Psalm 22 is presented as a profound Messianic prophecy, offering a detailed prophetic outline of Jesus Christ's atoning death. The sermon explores three interpretations: symbolic, Messianic, and literal, highlighting how the psalm's imagery, such as the 'hind of the dawn,' foreshadows Christ's suffering at the hands of various enemies representing religious leaders, the mob, and Satan. It emphasizes Christ's humility as a 'worm' and His divine nature as the 'only begotten,' culminating in His future role as the leader of praise and the ultimate governor of nations. The sermon concludes by underscoring the voluntary and victorious nature of Christ's sacrificial death, which was essential for humanity's redemption.
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Let me show you together the twenty-second Psalm. Psalm twenty-two. I'm going to read from verse one. The twenty-second Psalm verse one. My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me? Why have thou so far from heaven me and from the words of my Lord? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not under the night season and the night fires. For thou art quarreling, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver thee.
They trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, not no man. Our approach of men and despise of the people. all they that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip they shift the head saying he trusted on the lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him saying he delighted in him for thou art he that took me out of the room thou dost make me hope when i was upon my mother's breast i was cast upon thee from the womb thou art my ground from my mother's bed be not far from on me for trouble is near for there is none to help many broods have compassed me strong broods of dish and have beset me rind they gift upon me with their mother as a living and a roaring lion i am poured out like water and all my bones are out of giant my heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bow my strength is grown up like a pot-shirt and my tongue cleaveth to my jaw and thou hast brought me into the damp of death for selves have compassed me the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me they pierced
my hands and my teeth i may tear all my bones they look and stare upon me they part my garments among them and cast knots upon my vesture But be not thy far from thee, O Lord. O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my bearing from the power of the God. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn. I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. ye that fear the lord put at him all ye the feet of jacob flow upon him and fear him all ye the feet of israel for he not nor despise nor uptowered the affliction of the afflicted ye the happier the space from him but when he cried unto him he heard My praise shall be of thee in the good congregation.
I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meat 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 kingdoms 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 sent upon earth shall eat and measure. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none shall keep alive his own soul. A sea shall spare him. He shall be accounted to the Lord for the generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born.
That it is finished. But he has done this. One thing that's characteristic of the present day is the denial of the great fundamentals of Holy Scripture. I believe that the apostasy is upon us. On every word of the day, we find that yet fundamentals of the Bible are being denied. I thought it might be possible, during the half-thousand times that we're going to have the opportunity in the final, to speak about one of the yet fundamentals of holy scripture. And I want to confine myself to the book of Psalms. I'd like each time to take a messianic song and speak about it.
And I want to do it in secret. And I want to look at half a dozen of the great fundamentals of Holy Scripture. Now the one that we want to look at tonight is the atoning, the terrorist death of the Lord Jesus. Everything is based upon this. If we're wrong here, everything else falls to pieces. It is a doctrine that's deemed a lie, with the carious, atoning death of the Lord Jesus. And I thought it might be possible for a little while tonight to look at this magnificent Messianic song. We get here an account of the crucifixion, written one thousand and fifty years before the Lord Jesus was born.
And yet, you'd almost think it had been written underneath the cross. Now, I think it might be as well at the commencement of the final turn. Sometimes we take an awful lot for granted. And there are quite a number of younger folk here at this event. And some might say, what do you mean by a Messianic Psalm? Well, a Messianic Psalm is one that refers to the Lord Jesus. And that is expounded in connection with him in the New Testament Scriptures. It's about the Messiah. It's a prophetic outline of the personal work of the Lord Jesus. Now there are fourteen of them all together, fourteen messianic psalms, on every phase of its personal work we find in this beautiful poetic book.
Whether it is his essential deity, or whether it is his holy sinless humanity, or whether it is his holy life here below, or whether it is death upon the cross, Or whether it's his burial and his resurrection, his bodily resurrection from the dead, or his ascension to God's right hand, or his high priestly ministry, or his coming back again in glory, we find all of these stages of the personal work of the Lord Jesus in this lovely poetic book. Now I think that it might be profitable at all each time that we open the Bible just to look at some of these lovely compositions. And certainly as far as God brings concern, here we find the great fundamentals of our faith.
Now the song that we want to speak about tonight is the twenty-second song. And by the way, there are four songs altogether that speak of the death of Christ. Each one of these songs would need to be looked at, put them together, to find out the complete picture. One of them brings before us the burnt opera. That is the farthest song. Another one brings before us the peace opera. That is the one hundred and eighteenth song. Another one brings before us the sin offering. That is the psalm that we've read together here tonight. The twenty-second psalm. And another one brings before us the trespass offering. Now the guess is, in the sixty-ninth psalm. There are actually four psalms that speak of the death of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary's cross.
But just for a sake of our time tonight, I want to confine myself to the twenty-second song that we get to soon offer aspects of the death of Christ upon Calvary. It has often been pointed out that the precarious death of Christ is one of the great subjects of Holy Scripture. From Genesis right through to the book of Revelation, we find it. In the Tendish Church, we get the foreshadowing of Calvary. And in the book of Psalms we get the feeling of Calvary. In the four gospels we get the thanks of Calvary. Matthew, Mark, and Luke and John, they give us the thanks of the death of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary's cross.
And in the Fourteen of Crystals of the Apostle Paul we get the fragrance of Calvary, and then in the Book of Revelation we get the fruits of Calvary. The theme of the Bible from beginning to end is not only the person of Christ, but also his atoning death. It's that scarlet thread that runs throughout the Bible from Genesis right through to the Book of Revelation. Now what I want to do tonight is to take the twenty second song and speak about it in a threefold way. I want to offer tonight three interpretations of the song. We'll have to be very brief in doing it. The first that I want to look at is how you might call the symbolic interpretation of the song.
You know, this is a lovely little title here at the beginning. I didn't read it, although it is a part of the psalm itself. Well, these are just two to teach musicians, and it's upon Ayyad Shahar. Now, those two Hebrew words, I jealous shahar, it means the hind of the dawn. The hind of the dawn. It's a beautiful title. I would like to suggest that the symbolic interpretation of the psalm, the key to it, is hanging at the door in this lovely little title, the hind of the dawn. Now the symbolic interpretation of the psalm, you'll notice immediately in the first section of it, in the first twenty-one verses, there are at least five enemies of the hand of the dog.
We read first of all about the bull or bishops, and then we read about the unicorn or the wild ox, and then we read about the dog, and then we read about the lion. But the hand of the dog is brought down into the dust of death by the sword. It's the third of divine justice that actually brings the hind of the dawn into the dust of death. Now we're going to look at this in a moment or two, but the first great interpretation of the twenty-second psalm, I think, is the symbolic one. And when we look at it, I don't think we're stretching our imagination at all. When we look at it, you can see here in Christ's picture on illustration. a lovely picture of the death of the Lord Jesus.
The wind of the dawn surrounded by five enemies and brought down into the dust of death. Now the second interpretation I want to leave out for a moment or two is the Messianic interpretation of the Psalm. There are four Greek titles of the Lord Jesus in the Psalm. He said, I am a worm and no man. This is something that he calls himself. He said, I am a worm and no man. There we get as humility and we also get as humanity. But further down the psalm, if we get a humility and a humanity in that lovely, lovely title that he takes, ar-war. When they come a little further down, he's called, My Darling.
Now that term, My Darling, is used, type a number of times in the New Testament, translated in a different way. We don't believe in being technical about these things, but if you're prepared to examine the Greek version of the Old Testament of this verse, you'll find that this word, my darling, the word is the only one. Eubrian, his translation, that is the way he translates it in the margin, my only one. It's a term that's used with the only begotten Son, five times in the writings of John in the New Testament. On this the first, the worm speaks of his humanity and his humility. The second one is speaks of his complete essential deity.
He is my darling. He is the only begotten Son of the Father. now a little further down we find them as the leader of praise in that great day when the earth has passed and when time is no more and the redeemed of god from every tongue and people and nation are gathered together the one who will be the leader of praise The one who will lift the baton, and who will be the leader of praise among his kind of people, is the one who says here, In the midst of the great congregation, will I sing praise unto thee. And in the second chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, for this verse is quoted. It's quoted in connection with the church. In the midst of the church. Will I sing praise unto thee?
Here we find the Lord Jesus. Great messianic picture here of the one who is the leader of praise among his gathered people in the coming days. And then finally at the end of the psalm, the fourth great messianic title of the Lord Jesus is, the kingdom is the Lord, and he is the governor among nations. Here is his political title. And one day he is going to assume the reigns of government. is from the rain from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. So I don't think we're stretching our imagination at all to say these four types of give us the messianic interpretation of the Psalms. And then finally, a third interpretation you could look at is how you might call the literal interpretation of the Psalms.
Someone might say, what wrong have we for applying this to the Lord? Have we any reason for doing that? I would say yes. Because in the full Gospels, the twenty second psalm is quoted on the claims of the Lord Jesus. You take, for instance, the first word of the psalm, My God, my God, why hath God forsaken me? The Lord Jesus, he used those words amid the darkness of God without that. And the last verse of the psalm is, They shall come. and shall tell it unto a people that shall be born. That he hath done this, or that it is finished. Actually the words that are used here, with words that the Lord Jesus used upon the cross, just before he bowed his head in death.
Actually there are seven quotations from the twenty second psalm in the gospels applied to him. That is the literal interpretation of it. Now, just for a moment or two, I'd like to look at these three interpretations of the Psalm. And then to look at it, oh, I do feel, and speaking about it, remember how the Lord said to Moses, Take the shoes from off my feet, for the place around our sandals is holy ground. Here we get a magnificent outline of the atoning dent of Christ. And I see that it's utterly impossible to go into it in any detail at all without bowing our heads in worship before the God of heaven and before our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, just for a moment, let's think about the symbolic interpretation of the song. I'm Jealous Shahar. That is a title, aren't it? And that title is The Hind of the Dawn. Now this word hind is a word that they don't often use today in English. It's an old English word. And again, I'm not going to take anything for granted. Just that is a hind. You know, today we talk about the deer. The male deer and the female deer. And the word that we use for a female deer today is a doe. But in the poetical books we read about the heart, and we read about the hind. It's only in the poetical books that we get these words, the heart and the hind.
The heart is the male animal, and the hind is the female. On this lovely little title that the commencement of the psalm, I believe, gives us a key to its interpretation, the hind of the dawn. Many years ago over in Africa, our only means of transport was water. The first journey I had in the country was five hundred and forty miles. I went over there when I was twenty-one years old. And in the first time that we had in Africa, and for many years afterward, the only way we had it getting around was walking. We walked about twenty miles a day, and we stepped on the ground at night beside a fire. That journey that occupied, five hundred and forty miles, it occupied five weeks.
And each night we made our camp and we lay down with the men beside the fire. And early the next morning, about five o'clock, we would get up and we'd start off on the journey. And very often, while the men were tying up the loaves, and before the heat of the day got up, I would pick up a stick and start off along the nine-inch path to get some of the journey done before the heat of the day came on. And sometimes walking along a path in the forest, I would take a turn in the path under the hind of the dawn, it was standing. It was tripping along the path, taking a bite here and the bite there, and licking the dew of the leaves as it went along.
You know, the most beautiful thing that God ever created is a female deer. Sometimes people talk about hunting. I'm not going to talk about this tonight. We have had to do a good deal of hunting for meat, for food. But you know, it would be a heartless creature. So to see that lovely little thing tripping along the path with its long slender legs. And sometimes it's little hook, just about the size of your thumbnail, and that delicate, slender little tail. And you see it tripping along the path, licking the dew of the leaves as it goes along. It's the most beautiful thing, the blood of it is. At least it is to me. If it had been a lion, I'd have no compunction at all of lifting a gun and knocking a gun.
It was either H or me, if you know that little thing. So lift a gun and knock a gun. And you know, sometimes I have. I've killed a deer. And every time I've looked at it lying on the ground in death, I've always had a stab of conscience every time I have done it. I'm not justifying myself at all, but the point I want to make is this, that the beautiful figure that we get here of the Lord Jesus is this beautiful creature that God has created behind the redraw and is surrounded by its five enemies. Now in the Old Testament, in the biblical economy, you probably remember that the types and pictures of the Lord there is first of all the bull, the first bone of the hair.
It was used in the bull docker. And then you remember the leader of the flock. That is the ram. In the book of Leviticus, it was used for two purposes. It was used at the consecration of the priest. And it was also used in the Cresponse offering. That is the ram. That is the animal which forms the leader of the flock. And then you remember the lamb. The lamb for the burnt offering. And then you remember the kid, the kid of the goat, Leviticus sixteen, that was used for the sin offering. These are all animals that prefigure the death of the Lord Jesus upon the cross. They're pictures and types of things. But in the Old Testament economy, that is in the Levitical economy, we don't get the hind of the dawn.
You get the turtles out of the young pigeon. And these are the animals that were offered upon the altar. But when they come to the poetical books, it is the hind and the heart that's used. We get it in the Psalm of Solomon. We get it in the forty-second Psalm. And here the supreme example, we get it here in the twenty second Psalm, the hand of a dog on its surrounded by its enemies. Now, we're basically, we get five here altogether. The first one is the bull, the bull of vision. Do we have to use your imagination to interpret this? I don't think we do. If we turn over to the book of Amos, chapter four, you would find that the bulls of nation here represent the leaders of the Jewish nation.
That is the men who were responsible for government and for worship among the Jewish nations when the Lord Jesus was crucified upon the cross. An effort has been made recently. It was brought up at the Ecumenical Council. to try to exonerate the Jewish people for their responsibility for the death of the Messiah. My dear friends, that can never be done. It can never be done. We have absolutely no prejudice at all against the Jewish people. We love them. We pray for them. But you remember what they say. That day when the Lord was crucified, they said this, His blood be on our heads and upon the head of our children.
And at an illegal trial, in the middle of the night, when the trial shouldn't have taken place at all, they condemned them to death. And at that trial, there were the leaders of the nation, the Sanhedrin was there. Caiaphas and Aaron, the high priest, they were there, the scribes and the Pharisees. They condemned them to death. And they took them in the morning, and they handed them over to the Roman power. Now the Book of Bishops... in Scripture, they represent the leaders, the responsible leaders of the Jewish nation. And I think that this is what is referred to here in the Twenty Second Psalm. That was the second animal. And the second animal here, we point further down the psalm.
We get here the word unicorn. Now again, just for the sake of our younger folk in the meeting tonight, this word unicorn, it should be translated as a wild ox. I think that Mr. Newberry, in his translation, that's the way he translated it. You probably know that the unicorn was a fabled animal. It never had an existence. It was a fabled animal that had a horn in the middle of the cage. But here we find the horns of the unicorn. The plain fact is this, that in sixteen eleven, when our Bible was translated, when the translators came to this word, this Hebrew word, lean, They didn't understand what it meant. And to put the word unicorn, but actually it means the buffalo.
That means the world out. You know that the most dangerous animal in the bush today in creation is not a lion. The most dangerous animal in the bush today in the forest is not a leopard. The most dangerous animal in the bush today, if not an elephant, it may be the strongest. But the most dangerous is a buffalo. That is especially if it has been wounded and of its inner hairs. You know, I think that what is represented here is a mob that stood outside Parliament's judgment hall and how, away with him, away with him, we will not have this man to reign over us. I don't know of anything. It's more frightening than to see a mob of human beings out of control.
I've seen it on several occasions. Just a little while ago, I saw a photograph. It made my blood run cold. It was something that happened just quite recently, and it happened over in what I almost call my native land, the land where I have spent the most of my life. An African with his two hands tied behind his back. and laid upon the ground, and then with heavy bullets coming along and ticking them around the ears and on his head, and then stamping them to death as they lay upon the ground. I saw the photograph, and I saw that man actually pounded a pulse by a mob that was out of control. This is what we find here.
I think we little realized what happened that day as the Lord Jesus was being hounded out of the city of Jerusalem and taken out to his dead. Away with him. Away with him. We will not have this man to reign over us. And then the God. Now, I don't want you to refer to the Jews. We have absolutely no prejudice against God's dear people, Israel. But they are guilty. They're guilty of the death of the Messiah. The rule of nation was there, but the God was there too. Who does that represent? It is the representative of the world government. The representative of Gentile world dominion was the Brahm. the man who sat upon the bench that day countiest pilot he was the representative of world dominion on that plan they boasted that any man who came before a woman bench would be given justice without partiality and the man who came before them that day pilot said again and again Take ye him, crucify him, I find no fallen him.
He washed his hands. I said, See you through it. I am innocent of the blood of this just man. And yet he sent him to his death. The Gentile is responsible, and so is the Jews. The grog was there. The boulevation was there. The buffalo was there. But finally we read here about the line. Now, do we need to use your imagination here? Who was represented by the lion and the might of the lion? I believe it was the devil himself. You know, while Christ was upon the cross, and while he was lying upon the cross, there was no angelic help. There certainly was when he was in death family. And when he lay upon the ground in death family and went, as it were, through the drops of blood falling down to the ground, we read that an angel strengthened him.
But amid the darkness of Golgotha, there was no angelic hope there. But the devil was there. This is Yura, and the power of darkness, the Lord Jesus said. And the Apostle Paul, In the second chapter of the Epistle of the Colossians, in verse fifteen, he gives us a mysterious outline of the death of Christ upon the cross. And he says this, since the fall of his implore, they were there. It was a final conflict between the Lord of light and glory and between Satan himself. It's what has been called the battle of the seas. We have been singing about this in our meeting at the commencement of the meeting. That battle is still going on today. But the climax... The culmination of that battle was upon Calvary Strauss, and the one who hung and suffered and bled and died upon the cross, the lion was there.
Satanic power was there, but thank God he crushed the serpent's head. And those principalities in part, he stressed drama and he conquered, sin and death and Satan, and those satanic powers while he was upon the cross, but the lion was there. But there's one thing I'm thankful for, and it's this. But when the Lord Jesus died upon the cross, it wasn't the bull abation. It wasn't the unicorn or the white ox, the buffalo. It wasn't the dog. Uncertainly it wasn't Satan that brought him down into the depths of death. Read here about the sword. And I want to remind you of that great messianic passage in the Thirteenth Chapter of the Book of Jeremiah where we read these words.
A great old sword against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, smote the shepherd on the sheeps of the scant of the bride, and I will turn my hand upon the little one. Beloved friends, not dead. that Christ died upon the cross. It was a violent death. You know that? It's described here in the psalm. It was violent. But it was for cares. It was for you and for me. He who is absolutely without sin, it became sin for us that we might remade the righteousness of God in him. It was victorious. He died for others, not for himself, but it was a voluntary death.
It was a transaction between God the Father and God the Son. And the sword of divine justice was taken and thrust into the heart of the hand of the God and he was brought down into the breast of death. Now there's something mysterious about this. As far as I am concerned, I just bow my head and rush it. Do I understand it? I never did, but I understand it down here. That time of the darkness, my God, my God, God, did God forsake me? I can't understand that. But there's one thing I know that's when Christ died upon the cross. And when the hand of the dawn was brought down into the dust of death, it was for me. It was a victorious death. It was a voluntary death.
He laid down his life himself. He said, no man takeeth my life from me. I lay it down to myself. This commandment hath I received of my father. But the hand of the dawn is brought down into the dust of death. Many years ago, intense living with many seconds gone into one of our African languages, I was rather disturbed by this word, dust. You know, when we die, generally the last thing is bread of utter. Over the casket, as the body is being lowered into mother air. Generally, what I said, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. And we know that a human body, when it goes down into the dust of death, and a very short time of disintegrates, But we must never, never think of this in connection with the person of the Lord Jesus.
I was rather disturbed by the word dust, and I took the trouble to examine every place in the Old Testament where the word occurs, and I found out a remarkable thing. In some places the word here for dust, it is the ordinary dust of the Quran. But this one occurrence in Numbers chapter nineteen, we will read about the red heifer. that was slain in a valley, completely reduced to ashes in the fire. And those ashes were taken with water, with running water, and the scarlet wound in his head. And one who was ceremonially unclean, the ashes of the red heather, mixed with the water, and the scarlet wound in his head was sprinkled on the unclean. for purification.
It was through the Morgans transit. And the amazing thing is this, that the word for ashes, in Numbers chapter nineteen, and the word for dust here is exactly the same word. It's not the dust of contamination, the dust of disintegration. Nothing of that. But what we get here is the ashes of a completed sacrifice. He's brought down into the dust of death. Now I'd like to suggest that this is a symbolic interpretation of the song. The hand of the dawn brought down into the dust of death for you and for me. So just a word about these four great messianic titles. Now the first one is the worm. I am a worm of no man.
I was born and brought up among those known as brethren. The only thing that I can remember was when I was four years of age being taken by my father and mother and sat down between at the Lord's table. And as long as I can remember right away back, I can remember being taught the word of God and sitting and listening to it. And remember when there was a boy and old gentleman at the Lord's table, I was just a child at the time. But the old gentleman, he got up and he read the twenty-second song. And when he came to this verse, he gave an illustration of working in the garden. And he told her he had turned over the earth, and there was a nurse worm there.
And he had taken his spade, and he had cut the earth worm in two. And of course there was life in either hand. And he said, that that would have been a death blow to any other animal, it wasn't a that worm. There was life on either side. And he used that as an illustration of the deathless life of the Lord Jesus. Now, that may be all right for an illustration, but it's not the meaning of this one here. There's something far, far more beautiful, something far more important than that. Thirty one times. And again, I'm quoting Nubres. I hope you've all got a Nubres Bible. If you don't, I would suggest save it for money and buy one. It's being published again. It's a remarkable work.
On little Nubres, in his margin here, the twenty second Psalm, he points out that the word worm here, thirty one times. In the Old Testament scriptures, it's translated worm scarlet. Worm scarlet. It was a little creature that grew in the Mediterranean. and it was taken and put in a mortar and pounded with a pestle. And the complete essence of that little creature was used for dying. The beautiful vestments of the high priest. And remember the covering, the scarlet coverings in the tabernacle? It was used as an indelible dye for diamond. And this is the word the Lord Jesus uses here. I am a worm.
It's not the earth worm, but he's thinking of that little creature, that when diamond a day, so that these beautiful dashments and the coverings of the tabernacle should have this beautiful scarlet color. I am a worm. When I came to the conference today, I heard the name of a man whose name I grittily revealed. He's a man outstanding in his ministry of the Word. His name is George Veranda. No longer possibly, thank you to everyone here tonight. Many years ago, Mr. Landis was the man who was responsible for the funeral of President Hardy. He wasn't very often talked about that. He was quite a young man at the time. But he was ministering in a church at that time, and he was the man who was responsible for the funeral of President Hardy.
When I heard the story, at one time, he had a prayer master. And the man came to him after Mr. Landis had given out to him, would he devote that sacred head for such a warm as art? On this man, he came to Mr. Landis and said, Brother Landis, he said, I object to singing that hymn on that verse. He said, I'm not a worm. And he said, would he, the both sides of his head put such a worm as that? He said, I'm not a worm. And you know, Mr. Landis is the most gracious man. And I said, my dear brother, he said, there was one who was infinitely higher than you and me, who took that title and so on. And I said, I am a worm, and no man, despised of the people.
This. It speaks of his humility and also of his gracious humanity. But then, my darling, you know, as we look at this second title here, my darling, here we get the complete essential deed of the Lord Jesus. Now, we're not going to go into this in any detail at all. I just want to mention this in fact. Here is the truth that being denied everywhere today, people are knocking their door. And so if you ask them, do you believe that Christ is the Son of God? Of course, I do. you believe that he's God the Son? Well, that's a different story. The deity of the Lord Jesus is denied on every hand a day by heretical power. On the other hand, he was a man, a man of body, soul and spirit, a real man apart from things.
But on the other hand, he was God, the very God. On the two together, in his incarnation, the two were indissolubly joined together and never will be part of. This is what theologians call the hypostatic union. The deity of Christ on the one hand, on the holy, sinless humanity on the other. On the one hand, the worm, on the other hand, my darling, the only one, the only forgotten sign of the Father. I'm going to leave her free. What can I feel a little bit worried about when I said, I'd love to be able to sing. When I hear anybody getting up and singing a hymn and be able to ring it up, I feel a little bit angry.
I have a very warm friend over in Africa. He has been a listener quite recently. His name is Jim Carlwell. I've known Jim for thirty-five years. And the last time I was over in Africa, just a little over two years ago, I spent a large day with him at a place called Chitokha Lottie. Jim has been a missionary there for over thirty-five years, and is one of the most beautiful voices that I have ever heard. So I know judge, but if I would be able to judge, I would say that his point is comparable to the voice of George Beverly Shade. And yet he has deliberately chosen, voluntarily, chosen to bury himself in the heart of Africa to take the gospel to people that don't appreciate him at all.
But after spending a large day with Jim at Chicago Rockets, I alluded to his poem. And the meetings were over for the day. I said, Jim, would you sing to me? I said, I would love to hear you sing. He said, what shall I sing? Oh, I said, you know, you'll know how to sing. And he said, I'm at the piano. I'm not a little home there in the banks of the Zambia in the middle of Africa. And he started to play and sang about him. Some golden day break. Jesus full of tongue. And that's sentimental. on that but as i sat on the corner and heard that dear soul ringing it out some golden day bread jesus will come i must confess that the goosebumps came out of my back and i sat on the corner and i'm not ashamed to tell you that i shed a few tears that night as i heard that dear soul sing but i want to tell you this but from this day it fulfills the leader of praise.
Then the great congregation of that great coming day, the one who will be the leader of praise among his people will be the Lord Jesus. And then I'll have a voice then that I'll be able to sing in a way that I'm not able to sing now. All I can do is just if I carry a tune and just croak like a crow. But at least in that day, I believe imperfection. And in maturity, in the presence of the Lord, we'll be able to praise him in a way that we cannot down here. He's a leader of praise in the great congregation. And then the government. Now, I know that my time is long. And I meant him to abuse my privilege by going on any further tonight. But, you know, there's a good deal of criticism today about government. That's one thing I've never indulged in.
I would never abuse my privilege of being a visitor in this country, although I have my home here now. I never would abuse my privilege of criticizing the men that are at the head of a parish today. I believe we should pray for them. I believe that these men that sit in the seats of power today, if they could only get people to pray for them, I believe they would appreciate it. And they need it. They certainly do it. All this terrible business over in Vietnam and what is going on in the Middle East and in other parts of the world, all we only had a man who would be able to sit at a desk or sit at a table and gather the leaders of the nations around them and be able to...
Bring peace to a troubled world. I tell you, everybody would appreciate it. Look at me, he sang. He sang. The one here that's spoken off as a word. The one who's spoken off here as my darling, the only begotten sang. And the one who was the leader of grace, he will be the gardener among the nations. And then and only then will we have a perfect gardener. Thank God for that great day when he comes back again. He will take the reins of government and it will rain from sea to sea and from the river to the end of the earth. This is the hope of the church. It's the hope of Israel. It's the hope of the whole world. One who comes and takes the reins of government and who's able to bring in peace to our troubled world.
And thank God for coming. This is a messianic interpretation. I'll just leave the liturgy interpretation to you just to read it down once again and look at the seventh quotation from this Psalm in the forebassal. And as you do, I believe you've got something that will bring worship and praise from your heart to that one who not only said, My God, my God, God, God. But who also said, Before he got his head in death, it is finished. And he got his head, and he gave up the job. May God bless his wife.