Scripture Reading: Psa. 22
In the book of Psalms, there are certain highlight psalms. The top psalms we have seen thus far are Psalm 2, Psalm 8, and Psalm 16. Now we come to the fourth top psalm, Psalm 22.
Generally speaking, we love every psalm because every psalm is full of an aspiration to seek after God, to pray to Him, to contact Him, and to receive the spiritual help from Him. Even Psalm 1 does this. We have seen that Psalm 1 uplifts the law instead of Christ, but we should not condemn Psalm 1 to the extent that we give it up. That is wrong. We have to love every psalm because every psalm as the Word of God is eatable (Jer. 15:16; Matt. 4:4). If you are weak or down, you can read one psalm a number of times with some amount of prayer. Then you will be nourished. Every psalm can be a spiritual supply to us.
But often we receive this spiritual supply in a wrong way. Eating is not that simple. We need the proper groceries and the proper way to cook them. This is why we need to enter into the right way to understand all of the psalms one by one. My burden is mainly to show us that the book of Psalms, in the proper understanding, is centered on Christ. The Psalms are fully Christ-centered. Christ is not only the centrality but also the universality of the Psalms. I believe that the Lord has given us the proper and particular way to study, to know, and to interpret the Psalms. In this message we want to see that Christ is particularly revealed in Psalm 22.
The title of Psalm 22 says, "To the choir director: according to the hind of the dawn." This title of the melody of this psalm is very meaningful. The hind of the dawn here refers to the Christ in resurrection. There was such a teaching in the church, in the Body of Christ, in the past. I received this light through Brother Watchman Nee. This title of Psalm 22 shows that it is a psalm concerning Christ in resurrection. Christ is a hind. He is a leaping, jumping, active, living deer. A hind is a fast animal. When a hind runs, it leaps; it jumps. Christ in resurrection is the leaping One (S.S. 2:8-9).
Our going to Russia for the spread of the Lord's recovery has been a "leaping" move. Even a year ago, we did not have the idea to go to Russia. The decision to follow the Lord to "leap" for His move in Russia was on Memorial Day of last year, 1991. This move is surely the move of the Christ in resurrection. Psalm 22 is on Christ as the hind of the dawn, the resurrected Christ in the early morning.
Of course, without death, there is no resurrection. The resurrection follows the crucifixion. The first twenty-one verses of Psalm 22 cover the death of Christ, the crucifixion of Christ, and the last ten verses cover His resurrection. Isaiah 53 is a particular chapter on Christ's death in detail. Psalm 22 is another chapter of the Bible in the Old Testament on the death of Christ which is full of details. We need these two chapters in order to see a thorough, detailed picture of Christ's death.
The subject of Psalm 22 is the Christ who has passed through the redeeming death and entered into the church-producing resurrection. His death is for redeeming, and His resurrection is for producing the church.
Verses 1-21 show us Christ passing through the redeeming death.
Verses 1b-5 are David's groaning cry to God. David was complaining to God. He asked God why He had forsaken him, saying that he called out to God, but God did not answer him. Our God is loving and is also very patient with us. David was groaning before God. Have we ever groaned before God? We all may have prayed, but not many of us have groaned before God.
Our God is surely a loving God, but sometimes it seems that He is not so loving. Instead of being promoted, a brother may be laid off. Another brother may not be healed of his illness, even though he has prayed for three months. God surely hears our prayers, but many times He does not answer our prayers which are not according to His desire, His economy, His plan. When our prayer does not work, we have to learn to come to God to complain to Him. We should not be those who merely praise or pray to God. We need to realize that God likes to hear our complaints.
Verse 1 says, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" This word was spoken by David in his suffering. Actually, it became a prophecy concerning Christ in His suffering of His redeeming death. It was quoted by the Lord Jesus while He was suffering the crucifixion (Matt. 27:46).
Verses 2-5 are the continuation of David's groaning prayer, which turned from groaning to praising. After this, Christ continued to speak. Beginning from verse six, the voice changes to another person, to Christ. This is the way the Psalms were written. While David was speaking, eventually Christ came in to speak in his speaking.
In Psalm 22 we see the suffering David typifying Christ passing through His death (vv. 1a, 6-21). David and Solomon were both types of Christ. David typifies the suffering Christ, and Solomon typifies the reigning and ruling Christ in His kingship.
The suffering of Christ unto death was through men's reproach, despising, deriding, sneering, head shaking, and mocking (vv. 6-8; Heb. 13:13b; Isa. 53:3; Luke 23:11; Mark 15:29-32; Matt. 27:39-44). I hope that some, especially the young people, would remember these words which describe the Lord's suffering. Each of them has a particular meaning to describe what the Lord suffered on the cross. We may have never considered the significance of each of these words. This shows that when we read the Bible, we have a tendency to take everything for granted.
The word reproach is also used in Hebrews 13:13, which says, "Let us therefore go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach." This indicates that we need to come outside the camp of religion to follow the suffering Jesus. To bear the Lord's reproach is to bear His disgrace or shame. To despise is to look down on with contempt and scorn. To deride is to make fun of or laugh at in contempt. To sneer is to smile or laugh with facial contortions that express scorn or contempt. When Christ was on the cross, the ridiculers also shook, or wagged, their heads (Psa. 22:7b; Matt. 27:39; Mark 15:29), saying, "He committed himself to Jehovah; let Him rescue him" (Psa. 22:8a). To mock is to hold up to scorn or contempt and to imitate or mimic in derision. All these things were suffered by the Lord Jesus Christ while He was nailed on the cross. Groups of people reproached Him, despised Him, derided Him, sneered at Him, shook their heads at Him, and mocked Him.
Psalm 22:9-11 shows that Christ trusted in God for deliverance. While people were mocking Him and deriding Him, He was trusting in God. Deliverance here is resurrection. He intended definitely to die and expected to be delivered from death, that is, to be resurrected from the dead.
Psalm 22:12-18 shows how Christ passed through the suffering of crucifixion. The Jewish people did not have the practice of crucifying criminals. This was a practice of the heathen (Ezra 6:11) adopted by the Romans for the execution of slaves and heinous criminals. As the Lamb of God, Christ was crucified for our redemption (John 1:29; Heb. 9:12).
Years ago, I read an article describing how the children of Israel slew the lamb during the Passover. They took two wooden bars and formed a cross. They tied two legs of the lamb at the foot of the cross and fastened the other outstretched legs to the crossbar. Then they slew the lamb so that all its blood was shed, for they needed all of the blood to sprinkle on their doorframes (Exo. 12:7). The way the Passover lamb was killed is a picture of Christ's crucifixion on the cross as the Lamb of God.
While Christ was being crucified on the cross, many fierce men, signified by mighty bulls, encompassed Him (Psa. 22:12). They opened their mouth at Him like a ravening and roaring lion (v. 13). Evil men, signified by dogs, surrounded Him, and a congregation of evildoers enclosed Him (v. 16a-b).
Psalm 22:16c says that they pierced His hands and feet (Zech. 12:10; John 19:37; Rev. 1:7). Charles Wesley in one of his hymns spoke of the "five bleeding wounds" which Christ received on Calvary (Hymns, #300). His two hands, His two feet, and His side (John 19:34) were pierced by the Roman soldiers who executed Him.
They divided His garments to themselves, and for His clothing they cast lots (Psa. 22:18; John 19:23-24). In His crucifixion, the Lord's right to be clothed was stripped from Him, along with His life. They made the Lord Jesus altogether naked in order to have a public, shameful display.
Psalm 22:17b says that they looked, they stared at Him. The evildoers were staring at the Lord Jesus with contempt and hatred while He was on the cross.
On the cross, He was poured out like water (v. 14a). Isaiah 53:12 says that He poured out His soul. We cannot fully realize the tremendous amount of suffering which the Lord experienced on the cross.
Psalm 22:14b says that all His bones were out of joint. This was because He could not hold up the weight of His body hanging on the cross. His bones being out of joint caused Him great agony and pain.
Also, He counted all His bones (v. 17a). His heart was like wax melted within Him (v. 14c-d). His strength was dried up like a shard (v. 15a; John 19:28), a piece of broken pottery. His tongue was stuck to His jaws (Psa. 22:15b). God had put Him in the dust of death (v. 15c; Phil. 2:8b). He was put to death by God. On the one hand, it was man crucifying Him, killing Him, but eventually it was God who put Him into death. Actually, God killed Jesus. If Jesus had been killed only by man, He could never have been our Redeemer. He would have been merely a martyr. But God judged Him and put Him into death for our redemption (Isa. 53:4, 10).
Christ asked God to deliver Him from death (Psa. 22:19-21). Hebrews 5:7 says that Christ cried to God for God's deliverance, that is, for God to raise Him up from the dead.
Psalm 22:1 shows that on the cross Christ was forsaken by God (v. 1a; Matt. 27:45-46). The beginning of Psalm 22 speaks of this, but in the sequence of events on the cross, Christ cried out "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" at about the ninth hour, or 3:00 P.M. (Matt. 27:46). This was at the end of His crucifixion. Christ was hanging on the cross for six hours, from the third hour, 9:00 A.M. (Mark 15:25), to the ninth hour, 3:00 P.M. In the first three hours, He was persecuted by men for doing God's will; in the last three hours, He was judged by God to accomplish our redemption. It was during the last three hours that God counted Him as our Substitute who suffered for our sin (Isa. 53:10).
Darkness fell over all the land (Matt. 27:45) because our sin and sins and all negative things were being dealt with on the cross. Isaiah 53:6 says that God laid all of our sins upon Christ. He was forsaken by God for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), becoming sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) to be judged by God as our Substitute.
While He was on the earth, God the Father was with Him all the time (John 8:29), but at a certain point in His crucifixion, God left Him. God's leaving Him was economical, not essential. Essentially speaking, God could never leave Christ. But economically speaking, God did leave Him for a while. Thus, He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
First Peter 3:18 reveals that He was forsaken by God in a vicarious death. This verse says that as the Righteous One, Christ died on behalf of the unrighteous. The modernists say that Christ's death was not for redemption but was merely a martyrdom for the good of the people. This is heresy. John 1:29 says, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." All the sin of the world was laid upon Christ on the cross. He died a vicarious death for us to redeem us from our sins, from God's judgment, and from eternal perdition.
After passing through His redeeming death, Christ entered into the church-producing resurrection (Psa. 22:22-31).
It was in His resurrection that Christ called His disciples His brothers. Psalm 22:22 says, "I will declare Your name to my brothers;/In the midst of the assembly I will praise You." In this verse "I" is the resurrected Christ who declares the Father's name to His brothers. If He had remained in death, He could not have declared God the Father's name to His brothers.
Christ was on the earth with His disciples for the three and a half years of His earthly ministry, but He never called them His brothers until the morning of the day He resurrected. On that day, the Lord told Mary, "Go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God" (John 20:17). This means that the disciples became God's sons in Christ's resurrection. Before His resurrection the disciples were not His brothers because they had not been regenerated. But when Christ was resurrected, all the believers, including you and me, were resurrected with Him and in Him (Eph. 2:6). Through His resurrection, we were regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3). Resurrection was a big delivery, a big birth. Acts 13:33 says that resurrection was a birth to Christ. Christ was the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16), but in resurrection He was begotten as the firstborn Son of God with many brothers (Rom. 8:29), many sons of God.
First Peter 1:3 says that through Christ's resurrection, God regenerated all of us believers. Some may think that they were regenerated at a certain point in time a few years ago. But actually we all were regenerated at the same time before we were born. I once read of a certain woman who brought forth seven children in one delivery, but this cannot compare with the great delivery of children through Christ's resurrection. The resurrection of Christ was a delivery of millions of sons of God at the same time. He was the firstborn Son of God in resurrection, and we followed Him to be the many sons of God. On the day of His resurrection, He could say that His Father is our Father because He and we were all born of the same Father. We, His believers, His disciples, became His brothers.
The second half of Psalm 22:22 is very meaningful. It says, "In the midst of the assembly I will praise You." "The assembly" is the church, and "You" is the Father God. At the Lord's table we follow the Lord's pattern in praising the Father. After we remember the Lord by taking the bread and the wine, we follow the Lord to praise the Father, to worship the Father. According to logic, verse 22b should say, "In the midst of them I will praise You." But the Lord changed the pronoun them to the assembly. "My brothers" became the church, the assembly. The Lord's brothers constitute the church (Heb. 2:11-12).
In resurrection Christ declared the Father's name to His brothers and praised the Father in the church. His resurrection is the church-producing resurrection. Hebrews 2:11-12 says, "For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, `I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.'" He who sanctifies is Christ, and those who are being sanctified are we believers. We are both of One, that is, out of one Father. Hebrews 2:12 is a quotation of Psalm 22:22.
Christ's church ushers in His kingdom for Him to rule over the nations. Psalm 22:27-28 says, "All the ends of the earth/Will remember and return to Jehovah,/And all families of the nations/Will worship before You;/For the kingdom is Jehovah's,/And He rules among the nations." Christ has the kingdom, and He will rule among the nations.
The church ushers in the kingdom. Actually, the church is the reality of the kingdom and a precursor of the manifestation of the kingdom. Today the church is the kingdom. Romans 14:17 says the church life is the kingdom life, the kingdom of God. But this is a precursor of the coming kingdom, just as the tabernacle was a precursor of the temple. Today's church life is a miniature, a precursor, of the coming kingdom of one thousand years. The church is produced by the resurrection of Christ, and the kingdom will be ushered in by the church.
Following Christ's praise to God in the church, David advised God's people to praise Jehovah and all the earth to worship Him (Psa. 22:23-26, 29-31). Psalm 22:23 says, "You who fear Jehovah, praise Him!/All you seed of Jacob, glorify Him!/And stand in awe of Him, all you seed of Israel!" This means that Christ advised the Jews to learn of the church. Christ took the lead in praising God in the church, and the church follows Him to praise God. Now the seed of Jacob should follow Christ and the church. Thus far, Israel has not followed, but when Jesus comes back, all Israel will repent and be saved (Rom. 11:26-27; Zech. 12:10). Then they will join us to praise God. In David's advice at the end of Psalm 22, we see the church as the kingdom and all the people worshipping God and praising the Father.
