It is often rather difficult to be thankful and give praise in unpleasant events. When you’re driving to an important business dinner, and the tire goes flat on your car, and you have to get out and change the tire while all dressed up in your best clothing, what’s to be thankful for? And how about if it is pouring rain, and you arrive late and soaking wet? Events like that are unpleasant, but often we can later find some humor in them, and maybe even see how it might have been beneficial or seen some good in it. What about the really terrible or catastrophic events that sometimes happen to people, events that bring death and destruction, events that could have devastating consequences for several generations? How can one give praise or thanks? Our Scripture passage today highlights just such a situation.
Our psalm passage comes from the final third of Psalm 22. This psalm is very well known to many Christians, as it is a Messianic psalm, prophesying and graphically describing many of the events that would happen when the Lord Jesus was hanging upon the cross. The first two-thirds of the psalm are most familiar to us, with its accurate description of what Jesus went through while on the cross. Jesus quoted the first verse, as He felt God temporarily forsaking Him while all of our sins were laid upon Him. In verses 6-8 we find prophecies of what the enemies of Jesus, the Pharisees, High Priests, and other religious leaders scornfully shouted out to Him while He hung dying. These enemies are described as being like bulls and lions in verses 12 and 13, animals that can be violent and very dangerous. Verses 14 through 17 give a prophecy with physical descriptions of what Jesus’s death was like, including the very specific prophecy that His hands and feet would be pierced, indicating He would die by crucifixion.
Most people focus on the first two-thirds of the psalm because of these prophecies, and the last third gets less attention. Yet here, David, the writer of this psalm, turns his focus away from the prophetic descriptions of the Messiah’s crucifixion, and instead begins to give praise to God. This is where we might wonder how anyone could be thankful and give praise after such a horrific event! What is there to be thankful for when the religious leaders so brutally murdered the Messiah? Yet that is exactly how David closes out this psalm in the last ten verses.
After reading and meditating on the first portion of the psalm, knowing that it was the Lord Jesus Christ who David is talking and prophesying about, we can give God praise and thanksgiving. We can thank God because Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins, and His death provided salvation for all who turn to Him. David might not have understood all the details of what he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but it is for this we can and should give unending praise! David knows that God is deserving of public praise for all that He has done (vs. 22).
When Jesus was hanging on the cross for our sins, God had to temporarily turn His face away from Him. That was because at that time all the sins of the world were laid upon Him, and a holy God could not look upon that sin. All of His righteous wrath was poured out upon Jesus. Yet that was only temporarily for the time while He hung upon the cross, as God would raise Jesus from the dead, and He now sits enthroned at God’s right hand. Because Jesus took our punishment, God always hears believers when they call to Him for help (vs. 24). He will never hide His face from us, like He needed to from Jesus on Calvary.
Another thing that we can thank and praise God for is that He is sovereign, ruling over all of the nations of the world (vs. 28). When we look at this world today we can easily panic and get depressed when we consider the wars, the hatred between different peoples and races, the social unrest, and the natural disasters and diseases that have been relentlessly coming. David reminds us that God is in absolute control of this universe, both the natural and political worlds, including each of our lives.
Our Scripture today closes with an admonition to tell our children about Jesus (vs. 30-31). Unborn generations are depending on our faithfulness to tell the Gospel. We need to teach our children about Jesus, so they will tell their children, and they their children. If we fail, we break the chain of God’s influence in generations to come. When we are faithful to God by telling our children about Him, we can influence many generations to come.
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