Psalm 22:6-18 Jesus Crys for Help.

Psalm 22 is a song about Jesus suffering on the cross. It was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. The Jews of Jesus time knew these verses as they did all Scripture. Perhaps this psalm convinced many thousands of people to realize Jesus is the Son of God.

I've written about the first three verses in the previous post. I've decided I cannot do justice to these words. I will just put them here for you to read.

But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

All who see me mock me;

they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,

“let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

since he delights in him.”

Yet you brought me out of the womb;

you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.

From birth I was cast on you;

from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

Many bulls surround me;

strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

Roaring lions that tear their prey

open their mouths wide against me.

I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax;

it has melted within me.

My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

you lay me in the dust of death.

Dogs surround me,

a pack of villains encircles me;

they pierce my hands and my feet.

All my bones are on display;

people stare and gloat over me.

They divide my clothes among them

and cast lots for my garment.

But 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.

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, honor 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.

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.

They will proclaim his righteousness,

declaring to a people yet unborn:

He has done it!

God's Courage.

Jesus said, 
"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour." John 12:27

Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

Now is my soul troubled - Our blessed Lord took upon him our weaknesses, that he might sanctify them to us. As a man he was troubled at the prospect of a violent death. Nature abhors death: God has implanted that abhorrence in nature, that it might become a principle of self preservation; and it is to this that we owe all that prudence and caution by which we avoid danger. When we see Jesus working miracles which demonstrate his omnipotence, we should be led to conclude that he was not man were it not for such passages as these. The reader must ever remember that it was essentially necessary that he should be man; for, without being such, he could hot have died for the sin of the world.

And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour - Και τι ειπω; πατερ, σωσον με εκ της ὡρας ταυτης· which may be paraphrased thus: And why should I say, Father, save me from this hour? when for this cause I am come to this hour. The common version makes our blessed Lord contradict himself here, by not attending to the proper punctuation of the passage, and by translating the particle τι what, instead of why or how. The sense of our Lord's words is this: "When a man feels a fear of a sudden or violent death, it is natural to him to cry out, Father, save me from this death! for he hopes that the glory of God and his welfare may be accomplished some other way, less dreadful to his nature: but why should I say so, seeing for this very purpose, that I might die this violent death for the sins of mankind, I am come into the world, and have almost arrived at the hour of my crucifixion."

I thank God for his and Jesus' courage in going through the crucifixion.

We are Reconciled with God.

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation...  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this; that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

Jesus became sin itself on the cross. Someone equal to the law had to satisfy its claims. Jesus kept the law, there was no sin in him. Therefore he could fulfill the law for us who cannot keep the law. His goodness becomes ours when we accept his sacrifice.

I don't really understand how Jesus became sin or how he felt on the cross. I have read that he felt eternally lost as he hung there; that he felt what a lost person feels at the judgement and this is why he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He must have felt he would never see Heaven or his Father again.

I thank Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit for going through all this for me.

They Did Not Understand.

Luke tells us Jesus told his disciples three times that in the future he would be killed and raised from death on the third day. Luke then tells us the reaction of the disciples:

"But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask him about this statement."
Luke 9:45

"But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said." Luke 18:34

I have often wondered how the disciples could not understand such plain statements from Jesus. I know that in that time everyone expected the Messiah to become the King of Israel and to fight off the Romans. What Jesus said was directly opposed to that belief. It must have confused them. Many times they did not understand the things Jesus said and asked him to explain what he meant. This time they did not do this. It says they were afraid to ask.

I think if they would have asked Jesus for more information, he would have taught them further and then they would not have been surprised on the night Jesus was arrested. They would not have deserted him on that night if they would have been prepared.

I've tried to think how to relate this to my life. What have I not believed that God has told me? I can think of a few things. One time, five years ago, I was coming home from church and I heard God say to my heart, "You will start smoking again." Instead of immediately praying and talking with God about this, I thought, "What! That can't be true!" Then I promptly forgot about it until later, much later, after I had indeed started smoking again after 24 years of not smoking.

At the time I had thought that maybe it hadn't been God speaking to my heart, for what he said seemed impossible to me. But when I look back, I should have been positive it was Him, because God has spoken to my heart many times. I just did not want to believe what he said.

I think the disciples did not want to believe what Jesus said; it seemed impossible to them the Messiah could be killed by their nation. It was a horrible thought, so they pushed it out of their minds. Where the Bible says that it was hidden and concealed from them, I think it was done so by Satan tempting them not to believe. He would not want the disciples to be prepared for this terrible event. God was trying to tell them, but they didn't want to listen.

I pray that we might all be open to what God is trying to tell us as we walk with him each day.