Psalm 22
The suffering Lamb
There is no song ever written that depicts the suffering of the Lamb of God quite like this one. It takes us into the depths of His physical, psychological and spiritual agonies and gives us a glimpse of the torments of the Cross, especially of what it meant to Christ to be cut off from His Father. It follows on from the scenes of triumph, in Psalm 21, as He entered heaven’s splendour, as if we need to be prepared for the suffering by first tasting the glory! Or is it possible that it was Christ Himself, who learned these Psalms as a child, who needed to learn the sweetness of victory before He could be educated about the darkness of Calvary?
Could David have directly endured some of the indignities and travails of this Psalm? In some ways it seems unlikely although there must have been an element of personal experience as he suffered the vicious attacks of enemies he had not even provoked. I think that David was such a devout man, so close to God’s heart that these words were penned prophetically as the Holy Spirit prompted. They were given for the sake of Christ who would later learn them and live them and find some kind of comfort in them. That is why so many snippets from this Song are quoted in the Gospels. Take time to read the whole Psalm through.
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