PSALM 22 CRUCIFIXION DETAILS OF OUR LORD

1000 years before the Messiah was born of Mary, King David predicted the cross sufferings of our Lord. Crucifixion was unknown until 700 years afterwards.

We marvel at the accurate detail as God’s holy Son entered into His sufferings.

‘My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?’ was the heart-rending cry of our Lord as He hung on the cross. Did He recite from memory the entire Psalm? In paying the awful price of our sin, the eternal oneness with the Father severed. (v1)

‘O My God, I cry in the daytime and in the night season.’( v2) Darkness covered all the earth during the hours of intense spiritual warfare. God did not allow fallen man to see the desolation of His suffering Son.‘God was in Christ’even in the eclipse..

‘Our fathers trusted in You and You delivered them.( v4 ) They cried – and were delivered.’ ( v5 ) The Sanhedrin ridiculed the Son with this direct quotation. Noah, Abraham, David, Jonah were protected. Why not God’s dearest.? Weight of our sin!

‘I am a worm and no man: a reproach of men and despised of the people.’(v6)

The worm is a spineless, lower form of created life, often crushed under foot. Our Lord created all things, yet is so degraded to release us from our guilt. I Am a worm..

‘He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him,’’ Let Him deliver Him seeing He delights in Him’.(v8) The Father rejoiced in His Son’s baptism and transfiguration Yet, He withheld such a dramatic rescue from a turbulent ocean of hatred.

Christ’s Incarnation was revealed as ‘You took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust when I was on my mother’s breasts.’(v10) As a Human being, He was nursed by Mary His mother, drawing natural sustenance from her breast milk. Mystery!.

‘Trouble is near, for there is none to help,’(v11) for even His disciples forsook Him.and ran. Mary and godly women remained with Him at the foot of the cross, with John staying awhile. The holy Father and fallen man abandoned the dear Son.

‘Many bulls have surrounded Me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.

They gape at Me with their mouths as a raging and roaring lion ‘. 1 Peter 5:7

‘I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint.’(v14 )

Our Lord Jesus thirsted with the dehydration that followed His four false trials, the whipping with blood loss, the spiritual and emotional shock. No one gave relief with a glass of water to quench such thirst. In medicine, replacement of fluids has priority.

The weight of His body hanging from the hands and feet produced a dislocation of every joint, formed from 206 bones. The pain was excruciating, the reader knowing from experience the distress from a minor dislocation. No Morphia or muscle relaxant was available. Physically , we cannot estimate the deep agony he suffered.

. ‘ You have brought Me to the dust of death’ Christ our Creator spoke of His Creating from the dust of the earth- and, yet, He submitted to mortality ( able to die ).

‘The assembly of the wicked has enclosed Me.’ (v16). We long to be comforted with tender, sympathetic, loving friends. Not so with our dear Saviour. The wicked Jewish leaders, Roman authorities, godless observers abused Him on the cross.

‘They pierced My hands and My feet’ was an amazing, single prediction of the brutal death He would die. A millenium passed before it was literally experienced. Thomas demanded that he see the print ( stigma ) of the nails before he would believe. .

I can count all my bones ( that is pan-dislocation ) They look and stare at Me.

They divide My garments among them. For My clothing they cast lots. ( v18)

Roman soldiers did not know of this prediction, and did not care if they had known.

Opposition was expressed in the sword (v20), for many died for their Lord. With some, ‘the power of the dog’ spoke of the ferocious attacks on the believers. Satan allowed many to be thrown to ‘the lion’s mouth’, steadfastly singing or speaking of their beloved Lord, while others were impaled on ‘the horns of the wild oxen.’

Psalm 22 foretells those who ‘overcame by blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and loved not their lives unto the death’, and thus would suffer for Him.

‘I will declare My Name to My brethren In the midst of the congregation I will praise you’ ( v22) . The risenLord entered the room, despite doors being locked and windows barred. He revealed His Name, when Thomas replied, ‘My Lord. My God’

‘He has not hidden His face from Him, but when He cried to Him He heard’.(v24 )

The glorified Lord welcomed Stephen after his stoning, having risen from the right hand of the Father’s throne. Christ could not turn away from the first recorded martyr

‘All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. All the families of the nations shall worship before Me.’(v27) At Pentecost every man heard them speak in his own tongue wherein he was born’ ‘Go into all the world. Preach the gospel.’.

‘They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who shall be born’. David’s prophecy was realized as future generations were born again spiritually. South Korea and North West India have high percentages of twice-born believers.

‘He has done this ‘ or ‘It is finished ‘ is the triumphant cry from the parched lips of our Saviour, when He knew all things had been fulfilled. All the Old Testament types were accomplished and prophecies brought about. Two of the seven sayings of Christ from the cross were first stated in this amazing Psalm. David the writer only partially understood. The Holy Spirit spoke of the Son’s sufferings when he directed David to write. Christ lived out those hours on Calvary. He fully understood!

God went to such pains to record this valuable record of your great salvation.

‘Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.’

Make sure you have invited the Lord Jesus personally to be your Saviour and Lord.

These things are written that you may believe…. And be saved.