Psalms Lesson 7

Psalm 22:6-18

We ascertained that the address is verses 1-2; the trust section is verses 3-5; the lament is verses 6-18; the petition, verses 19-21; and the praise, 22-33. So because it is an individual lament Psalm we would expect it to have this kind of literary structure. Therefore we’re not surprised when we find this kind of literary structure to the Psalm. We said that this Psalm, as far as the Messianic classification would either be typical prophetic or it would be purely prophetic and the debate is how much of this Psalm could apply to David. In other words, historically it’s a Psalm of David; that’s what the title tells you. The question, however, is it’s obvious hyperbole, David exaggerates his experiences, so the question is how much literalness do we make this to be David’s experience. And that’s the problem, therefore we concluded that it seems that very few of these experiences could match anything that David faced. So Psalm 22 certainly comes very, very close to being a purely prophetic Psalm. We’ll see more of that tonight.

Remember in the address last time, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” that is the title as it would have been known to the ancient Jew, so that when Jesus Christ calls from the cross, “My God, My God, why Hast Thou forsaken Me?” you must understand that that probably is Matthew saying He said Psalm 22. In other words, just because it says Jesus said “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” doesn’t mean that’s all He said of this Psalm. It could mean that He recited the whole Psalm from the cross and not just the first verse, but that for space consideration Matthew, when he recorded the event just simply said Jesus said, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” and it would be understood by a Jewish reader of the first century that therefore Jesus said the rest of the Psalm. I really think that tonight we’re going to see how Matthew had this Psalm on his mind; certainly by the time that Matthew wrote Matthew’s Gospel he knew very well the connection between Psalm 22 and the crucifixion because when he goes to describe the crucifixion he puts it and casts in the language of Psalm 22. So Matthew is making the identification in the way he writes his history.

Then we said in verses 3-5 that here you have a trust section, and this is unusual compared to the other Psalms, the individual lament Psalms, because the trust section comes in the second position and all the other Psalms that we’ve had after the address have gone immediately to the lament or in one case to the petition, but for this Psalm to immediately leave the address and then plunge into the trust section forces us when we read the Psalm to ask why; why is the emphasis in this Psalm on the trust? And when we come to this in verses 3-5 we read: “But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabits the praises of Israel. [4] Our fathers trusted in Thee; they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. [5] They cried unto Thee, and were delivered; they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded.” Now the “But Thou” is one of these phrases in the Hebrew that marks off a break, a strong break in the text. And so we’re very, very safe in making this the beginning of a new section, “But Thou art holy,” it’s a contrast.

Now sometimes Christians have a correct theology but an incorrect exegesis. The correct theology is the answer to the question in verses 1-2 is “God is holy.” That is a correct answer to the question, verses 1-2, why did God the Father abandon Jesus Christ on the cross? Answer: Because Jesus Christ on the cross was taking the sins of every member of the human race that has ever lived. So thus, because God the Father is holy, He turns His back on the Son while He is bearing the sin. So therefore, because we know that theologically, the tendency is to go right ahead and interpret verse 3 as an answer to the address. But by now you should be well enough grounded in literary form of the Psalm so that you won’t make that mistaken interpretation. That’s a true doctrine, but as many times happens we get, under God’s grace, the right answers with the wrong interpretation.

The correct interpretation of verses 3-5 is that it’s all a trust section, and far from saying that verse 3 is an answer to verses 1-2 it creates a puzzle. In other words, the puzzlement is that God is a holy God, and therefore He keeps His promises to deliver someone in trouble; that’s the force of verse 3. And then there’s a confession of trust in verses 4-5. Now what do you notice about verses 4-5 as to the basis of the psalmist’s trust? Why does the psalmist trust God? Look at verse 4-5 and see why does the psalmist trust God? Is it because he’s psyched himself up with some emotional situation, I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe, and he automatically believes or is there something else involved.

[someone says something] All right, the psalmist here obviously has a base for his faith in history. It’s grounded on the historical facts of the case, and this is why over and over again I have said again and again that we must put forth the Christian position on the basis of solid objective historical evidences or we have nothing to say to the world. This business of going out and saying I believe because I believe because I believe because somebody said so is not New Testament Christian, it is not even Old Testament faith. And the proof of this would be… this man isn’t believing because someone told him to believe; he’s believing because he’s analyzed the historical evidences and concluded they’re true.

Now, if this Psalm is a Messianic Psalm, then what do verses 4-5 teach us about the humanity of Christ? Can anybody make some conclusions about the humanity of Christ, on the basis of verses 4-5, as far as what went through Christ’s mind, His human brain? How did Christ develop His own faith, or was He just born with a super abundant faith? There’s a passage coming up that would cause you think that way maybe, but in His humanity Christ gained His faith like any other human being. What do you think were some ways Jesus gained His faith when He was a child. Get away from this… Jesus is true God but He’s true humanity and undiminished deity, but the trouble is because we fundamentalists have so reacted so long to the liberals who deny the deity of Christ and we come so hard down for the deity of Christ we’re off balance in one area here and that is we’ve come so heavy on the deity of Christ we’re very weak on His humanity. And we don’t really appreciate the fact that Jesus in His humanity developed His faith. How do you suppose He did it?

[someone says something] All right, at twelve years old He was taking on the PhD’s in a dialogue about the Old Testament text. So does that suggest that probably He spent vast amounts of time in the Old Testament. Can someone suggest some other sources; you’ve got to project yourself back into the culture of Jesus’ own day. Now if you can do this mentally, move yourself back and visualize yourself living there in that land, in that era of history, then what other things beside the Hebrew scrolls did Jesus have to base His evidence on? [someone says something] All right, Jesus had a profound understanding of just nature itself, Romans 1, God reveals Himself through nature. Think of how many of the parables of Jesus deal with things in nature. This is apparently characteristic of His whole family. Do you know how we know this? Because when Mary praises God because she has become pregnant, she turns around and she begins to say certain things that lead us to believe that she was a student of nature. Not only that, but Jesus has two brothers who wrote portions of the New Testament; one was James and one was Jude, half brothers. And both of them in both of their epistles emphasized nature. So what does this tell you, if the mother does it, and the two brothers do it, it would suggest that the whole family in Nazareth were very nature conscious.

[someone says something] All right, Jesus could go visit the temple; the temple wasn’t as accurate as the tabernacle but it had some of the truths of the tabernacle; He could go to the temple and if He believed that the temple was divinely designed to show divine truth, then as He walked around the temple He could put things together. He had historical sites, He could have gone down to Jordan, He could have walked around and seen these places too. [someone says something] He had a very strong prayer life. So visualize the humanity here and I think it will help you in your Christian life. The tendency is always to say oh Jesus had it made, He was God, and that’s wrong. Jesus didn’t have it made because He was a man.

Let’s go on to verse 6 and work from verses 6 down through this lament, verses 6-18. And again he starts off this lament section… oh, by the way, one other point. Why do you suppose the trust section is put here; somebody said this last week but let’s make sure we all understand. Why is the trust section put before the lament section? It’s there, and if we’re going to be good Bible interpreters we have to explain why the psalmist put that trust section there, in a very, very prominent position. [someone says something] It’d indicate that He’s in fellowship; in its Messianic application it would indicate even more. [someone says something] All right, the lament doesn’t come as a shocking experience in the sense that there’s no panic over the thing. If there were panic, we’ve already seen Psalms of panic. What happens in a Psalm when there’s a panic and there’s a rush; how is this reflected in the structure of the Psalm? [tape unintellible for a short time]

Notice how many verses of all these verses is related to the petition; there’s only three verses here in the petition, but look at how much is related to the lament. So you see, whatever the struggle is here it didn’t come by surprise. Now there’s another thing and I just throw this out as just a lesson in the Christian life, but think of this for a moment. There was never one single member of the human race that was abandoned by God the Father while he was trusting God the Father, except one, and that’s what this Psalm is about. Here you have a man who perfectly trusts God, and in the middle of His perfectly trusting God, God turns His back. Now that is the agony of Psalm 22. And that is the agony that Christ suffered in His humanity, and this is going to come out in the lament, so I’m preparing you to look for certain things as we move through this lament, that Christ in His humanity was the only single member in history to have been abandoned by God while He was perfectly trusting. Now as believers God turns His back upon us at times, but we can always find weaknesses in our life for Him doing that. But not in this case; in this case Jesus in His humanity perfectly trusted, and in spite of the fact that He perfectly trusted, God turned His back, and that’s the tension crisis; this is all very nice for us as Christians living twenty centuries later, well, He had to because Christ bore the sins of the world. That’s very nice and that’s theologically correct but that doesn’t enter into the humanist and the existential experience that this guy went through, the psalmist is going through and then in hyperbolizing by the Holy Spirit, Christ can go through. That’s a very, very spoffy way of handling it.

Let’s look at verse 6; verse 6 is the first verse of this new section, and notice it begins “But I,” and here we have one of those strong conjunctions of contrast, a break, and so we’re again confident that we’ve spotted the first part of this section. “But I,” and notice if you have the Kings James notice the “am” is italicized which means it isn’t in the original Hebrew text, “But I a worm, a no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people. [7] All they who see me laugh me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, [8] He trusted in the LORD that He would deliver him; let Him deliver him, seeing he delights in Him. [9] But thou art he who took me out of the womb; thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breast. [10] I was cast upon thee from the womb; Thou art my God from my mother’s belly. [11] Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. [12] Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. [13] They gaped upon me with their mouths, like a ravening and a 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 me. [15] My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust of death. [16] For dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. [17] I may count all my bones; they look and stare upon me. [18] They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”

Now this is a vivid portrayal of what Christ suffered on our behalf. In fact, one may argue that you cannot find out how Christ suffered from the New Testament because in the New Testament it’s all dark, nobody sees. And therefore the only light that we have on the sufferings of Christ on the cross is right here, back in the Old Testament, ten centuries before.

Let’s look at verse 6, “But I am a worm, and a no man.” The “worm” here was a worm that was used for dying scarlet cloth in the ancient world. And they would be crushed, the eggs would be crushed, and then this would be used to dye the garments of the ancient world. And I am sure that God deliberately picked out the worm here, this particular worm, to be used as a picture or a type of Jesus Christ dying and His blood credited to our account, His atoning blood. I don’t think it’s an accident that just this particular worm, there are about four or five different kind of worms in the Bible, and this particular one just happens to be right in this context. So here we have a typology or an analogy between something in nature that we can all observe very easily, and something that’s happened in the spiritual realm.

But there’s more to it than just that. Tonight as we go through this lament I’m going to take you to parallel passages. Turn to Isaiah 49:7, we’ll see how this worm is used in idioms, and this is how you want to study your Bible; use the concordance and find out how a word is used in various other places to get a flavor for the word usage; don’t go by what a dictionary tells you. Go by how the word is used; usage determines meaning, not definition. “Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him who man despises, to him whom the nations abhor, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise, princes shall worship,” notice in verse 7 “to him whom man despises,” it’s the same phrase that’s going to be used just after this worm expression in Psalm 22, “I am a no man, and they have cast their reproaches on me,” this is the same kind of thing and Isaiah, writing after David, is developing it further. “His Holy One, to him whom men despise, to him whom the nation abhors,” obviously a prediction of Jesus Christ, 700 years before.

In Isaiah 50:6, again the innocent suffering servant, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” So here again you have this despising; you couldn’t have a more accurate picture of what is quickly presented in the Gospels. Then Isaiah 52:14, “As many were astounded at thee—his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—,” and again a description of Jesus Christ on the cross, the innocent suffering servant. Isaiah 53:3, again the same vocabulary is used in Psalm 22, “He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not,” a confession of a nation toward their Messiah. So we have this innocent suffering servant and these passages would substantiate this.

Now again, without denying the work of the Holy Spirit, if you study Isaiah carefully you’ll find that Isaiah was a fan of David. And Isaiah, in his personal devotional life, must have read these Psalms over and over again, because parts of Psalm 51 show up in Isaiah, and I believe that the word “despise” and so on, the picture of Messiah that Isaiah is drawing here is in part drawn from David’s Psalms. So you see, Isaiah knew what David was talking about.

Let’s go back to Psalm 22, “I am a worm, and a no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.” The word “despised of the people” simply means that he has become an object of scorn. [7] “All they who see me laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head,” and then in verse 8 we have a textual problem, but before we get to the textual problem you’ll notice in the King James it’s nicely filled in for you with the word “saying.” And “saying” is in italics because it isn’t there. Now let’s just pretend that it isn’t there for a moment and the translator hasn’t given you the clue, and you come reading down and you see where it says “they shoot out the lip, they shake the head,” then the next verse says “He trusted on the LORD,” and then the next verse, “For you are he…” what would key you that there’s something different about verse 8 than verse 7 and 9, so that you wouldn’t have to be tipped off by the translator? How would you know that verse 8 is what the people are saying. And don’t go by the italics, just by the evidence of the text, what’s in the text that you see there, can you tell why verse 8 would be a statement, without any help from the translator?

[someone says something] Okay, it’s a change of person, be watchful for these change of person, from the first person, second person, third person. If you’ve had a class in non-English recently and don’t know what first and second person and third person; the first person—I, me; second person—you; third person—he, she or it, them. Okay, everybody knows first, second and third person.

Now in verse 8 we have a problem and that is, “He trusted on the LORD,” now this is one of those little problems that shows you how translators get in a rut, because the Hebrew doesn’t say “He trusted in the LORD,” the Hebrew just says “trust in the LORD,” you all, you, trust in the Lord. It’s a singular imperative. And in the King James it would be “thee,” in other words a second singular, “you trust!” exclamation point, “you trust!” and the word “trust” here means to roll a rock upon something. It’s used in Psalm 37:5 and it’s a Hebrew word for trust. And the picture is you have this big rock which represents some pressure and some adversity in your life, and the idea of trusting in the Hebrew is you roll the rock over onto a support, until it’s put upon the support and the support holds it up. And the Hebrew’s got this idea for trusting, so when you have a trial in your life you roll it over on the Lord, and He’s the support. And that’s the Hebrew word to trust. It means to roll something upon the Lord and leave it there. Now usually what happens to us all in practice is we roll it there for two minutes, and then boy, I can handle that, and we’ll roll it back off and then here we are after it’s rolled back, and so finally we have to roll it back on Him and this goes back, yo-yo like for a while until we finally learn that He’s capable of holding the problem. So there’s the Hebrew verb to trust.

Now these people are saying it to him, and it’s sarcasm, trust the Lord, trust the Lord. And then it shouldn’t be “that he would deliver him,” “he will deliver him,” just the future tense. “Trust the LORD,” the word “trust the LORD” is addressed to the one who is suffering. You, You trust the Lord! And then with “he will deliver him,” it’s a shift in the person, they’re turning around and discussing it among themselves, the crowd and first the crowd turns and they say “Trust, trust Him, trust Him!” And then they turn around and say, oh, He’s going to deliver Him, “let Him deliver Him, seeing He delights in Him.”

How is verse 8 related to the trust section? You want to see this, it’s developed a tension in the Psalm. There’s a certain satanic razor edge to what the crowd is saying in verse 8, it’s a very, very cutting remark. Can any of you get the nuance of what verse 8 is doing and why verse 8 is a very, very… it’s motivated by hell, just to increase the pressure on Christ. [someone says something] Who are they really after here? They’re demeaning God’s character, do you catch that in verse 8; in other words it’s just not demeaning the person who’s doing the trusting, it’s demeaning the object of his trust. In other words what they’re saying is hey, big boy, you trusted in God all along, why don’t you trust Him now, it really got you places didn’t it? And that’s exactly what the crowd said to Jesus Christ, the man who perfectly trusted God. Now you stop and think of the pressure that he’s going through on this cross thing.

Turn to Matthew 27 where you can actually see it happen. “And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads.” Now that particular phrase, do you see where Matthew’s getting it; apparently as Matthew is describing the actions of the crowd the vocabulary of Psalm 22 just comes into his mind, and he describes the crowd in the very vocabulary of Psalm 22. So to Matthew’s mind there is no problem with Psalm 22; Matthew knows full well what Psalm 22 is talking about because he uses the very vocabulary of Psalm 22 to describe it.

And then look in Matthew 27:43, he’s quoting the Septuagint here in the first part of verse 43, “He trusted in God,” now that sounds like it agrees with the original text of Psalm 22 but it’s a quotation from the Septuagint, Matthew is describing basically what they’re saying. “Let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Again, the crowd is saying something to this effect and Matthew is describing what he hears of the crowd from his observations and study, people that were there, etc. Matthew is describing for us what the crowd was saying, and he’s using again the vocabulary of Psalm 22 to describe the crowd. So we identify Psalm 22 with the crowd; this is what’s happening.

But I want you to notice that all of the barbs, all of the barbs, look at one in verse 40, it’s as though Satan temporarily incarnates himself in the mouths of the people, and now he has Christ on the cross, now he ridicules him, “If you be the Son of God, come down from the cross,” let’s see a miracle, miracle worker. Do you see, it’s this tremendous sarcasm. And the reason why Jesus Christ is there and is becoming the object of all of this, if you visualize the pressure now, He has had perfect trust. The trouble with it is, He has perfect trouble. And the crowd sees it and they begin to ridicule it. Ha-ha-ha, see where trusting God gets you, and of course we know why because all during this time Christ is identifying Himself with your sins and mine, that’s why He’s doing it.

[someone says something] The question is whether you think in verse 42 and so on, if motivates the crowd, he’s caught on yet to what’s happening. I don’t know; if you read 1 Cor. 2 where this problem is discussed it sounds as though it wasn’t until it was all over when the results fully dawned on Satan’s mind what happened. [someone says something] Think of the pressure of you being able to do something and because of obedience to God you’re not doing something. And then add to it a whole bunch of people maligning, criticizing and pressuring you to do it. And laughing at you as though you don’t have the ability within you to do it and you know darn well you’ve got the ability to do it, but for the reason that you want to be obedient to the Lord you won’t do it at that moment. And this increases the pressure, you see. The pressure is tremendous on the humanity of Christ at this point; tremendous pressure and it’s absolutely unique. You see, in this case Jesus Christ couldn’t claim in the same sense we do, 1 Cor. 10:13, had it been available, the truth in 1 Cor. 10:13, that “no testing has taken you but such as is common to man,” here’s one that is not common to man. And Jesus Christ faced an uncommon testing. So if you think Christ had it easy in His humanity because He was God, you have a lot more meditation to do in Psalm 22 to straighten out your thinking.

Let’s go back to Psalm 22. Verses 9 and 10 are a description of why the crowd is doing what they’re doing. [tape turns] … because in verse 9 it should be “For Thou art He,” so verses 9-10 are an amplification of the reasons why the crowd says what they do in verse 8. And it’s the psalmist back again. Christ, the spirit of Christ, testifying through the psalmist is saying, “For You,” “Thou” refers to God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, “For you” God the Father “are He that took Me out of the womb,” and the point here is that God had something special to do with the birth of Christ. “You did make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts,” meaning that at an early age Jesus Christ was filled with the Spirit as John was in Luke 1:15, and to the extent of an infant, whether this was an exceptional case or he became God-conscious this early or not, it would seem to be that, the word “hope” is the word for “trust,” so whether Christ was God-conscious immediately as an infant or not we don’t know, but this would tend to suggest it was. However, we do have Luke 1:15 which is a case where John the Baptist, at the time of Physical birth, was minus God-consciousness but filled with the Spirit until he became God-conscious and he immediately became a believer at this point and was filled with the Holy Spirit so that he was filled with the spirit from the womb, even before he was God-conscious. And the Holy Spirit obviously had a role in his life. So if He could do that with John the Baptist obviously He could do it with Christ.

But the point about verse 9 is, that’s kind of interesting, and verse 10, is that usually when you have something like this about birth, usually, you have an emphasis on the father’s seed and the work of the mother’s womb. Now isn’t it interesting that when we get into this birth passage here the father is never mentioned, the human father, and obviously because of the virgin birth; only the mother is mentioned here. And the only Father is God, and He is “Thou,” and “You were the One that took Me out of the womb.”

Verse 10, “I was cast upon thee from the womb; Thou art my God from my mother’s body.” Now why are verses 9-10 important? Because of the testimony of Christ’s earthly life. His earthly life was a perfect trust all the way, verses 3-5 again. And because his life was such an obvious trust, even his enemies knew it, and that’s interesting. The crowd knew Christ trusted the Lord, they could observe it; His life was so visible that His enemies knew darned well what He was doing, and now they’re taking, so to speak, His very testimony and throwing it back in His face—it really got you some place, didn’t it. See.

Now verse 11 is a quick petition and the idea here is that although this is not a petition section, the main petition section being verses 19-21, this is one in here, kind of a weak petition because it just says “Be not far from Me.” It isn’t a petition for deliverance notice; the petition in verses 19-20 is an actual full petition for deliverance; in verse 11 it isn’t. “There is no one here as a helper,” verse 11, no one here as a helper, and of course this means He is totally abandoned, the believers weren’t even around when this happened, they all took off, typical loyalty. So this left the Lord with nobody there.

Now verse 12 he begins to describe his situation in more detail. “Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.” And there’s a series of animal illustrations. The bull is used in the ancient world because of his horns, to symbolize authority. In fact, if you stop and think of a crown, in the west we often think of a picture of a crown with these peaks on it, but what we fail to realize is that in the early days a crown was a leather thong in which there was horns from a bull, from these kind of animals. These bulls, by the way, are not the kind of bulls that we think of, this was just male animals in this broad category. The Hebrew is so general we cannot infer exactly what the fine species are, but we know from other passages that this is where they gained these horns, and they made crowns up in the ancient world by taking a leather thong, putting it around the head, and sewing these horns on with a cloth clasp around the leather, and that was the first kind of crown. So obviously then this animal is a picture of authority. So when he says “many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan,” the Bashan ranges were the best and richest ranges in the ancient world. The cattle business on the eastern side of Jordan was fantastic. This is why those two tribes wanted to stay over there and not go into the Promised Land.

So the idea in verse 12 is, using animals as types of power and authority. And of course, we operating from the New Testament back can visualize that he’s really saying in verse 12 the bulls are Satan and his hordes, they are the authorities, they are the rulers of the darkness of this world, and this is what Christ is complaining about. He’s not complaining just about the human crowd that’s around, he’s complaining about the hordes and hordes of Satan and his demon powers that are surrounding him at this point.

Verse 13, “They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.” Now obviously 1 Peter 5:8 uses this same imagery of Satan himself; Satan is pictured as the “roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” This being the case, obviously what they are is demon forces around the cross, and so here Christ is complaining about it, and this is where He feels there’s oppression. The roaring lion is a picture of Satan.

Verse 14, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of join: my heart is like was; it is melted within me.” Now verse 14 is a tremendously strong thing; it is so powerful that it appears that at this point Christ is as the point where He no longer has rationality in His mind. This is the idiom that is used in the Hebrew for such intense pain that the mind begins to go. In other words, the pain just usurps and you just experience constant pain and you just become almost delirious. And the idea here is that like was and melting, it has no rational structure any more; it’s phasing out. And this is the extent of the sufferings of Christ, both in body and in mind, for you and for me.

Verse 15, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws,” now at this point we have reference to John 19:28, so turn to the Gospel of John, this explains this little passage, what happened after He bore our sins. “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said ‘I thirst.’ [29] And there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it up on hyssop and put it to His mouth. [30] When Jesus, therefore had received the vinegar, He said “It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up the spirit.” By the way, this is one of the most phenomenal verses in all of God’s Word because verse 20 is a hapax legomenon, it means it only occurs once in the text, and nowhere ever does anyone ever give up their spirit. This is voluntary death; Jesus Christ chooses not only the place of death, He chooses the exact moment to die. He dismisses His spirit and He actually kills Himself at this point. So here Christ, then, is thirsty and that is the historical outworking of the content of Psalm 22.

Back to Psalm 22; I’m flipping back and forth because I want you to see the fulfillment. Verse 15, “…thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” And here we have what we call an inceptive imperfect, meaning that the Father has brought Christ just up, very close to the point of death. Christ, from the sixth hour to the ninth hour was under darkness; the darkness lasted three hours. Toward the end of that darkness, a short time before, He started quoting Psalm 22, while it was still dark, and this is why the heading of Psalm 22 says to be sung and chanted as the night sky gives way to the first light, the first predawn light. Because for hundreds and hundreds of years Psalm 22 was quoted by religious Jews at the time of day which would answer exactly to the time of cross when Christ Himself would quote it, because Christ quoted Psalm 22 just as that darkness was ending, and after the darkness He ended He said “I thirst,” and then He said “It is finished!” And then He died. And so death was only a matter of minutes away when He finished quoting this Psalm or the content of the Psalm. And this is why He says, “I am brought to the dust of death.” In other words, His death is very imminent, within minutes.

Verse 16, “For dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the habitually wicked have enclosed me,” and I cannot help but see a satanic illusion in that verse. Not only is it the congregation of the wicked people that surround Him, but He is surrounded by vast hordes of demon forces at this point. “…they pierced My hands and My feet.” This is a very difficult text, the Hebrew text is very hard here, apparently in the Hebrew this reads: as a lion something my hands and my feet, in some of the texts, but in others it says they pierced. We take “they pierced” because obviously it refers to the crucifixion of Christ. And the piercing of Messiah is also taught in Isaiah 53:5 and Zechariah 12:10. So the piercing is not only taught in this passage but two other passages.

Verse 17, “I tell [may count] all my bones; they look and star upon me. [18] They part my garments among them, and cast lots on my vesture.” Now this is most interesting because this led to a lot of this hocus pocus about a seamless robe, etc. and where it is and there’s about twenty pieces of it all over the place and this kind of stuff, but actually the word here is labush, the garment, and labush means underwear. It was the under garment that was used, and this means Jesus Christ was stripped completely naked on the cross, He didn’t have something around his waist like usually the artists picture. This verse teaches that He was completely naked on the cross. So this is the height of humiliation, and when you see the human race, the next time you cross some intellectual who thinks the human race is so good, you just think of what they did to the Son of God, what we did because we were there, but by the grace of God we’d have been there doing it too. So the shame, the height of the shame to which the Son of God was subjected is a dramatic revelation of the sinful, sorrowful character of our natures. When God did come into history to reveal Himself to man, this is what happened. And this is why when God comes again the second time He comes with a sword and with blood, because you cannot have God invading a domain of sinful humanity without one happening or the other.

[someone asks something] That was addressed to the people. I mean, he was asking forgiveness of the people, “forgive them for the know not what they do.” “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” His point was that the crowd never did understand exactly what was happening when this was all going on, and therefore it was a sin of ignorance. And this is most amazing, that Christ on the cross… now you stop and think of it, it’s very amazing, that this treatment that Christ got on the cross He completely excused as just the fact these people didn’t know what they doing. He didn’t hold this against them. The sins that Christ held against His generation were the sins in Matthew 12 and 13, when they heard His words and rejected; that He held against them. But this He did not. Now if that seems strange to you it’s because you still haven’t got your mentality lined up with the Word yet. But the interesting thing is that the one sin that He… it’s listed over and over, there was no forgiveness, was the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit for rejecting the illuminating work and rejecting His works. That was the sin. And yet here we have the Messiah beaten, stripped, and His hands and feet pierced, and that’s not an issue as far as God’s concerned.

[someone says something] The fifth cycle of discipline came upon Israel in 70 AD because they rejected first, the Messiah’s own claims about Himself, and then as Hebrews 2 says, “how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation,” and they had neglected those who bore witness to it, so both.

Beginning next week we’ll start with the petition section.