The Psalm Of The Cross

Have you ever read a book and then watched the movie based on the book?

Or maybe you watched the movie first and then went back and read the book.

What I love about both reading the book and watching the movie is that you get to dive into the life and mind of the characters in a deeper way than with just one medium.

What were they thinking and feeling during the event? It’s one of the most fascinating pieces of storytelling in my mind.

And as we dwell of Psalm 22, I want you to realize that the first words of this Psalm and the last words of this Psalm are words that Jesus spoke while he was hanging on the cross dying for us.

So, as we gather to meditate on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, Psalm 22 allows us to explore what was on Jesus’ mind during the event.

What was he thinking and feeling?

The early church entitled Psalm 22 “The Psalm of the Cross” due to its vivid descriptions of our Lord’s sufferings and the fact that David’s words were on our Savior’s mind when hanging there for us.

So, as we continue to worship, I want to invite you to dwell with me on the very thoughts and feelings our Lord Jesus was meditating on and feeling as He suffered on the cross to save us.

Psalm 22 ESV

To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David. 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. 3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4 In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. 6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; 8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” 9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. 10 On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God. 11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. 12 Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; 13 they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; 15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— 17 I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. 19 But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! 21 Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! 22 I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: 23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him. 25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him. 26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. 30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

1. My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

It is the strangest and most unnatural of circumstances that Jesus finds himself in.

For all eternity past, Jesus, the Son of God, had experienced nothing but wholehearted, intimate, and perfect fellowship with His Father God, and the Holy Spirit of God.

The glorious satisfaction of that fellowship was of such a kind that one would choose to stay for eternity and never leave.

Yet, in stunningly self-sacrificial love toward us who had rejected God and forsaken His good name, Jesus willingly was sent by His Father to earth, to take on the weaknesses of human flesh, which certainly limited His communion with His Father and the Spirit.

Yet, even then, Jesus lived in this world under the banner of His Father who proclaimed, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Even then, did the Holy Spirit of God rest on Jesus empowering Him for ministry and compelling him to quiet places to commune deeply together in prayer, as if to taste a bit of past eternity.

But as the night of Jesus’ betrayal, trials, and crucifixion came, Jesus’ prayers were no longer ones of sweet communion but ones of sorrow, desperation, and utter isolation.

We had never heard Jesus ask his disciples to stay up with him to pray as he did that night.

It seems the isolating of the Father and the Spirit from the Son who was beginning to take our sins onto himself prompted Jesus to ask for communion from his friends.

A request that they failed to follow through on.

No, Jesus had to take the full weight of our sins and separation from God on His own.

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

By the time, Jesus was hung up like a piece of meat on that gruesome cross, the isolating nature of our sins upon Him was so obviously palpable, for as Deuteronomy tells us that a man hanged on a tree is utterly cursed by God.

You can imagine what Jesus’ groanings must of sounded like from the cross after He had already endured such grotesque beatings.

He cries to His Father in groans choked off by mucus and blood with no answer in return.

Yet, greater than the suffering of His body, was the separation of His soul from God.

As God poured His full wrath onto His son for the sins we have committed, Jesus experienced total agony under the full weight of the hostility of God toward our sin.

2. Those Who Trusted The Lord In The Past Were Delivered

Jesus’ situation of suffering did not change His understanding of the truth of God.

God is holy and enthroned on the praises of His people!

Every single person who had ever trusted in God and cried out to him were ultimately delivered by God and not put to eternal shame.

While Noah, Abraham, Joseph, David, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, and innumerable others had been delivered when they cried to the Lord,

Jesus Christ would not be delivered from punishment and shame that day, until He had completed the work He was doing that led all the way to death.

That Jesus endured the wrath of God for our sins all the way to death ensures to us that He will never leave or forsake the ones who are his.

No matter the darkness or suffering of the present, all who trust in God will ultimately be delivered from suffering and shame.

We can always cry out to God and trust that we will not be put to shame and we will ultimately be delivered because Christ was delivered to death in our place.

3. I Am Despised By Others

We can be led to believe that Jesus was impervious to any criticism and unflappable in the face of any danger.

But, on the cross, where the He was separated from His Father and the Spirit, a part of His suffering was feeling the full weight of the scorn, the contempt, the intimidation, and the helplessness of his situation.

The approval and righteousness of God that had been his shield against these attacks all of his life were forcefully removed, and He hung there in utter weakness and every scorn filled word just like every crack of the whip, hit with the full weight of suffering, pain, and loss.

Jesus was utterly removed from the offer of any human dignity on the cross.

I am a worm and not a man -

slimy, disgusting, filthy, dispensable, no backbone.

Scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

Isaiah 52:14 ESV

14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—

Mocking, making faces, wagging their heads, the hatred of Jesus at the cross was so energized that it caused an uncontrolled frenzy amongst the hate filled onlookers.

The noise of the frenzied crowd would have been a true horror.

While Jesus took on all our shame, there was no shame in the hearts of a blood thirsty crowd!

They took such satisfaction to the point of bloodlust in his derision, his defeat, and his shame.

They mock His loving Father who had always been the source of his greatest intimacy and satisfaction as they say, “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

Do you want to cut a man down? Scorn his parents, or whoever raised him when he was helpless, scorn the ones who loved and cared for Him the deepest.

Scorn the mother from who he was taken from the womb, whom he trusted in from birth says verse 9-10.

There is no deeper verbal blow.

Verse 11 - trouble is near and there is none to help.

Jesus had never faced a circumstance where he was truly vulnerable and unable to escape.

Many times, crowds had turned against him and even sought to kill him, yet He easily escaped.

Yet, now, for the first time and for us, he was completely vulnerable, weak, outnumbered, outmatched, they are as strong bulls and ravenous lions revelling in their power and Jesus’ weakness.

Just hours earlier, Jesus had proclaimed that He could appeal to his Father to send down legions of angels.

But, instead and for us, he submitted himself to the most horrible of defeats.

For sin had truly led to destruction and death.

4. My Physical Suffering Is Immense

Verse 14 - I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

Throughout the Bible, the idea behind being poured out is to be utterly spent on another’s behalf.

There was no strength in his muscles, no firmness in his physical frame, little skin left to hold him together.

Given the severeness of the beatings Jesus endured before His tortured march to Golgotha with the splintered beam on his back, by the time his body was nailed to the tree and lifted up only to be slammed down into the earth, his bones had been jolted out of joint.

Jesus’ heart in him melted like wax from the burning of every beat as his body gave way.

Verse 15 speaks to the intensity of the dryness Jesus was experiencing, the loss of water and blood would have caused his dehydration to be immense, as his mouth turned to dust as we hear our Lord cry out, “I thirst!”

Think about it: Hell is described as a lake of fire, a place of endless and unquenchable thirst.

In Jesus’ parable, the man who went to hell begged for just one drop of water to be placed on his tongue.

The mouth of the one who had spoken the words of living water was now parched dry as He drank to the dregs the dry cup of God’s wrath due our sin.

Philip Ryken once wrote, “Meet the thirsty Christ at the cross and your soul will never go thirsty again.”

He was hung up by large nails in his hands and his feet.

His bones were able to be seen and counted.

They divided Jesus’ clothes and cast lots in order to see who would win them.

No one who gloated over Jesus’ horrible frame that day understood that he had hung naked in shame in order to clothe His people in righteousness.

Jesus had known nothing but His Father’s nearness, his help, and his aid throughout his life, yet, his prayers in verses 19-21 for God to be not far off, for God to come to his aid, his soul to be delivered from the sword, and his precious life delivered from the power of the dog, the lion, and the wild oxen, speaking of the men at the cross who were attacking Jesus as ravenous beasts.

Jesus would receive no nearness or help from God on that day, for our sins most certainly must complete their full effect in bringing the perfect sacrifice all the way to death.

5. The Cause Of My Plight Is Worthy

Verse 22 - I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

In the midst of all the torment from within and the hostility from without, Christ’s heart was longing and desiring for us to know His name.

For Christ to make us brothers and sisters, children of God who shared in the glory of His name and declare God’s praise.

As we consider the cross, we ask ourselves, for what point and purpose? What could possibly be worthy of this hell?

For Christ, as the hymn states:

How great the pain of searing loss! The Father turns His face away; As wounds which marred the Chosen One Bring many sons to glory.

The thought of making us sons and daughters of God and bringing us to glory in His name was worthy of all the hell, because Christ is consumed by love for God and for His people.

For God to be rewarded with a people who fear him, glorify and stand in awe of Him!

Verse 24: Even as the Father poured his just wrath onto the Son, He did not despise him.

It was not for hate but for love that the Father afflicted the Son.

It was so that when we cry out to him, He could always respond with tender mercies.

And even in seasons when His mercies seem severe and afflicting to us, we can be confident He is doing all in love, and that He is for us.

Christ’s commitment to the praise of the Father and the vow to complete the work he started never wavered.

All who would eat of His flesh and drink of His blood in the midst of their own affliction would be satisfied, would worship, and would eternally live.

This work on the cross would go to the ends of the earth leading all nations to turn to the Lord, all families of the nations will fall down before Him whether by worship as the redeemed or in dread as those who rejected.

The kingship of the Lord over the nations would finally be seen when every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.

All future generations of people will serve the Lord’s purposes.

The word of the cross will endure and go forth in every generation.

All God’s church will take the message of righteousness to a people yet unborn.

We see that the very heart of the work on the cross is the heart of missions, that all peoples would hear and know of the Savior and what He has done for them.

The final words of the Psalm: That he has done it, in the original, can be translated, “It is finished.”

When Jesus cried, “It is finished,” he bowed his head and gave up His spirit, for the work of atonement for the sins of His people was complete, He had done everything necessary for our salvation.

Conclusion:

And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior's blood Died He for me, who caused His pain For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me? Amazing love! How can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me?

May these vivid descriptions of our Saviors thoughts and feelings while hanging on the cross cause us to be in awe of the sacrifice made for our salvation!

May these vivid descriptions lead us to ask what kind of life it calls us to as we consider the command to “walk worthy of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

May we imagine what it means for us to take up our cross and follow Him, for as Bonhoeffer said:

When God bids a man to come, He bids him, come and die.

Let’s pray.