Where I was at school,
the Bible was seen as a dusty rulebook of morals to live by, and The Psalms
were a repository of mysterious poems designed to be chanted almost
monotonously in order to stultify a room of rowdy boys during Assembly.
I doubt Jesus was
chanting monotonously as he hung on the cross bearing the sins of the world,
but Psalm
22 starts with the words
that he spoke as darkness covered the land, and end with a verse reminiscent of
his last words as he "gave
up his spirit".
Could it be that Psalm
22 was given for us to mind-read the Son of God during the most crucial three
hours in the entire history of Creation?
"My
God, my God!"
Jesus,
eternally begotten (i.e. ‘defined’ as "Son"), calls to his perfectly
loved and loving father - but he doesn’t use the intimate name "Abba"
("Daddy"), as he encouraged us to, but by the name "El" ("God"
– literally, "strength" or "almighty"), changing the
perspective of this relationship from one of loving intimacy to one of power versus
submission.
And
he asks the question his whole church wants to know the answer to: "Why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far
from my cries of anguish?"
Jesus,
the "Word of God", cries out with words, but is answered without a sound. Instead, the source of his light – the light
that he reflects so perfectly that he is "the light of the world" -
is simply withdrawn.
It
was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the
ninth hour (Luke 23:44)
"My
God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no
rest"
Perhaps
this simple phenomenon of the light disappearing serves to remind Jesus of his
father’s great goodness and the rescue mission they have set themselves: to
deliver those who trust in God from the eternal separation their sin otherwise leads
them to.
"You
are holy, you who live in the praises of Israel - our fathers trusted in you:
they trusted, and you delivered them. They
cried to you, and were delivered: they trusted in you, and were not confounded"
But how was this great rescue mission
going to work?
Sin
is not trusting in God … not trusting in God means disunity with God … disunity
with God must mean separation from God … separation from God is death and hell.
How
can God stop sinners going to hell?
"I
am a worm and not a man"
God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Scarlet
is a colour symbolic of 'sin' throughout the Bible. The Hebrew for the word 'scarlet' comes from
the word for the type of worm that was crushed in order to make scarlet
dye. It follows that 'worms' are
symbolic of sin too (e.g. Mark 9:47b-8, quoting Isaiah 66:23-24 "hell,
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched").
"You
are he that took me out of the womb. You
did make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon you
from the womb: you are my God from my mother's belly"
Jesus
has blessed Israel, his ‘nation of priests’, for centuries. Finally he is born ‘of the flesh of man’ into
their care, forever trusting in God, in
order to save man!
… So what would Israel offer towards the
rescue mission?
Jesus
looks around at those for whom he has been 'made sin': "I am a reproach of
men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they
shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver
him, seeing he delighted in him"
They
that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying: you that would
destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself: if you are the
Son of God, come down from the cross!
Likewise
also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said: he saved
others; himself he cannot save. If he is
the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe
him!
He trusted in God; let him deliver him
now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
(Matthew
27:39-43)
The
cynic might suggest that Jesus had always planned to quote the first verse of
the Psalm in order to big himself up in the eyes of those who knew their
scriptures. But, were this even
thinkable (through the agony, humiliation, and bloody trauma of the
crucifixion!), he still couldn’t have controlled the natural response of those
spitting hate at him all around, if he were just a man.
So
‘His own’ would not help, but what about the
angels? Surely the ‘ministering spirits’
- legions of whom he has lead as their Commander (Joshua 5:14), their great
Arch-angel (1 Thessalonians 4:16) – surely they would come now, in his hour of
greatest need?
No,
not the spirits surrounding him now: "many bulls ... strong bulls of
Bashan" and "roaring", devouring "lions" with mouths
open wide surround him now.
The
bovine imagery alludes to cherubim (compare Ezekiel 1:10 "they four had
the face of a man … a lion … an ox … an eagle" and Revelation 4:7 "a
lion … a calf … a man, and … a flying eagle" with Ezekiel 10:14 "the
face of a cherub, … a man, … a lion, and … an eagle") – and who was the 'guardian
cherub' of Ezekiel 28:14? The one who
deceived Eve and became ‘the accuser’, Satan.
Furthermore,
lions, when described in reference to their mouths being open and aggressive, point
our minds to think of demons, whilst Bashan appears to be Satan’s playground -
the mountain he set up in opposition to Zion.
Deuteronomy 3:11 speaks of "Og king of Bashan … remnant of giants",
and Amos 4:1-2 proclaims to the "cows of Bashan who oppress the poor, who
crush the needy … they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you
with fishhooks"! Who is that ‘last’
taken away with fishhooks? Ezekiel
29:3-4 "I am against thee, Pharaoh king
of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which
hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will
cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up
out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto
thy scales".
No,
"there is none to help" Even
the gifts of the Holy Spirit leave him:
Life drains
from his body: "I am poured out
like water ... My heart has melted away within me … you lay
me in the dust of death" (see Revelation 22:17 "... the free
gift of the water of life")
Power drains from his body: "My
bones are out of joint ... My strength /
power is dried up" (see Luke
4:14-15 "Jesus taught in the power
of the Spirit and everyone praised him").
This truly is his moment of greatest weakness: bones are symbolic of strength, but his are "are out
of joint" … although, crucially, they are not broken, as we can read in John 19:33,36 "But when they came to
Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs ... for
these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his
bones will be broken.’" This is an
important statement of God’s ultimate power in his greatest ‘weakness’ - his
victory in his death.
"Dogs
have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me"
There
is a third group of witnesses around him: the reference to dogs is also seen particularly
in Revelation 22:15 ("Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually
immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices
falsehood"), Matthew 7:6,15:26-7 ("Do not give dogs what is holy, and
do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn
to attack you" and "It is not right to take the children's bread and
throw it to the dogs … yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their
masters' table") and Exodus 22:31 ("You shall be consecrated to me.
Therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; you
shall throw it to the dogs").
It
is important that Gentiles – who had never been part of "Israel" - are
present here too: Jesus' death heralded "the revelation of the mystery
that was kept secret for long ages" (Romans 16:25), that "a partial
hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in”
(Romans 11:25) to take their place as faith-filled "fellow heirs, members
of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the
gospel" (Ephesians 3:6).
So what will the Gentiles surrounding
Jesus offer towards the rescue mission?
They
were the ones who would "pierce my hands and my feet ... stare and gloat
over me" (described in John 19:36-7) and "divide my clothes among
them and cast lots for my garment" (described in John 19:23-24).
So who can Jesus turn to?
"You,
LORD, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help
me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the
dogs. Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of
the wild oxen"
This
is not only a request in faith but also a prophecy and an encouragement
in faith: "I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will
praise you - you who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of
Jacob, honour him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For
he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not
hidden his face from him but HAS listened to his cry for help"
Then Jesus answers his own question in the beginning: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Remembering
the rescue mission that he, the father, and the spirit agreed as they yearned
for the love of their beloved creation, he proclaims: "From you comes the
theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will
fulfill my vows: The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD
will praise him (may your hearts live forever!), all the ends of the earth will
remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow
down before him (for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the
nations), all the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to
the dust will kneel before him (those who cannot keep themselves alive),
posterity will serve him - future generations will be told about the
Lord."
The
final verse - "They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people
yet unborn: He has done it!" - sounds very much like two verses towards
the end of the Bible:
"The
seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud
voice from the throne, saying, "It is done! " And the seventh angel poured out his vial
into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from
the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and
lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were
upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great" (Revelation 16:17-18)
Interestingly,
this followed by a severe earthquake, which was attested to in Matthew 27:51,54
"And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the
bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. Now when the centurion, and they that were
with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done,
they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God!"
Then,
right in the middle of some of the most beautiful and glorious verses speaking
of the purpose of the cross, there is Revelation 21:6…
He
said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and
the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the
water of life."
