A Christmas Future

Psalm 22:31 “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.”

David wrote this Psalm and he looked toward Christmas in the future. He looked forward to a coming Messiah to save His people from their sins; and just as David looked forward in time to Christmas, we too look forward to Christmas each year with expectation of the joyous occasion, and we should also look reflectively to Christmas past and to what that meant.  God’s infant son born, born so He could die one day for your sin, and for my sin… quite a thought if you really truly think about it. (Romans 5:8 – But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.)

EXPECTATION – Have you ever gotten very excited over something you are expecting to happen? Over a special day that is approaching? Over a special occasion on the horizon? Over a birthday or over Christmas perhaps?

Well, David in the beginning of Psalm 22 was feeling pretty lousy; he was feeling deserted and persecuted. It was in the midst of this feeling of desertion, in the midst of this horrible opposition that he was facing – that he discovered the cure to all of it, He turned his face, he turned his mind, he turned his heart, to expectation, to a great expectation, to a saving expectation, to a victorious expectation, to the coming Savior, to a future Christmas. David was able to encourage himself in the expectation of the Lord coming to save all one day.

He started turning to the Lord, He started trusting Him like he always should have, He finally looked about him into the awful situation he was in, and saw the Lord had not left him, He had not deserted him, and He was ready and willing to defend him against this great opposition. (Hebrews 13:5b – for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.)

David had the expectation of coming salvation, of a coming Savior to save him from his own sins, from his own discouragement, from his own lack of faith and from his trials. You could say David had the expectation of a coming Christmas morning when the Savior, the Messiah would be born and through Him the whole world could be saved. (Luke 2:10-11 – And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.)

It was because of this great expectation, that hope was renewed and purpose reborn in David. The same can be true of us today. Because of Christmas, because of the cross we can have the great expectation of Jesus always being with us and always helping us through our trials in life. We can refresh our hope and our purpose if we truly grasp that simple thought each day.

Psalm 22:22-28 “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations.”

And what is it at the end of this Psalm? What is it that accounts for this change in David’s mind? And you see that ringing answer, in some of the closing words of Psalm 22 we just read, that begins in the darkness of God’s forsakenness and ends in the greatness of the expectation of His coming.

He has done it…God has vindicated His people. God has come to the aid and rescue of His people. Never lose faith, discouragements will come, some will be self-inflicted, some will be from the opposition of Satan, but remember to look for Jesus in the midst of your trial, it the midst of the problem, in the midst of you desertion and opposition, for He will be there, He knows what it is like to go through trials and He loves you too much to let you face it alone. (I Peter 5:10 – But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.)

DECLARATION (Psalm 22:31 – They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.) – “They shall come, and shall declare” – look in the mirror – this is talking about you. “They shall come” – future generations of believers in the Messiah are being talked about in this Psalm, “shall declare” – we will tell others about Jesus, we will tell others about the Savior of all the world that was born in a little town called Bethlehem. This is talking about future generations of Christians taking the Gospel declaring it to the world and spreading it around the globe to all mankind. This is talking about taking the future story of a Savior born in Bethlehem who came to take away the sins of the world. This is talking about you today declaring Jesus!

Just as the angels and shepherds near Bethlehem declared the birth of Christ we should be declaring that Christ was born and died so all mankind could one day be saved and spend all eternity with Him in Heaven. (Luke 2:11-14 – For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.)

“Shall declare” – what are you personally doing to fulfill this prophecy in Psalm 22. Are you even mentioned in this prophecy? If you are sharing the Gospel with others, you are mentioned in this prophecy. God specifically had you in mind, as well as all other Christians in all of history that have shared the Gospel, when He moved the pen of David to write this down, so many thousands of years ago.

CONCLUSION: You can have a part in declaring Jesus to the world. How big a part do you play in this prophecy in Psalm 22 about declaring Christ? Do you have a major part or perhaps a very small part, or do you even have a part in this prophecy at all? What are you personally doing to share the hope-filled message of Christ to the lost, hell-bound, world around you? Are you, as the angels were in Luke 2, a messenger for Christ spreading the good news of His birth and what His substitutionary death on the cross means to all who will accept Him as their Savior? Remember we deserve to die for our sins, but Jesus died on the cross for us, so we could spend forever with Him in Heaven. Perhaps you have not accepted Christ as your Savior. Maybe you need to talk with someone about being saved and becoming a Christian. It is very simple to do. (Romans 10:9, 10 & 13 – That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (required) (Address never made public)

Name (required)

Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Notify me of new comments via email.

Notify me of new posts via email.

Δ