When a historical event takes place, we often find journalists and news crews there, taking down what happens for news reports. How about when what is reported was written down a thousand years before the event actually took place, and written down with great accuracy? In our psalm for this week, Holy Week, we read what might seem like an eye-witness news account of the crucifixion of Jesus. Let’s look into Psalm 22.
Psalm 22 was written by David, and it reads as if he was right there at the crucifixion, yet as we know, he lived around 1000 BC. We don’t specifically know the occasion of the psalm, but it is obvious that he was going through some distressing time. The psalm opens with a cry to God (vs. 1-2). David felt at that moment, and in the crisis he was in, that he was abandoned by God. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever looked at the distressing situation you find yourself in, and feel as if God abandoned you? Many of us have at one point or another.
We read in the Gospels that this is what Jesus cried out on the cross (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). It was the fourth of the seven words or sentences that Jesus said while on the cross, spoken maybe halfway through the six hours He hung there for us. Because Jesus was taking the full punishment for our sins, God could not hear or answer His prayer right at that time. Because God is so holy, He couldn’t even look upon this. While His precious and dearly-beloved Son hung upon the cross, bearing our sins, God had to turn His back on Him. Jesus could honestly cry out that He was forsaken. Because Jesus went through that for us, we don’t ever need to fear that we have been abandoned by God. Sometimes we may feel like we have, but in reality God will never abandon His Blood-bought children.
From His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane to when He took His last breath, Jesus suffered not only physical torture, but also terrible ridicule and shame at the hands of both the soldiers and the religious leaders. His treatment was inhumane, and He could honestly say that He felt like a worm, and no man (vs. 6-7). Jesus took the lowest place among men, to be rejected, scorned, spit upon, and humiliated in infamy and shame. The reproach and ridicule hurled upon Jesus was overwhelming (Matthew 27:39-44; Luke 23:35). Judas mocked Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when He was arrested by greeting Him with a kiss. The chief priests and scribes laughed at Jesus to scorn. Herod mocked Him. The soldiers jeered Jesus, and brutally insulted Him. While Jesus hung on the cross, He was also mocked by the crowds standing around.
Then in our psalm, we come upon a direct quotation that David made, which centuries later we find being said by the people who stood around the cross while mocking Jesus, quoted basically word for word (vs. 8). The Jewish religious leaders said these very words to Jesus while He was on the cross (Matthew 27:43). These were people who should have known the Scriptures, who should have been very familiar with this psalm, yet they were willfully blind to what God’s Word said.
All throughout this horrible day for Jesus, His enemies came upon Him, physically and verbally, like angry bulls and fearsome lions (vs. 12-13). Where were His friends, His disciples, people we would think He could count on? Everyone fled Jesus during His hours of need (vs. 11). There is none to help. And as we discussed, even God had to turn His back on Him.
Our psalm continues with some very clear verses that vividly describe how one might feel during a crucifixion (vs. 14-16), this being prophesied centuries before the Romans used this as a common form of execution. One’s bones are pulled out of the joint. It is very difficult to breathe while hanging on a cross, and the heart might feel like it is exploding. In the hot desert climate, hanging in the sun, one gets extremely thirsty. And, of course, crucifixion involves piercing the hands and feet with the nails. All of this was prophesied centuries before Jesus was crucified. It was a very tortuous death that Jesus suffered for each one of us.
Then, as a final insult, while Jesus hung on the cross, the soldiers who had finished crucifying Him, divided up His clothes among themselves (vs. 18). These were the only items on earth that Jesus owned. This was one very specific prophecy about Jesus that was fulfilled, one that Jesus would have had no way of influencing. All four Gospel writers attest to the fulfillment of this prophecy (Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; and John 19:24).
This is an amazing passage of Scripture. It might have seemed like David was there, penning exactly what was happening. Nothing that any of us have gone through, or ever will, can compare to what we see that Jesus went through. He went through all that was described in this psalm for us. We can sing with the great hymn writer Philip Bliss, “Hallelujah, What a Savior!”
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