Seeds for 03/27/2024 - Psalm 22:12-21
Scripture:
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
Observation: Yet again, we find verses in this psalm that we encounter in the crucifixion narratives of the Gospels, whether by direct quotation or clear allusion.
Certainly the religious leaders plotting Jesus’ destruction and their Roman collaborators are like the “many bulls” and “roaring lions” of the psalmists’ concern in verses twelve and thirteen.
Verse fifteen is not quoted exactly, but when we read the stories closely, we can connect the references to Jesus’ thirst with that lament.
My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
Verse eighteen is explicitly quoted in John 19:23-24 to explain the soldiers’ actions.
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
Inasmuch as we are invited to pray this psalm as our own and not only see in it the unfolding hours of Jesus’ death on the cross, we come again and again to a recurring rhythm. The psalmist models for us honesty regarding adversity and affliction paired with trusting pleas for aid: “do not be far from me,” “come quickly to help me,” “deliver me,” “rescue me,” “save me.”
In Jesus’ case, His Father’s help was on the other side of death. There was a redemptive purpose to His suffering, so rescue was not from His cross, but through it. Resurrection can only come to those who have died. Jesus went first, making resurrection available to all who die to self and entrust themselves to Him.
In fact, Christians defiantly hold to the belief that no matter what evil we may endure in this life, Jesus fulfills the psalmist’s prayer, “But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me.”
He is not far from us. Through the cross, He has joined us in suffering. Whether we are delivered from or delivered through what we are facing, He is with us. We are not alone.
For Christians, we need not avoid frank talk of trials and hardships in our prayers to God. We pray alongside the One who came alongside us.
Application:
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for enduring the brutality of the cross. May I trust in your abiding presence no matter the trial I face. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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