Transcript

Psalm 22 has been called “The Psalm of the Cross.” The Psalm presents the crucifixion of Christ in great detail. The facts are as realistic and accurate as the accounts we read in the four gospels. In fact, it led some in church history to label it “the fifth gospel.”

But this Psalm was written a thousand years before Christ and hundreds of years before crucifixion was even invented, as the Jews knew nothing of crucifixion at this time. Stoning was Israel’s form of capital punishment.

Yet amazingly it perfectly matches and describes the scene of Christ’s crucifixion. So here we have a prophecy regarding an unknown form of execution, 1,000 years before it happened. And this chapter shows the truth and wonder of inspiration of Scripture, as the Psalm was written by David under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

And this is another of the many types and shadows and prophecies we find in the Old Testament, pointing forward and bearing witness to the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it shows how Christ walked in the way prepared beforehand for Him, and that He fulfilled prophecy and the Father’s will perfectly in going to the Cross.

Psalm 22:1-5: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? why art Thou so far from helping Me, and from the words of My roaring? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

“But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in Thee: they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee, and were delivered: they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded.”

David, the writer of the Psalm, has experienced an intense hardship, in which it felt as if God had abandoned him.

The Holy Spirit inspired these prophetic words intensely felt by David, but supremely experienced by David’s greater Son: Jesus Christ, at the Cross.

Matt. 27:46 records that Christ cried out from the Cross “Eli, Eli, Lama, Sabachthani!” Or My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? Christ quoted these words on the Cross. He was not picking words at random. He consciously fulfilled the Scriptures on the Cross.

The Lord was in control as He hung on the Cross. He showed that He is the truly forsaken one of God; as the Father turned away from Him as He bore our sin.

The Son from all eternity had had perfect, uninterrupted communion and fellowship with the Father.

We see this in the words the Lord prayed in John 17:5, “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

But as Christ took the sins of the world upon Himself, the Father had to turn away, as He judged our sin in His Son. So Christ was cut off, separated from the Father, abandoned, and Christ felt the awful, terrifying forsakenness that we deserved.

And as Christ bore our sins, and became sin, the Father unleashed all the fury of His righteous wrath on His own Beloved Son. And He forsook His Son, and for our sakes, Christ was forsaken by God that we might never, ever by forsaken by Him in hell.

Christ cries out in His anguish and “roars” for the Father and His help” why art Thou so far from helping Me, and from the words of my roaring” He says. The Son was driven to the extremes of grief and sorrow, and groaned and roared loudly for the Father out of His deep anguish and pain. But there was no answer. There was only silence.

Amid the horror of that day, Christ did not cease His cry to the Father.

From the Garden of Gethsemane when He had agonized all through that dark “night,” to the “daytime” of His trials, scourging, and crucifixion, then through the “night season” of the 3 hours of darkness from noon until 3:00pm, He continually sought the Father and His help and comforting presence.

After His cry of loneliness and forsakenness in verses 1-2, in verse 3, the Lord remembers the Father’s character.

He relies on what He knew to be true of God to help Him through the agony of His suffering and abandonment at the Cross. “But Thou art holy” He says to the Father.

The amazing thing about this Psalm is that we are reading about the very thoughts of our Savior while He hung on the Cross. And in His thoughts on the Cross, He thinks about the perfect holiness of His Father and expresses that to Him.

Christ answers His own questions of why He was forsaken in the hour of His greatest need, why the Father was so far from helping, and hearing His roaring, because He was made sin and the Father was holy.

He knew the Father had to forsake Him because of His holiness.

Christ remembers also how faithful the Father was to Israel as her Deliverer. As the fathers of the nation Israel, trusted, trusted, and trusted, and “thou didst deliver them.” The Father demonstrated again and again how He rescues, saves, and delivers.

But for the Son at this moment, He knew He was to remain without deliverance, and He lamented this, knowing He had to bear this awful judgment alone.

The fathers were never forsaken, their cries for help never went unanswered, they cried for deliverance and were delivered, but He had to be forsaken, and His cries for help would go unanswered and He would not be delivered as He paid the penalty for sin.

Psalm 22:6-11: “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

“He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.

“I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

“But I am a worm.” He had reached the very lowest place. The Lord of glory humbled Himself to become a man, and here He says He was even lower than men, as He was “no man” He says, but instead a worm. He is the great “I AM,” He is Jehovah God. And in His humiliation as He suffered on the Cross, He considered Himself to be a worm.

These are two extraordinary extremes! He is God Almighty, but in His humility and the death and suffering of the Cross He felt Himself to be comparable to a small, insignificant, unnoticed worm.

In a small country church on one Sunday morning they sang the hymn: “At the Cross.” One of the verses to the song goes, “Alas, and did my Saviour bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”

After the service was over, an upset person rushed over to the pastor and objected to the song saying, “I refuse to consider myself a worm!” The preacher graciously replied, “My dear brother, a greater One than you or I took that title for Himself!”

The Son was forsaken by God the Father; and to man He was a “reproach” and “despised.” He was the target of jokes; He was made sport of, laughed at, and scorned by the people. Sadly, this is still done to God’s Son.

The laughter and mockery of those around the Cross didn’t go unnoticed by Christ. He recognized it from the Cross. And it grieved His heart.

Matthew 27:39-43 says this, “And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads…Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save…He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him, for He said, I am the Son of God.”

Matthew 27:47 records how some of those who were standing there, when they heard Him say “Eli, Eli,” which is the words, “my God, my God,” began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.” But they knew better than that.

Jews knew the name of God, Elohim, or Eli. This was sarcasm, mockery, and jeering. Out of their twisted and wicked minds, they’re joking around. And maliciously they say, “He’s calling for Elijah, ha-ha” is the idea.

Those around the cross, laughed at Him, mocked Him, shook their heads, scorned Him.

The Lord heard it all. “All they that see Me” the Lord tells the Father, the priests and the people, the soldiers and the civilians, all of them were united in their laughter, scoffing, cruelty and shouting insults.

They spoke words of contempt and made gestures of contempt. “Shoot out the lip” and “shake the head” in verse 7, all were actions done by those in their mocking.

Men made faces at the One before whom angels cover their faces and worship.

You can’t read these verses and not think of the longsuffering and love that kept our Lord on that Cross and endured all this for us. He could’ve saved Himself. The nails did not hold Him to the Cross, love held Him to the Cross. He stayed there to save us!

They taunt Him, and they aim their taunt at His trust in God in v. 8, the tenderest point in the Lord’s life. This special piece of mockery was probably the most bitter, and biting, and venomous, and it must have stung and hurt Him deeply.

The Father and His will meant everything to the Son. Yes, He trusted the Father. Yes, He delighted in Him. Yes, the Father could deliver Him.

They mocked that they were witnesses how He said He trusted in God, so why then was He permitted to perish, why was He not delivered? If only they understood the answer! He was dying and paying the penalty for sin to provide salvation and hope.

Thinking of how He did indeed delight in the Father, in verses 8 and 9 the Lord thinks of Him and remembers how it was He that took Him out of the womb, how from the incarnation the Father had been with Him and watching over Him from the beginning of His earthly life, and He takes great comfort in that fact.

The Son of Man, who was marvelously begotten of the Holy Ghost, was in a special manner watched over by the Father when brought forth by Mary. God’s care over Him was with Him from the earliest point in His earthly life.

As He cried out “My God, My God” at the beginning of the Psalm, so the claim is repeated in v. 10. The Father truly was “My God” to the Son. They are one. And from the earliest point of His earthly life the Father was “My God” and with Him, caring for Him always.

But yet at this point the Son remained by Himself, forsaken, without His Father’s watching and presence, and it caused Him to cry out in His thoughts and plea again to the Father: “Be not far from Me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help” (Ver. 11).

Christ’s great woe was that the Father had forsaken Him and His passionate plea and prayer was that He again would be near to Him.

Psalm 22:12-15: “Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.”

The “mighty” or powerful ones in the crowd are marked here by the Lord from the Cross, and referred to as strong bulls of Bashan. The pastures of Bashan were a fertile area in Israel, with rich pasture land, which had strong, well-fattened animals.

The bulls is a reference to the powerful in Israel, or the priests, elders, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, religious rulers, who were around the cross, those who were responsible for His arrest and trials, those who handed Him over to the Roman government for execution.

They were like bulls fed in the pastures of Bashan, full of strength and fury; and they stamped and foamed and bellowed around the innocent One. The Lord saw Himself as in the midst of a herd of infuriated, vicious wild bulls.

They were brutal, many, and strong, and He, the Rejected One was surrounded and all alone. Being surrounded by those who hated Him and wanted Him to die throws force and brings emotion to the entreaty to the Father, “Be not far from me.”

He calls them strong bulls, and also raging, roaring lions. “They gaped upon Me with their mouths,” v. 13 says. The word “gape” means “to tear in pieces.” I.e., their words tore at the Lord, as they viciously, brutally attacked Him in their hatred of Him.

These men are compared to vicious, wild animals because that’s what they became like: vicious, wild animals. Like raging lions roar in their ferocity and tear their prey in pieces, so these men were ferocious, and with their words and actions they violently and savagely tore at and attacked the Savior.

Turning from the people around the cross, the Lord speaks of His physical sufferings: “I am poured out like water” (v. 14). He was utterly spent. His strength was poured out like water and gone. He had been brought to the most feeble and exhausted state.

“My bones are out of joint” would have accompanied the point of weakness His body was at, along with the posture He had while hanging on the cross. In not being able to pull or hold Himself up, the weight of the body was placed on His hands, arms and shoulders, pulling them out of joint, causing, of course, intense, excruciating pain.

“My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.” His strength was gone such to the point that His heart was no longer firm or strong, it was like wax melting within Him, and the great pressure of blood on the head and heart was characteristic of crucifixions.

Charles Spurgeon once said this also, “The fire of Almighty wrath would have consumed our souls forever in hell; it was no light work to bear as a substitute the heat of an anger so justly terrible. If the heart of Christ melted at it what heart can endure or hands be strong, when God deals with them in His wrath?”

“My strength is dried up like a potsherd” (v. 15). A potsherd is a fragment of a broken clay pot, and the Lord likens Himself to a broken piece of an earthen pot baked in the fire until every last particle of moisture is driven out of the clay.

He was like a brittle piece of earthenware, so dry and fragile it could easily be crumbled to pieces.

“My tongue cleaveth to my jaws.” The tongue cleaving to the jaw is a sign of an intense dryness, and a tormenting, extreme thirst. It would have caused Him to barely be able to speak, and it’s shortly after this point that as John 19:28-30 says,

“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished.”

Christ was in control on the Cross. And in fulfilling prophecy from Psalm 69:21 which said “in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink,” He said “I thirst” from the Cross.

But His burning, tormenting thirst was so great that He needed that vinegar, so He could speak and cry out that final powerful declaration: “It is finished!” which means “Paid in full!” as He paid the penalty for our sins in full by His perfect sacrifice.

“Thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” Dust speaks of death, the dust of the grave. The Lord’s words meant He was near death; He was just about ready to die and to dismiss His spirit. Sin demands the payment of death. And Christ died for our sins.

Psalm 22:16-22: “For dogs have compassed Me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed Me: they pierced My hands and My feet. I may tell all My bones: they look and stare upon Me.

“They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture. But be not thou far from Me, O LORD: O My strength, haste Thee to help Me.

“Deliver My soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save Me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.”

The Lord had referred to His Jewish tormentors and mockers, now He turns to speak of the Gentiles around His Cross.

The dog in Scripture is used in reference to the Gentile, and this is speaking of the Gentile executioners and Roman soldiers who carried out the crucifixion. And they too were all around the cross and surrounded Him.

These animals used to describe the mocking and hateful people around the cross have rightly been called, “the Devil’s zoo.”

The Roman soldiers were like a pack of vicious dogs that encircled Him, and this “assembly of the wicked” is who had “pierced my hands and my feet” with nails the Lord notes.

This was not done gently or carefully. It was done cruelly, trying to inflict the most pain possible. As the nails were driven in, this also severed nerves in the arms and legs, causing unbearable pain to shoot through the Lord’s body.

Matthew 27:36 says that after the soldiers crucified Him, it says “sitting down they watched Him there.” It says here in v. 17, that they looked and stared at Him, as it gave them a sick pleasure and satisfaction to see Him suffering.

And so emaciated was the Lord by His sufferings that He says, “I may tell all my bones” or they were so prominent and bare they could be seen and counted.

It’s been said that “The posture of the body on the cross would so distend the flesh and skin as to make the bones visible, so that they might be numbered.” And so as these soldiers gazed on Him they could see His bones pressing out against His skin.

The sight of His agony should have brought sympathy, but instead it only increased their enjoyment, and they looked on Him with cruel eyes as He suffered.

These dogs and assembly of the wicked also parted the Lord’s “garments”. In Roman society the executioners received the garments of the executed. So they divided His garments amongst themselves.

But the Lord also had a seamless coat according to John 19:23-24, which was more valuable, so they cast lots and gambled to see who would take it. So significant was the fulfillment of this prophecy that all four of the gospel records record it.

Again, in v. 19, the Lord pleas for the Father to not be far from Him and to help Him, as He did in verse 11. He wants nothing but His God, in this His lowest state.

His prayer and plea does not change. He kept His eyes fixed on the Father through the whole crucifixion for help and support even understanding that the Father HAD to turn from Him because of His holiness. His trust remained steadfast in the Father. And notice how in His last degree of physical weakness He calls God “my strength.”

In v. 20, the Lord’s prayer from the Cross was that He might be delivered from the “sword” and “the power of the dog,” both references to the Gentiles.

The sword refers to the Roman governmental power (Rom. 13:4), and the dog refers to the Roman, Gentile soldiers. “My darling” literally means “my beloved.” The Father loves the Son and called Him, “my beloved Son,” and the Son loves the Father as well.

The “lion” and “unicorn” or literally wild oxen, refers back to verses 12 and 13, and the Jewish authorities. The Lord desired deliverance from those around these men who so cruelly mocked, laughed, ridiculed and scorned Him.

The construction of v. 21 is better understood: “Save me from the lion’s mouth: from the horns of the unicorns, for thou hast heard me [or You have answered Me!]”

“Thou hast heard Me” makes a distinct and triumphant break. He is no longer forsaken. He is heard. The sufferings of the Lord are past. The redeeming work is finished. The rest of the Psalm turns to a song of praise and triumph from this point forward.

Verse 22 says, “I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.” Looking beyond death, this speaks of how Christ after His resurrection, in praise would declare the Father’s name unto His brethren.

He purposes and anticipates that post-resurrection, to be His brethren’s teacher; He fixes His mind on the subject of His discourse: to declare God’s name.

How thankful we should be for the cross. How grateful we should be for His great sacrifice. The Cross is the picture of love, as Christ selflessly, willingly gave Himself to pay the penalty for all our sins that we might be saved, and have peace with God.

For us who have trusted Christ as Savior, may we keep the Cross always before so we might live for Him, and that it might ignite us toward living a passionate, transformed life that is a praise-offering to the One who died for us that we might live forever with Him.

And if you’re watching, and have not trusted Christ as your Savior, please do this right now. God loves you, Christ died for you. Just trusting that Christ died for your sins and rose again you are saved from all your sins and you have the free gift of eternal life.