The Blessed Soul

Crushed In Spirit

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; 

He delivers them from all their troubles. 

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

And saves those who are crushed in spirit. 

 

So which one is it? 

 

Does the Lord deliver those who are righteous and cry out to him, or are they brokenhearted? Because either he hears them, and saves them, or they are crushed in spirit. But brokenhearted and crushed in spirit, don’t equate to being saved. . . do they? What is Psalm 34:17-18 mean here? 

 

I don’t know if you have ever been crushed in spirit before, or if you have suffered the agony of a broken heart. Neither of them feel good. 

 

And we often get news or walk through something that devastates us. 

 

IN these moments, it’s so hard to even cry out to the Lord. 

 

Have you ever felt let down by God before? 

 

The hardest thing with feeling this way, is that when we are let down by him, we certainly aren’t going to cry out to him. 

 

I think that’s what the enemy would love for you. 

 

When you are let down, or hurt - to feel like you can’t even cry out to God. 

 

But the Psalmist is giving us the formula. 

 

When we are in trouble, when we are broken hearted, or when crushed in spirit, it’s the righteous that still cry out any way. Listen to what verse 19 says, The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him form them all; 

 

He doesn’t take them away. He doesn’t necessarily reverse time and take back the diagnosis, or reverse the outcome, revive the relationship or restore the position. But he does rescue and deliver you! 

 

What does that mean? 

Deep Calls to Deep

Why, my soul, are you downcast? 

Why so disturbed within me? 

 

The writer of the 42nd psalm struggles with a battle that is common, yet rarely talked about. 

 

The feeling of being in deep, dark, anguish and depression. 

 

 This pain has brought the writer to a question - Where can I go and meet with God? 

 

The hardest part of dealing with the pains we feel, is the alienation it causes us to have towards God. Written in a time when worship and closeness with God was understood through temple worship, the writer longs for the ability to get back to the house of the Lord. 

 

They say in vs 2-4

I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” My heart is breaking as I remember how It used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sounds of a great celebration! 

 

Something has cut the writer off from being in the house of the Lord. 

 

And because of this, their grief has left them feeling alone, hurt, and desperate. They have no place to turn, and no way to worship the Lord. 

 

But something beautiful happens in this Psalm. 

 

In desperation the writer reflects from where they are, at the beauty of God. And this beauty isn’t found in the temple. It isn’t mixed in the ceremonial sounds of a great celebration. It’s not encamped in the middle of the great crowds of worshipers. It’s seen over a hundred miles away from the temple. It’s founding the world around them. 

It Is Finished

I’m thirsty

 

When Jesus said this from the cross, it was more than him needing a refreshing beverage as he hung there. This was the deep broken soul of the messiah, relating to the empty, hollow feeling of nothingness we often feel inside. 

 

Just moments before this, he took on the weight and punishment of mankind’s sin. And in that moment, he felt the abandonment of His Heavenly Father. Now, Jesus hung on the cross, broken, ashamed, and alone. 

 

So John tells us in verse 28 of chapter 19, 

 

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 

 

He wasn’t just responding to his physical awareness when he said this. He was thinking of the full pictures. The scriptures being fulfilled, and the soon coming conclusion of his earthly life was at hand, he thirsted for completion. He was ready for the curse of sin to be broken, and to be reunited with His Heavenly Father once again! 

 

I wonder, did Jesus flash back through his earthly life? 

 

Did he see those moments where the angels proclaimed his birth? 

 

Did he know of the shepherds who came and visited him as a newborn baby? 

 

Did he understand what was happening, as he stood in the temple answering questions of the religious leaders? 

 

Did his mind stop at his baptism, and did he look at his temptations in the wilderness and say, “This is what it was all leading to?”

 

Did he travel in his mind, straight through the moment in the garden, and right up onto the cross? 

 

Did he see that everything spoken in scripture up to this moment, and what it would mean, was all coming to a crescendo? 

 

Because as he breathed his last moments, he was able to say, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. And then with one last exhale, “it is finished.” 

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? 

 

Less than 24 hours before this, Jesus had found himself on the ground in the garden of Gethsemane. Hunched over in sheer anguish, he cried out with blood like sweat, dripping from his forehead. In a plea deep from his heart, He reasons with God almighty. “Lord, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but yours be done!”

 

God could have done anything he wanted to destroy the effects of sin. But he chose to let Jesus walk this path, in order for you and I to know how incredibly much he loves us. 

 

But what was it that Jesus dreaded about this process? 

 

It wasn’t the physical pain that he would endure, though this would be torturous. 

 

It wasn’t the ridicule he would withstand, though this would be crushing. 

 

It wasn’t even the humiliation that would be cast upon him, though this would be overwhelming. 

 

So what was Jesus dreading? 

 

He knew, that in order to take on the sins of the world, he would have to experience the wages of sin. Death. Not physical, bodily death. Though that was coming too. But spiritual, separation from the Father type death. 

 

You see, in order for Jesus to pay the punishment for sin, He had to take on all sin.  And once he had sin on his shoulders, He would be separated from the heavenly father. Not because God didn’t love him, or because he didn’t want to be near him. But because a Holy God is by nature separate from Sin. So in order for Jesus to pay the punishment of sin, he took on the weight of sin, and in so doing was separated from the Holiness of God. 

 

And for the first time in all of eternity, Jesus was alone. He felt the cold abandonment of God, caused by sin. 

Today you will be with me

There is a command that Jesus gave us, that we have come to know as the Great Commission. It is found in Matthew 28:19-20 and it says this, 

 

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

 

It’s a command that Jesus gave his followers, that shows the process of including others into this faith journey. 

 

For years, churches have held on tightly to this commission and based their purpose and mission off of it. It holds a vital equation to what many churches call discipleship. 

 

Discipleship is the process of learning to follow Jesus. 

 

But what if we have gotten it wrong as the church. What if we have been looking at the Great Commission, and reversing the order. 

 

There are three main parts to the equation. 

 

Go and make disciples, Baptize them, And then teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. 

 

Disciples, baptism, obedience. ..  

 

When Jesus set it up, he made it simple, and was something that everyone could do from any walk of life. 

 

But he didn’t just set it up here in the great commission. He modeled it leading up to this. 

Woman, behold your son

“Near the cross of Jesus, stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clops, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. 

 

John 19:25-27

 

What a journey for Mary! 

 

Can you imagine standing by as the mother of the Messiah? 

 

When Mary had first given birth to Jesus, a group of shepherds came and visited them. They explained how angels appeared to them and told them of Jesus’ birth while proclaiming the glory of God. It was an unbelievable and supernatural event! Everyone listening to the shepherds were amazed at what they said. Yet, Luke 2:19 tells us, that Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 

 

What was it that she pondered? 

 

Was it that God had given her this responsibility? 

 

Was it that the shepherds, the lowest of the lowest, were the ones to first hear this great news that was going to be for all people? 

 

Or was it that she looked at her son, and was overwhelmed with great pride at what he would become? 

 

Fast forward about 12 years, and Mary and Joseph lose Jesus in the chaos of the Passover festivities. After finding him in the temple three days later, he is amazing the people there with how wise and educated he was. And after Mary and Joseph argue with him about the anxiety Jesus caused them, and how they were confused at what he was saying and doing, Luke reminds us once again in 2:51, It once again says that Mary treasured all these thing in her heart. 

 

Luke paints a picture of a mother who was not only proud of her son, but who knew that she held a special place in his heart. But how would she know that? 

Father ForgiveThem

“Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”

 

This is one of 7 things that we record of Jesus saying from the cross. 

 

But who was he talking about? 

 

To understand this, you have to go back into the garden of Eden. 

 

Darkness, was over the surface of the deep. Not just any darkness, anxious, chaos forming nothingness type darkness. This darkness constantly pulled and engulfed anything that tried to survive. It was the goal of the darkness to consume, and to destroy anything of value. Yet, God the creator, breathed his Spirit gently - yet assertively - directly into the middle of this darkness. And through it, he began to speak life and beauty, purpose, and completion, right where this darkness tired to encamp. After a series of commands and breaths, the entire cosmos swirled majestic beauty and awe. 

 

Yet what did the darkness do? 

 

It continued to try and consume. While the whole of creation was very good and complete, the pieces of it were instantly gnawed at by the darkness around it. 

10,000 Angels

Imagine being in the garden with Jesus as he prayed. 

 

He was now just moments away from being arrested, and he knew the time was coming near. He was so filled with anguish that he looked a few of his disciples and said, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 

 

It was an intense moment!

We read that Jesus had sweat like drops of blood falling to the ground. 

 

And in this tension, we hear an honest prayer from Jesus. 

 

Matthew 26:39

 

Father, if there is any other way, will you take this cup from me. But not my will, but yours be done.” 

 

What was Jesus saying? 

 

Father, if there is any others way - In other words, Jesus knew that the infinite Heavenly Father, could do anything he wanted to remedy the problem of sin. He really could have called 10 thousand angels. But the problem with the Hymn, is that he didn’t need them to destroy the world. He could have had them fight the spiritual battle and destroy evil. He could have found another way to make things right, without Jesus suffering, being humiliated, beaten, ridiculed, and murdered on a cross. But he didn’t. 

 

Why was God’s will for Jesus to die? 

Passover

About midnight, I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt-worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal. Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 

 

These are the words Moses spoke to Pharaoh before the death angel visited Egypt. It was the final plague and the final demonstration of Power, that God used to demonstrate the length he was willing to go to bring freedom and life to his people. 

 

At midnight, the Death Angel struck down all the firstborn in Egypt. All of Egypt was awakened at midnight by the sound of loud wailing throughout the land. And then God instructs them in Exodus 12:14, This is the day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord - a lasting ordinance. 

 

What a gruesome day to commemorate. A day full of death and destructions. 

 

Yet for the Israelites, it was a day of life and freedom. 

 

For them, it wasn’t a night of death. They had been told to slaughter a lamb, and then place the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. For every home with this blood on their door,  the death angel past over them. 

 

So for hundreds of years, the Jewish people remembered the Passover. The night the death angel past over them, and allowed them to find freedom! 

 

So on this day of the passion week, Jesus too finds himself at the Passover meal. 

Judas

As the perfume jar was broken open, and the fragrance filled the air, Mary anointed Jesus feet, and honored him in front of everyone. Yet while this happened, we read the one of the disciples stood there in disgust. 

 

John 12:4 - 6

Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. 

 

 

Judas had a greedy heart. 

 

He loved money and the ease at which he could access the money bag. So when he saw Mary bring this gift of honor to Jesus, we see into the greed that has overtaken his heart. He wanted more money, and the access to it. 

 

The hard thing with greed, is that you don’t even see it coming. You start wanting more. Then you start making decisions based on our desire. Next thing you know, you are selfishly making moves that hurt the people around you without even thinking about it. 

 

Listen to 1 Timothy 6:9

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. 

 

Judas, found himself the subject of what Timothy is writing here. While Judas made his own decision and did things he would later regret, he was trapped. He kept seeing money and the way it was bingo used, and all he could think was the gains he could have had.