PSALM 22 unquestionably speaks of the cross of Christ. David by no means relates his own experience when speaking of being forsaken of God and not heard. In all his troubles and adversities he found God very near to him, as the books of Samuel show; indeed, the deeper his distress, the sweeter his realization of the presence and grace of God. But Psalms 22. speaks of a holy man forsaken! It is Christ. The Spirit here testifies beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and does not omit the glories that follow (1 Peter 1:1111Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. (1 Peter 1:11)).
Psa. 69 speaks with equal fullness of the sufferings of the blessed One; but the difference between the two psalms is very great. Psa. 69 at the close calls for judgment upon the ungodly, “Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them;” while on the contrary, Psa. 22 after the woe is past, speaks of blessing flowing all around. Why the difference? Simply this. The one views the cross more particularly from the human standpoint, as the culmination of human wickedness, for which man is responsible; the other gives the divine side, the cross as an atonement for sin. That blessed work being done, blessing can flow.
There are three circles of blessing; “my brethren,” in which we have a part (vs. 22); “the seed of Jacob” (vs. 23); and “all the ends of the world” (vs. 27). What wonders has the cross wrought, what glory for God, what blessing for men! Apart from it there could be no blessing for any; but in virtue of it God is able righteously to call souls into the enjoyment of heavenly blessing, as at the present time; and others into earthly bliss in the day that is coming.
But what has struck me so forcibly in the last verse is, that the cross will be the theme presently below as well as above. It is of millennial days that we read in the words, “They shall come and declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” We can readily understand that the cross will be the theme of praise and worship above. There we shall sing, “Thou art worthy, for thou avast slain.” Our hearts will never tire of it. We shall learn more of its depths when we see Him and are with Him. Our hearts will burn within us. It will be an endless theme— “that he hath done this.”
But how wonderful that it will be thus, after its own manner, below! Here, where He was cast out and crucified, where His blessed name is still disowned, it will be said, “that he hath done this.”
The cross is the center of everything. By it God has been glorified as nowhere else, and it is the basis of all blessing both for heaven and for earth. Zechariah 12 and Isaiah 53 show that the tribes of Israel will yet learn the true meaning of the cross, and will be brought beneath its shelter; others too, who have not Abraham to their father, will learn somewhat of its worth.
When all are at rest beneath the beneficent sway of the Son of Man, when the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of Jehovah, then it will be said, “that he hath done this.”
W.W.F.