Psalm 22 Devotional:

21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the poor; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.

25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.

26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.

27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

28 For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he ruleth among the nations.

29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.

30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

Previously we saw in the Psalm the wonderful manner in which the Lord preserves His people, and the use of this as an argument in prayer, for the miracles of God are not isolated incidents totally abstracted from our salvation, but are as it were mirrors where we may behold the wonderful works of God for the encouragement of our faith. Therefore when we behold these miracles not only are we most impudent and hardhearted when we do not immediately recall the goodness of God manifested therein, but unthankful and forgetful if we do not bring them to remembrance in prayer. For it is not so much that God is benefited by these repetitions of past mercies, but that we are, and in recalling to mind those times in which God dearly cared for us when we were yet impotent, we are further encouraged to call upon Him and increase in faith as we make our requests known. And so, David in calling out to God for deliverance, completes his prayer in praise and in confident acknowledgement that God hath heard and answered His prayer. And so he saith, “For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the poor; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.” in which words we may recall to mind the words of our Lord which He spake saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” wherein a promise of everlasting life and endless felicity towards the righteous is contained. For David does not ask as a sinner, or merely as a man, but faith being empited of self-sufficiency latches onto the promise of God and David cries out as one who is broken and poor in spirit. And this is necessary in all our prayers, that we acknolwedge our own emptiness and the hand of God in our affliction, adversity and in deliverance. So David doth not say, “thou hearest the prayers of all” but “the poor” not poor in wealth, because David was rich, but the poor in spirit, those who see their need for salvation and their helplessness apart from the work of God. So he saith, “The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.” Just as Christ saith, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” For truly only those who are brought into submission and led into the fold of God, which consists of lambs, meek and mild shall inherit the earth. All others on account of their impudence, pride, malice, lust, blasphemy, indolence and cruelty shall be turned into hell. So may this Psalm teach us to pray to God remembering what He hath done for us in times past, and let this prick us forward that we might be affectionate and lively, full of zeal and vigor in prayer, for only the prayers of the zealous are acceptable to God, as it is written, “For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” Whereupon a Puritan comments, “Zeal is as needful for a Christian as salt for the sacrifice, or fire on the altar. Zeal without prudence is rashness; prudence without zeal is cowardliness. Without zeal, our duties are not acceptable to God. Zeal is like rosin to the bow-strings, without which the lute makes no music.”

Calvin,
The design of public and solemn thanksgiving is, that the faithful may employ themselves in all variety of ways, in serving and honoring God, and that they may encourage one another to act in the same manner. We know that God’s wonderful power shone forth in the protection of David; and that not only by one miracle, but by many. It is, therefore, not wonderful that he brings himself under obligation, by a solemn vow, to make open and public profession of his piety and faithfulness towards God. By his brethren he means the Israelites; and he gives them this appellation, not only because he and they were both descended from the same parentage, but rather because the religion which they had in common, as a sacred bond, kept them united to one another by a spiritual relationship. The apostle, (Hebrews 2:12) in applying this verse to Christ, argues from it, that he was a partaker of the same nature with us, and joined to us by a true fellowship of the flesh, seeing he acknowledges us as his brethren, and vouchsafes to give us a title so honorable.

Dickson,
After the conflict, the victory and outcome by way of thanksgiving is set down to the end of the Psalm, wherein David’s part is but a little shadow and is swallowed up here in Christ’s glory, shining in the fruits of His passion and resurrection. Learn from David’s part: that deliverance foreseen by faith works in some sort the effects of deliverance already experienced; namely, quietness, peace, joy, and thanksgiving, as is seen here. From Christ’s part, promising and prophesying of the fruits of His death and resurrection, learn: 1. Christ, though He is God Almighty, yet by reason of His incarnation, for the sake of the redeemed, is not ashamed to call them Brethren. 2. The preaching of the Gospel of Christ’s satisfaction for our sins by death and of His resurrection for our justification is a matter of great praise to God and comfort to the redeemed: ‘I will declare,’ saith Christ, ‘Thy name to my brethren.’ 3. In the right preaching of the Gospel, the ministers are, in effect, but Christ’s voice. Christ Himself is the principal Prophet and Preacher: For ‘I,’ saith He, ‘will declare Thy name in the midst of the great congregation,’ namely, of the whole Catholic Church on earth.

Let us therefore call out to God in thanksgiving, acknowledging His glorious resurrection, and His intercession for us, that we might have hope in His name and pray to Him in an acceptable manner.

Opening Prayer.

Intro.
•Theology and history in agreement.
•What is the history of the world, but the unfolding of events as relates to Christ’s church on earth, and His preservation of her despite men and devils?
•Foxe to Westminster. Preserving sound doctrine despite the attempts of Satan to snuff it out.
•Two chief means of the devil to oppose the doctrine of free grace. Heresy and persecution.
•Therefore if we study the confession, we see more clearly his method of heresy.
If we study the history of the Christian church, persecution. Both theology and church history are essential studies for the Christian therefore and reading John Foxe a natural introduction to Westminster.
•This precious document is what we have bled for and died to produce. And those who call themselves the church today have trampled it under their feet.

Schaff,
“All other institutions are made subservient to the kingdom of God established by Jesus Christ, and in its interest the whole world is governed.

Hodge, (Failure to understand scripture as systematic, denial of Westminster doctrine as a true expression of Christianity, and an important figure in history (American theology).

•These pseudo Reformers will throw out the whole of scripture in order to call Arminians and other infidels Christian, because it is essential to their self righteousness. Not all Calvinists have been so bold in their speech as Hodge is here, which gives us an opportunity to look into the center of Calvinist thought which usually they themselves cannot identify or cannot express. We see here the devil at work, separating doctrine from holy Scripture. If scripture really does teach free grace, then the Calvinist cannot boast over the Arminian.
He did NOT come up with monergistic soteriology on his own, and cannot boast over those who have a less acceptable theological tradition (in degree). Boasting is the whole of natural man’s religion.
•Calling Arminians Christians is not “Christian love” but the purest form of hypocrisy and conceit. Christians are honest about men’s souls and do not lie to them to make them feel better about themselves or us.
“they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” John 12:43

•Compare with Section 1 and 2 of Calvin’s Institutes, Book 1, chapter 1.

To the True and Faithful Members of Christ’s Church. Lesson 4. The deceit of Rome.

1. The Reformers considered the Roman Catholic church antichrist.
For first to see the simple flock of Christ, especially the unlearned sort, so miserably abused, and all for ignorance of history, not knowing the course of times, and true descent of the Church, it pitied me, that part of diligence so long to have been unsupplied in this my country Church of England. Again considering the multitude of Chronicles and story writers, both in England, and out of England, of whom the most part have been either Monks or Clients to the sea of Rome, it grieved me to behold how partially they handled their stories. Whose painful travail albeit I cannot but commend, in committing diverse things to writing, not unfruitful to be known, or unpleasant to be read: yet it lamented me to see in their Monuments the principal points, which chiefly concerned the state of Christ’s Church, and were most necessary of all Christian people to be known, either altogether pretermitted, or if any mention thereof were inserted, yet were all things drawn to the honor specially of the Church of Rome, or else to the favor of their own sect of Religion. Whereby the vulgar sort, hearing and reading in their writings no other church mentioned or magnified but only that Church which here flourished in this world in riches and jollity, were drawn also to the same persuasion, to think no other Church to have stood in all the earth, but only the Church of Rome.
1. The abuse of the unlearned.
2. The deceit of worldly wisdom.

In the number of this sort of writers, besides our Monks of England (for every Monastery almost had his Chronicler) I might also recite both Italian, and other country authors, as Platina, Sabellicus, Nauclerus, Martinus, Antoninus, Vincentius, Onuphrius, Laziardus, Georgius Lilius, Polyd. Virgilius, with many more, who taking upon them to intermeddle with matters of the church, although in part they express some truth in matters concerning the Bishops and sea of Rome: yet in suppressing another part, they play with us, as Ananias and Sapphira did with their money, or as Apelles did in Pliny, who painting the one half of Venus coming out of the sea, left the other half imperfect. So these writers while they show us one half of the bishop of Rome, the other half of him they leave imperfect, and utterly untold. For as they paint him out on the one part glistering in wealth and glory, in showing what succession the Popes had from the chair of St. Peter, when they first began, and how long they sat, what Churches and what famous buildings they erected, how far their possessions reached, what laws they made, what councils they called, what honor they received of Kings and Emperors, what Princes and Countries they brought under their authority, with other like stratagems, of great pomp and royalty: so on the other side what vices these Popes brought with them to their seat, what abominations they practiced, What superstition they maintained, what idolatry they procured, what wicked doctrine they defended contrary to the express word of God, to what heresies they fell, into what division of sects they cut the unity of Christian religion, how some practiced by simony, some by necromancy and sorcery, some by poisoning, some indenting with the Devil to come by their papacy, what hypocrisy was in their lives, what corruption in their doctrine, what wars they raised, what bloodshed they caused, what treachery they traversed against their lords and emperors, imprisoning some, betraying some to the Templars and Saracens, in bringing others under their feet, also in beheading some, as they did with Fredericus and Conradinus, the heirs and offspring of the house of Fredericus Barbarossa, in 1269. Furthermore, how mightily Almighty God has stood against them, how their wars never prospered against the Turk, how the judgments of the godly learned from time to time have ever repugned against their errors, etc. Of these and a thousand other matters, not one word has been touched, but all kept as under benediction in auricular confession.
1. The Offense of Auricular Confession.
2. The Offense of Covering sins.
3. The Offense of Covering heinous sins.
4. The Offense of Covering sins with false righteousness. (Isa 30.)

Conclusion.

Closing Prayer.

YouTube Audio: https://youtu.be/PabYoimX5MA