This beautiful psalm at once opens up to us a scene which, to every Christian, must be especially precious, namely, "the cross." It is the cross in connection with the awful question of sin-bearing, and the consequent forsaking of Christ, on the part of God. There are several ways in which we can look at the cross and the blessed One that hung there—ways which tell out the fullness of that scene which can never be forgotten in time or eternity. At the time of its transaction, though the face of Heaven was turned from that Holy Sufferer, yet, the thought of Heaven was concentrated there. Would that we knew how to tread while gazing at such a scene; and as we meditate upon this portion of the Psalms, may we do it in that spirit which becomes those who are absolutely dependent upon it for salvation.
I have said that there are various ways in which we can look at the cross, and the blessed Lord in connection therewith. At the least, there are five ways in which we can view the cross. In the first place then we see the expression of human guilt in the crucifying of the Lord Jesus Christ. From man's standpoint we see it to be but the unfolding of the human heart—the terrible disclosure of the contents of that heart- desperate wickedness! It is viewing the cross thus, we see the true state of ourselves naturally. It tells me what I am as a part of that old creation that failed to appreciate the holy Son of God when down here in perfect grace and love. It expressed its thoughts of God's Christ by putting Him on the cross as a malefactor. Oh! how awful is this disclosure of man—this expression of the state of his heart! It is here we see that not only is the fruit of the tree corrupt, but the tree itself. Man is that tree—a corrupt tree that cannot bring forth good fruit!
When the representatives of the human family raised up the Son of God upon the cross, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us," the trial of man was finished, and the verdict of Heaven was returned—the whole world standeth "guilty before God" (Rom. 3:1919Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans 3:19)). He now sees the first Adam creation an utterly ruined thing under condemnation. The Lord in view of the cross had decided this, when He said, "Now is the judgment of this world" (John 12:3131Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31)).
Second, we may view the cross as the scene of the expression of Satan's hatred and seeming triumph. There it was he bruised the heel of the seed of the woman; but his seeming triumph was to return upon his own head in everlasting defeat. If the judgment of the first Adam race was expressed there, the ground of Satan's defeat and his being banished from God's domain forever was found there also. Christ had said in view of the cross, the scene of His conflict with death, and him who had the power of death, "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John 12:3131Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31)). Ah! yes, the head of the serpent was bruised even at the time of his seeming triumph. Blessed be God, all the powers of darkness were foiled—yea, every foe of God and man was conquered when that Holy One gave His brow to the thorns, His hands to the nails, His side to the spear, and bowed His head and died! On the third day He stands in resurrection—the proof of His having vanquished all. All praise be to His peerless name!
Third, in Christ's going to the cross we see His perfect love and obedience to the Father expressed. How this is told out in the two following scriptures! "Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence." John 14:30, 3130Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. (John 14:30‑31). "Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, 0 God." Heb. 10:5-75Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Hebrews 10:5‑7). From the manger to the cross we see in the blessed Lord Jesus one continuous display of perfect love and obedience to the Father. He was in life a whole "meat offering" (Lev. 2), and in death—that death viewed as the expression of His love and obedience to God—"an offering... of a sweet savor unto the LORD" (Lev. 1). Redolent with frankincense was that sacrifice, and appreciated by God the Father with an infinite appreciation. The cross viewed in this way was the culminating point of Christ's love and obedience to God. He could go no further down in the path of self-surrender He had reached the lowest point—the lowest possible depth! And all this, as a matter of love and obedience, that the world might know that He loved the Father, and the heart of the Father might be satisfied—refreshed by such expression of love and obedience in man. The first Adam had failed in love and obedience; here was a recompense for it all, in the last Adam. God is satisfied: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. 2:9-119Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9‑11). This is the glorious answer of God to the love and obedience of His dear Son. He went down to the lowest depth; now He is raised to the highest possible height. Shall not our hearts exclaim, He is worthy! He is worthy!
Fourth, in looking at the cross we view it as the infinite expression of God's love to a guilty world. As it is written, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). Here God makes known to a guilty world the fact that He loves it. He gives them to see His heart! Precious display of God! Blessed making known the love of His heart!
Unasked for and undeserved, yet, it is seen exhibiting itself-flowing out in the gift of His Son. Unworthy man is the object toward which this love is shown—toward which it flowed in all its mighty fullness.
"Could I with ink the ocean fill,
Were every blade of grass a quill,
Were the whole world of parchment made,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky."
Creation might display His power and wisdom, and Providence the beneficence of His being toward His creatures; but it is in the gift of His only begotten Son we learn the fullness of His love toward man—guilty, lost, and undone man! God, standing upon the lofty height of His throne, viewed man in his ruin and misery; and, He loved him. His dear Son was given up to express that love so infinite and so boundless. God's delight from all eternity was given up as proof of that love. The Father would give that bosom companion up, that poor sinners might know that He loved them. Oh! how overwhelming is the thought of all this—this display of pure, infinite, and undeserved love on the part of an offended God. May we know its blessed actuating power in our souls; may it constrain us to yield ourselves unreservedly to Him who loved us even unto death!
Fifth, we view the cross where the great question of sin was settled between God and Christ, the sinner's Substitute. It is viewing the cross in that light, that we are brought back to the 22nd Psalm, where we see the blessed Lord in the circumstances of a sin-bearer. How solemn are the opening words: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? why art Thou so far from helping Me, and from the words of My roaring? 0 My God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent." Could anything be more solemn? From all eternity up to this moment there had not been a single bit of distance between God and His dear Son; but here all was changed. It was, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" and, "Thou hearest Me not." Why this change? Had the Son faltered? Had the Father's complacency in His Son diminished? Neither. What then? Sin was in question. Christ had taken the sinner's place; sins and iniquities were laid upon Him; He must be treated as the sinner (substitutionally); and until God was glorified about sin, there could be no communion between Him and the Holy Sufferer.
Let none for a moment suppose that God's delight in His Son has lessened in the least degree; that could never be; but rather, while sin was upon His Son, the very holiness of His nature demanded a suspension of communion, and a distance between them. It is here we learn the true nature and deserts of sin—what it is in itself, and what was needed to put it away.
When we speak of distance coming in between God and the blessed Lord on the cross, it was not that there was anything in Him personally to cause that distance. No, He was emphatically "the Holy One and the Just." He knew no sin, personally. It was that sin was imputed to Him, and iniquities laid upon Him, which caused the distance between the Father and the Son. He voluntarily took the place of infinite moral distance which belonged to the sinner, and there became subject to the wrath and judgment of God due to the sinner, and which He endured as made sin for him.
This is the subject of the 22nd Psalm—not that man is not seen, but God is referred to throughout—all is received as from Him. Bulls may beset Him, and dogs may encompass Him, but He receives death at God's hands; "And Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death." Man did his worst with God's Lamb; but as to atonement, man was not in the scene save as a spectator, then with no power to comprehend what was passing. He might behold the physical eruptions at the time, but was perfectly incapacitated to enter into the moral force of all that was going on in that place of infinite distance, between a holy God and the sinner's Substitute. In those three hours of darkness, none can tell, but God and the One who suffered, what was endured.
This was what the blessed Lord was contemplating when prostrated in the garden of Gethsemane He there was anticipating what He here is seen enduring. There the dark shadow of the cross and the outlines of that cup passed before Him, which brought Him into agony of soul; but here, He is overwhelmed in the horrors of the judgment and wrath found in that bitter cup. Alone, at infinite distance from God, and enwrapped in impenetrable darkness, He experienced the unutterable woes of the lowest pit, the darkness, and the deeps. God's wrath lay hard upon Him. He was afflicted with all His waves. The fierce wrath of a sin-hating God passed over Him. His terrors cut Him off (Psa. 88). Yes, it was then those words were fulfilled which said, "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts: all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me." Psalm 42:77Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. (Psalm 42:7). Such was God's holiness, and such was God's hatred of sin, that nothing short of all this could put it away, and open up a way for the blessing of salvation to flow out far and near. Infinite claims needed an infinite sacrifice to meet them. This was done when the lowly Lord Jesus Christ laid Himself on the sin-offering altar of Calvary. There sin was perfectly atoned for and put away; the curse of a broken law was borne; the justice of God was satisfied; the throne, majesty, and glory of God were all vindicated; yea, in a word, God was infinitely glorified about sin, man's need perfectly met, and the ground laid for the righteous carrying out of all the purposes and counsels of God.
Now the Holy Sufferer and forsaken One is heard from the horns of the unicorns; "Save Me from the lion's mouth: for Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorns." v. 21. And so it was, the work being finished, redemption accomplished, Satan vanquished, death robbed of its sting, and the grave of its victory, God raises the blessed One up from among the dead; and then that mighty Conqueror began immediately to dispense the spoils of the victory: "I will declare Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee." This was literally fulfilled when Jesus said to Mary after He arose, "Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17). Raised up from the low depths of that death, and standing in resurrection, it was His great joy to bring His people into a new relationship with Himself, and declare the Father's name in a way that it had never been declared before. Blessed family oneness, expressed in those words, "My Father, and your Father;... My God, and your God." He is not ashamed to call us brethren, saying, "I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee." Heb. 2:1212Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. (Hebrews 2:12).
Is there not something inconceivably precious in the thought that this was the first act after He arose from the dead—to declare the Father's name to His brethren, and to make them acquainted with the fact of their new place before God in family association with Himself? Hitherto His disciples had been members of a nation brought into outward nearness to God, individually the people of God (it was what characterized the people of God before the resurrection of Christ); but now they are brought into corporate oneness with the risen Lord Himself. How precious to know Jesus thus, and also to know Him as the leader of our praises in the assembly. How acceptable must be those praises to our God, that are tuned by His ever blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Would that we remembered this on every occasion when gathered together to celebrate His praise; how high and holy our strains would be, and how sweet would be the flowing forth of that which God delights to accept from grateful hearts.
But, it is not the province of our psalm to introduce us into the glories belonging to the Church, and the calling and privileges of the same. In fact, the Church is not the subject of the psalm; it simply states in the 22nd verse, Christ speaking prophetically of Himself, that He would declare the Father's name to His brethren, and sing praises in the midst of the congregation, which is interpreted as the Church (Heb. 2:1212Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. (Hebrews 2:12)), and then passes on with what the psalm is occupied with: Israel's restoration and blessing; and the nations' and the earth's blessing in the millennial period yet to come, "And the LORD shall be King over all the earth: in that day there shall be one LORD, and His name one." Zech. 14:99And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. (Zechariah 14:9). When it shall be said, "Ye that fear the LORD, praise Him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and fear Him, all ye the seed of Israel." Psalm 22:2323Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. (Psalm 22:23). This evidently takes us into the age to come-not into eternity, for nationalities cease there, but into the age to come, when Christ shall
have taken away the joint heirs to glory, and have returned with them to judge the living, restored Israel, and those saved of the nations; when Satan will be bound, and the "earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." Hab. 2:1414For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14).
It is this that our psalm points to, from verse 23 to the end. And how interesting to know that this present sin-blighted scene shall be so relieved and refreshed under the righteous sway of its rightful King. Not only will God bring the now scattered tribes of Israel from the north and the south, from the east and the west (Isa. 43:5, 65Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; (Isaiah 43:5‑6)), and establish them in their own land, and make Jerusalem the joy of the whole earth, He will also bless the nations, and cause them to serve and worship the King—the Lord of Hosts that reigns in Mount Zion. "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's: and He is the governor among the nations." And what then? "My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear Him." Not now the Church, as in verse 22, but the mighty millennial gatherings, when the center of the nations' and Israel's gatherings shall be "Zion,... the city of the great King," and the King Himself the object of universal adoration. Blessed time! Blessed release from Satan's power and trail!
Then shall the waves of blessing roll forth from the grand center, and which shall not expend themselves until they have reached the utmost limits of the King's vast domains. His kingdom shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth; and the tide of blessing shall wash the utmost limits. Not then the waves of demoralizing evil, but those of wondrous, ennobling, and exalting blessing, which shall result in the acknowledgment of the supremacy and worthiness of the then reigning One.
Blessed are the purposes of God! He will not stay until all is found in blessed acknowledgment of that once lowly Lord Jesus; for it is the mystery of His will that He has so graciously made known to us, "That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him." Eph. 1:1010That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:10). God has purposed that His dear Son, the once rejected and cast-out Jesus, should be the grand center of heavenly and earthly glory, that every nation of the earth should worship Him (Zech. 14:1616And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16)), and that the angels of God should be ascending and descending upon Him (John 1:5151And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. (John 1:51)). Thus will God honor the One who honored Him even to death!
But in contemplating this vast scene of future and coming glory, we do well to remember that it is the fruit of that death of the cross that God's blessed Son endured. All is based upon and flows from that death, and the atonement made by it. There can be no blessing for the fallen race and a sin-blighted creation, apart from the cross. That must be endured first, with the cup-draining and forsaking; and then blessings infinite and universal can flow forth without a hindrance; yea, the whole scene shall exult in blessing under the righteous scepter of the King of kings.
Thus does this wonderful psalm introduce us to not only the ground of blessing; namely, the forsaking and wrath-drinking of Christ upon the cross; but it also spreads before us the whole scene of future millennial blessing and glory, the precious fruit of that cross endured by Him. Then, not only shall the heavens adore and worship Him, but everything beneath the sun shall bow down before Him and own Him Lord of all.
O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou once rejected but now enthroned One, Thou art worthy, Thou art worthy of all!
"Hark! the sound of Jubilee,
Loud as mighty thunders roar,
Or the fullness of the sea
When it breaks upon the shore!
Hallelujah! for the Lord
God omnipotent shall reign;
Hallelujah! let the word
Echo round the earth and main."