We think transformation will be quick, and sometimes it is. But generally speaking, God isn’t in a rush. There’s a certain kind of holiness and beauty that develops only after decades of walking with God. You can’t microwave it. But when you see it, it’s a beautiful thing.

Take a look at your body right now.
Unless you’re really young, you probably see signs of decay. Our bodies start the process of aging and decline at a cellular level well before we notice any significant changes.
Generally, this process begins in our late 20s to early 30s. During this time, the body’s ability to repair and regenerate cells starts to decrease gradually. The rate of decline differs based on genetics, lifestyle, and overall health, but it impacts everyone.
Eventually, your skin will change. Your hair may thin or turn gray, or it may even fall out. Your muscle mass and strength will decrease. Your vision and hearing will decline. You will experience cognitive changes and more.
As the saying goes, “Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.” It’s inevitable.
You will not only experience physical decline. Arthur Brooks writes about other kinds of decline that will take place:
Unless you follow the James Dean formula — “Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse”—you know that your professional, physical, and mental decline is inevitable. You probably just think it’s a long, long way off….
…in practically every high-skill profession, decline sets in sometime between one’s late thirties and early fifties.
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God revealed Himself using the Urim and Thummim and did other things that are hard for us to believe today. God spoke from a burning bush (Exodus 3). He parted the Red Sea (Exodus 14). He made the sun stand still (Joshua 10). He allowed a donkey to talk (Numbers 22). The Urim and Thummim fade into history. They’re mentioned one last time in Nehemiah 7:65, but it’s unclear if they were ever found or used then.

I don’t know if you’ve thought much about the Urim and Thummim.
The first mention of them can be found in the book of Exodus 28. In verse 15, God tells Moses to make “make a breastpiece of judgment.” The CSB calls it “an embroidered breastpiece for making decisions.” In verse 30, we read:
And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart, when he goes in before the LORD. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the LORD regularly.
They seem to be part of the breastplate worn by the high priest of Israel. We don’t know what they looked like. Some believe they were two stones — possibly gemstones — or other objects, possibly inscribed with symbols or words. We don’t know for sure.
We also don’t know how they were used. Some think they were a form of lots, like casting dice or drawing straws. Some think that they spelled out answers. Others think that they had numbers on them, or that they had two sides, one saying “yes” and the other “no.” Others think they used colors.
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You can experience a joy, a radiance, in even the worst circumstances. You can be going through the worst possible crisis, and you can still experience comfort and joy. The kind of joy that God offers isn’t diminished by difficulty and hardship; it coexists with difficulty and hardship. We can look to God in our struggles and experience joy and peace even in the middle of trials.

Advice can be valuable, but only if it comes from somebody reliable. But when you find someone who’s been through exactly what you’re going through, and they have something to say, their advice can be incredible.

If you are getting married, it is so helpful to talk to someone who has been married for a long time and is making it work.
If you’re going through joblessness, it helps so much to talk to someone else who’s been unemployed in similar circumstances.
If you are raising teenagers, it can be very helpful to talk to someone whose kids have gone through the same thing.
If you are going through a crisis, it is helpful to talk to someone else who’s been through a similar crisis and survived.

It can be so valuable to get good advice from someone who’s learned from a similar situation we’re going through.
David’s Circumstance
So here’s why it’s worth learning from Psalm 34.
There are 14 psalms that are linked to events that took place in David’s life. This is one of them. We read in the inscription of the psalm, “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.”
Two things to notice here.
First: David knows what it’s like to suffer! We find this story in 1 Samuel 21. You think you have problems? David was literally running for his life. He was in so much trouble that he fled to the land of the Philistines, his archenemies. How desperate do you have to be to flee to people who want to kill you? Even worse, he went carrying the sword of Goliath, a Philistine he had killed. When David was recognized, he escaped, barely, by acting like he’d lost his sanity.
Here’s the thing about the Bible. We are not the first to suffer. You name whatever problem you’re going through, and it’s probably not going to be crazier than what David went through before he wrote this psalm. It’s hard to out-crazy this story. David writes as someone who’s an innocent sufferer facing a really difficult situation.
But here’s the other thing to notice. The inscription says, “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech.” This is slightly confusing, because the Philistine king’s name was actually Achish. Abimelech shows up in Genesis 20. He was king in a similar area, but it was Abraham, not David, who dealt with Abimelech.
Why does Psalm 34 mention the wrong guy? Robert Alter, a Bible scholar, suggests that the editor was making connections. He saw some parallels between David’s story and Abraham’s story. A just man is threatened with imminent death, and God rescues him.
In other words, this is David’s story, but it’s part of a bigger pattern of how God treats his people. The future king of Israel is so desperate that he’s scratching doors and drooling all over his beard, and the editor says, “Yeah, this reminds me of some other times that God has rescued his people in some pretty strange circumstances.”
So this is a psalm written by someone who knows what it’s like to go through crazy times, and David has two messages for us.
Two Lessons
Here are the two lessons.
Learn from me (1-7)
In the first part of this psalm, he gives his personal testimony. He begins with a call to praise:
I will bless the LORD at all times;his praise shall continually be in my mouth.My soul makes its boast in the LORD;let the humble hear and be glad.Oh, magnify the LORD with me,and let us exalt his name together!(Psalm 34:1-3)
Then he gives the reason why he is praising God and calling us to praise God in verses 4 to 6:
I sought the LORD, and he answered meand delivered me from all my fears.Those who look to him are radiant,and their faces shall never be ashamed.This poor man cried, and the LORD heard himand saved him out of all his troubles.
What is David’s testimony? David’s testimony is not that he escaped from King Achish by his own ingenuity. He doesn’t credit his clever acting skills. He credits God. God was the one who delivered him, so God deserves the praise.
David sought Yahweh in a time of trouble. God answered and delivered him. He cried out, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him from all of his troubles. Tucked away, though, is an amazing promise in verse 5:
Those who look to him are radiant,and their faces shall never be ashamed.
Here’s what he’s saying. You can experience a joy, a radiance, in even the worst circumstances. You can be going through the worst possible crisis, and you can still experience comfort and joy.
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Hard times are going to come. What should we do? In crisis, turn to God, remind yourself what’s true, and then you’ll be able to help others take courage in God.

Someone I know and respect went through one of the hardest crises of his life.
He had reached the peak of his professional career. He’d had a solid track record of accomplishments. But out of nowhere, a powerful group of people turned against him and forced him out of his job.
“It just about took me out,” he said.
And so, for a year, their agenda was simple: “to try not to die, to pray, and to re-think at a profound level.”
To this day, it’s still a difficult time for them to talk about.
As a pastor, I’ve had the privilege of walking with people for over thirty years now. I’ve encountered many people like that.
What do you do when you face a crisis that almost takes you out, that leaves you trying not to die, that leaves you rethinking things at a profound level? That’s what I want to talk to you about.
A Versatile Cry for Help
Today I want to look at Psalm 31. It’s a psalm that cries out to God for help. It’s written by David. What’s the situation behind the psalm? We just don’t know. Some psalms give the historic situation, but this one doesn’t. David faced similar situations throughout his life, like when a city was going to give him to Saul in 1 Samuel 23, or when his own son turned against him later on.
What is the situation that David faced? As I said, we don’t know the incident, but David tells us the problems he faced. He faced a conspiracy of enemies against him, so much so that even his friends deserted him.
Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach,especially to my neighbors,and an object of dread to my acquaintances;those who see me in the street flee from me.I have been forgotten like one who is dead;I have become like a broken vessel.For I hear the whispering of many—terror on every side!—as they scheme together against me,as they plot to take my life.(Psalm 31:11-13)
Whatever the problem, this psalm is pretty versatile. It’s been used by God’s people throughout the years as their own cry for help.

A later psalmist — perhaps David himself — re-used the first three verses in Psalm 71.
Jonah quotes from verse 6 when he’s trapped in the belly of the fish.
The prophet Jeremiah quoted from verse 13.
Jesus quoted verse 5 for his last words from the cross when he was abandoned by his disciples during his arrest.
Many Christians throughout history have also used this psalm, including individuals such as Saint Bernard, John Huss, Jerome of Prague, Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and many more.

One of the most memorable uses of this psalm was by John Huss, who was burned at the stake. The bishop ended the ceremony by saying: “And now we commit your soul to the devil.” Huss replied calmly, “I commit my spirit into thy hands, Lord Jesus Christ; unto thee I commend my spirit, which thou has redeemed.”
This psalm can be used by God’s people in different crisis situations, such as death and betrayal. This psalm has given people — including Jesus — words to use in the middle of crisis. It can do the same for you and for me.
Responding to Crisis
How do we respond to crisis? David shows us three ways to respond.
Turn to God as your only source of refuge.
Where do you turn in times of crisis? Some of us try to escape. We dull the pain through food, alcohol, drugs, and pleasure. Or we turn to friends to help us. But David shows us that there’s only one place we can ultimately turn in a time of trail. There is only one true refuge, and that’s God. Only he will provide the refuge that we need when we go through times of trial.
The theme of refuge keeps coming up in this psalm. David writes:
In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;let me never be put to shame;in your righteousness deliver me!Incline your ear to me;rescue me speedily!Be a rock of refuge for me,a strong fortress to save me!For you are my rock and my fortress;and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me.you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,for you are my refuge.(Psalm 31:1-4)
Over and over again in this psalm, the psalmist speaks of God as his refuge and says things like, “I trust in you” (Psalm 31:14).
We will face this choice every time we go through a crisis. Be honest: where do you turn in times of crisis? We all have coping strategies that we use in times of trial. Here is the one thing that they all have in common, apart from God: they will let you down. Your friends will let you down. Friends are great, but they can’t provide the refuge that only God can. Pleasure and escape tactics provide a temporary coping mechanism, but they don’t provide any true place of refuge at all.
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Where did things go wrong between the genders? Not with God’s original design. God’s original design for men and women was good — not just good but very good. We dare not ignore the dignity of both men and women or eliminate the differences between them, because those differences are good. We have to look at where the problem began, and that isn’t with God but with our ancient enemy the devil. He introduced sin into the world, and as we’re going to see, sin affected the relationship between men and women.

Last summer, we were camping about half an hour east of North Bay when our car broke down. It really broke down. It was almost un-drivable.
We faced three issues:

First, the immediate issue: how to get the vehicle home.
Second, diagnosing the problem, because you have to know what you are trying to fix.
Third, actually getting it fixed.

We solved the first issue. It involved God answering prayer and some questionable driving decisions that turned out fine. But diagnosing the problem was a bit harder. We’re not mechanics, so we guessed wrong what the issue might be. But we’re not the only one. Our mechanic guessed wrong and ordered the wrong part, which we still ended up paying for, but in the end we got what we wanted. All three issues were solved. We got the vehicle home. We finally diagnosed the problem accurately. And we got it fixed at a price we could afford.
I’m here to tell you that the same three issues apply to our discussion of gender.

First, we face immediate issues. These are the real issues that we face every day: questions of singleness and marriage, gender roles and differences, tensions between the genders, and other pressing issues.
But then we face the challenge of diagnosing the problems. What’s underneath the immediate issues? This is important, because if we make the wrong diagnosis, we won’t solve the problem.
And then we actually have to take the step of getting the issue solved.

Today, I want to focus on the second stage. I want to focus on diagnosing the problem that causes many of the issues between the genders. What’s behind all the tensions between men and women — societal issues like harassment, stereotypes, and double standards? Closer to home, what makes it so hard sometimes for men and women to get along?
We’ve got to come to an accurate diagnosis of the problem if we’re going to come up with the solution.
The Wrong Diagnosis
Here’s why I think this is so important. I think we often tend to misdiagnose the problem. We think and act as if the problem is the difference between the genders, which is why we often find ourselves trying to either erase the differences between men and women, or to devalue one gender or the other. There are few more issues that get more heated than this one. As one person points out, “Few topics have generated such heat or confusion as the 21st-century debates over sex, gender and male-female relations.”
Because we get the diagnosis wrong, we also get the cure wrong.
For instance, you’ve heard the term toxic masculinity. There is such a thing as toxic masculinity. But it would be easy to think that the problem is masculinity itself. Masculinity is good! God came up with the idea. I love what one author writes: “Men become dangerous not because their masculinity is toxic but because their humanity is … In short, the answer is not to weaken men, but to help them grow stronger.” The problem isn’t masculinity in itself; the problem is sin. If we misdiagnose the problem, we’ll misdiagnose the solution.
In other words, the problem isn’t what we think it is. Last week we saw that God’s original design for men and women is good — not just good but very good. We’ve seen looked at Genesis 1 and 2 and have seen that men and women have dignity and differences that are designed for our good and our joy:

Men and women have dignity — Both genders are made in the image of God. They’re equal in personhood and importance, and and it takes both genders to represent God in this world.
Men and women have differences — Eve was created both alike and different from Adam. They correspond to each other. Men and women have both similarities and profound differences, and yet those differences are meant to be a source of joy.

Many of our problems today is because we let go of one of those truths: dignity or differences. We have to hold both together. Both men and women have dignity, but men and women also have differences. If we let go of the dignity of each gender, or ignore the differences between the genders, we will go wrong.
The problem is not God’s design of men and women. That is a very good thing. If we think that erasing the differences is the solution to restoring dignity to both genders, then we’ve misdiagnosed the problem and we’ll come up with the wrong solution.
We need to hold on to the dignity of both men and women and the differences between us. The problem doesn’t lie in our differences; the problem is elsewhere.
The Real Problem
Genesis 3 tells us what the real issue is.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:1-7)
I want to make two observations.
The Problem Began with the Craftiness of Our Enemy, Not with God’s Design
You find a talking serpent. Revelation identifies the snake as “that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan” (Revelation 12:9). And what did that serpent do? He tempted the first couple to question God’s word and seize something that didn’t belong to them yet. He provoked them to distrust God and to decide for themselves what’s right and wrong. Rather than submitting to God, they try to take God’s place. As Spurgeon put it, they struck a match and set the world on fire with sin.
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Christian, you represent God in the world. You bear God’s name. Don’t bear it in vain. Bring him honor in how you live. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). The good news of the gospel is that God has done everything necessary to bless us through Jesus. Through Jesus we have the blessing we need: protection, God’s smile, and peace. But it also means that God has placed his name upon you. 

One of the most significant events of your life took place without you having much to do about it.
One day, a long time ago, someone gave you a name. You were just lying there. They looked at you and made a decision about what you would be called from that point on. Maybe they’d already decided. Maybe they chose a name that was already meaningful. Maybe you reminded them of a certain name. But on that day, they gave you a name. And, for most of us, that name has shaped our identity from that point on.
Another one of the most significant events of our lives happens as we receive another name.
In Numbers 6, God instructs Aaron, the high priest, to pronounce a blessing on the people. This is a blessing from the heart of God himself. It’s a blessing that conveys his protection, his smile, and peace. It’s a microcosm of the gospel itself. And at the end of it, God says: “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them” (Numbers 6:27).
In other words, what we have in this passage is not only a blessing but a naming ceremony. As these words from God himself are pronounced on the people, God himself puts his name on the people.
The question is: what does this mean? This is not just something that Israel got to experience; it’s something that we get to experience too. Revelation 22:4 speaks of the new heavens and the new earth: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”
God’s name is a precious thing. A name represents the person and the totality of their identity. “Our name is not tangential to our being. It marks us and identifies us. Over time, as people get to know us, our name embodies who we are,” says Kevin DeYoung.
So when God puts his name on his people, it’s deeply personal. God’s name can’t be separated from God himself. This blessing is meant not only to give you God’s blessing, but for God to put his name and his blessing on your life.
But what does that mean? That’s what I want to look at today. It means three things.
One: It Means That God Owns You
When God puts his name on us means so much. It means that he chooses to identify with us. It means that he identifies us as his people, the objects of his blessing. It means that he claims us as his own, that he marks us as his people.
I love books. The first thing that I do when I get a book is to open the cover and put my name on the first page. Why? Because I love books so much that I don’t want other people thinking that my books are their books, and so I put my name upon it and claim it as my own. To put our name on something means that we claim ownership of that item and declare to everyone that we own it; that it belongs to us.
And that’s what God does with his people too. God blesses them. He protects them, smiles upon them, and looks after them, and the whole purpose is this: that they become his. He writes their name on them. He claims them as his own.
It goes with what God said to them earlier in Exodus 19:5-6:
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
God has made his people his exclusive possession. God’s people are his royal property. God is so committed to his people that he declares his ownership over them, that they belong to him. God states that everything already belongs to him — all people and people groups. And yet, despite this, his intention is “to bring close to himself a people that will join him for all eternity as adopted members of his family” (Douglas Stuart).
Israel could go through the wilderness and know that they had a unique relationship with God that no other nation had.
Similarly, if you are a follower of Jesus, you can go through your life and know what you also have a unique relationship with God. God has placed his name on you. This is the heart of what God intends for us. It’s why he saves a people: so we can belong to him.
If you have trusted Christ, God wants you to understand that you belong to him. You are not your own. He has written his name on you as one of his people. You are part of his treasured possession.
But this has a flip side. It also means that you don’t own you. The first question of the Heidelberg Catechism says this:

What is your only comfort in life and death?
That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

In his book You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World, Alan Noble says:
A proper understanding of our personhood requires we recognize that we are not our own. At our core, we belong to Christ.
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Can God change your circumstances? Sure. But you can experience the blessing of Numbers 6 even in the wilderness. You can know that God is providing for you and protecting you, that he is favorable toward you. You can experience a deep sense of wellbeing even in a wheelchair or wherever you are, because you are seeing what human eyes can’t: that he is at work in your life, and that he loves you, and he will bring you safely home.

I want to take you back with me some three thousand years.
You are in the desert. You’re one of 600,000 people trying to get by in a very inhospitable place. It’s like the worst camping trip ever. I love camping as much as anyone, but one of the best parts of camping is going home and enjoying the comforts of home.
But this is like the camping trip that never ends. The trip was supposed to be two weeks long, but it has turned into a forty-year journey. However, our kids, not us, will be the ones to reach the final destination.
I want you to imagine being with me on a particular day that’s not a very good one. You’re hot. It’s close to 30 degrees Celsius. You think back to before you entered the wilderness. Life was tough then, but at least you had better food. There’s not much water around, and you’re thirsty.
This is your life. This isn’t a temporary setback that you will overcome. Things will never get better than this for you. You will spend your whole life moving tents and recalling your last delicious meal from a long time ago while struggling to survive in the wilderness. Eventually, you will die. This is your life, and it’s never going to get better.
But that morning you’re close enough to see Aaron, the high priest, raise his hands over you, and hear him bellow these words:
The LORD bless you and keep you;the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.(Numbers 6:22-27)
The tension we might feel is: this blessing sounds great, but what does it mean when you’re living in the wilderness waiting to die? What is the meaning of God protecting us, shining his face upon us, and giving us peace in the middle of the wilderness?
We’re going through Aaron’s blessing in this series. We’ve been studying these words that have been used for thousands of years, given by God as a blessing to his people. God promises to provide and protect us in the wilderness. He comforts us by showing us his face and being gracious to us. We’re going to continue exploring what this means as we look at the third line of the blessing today.
But, at some point, we have to face this tension. This blessing seems way too exalted for our circumstances. Life was tough in the wilderness as they first heard this blessing, and it’s going to be tough for some of us to hear this blessing too.
A Summary of the Blessing
Let’s quickly remember what the blessing is about.
It’s only three lines. Each line builds on the one before. It starts with a trickle and builds to a crescendo. It goes from 3 to 5 to 7 Hebrew words.
In each of the three lines, God is the subject. He takes action. We are the recipients. And the action he takes is essentially that he has a favorable attitude towards us:

He blesses
He makes his face shine
He lifts up his face upon us

That’s the first part of each line.
The second part wishes that God does something positive for us:

He protects
He’s gracious — not just in attitude, but in terms of taking action for us in a gracious way
He gives wellbeing

This is God’s heart for us. And because of who God is, the always accomplishes what he sets out to accomplish. This is what he intends to accomplish in our lives.
Today we’re looking at the third line of the blessing in which God lifts us face upon us. It’s the opposite of God turning his face away from us. In other words, God looks at us favorably. He looks at me favorably. If you are in Jesus Christ, he looks at you favorably too.
Pause there. I can’t quite get my head around this.
There’s a paragraph in Marilynne Robinson’s book Gilead. The main character is a preacher, and he says this:
I had a dream once that I was preaching to Jesus Himself, saying any foolish thing I could think of, and He was sitting there in His white, white robe looking patient and sad and amazed. That’s what it felt like.
I can relate to that, can’t you? I think that’s how many of us picture God looking at our lives: patient, sad, and amazed. Deep down, we feel that God must be deeply disappointed in us at best.
But God comes along and says that he looks favorably upon his people. He doesn’t look upon us with disappointment. He’s not shaking his head sadly when he looks at you. He looks at you favorably. His heart is one of favor and delight in you. That’s what the first part of the third line tells us.
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Sometimes I read passages I’ve read hundreds of times before, and a new insight leaps off the page. I puzzle over passages, and find that the longer I look at them, the more they yield. I never finish looking at a passage and think, “Yep. Got that one down.” And then there are the relationships between passages, the allusions, the themes that run from beginning to end. I’ve been studying the Bible for a long time now, and it feels like I’m just getting started.

I drove up to the United States border guard. I have a Nexus card, so I didn’t expect much of a problem.
“Purpose of visit?”
“I’m attending a study week.”
“What are you studying?”
“Just the Bible.”
“Just the Bible?” he exclaimed. Point taken: there is no “just” the Bible. It is a book unlike any other, not even a book but a collection of books. Even if you’re not a Christian, you have to admit it’s amazing. But as a Christian, I see it as much more than a book. It’s my bread and nourishment. There’s no “just” the Bible.
“What do you do for a living?“ he continued.
“I’m a pastor.”
“How long have you been a pastor?”
“Over thirty years.”
“You’ve been a pastor for over thirty years? What could you possibly have to learn about the Bible?”
“You don’t know much about the Bible, do you?” I thought, but I decided it would be better to think these words rather than say them.
The conversation continued for another five minutes. He wasn’t happy that I was entering the States to study the Bible. Maybe he didn’t like Christians. Maybe he was having a bad day. Maybe he decided he didn’t like me.
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Do you ever doubt if Jesus’ death was sufficient to atone for your sins? God doesn’t, so you don’t have to either. The resurrection is proof that Jesus did the work that he set out to accomplish at the cross, and that work is sufficient for your need and mine, that God was satisfied with what Jesus accomplished at the cross. God heard Jesus’ cries at the cross and vindicated him, just as he will vindicate everyone who trusts in him.

If you were here last week, you know that the first part of Psalm 22 is anything but happy. Psalm 22 is the cry of a righteous person who is suffering for no fault of their own. It is intense. The psalmist feels abandoned and ignored by God, and taunted and despised by people. It’s a heartbreaking cry for God to listen. After describing his anguish, the psalmist cries out:
But you, O LORD, do not be far off!you my help, come quickly to my aid!Deliver my soul from the sword,my precious life from the power of the dog!Save me from the mouth of the lion!You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!(Psalm 22:19–21)
Why is this psalm in the Bible? For one reason, because this is our experience sometimes. Sometimes we will suffer innocently. Sometimes we will feel abandoned and ignored by God, and taunted and despised by people. Sometimes we’ll cry out to God to pay attention to our cries. This psalm gives language to how you may feel at some point in your life. “Lament is the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God’s goodness” (Mark Vroegop). It’s given because you may one day need the words of this psalmist.
But there’s another reason Psalm 22 is in the Bible. It’s in the Bible because it so accurately describes the suffering of Jesus, the ultimate innocent sufferer. It describes his anguish on the cross, so much so that as he hung on the cross he quoted, verbatim, the words of this psalm (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). Not only that, but other details in this psalm show up on the day that Jesus was crucified. Close your eyes and read verses 16 to 18, and you would think the psalmist is describing the crucifixion of Jesus:
For dogs encompass me;a company of evildoers encircles me;they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me;they divide my garments among them,and for my clothing they cast lots.
As one scholar says of this psalm, “More than any other passage of Scripture it penetrates into the actual suffering of our crucified Lord” (Alec Motyer).
But here’s the other reason why I think this psalm is in the Bible. It’s in the Bible because it helps us understand not just the crucifixion of Jesus but the resurrection of Jesus. Written a thousand years before Easter Sunday, this psalm helps us understand what happened on that first Easter when Jesus rose from the dead. We’re not guessing when we say this. Hebrews 2:11-12 applies this second part of this psalm to Jesus.
In other words, if you want to understand all the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus and what it means for us today, you couldn’t do any better than to look at this psalm. It’s a portrait of the death and triumph of our Savior.
In verse 21, something happens:
Save me from the mouth of the lion!You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
In verse 21, the innocent sufferer is rescued from God. The rest of this psalm describes what happened.
It tells us that the resurrection means three things:
First, the resurrection means that Jesus is vindicated (22:22-24)
Read verses 22 to 24. The psalmist says:
I will tell of your name to my brothers;in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:You who fear the LORD, praise him!All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!For he has not despised or abhorredthe affliction of the afflicted,and he has not hidden his face from him,but has heard, when he cried to him.
On the cross, Jesus bore God’s wrath against the sins we committed. He willingly offered his life to make full payment for our sins. How do we know that the payment was sufficient, that God was satisfied with Jesus’ work? Because, as verse 24 says, God didn’t despise or abhor the affliction of Jesus. He hasn’t hidden his face from Jesus. He heard Jesus’ prayer and vindicated him by raising him from the dead.
Jesus’ resurrection is a sign that God heard Jesus’ prayers on the cross and rescued him, that he didn’t despise or abhor what Jesus did on the cross. 1 Timothy 3:16 speaks of his resurrection this way: “He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit…” As one theologian writes:
…Christ’s resurrection says something. It is the announcement of his justification. (Fred Zaspel)
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Put boundaries around your work. Know when to work hard, and when to rest. The world needs healthy pastors who work hard but know how to rest. Nobody gets there by accident. For the sake of the work that’s been entrusted to you, avoid the twin dangers of a poor work ethic and overwork.

Every pastor I know struggles with one of two temptations.
The first temptation is a poor work ethic.
One pastor I knew was paid full-time, but told me that he had found a way to do his job in about four hours, including worship services. He told me that he parked the car in the church parking lot, turned on the lights of his office, and took a bus to watch movies during the day.
That pastor may have been a little extreme, but I’ve met other lazy pastors: ones who are unaccountable with their time and take advantage of the freedom that their role offers in ways that lack integrity.
Pastors should be known as faithful stewards of the resources God gives them, including time. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he spoke of his hard work. “For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:9). He spoke of the value of hard work in ministry (1 Corinthians 15:10; Colossians 4:13; 2 Timothy 2:6). If we’re going to make progress in our ministries, it’s going to require immersing ourselves in the work of ministry (1 Timothy 4:15).
Some pastors struggle with a poor work ethic, and will have to give account to God for not working hard enough in ministry.
The second temptation is overwork.
While some pastors struggle with a poor work ethic, more pastors seem to struggle with overwork. They skip sabbaths and run ragged, working at an unsustainable pace.
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