Since it's Good Friday and Easter weekend, I feel slightly inadequate to write a good Good Friday post. I even debated not writing one, but then decided that I'd just share a few thoughts that have been on my heart, specifically regarding Psalm 22.
Because we all know that God's words, are far better than any of mine or yours or anyone. We all know that what we should be focusing on this week - and all year round really - is God, and worshiping Him.
And I think Psalm 22 is the perfect Psalm for Good Friday.
I could do a passage from one of the Gospels, or I could do something from Revelation - or really, any part of the Bible because, it all points to Him. It's all His story and His words and for His glory.
But Psalm 22 is a Psalm that I've been reading a lot lately and I think it points so beautifully to Jesus' death and resurrection, even though it was written hundreds of years before. A lot of people can recite Psalm 23 or a host of other Psalms, but, at least in my experience, Psalm 22 is often overlooked.
And yet it's the Psalm that Jesus quoted on the cross.
He said the first line, and because the people listening often had the entire Old Testament memorized, they would have instantly filled in the rest. So as you're reading it, imagine what the Jewish people, watching Jesus up on the cross, would have been thinking.
Imagine how Jesus just saying the first line would have impacted them. Imagine what it would have made them think about.
Psalm 22
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.
12 Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
17 I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD!
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
28 For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that
he has done it.
He Has Done It
David wrote that hundreds of years before Jesus was even born - and yet it has so many similarities and references to Jesus on the cross.
I bolded the lines/parts that are blatantly obvious illusions to Him on the cross, but when you dig deeper there's even more.
But the most powerful part is that last line that says he has done it. Jesus has died for our sins. He has risen from the dead and saved us all. He has given His very life for ours.
He has done it.
And David wrote that before he knew who the Messiah would be or when He would come. He wrote that trusting in God's promises and knowing that He would come save us. The nations of the earth will proclaim his righteousness.
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.
When Jesus said My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? on the cross, He was declaring that He has done it.
On that cross, it was finished. He did it. He saved us.
Nothing we can do can save us, or doom us. Nothing we do can put us in Heaven, or keep us from His salvation because He finished it.
That Good Friday that didn't look so good and was dark and terrible and full of death, it was finished because He did it.
So as you're going through your week and Easter and living through Spring, remember that He's got this. He's got you and your family and your life - and He loves you. You can trust Him.
It is finished. He has done it.
And if you're a Christian, He has saved you.