Psalm 22 – Through Suffering into Promise
By Bunni Pounds
*This blog is part of our weekly, virtual Bible Study through the book of Psalms. For information on how to participate, please visit this page.
Psalm 22 is a powerful story of suffering and promise – something that we all understand if we have lived on this earth for any length of time.
We need to look at Psalm 22 on two tracks to get the full color of what the Word of God wants to give us in this beautiful Psalm.
This is the eternal truth that Psalm 22 speaks to us.
Romans 8:18 says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
First this Psalm is the prophetic picture of our Messiah, Jesus, suffering, dying, and receiving praise from the nations of the earth as He overcomes; and secondly this passage is an encouragement to us when we experience suffering and pain that a good future is coming and there are eternal rewards in that suffering as we come to realize that “a posterity will serve Him.” (verse 30)
Let’s start…
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?” (verse 1)
Instantly when we read this verse if we have been around the Bible for any length of time – we recognize these as the words of Jesus as he was suffering on the cross. He experienced hell – separation for the Father - and cried out these words of the Psalmist as a prophetic statement in His pain.
Can you imagine as close as Jesus was to the Father being completely cut off? He felt nothing but emptiness, loneliness, and loss.
But even amid that moment – we know there was HOPE in the future. Jesus knew it too.
In Matthew 12:40, Jesus said before the cross - “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
John 2:19, “Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
If Jesus knew Psalm 22 well (and I believe He did) – He knew He could trust in His Father God even though He could not feel or see Him.
“But You are holy,
Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
Our fathers trusted in You;
They trusted, and You delivered them.
They cried to You, and were delivered;
They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.” (verses 3-5)
All throughout this Psalm – we see the picture of what happened on the day of the crucifixion. It should be a huge faith building passage of scripture for us because we see the consistency of the Word of God. We see how the Godhead decided to redeem us back even back in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned and separated themselves from God.
God always had a plan and it revealed here in Psalms 22.
Read this…
”For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.” (verses 16-18)
Wow – incredibly accurate on what happened to Jesus that fateful day when He gave up His life for us.
He was forsaken, so we do not have to live forsaken.
He was pierced, so we could be redeemed from iniquity.
He was looked at and stared at – so we could be accepted by the Father all the days of our lives.
Then we see the ending victory in the glorification of Jesus here at the end of the Psalm.
“All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the Lord’s,
And He rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth
Shall eat and worship;” (verses 27-29a)
The suffering of Jesus gave us the PROMISE – the kingdom becoming the Lord’s and His rule over the nations of the earth. I love the statement that the “prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship.” To me – that sounds like the perfect living. After the fasting and the suffering – comes the eating and the worshipping. And most importantly – the nearness of God is manifest on the earth.
When we think about our own lives in the middle of walking through suffering – we can get some much hope from this Psalm.
Here are some of the verses that stood out to me.
“I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It has melted within Me.” (verse 14)
This is an incredibly brutal picture of a heart that has experienced great pain. Some of us have lost children or loved ones, had incredible failures in business or our personal lives, and we have had our heart feel like it was melting like wax.
For me, those moments were when my father died of a brain tumor at the early age of 72 and when I lost a Congressional race that I was sure I would win. I was devastated in those moments – each a different pain in each different season.
Have you been there in a place of such deep pain that you feel like your heart is melting within you?
In those times, it is hard to imagine that you will ever recover and that you will ever be able to move forward. It feels like you have been forsaken, even by God. But it is not the truth.
Here is the truth that we can use - even as it was with our Savior as He suffered.
“But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me;
O My Strength, hasten to help Me!
Deliver Me from the sword,
My precious life from the power of the dog.
Save Me from the lion’s mouth
And from the horns of the wild oxen!
You have answered Me.” (verse 19-21)
The statement “You have answered Me” speaks volumes about the nature of who God is. He always answers – it just might not come in the moment that we think we need Him to speak.
When we feel like God has forsaken us - He hears us, He answers, He uses our suffering for this glory, and then we see (maybe even years later) His faithfulness and victory from these seasons in our lives.
For my family – I have seen the fruit of the hardest seasons producing so much growth in my kids.
This is the promise that I love at the end of Psalm 22.
“A posterity shall serve Him.
It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation,
They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this.” (verse 30-31)
Because of Jesus’ suffering – the “one new Man” of Jews and Gentiles together as Christians was born. This group of radical believers who love God, serve Him, and raise the next generation to love Him even more is our hope during suffering.
God is building His CHURCH and the “gates of hell will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
The CHURCH is born and strengthened in adversity and suffering and the CHURCH comes into its own resurrection, even as Christ suffered.
If you feel like you are in a place of suffering and forsakenness – know that God hears you, He will answer, and He will fulfill His promises to you and your family.
There is HOPE for our future – through suffering into promise.
We will declare His righteousness and say together – He has done this!
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