As we considered Jesus’ crucifixion, on Days 22 and 23, we read the first half of Psalm 22. We saw how this song gave Jesus lyrics for the horrible experience of spiritual forsakenness and bodily crucifixion. Ross describes how a psalm written hundreds of years before Jesus might be both true for its writer and speak beyond itself. He writes, “[T]o Christians the psalm finds its divinely intended meaning in Jesus Christ. How this worked was that the Spirit of God inspired the psalmist in the writing of this psalm so that he used many vivid and at times hyperbolic expressions to describe his own suffering that would ultimately be true in a greater way of David’s greater son, the Messiah” (1: 548).

 

Remarkably, this bleak psalm abruptly turns to the joy of being rescued.  Beginning with urgent pleas for deliverance, the psalmist employs vivid  metaphors for the enemy: “Save me from the thrusting sword, the snarling dog and the ravenous lion!” Then, abruptly, in the middle of a verse, without explanation, the psalmist declares himself rescued. The verb tenses shift from imperative (as in, “Do this!”) to the present perfect (“It has been done”). David’s despair of life itself suddenly becomes a passion to make known the LORD’s saving power among the people. Today, we’ll see how this second part of Psalm 22 has also been attributed to Jesus in the New Testament.

In Psalm 22, David’s enemies seem to be mocking and torturing him to death, but the LORD hears and answers his plea before it’s too late. Jesus prays the forsakenness of verse 1 from the cross, but his Father does not spare him from death. This is the agonizing part of the agonizing plan. Jesus will die for the sake of the world he came to save. His deliverance will occur, but not until the third day. Then the Father declares that it is not too late. He sends forth the Spirit to raise the Son, reclothing him in a resurrection body. Our redemption is accomplished. 

 

Hebrews describes this transition from Jesus’ passion to triumph: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7). The Father heard Jesus all along. He indeed saved his Son from death, but not until Jesus had passed through death, tasting it for all of us. 

 

The sudden change described in Psalm 22:21 occurs for Jesus between Good Friday and Easter. Jesus dies in this world. His voice sounds no more. Then it does. Jesus departs into the silence of death on Friday and then blinks awake in new life on Easter. How soon, alive in that cave, does he finish the psalm he started on the cross? Perhaps he wonders, “What do I do now?” Then he prays in his joy, “I will tell of your name to my brothers!”

 

John’s account helps us make this link. After appearing to Mary, Jesus instructs her, “Go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). He has healed the breach between God and humanity. Jesus creates in himself one new man (Ephesians 2:15). He stays fully human, still our brother in the flesh. He has now opened the way for us to participate in a new intimacy with his Father.

 

Jesus prays Psalm 22 even now, “In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you.” Jesus is present to us now by his Holy Spirit who resides in the heart of every believer. He is present by his Spirit whenever two or three (or three thousand) gather in his name (Matthew 18:20). So at every worship service, the real leader of praise is Jesus! He created our access to the Father. He receives worship as the eternal Son of God. He offers worship as the continuing son of humanity. Jesus even now raises a joyful voice, a lamenting voice, an interceding voice with us. Poet Malcolm Guite describes this mystery of making prayer in and through Jesus, “I sing my psalm in Christ who sings in me” (40).