstanding truths we find here is the death of the Lord Jesus. Here is the foundation of our faith. Here is the great dead rock of doctrine on which we rest. the atoning vicarious death of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary. It is the scarlet thread that runs right throughout the Holy Scripture. Now, it merits our very careful consideration tonight, this beautiful composition that we want to look at.
Let me like to suggest that the twenty-second Psalm has at least a threefold interpretation. Just for a moment or two, I'd like to look at the first one. And that's what we might call the symbolic interpretation of the twenty-second psalm. I think that the key is hanging at the door. There's a little title here that is a part of the psalm itself. We didn't read it, but I want to quote it. Worried that the psalm is upon I jealous shah. Now that word, I jealous shah, it means the hind of the dawn, the hind of the dawn. Sometimes we take a lot for granted. And particularly with young people today, some of these Old Testament words, these Old English words that say, what do you mean?
What do these words mean? The hind of the dog. We don't talk about a hind today, but we do talk about the female deer or the doe. It's the most beautiful creature I believe that God ever made. The beautiful, beautiful, gentle little creature, the doe, the female deer, the hind of the dawn. This is the title of the psalm. And I think that the key to the interpretation of it is hanging right at the door. You notice that in the psalm itself there are five enemies that bring the hind of the dawn, dawn into the dust of death. First of all, we read about the bull, the bull's evasion.
And then we read about the unicorn or the wild ox. Then we read about the dog. And then we read of the lion. And finally we read the sword. The sword is what actually brings the hind of the dawn down into the dust of dead. And I would like to suggest that this first interpretation of the Psalm, the symbolic, is possibly the most beautiful. We want to look at that in a moment or two, but the first interpretation of the Psalm that we want to speak about is this symbolic, the hind of the dawn brought down into the dust of death. It's a beautiful symbolic picture of the death of the Lord Jesus. Now, the second interpretation of the Psalm that we want to look at for a moment or two is the Messianic interpretation of the Psalm.
There are four beautiful titles of the Lord Jesus in the Psalm, and all of them are most important. The first one is the worm. He said, I am a worm, no man. I think the worm speaks of his humiliation. It speaks of his humanity. It speaks of his humility when he was here upon earth, the worm. And then the term which used further done is, my darling. Now this word, my darling, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, the word here, darling, is the same word that's used in the New Testament as the only begotten one, the monogenes.
The only begotten one is my darling. Under the worm speaks of its humanity. If it speaks of its humility, my darling, it speaks of its complete essential deity. Under one balance is the other. A little further down we read of the Lord Jesus here as being the leader of praise in the great congregation. The word congregation that's used in the Psalm, it's quoted in the first chapter of the Epistle of the Hebrews on the word church. It's substituted there. In the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee. And one day our blessed Lord, the Messiah, the Christ, is going to be the leader of praise among his people.
And then the final messianic term that you've connected with him here is the governor among the nations. When we take these four titles of the Lord Jesus and put them together, we get a beautiful fourfold messianic picture of the one that's described in the Psalm. First of all, the symbolic, and then secondly, we get here the messianic. But then when we look at the Psalm itself and read it down, there are seven items that are quoted in the New Testament scriptures in connection with the death of Christ. You remember the first word is, My God, my God, why? Thus thou forsaken me. And then in the last verse of the psalm, we get these words, They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born.
That it is finished. The word that choose here, that he hath done this, again from the Greek version of the Old Testament, is the word that the Lord Jesus used upon the cross, just before he gave that victorious cry and died. He said, it is finished, and he bowed his head and give up the gospel. You remember him in the darkness, he cried, My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me? But just before he died, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head, and he gave up the gospel. Now looking at the main body of the psalm, there are five things that are quoted here in the New Testament concerning his death.
The literal transaction that took place. This is what you might call the prophetic interpretation of the Psalm, actually seven items altogether that describe the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ upon Calvary. Now very briefly tonight, I would like to look at these three different interpretations of the Psalm and just throw out a few suggestions concerning the interpretation of some of these marvelous words. Now the first word is, I jealous shahar, the hand of the dawn. In the Old Testament, in the old Jewish economy, there were certain animals that were used in sacrifice. You remember in Leviticus chapter one through chapter eight, there are a number of animals that were used there that were taken in sacrifice and offered to God.
Now the greatest sacrifice that any Jew could offer was the son of the herod. In our version it is a bullock. I remember many years ago over in my native land speaking on the offerings in Leviticus one to eight and I spent a good deal of time speaking about the burnt offering and I used this term Bullock. There was an old gentleman sitting in the front seat. He was a very deep and careful Bible student and I have gone into some trouble to explain just what a Bullock was and the purpose for which it was used. And I used the symbol, you remember, of the Moravian Church.
In the center is an altar. Or at least in the center, there's a bullet. And on the one side, there's an altar. And on the other side, there's a plough. And underneath, I have the slogan, ready for either. And I spoke of the Lord Jesus as the servant of Jehovah, ready to labor, and ready for sacrifice. After I was through with my little aggressive old brother that was sitting in the front seat of a very plain, blunt old Irish man, he came to me and he said, I don't believe a word of it. Just as bluntly as that. I said, Brother, didn't he agree with what I said? No, he said, I don't. He said, Come down to the horse and I'll tell you what I believe about it. And I went down to his house, and the old gentleman, he said, now, I want to tell you something, and I wouldn't say publicly.
He said, the word is not a bullock at all. The word, the Hebrew idiom is the son of the herod. And he says, the firstborn bull in the herod was never used for anything else except for the burnt offering. It was reserved for that. It was kept for that. The term is the son of the herod. It was used as a burnt offering. It was the highest sacrifice that any Jew could bring to God. And it was used for that beautiful, beautiful symbol of what was offered to God was the highest thing in the life of the Lord Jesus. First of all, his sacrifice was towards his Father. It was a burnt offering. But in many cases the son of the herd.
And then there's the ram, the leader of the flock. It was only used at the consecration of the priest. It was used again in the trespass offering. A man who had trespassed against God and against his brother, the only sacrifice that he could bring was a ram, the leader of the flock, the animal with horns. And again there's a tremendous amount of symbolism connected with that animal. Then you remember in the Passover, it was a lamb without blemish and without spot. Again in Leviticus chapter sixteen, in the sin offering it was a kid or two kids of the goats that were used. These were various animals that were used in the Old Testament in the Levitical economy.
One who couldn't bring these different animals, he could always bring two turtle doves and two young pigeons. Now, if one were to speak about these tonight, it would occupy far more time than we have at our disposal. But in the book of Psalms, in these beautiful, poetical books, we don't read about the bull, we don't read about the ram or these other animals. But what we get here is the hind, the hind of the dawn. We get it in various Psalms. We also get it in the Song of Solomon. And the beautiful picture we get here of the Lord Jesus in his devotion, in his gentleness, his compassion is this lovely, lovely symbol behind the dawn.
Many, many times in my early days, over in Africa, the only means of transport we had in those days was walking. We generally walked about twenty miles a day. The first journey I had in the country was five hundred and forty miles. It took me five weeks to walk that, walking about twenty miles a day and sleeping on the ground at night beside a fire. And very often when our African carriers were tying up their loads, about five o'clock in the morning, before dawn, And so that I could get some of the journey done before the heat of the day got up, I used to get up from beside the fire where I had been lying there along with the man. And after grabbing a bite of food, I would pick up a stick.
If it happened to be a lion country, I would carry a rifle and start off along the path. And going along the nine-inch path, winding in and out through the forest, suddenly, taking a turn on the path, I would see a beautiful little animal standing in the path. that maybe was just a little miniature deer, about two feet high, on with its long, slender face, on the two little horns, on the little slender legs, on a tooth just about the size of your thumbnail. It's one of the most beautiful animals, I think, that God ever made. You know, sometimes we were dependent on our gun for meat, and very often I've gone out onto the plains hunting.
and always I've had a pying of conscience when I've killed one of these animals. If it had been a lion, or a leopard, or a hyena, I wouldn't have had the slightest compunction of lifting my gun and knocking a dog, but or the hind of the dog. That lovely little thing tripping along the path, taking a bite here and a bite there, and licking the dew of the leaves as it tripped along, it would be a hard-hearted creature that would lift this high-power rifle and knock that little animal down. It's the most beautiful thing, I believe, that God ever created. The hind of the dawn. Now, this is a lovely picture we get here. And notice that the hind of the dawn, this beautiful symbol of the Lord Jesus in its purity, In his absolute perfection, his compassion, his mercy, this beautiful little animal, there are five different enemies that it has.
And the first one is the bull abation. Now, we're not going to go into a lot of detail about these five enemies, but just to mention just one or two facts concerning them. We don't need to use our imagination at all as to what the bull of Bashan is. If we were to turn over to the book of Amos, chapter four, on verse one, we would find that the bull of Bashan is a symbol of the leaders of the Jewish nation. Now, in case there's an Israelite here tonight, I don't know. Sometimes in our audience, we sometimes take things for granted and other times we say things that maybe we shouldn't. And just in case... There is a Jew here this evening, or an Israelite, one with that background.
Do let me say, beloved friend, that we have absolutely no anti-Semitic feeling in our hearts. We love the people of Israel. We pray frequently for the peace of Jerusalem. And we pray that God will bring his dear people back again into a relationship with himself. But you know, when the Jewish people... When they said that day, His blood be upon our heads, and upon those of our children, that blood remains there today. The leaders of the Jewish nation, knowing exactly what they were doing, they condemned them at a legal and illegal trial in the middle of the night, and they condemned them to death. Now, the leaders who did that were the responsible leaders of the Jewish nation.
at the Ecumenical Council that took place a couple of years ago. There was an effort made to exonerate the Jewish nation for the responsibility of the death of the Messiah. But that can never be done. It can't be done. The blood that was shed that day, that innocent blood, of the Messiah. Those responsible leaders of the Jewish nation were completely responsible before God for it. And that blood remains there. And it will never, never be taken away until a coming day when the Messiah comes back again. And a fountain will be open for sin and for uncleanness. And Israel, we believe, will be brought back in true repentance to the Messiah and be brought back to his feet in repentance and in contrition in the coming day.
The bulls of nation were the responsible leaders of the Jewish nation. Now there's a second word here that has given me some little trouble in years gone by, especially when I was a young believer. And that is the word unicorn. Now, in sixteen eleven, when our Bible was translated, there were many Hebrew words at that time that were not understood. And do let me say, I haven't a scrap of sympathy with any amateur getting up and criticizing our beautiful variant. I don't believe in doing that at all. But the plain fact is that in sixteen eleven, when the Bible was translated in this lovely, lovely version that we have today when it was put down into print and the Bible was translated, there were many words at that time that they didn't understand the complete meaning of the word.
Now we know that the unicorn is a mythical animal. It never had an existence. It's a mythical animal. But the Hebrew word ream that's used here, it means the wild ox or what we would call today the buffalo. Now if anybody would ask me, what is the most dangerous animal? in creation today? Or I think somebody would say the lion. I don't think so. A lion is a decent kind of an animal. He's the most powerful. And he certainly in the bush is king. He's the king of the animal creation in the bush. And when he roars, everything else stops. I have been up a tree many a time. And in the middle of the night, when he roared, you could hear a pin drop.
You would almost think he could hear a leaf falling off a tree after he had roared. The king spoke on everything but silent. But you know, he's not the most dangerous animal. We have met him again and again. He has left us standing there. He wasn't looking for a meal. And you know, he is really a decent animal in many ways. He's not the most dangerous. Oh, somebody says the elephant. I don't think so. Someone might say, it's the leopard. that's able to climb a tree, just like a great big cat, and drop on its enemy, and disembowel it, nor it does. On a leopard it's a very dangerous animal, but I don't think it's the most dangerous. I believe that the most dangerous animal in the bush is a wounded buffalo, especially when it's in a herd.
Now, it's not my purpose tonight to tell stories, but this word ream, the unicorn in our version, the wild ox, the buffalo, especially when it's in a herd, it's the most dangerous animal in creation. You know, I believe that what is represented here was the mob that stood outside Pilate's judgment hall and screamed, away with him, away with him, we will not have this man to reign over us. One of the most frightening things, even in our day, is a mob out of control. We were just talking yesterday about some of the things that happened in this country during the past summer. And to me, the see a mob, art of control, where law and order has completely broken down, it's one of the most frightening things imaginable.
And men of that time would do things that in their ordinary senses they never would think of doing. So that the second animal here is the buffalo, the wild ox, the mob, art of control. Now the third is the dog. And if the bull of Bisham represents the leaders of the Jewish nation, the Gentile was there. The man who sat on the bench Sunday, Pontius Pilate, the representative of Roman government, he knew perfectly well that the man who stood before him was perfectly innocent of any crime. And again and again he said that. Now, his responsibility sitting upon that bench was, if anyone came before him, and it was proven that they were not guilty, he should not have allowed himself to be influenced by the mob or by anybody else, but he should have let him go.
But what did he do? He said, I find no fault in this man. And then he said this, take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jew was responsible. The Gentile dog was equally responsible for the death of the Messiah. On the four men with the centurion that nailed them to the cross, the representative of Gentile world dominion, they nailed the Lord Jesus to Calvary's cross. The dog was there. And then the fourth here is the lion. Now the lion, I believe, is representative of satanic power. You know, the Lord Jesus upon the cross, he suffered at the hand of God. There were divine sufferings there.
He suffered at the hand of man. There were physical sufferings there. But I believe this was something too that's so mysterious that we don't understand. There were satanic power at the cross. The Apostle Paul in a mysterious passage in the Epistle to the Colossians, he refers to it. He speaks of those principalities and powers that surrounded Christ when he was upon the cross on how he thrust them from them. It overcame the power of the devil. The lion was there at the cross. Satanic power surrounded the Lord Jesus when he was upon the cross. But thank God he was the serpent crusher. He crushed the serpent's head. He anode him that has the power of death, that is the devil upon the cross, and he gloriously overcame what the lion was there.
But notice that it's the sword that brings the tide of the dawn down into the dust of death. You know, I'm awfully thankful. that when the Lord Jesus died upon Galvary, that it was a voluntary act, on the one hand, an act of his own volition. No land taketh my life from me. I lay it down off myself. But on the other hand, it was a divine act. You remember what the book of Zechariah has to say about the death of Christ? Away go sword against my shepherd. Against the man that is my fellow. Smite the shepherd. Smite the shepherd. And the sheep shall be scattered abroad. And I will turn my hand upon the little ones. The sword that brought the hand of the dawn, drawn into the dust of death, was held in the hand of divine justice.
It was brought down into the dust of death. There's just one little word here connected with the word dust. Many years ago, in translating the Twenty Second Psalm into one of our African languages, when I came to this word dust, I was again a little bit disturbed. You know, when we die and the body goes down into Mother Earth, we say dust to dust, ashes to ashes. and the body disintegrates. It goes back to the dust of the earth. But we must never, never, never think of any deterioration, of any decomposition connected with that blessed body, connected with that blessed person who died upon the cross.
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes can never be said about him. But read here, it's brought down into the dust of dead. I took the trouble to get a Hebrew lexicon. And I traced every occurrence of the word dust through the Old Testament. And while it's true that in some occurrences, in the Old Testament the word dust that's used here, Akbar is a word that's used in the Old Testament. Sometimes it's the ordinary dust of the ground. But there's one occurrence. In Numbers chapter nineteen, we'll read about the ashes of the red heifer. And that animal that was used for the purification for sins, completely reduced to ashes. The whole animal, every portion of it, was completely reduced to ashes.
And the ashes of the red heifer, mixed with water and with scarlet wool and hyssop, was used for ceremonial cleansing. And the word for ashes, in Numbers chapter nineteen, and the word for dust. In Psalm twenty-two is exactly the same word. It's the ashes of a completed sacrifice, I believe, that's spoken of here. So here we get the symbolic interpretation of the Psalm. Now just a word or two about the four great titles in the Psalm, A Worm. I remember when I was a boy, well over fifty years ago now, sitting at the Lord's table between my father and mother over on the other side of the Atlantic. There was an old gentleman get up at the Lord's table and he read the twenty second Psalm.
And when he came to this verse, I am a worm and no man. He uses an illustration. One day working in the garden he took a spade and up turning the sod, he cut an earthworm in two. And he said, that would have been a death blow to any other creature. Cutting it in two, he said it wasn't a death blow to it. He said there was life on either side. And he used that as an illustration of this word here. The deathless life or the endless life of the Lord Jesus, his resurrection life. Now that may be all right for an illustration, but it's not the word that's used here. The word that's used here, I think about thirty-one times in the Old Testament, if you have a Newbury Bible, check it for yourself.
The word is worm scarlet. It's a little creature that grew in certain areas over there in the Middle East. And that little creature was taken and put in a mortar and pounded with a pestle. On the complete essence of that little creature, it was used as a scarlet, indelible dye for dyeing the garments in the tabernacle and the temple. And those beautiful scarlet garments, and those coverings in the temple that were of a scarlet color, they were dyed by that little creature. And this is the word that's used here. It's the word. It speaks of the humanity and the humility of our Lord Jesus. I am a worm and no man.
I have a friend who formerly was the pastor of a large denomination of church. He told me one time that he had a choir master. And my friend, he gave out that hymn, and one of his services under him was, would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? And the prime master came to him, and he said, Brother, he said, I object to singing that hymn. He said, I'm not a worm. And I said, I don't like the term. Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? He said, I feel uncomfortable, he said, to use a word like that. And my friend, he looked at him, and he said, He says, My dear brother, I would like to tell you, that there was a better man than you and me who took that term for himself.
And he said, I am a worm. I am a worm and no man. But all the beautiful symbolism that we get here, the little creatures that went down into death, so that those beautiful vestments, those beautiful garments, both on the high priest and in the tabernacle itself was dyed with this indelible scarlet dye through this little creature that went down into death. Now, if this speaks of as humanity, the second one, my darling, it speaks of as complete essential deity. Do you believe in the deity of Christ? Do you believe in his eternal sonship? Well, I do. It's not our purpose to speak about this tonight, but just by way of testimony. Do let me say this. I believe that the person of Christ...
is a mystery. On the one hand, he was man, a very man. A man of body, soul and spirit, a real man when he was here below. But yet on the other hand, God, a very God. On the conjunction between the two, what theologians call the hypostatic union of his manhood and his Godhead. It makes him the God-man, never more to be divided. On the one hand, a real man. On the other hand, God a very God. He is the God-man, and we must hold these two great truths with equal balance. It's humanity on the one side, on his God-head on the other. And then the leader of praise.
One thing I feel a little bit sorry about when I hear my dear friends here tonight getting up and singing. I sat behind them tonight and I enjoyed every word of it. I love to hear a beautiful hymn well sung and especially when it's harmonized. There's one thing I cannot do. I can't harmonize. I would love to have a good voice and I'd love to be able to sing. But it's one thing that God hasn't given me. But you know, I have a good friend over in Africa. His name is Jim Caldwell, and he's one of the most beautiful voices I think I've ever heard. I'm not much of a judge, but if I would make any judgment at all, I would say that Jim Caldwell, and that beautiful, deep-bitched voice that he has, is comparable to the voice of George Beverly Shea.
But dear Jim, a dear, warm friend of almost forty years, I've been in this home over there in Africa, instead of making money, and instead of going around collecting a fortune with his voice. He could easily have done that. He has voluntarily chosen to bury himself in the middle of Africa among people who don't appreciate him at all. The last time I was over there, I went up to Zambezi. I came to Chautauqua, where Jim lived. And after a long Lord's days, work, ministering the word and preaching the gospel, I said, Jim, would you sing for me? Oh, he said, sure. He said, that would be a pleasure. And I went over to his home, and we sat down there in that little home in the middle of Africa, and they turned around to me, and I said, what shall I sing?
Oh, I said, Jim, you know. His wife sat down at the piano, and he started to sing that hymn, Some Golden Day Break, Jesus Will Come. Now, I'm not sentimental. I hope I'm not, although I'm an Irishman. But I must confess, When I sat on that little home in Africa and hear that dear soul ring those words, some golden daybreak, Jesus will come. I could feel the goosebumps coming out on my bank. And I could feel the shivers going up and down my spine. And I'm not one little bit ashamed to tell you that I sat on the corner and I had a good little cry to myself. I said, listen to that man sing that beautiful hymn. You know, this one day I know I'm going to have a voice.
And when I get home to heaven, something that I don't have down here, I know I'm going to have up there, whether it will be a tenor voice or whether it will be a bass voice, I don't know. But I know one thing, one thing I'm absolutely sure of, that the one who will have the baton in his hand, and the leader of praise among his people is the same one here that was nailed to Calvary's cross. The leader of praise among the people of God on a coming day will be the one who's called here a worm and who's called my darling. And one day he will be the leader of praise in the great congregation. But just one little word in closing. I want to leave the rest of the Psalm for your own personal investigation. These seven different occurrences in the Psalm that speak of the Lord Jesus in such a beautiful way in the Gospels.
But the last one here is the governor among the nations. Moving around a little bit here in the United States, I hear a good deal of criticism about government. That is one pastime I would never engage in, for various reasons. And one reason is this, that the man who sits in the White House today, and the man who has the tremendous responsibility of government in this land, I believe that what he needs is prayer, and not criticism. I believe that every one of us should obey the injunction of the Apostle Paul on to pray for those that are in us art. I think one thing that would cure a lot of people today is they would assume the responsibility that he has.
The tremendous responsibility that rests upon his shores, assume it for twenty-four hours, I think it would cure the criticism in a good many people's minds. But there's one thing that I do know, that in spite of all the mistakes, in spite of all the failure and weakness in human government today, I know that one day there's one coming back again, and this Psalm says that he will be the governor among the nations. Oh, I'm so glad about that. And on that day when he comes, and with an imperial diadem upon his head, and with a sceptre in his hand, it will be the golden sceptre for each one of his children, but it will be the iron rod for rebellion and revolt.
On that day we will have a perfect government. For the first time in human history, he will be the governor among the nations. So these four terms, I think, give us a complete, well-rounded art picture of the Messianic interpretation of the South. The worm, humanity, humility. My darling, complete essential deity, the only begotten one, and then the leader of praise among his people, the one with the sweetest voice, the one who will be the leader, the connector of the heavenly symphony choir, will be the Lord Jesus. And then finally, he will be the governor among the nations. What a wonderful day that will be. Thank God it may be nearer than we expect when we see him face to face.
the one who died for us upon Calvary. Shall we just close with a little word of prayer? Our God and Father, we lift our hearts to thee now in the name of the Lord Jesus, and pray thy blessing upon thy word. We do thank thee for thy dear children here tonight. And our Father, we ask of thee at our hearts, may be in tune not only with thy word, but with our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that our hearts may be warned and drawn closer to him, and that we may seek to serve him the little time we're done here until he shall come. These things we ask in his own worthy, precious name. Amen. Perhaps our brother has a hymn.