PSALM 22 CRUCIFIXION DETAILS OF OUR LORD

Some infinitely valuable holy scriptures bolster our faith: such as this passage.

   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 was severed when the Father forsook Him, (v1).   The more sensitive a person the deeper their distress at the brush with evil.
Summarising the entire psalm: possibly for His solace, the Lord quietly repeated this entire psalm during his vicarious sacrifice; our Lord also added eternal glory to those who would be born again.  God's spirit always hides and gently unveils more truth than our limited understanding can grasp. Many of these truths surfaced after loving this Psalm for a lifetime.

We need, like Paul, to escape to our Arabia for three years.
Matthew and Luke record the Lord uttering these words while hanging on Calvary's cross.'about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ( taxing His strength to its limit )  "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46.  The prophetic and actual words were in Aramaic.
Luke includes this when he wrote, 'All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the Prophets and the psalms concerning Me.' 24:44.
The Son of man addresses the eternal Father with such tenderness as 'My God, My God' revealing the intimate oneness with Father and Son.  Behind the truth of 'forsaken' is the sense of being abandoned, forsaken and destitute.  And HE, God's precious Son, Our Sin devastates.
The psalmist queried legitimately, 'Why have you forsaken me?'   In a microscopic sense David's abandonment is shown.   Infinitely greater is the the Father relinquishing the dear Lord.   The Prophet Samuel at Saul's coronation said, 'The Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people.'

1 Samuel 12:22.  As the Son of God hung on Calvary, he recalled this truth, that the Lord would safeguard His redeemed people, but His beloved Son must be offered as a sacrifice for them.    Did the devil pressure and taunt the Son of God.?  How Intense!   The Hebrews writer recorded,  'He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you, nor forsake you.'  So we may boldly say, 'The Lord is my Helper. I will not fear, what can man do to Me.' 13;5.  Is Christ's crucifixion the only exception to the eternal God's never-failing support to his children: and is His well-beloved Son the only exception?
Yes, because He was bearing our sin alone in His own body on the tree.  In His redemptive role, Christ could not be an exception.  Kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane,the Saviour wrestled with the Father, concerning draining the cup of suffering and sin-bearing. Heaven responded, sending angelic support for the Son of God, reinforcing His progression to climactic Calvary.   This angel consolidated Him during the draining, blood-stained sweating that our Lord endured.   In sweet communion, heaven heard Him, and understandingly sent help.

'He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed; saying, 'Father, if it be your will, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not My will, but your will be done.'  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven strengthening Him. And being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.' Luke 22:44 My patient needed blood replacement after blood issued from every pore of her skin, an acute toxic reaction.   No relief came to our Lord as he hung on those beams at Golgotha.   Alone, deserted, abandoned, destituted, disowned - My sin-bearer, Whom I adore.

  The Son of God taught us how to pray: during His humanity; He prayed, imploring and beseeching: He prayed powerfully , fervently, and wept unashamedly; His godly reverence ensured the hearing of His prayers; even though he was the Son of God, he learned obedience through the things He suffered. WE must be taught to pray. We must hear the heart throb and see the tears of those praying. The Lord Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John for fellowship,  yes also that they may hear Him pray.   Unforgettable memory, hearing the dear Lord Jesus communing with His Father in heaven.   We need to learn to pray.   So there can be no silent prayer meeting.  'When you pray, Say".... ‘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, reconciling the world unto Himself’even in the solar eclipse from midday until mid-afternoon.   This staggering prophecy of miraculous total darkness from noon until mid afternoon proves God's foreknowledge.  James wrote, 'A thousand years is with the Lord as a day.'

Prayer intensified during these crucifixion hours.  Verse 2 tells us'To cry unto You night and day'.  No relief came, for crises draw us closer to the Lord, and strip unreality from us.   Did Paul recall this psalm when he wrote his second letter to Timothy  'I thank God Whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing.I remember you in my prayers night and day.'?     God often spoke of continuous, agonising prayer, even as Calvary ravaged our Lord.   The world cannot understand ongoing spiritual struggle.  1:3 'You are holy,enthroned in the praises of Israel'.  An extraordinary word for the suffering Lord to quote from Calvary. Isaiah's insight in his 6th chapter reads, 'I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train ( His unsurpassed glory) filled the temple. Heugel shows that He reigns from the cross' or as his title states, 'The cross of Christ is the throne of God.'   The secret of Calvary is revealed in the 'enthronement'of the Messiah or His being crowned in our hearts.   After studying this psalm over a life-time, I bless the Lord for magnificent truths the Lord has released.   It is His unique unfolding.

The ranting crowd taunted the sensitive Lord, on God's faithfulness to previous generations, while bypassing Him who rightly claimed to be the Son of God. Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt, so that the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.'Exodus 14:31   This summary of 1600 years reminded them of the Lord's delivering power. Possibly the Jewish leaders argued this in their coarse, derisive mockery at the cross.    However, let these claims powerfully support our faith in Him.   Did they refer to Abraham in their outburst? 'Our fathers trusted in you, and You delivered them.'v4'   He did not consider his own body already dead, (since he was one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah's womb, ( 90 years).' Romans 4:20    God commended him.   He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.  And being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.'   Such callous reminders intensely aggravated our dear Lord's suffering.

Abraham relied on the living God, His obedience qualifying him for a rich inheritance, as he followed traditional, God-fearing leaders in the Old Testament.   Scripture records ,'By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to the place which he would afterwards receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.' Hebrews 11:8    Our Lord said, 'Before Abraham was ,'I AM', yet His cherished Father had abandoned Him on the cross.

In that same chapter,we read, 'By faith, he forsook Egypt , not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest He who destroyed the first-born should touch them, by faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians attempting to do so, were drowned.' 11:27-29

As our dear Lord hung on Calvary, as omniscient, He recalled these events: redemptively, He was our Passover, slain for us; in His omnipotence he dried the Red Sea; judicially, His solemn judgment swept every pursuing Egyptian into hellish eternity.  For Him, our Saviour and Lord, there was no possible relief! ‘Our fathers trusted in You and You delivered them'.( v4 ) Our transcendent Lord justified the trust of His children over many centuries.

The word of God respects His saints, yet the religious hierarchy dishonored the Christ of God while the Sadducees sneered at Him, shaming, degrading, disgracing Him. We understand this was all part of  the price of  'Being made sin for us.' He paid the price in full. The Scripture says, 'Whoso believes on Him will not be put to shame. Whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.' Romans 10:11

Peter affirms this truth in his first letter, 'It is contained in the Scriptures,'Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious' and additional comfort,' he who believes in Him will by no means be put to shame.' 2:6   The Father shields His children from shame with
its disgrace and embarrassment, yet His beloved Son was humiliated hanging naked, deserted, abandoned, friendless on the cursed tree. Oh, how He loved you and me!
'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?   Alone, He carried the entire Weight of our sin!

Job's sympathiser challenged that a man can be righteous, 25:6, contrasting man with a maggot and a son of man as a worm.  Job's friend dehumanised man, reducing him to an invertebrate worm.

Christ confounds us crying 'I am a worm and no man.' In His infinite suffering on the cross,He is regarded as less than human, 'bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood'.

‘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 to be crushed under foot.
Mark this: it is the humblest, meanest view of His fragrant life recorded in Scripture.
Our Lord created all things, yet in His degradation released us from our guilt: and then made us to be kings and priests unto God . Isaiah described Jacob as a worm, yet links him with the men of israel ; progressing to the Lord's offered assistance, 'I will help you, says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of israel.' 41:14
'I Am a worm' is one of the great 'I am's, which is priceless truth, yet seldom conceded.
Psalm 69 portrays the Lord's appalling afliction at Calvary,so we anticipate a link with Psalm 22.
'Do not hide your face from your servant,for I am in trouble. Hear me speedily. Drew near to my soul and redeem it.  Deliver me because of my enemies. You know my reproach, my shame and dishonour.

My adversaries are all before you. Reproach has broken my heart. ( How can we remain unmoved with such truth?) 'I am full of heaviness, Reproach had broken my heart'. vv17-20
The psalmist wrote, " I am a reproach of men and despised of the people.' v 6

After the crowd clamoured for Barabbas' release, Pilate turned to the mob, the mutitude, empowered by chief priests, urged on by elders. Pilate solicited their response, 'What shall I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ; the Anointed One, the Prophet, Priest and King.; Devilishly, they chorussed, 'let Him be crucifed.' The most hideous chorus man has sung. Matthew 27: 22

It is probable that the lord of glory recalled every word of this memorable psalm as he hung alone between heaven and earth- our mediator. Yes, our beloved Lord. We meditate on this in this secure environmwent, while He endured satan's furious shafts- and the Father's judgment on our own sin.   Religious rancour controlled many who opposed our gracious Redeemer, attributing to Him
diabolic activity.  The Jews condemned our Lord Jesus with 'You are a Samaritan and have a demon' in the same chapter where our Lord claimed. 'Before Abraham was, I Am.' ( John 8:58)

Governor Pilate's soldiers wound prickly branches into a coronet for the King of glory.
They twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and a reed ( a mock sceptre ) in His right hand.   Furthermore, 'They bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying 'Hail, King of the Jews.' Matthew 27:2   Razor-like spikes punctured their hands.  Insults grieved our precious Lord more than botanical thorns.  If mockery be hard for us to endure,  how much more when the eternal One is trifled. Psalm 22 tells 'All those who see me ridicule me' v7

After Christ's ultra-generous forgiveness, 'Father, for give them for they do not know what they do,'the rulers sneered,'He saved others, let Him save Himself. if he be the Christ, the chosen of God.'The soldiers rubbed salt into His wounds, mocking Him, and offering Him sour wine'. ( vinegar)
‘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 denied Him a dramatic rescue from turbulent, religious hatred.
Psalm 139 speaks of the Creator forming David's inward parts( detailed anatomy ) ; You covered him in his mother's womb. Determined, he affirmed, 'I will praise you , for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Indeed, mavellous are all your works.' As the Creator Redeemer hung on the cross, these truths flooded His mind.  He was the only absolute One, sinless, holy, flawless, marred beyond recognition as our sinbearer.

The wonder of Christ’s Incarnation unravelled as ‘You took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust when I was on my mother’s breasts.’(v10)  The Son of man underwent the nine months of intra-uterine development, followed by the usual stages of vaginal delivery which every babe must traverse.   His umbilical cord would be cut; the placenta disposed of.    As a Human being, Mary His mother nursed Him, naturally sustained from her breast milk, and tenderly comforted Him.   If our dear Lord quoted this while hanging on the cross, He would have gazed tenderly at His mother, Mary, broken-hearted at the foot of the wooden beams. Captivating Mystery of His Deity and perfect manhood!

‘Trouble is near, for there is none to help,’(v11) for even His disciples forsook Him and ran.   Mary and other godly women remained with Him at the foot of the cross, while John supported her. The holy Father and depraved, sin-ridden man abandoned the dear Son for diverse reasons: His holiness and their degeneracy.
‘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 ‘, which links with 1 Peter 5:7, where 'Your enemy goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.' Satan judged the Lord on the cross as his ultimate triumph, whereas our Lord vanquished eternally the enemy in dying for us.

Our Lord Jesus thirsted, was dehydrated following His four false trials, the whipping with shock and blood loss, the spiritual ,emotional and physical trauma. No one tenderly quenched such thirst with a glass of water. Medically, replacement of fluids is priority.
This loss of fluid was fulfilled when he cried 'I thirst.' ‘I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint.’(v14 )
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, each 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’, prefigured Christ our Creator speaking of His mortality, (that is, He was able to die ).

‘The assembly of the wicked has enclosed Me.’ (v16). In our hours of infirmity, We long to be comforted with tender, sympathetic, loving friends. Not so with our dear Saviour. The wicked Jewish leaders, barbaric Roman authorities, unfeeling, 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, as in this psalm. Hundreds of years later, Zechariah foretold, 'I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication, then thy will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for His only Son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a first-born'. Zechariah 12:10.   A millenium later, He literally underwent this invasive piercing. The Lord Jesus telescoped these truths, released over a thousand years to comfort Him as he endured the eternal anguish, compressed into the hours on the cross. Thomas demanded that he see the print ( exclusive stigma ) of the nails before he would believe.   The risen Lord, present but hidden from their vision, had heard the unbelieving Thomas.

I can count all my bones ( that is total or pan-dislocation ) They look and stare at Me.  A single dislocation is distressingly painful. Much more the dislocation of every joint in our dear Lord's body. Grotesque and gruesome. Our heavenly Father restrained any fracture despite every joint disarticulated, 'for not a bone of His body was broken'.    Let's regain the wonder of miracles.

They divide My garments among them. For My clothing they cast lots. ( v18) Roman soldiers were ignorant of this prediction, and would care less if they had known.  Herod mocked the Son of God garbing Him with a tattered purple robe, mockingly attributed to His royalty.  Herod did not know when he stripped Him of his sham royal purple and restored His personal clothing, that this change would permit this amazing prophetic fulfilment. 'My garments and My clothing'. These details are treasures of God's Word. At Calvary, the soldiers tore the outer clothing of God's Son ito four parts, an executioner's reward. When they found the inner vesture was woven in one piece, they gambled for it.   God's detailed foreknowledge of an apparently trivial event one thousand years later proves the inexplicable accuracy of God's holy Word. Respond, by telling your Lord so.

Opposition was expressed in the sword (v20), for many died for their Lord. 'The precious One tells how exclusive is the Lord Jesus as the Only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.   No one person can substitute for every believer except our beloved 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’, courageousy 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 the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and loved not their lives unto the death’, and thus would suffer for Him.

In David's 40th psalm, he wrote, 'I have proclaimed the good news of righteousnesss to the great congregation,; Indeed I do not refrain my lips, O Lord you know why.' v9

Saints of God are committed to tell of His compassion and grace. it is spiritually appropriate to share the beauties of our great salvation with those who are not so privileged; unbecoming to withhold the great news.
Each grandparent knows the compulsion to let our grandchildren know of His great salvation.
Psalm 71:18 Succeeding offspring may lose the burning conviction of preceding generations.
Where God has richly blessed both at home and overseas. Second generation believers may lose the fire of pioneering older saints. Thank God that is not general- but the danger exists.

I was recently invited to teach God's Word to a church, where a grandson preceded me. Inducement!
‘I will declare My Name to My brethren. In the midst of the congregation I will praise you’ ( v22) Evangelistic truths filled our Lord even as he hung in torturous distess.
Our Lord's Calvary work was not only for our salvation from sin but also to bring many sons to glory; to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.' This was possible only 'For both he who sanctifies ( our beloved suffering Lord ) and they who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.' Hebrews 2: 10

Let us never limit the range of redemptive work, which our Lord accomplished on the cross.
Heugel reminds me often, 'The cross of Christ is the throne of God.'

The risen Lord entered the room, despite locked doors and firmly-barred windows. He assented and affirmed His Deity, when Thomas replied, ‘My Lord. My God.’ How long since you did that?

‘He has not hidden His face from Him, but when He cried to Him He heard’.(v24 ) After Stephen's brutal stoning, the glorified Lord rising from the right hand of the Father’s throne embraced Stephen. Christ glorified the first recorded martyr.  Stephen faithfully preached Christ from Old TEstament scriptures to the religious rulers, their opposition mounting and their rage exploding. Acts 7

The King of glory warmly and tenderly spoke of  'His brethren' in Matthew 25:40. 'The King will answer, Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' How much more when He sacrices Himself for those same dear relatives.

David recorded this psalm through God's Spirit ; and probably the Son of God repeated or recalled these invaluable truths while enduring the burden of our sin. 'I will declare My Name to My brethren, in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.' v 22 The distress of the cross was not a vacuum for our dear Lord, for he lived an eternity in the limited hours from 9am to 3 pm, when he cried. 'it is finished. into your hands I commend My spirit.' This special relationship expressed itself again when the risen Lord said, 'Do not be afraid. 'Go and tell My brethren that they go to Galilee, and there they shall see me.' Matt 28:10

The meeting of the risen Lord with Mary Magdalene is an exciting experience in the bible. Again He referred to His brethren, or kinsfolk, expectantly. This major outcome of His infinite sufferings counter-balanced the crushing weight of our sins. 'For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross'. The Lord Jesus welcomes us into his multi-national company as My brethren, a oneness infinitely superior to any human unified nation.

Hear our triumphant Lord, 'Do not cling to Me for I have not yet ascended to My Father ; but go to My brethren, and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father; and to your God and My God.'  Mary related all this conversation ( the family of God was forged at Calvary ) to the disciples.

The family of God recurs in Romans 8 reading, 'For whom he foreknew , these he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren,' v29    While offering His perfect body and undefiled blood on the shameful cross,the Son of God envisaged His vast family, to be shaped according to His own image.' Oh, the miracle of the cross.
‘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’, for our Lord had finally commanded them to ‘Go into all the world and 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 (50% trust in the dear Lord) and North West India ( Manipur records 80-90% are in Christ) have high incidence of twice-born believers. The underground church in communist China has an estimated 100 million believers. For this heavenly miracle, We bless the Lord.

‘He has done this ‘ or ‘It is finished ‘( asah is exclusively reserved for the Lord's magnificent creative and moulding work in creation and new creation) 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 realised and prophecies fulfilled.   Exact bible prophecy stimulates our faith in the Lord.   Two of seven sayings of Christ from the cross one thousand years later originated in this amazing Psalm.  David the writer only partially understood, as the Holy Spirit spoke of the Son’s sufferings when He directed David.   As Christ endured those horrifying hours on Calvary. He fully understood! 'A people who shall be born' refers to travail from child birth; that is, being born again.  I confess this psalm is a seed pot of eternal truth.  Did Christ refer to this prophecy when He discusses new birth with Nicodemus, who helped carry our Lord's body to the tomb.  Ensure that you Are born again?

Richard Wurmbrand wove the story of Christ on the walls of his solitary confinement cell in Communist-dominated Romania. Robbed of personal contact, Wurmbrand prepared a bible study for his preservation and personal enrichment, morse-coding it on the walls of his cell every day for several years. On his release, his spirit and intellect intact in Christ, he met a fellow believer who had received his morse-coded messages and had welcomed the King of Kings into his life.   In Appolo sporting stadium, He told the story of the power of the gospel and the purifying Christ had brought to him in those years of lonely internment. Our beloved Lord accomplished a great salvation on the cross, which He perfected in the life of Richard Wurmbrand and longs to instil in you. Unforgettably, the love offering for saints under persecution included golden rings, watches and ornaments. All heaven cheered our Lord in His Calvary victory.

God went to such pains to record this valuable record of our 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 from sin and supreme Lord of your life . 'These things are written that you may believe, And be saved'.            HDS