The Rabbit Hole

Psalm 22

Sometimes when we think about Christ it is easy to think of Him only as divine and we forget that He was also human.  It is hard to understand how undiminished deity and true humanity can go together but it is precisely where these two streams converge that gives meaning to everything. It’s hard to fathom His Impeccability, how a perfect deity could actually be tempted.  We forget that He was also man, that He felt tired, hungry and thirsty.  He felt sadness and pain.

We read about His prayer in the garden, Luke 22: 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

It is His humanity that makes Him qualified to be our King and our Judge.  To truly understand and love us.  In Matthew 27 it said that while there was a time of darkness before Jesus died on the cross he cried with a loud voice,  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  At that time, Psalms were not known by numbers but were titled according to their beginning verse.  It’s likely that Jesus was reciting the entire Psalm entitled, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” which would be what we know as 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^[a] 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^[b]—
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^[c] 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^[d] shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD!
May your hearts live for ever!
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.