Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Jesus Our Servant

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

In Psalm 69, we have the prayer diary of Jesus and an expression of his anguish and his sufferings for us. This psalm, of course, is written by David, and it’s about King David and his immediate problems. But it actually doesn’t refer only to David—it also refers to a greater king than David and a far greater suffering. In John 15, Jesus tells his disciples that this psalm is talking about him. From this psalm, we can learn three things about what Jesus came to do: 1) he came to be a servant, 2) he came to be hated, and 3) he came to be exchanged. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 5, 1993. Series: Understanding Jesus. Scripture: Psalm 69. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Who is Jesus? The Bible says he's fully God, the creator of the universe, and at the same time, fully human. Lose one of those, and you lose Christianity. Join us for today's podcast, where Tim Keller explores the person and promises of Jesus Christ. A reading for you. From Psalm 69, save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.

I have come into the deep waters, the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help. My throat is parched. My eyes fail looking for my God. Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head. Many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal. You know my folly, O God.

My guilt is not hidden from you. May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the Lord Almighty. May those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel. For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. I am a stranger to my brothers,

an alien to my own mother's sons, for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn. When I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me. Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards. But I pray to you, O Lord, in the time of your favor, in your great love, oh God, answer me with your sure salvation. Rescue me from the mire.

Do not let me sink. Deliver me from those who hate me from the deep waters. Do not let the floodwaters engulf me, or the depths swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me. Answer me, O Lord, out of the goodness of your love, in your great mercy, turn to me. Do not hide your face from your servant. Answer me quickly, for I am in trouble. Come near and rescue me. Redeem me because of my foes. You know how I am scorned, disgraced, and shamed. All my enemies are before you. Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless. I looked for sympathy, but there was none. For comforters, but I found none. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar

for my thirst. May the table set before them become a snare. May it become retribution and a trap. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see and their backs be bent forever. Pour out your wrath on them. Let your fierce anger overtake them. their place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell in their tents, for they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. Charge them with crime upon crime. Do not let them share in your salvation. May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous. I am in pain and distress. May your salvation, O God, protect me. I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with Thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. The poor will see and be glad. You who seek God, may your hearts live. The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them, for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it. The children of his servants will inherit.

it, and those who love his name will dwell there. This is God's Word. Now, as we approach Christmas, if you come to a church, you're going to hear people asking the question, why did Jesus come? And reflecting on it. Why did Jesus come? Now, we've been looking at the Psalms of the Old Testament all fall. My question, of course, to you would be, why would we look one more time at the Psalms to find out anything about Jesus? This psalm that we just read psalm 69 is quoted by jesus in an interesting and remarkable way in john chapter 15 he's discussing with his disciples the fact that people are opposed to him and the fact that there's so much hostility to him and then he he says in verse 25 of john chapter 15 he says

this is to fulfill what the scripture said about me when it said they have hated me without cause. And he quotes Psalm 69. Now, what's going on? Here's what's going on. Jesus says Psalm 69, of course, is written by David, and it's about David, the king, and his immediate problems, and the people that hate him. But it actually does not have a single horizon. It's got two horizons. It doesn't have just one referent. It's got two reference. It not only refers to David and his problems, but it refers to one who is greater than David, a greater war. warrior, a greater king, and far greater suffering. It's talking about me. What we mean is that not every single part of this Psalm,

but what we understand is that Jesus read this Psalm and read it and read it, and identified with it, and understood the language of this Psalm to actually describe what he was going to go through. If you've ever had a friend who's going through tremendous suffering, Imagine you know a friend going through tremendous suffering, and you come across her diary, would you read it? You know, you'd treat it as sacred, wouldn't you? You'd wonder, maybe you shouldn't even pick it up,

but if you did pick it up, you'd treat it with great reverence. Well, that's what you've got here. You've got the prayer diary of the Son of God and an expression in the first person of his anguish and his sufferings for us. Now, what we learned from it, is much, but we only have time today as we prepare to go to the Lord's table to look at three things that we learn from this Psalm, from his prayer diary, about what he came to do. He came,

first of all, to be a servant, second of all, to be hated, and thirdly to be exchanged. To be a servant, to be hated to be exchanged. The first point is the longest. The second point is the shortest. The third point is the most important. First of all, he came to be a servant. You notice in verse 17, he says, why have you hidden your face from your servant? And in the very beginning of the paragraph, or the very beginning of the Psalm, he says, I sink, save me, O Lord, for the waters have come up to my neck, I sink in the miry depths where there is no foothold. What did Jesus come to do? He came to sink. That's the first point. He came to sink. He came to be a servant. That's what a servant does. A servant sinks. We read Philippians 2 earlier in the service. It's all about

exactly what it means for Jesus to come as a servant and to sink. There's a new book out now that's very popular written by a pastor called Descending into Greatness based on Philippians 2. Years ago, another pastor, a famous pastor named Donald Grant Barnhouse used to start his sermons this way. The way up is down. The way to go down is to go up. The way to go up. up. And what justifies that language is this, this very thing. Philippians 2, Psalm 69, the Bible says Jesus Christ came to sink, because that's what servants do. When you look at Philippians 2, you see it. Jesus actually took two huge steps down. That's what it means to be a servant to go down. He goes, we're told, from heaven to earth. It's as though he was equal with God. didn't hold on about equality, but was found in the form of a servant. He became a human

being. And you know, when you think of the incarnation, God becoming incarnate in the flesh, God becoming human being, you've got to get out of your mind. The Christmas cards with little sweet baby Jesus and sleep on the hay. It looks like an ivory soap commercial. I know. You have to understand, and you do understand that when you read Psalm 69, you have to understand the violence of the incarnation. The incarnation was an act of violence against Jesus. Something he willingly took. Violence. Think for a moment with me. Here, what is so violent about prison? What is so dehumanizing and terrible about going to prison? You're stripped of your freedom. You're stripped of your personal possessions. What was so horrifying about that event some years ago? I think it

in the New York area, wasn't it? Where a man, because he was angry at a young woman who was a lovely model, had her face carved up. Was that in the New York area? What was so horrifying of that? Here's someone with great beauty, stripped of her beauty. Well, let me tell you, the incarnation was the greatest stripping that's ever happened. Here is the fairest among 10,000. Here is the beautiful son of God. And his beauty is ripped out of him, and he's cast into disfigurement and his wealth is ripped out of him and he's cast into poverty. And the love he had with the father is ripped out of him and he's cast into loneliness. And the joy he had, he's ripped out of him and he's cast into grief. And the power is ripped out of him and he's

cast into weakness. You understand the violence of the incarnation? God becomes human. What does that mean? He became a cell at one point. You know, we confess it every time we say he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. God became the weakest form of life in the universe. The most vulnerable form, a cell. Then he became a baby. Great hands, omnipotent hands, you see, now flailing away impotently. The omnipotent Lord of the universe has to be changed when he soils himself. It can't change himself. The violence of the incarnation. He sank. He came to sink. and he only he didn't just Philippians 2 doesn't just tell us

there's one step down he took two steps he didn't just come from heaven to earth but once he got here he went from the cradle to the cross his role his job here on earth was not to become the head of a great political party and sweep into power his job was to be tortured and to be killed

the one who knit us together in our mother's womb was deconstructed on the cross and he was torn limb from limb he sunk You know, Jesus Christ is the most blatant and the most blunt and the greatest contradiction to the world's understanding of greatness that there is. The world's understanding is, promote yourself, advance your cause at the expense of other

people, accrue wealth and power. Look out for number one. And Jesus ascended by descending. The way up, he taught us, is the way down. The way to power, he taught us. He taught us is to serve. The way to rule is to submit. The way to lose your life, to find your life is to lose your life.

The way to find your happiness is not to seek your happiness, but to seek the happiness of others. And you know what a Christian is? A Christian is somebody who, in absolute contradiction to all the world's wisdom, decides to follow that as the pattern for your own life. Before we move on, I just want you to think about, that for a second. If you're a Christian, and a servant, of course, is not greater than his master, then you're a servant of the great servant. Obviously, it means that you have also decided the way up

for me is down. Have you decided that? Have you decided that the essence of my life is to sink? Let me just give you a couple of examples of what it means to be a Christian. For example, the very, very first step, the very first action a Christian takes as a Christian. In other words, conversion itself, the very, very first thing you can do even to become a Christian is you rise up to God by going down in repentance. You will not go up unless you go down. Or let me put it as stark as possible. I know there's some of you here, I know, who would like to say, yes, I make mistakes, I'm not perfect. But can you say to other people and to God, that I am a helpless sinner, that I should be cast off, that I'm acting, even though I've been created by God, I act as if I'm my own creator, and even though God is my king, I act as if my own king. I deserve to be cut off. I am a helpless sinner. I need a savior and a new master. Can you say that? Now, this is New York City. I know there's people out there who think that that is a most primitive thing, the most primitive kind of religion. How regressive you say, of course it's regressive.

It's a step down. And if you feel that that's too primitive, and if you couldn't say that, then you're not a servant yet. And your intellectual pride is keeping you from going down and therefore from coming up. Let me give you another example. To be a Christian, you go down to repentance constantly. To be a Christian also, you go down in your living standards. Let me get real practical about this.

The Bible says, look at Jesus, though he will. was rich, he became poor, that through his poverty might become rich. The Bible continually says that a Christian is someone who looks out there at all kinds of needs. You see needy people. You see all sorts of important causes. You see the work of a church. You see ministries that are helping people in Word indeed. And before you become a Christian, before you understand this principle, before this spirit of servanthood, this mind that was in Christ Jesus passes into you, you only give what you can afford. Now, you know how you define the word afford?

What you mean is, I can only give as long as my giving does not lower the actual standards of living in my life. In other words, I can give as long as it doesn't make me go down, as long as it doesn't actually have an impact on where I can go this summer, as long as it doesn't have an impact on how many options I have to go out to eat tonight, as long as it doesn't change my living standard. but that's not what Jesus did Jesus' living standards were changed

fairly drastically and when you become a Christian you realize that you have to give sacrificially which means let me put it this way do you give your money away to people and to causes so generously that your living standard is going down

if not you're not a servant yet and your love of comfort is keeping you from going down and therefore rising up. You may know the story of the prodigal son, but it's not just about a wayward younger brother. In fact, Jesus tells this story to speak

both to those who run from God and to those who try to earn his love by being good. In his book, The Prodigal God, Tim Keller shows how this well-known story reveals the heart of the gospel, a message of hope for both the rebellious younger brother and the judgmental older brother and an invitation for all to experience God's prodigal, extravagant grace.

Whether you're a Christian or you're still exploring faith, the prodigal God will help you see your relationship with Christ in a whole new way. The prodigal God is our thank you for your gift this month to help gospel and life share the hope and joy of Christ's gracious and relentless love with people all over the world. Request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching.

Let me give you one more example. If Philippians 2 were told he made himself of no reputation, a person, before you become a Christian, before the spirit of servanthood, before you understand the principle, the way down is up, the way up is to go down, you help people as long as you get thanks. You know, as long as you get affirmation,

As long as you get some recognition, you know, as long as you get some paths on the back, fine. This is how you tell the difference between a person who is serving out of selfishness and a real servant who's not in it for a payoff. You make yourself of no reputation. You're not in it for the thanks you get. Let me put it to you this way. Do you need a lot of thanks? Do you need, are you always having your nose bent out of shape because you feel taken for granted? And you feel that people aren't recognizing what you're putting in.

And nobody seems to know how hard you work. I work my fingers to the bone around this church, and what thanks do I get? If that's how you feel, you're not a servant yet. And your need for approval is keeping you from moving down so that you can come up. You see, what God says is, lose your money and I'll give you another kind of riches. Lose your recognition, and I'll give you another kind of honor. Lose your obsession with staying in control, and I'll give you another kind of security. Lose your life, and you'll find it.

He came to sink. And Christians are people who know that the way down is up, and the way to go up is to go down. Secondly, he came to be hated. Now, remember, as I mentioned to you, he quotes in the New Testament, he quotes this verse. He doesn't quote the first couple of verses,

though it's obvious that he's looking at all of this and he's thinking of himself. This is his language. This is his heart. But he quotes verse 4, where it says, Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head, many of the enemies without cause. Now, I'm going to be real brief on this one. I warn you, but

it's very important. Jesus, in the New Testament, points out the fact that people automatically will hate him without reason. They'll hate him irrationally because he's holy. There is something in human heart that is afraid of real holiness.

We know, when I was some years ago, remember the movie that came out, casualties of war, and it was about a man who decides to tell the truth about what happened out in Vietnam, even though it was going to jeopardize his life, even though it was going to ruin his career, even though it was going to have a tremendous impact on his life, and he did it anyway. And the movie reviewer here in the New York Times, Vincent Canby, points out this. says, such selfless moral conviction always makes a person a pariah because such purity of spirit is totally frightening to us. What he means is we have got in our hearts an engine of self-justification. And the way we continually convince ourselves that we're okay is that when we get

near a standard of godliness that shows up our own flaws, we either run from it or we run it down. You know, we either run it down or run away. That's true of anything, anyone who's living a straight life, living a servant life. Now, when Jesus shows up, his standard is so lofty and so high that they hate him without cause. He has enemies without number. But I tell you that if you and I are going to follow Jesus, and if you and I are going to be servants, that's always the mark of a servant. A servant will always be hated without a cause. Give me a couple of examples. A friend of mine who years ago was a cop, a policeman in a large city in the United States. After he became a Christian, he had trouble with something, and that is that the pimps in

the precinct would come in and give a lot of money to the sergeant who would pass it out to all the officers so that they would not pick up the prostitutes that put money in the pool. And after my friend became a Christian, he decided he didn't want to take that money. and at one point a guy comes up to him and says, hey, you better start taking that money. Guys don't like the fact that you seem to think you're more pure than the rest of us, and you better take that money, or the next time you need a backup, it might come slowly.

I remember talking to a family when I was living in Philadelphia, and when the very first black family moved into their white neighborhood, they went over as Christians, as friends took them some pies and greeted them and afterwards they were absolutely vilified and attacked by the other white families in that neighborhood and they said my house is the only thing I've got if those people start coming in it's going to sink down

you're going to ruin me how can you do this to me a man once came to me and said after he became a Christian if I start to report my income truly and start to pay the taxes I really owe all my other co-workers are going to be nailed by the IRS as well what do I do? All I can tell you is, not what these people did, but I can tell you is this. Normal servanthood, normal moral lives will bring you hatred without cause.

Normal human living, I mean, normal moral behavior, normal Christian living is going to show up the racism in the neighborhood. It's going to show up the dishonesty at work. It's going to show up the gossip at the office. It's going to show up the promiscuity of the party and you will be hated without cause. Are you? Or do you just blend into your surroundings? Does anybody hate you without cause?

Then you're not following Jesus. Because servants sink and servants are hated without cause. Number three. And the most important. Jesus Christ did not simply come to be a servant and come to be hated. In a sense, that's the general gist of what it means to say he came as a servant.

But he came very specifically to be exchanged. Let me put it to you this way. In verse 9, now David, the guy who writes this Psalm, is very perplexed. He can't see what we can see. He can't read his own experience through Jesus. And in verse 9, he says, zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

fall on me now David is perplexed he says like I mentioned in verse 17 he says how can you let your servant how can you hide your face from your servant I'm doing everything right I'm being an exemplary servant I'm loving you I'm true to you zeal for your house for your cause consumes me why in the world are you letting me

suffer innocently or let me put it this way he says zeal for your house consumes me And then he says, the insults that people insult you follow me. That which I do not deserve is falling on me. How could it be, says David. Jesus says, that's what I came to do. But that which I did not deserve fell on me. Isaiah talks about the suffering servant in these terms.

He simply says In Isaiah 52 and 53 See my servant will act wisely Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him And cause him to suffer And though the Lord makes him His life a guilt offering The results of his suffering he will see

And he shall be satisfied Listen with me for a second Think with me This is the doctrine of substitution Whenever I ask one of my sons to pick up something, you know, this is a mess in here, pick it up. If it so happened that my son was guilty of making the mess, he will reluctantly usually get up and start doing it slowly.

But if, wo unto me, if I ask one particular son to pick up the mess that has actually been caused by the failures and sins of some other son, in that situation, the son will say, that's not my fault why should I take the hit for the failing of another? Why should I

suffer in a substitutionary way for the failings and the sins of someone else? Let's pick this up. This is an instinct. This is exactly what your heart say. Ah, someone says, you know for whatever reason, because of all sorts of failures, failures on the part of the person, failures in the part of his family,

failures on the part of the system, failures on the part of the city, we now have a great need for lots of drug rehabilitation centers. We need homeless rehabilitation centers. We need to put them in your neighborhood. And what's the attitude? What's the attitude? Why should I take the hit for the sins of someone else?

Why should I suffer substitutionally for the failings of someone else? That's the instinct. That's how we always feel. But that's not how a servant's heart operates. Let me tell you how a servant's heart operates. The servant says, I know, this isn't my fault. but somebody's got to take the hit and somebody's going to have to pay the price

and so I will do it I will take the hit I will pay the price I will substitutionarily suffer now do you understand why Jesus was the greatest servant of all because he just didn't do a little he took the hit for the sins of the world he suffered substitutionarily for the sins of everyone

and that is what's being depicted here he took the biggest hit he took the greatest weight he took on himself the most incredible debt that's why when he reads those words father why have you hidden your face from your servant

he knows the answer because when he was on the cross and he was saying why have you hidden your face from your servant why my God have you forsaken me as God the Father turned away from him the Father said son you know why I have to do this to you because we agreed to do this from all eternity you want to know why I'm hiding my face from you because it's got to fall on you it will all fall on you in your mind's eye look at him and then read Psalm 69. Look at him up there. Blood coming down his face. His eyes swollen shut because he's

been beaten. His back is ripped open because of the scourging. He's suffocating up on the cross and then read, I look for sympathy, but there was none. I looked for comforters and I found none. My heart is breaking and there's nobody to bind it up. It fell on him. Don't you see. Don't you see some of you out there listen this is some of you have done some terrible things but don't you see there's hope for anybody there may be people out here this is new york city maybe people out here who have murdered people there's people out here who've done some terrible things and you hate yourselves and at some deep level you're saying nothing can help me i deserve to be spit upon i deserve to be beaten i deserve to be condemned do you see do you finally see it fell on

Him. In other words, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you've already been beaten. You're right, but you've already been beaten. You're right, but you've already been to spit upon. You're right, but you've already been condemned. And there's plenty of you that haven't done anything that awful. And don't you see what's going on in your lives? Look at yourselves. Why are you working so hard? Why are you working so desperately hard? Why is there this franticness about your life trying to prove yourself? Or why is there all this grumpiness and irritability about your life trying to defend yourself? Don't you see? Stop it. It's been paid.

Stop trying to pay for it. It fell on you. Lord Jesus. Say that. It fell on you, Lord Jesus, for me. Let's conclude this way. Don't you see what's so wonderful about the teaching of the Bible? Jesus Christ did not come only as God's servant.

No. He didn't come only as a model of what it means to serve God. If that's all he was, oh, we'd be in such trouble. We'd look at him and he'd be nothing. We'd be mad at him. We'd run from him. We'd hate him without cause. But instead, he sunk for me and you.

He sunk for us. He was hated for us. He was exchanged for us. He comes to actually serve and wait on us. It says in Luke, Jesus tells this parable about himself. And he says in the book of Luke, blessed are those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes he will gird himself to serve

and will come and wait on them do you know what that means on the last day if he finds you serving him on the last day he's going to gird himself to gird means to pick up your robes and stick them in your belt so that you can concentrate he's going to gird himself

he's going to pull up all the infinities and immensities of his infinite omnipotent power and he's going to bring them all to bear to serve you to heal you to love you to satisfy you, to honor you. Blessed will those servants be.

Are you ready for that day? If tomorrow's that day, would you be one of those servants? Don't forget. To be a real servant isn't somebody who's trying to save him or herself by your service because the first act of a real servant is to say, only love me and accept me because it fell on you. I'm a sinner. I can't save myself through my serving.

The first act of service is to say, accept me because, oh, Lord Jesus, it all fell on you. The bread in the cup, when you get the bread, it's going to be broken. And as you eat it, you'll break it more. Listen to what it says. It says, do you know why I was broken? Do you know why I was forsaken? Do you know why my father hid his face?

so it could fall on me for you. Let's pray. Father, we ask as we take the bread in the cup, that we might go down to come up. We pray that we might learn what it means that your son died for us and suffered for us. And the more we think about this, as we take the bread and cup, make us servants as well.

Men and women who will go down in their bank accounts, go down in recognition, go down in the status and eyes of the world, go down in repentance, but who will find a new kind of honor, a new kind of riches, a new kind of joy. Fathers, we take the bread and cup, do all that in us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel and Life podcast. We hope that today's teaching encouraged you to go deeper into God's Word. You can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it and to find more great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit gospelonlife.com.

Today's sermon was recorded in 1993. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Thank you.