Hear the echo of the Cross a 1000 years before Christ! A commentary of Psalm 22 like you've never heard.
He is at a loss for words. Under the desert sun, with a band of dejected men they wearily travel to the East away from their hilly pastures they called home. He is David, not yet King, but the Anointed King to be. This he knows for a long time now - and now he remembers, as he has often, how as a teenage boy the revered Samuel came one day and poured oil on his head, to the astonishment of his six older brothers and father, but though years have come and gone he has failed to see his promised rise to the throne - Saul still sits on it and is even hunting him. Like dogs they scamper with heads bowed and no honor; even the villagers around them shoo and scatter them away, not even throwing them the bones of their consumed meals.
In desperation, David cries out,
"My God, my God - Why have you forsaken me!"
The cry rings out through the valley of the dry river bed, his men pause for but a second at David's cry but do not turn their heads for the woe they feel. But David is not crying to them...
David continues his lament. He feels abandoned, and so abased he calls himself a worm. Still the men carry on their business, be it slumber or the sharpening of their swords.
David goes on, his heart fails him as the thirst for lack of water shuts his mouth dry and he recounts how mighty "bulls" and "lions" charge in rage at him. Suddenly, David sees in his mind's eye something... an image that had been slowly forming in his heart for years but now comes at him with astonishing clarity. In the midst of his grief and sorrow, for a moment, his suffering merges with the vision of The Anointed One on the Cross... and so he speaks what he sees, not knowing or understanding exactly how;
"They pierced My hands and feet. I can count all My bones; they divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots."
What is that? He is crying out with the voice and words of Christ! He experiences the cross, as He sees Jesus - his own son to come... and somehow, he mysteriously realizes that Jesus is not exactly his descendant... He is his very Lord!
Yet still David's mouth speaks and he now sees the resurrection of Christ. He recounts how Jesus will rise among His brothers, He is alive... and at this David cries out to Him;
"Let your heart live forever!"
Now He is talking to Jesus!
"All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Yahowa (the LORD) and all the families of the nations will worship before You!"
No longer does he cry out to God, instead he turns and prophecies and beckons the others to praise God as his heart bursts with joy.
And then starts to sing of you and I...
"They will come and will declare His righteousness, to a people who will be born, that He has performed it!"
Wow! Just as Jesus cried "It is finished" so David recounts how "He has performed it!" This is the Righteousness of God... not that you have to perform or finish the deed... it is that Jesus has accomplished it all!
We who trust in Christ now, we are that mighty generation, called to declare His righteousness, one that is not achieved by man, but given only by the Son of Man - Jesus Christ.
You are this day and forever more righteous not because you have done right or avoided doing wrong - but because you have received it as a gift. And let no one convince you otherwise, your righteousness doesn't come and go! It's not something that you can lose and then have to ask God for it again. No, and a thousand times no. Righteousness is now your identity! Rejoice and rest in that truth today.
David Roiel
Subscribe today to get these posts by email and look for my frequent eBook giveaways!
In desperation, David cries out,
"My God, my God - Why have you forsaken me!"
The cry rings out through the valley of the dry river bed, his men pause for but a second at David's cry but do not turn their heads for the woe they feel. But David is not crying to them...
David continues his lament. He feels abandoned, and so abased he calls himself a worm. Still the men carry on their business, be it slumber or the sharpening of their swords.
David goes on, his heart fails him as the thirst for lack of water shuts his mouth dry and he recounts how mighty "bulls" and "lions" charge in rage at him. Suddenly, David sees in his mind's eye something... an image that had been slowly forming in his heart for years but now comes at him with astonishing clarity. In the midst of his grief and sorrow, for a moment, his suffering merges with the vision of The Anointed One on the Cross... and so he speaks what he sees, not knowing or understanding exactly how;
"They pierced My hands and feet. I can count all My bones; they divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots."
What is that? He is crying out with the voice and words of Christ! He experiences the cross, as He sees Jesus - his own son to come... and somehow, he mysteriously realizes that Jesus is not exactly his descendant... He is his very Lord!
Yet still David's mouth speaks and he now sees the resurrection of Christ. He recounts how Jesus will rise among His brothers, He is alive... and at this David cries out to Him;
"Let your heart live forever!"
Now He is talking to Jesus!
"All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Yahowa (the LORD) and all the families of the nations will worship before You!"
No longer does he cry out to God, instead he turns and prophecies and beckons the others to praise God as his heart bursts with joy.
And then starts to sing of you and I...
"They will come and will declare His righteousness, to a people who will be born, that He has performed it!"
Wow! Just as Jesus cried "It is finished" so David recounts how "He has performed it!" This is the Righteousness of God... not that you have to perform or finish the deed... it is that Jesus has accomplished it all!
We who trust in Christ now, we are that mighty generation, called to declare His righteousness, one that is not achieved by man, but given only by the Son of Man - Jesus Christ.
You are this day and forever more righteous not because you have done right or avoided doing wrong - but because you have received it as a gift. And let no one convince you otherwise, your righteousness doesn't come and go! It's not something that you can lose and then have to ask God for it again. No, and a thousand times no. Righteousness is now your identity! Rejoice and rest in that truth today.
David Roiel
The Green Leaf Blog-Discover your inheritance!
Subscribe today to get these posts by email and look for my frequent eBook giveaways!
Comments
Post a Comment