A Troubled Question for the Troubled.
IF the report were to reach you some morning that outside the town or village where you reside a certain man, on his way to your house, had been arrested by the authorities and imprisoned, two questions would immediately arise in your mind―What man is it? What has he done? If you further learned, on inquiry, that he was actually on his way to show you a special kindness, your interest would naturally be increased sevenfold.
Now we wish in this paper to draw your attention to a “great sight,” an event so, momentous that beside it all others pale into insignificance—a Man under the judgment of God! This certainly ought to command your attention, for it was in connection with showing you a great kindness that He reached that place, and if not on His way to reach your house, He was certainly on His way to reach your heart.
A man under the judgment of God! Serious! Yes, truly. Who could forbear asking, What man? and Why?
Listen, and we will try to tell you, for an eternity of adoring wonder lies in the answers. To understand them aright we must bring together the opening verses of Psalms 22 and Matthew 27:4646And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)—the prophecy and its fulfillment. In the latter we learn who it is; in the former, why.
In Matthew 27 we see that it is the “Holy One” Himself that claims to be the fulfiller of the psalm. Jesus, forsaken of God! What meaneth this?
Of itself the announcement of a man under God’s judgment would bring no surprise with it. Had we seen a wicked Haman there, or a cruel, ungrateful Absalom, or a money-loving traitor like Judas, or had we been there ourselves, there could have been no surprise; but when we behold Jesus, “the Son of the Blessed,” under God’s righteous judgment we are bound to inquire, Why? Had not the evidence of angels, and men, and demons―yea, of God Himself―gone to show that, by right, the place of heavenly honor was personally His, and not the place of judicial abandonment?
Hear the bitter cry of Judas, as he throws the reward of his iniquity on the floor of the temple, saying, “I have betrayed the innocent blood” (Matt. 27:44Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. (Matthew 27:4)).
Even demons recognized Him as “the Holy One of God,” whose bidding they were compelled to obey, for the forsaken One had clearly demonstrated His Creator-power. Winds and waves and the fishes beneath the surface were alike under His control. All, all obeyed His will. He had baffled the enemy in his efforts to draw Him aside from His holy, obedient, dependent path, and silenced His would-be accusers by, “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?”
Lastly, God Himself had publicly proclaimed that He was His beloved Son, in whom He found perfect satisfaction and delight.
Now, with all this evidence before you, fix your eye once more on that “great sight,” and bow your heart in wonder. This is the Man that is found under God’s judgment! Not the “abominable worker of iniquity” that says, “No God,” in Psalms 14, but the perfectly dependent One who cries, “My God,” repeating it four times in the first few verses of the psalm we have been considering (Psa. 22).
How naturally the word, wrung in agony from His lips, springs to our own, and we say,
WHY?
Why is this One under God’s judgment? As in thought we stand gazing on that “great sight” who will tell us? Can Gabriel from heaven or demons doomed to hell give us the, answer? No.
Can Judas or the centurion, or Pilate, or the dying malefactor, or even His poor trembling disciples tell us?
No, no, they cannot. And the One who forsakes has essentially got no answer for the One forsaken: Is the question,—then, to remain forever unanswered?
Oh, no! Blessed be His name, an answer has been found―found in the Sufferer’s own bosom, expressed by His own blessed lips, “BUT THOU ART HOLY, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Psa. 22:33But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. (Psalm 22:3)). The secret lies in God’s holiness, in His absolute intolerance of sin. It was the sin of others for whom, of His own free will, the Lord Jesus had made Himself answerable, and He fully accepts the righteous consequences. He bears sin’s terrible penalty, and justifies God in dispensing to Him His wrath and judgment, yea, to its utmost extremity. So that when He thus answered His own troubled question with these words, “But Thou art holy,” it was as though He had said, Thou couldst not be the holy God Thou art, and do otherwise, even when Thine own Son has, for Thy glory, made Himself answerable for the iniquity of others.
Oh, ye “fools” that make a mock at sin; oh, ye careless triflers, consider this, lest, turning from the solemn sin question with a faint smile now, you turn to it with, a pale shudder presently, and never turn from it again for eternity!
But there is another side of the inquiry, Why was He there at all? What caused Him to step into that place of wrath and judgment? The answer is enfolded in one mighty word, and unfolded by one mighty deed. LOVE is the secret―the love of God in Christ Jesus, love displayed at Calvary. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). “He loved me,” said Paul, “and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)).
DEATH, the penalty of sin, was thus made the means of expressing God’s love to the sinner. What comfort for the sin-sick is here! What confusion for the God-accusing foe!
But, in reality, we should have no gospel to preach if all that we had to tell was of a “Man under judgment.” The Man who was under judgment has risen again, and is now forever beyond it. (Read from verse 22 of Psa. 22) It is striking that in the first half of this psalm there is no mention of His “brethren.” They had no part in what His enemies were doing, and they could not possibly take part in what He was doing. With the Holy Sufferer it was a question of “Thou” and “Me.” Hence the Lord’s answer to Peter’s question, “Why cannot I follow Thee now?” (John 13:3737Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. (John 13:37)). Peter’s “Why?” finds its answer in the forsaken One’s “Why?” How could he stand under the judgment of God, who was not able to bear the taunt of a maid-servant? None but He could take the place of bearing sin’s full judgment, and none but He, when once under it, could ever by exhausting it pass out free beyond it. This, as the Eternal One, He could do.
This He has done; and in verse 22 of the psalm we see Him beyond it forever. Oh, what depths of blessedness in that verse! Note the very first word He utters. He has no complaint against the sinner for his sins, nor against God for sin’s righteous judgment. He speaks to God His Father, and says, “I will declare Thy name”! “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren.” The “Thou” and “MY” of the dark hours of judgment are exchanged for the “THY” and “MY” of resurrection triumph. “Thy name” and “My brethren” are brought thus together, and who shall divorce them? He fills their hearts with joy to overflowing as He reveals to them His Father’s name, And fills His Father’s heart with joy by leading their praises back to Him.
For them whose cause He took up, as truly as for Him who took it, the judgment they deserved is forever past. Nothing is left but to enter triumphantly into what “He hath done” (the last three words of the psalm), and to praise the love that did it.
Sin has been removed in righteous judgment. God has been declared in perfect love, and “HE HATH DONE” IT. What a triumph!
“We triumph in Thy triumphs, Lord,
Thy joys our deepest joys afford;
They taste of love divine.”
How all this turns our trouble about sin’s consequences into hatred of its very nature and character!
One word more. It is to direct your attention to the “Why” of the risen Jesus. “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet” (Luke 24:38,3938And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. (Luke 24:38‑39)). As though He had said, Since I have passed through such depths for you, since My soul has been troubled in the presence of God’s judgment for your sins, nothing but peace and gladness should now fill yours in My presence.
“Oh, what a load was Thine to bear
Alone in that dark hour!
Our sins in all their terror there,
God’s wrath and Satan’s power.
“The storm that bowed Thy blessed head
Is hushed forever now,
And rest divine is ours instead,
While glory crowns Thy brow.”
What more could any sin-troubled heart wish for?
Sin unsparingly judged.
Love undeniably declared.
The Sin-purger transcendently honored and enthroned.
God Himself eternally satisfied and glorified.
Should there be one doubt left in the reader’s heart, let us entreat you to take that doubt to the risen Lord, and ask Him to go through the tale of His sufferings with you, and to tell you Himself whether He and His Father are fully satisfied with what
“HE HATH DONE.”