From Desolation To Praise.

FROM DESOLATION TO PRAISE.

Psalm 22:1-31.

(I). Jesus Upon the Cross.

Psalm 22:1-21.

The details of the sufferings in Psalm 22:1-21 match more exactly the anguish of Jesus upon the Cross than anything that we can find in any of the written records of David’s life - and because of this the church has always read this Psalm of David as a Psalm of Jesus. Whatever deep sense of desolation rocked David into penning these words, his God-inspired prophetic insight reaches far beyond the limits of his own time and experience to the Cross of Jesus – and beyond. In this respect Psalm 22 stands alongside Isaiah 53 as a prophecy of the suffering of Messiah.

One of the famous ‘seven last sayings of Jesus on the Cross’ is known as the Cry of Dereliction. It appears to be a verbatim quotation of Psalm 22:1 (cf. Mark 15:34), but in fact the converse is true. It was the Spirit of Jesus who inspired the words that flowed from David’s mouth (2 Samuel 23:1-2).

Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?” (Mark 15:34; cf. Psalm 22:1).

This is the only time when Jesus addressed the LORD as “My God” rather than “Father.” It is known as the cry of dereliction, or abandonment. Yet it is remarkable that, deserted though He may have felt, Jesus still knew God as HIS God. Believers can draw great strength from this, even at times when we too may feel bereft of the felt presence of God with us.

Jesus’ description of His dereliction is a sense of forsakenness, a sense of God being “far from helping me, (far from) the words of my roaring” (Psalm 22:1b). It is a terrible thing for any one of us to ever feel that way, but consider this: THE SON OF GOD WAS WILLING TO GO THROUGH ALL THIS FOR SINNERS SUCH AS WE!

Sometimes when we are not hearing from God, we try to think of reasons why it might be. What sin might I have committed that causes my prayers to seem to reach no higher than the ceiling? Yet it was Jesus, the Son in whom God was ‘well pleased,’ who gave voice to such a situation: “My God,” He says, “I cry by day, and you do not answer, and in the night season I am not silent” (Psalm 22:2).

Yes, He is still acknowledging the relationship: He is still “My God.” Jesus taught that God would do justice for His own elect, ‘though He bear long with them’ (Luke 18:7). Yet there he was, after a long night which began with Him praying in a Garden, and heaven seemed like brass above His holy head. All this for us, whose forbears sinned in another Garden!

“Yet,” begins Psalm 22:3. The lament does not lack an answer, even if it has to be provided by the lamenter. In this instance, it introduces a reflection on just who God is. He is the holy, covenant-keeping God of Israel, who inhabits the praises of His people. He delivered His people in times past: they trusted in Him, and were not disappointed (Psalm 22:3-5).

Sometimes such a recollection leaves us feeling our own smallness, and our own undeservedness: but Jesus had no cause for such shame. He ‘knew no sin’ (2 Corinthians 5:21); He ‘did no sin’ (1 Peter 2:22); in Him is no sin (1 John 3:5).

“But I am a worm, not a man” reflected Jesus, returning to His lament. “A reproach of men and despised” (Psalm 22:6; cf. Isaiah 53:3). “All who see me mock me” (Psalm 22:7; cf. Mark 15:29). They say, “He trusted in the LORD… Let Him deliver Him” (Psalm 22:8; cf. Matthew 27:43).

“Yet,” Jesus reiterates (Psalm 22:9). The LORD was with Him from His mother’s womb (and even before, we might add!) The LORD was with Him when Joseph took Jesus and His mother to Egypt, and when they came back to live in Nazareth. And still, He is “My God” (Psalm 22:10). Such providential care is the portion of all of God’s people (cf. Isaiah 46:3-4).

And again the plaintive plea: “Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help” (Psalm 22:11). The LORD is the one who delivers when there is no-one else to help us (cf. Psalm 72:12).

“Many bulls” encompassed Jesus (Psalm 22:12; cf. Matthew 27:1; Acts 4:27). They were like lions (Psalm 22:13). For us (Christians), it is the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). ‘Save me from the mouth of the lion,’ cried Jesus (Psalm 22:21a).

The details of Psalm 22:14-15 are an accurate prediction of what it must have been like. His “bones” are out of joint, His “heart” is like melted wax, His “strength” is dried up, His “tongue” sticks to the roof of His mouth. And “Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death.”