The 13th Day of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. As we continue our examination of this great psalm in which David is led by the Holy Spirit to describe Jesus’ suffering on the cross—and in particular what Jesus the Savior, the Lord’s Suffering Servant, is thinking and experiencing inside, we come to Jesus’ prayer in which He prays for rescue and deliverance from the wrath of God that He is enduring for our sins.
From the Gospels we hear several of Jesus’ brief prayers that He prayed when He was crucified. Jesus’ first word from the cross was such a prayer as He prayed for those who were crucifying Him [Lk. 23.34]: Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do; His fourth word from the cross [Mt. 27.46], My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me is another prayer He prayed when the Father had turned away from Him and was pouring out His wrath on Jesus for our sins; finally, we hear Jesus offer up the prayer [Lk. 23.46], Father into Your hands I commend My spirit. But those three brief words of our Lord from the cross is not all that He prayed. That’s why we’re so blessed that the Holy Spirit had led David to write this psalm telling him in it what Jesus was not only suffering but also thinking and praying. In our text this evening we will see what was on the heart of Jesus as He was on the cross.
The apostle tells us about Jesus [Hb. 5.7]: Christ…in the days of His flesh,…offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death… [and] was heard because of His godly fear. This certainly refers not just to His prayers and trials in Gethsemane we heard about in tonight’s passion account, but also to His prayers on the cross—which we get a glimpse of with the audible words recorded by the holy Evangelists, but which we get full force in our psalm.
As we examine our psalm verses we hear Jesus’ prayers and supplications, His vehement cries and tears; we see Him in fervent prayer to His heavenly Father. This prayer is indeed very precious before God and an acceptable sacrifice and that’s why it is exceedingly important and comforting for all us Christians.
So as we hear the prayer of Jesus, the Suffering Servant, to be delivered, we will ponder this prayer itself and how this prayer helps us.
1. David records the beginning of Jesus’ prayer: But as for Me, My prayer is to You, O LORD, in the time of grace; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, Hear me in the truth of Your salvation. Last week we had finished off the psalm with Christ telling how cruelly and unmercifully His enemies dealt with Him; how they insulted and ridiculed Him. But in spite of that and because of that then Jesus continues: But as for Me, My prayer is to You, O LORD. Jesus turns to His heavenly Father and prays for deliverance/ rescue. In spite of being rejected by man, in spite of even being rejected and cursed by His heavenly Father, Jesus still turns to Him in rock solid trust and confidence praying for rescue. Jesus never failed trusting in that perfect trust in His Father; just as He cried out in perfect love and trust, My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?; so also now, in spite of that rejection by man and God, Jesus prays: But as for Me, My prayer is to You, O LORD.
This is part of Jesus’ work of perfect obedience for us. Jesus, for us, perfectly obeyed all of God’s holy Law—even that 1st Commandment that says we are to fear and love God above all things. Jesus perfectly obeyed God’s holy Law; always perfectly and fully feared, loved and trusted in Him—even when it wasn’t easy; even when it seemed as if God were His enemy. So when we hear Jesus here praying: But as for Me, My prayer is to You, O LORD, let us be richly comforted: Jesus obeyed God’s law for us fully and perfectly even when it wasn’t easy, even to the very end.
When Jesus in perfect trust turns to His Father, here is our glorious comfort that God’s holy Law has been kept by Jesus, for us. Now through faith in Jesus, His perfect keeping of the Law is credited to us. God sees us, in Christ, as perfectly and always fearing, loving and trusting in Him above all things!
But here we also see something else that goes together with Jesus’ perfect obedience. If anyone could have stood before God and based the hearing of His prayer on His perfect obedience, His love of God, His good works, His holiness and righteousness, it would have been Jesus, the holy, perfect God-man. But not only did He perfectly keep for us God’s holy law, He also took our sins upon Himself. The very fact that Jesus is rejected, condemned and cursed by both man and God means that Jesus, who in spite of perfectly fearing, loving and trusting in His heavenly Father is standing there before His throne praying to Him as a sinner. Of course, since Jesus is sinless and yet is loaded down with sin means that He has taken on Himself our sin, that He has become the world’s sinner, and is on the cross suffering God’s curse and wrath over our sin.
That’s why Jesus, the One marked as the world’s sinner, but in and of Himself still holy and sinless, and so prays: But as for Me, My prayer is to You, O LORD, in the time of grace, and does so on the basis of God’s mercy: O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, Hear Me in the truth of Your salvation. Notice here, Jesus calls His Father “LORD.” That’s God’s personal name, the name God had revealed to His people when He gave them the covenant of grace: I will be Your God. By Jesus calling His Father by the covenant name, LORD, the name that revealed Him as a God of grace, Jesus is reminding His Father of the covenant that He set up with His people and that He promised them eternal rescue, eternal life through Him, the Savior. He is reminding Him of the mercy and grace He promised to show. He is saying “keep the covenant of grace You promised Your people— Hear Me in the truth of Your salvation.” Jesus is holding His Father to His promise of grace in the covenant and saying Keep what You have promised and receive My holy, perfect, once for all sacrifice and so grant Me and all believers Your salvation. Deliver Me out of the mire, And let Me not sink; Let Me be delivered from those who hate Me, And out of the deep waters. Let not the floodwater overflow Me, Nor let the deep swallow Me up; And let not the pit shut its mouth on Me.
Jesus’ prayer on the cross for deliverance, as He is loaded down with your sin and mine, is a prayer that relies on His Father’s mercy: Hear Me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good; Turn to Me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. Jesus is asking His Father, in mercy, to let His grace reign supreme—first by rescuing Him from the torments and forsakenness of hell that He is suffering on the cross and then because of His sacrifice that He would grant a time of grace in which He would reveal all of His favor and the fullness of His grace toward the sinner. In other words, as Jesus relies on His Father’s mercy to deliver Him from the torments He was suffering on account of the sins of the world He willingly took on Himself, He is praying that the fruits and blessings of His work, that perfect reconciliation He brought about between sinful humanity and the holy God would be enjoyed by all in the time of grace called the NT era, when that saving word and the blessings Jesus obtained would be brought into all the world by the NT Church.
Hear Me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good; Turn to Me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. Jesus bases His prayer for Himself and the Church on the mercy of God. Jesus here, in effect prays: I presented Myself as the sacrifice and by it appeased Your wrath and satisfied Your righteousness. So now let Your grace and mercy hold sway, take Me out of this anguish and again recognize Me as Your dear Son in Whom You are well pleased.
2. Precisely because Jesus offered Himself up as that one perfect sacrifice and perfectly carried out the work He came to do—both on the cross and before by living a sinless life for us—Jesus here prays: And do not hide Your face from Your Servant, For I am in trouble; Hear Me speedily. The sufferings Jesus endured on the cross were real sufferings, sufferings no one living can even imagine—the torments of hell. Jesus on the cross tasted the full wrath of God and the anguish of hell as for a time the Father turned away from the Son on the cross. But now Jesus here prays that because He made the perfect sacrifice on the cross that He would not completely remain in hell and death but that the Father again turn to Him and let His face shine on Him in perfect love and delight. He is the Father’s servant and the work He came to do was the Father’s—but now it was finished! Here we can hear the word of Jesus spoken from the cross [Jn. 19.30]: It is finished!
And do not hide Your face from Your Servant. Here is Jesus’ unshakeable confidence and reliance—the Father could not and would not leave Him in the forsakenness of hell, as David records Jesus’ words to the Father in another psalm [Psalm 16.9, 10] of prophecy: My heart is glad, and My glory rejoices; My flesh will also rest in hope. For You will not leave My soul in hell, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
In the Gospels, we hear Jesus’ final word from the cross [Lk. 23.46]: Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit. That shows that God graciously heard Christ’s prayer on the cross: Draw near to My soul, and redeem it; Deliver Me because of My enemies. After His wrath had been appeased and everything necessary for the salvation of the world accomplished, the Father again let the face of His full love shine on Jesus until Jesus in death commended His soul to Him and His gracious keeping.
What a glorious comfort for us—since Jesus’ prayer that He prayed trusting in and basing it on the mercy of God was heard and He was delivered and could peacefully entrust His spirit to the Father, our salvation is sure; it truly was brought about by Christ’s suffering and death; His sacrifice was accepted; we now are at peace and reconciled to God. In reality, Jesus prayed this prayer of deliverance and rescue for us! His deliverance and rescue is also our deliverance and rescue; His freedom is our freedom; His life is our life. His resurrection makes it absolutely clear: we sinners are now in Christ reconciled with the holy God; our sins are wiped out; all our spiritual enemies, the enemies of our salvation—sin, death, devil and hell—are overcome; heaven is opened to us.
Now we can and should pray in all confidence and with all assurance to our heavenly Father, who is gracious and merciful to us, as did Christ, even while loaded down with our sins, even while enduring God’s wrath over those sins. What need we have to pray: we are still in the world; we will be oppressed by many hardships and are surrounded by many dangers! But God’s fatherly heart is open to us. Not only is He merciful, not only are we now in Christ at peace with Him and reconciled to Him but we have His promises to hear and answer our prayers. So then, let us come with all our cares and worries to our gracious, faithful, almighty Father in heaven. Especially now in this Lenten season, as we reflect on our Lord’s suffering and death and are very much aware of why He had to suffer and die—namely, on account of our sin—trusting in His mercy and the holy merit of Christ, we are bold to approach the throne of God, asking Him for forgiveness and His Spirit and strength to fight against temptation and sin.
What we ask the Father, we know we do not ask in vain. When Christ’s prayer in our psalm was answered, there is our guarantee that the Father will also answer our prayer. Everything is Yea and Amen in Christ! Our Savior’s prayer shows us that. Like Christ we can boldly and confidently ask our heavenly Father like dear children ask their dear father. INJ Amen.