“Jesus: Messiah from the Womb”
Psalm 2:9-10; Matthew 1:21
Bart W. Newton, Preaching Minister
To view simple online worship service which includes a sermon from Psalm 22 and the Lord’s Supper, please click on the the following link: “Jesus: Messiah from the Womb”
(Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.)
• Advent is a time of expectant waiting to celebrate the first coming of the Christ Child, Jesus the Messiah.
• If you don’t believe me, just ask any child brought up in a home that keeps the focus on why we celebrate the birth of Christ and includes the giving and receiving of gifts on Christmas morning.
• Israel had waited for centuries for the first Advent of their Messiah. We read of it in the OT and read of its fulfillment in the NT.
• Last Lord’s Day, the first Sunday of Advent, we began a 4-part series “Christmas Psalms of Expectation.”
• In this series concerning the Messiah’s birth in the Psalms we find the following:
1. The Messiah will come from the lineage of David (Psalm 89:3–4, 29–36; 132:11–17; Matthew 1:1).
2. The Messiah will know His Father from childhood (Psalm 22:9; Luke 2:40).
3. The Messiah will come for all people (Psalm 18:49; Ephesians 3:4–6).
4. Lastly, the one we’re pondering today is the Messiah will be called by God while still in the womb (Psalm 22:10; Luke 1:30–33).
Psalm 22
To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.
22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
11 Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
12 Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 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!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
28 For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it. (ESV)
• Psalm 22 speaks of a first-hand experience of David.
• Psalm 22 goes from:
• despair (1-21)
• to deliverance (21)
• to jubilation (22-26)
• to anticipation—God’s universal dominion (27-31).
• Did you notice phrases that described not just an experience of King David, but of the Messiah who would sit on David’s throne forever?
• Throughout Psalm 22 do we not read and hear familiar descriptions of the Passion of Christ, of the Suffering Savior on the Cross bearing our sins in His body found in the four Gospels according Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?
• Right out of the gate we read:
1My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• Jesus quoted these very words while bearing our sins in His body on the cross:
• Compare v. 1 with Matthew 27:46: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”(ESV)
• The perfect union between Father and Son suffered a temporary separation due to our sins the innocent Savior carried.
• Other clear references to the cross are found in this psalm:
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
• Again, we return to crucifixion of Jesus as Matthew has recorded:
• Matthew 27:39-43: 39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (ESV)
• And again in Psalm 22:
16 For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me…
• This time we go to the apostle John’s gospel account:
• John 19:37: And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” (ESV)
• But notice Psalm 22:18:
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
• These very words that described an experience from David’s life, foretold of Jesus’ experience:
• John 19:23-24: 23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.” (ESV)
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
• These verses are referenced and answered by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews:
• Hebrews 5:7: In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. (ESV)
• And then there is Psalm 22:29: All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust…
• This causes me to think of that beautiful passage from Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi:
• Philippians 2:9-11: 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
• Even though Psalm 22 reads like a Good Friday and Easter Psalm,…
In Psalm 22:9-10 we also see the Advent and Nativity of Jesus:
9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
• Could it be that Jesus’ Nativity experience helped to sustain Him on the cross? Yes!
• Certainly, when Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 while paying for your sins and mine, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” He knew the rest of the 22nd Psalm. He knew…
…from my mother's womb you have been my God.
• Jesus, the eternal Word, had been born for this very purpose, just as the angel had told Joseph after he discovered that Mary was with child by way of the Holy Spirit:
• Matthew 1:21: She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (ESV)
• Jesus, Son of the Most High God, had known God the Father not just from the time of Mary’s womb, but from before time as we know it. He said so in His prayer in….
• John 17:24: “Father, I want those you have given to me to be with me, to be where I am. I want them to see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the world was made” (GW). –Jesus
• Some of you viewing may be thinking that Jesus did not exist until He was conceived. But the truth is, He’s always existed, just not in the flesh of a human body.
• The apostle John opens the Gospel letter that bears his name:
• John 1:1-2, 14: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God…. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (ESV)
• “There is a noble passage in Eusebius, in which he shows the connection between our Lord’s incarnation and his passion: the he might well comfort himself while hanging on the cross by the remembrance that the very same body then ‘marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men’ (Isa 43:14), was that which had been glorified by the Father with such singular honour when the Holy Ghost came upon Mary, and the power of the Highest overshadowed her. That this body, therefore, though now so torn and so mangled, as it had once been the wonder, so it would for ever be the joy, of the angels; and having put on immortality, would be the support of his faithful people to the end of time. –J.M. Neale (quoted in C.H. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David, V.1, p. 342)
• In his classic commentary on Psalms, The Treasury of David, C.H. Spurgeon writes, “That Child now fighting the great battle of his life, uses the mercy of his nativity as an argument with God. Faith finds weapons everywhere. He who wills to believe shall never lack reasons for believing” (p. 327).
• We learn from our Savior, as well as Mary and Joseph, John the Baptist, the apostles, martyrs and all those persecuted who remained true to the Christ Child and His Gospel that…
• Faithful allegiance in devotion and service to God does not prevent suffering and rejection, but the ultimate result is success!
• The One who brought us into the world, the same One who enabled us to be born again of water and Spirit will not let His faithful children perish!
• “The psalm begins with ‘My God, my God,’ and here, not only is the claim repeated, but its early date is urged…He who was our God when we left our mother will be with us till we return to mother earth, and will keep us from perishing in the belly of hell.” –C.H. Spurgeon, p. 327
• And so we see even in this suffering Psalms the first Advent of Jesus, His Nativity!
• Just as God kept His Word on the first Advent of Jesus, we can be certain of His second and final Advent on the Day of Judgment, the day all of God’s children await with anticipation:
• Hebrews 9:27-28: 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (ESV)
• It is this that we are reminded of each time we encounter Christ in communion: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.