Latest / Reformed Thinking / From Forsakenness to Worldwide Praise in the Sufferings and Triumph of Christ (Psalm 22)

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From Forsakenness to Worldwide Praise in the Sufferings and Triumph of Christ (Psalm 22) · Reformed Thinking

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Have you ever felt completely abandoned in the silent room,
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crying out for help, hearing nothing back?
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Oh man, that is a universally terrifying feeling.
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It really is. Well, this ancient text captures
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that precise agony, but flips it on its head in a way you will
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not expect. Yeah, the pivot in this passage
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is just staggering. OK, let's unpack this.
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Imagine a king hiding out in the dirt, writing a poem about his
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own agonizing suffering. Right, a guy who has been
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totally stripped of everything. Yeah, now imagine that precisely
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1000 years later, a man is executed and every single
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gruesome detail of that ancient poem plays out in real time.
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I mean right down to the guards gambling over his clothes.
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It is wild to think about. It reads like a script written
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centuries in advance. It really does.
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Welcome to the deep dive. Today we are opening up an
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ancient text that captures the absolute agony of total
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abandonment. We are looking at Psalm 22.
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And we have a stack of theological commentaries and
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historical research to guide us through it.
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Right. We want to uncover how a text
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beginning with complete forsakenness abruptly shifts to
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worldwide praise. And you know what that means for
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your own understanding of suffering and salvation.
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Because the psychological rawness of this text, it feels
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incredibly immediate, even though it is thousands of years
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old. It really hits you right in the
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chest. So to grasp the sheer weight of
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this text, we have to look first at the historical Duke from
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which it grew, right? Yes, absolutely.
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This was written by King David around 1000 BC.
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OK, so a very specific window in ancient history.
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Right. And he composed this during his
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years of fierce persecution. He was fleeing for his life from
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King Saul. Which is such a massive contrast
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to who he actually was. I mean, David was the anointed
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king of Israel, the man explicitly chosen to rule.
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Yeah, but instead of sitting on a throne, he was living out in
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the wilderness as a minted fugitive.
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And we get a huge clue about the tone from the very beginning of
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the text, don't we? We do.
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The superscription of the text includes this enigmatic Hebrew
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phrase. It is Ajolith Shahar.
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Ajolith Shahar, What does that translate to?
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It translates to the Doe of the Dawn.
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Wow, the doe of the dawn. That is a striking image.
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It paints A vivid picture. You know, a meek, innocent
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sufferer being pursued by bloodthirsty hunters in the
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early morning darkness. You just have this visual of the
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anointed king scurrying in the shadows like a haunted animal,
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right? But our sources highlight that
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this is not simply some evolutionary development of
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Jewish folklore. No, or just a man venting his
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personal frustrations into a journal.
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Yeah, the sources insist this is the breathed out word of the
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creator. Which proves that the Creator
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governs all historical events. I mean, David's life was
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orchestrated by God to provide the exact historical soil for
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this text. Yes, the precise emotional agony
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was required for this specific text to grow.
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And the literary architecture of the past message really makes
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that divine orchestration clear, doesn't it?
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It does. The text is classified as an
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individual lament, but it makes this startling supernatural
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shift later on into a declarative praise Psalm.
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So it goes from this agonizing lament straight into global
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praise. Right, the structure is divided
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into two distinct movements. You have the agony of the cross
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and then the glory of the crown. OK, I like that framing the
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cross and the crown. Throughout the first half, the
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text alternates between complaint and confidence.
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It just builds tension continuously until a massive
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unexpected hinge occurs at verse 21.
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It is like looking at a sealed pressure cooker.
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That is a great way to put it. You read the first pass and the
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tension builds and builds with absolutely no release valve.
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You're feeling the heat and the psychological pressure of the
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writer. Until verse 21 suddenly shatters
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the container and just floods the room with light.
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So knowing the background and the structure, we can see a
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clear road map for the passage. Right, it breaks down into three
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main sections. The 1st 10 verses deal with the
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psychological anguish under divine silence.
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And then verses 11 through 21 describe the sufferer completely
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surrounded by physical death. Before ending with verses 22
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through 31 which detail an explosive praise in the
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congregation and the Kingdom of God expanding among the nations.
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Let's jump into that very first section.
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It starts with arguably the most famous cry in antiquity.
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Yeah, verses one and two open with my God, My God, why has
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thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
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me, and from the words of my warring?
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Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hears not, and in the
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night season, and I'm not silent.
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The sufferer cries out day and night but finds zero rest and
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receives absolutely no answer. And the specific Hebrew word
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chosen here provides massive insight into the nature of the
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suffering. Oh, absolutely.
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The word used for Forsaken is azab.
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Azab OK, what makes that word so specific?
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Well, it denotes a total destitute abandonment.
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It is a complete severing of covenantal protection.
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So we are talking about a judicial forsakenness here.
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Yes, the writer did not use the word rahac, which indicates a
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simple spatial distancing. OK, so this is not about the
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emotional feeling of God just being far away in the clouds.
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No, not at all. This is an objective legal
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reality of being completely cut off from divine help.
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Wow, I think that completely changes how we read the text.
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It is the difference between a father moving across the country
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for work versus a father legally disowning his son.
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Right, like ripping up the birth certificate and legally severing
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all protection and provision. The sufferer is experiencing a
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total judicial abandonment, but then in verses 3 through 5, he
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counters his own darkness. He does, He says, But thou art
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holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
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Our fathers trusted in thee. They trusted, and thou didst
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deliver them. They cried into thee and were
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delivered. They trusted in thee and were
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not confounded. So he is relying on objective
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theology rather than his immediate sensory feelings.
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Yeah. He looks at his agonizing
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circumstances and the silence is deafening.
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But instead of letting the pain dictate his reality, he anchors
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his mind on the objective holiness of God.
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And the historical fact that God delivered the ancestors he is
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basically preaching to his own soul.
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That is spot on. He refuses to warp his view of
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God based on his current drama. He holds on to that objective
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truth, but it gets tested immediately in the next verses.
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It really does. Verses 6 through 8 the physical
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and social degradation begins. He writes, But I am a worm and
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no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
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All they that see me lash me to scorn.
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They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying He
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trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him
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deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
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He is facing intense mockery from enemies who are actively
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taunting his faith. And the imagery of the worm is
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so visceral. I know there is a specific
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Hebrew word used here too. Yes, the word is tula at and
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this refers specifically to the Crimson or scarlet worm found in
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the Ancient Near East. OK, so not just a regular
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earthworm crawling in the dirt. No, the biological reality of
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this specific worm is fascinating.
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When the female caucus Elisa's worm is ready to give birth, she
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attaches her body to the trunk of a tree.
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She attaches herself to the wood.
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Right. And she attaches herself so
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firmly that she cannot be removed without tearing her
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apart. Oh wow.
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She gives birth to her young under her protective body and in
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the process she dies. That is a brutal image.
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And as she dies, she secrets a Crimson fluid that permanently
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stains the wood and coats her offspring.
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In the ancient world, people would crush this specific worm
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to harvest that brilliant red dye.
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The biological mechanism here is incredible, especially when you
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think about what that red dye was used for.
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Yeah, that Crimson color was reserved for royal and priestly
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garments. So the enemies are looking at
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the sufferer and laughing at his destruction, completely unaware
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of what is actually happening. Right, they just see a pathetic
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victim. But if the Fathers in the
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previous verses were delivered from their trials, why is this
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specific individual left to be crushed like a Crimson worm?
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Because this specific crushing is required so the king can
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clothe his people. Wow, so the affliction is not an
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arbitrary accident of history? No, it was a necessary
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substitutionary act. The sufferer must be crushed
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against the wood, completely pouring himself out so that the
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resulting Crimson can cover others.
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That reframes the entire perspective of the mocking.
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The onlookers see a failed, pathetic man, but the text is
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describing A calculated substitutionary sacrifice.
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Exactly. And then in verses 9 and 10, the
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sufferer makes another pivot back to faith.
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He says, But thou art he that took me out of the womb, that
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it's make me hope. When I was upon my mother's
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breasts, I was cast upon thee from the womb.
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Thou art my God from my mother's belly.
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This anchors hope in the Creator's absolute sovereignty
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over human life from the very moment of conception it.
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Completely refutes secular philosophies that view birth as
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a biological accident or just the product of random chance.
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Yeah, the sufferer recognizes that the God who sovereignly
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orchestrated his beginning, intricately forming him in the
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womb, is the exact same God overseeing his present agony.
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The logic is that the Author of life does not abandon his
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creation to meaningless suffering.
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Right, there's a purpose, even when the pain is blinding.
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Taking a step back and looking at these first 10 verses, we
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have a man grappling with total judicial abandonment, the
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psychological torment of silence, and the vicious mockery
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of his peers. It is a heavy, heavy section.
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So what was the original writer David trying to achieve with his
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initial audience by composing this?
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David intended to reorient the original Covenant community's
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trust toward the sovereign Creator.
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He wanted them to trust God even when their immediate
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circumstances suggested God had hidden his face.
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He wanted to prompt specific focused repentance or.
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Yes, the audience was meant to recognize their own native
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depravity. They needed to see their own
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inherent tendency to join the mockers.
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To shoot out the lip and shake the head at the afflicted.
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Yeah, especially when God's plans do not align with their
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own pragmatic, worldly expectations of success.
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The audience is forced to look in the mirror and realize
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they're often the ones doing the taunting.
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Which is a tough pill to swallow.
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Definitely. And while those first 10 verses
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deal heavily with divine silence and psychological isolation, the
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physical threat escalates drastically in the next section.
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It really ramps up. We see the sufferer completely
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surrounded by death in verses 11 through 21.
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In verse 11 the sufferer pleads, Be not far from me, for trouble
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is near, for there is none to help.
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That phrase none to help, is crucial for establishing the
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necessity of what follows. Because the absence of any human
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helper necessitates a divine substitute.
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Yes, the isolation is total. There is no political ally, no
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military rescue and no medical intervention available.
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This absolute human dead end requires an intervention that
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only heaven can provide. And the text then shifts into
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some wild, terrifying imagery to describe the enemies closing in.
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Verses 12 and 13 say many bulls have compassed me strong bulls
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at bashan have deset me round they gaped upon me with their
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mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion to.
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Understand the weight of Bashan. We really had to look outside
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the immediate text. Right, because Bashan wasn't
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just a place with good cattle. No ancient extra biblical
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Ugaritic texts provide massive context here.
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OK, for those listening, Ugaritic was an ancient language
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discovered on clay tablets in modern day Syria.
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Yeah, and it sheds incredible light on the religious and
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cultural atmosphere of the ancient Canaanites.
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In Ugaritic lore, Bashan was known as the place of the
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serpent. The place of the serpent, that
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changes that. It does.
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It implies that the attack on the sufferer is not simply from
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human adversaries, it indicates an assault by demonic and
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gentile geopolitical forces. The imagery conveys a
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coordinated supernatural attack designed to utterly destroy the
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righteous sufferer. It is not just a mob of angry
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people, is the spiritual forces of Darkness Ray castrating in
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execution? And the physical toll of this
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attack is described with brutal medical precision in verses 14
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and 15. It is hard to even read.
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The sufferer says I am poured out like water, and all my bones
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are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is
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melted in the midst of my bowels.
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My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue
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cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought me into
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the dust of death. The physical collapse is just
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total. The extreme dehydration and the
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dislocation of the joints, the cardiac failure.
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It is a picture of a body being systematically disassembled.
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But the phrase dust of death is the theological anchor here,
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isn't it? Yes, it is.
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This traces directly back to the Genesis 3 curse.
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Where the Creator tells fallen man, For dust thou art, and unto
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dust shalt thou return. Right, so the sufferer is not
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just dying a natural death, he's being ground into the very dust
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of the curse. This is a physical and judicial
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dissolution bearing the full weight and penalty of sin.
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And the execution reaches its climax In verses 16 through 18,
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the scene becomes even more graphic and specific.
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The text reads, For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of
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the wicked having me. They Pierce my hands and my
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feet, I may tell all my bones. They look and stare upon me.
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They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my
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vesture. We really must highlight a
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massive textual and historical debate surrounding verse 16
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here. Oh yeah, this is one of the most
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debated translation points in the Old Testament.
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It is if you look at the Masoretic Text, which is the
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traditional Hebrew text preserved by Jewish scholars.
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The word used there is Karari. And Karari translates to like a
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lion. Right, so it would read like a
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lion, my hands and my feet. Which feels a little clunky in
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the grammar. It does, however, the
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Septuagint, which is the ancient Greek translation of the Old
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Testament, and the much older Dead Sea Scrolls both support
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the reading Karu. And Karu means they pierced.
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Yes, that is a wildly different translation.
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How does a discrepancy like that even happen in the transmission
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of the text? It basically comes down to the
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mechanics of copying Hebrew manuscripts by hand over
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thousands of years. Right, because they didn't have
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printing presses. No, the Hebrew letter yad, which
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ends the word Kari, and the letter vav which ends the word
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karu look incredibly similar on the page.
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A yacht is essentially just a slightly shorter version of a
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VAV. Yeah, a tiny slip of the scribes
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pen or even a slight fading of the ink over centuries changes
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the pierced into like a lion. But the surrounding context of
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the verses demands A literal anatomical piercing.
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I mean counting the bones, staring at the body.
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Absolutely, and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provided
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ancient concrete manuscript evidence that they pierced was
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the original reading. So the shift from like a lion to
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they pierced is a critical point of exegesis that cannot be
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ignored. It proves the text is describing
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A literal physical impaling of the extremities while onlookers
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count his protruding bones and gamble for his clothing.
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In verses 19 through 21, the sufferer makes a final,
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concentrated plea. He cries out to be delivered
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from the sword, the dog, the lion, and the horns of the wild
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oxen. And right there, at the very end
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of verse 21, we hit the massive hinge of the entire Psalm.
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The text suddenly says You have answered me.
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The Hebrew syntax here is jarring.
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The writer uses a sudden truncated verb on Athani.
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Up to this point, the poetry has a specific rhythm of lament and
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pleading. And the single word completely
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shatters the rhythm. It is an abrupt, definitive
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statement. The pacing of that is
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fascinating. The text goes straight from
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being impaled on the horns of the wild oxen directly into You
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have answered me. Does the answer come before or
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after the suffering is complete? The answer marks a miraculous,
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literal pivot from death to life.
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The sacrifice is complete, the curse has been fully absorbed,
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and the victory is won. So the truncated verb signifies
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an immediate, decisive action from heaven that changes the
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reality of the sufferer entirely.
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Right, the silence of the 1st 10 verses is is broken, Heaven
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responds. Before we look at the resulting
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victory, we must understand what David wanted Israel to learn
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from this gruesome graphic description of execution in the
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second section. David intended to teach the
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original audience perseverance in afflicted prayer.
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He wanted to show them that extreme physical suffering does
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not equal rejection by the Creator.
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Prophetically, David intended to prepare God's people.
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He knew they would expect a conquering military hero riding
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in on a White Horse to destroy the Romans or whoever was
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oppressing them, but he. Wanted them to recognize the
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true coming king, not by his worldly success or political
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power, but by his substitutionary scars.
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Yes, the King's credentials are his wounds.
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Because the sufferer was answered at the end of verse 21,
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the entire tone of the text changes from terrifying
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isolation to a massive, joyous gathering.
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We enter the final section, verses 22 through 31, focusing
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on praise in the congregation and the Kingdom of God.
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Verses 22 through 24 State, I will declare thy name unto my
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brethren. In the midst of the congregation
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will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise
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him all Ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him, and fear him all Ye
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the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor
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poured the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid
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his face from him. But when he cried unto him he
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heard. The sufferer transitions into
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the presenter of praise. For our listeners, the presenter
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is the one who leads the assembly and worship.
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Right. He calls the seat of Jacob to
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stand in awe because the Creator did not hide his face from the
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afflicted one in the end. The deliverance is now public
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and the formerly isolated, rejected individual is now
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standing at the front, leading a vast multitude in worship.
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And verses 25 and 26 describe a massive feast.
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My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation.
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I will pay my vows before them that fear Him.
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The meek shall eat and be satisfied.
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They shall praise the Lord that seek Him.
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Your heart shall live forever. This heavily references the
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sacrificial peace offering found in the Levitical law.
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Find us how the peace offering functioned.
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When a worshipper offered a peace offering, they would eat a
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portion of the sacrifice in fellowship with God and the
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community. It was a shared meal.
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And the text says the meek shall eat and be satisfied.
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Yes, the meek are those who have been humbled enough to recognize
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their total ruin and inability to save themselves.
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They are fed and completely satisfied by the completed
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sacrifice of the sufferer. The victory of the one who is
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crushed provides direct sustenance and eternal life for
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the people. And the vision expands even
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further in verses 27 through 29. He goes from the local
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congregation to the entire globe.
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All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord,
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and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before
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thee. For the Kingdom is the Lords,
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and he is the governor among the nations.
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All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship, all they
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that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can
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keep alive his own soul. The text displays a total
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leveling of humanity here. It mentions the fat upon earth,
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which refers to the prosperous, the wealthy and the powerful.
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Right. It also mentions those that go
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down to the dust, referring to the dying, the frail and the
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destitute. Wealth cannot secure
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independence from the Creator and frailty cannot place anyone
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outside his rule. Every single class and condition
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of humanity is brought to the exact same posture of submission
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before the Sovereign King. No human being possesses the
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power to keep their own soul alive.
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None, and verses 30 and 31 conclude the text with an
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absolute guarantee of the future.
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A seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the
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Lord for a generation they shall come, and shall declare his
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righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he have done
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this. The concluding phrase he have
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done this acts as a declaration of a finished completed action.
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The work of salvation is secure and entirely by the Creator,
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requiring absolutely no addition from human hands.
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And the righteousness being declared is not the
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righteousness of the people, but the righteousness of the Lord
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who accomplished the deliverance.
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Here's where it gets really interesting.
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The text guarantees future generations will worship him.
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It doesn't say they might. It says they shall.
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The certainty of this future global worship is tied directly
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to the finished action of the sufferer.
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So what was the intended goal of this final triumphant section
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for the ancient Israelites? The goal was to produce reverent
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fear and public praise in the local congregation.
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David intended to enlarge Israel's horizon.
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He wanted to fill them with missionary hope.
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Yes, proving that the Creator's redemptive purposes are vastly
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larger than any single moment of distress.
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The plan of salvation will definitively encompass all
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nations. Taking all three sections
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together, the psychological silence, the physical execution,
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and the global praise, what was the grand design of this text
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for its original recipients? The overall authorial intent for
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the whole passage was to prove to the original audience that
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the Creator's final word over the researching His righteous
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servant is never abandonment, but vindication.
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The goal was to move the original hearers from fear to
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faith, from isolation to corporate praise, and from their
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immediate agonizing suffering to a long range Kingdom hope.
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Right. And while David wrote this for
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Israel, the sources insist this text was perfectly synchronized
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with this specific historical event 1000 years later.
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Did the details are too precise to be a coincidence?
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Let's look at the Christological fulfillment.
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The fulfillment is not an imaginative allegory or a
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spiritualized reading of the text.
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It is an explicit historical reality found in Jesus Christ.
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Looking at the cross, Jesus quoted the exact words of verse
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one. My God, my God, why has thou
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forsaken me as recorded in Matthew 27.46?
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This was the moment of penal substitutionary atonement.
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Meaning the son was actively bearing the unmitigated wrath
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and penalty due to the elect. Yes, He was fully exhausting the
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curse of the law, the judicial severing of covenantal
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protection that we discussed earlier with the Word as of
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became a literal reality for Christ as He took on the sins of
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His people. The literal execution details
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are staggering. The poetic expressions of David
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became literal medical and historical precision in Christ.
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The extreme thirst, the pierced extremities of crucifixion, the
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religious leaders shooting out the lip and mocking his trust in
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God. And the Roman soldiers casting
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lots for his seamless garment were fulfilled precisely.
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It is as if someone wrote a highly detailed script for a
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movie, locked it in a vault for 1000 years, and then history
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played out every single scene precisely as written.
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Down to the gambling over a piece of clothing.
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The resurrection is also explicitly tied to this text,
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isn't it? It is in the New Testament.
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Hebrews 2.12 quotes verse 22, applying it directly to the
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risen Christ leading the assembly.
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The text says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren.
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In the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee.
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The Greek word ecclesia, translated as church, is used
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here in the ancient world, and ecclesia was a legally summoned
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assembly called out by a herald. Christ, having conquered death,
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is the supreme herald, calling out the Father's name to his
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gathered people. And the finished work is
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declared at the very end. The final Hebrew phrase He has
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done this acts as the Old Testament equivalent of the
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Greek word telestai, which Christ shouted from the cross,
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meaning it is finished. This proves A definite completed
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atonement that requires absolutely no repetition.
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The work of salvation was fully accomplished through that
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specific historical event. The debt was paid in full and
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the Crimson dye of the crushed worm was poured out to clothe
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the church in royal righteousness.
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Knowing this ancient text points directly to the finished work of
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Christ, how does this alter the daily reality of the modern
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listener? Let's move to the applications
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for modern believers. For afflicted Saints, the text
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teaches that the experience of divine silence does not equal
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divine rejection. Believers must interpret their
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pain through the creator's holiness and his finished work,
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rather than judging the creator's character by their
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immediate pain. Right.
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The silence of God in a moment of suffering is not proof of His
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absence. So what does this all mean for a
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Sunday morning? What does this mean for
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congregation gathering? It means the church should be a
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place where past deliverances are remembered and public praise
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is shared. Specifically, it means relying
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heavily on the ordinary means of grace.
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Yes, this includes the preaching of the Word and the sacraments
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like baptism and the Lord's Supper.
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The Lord's Supper perfectly represents the feast in verses
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25 and 26, where the meek eat and are completely satisfied by
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the broken body and shed blood of the substitute.
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It means prioritizing these objective elements of worship
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rather than relying on pragmatic entertainment to draw a crowd.
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Regarding global mission, believers must trust the
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absolute guarantee of verses 27 through 29.
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The Kingdom belongs to the Lord. The text provides total
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confidence that all nations will bow.
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Believers can look forward to a literal earthly fulfillment of
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the King's reign. The missionary effort is
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guaranteed to succeed because the victory over death has
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already been won by the presenter of our praise.
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Finally, we must look at what this means for resting in
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justification the believers only.
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Hope is resting entirely in the imputed righteousness of the
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Savior. The believer must abandoned all
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human effort to save themselves. They must trust exclusively in
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the one who is stripped naked, mocked and pierced so they could
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be clothed in glory. Justification is not achieved by
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our own works or moral improvements.
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It is received by faith alone in his completed substitutionary
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work. The take away here isn't just a
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generic encouragement that God is with you when times are hard.
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It is vastly heavier than that. If the darkest, most agonizing
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moment in human history, a moment of total crushing
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judicial forsakenness, was actually the precise calculated
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mechanism God used to secure global eternal salvation.
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Wait, let me rephrase that without the pause.
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If that agonizing moment was actually the precise mechanism
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used to secure salvation, how does that reframe the seemingly
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silent, dark, and difficult moments in your own life right
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now? The very moment you feel the
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most abandoned might actually be the specific mechanism God is
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using to secure a victory you simply cannot see yet.
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Keep digging into the sources and thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive. Thanks for listening.