The Psalms of David (Continued)
We continue our consideration of Psalm 22 for it is its first line which hits us like a hammer blow between the eyes. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The pre-incarnate Christ says it through David; David says it; and Christ says it on the cross. The expression is not one of impatience and despair, but of alienation and yearning. The sufferer feels himself rejected of God; the feeling of divine wrath has completely enshrouded him. This is the cry of the Suffering Servant of Jehovah. In His life the Messiah had delivered those who were oppressed of Satan. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (Acts 10.38). But on Calvary He was on the receiving end. He felt Himself deserted by God, and easy prey for the oppression of the Devil. The Psalmist knew something of the attacks of Satan. He suffered from depression caused by the enemy of souls. “I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning?” He answered his own question – “because of the oppression of the enemy?” (Ps.42.9) The instrument that Satan used in his oppression of the Psalmist was persecution. As with the Psalmist, so with Jesus - but in the person of the Messiah it is not simply the horrendous distress caused by unrestrained persecution but rather because He realized that it was the climax of a war of hatred that was as old as mankind; the unceasing conflict that dated from the Garden of Eden. It was the pivotal battle that the pre-incarnate Christ had prophesied; and the incarnate Christ undertook to win. “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15).
The Bible speaks of Satan as a murderer from the beginning – a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Psalm 22 describes the distilled essence of that insatiable evil. The appearances of Christ in the T’nach as the Angel of the Lord had precluded any successful attack by His ancient enemy. But the Philippian stoop, that is, ‘He emptied Himself’, apparently gave Satan His opportunity. Jesus described it so, “this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22.53). Satan had been waiting centuries for this opportunity.
Then there was the wrath of God. It was experienced at the time when Christ was made an offering for sin. Peter put it succinctly, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Pet.2.24). Sin separates from God. Sin will make you hide from the Lord, but it will end with the Lord hiding from you. It did in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord but then He drove them out! Similarly, with Cain, God said, “... now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand …”, and Cain responded, “Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid ….” And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD. And so it was with the Messiah; “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus, suffering the attack of the most powerful created being, without recourse to His own qualities of deity, and without divine help, cried, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt.27.46)
More Next Time
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