By: Dr. Dale Weckbacher
Text: Psalm
21-22
Isaiah
53:5
But
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for
our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
(NKJV)
It can be difficult to find
joy in our world with headlines filled with hatred and even horrific news.
Recently, there was a stabbing at a high school close to where I live, a high
school that I attended for a couple of years. The thought of a young person
committing such a heinous crime brings no joy and serves to challenge the
Church to have a sense of urgency in proclaiming salvation through Jesus
Christ. In Psalm
21-22, David praises God for His salvation and then gives us a prophetic
picture of the price paid for that salvation.
David found joy and
strength in the Lord and rejoiced because the Lord gave him his heart’s desires
and withheld no request (Psalm
21:1-2). David found his foundational stability in the Lord and, through
God’s mercy, refused to be moved (Psalm
21:3-7). David knew the hand of the Lord would find His enemies and those
hating the Lord (Psalm
21:8). The Lord will make His enemies like a fiery oven and swallow them up
in the fire of His wrath (Psalm
21:9). Even their offspring will be destroyed because they plotted evil that
they were unable to perform (Psalm
21:10-11). David knows the Lord will destroy His enemies and exalts the
strength of the Lord, singing His praises (Psalm
21:12-13).
In Psalm
22, David provides a prophetic picture of the price the Lord paid for our
salvation. The psalm begins with the same words uttered by Jesus from the
cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” The psalm continues with the
psalmist asking why God is so far from him and from the words of his groaning (Psalm
22:1). The psalmist cries out day and night but the Lord does not hear (Psalm
22:2). However, the psalmist still knows the Lord is holy and has not lost
his trust in the Lord, remembering the trust of the fathers of Israel (Psalm
22:3-5).
The psalmist is broken
and sees himself as a worm and a reproach of men who ridicule him and his trust
in God (Psalm
22:6-8). The psalmist reminds God that it was Him who took him from the
womb with God his God since birth, asking God not to be far from him now (Psalm
22:9-11). He then shares his wretched state with God, a condition not
unlike that suffered by Jesus on the cross (Psalm
22:12-18). He then asks the Lord to be near to him and to be his strength
to deliver and save him, acknowledging that the Lord has answered him (Psalm
22:19-21). Because the Lord has answered him, he will declare the Lord’s
name to his brethren and praise the Lord in the middle of the assembly (Psalm
22:22).
The psalmist calls on
those fearing the Lord to praise Him, for the descendants of Jacob, Israel, to
glorify the Lord, and for all Israel to fear the Lord, for the Lord has heard
the cries of the afflicted (Psalm
22:23-24). The psalmist’s praise shall be to the Lord in the great assembly,
with him paying his vows before those who fear the Lord. He knows the poor shall
eat and be satisfied with those who seek the Lord will praise Him (Psalm
22:25-26). All of the world shall turn to the Lord and praise Him (Psalm
22:27-29). What the Lord has done will be passed on to the next generation
so they will know what the Lord has done (Psalm
22:30-31).
There is joy in the
salvation of the Lord, with us exalted in the strength of the Lord. David could
find joy in the salvation of the Lord as he saw the Lord deliver him from the
many enemies that were against him. This is the theme of Psalm
21, with Psalm 22 providing a picture of the suffering Messiah on the
cross. Jesus said the first part of the psalm when on the cross (Matthew
27:46; Mark 15:34). Since people in the time of Christ did not have access
to the written word of God like we do today, they would memorize entire
portions of scripture, including this one. When they heard Jesus say these
words, they would have been able to recite the rest of the Psalm and could have
realized that the events foretold in this passage were unfolding right before
their eyes. We can also interpret this passage as David not talking about
himself since the pronouns are capitalized, an indication in scripture that the
person referred to is God. The passage does not end in sadness but says that
what the Lord has done will be told to the next generation, which includes each
of us (Psalm
22:30-31).
Jesus died on the cross
for the sins of anyone choosing to make Him their Lord and Savior (Romans
10:9-10). Jesus suffered a gruesome death on a cross that is recorded in Matthew
27:32-56. This account mirrors the imagery provided in Psalm
22, and why many believe this psalm is a prophecy of the Messiah suffering
for the sins of humanity. The mission of the Church is quite simple: to take
the message of God coming to us in the person of Jesus and dying for our sins,
with eternal life possible for those who believe (John
3:16; Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:19-20). Unfortunately, many churches today
have strayed from their God given mission, with us having three types of
churches today,
- The
trembling Church that is afraid to talk about the need for the Savior to
forgive their sins, afraid of offending someone by mentioning they are
sinners (Romans 3:23)
- The
traitor Church that has turned into a social club or a political
organization standing for social justice, usually supporting a woke
culture.
- Truth
Churches or Churches remaining true to teaching the Word of God and
carrying on the mission of the Church given to it by Jesus.
We need more truth
Churches today who are not afraid to preach the truth of God’s word and remain
true to its teachings and the mission of the Church. If you are reading this
and have never prayed to make Jesus your personal savior or have drifted away from
the Lord, I invite you to pray with me now.
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans
3:23)
and know that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans
6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my sin and cleanse
me as you promise in your Word (1
John 1:9). I believe
you died, spent three days in the grave, and resurrected from the dead and now
declare you Lord of my life.
May God convict,
challenge, and encourage everyone reading this post.
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