Why Read the Old Testament? (9)

 

Dear Friend,

 

Having pondered Psalm 22:1 – 21, let’s now turn our attention to the second section of Psalm 22, verses 22 – 31, we might call this “the rest of the story.” Let’s keep in mind that when Jesus cries, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” on the Cross, that He is invoking ALL of Psalm 22.

 

While verses 1 – 21 look pretty bleak, there is victory to come; it begins with verse 22:

 

“I will tell of Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You.”

 

There is a sense in which we could call Psalm 22:22 the core of the Gospel, for it is the Great Story of Redemption, the Greatest Rescue Story Ever Told. It ushers us into the Holy of Holies of John 17, as well as that Grand Proclamation of Revelation 21:7, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”

 

I will venture so far as to say that our failure to “see” Psalm 22:22 and the glorious message it proclaims is at the root of our anemic spiritual lives, our failure to witness, and our living beneath the inheritance which we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

To begin, the proclamation that “I will tell of You name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you,” indicates that the Suffering One of verses 1 – 21 will come out of His suffering proclaiming the Name of Yahweh to His brothers and sisters. This is a cry of victory!

 

Then in verse 23 is the exhortation that the People of God, those who fear Him, are to praise Him. Why? “For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him for help, He heard.” (Verse 24).

 

In other words, as we read verse 24 we see that verses 1 – 21 are not the entire story, to be sure they are critical to the story, but they are not the entire story. Verse 24 tells us that, despite appearances, the Father did not “hide His face from Him; but when He cried to Him for help, He heard.”

 

The Cross was not the end of the story, for Easter was on its way. But even on the Cross…and we must not miss this…there is victory, for Jesus cries, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” (Luke 23:46; Ps. 31:5), and “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

 

In Ps. 22:25 we see the Suffering One, now the Victorious One, again with His People – the Great Assembly.

 

Then in verses 26 – 31 we see the fruit of the Suffering One (John 12:24) as the Gospel spreads across the earth and all the families of the peoples worship God, declaring His righteousness – for we see the righteousness of God in God’s accepting the offering of the Suffering One, the Lamb of God.

 

Therefore, when Jesus cries, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” He is not only acknowledging and entering into Psalm 22:1 – 21, He is also declaring Psalm 22:22 – 31 as a glorious accomplished reality, as the fruit of the Cross, the fruit of His suffering, the assured outcome of those terrible and unfathomable hours on the Cross. (Hebrews 12:2)

 

But unless we read the Old Testament we will not see this, for we will have nothing to see. Also, if we primarily view the Old Testament as a series of isolated Messianic texts, thereby failing to see that the entire Old Testament is Messianic, we will not “see” Psalm 22, we will only see one verse of the Psalm without true context. We will not “see” that the cry of verse 1 invokes the entire Psalm with its glorious victory…a victory that includes us.

 

As we think about these things, let’s not forget that we are working with Luke 24:26, where Jesus asks, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

 

In Psalm 22 we see Christ suffering and entering into His glory.

 

In our next reflection, the Lord willing, I want us to return to Psalm 22:22 – for there are riches beyond measure in Christ in His proclamation.

 

How might Hebrews Chapter 2 help us see these riches?