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| Beliefs - Bible Studies The Suffering Savior - 22nd Psalm |
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In many ways this is the most amazing of all the psalms. In it we have a picture of
the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, painted by David the Psalmist
one thousand years before Jesus Christ was born. It constitutes one of the most
amazing predictions of all time. At least nine specific events or aspects of the
crucifixion are described here in minute detail.
All of them were fulfilled during the six hours in which Jesus hung upon the
cross, from nine o'clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon.
Moreover, the latter part of the psalm clearly depicts the resurrection of Jesus
from the dead.
The probability that the predictions of these nine events would be fulfilled by
chance in one person, on one afternoon, is inconceivably small. The chance
that all this could occur by accident is beyond any realm of possibility our minds
could imagine. Yet all was fulfilled as predicted in this amazing psalm.
All the world knows that on November 22, 1963, President John Kennedy was
assassinated in Dallas, Texas, while riding down a Dallas street in a motorcar.
Suppose there had been in existence a document which predicted this event
and which we knew to have been written in A.D. 963. Suppose that a document
had been prepared in that ancient day which predicted that a time would come
when a man of great prominence, head of a great nation, would be riding down
a street of a large city in a metal chariot not drawn by horses, and would
suddenly and violently die from the penetration of his brain by a little piece of
metal hurled from a weapon made of wood and iron, aimed at him from the
window of a tall building, and that his death would have world-wide effect and
cause world-wide mourning.
You can imagine with what awe such a document would be held today.
Such a prediction would be similar to what we have in Psalm 22.
That hypothetical prediction would have been made even before the invention of
the motorcar, or of firearms, and five hundred years before the discovery of
America.
It would be regarded as fantastically accurate. Yet we have that very sort of
thing in this psalm. The psalm has two major divisions. The first twenty-one
verses recount for us the sufferings of an unknown sufferer who is all alone and
is crying out unto God in his agony.
Many scholars assert that these first twenty-one verses represent the thoughts
which went through the mind of the Savior as he hung upon the cross, the full
range of his thoughts as he was suffering there.
From verse twenty-two to the end the sufferer is no longer alone but is in the
midst of a large company and is praising God and shouting in victory.
It ends with his claiming the worship of the entire world.
Lets read it through, making certain observations.
It is so clear, so unmistakable, that it hardly requires comment.
It starts, very strikingly, with the words Jesus uttered on the cross:
22:1": My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
and the Psalmist goes on to add,
22:1": ...................why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my
roaring?
22:2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night
season, and am not silent.
These opening words have been called "the cry of dereliction," i.e., the cry of
abandonment as the sufferer becomes aware that he is forsaken by his God.
As we know from the New Testament, Jesus uttered these words at the end of a
strange period of darkness which settled upon the land.
For the first three hours as he hung upon the cross the sun shone brightly and
there was normal daylight. But at high noon a strange and disquieting darkness
settled upon the whole land around Jerusalem. No one has ever been able to
explain it. It lasted for three hours.
It was not an eclipse of the sun, because eclipses do not last that long.
Notice how the Psalm reflects this. It says that the sufferer cries out in the day
and in the night -- in the light and in the dark -- but still God does not answer.
So here we have the strange mystery of the abandonment of the Son of God --
what some have called "Immanuel's orphaned cry" --
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Jesus actually spoke these
words in Aramaic. Because he cried out with a loud voice, passersby
misunderstood him. He said, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?
When the bystanders heard the words, "Eloi, Eloi," they thought he was crying
for Elijah. But he was calling out for God, from the depths of his being, because
of his sense of abandonment.
The strangeness of that rejection by God is highlighted for us by his stated
awareness of the faithful character of God:
22:3": But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
22:4": Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
22:5": They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were
not confounded.
He is remembering the history of men of faith in the past, and the fact that a
faithful God never abandoned one of them. Even though they were sinful men,
God saved them when they cried out to him.
"But," he says, "I am a worm, and no man."
For some strange reason God is treating him differently. Even the spectators
reflect that difference of treatment:
22:6": But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the
people.
22:7": All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake
the head saying,
He is treated like a despised and hated criminal, as though he had lost his right
to live in human society.
Matthew records for us the fact that the crowd actually used these very words.
The unthinking multitude passing by, looking at the sufferer on the cross, said,
"He trusts in God; let God deliver him now," (Matt 27:43a ). What an amazing
prediction this is! The very words of a multitude which could not have been
controlled,
This multitude had no intention of fulfilling prophecy, Yet this event is clearly
foretold. We are faced with the strange mystery of why the Son of God was
abandoned by his Father.
He goes on to press the point himself. He shows us that there are no grounds
for abandonment in himself:
22:9": But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope
when I was upon my mother's breasts.
22:10": I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's
belly.
22:11": Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
How utterly forsaken he is! His friends have rejected him and fled.
His disciples and family have left him alone; all have gone. Only God is left and
now he senses that God himself is forsaking him. He knows no explanation for
this.
He says that from the very moment of his birth he was in fellowship with God. He
was always the delight of God's heart, kept by his Father right from birth.
And, you recall from the New Testament, as he began his public ministry the
Father spoke from heaven and put his seal of approval upon his life, saying,
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," {Matt 3:17b, cf, Mark 1:11}.
There is absolutely nothing in himself to merit abandonment, and yet here he is,
forsaken.
In his human weakness he does not even understand it, and so he cries out this
strange cry of dereliction,
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Now we know, of course, that it was because he was being made an offering for
the sins of the world. All the ugliness and meanness and defilement and filth of
our sin was laid upon him.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are
healed. {Isa 53:5}
This Psalm now goes on to describe the scene from the cross:
22:12": Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me
round.
22:13": They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
In the beautiful method of the Old Testament poets he uses these figures to
describe the onlookers. Like bulls, powerful, un-opposable, they seem to be
strong.
Remember what Jesus said to his enemies at that very time, "... But this is your
hour, and the power of darkness," (Luke 22:53b ).
They seemed to be irresistible, like great, powerful bulls.
Then he changes the figure and says they are like lions, fierce, ravening,
threatening, their fangs dripping with anxiety to be at him and tear him apart.
He is surrounded by his enemies. Then he describes his own reaction:
22:14": I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is
like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
22:15": My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my
jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
What a description of the exhaustion of the cross! Having hung there for five to
six hours, his body suspended by the nails in his hands and feet, his bones are
pulled out of joint. There is an awful sense of weariness and fatigue.
His heart feels like melted wax within him. And he is gripped by a terrible,
terrible, ravaging thirst. His body, dehydrated in the hot sun of that spring day, is
gripped now by awful thirst.
He cries out from the cross, "I thirst," {John 19:28b}.
Then we have a most amazing and unmistakable description of death by
crucifixion, written at a time when crucifixion was simply unknown.
This was set down when no one, so far as history tells us, put anyone to death
by crucifixion. Certainly the Jews did not, for their method of execution was to
stone someone to death.
But here is One who clearly describes his own crucifixion:
22:16": For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have
inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
22:17": I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
22:18": They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
It is absolutely impossible to explain that verse on any natural basis.
It is clearly a God-given picture of the crucifixion. The Psalmist says that he is
surrounded by "dogs". This was the common Jewish term for Gentiles, and
especially for the Romans.
Roman executioners are all around the cross here. He decries the fact that he
is surrounded by these alien people. They have stripped him; he is naked.
He can see all his bones and, worse yet, he can feel them. And the crowning
indignity is that at the foot of the cross they are actually casting lots for his
garments.
The calloused, hardened Roman soldiers were trying to divide the spoil of his
clothing {Matt 27:35, Luke 23:34, John 19:34}.
Because they did not want to rip his seamless robe apart, they cast lots for it.
Here is another event that is impossible that these Roman soldiers could have
fulfilled this prophecy by collusion.
Yet here it is, clearly described 1000 years before, so that Jesus' death by
crucifixion is unquestionably in view.
Now we get the final prayer of this sufferer:
22:19": But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help
me.
22:20": Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
22:21": Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of
the unicorns.
The "sword" would be a symbol for the authority of the Roman government.
The "mouth of the lion" would be the picture of the invisible powers, the satanic
forces. In the figure of the "horns of the wild oxen" it is as though he were
impaled upon two great, widespread horns, and he is crying out now in final
extremity for help from God.
And you recall, this is exactly what the Savior did in his last words as he hung
upon the cross. He cried out, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"
{Luke 23:46b }.
"If anyone is going to save me, it has to be you, Father. If anyone is going to lift
me out of the dust of death, raise me up again, it will be you. I trust myself to
you". And so, in this closing prayer we have reflected his commitment at last to
the hands of the Father.
This is an amazing Psalm
Now as we look at Verse 22 it shows a clear change.
Without a word of explanation the same speaker goes on and says,
22:22": I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee.
Well, what is this? Here, unquestionably, is the resurrection.
The same one who has just suffered and died is now in the midst of a company
whom he calls his brethren.
The writer of Hebrews picks up this theme. In chapter two he applies these very
words to Jesus. He says that it was the will and purpose of God the Father to
bring many sons to glory, and that it was fitting that he should make the captain
of their salvation perfect through suffering. And, he continues,
11.) for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
12) saying, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church
will I sing praise unto thee. {Heb 2:11b-12}
What a wonderful picture of the result of the resurrection -- the calling out of the
people of God who are one with him and share his life, and who are joint heirs
with Christ, members, like him, of the family of God. And so he says to them,
22:23": Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him;
and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
Why? Because this is the One who has answered the prayer of a dead man and
raised him from the dead.
The resurrection is the ground of Christian worship, he says,
22:24": For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
Again, the writer of Hebrews says to us, at the end of his letter,
20.) now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
21.) make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which
is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and
ever, amen.
{Heb 13:20-21a }
This is what constitutes the ground of praise for all Christians: we have a living
Lord who has been raised from the dead and whose life is now shared with us
so that his life is ours, and ours belongs to him.
He goes on to tell us just that:
22:25": My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows
before them that fear him.
What is that saying,
That is saying , "I will fulfill my word to them. I will do for them what I have
promised to do." What is that?
22:26": The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that
seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
Is that not great? His promise is that, out of the resurrected power which he
holds, he will give us everything we need. So we will satisfied.
According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue. {2 Pet 1:3 RSV}
There is not one thing more that we need than what already has been made
available.
Thus it is true, as Hebrews 7:25 tells us, that,
"wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."
The next verse goes on to trace out the effect of this power, as it moves out
across the face of the whole earth.
22:27": All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and
all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
22:28": For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the
nations.
It is the fulfillment of Jesus' great commission that his Gospel shall be preached
to all nations. And out of every tribe and nation shall come those who respond,
who fear him, because God is the ruler of all and he will see to it that his
message reaches all men.
We are living in the very days when men from every tribe and nation are coming
to Christ. The final picture encompasses the utter subjection to him of all
peoples and all creatures everywhere in the universe:
22:29": All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go
down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
22:30": A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a
generation.
22:31": They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that
shall be born, that he hath done this.
Those last words are amazing! In the Hebrew the last phrase “that he hath done
this” is literally, "It is finished." So what is really said here is that "there shall be
proclaimed deliverance to a people yet unborn, that it is finished."
It is striking that this psalm both opens and closes with a word of Jesus from the
cross.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46, Mark 15:34) . And,
as he cried with a loud voice just before he died, "It is finished!" {John 19:30}. All
is done. There is nothing left to do.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
Is that not tremendous? What a psalm! What an anticipation, and what a
fulfillment, of this amazing event!
we can only bow in worship and adoration of a God who plans like this, and who
carries through his plans against all the opposition of men and devils, who fulfills
in history what he has predicted long before and brings to pass all his words.
And us, who have been made the recipients of this amazing work of grace, who
have profited by the death and the resurrection life of the Son of God, We need
to be praising and giving thanks to Him out of the fullness of gratitude in our
hearts for all that has been given to us
- Roy Patterson
Excerpts from
Ray Stedman
the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, painted by David the Psalmist
one thousand years before Jesus Christ was born. It constitutes one of the most
amazing predictions of all time. At least nine specific events or aspects of the
crucifixion are described here in minute detail.
All of them were fulfilled during the six hours in which Jesus hung upon the
cross, from nine o'clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon.
Moreover, the latter part of the psalm clearly depicts the resurrection of Jesus
from the dead.
The probability that the predictions of these nine events would be fulfilled by
chance in one person, on one afternoon, is inconceivably small. The chance
that all this could occur by accident is beyond any realm of possibility our minds
could imagine. Yet all was fulfilled as predicted in this amazing psalm.
All the world knows that on November 22, 1963, President John Kennedy was
assassinated in Dallas, Texas, while riding down a Dallas street in a motorcar.
Suppose there had been in existence a document which predicted this event
and which we knew to have been written in A.D. 963. Suppose that a document
had been prepared in that ancient day which predicted that a time would come
when a man of great prominence, head of a great nation, would be riding down
a street of a large city in a metal chariot not drawn by horses, and would
suddenly and violently die from the penetration of his brain by a little piece of
metal hurled from a weapon made of wood and iron, aimed at him from the
window of a tall building, and that his death would have world-wide effect and
cause world-wide mourning.
You can imagine with what awe such a document would be held today.
Such a prediction would be similar to what we have in Psalm 22.
That hypothetical prediction would have been made even before the invention of
the motorcar, or of firearms, and five hundred years before the discovery of
America.
It would be regarded as fantastically accurate. Yet we have that very sort of
thing in this psalm. The psalm has two major divisions. The first twenty-one
verses recount for us the sufferings of an unknown sufferer who is all alone and
is crying out unto God in his agony.
Many scholars assert that these first twenty-one verses represent the thoughts
which went through the mind of the Savior as he hung upon the cross, the full
range of his thoughts as he was suffering there.
From verse twenty-two to the end the sufferer is no longer alone but is in the
midst of a large company and is praising God and shouting in victory.
It ends with his claiming the worship of the entire world.
Lets read it through, making certain observations.
It is so clear, so unmistakable, that it hardly requires comment.
It starts, very strikingly, with the words Jesus uttered on the cross:
22:1": My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
and the Psalmist goes on to add,
22:1": ...................why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my
roaring?
22:2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night
season, and am not silent.
These opening words have been called "the cry of dereliction," i.e., the cry of
abandonment as the sufferer becomes aware that he is forsaken by his God.
As we know from the New Testament, Jesus uttered these words at the end of a
strange period of darkness which settled upon the land.
For the first three hours as he hung upon the cross the sun shone brightly and
there was normal daylight. But at high noon a strange and disquieting darkness
settled upon the whole land around Jerusalem. No one has ever been able to
explain it. It lasted for three hours.
It was not an eclipse of the sun, because eclipses do not last that long.
Notice how the Psalm reflects this. It says that the sufferer cries out in the day
and in the night -- in the light and in the dark -- but still God does not answer.
So here we have the strange mystery of the abandonment of the Son of God --
what some have called "Immanuel's orphaned cry" --
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Jesus actually spoke these
words in Aramaic. Because he cried out with a loud voice, passersby
misunderstood him. He said, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?
When the bystanders heard the words, "Eloi, Eloi," they thought he was crying
for Elijah. But he was calling out for God, from the depths of his being, because
of his sense of abandonment.
The strangeness of that rejection by God is highlighted for us by his stated
awareness of the faithful character of God:
22:3": But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
22:4": Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
22:5": They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were
not confounded.
He is remembering the history of men of faith in the past, and the fact that a
faithful God never abandoned one of them. Even though they were sinful men,
God saved them when they cried out to him.
"But," he says, "I am a worm, and no man."
For some strange reason God is treating him differently. Even the spectators
reflect that difference of treatment:
22:6": But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the
people.
22:7": All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake
the head saying,
He is treated like a despised and hated criminal, as though he had lost his right
to live in human society.
Matthew records for us the fact that the crowd actually used these very words.
The unthinking multitude passing by, looking at the sufferer on the cross, said,
"He trusts in God; let God deliver him now," (Matt 27:43a ). What an amazing
prediction this is! The very words of a multitude which could not have been
controlled,
This multitude had no intention of fulfilling prophecy, Yet this event is clearly
foretold. We are faced with the strange mystery of why the Son of God was
abandoned by his Father.
He goes on to press the point himself. He shows us that there are no grounds
for abandonment in himself:
22:9": But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope
when I was upon my mother's breasts.
22:10": I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's
belly.
22:11": Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
How utterly forsaken he is! His friends have rejected him and fled.
His disciples and family have left him alone; all have gone. Only God is left and
now he senses that God himself is forsaking him. He knows no explanation for
this.
He says that from the very moment of his birth he was in fellowship with God. He
was always the delight of God's heart, kept by his Father right from birth.
And, you recall from the New Testament, as he began his public ministry the
Father spoke from heaven and put his seal of approval upon his life, saying,
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," {Matt 3:17b, cf, Mark 1:11}.
There is absolutely nothing in himself to merit abandonment, and yet here he is,
forsaken.
In his human weakness he does not even understand it, and so he cries out this
strange cry of dereliction,
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Now we know, of course, that it was because he was being made an offering for
the sins of the world. All the ugliness and meanness and defilement and filth of
our sin was laid upon him.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are
healed. {Isa 53:5}
This Psalm now goes on to describe the scene from the cross:
22:12": Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me
round.
22:13": They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
In the beautiful method of the Old Testament poets he uses these figures to
describe the onlookers. Like bulls, powerful, un-opposable, they seem to be
strong.
Remember what Jesus said to his enemies at that very time, "... But this is your
hour, and the power of darkness," (Luke 22:53b ).
They seemed to be irresistible, like great, powerful bulls.
Then he changes the figure and says they are like lions, fierce, ravening,
threatening, their fangs dripping with anxiety to be at him and tear him apart.
He is surrounded by his enemies. Then he describes his own reaction:
22:14": I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is
like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
22:15": My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my
jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
What a description of the exhaustion of the cross! Having hung there for five to
six hours, his body suspended by the nails in his hands and feet, his bones are
pulled out of joint. There is an awful sense of weariness and fatigue.
His heart feels like melted wax within him. And he is gripped by a terrible,
terrible, ravaging thirst. His body, dehydrated in the hot sun of that spring day, is
gripped now by awful thirst.
He cries out from the cross, "I thirst," {John 19:28b}.
Then we have a most amazing and unmistakable description of death by
crucifixion, written at a time when crucifixion was simply unknown.
This was set down when no one, so far as history tells us, put anyone to death
by crucifixion. Certainly the Jews did not, for their method of execution was to
stone someone to death.
But here is One who clearly describes his own crucifixion:
22:16": For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have
inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
22:17": I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
22:18": They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
It is absolutely impossible to explain that verse on any natural basis.
It is clearly a God-given picture of the crucifixion. The Psalmist says that he is
surrounded by "dogs". This was the common Jewish term for Gentiles, and
especially for the Romans.
Roman executioners are all around the cross here. He decries the fact that he
is surrounded by these alien people. They have stripped him; he is naked.
He can see all his bones and, worse yet, he can feel them. And the crowning
indignity is that at the foot of the cross they are actually casting lots for his
garments.
The calloused, hardened Roman soldiers were trying to divide the spoil of his
clothing {Matt 27:35, Luke 23:34, John 19:34}.
Because they did not want to rip his seamless robe apart, they cast lots for it.
Here is another event that is impossible that these Roman soldiers could have
fulfilled this prophecy by collusion.
Yet here it is, clearly described 1000 years before, so that Jesus' death by
crucifixion is unquestionably in view.
Now we get the final prayer of this sufferer:
22:19": But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help
me.
22:20": Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
22:21": Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of
the unicorns.
The "sword" would be a symbol for the authority of the Roman government.
The "mouth of the lion" would be the picture of the invisible powers, the satanic
forces. In the figure of the "horns of the wild oxen" it is as though he were
impaled upon two great, widespread horns, and he is crying out now in final
extremity for help from God.
And you recall, this is exactly what the Savior did in his last words as he hung
upon the cross. He cried out, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"
{Luke 23:46b }.
"If anyone is going to save me, it has to be you, Father. If anyone is going to lift
me out of the dust of death, raise me up again, it will be you. I trust myself to
you". And so, in this closing prayer we have reflected his commitment at last to
the hands of the Father.
This is an amazing Psalm
Now as we look at Verse 22 it shows a clear change.
Without a word of explanation the same speaker goes on and says,
22:22": I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee.
Well, what is this? Here, unquestionably, is the resurrection.
The same one who has just suffered and died is now in the midst of a company
whom he calls his brethren.
The writer of Hebrews picks up this theme. In chapter two he applies these very
words to Jesus. He says that it was the will and purpose of God the Father to
bring many sons to glory, and that it was fitting that he should make the captain
of their salvation perfect through suffering. And, he continues,
11.) for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
12) saying, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church
will I sing praise unto thee. {Heb 2:11b-12}
What a wonderful picture of the result of the resurrection -- the calling out of the
people of God who are one with him and share his life, and who are joint heirs
with Christ, members, like him, of the family of God. And so he says to them,
22:23": Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him;
and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
Why? Because this is the One who has answered the prayer of a dead man and
raised him from the dead.
The resurrection is the ground of Christian worship, he says,
22:24": For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
Again, the writer of Hebrews says to us, at the end of his letter,
20.) now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
21.) make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which
is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and
ever, amen.
{Heb 13:20-21a }
This is what constitutes the ground of praise for all Christians: we have a living
Lord who has been raised from the dead and whose life is now shared with us
so that his life is ours, and ours belongs to him.
He goes on to tell us just that:
22:25": My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows
before them that fear him.
What is that saying,
That is saying , "I will fulfill my word to them. I will do for them what I have
promised to do." What is that?
22:26": The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that
seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
Is that not great? His promise is that, out of the resurrected power which he
holds, he will give us everything we need. So we will satisfied.
According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue. {2 Pet 1:3 RSV}
There is not one thing more that we need than what already has been made
available.
Thus it is true, as Hebrews 7:25 tells us, that,
"wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."
The next verse goes on to trace out the effect of this power, as it moves out
across the face of the whole earth.
22:27": All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and
all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
22:28": For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the
nations.
It is the fulfillment of Jesus' great commission that his Gospel shall be preached
to all nations. And out of every tribe and nation shall come those who respond,
who fear him, because God is the ruler of all and he will see to it that his
message reaches all men.
We are living in the very days when men from every tribe and nation are coming
to Christ. The final picture encompasses the utter subjection to him of all
peoples and all creatures everywhere in the universe:
22:29": All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go
down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
22:30": A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a
generation.
22:31": They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that
shall be born, that he hath done this.
Those last words are amazing! In the Hebrew the last phrase “that he hath done
this” is literally, "It is finished." So what is really said here is that "there shall be
proclaimed deliverance to a people yet unborn, that it is finished."
It is striking that this psalm both opens and closes with a word of Jesus from the
cross.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46, Mark 15:34) . And,
as he cried with a loud voice just before he died, "It is finished!" {John 19:30}. All
is done. There is nothing left to do.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
Is that not tremendous? What a psalm! What an anticipation, and what a
fulfillment, of this amazing event!
we can only bow in worship and adoration of a God who plans like this, and who
carries through his plans against all the opposition of men and devils, who fulfills
in history what he has predicted long before and brings to pass all his words.
And us, who have been made the recipients of this amazing work of grace, who
have profited by the death and the resurrection life of the Son of God, We need
to be praising and giving thanks to Him out of the fullness of gratitude in our
hearts for all that has been given to us
- Roy Patterson
Excerpts from
Ray Stedman