For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psalm 22:1-18  The Cry of the Messiah (1)

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the one Israel praises.
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 ‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say,
    ‘let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
    since he delights in him.’

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
    you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,
    for trouble is near
    and there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls surround me;
    strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
    open their mouths wide against me.
14 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.
15 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.

16 Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.

A. Find Out:    

1. What does David feel about God? v.1,2
2. Yet what does he declare? v.3-5
3. What does he feel about himself? v.6-8
4. But what does he remember? v.9,10
5. What does he feel about his position? v.12,13,16
6. How is he actually feeling? v.11,14,15,17,18

B. Think:

1. How would you summarise David’s state?
2. When do we feel like this?
3. How do verses here describe Jesus on the Cross?

C. Comment:

    First let us consider this Psalm through David’s eyes, for he wrote it. He feels alone and isolated, God seems distant, people are against him and he feels a nobody. How often do we feel like that I wonder? Observe also that David again and again reminds himself of the truth to maintain his faith.

    Second, let’s view this Psalm as a prophetic psalm that speaks of the ordeal of the Messiah. Jesus used the words of verse 1 on the Cross to draw our attention and understanding to what he was going through. There on the Cross, as he took our sin upon himself, he felt totally isolated from God his Father. The sin of the world came between him and his Father and for the first time in eternity, Father and Son were separated and the Son felt all the anguish of a sin bearer. Around the Cross were those who mocked him, around the Cross were the hordes of hell who tormented him, reviled him in the unseen world. Not only that, his physical condition is anguish as his bones are torn and stretched in the awfulness of crucifixion. And while this all goes on the soldiers draw lots for who will have his clothing. Read it again in Matthew 27:35-46 and then reread these verses again to catch something of the awful reality of what was taking place.

D. Application?

1. To earn our salvation meant Jesus being isolated from his Father.
2. On the Cross Jesus took physical and spiritual pain as the punishment for our sins.

Passage: Psalm 22:19-31  The Cry of the Messiah (2)

19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
    my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
    save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will declare your name to my people;
    in the assembly I will praise you.
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you descendants of Jacob, honour him!
    Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 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.

25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
    before those who fear you I will fulfil my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek the Lord will praise him –
    may your hearts live for ever!

27 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,
28 for dominion belongs to the Lord
    and he rules over the nations.

29 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.
30 Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness,
    declaring to a people yet unborn:
    He has done it!

A. Find Out:    

1. What now does David ask? v.19-21
2. With whom will he praise the Lord? v.22
3. Who will praise God? v.23,26 And why? v.24
4. Who will bow down before Him? v.27,29
5. Why will they do that? v.28
6. Who will hear about the Lord? v.30,31

B. Think:

1. How did David come through to a place of faith in his trials?
2. What was he able to say that he would do?
3. Why was he able to say this?

C. Comment:

     After David declared his anguish he now cries out to God for deliverance. Herein is wisdom! A sign of maturity is not that we never get in trying circumstances but that in them we cry out to the Lord.

     Then having cried out to the Lord faith starts to break in. There is no indication that the Lord HAS delivered him yet but David does sense that the Lord HAS heard him (v.26), and that is enough. When we know God hears we know we can rest in His love and wisdom. In faith David now affirms that he will declare his praise for God before the faithful, God-fearing people, in the assembly that meets before God. David knows in his heart, despite the awful circumstances, that God will provide, for God is the Lord of all the earth and is particularly concerned for the “poor”. He knows in his heart that God will rule supreme over all people and all circumstances and future generations will be told about the wonderful works of God.

     Now we said previously that this is a Messianic prophetic psalm speaking of Jesus on the Cross. In that case it also shows us Jesus who held firm to his sure knowledge of God his Father, confident that he would be brought through the ordeal and confident that it would all be to God’s glory.

D. Application?

1. On the Cross, Jesus did not deny His Father, but trusted in Him.
2. See Jesus’ last words in Luke 23:46