"Anguish Visited"

"But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." (Psalms 22:6) As I said at the beginning of this Psalm, this is all about "Anguish and Praise"; a battle for the hearts and minds of men and women that are called to be a specific people requires tearing down and building up, one stone at a time, and brick by brick; sometimes, a brick must be crushed to make the mortar, but part of the building, all the same. What we have before us today is a verse that is one which is about our Lord Jesus Christ; although there might have been a short period of time when David could attest to this within his own life, it is one inscribed for the Son of man; the one to come in the humility of a lamb to be slaughtered, and to lay His life down for a people to be lifted up. I wish to share a quote regarding the 'Scarlet Worm', which is a beautiful picture of what we are speaking of by saying, "But I am a worm". "When the female of the scarlet worm species was ready to give birth to her young, she would attach her body to the trunk of a tree, fixing herself so firmly and permanently that she would never leave again. The eggs deposited beneath her body were thus protected until the larvae were hatched and able to enter their own life cycle. As the mother died, the crimson fluid stained her body and the surrounding wood. From the dead bodies of such female scarlet worms, the commercial scarlet dyes of antiquity were extracted. What a picture this gives of Christ, dying on the tree, shedding His precious blood that He might 'bring many sons unto glory' (Hebrews 2:10)! He died for us, that we might live through Him! Psalms 22:6 describes such a worm and gives us this picture of Christ. (Isaiah 1:18)" (Henry Morris) The two Scriptures that Henry references are one that we have heard over and over, and are specific to mighty life giving power of our Redeemer's death. Hebrews 2:10 is one that I remember from when I was first saved, for it grabbed me by heart and made me see Jesus as I had never seen Him before; it says, "For it became Him, for Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." There is no other way to describe what a complete surrender looks like; because it is not just the laying down of a life, it is the mighty work that was accomplished by His death! Isaiah 1:18 says, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." The mighty washing of His blood, what a glorious sacrifice was made! And in so doing, He became disgraced and humiliated among His own people, including those that loved Him. Jesus, speaking about the temple of His body, said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up". (John 2:19) Unlike that scarlet worm, Jesus rose from the grave; not only defeating sin upon the cross, but defeating death from the grave; a mighty demonstration of anguish visited: visited meaning that He did not stay...