If you will read Psalm 22, you will find detailed there the sufferings of the Lord Jesus as the smitten Shepherd in the day of His great sorrow. It is a psalm of the crucifixion.
The prophecy of Zechariah, uttered centuries before Christ came, was at length fulfilled—"Awake, 0 sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd." Zech. 13:77Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. (Zechariah 13:7).
There was no voice to arrest the uplifted arm as there had been in the earlier day when Abraham on Mount Moriah lifted up his hand to slay his son.
It was a solemn hour—an hour that stood alone. There had been none like it, nor will there ever be. To that hour the eye of the redeemed shall look back unwearyingly. At the remotest point to which our thoughts can carry us in the far-off eternity of the future it shall be as an event of yesterday. It shall stand alone in its solemn glory as long as eternity exists. Never shall it be forgotten, and every remembrance of it shall fill the heart with adoring wonder.
Many sorrows were in the smitten Shepherd's cup, which human hands placed there. Great sorrows which He felt as no fallen child of Adam ever could. The violence and rage of brutal men pursued Him. Strong bulls of Bashan, as He terms them, beset Him round. They gaped upon Him with their mouths as a ravening and roaring lion. There dogs compassed Him; the assembly of the wicked enclosed Him; they pierced His hands and His feet. On these we linger not, but hasten on to speak rather of that greater sorrow, and of those profounder sufferings which dwarf all others—sufferings which were the result of God's hand being against Him on account of sin—atoning sufferings, without which the whole human family would have been forever lost.
Men of genius have assayed to paint Calvary on canvas. Their assaying such a task shows how poor and far astray their thoughts of Calvary must have been. A cross, an agonizing form thereon, a dying thief on either side, the mocking priests, the weeping women, and the watching crowd, these they may depict. But where is God? They have left Him out, and He it was who dealt with Jesus there. How could pencil picture Him, or the darkness, the desolation, the spiritual agony of the blessed Lord, when all God's waves and billows went over Him, and when high above the shouts of mingled hate and triumph arose the piercing cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
Into those solitudes we may not enter. Shrouded in eternal mystery the deeper sufferings of the smitten Shepherd must remain; no mortal can fathom them. Standing like children on the shores of that dark, lone sea we may look across the wide waste of waters, but we know not what is beyond; it is hid from our eyes.
From the horns of the unicorns the smitten Shepherd was heard (v. 21), and then we see Him on the resurrection ground, and hear Him speak of "My brethren" and of "Thy name."
Then by Mary of Magdala, who stood weeping at His empty tomb, the risen Savior sent that wondrous message—"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). Mine and yours.
And this message in its blessedness far exceeds mere clearance from guilt, and our being sheltered from judgment by the cross of the smitten Shepherd. Thank God, our sins have been put away, and so put away that in every respect of them God has been glorified. Let no one question that. He who doubts it, doubts the efficacy of that precious blood shed in death for us at Calvary. On that work alone our eternal hopes depend. How fully God has been satisfied therewith is shown in the resurrection and glorification of Christ. And when the Lord appeared in the midst of His disciples on the evening of the day on which He arose from among the dead, He saluted them with words of peace—"Peace be unto you"—and He showed unto them His hands and His side. Peace was their portion now, and it is ours no less than theirs—peace made by the blood of His cross. Can anyone bring up the question of our sins again here or hereafter? He who would do so must first impeach the Savior's finished work, and disprove its atoning merits. "By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified"; and our sins and iniquities, God declares, He will remember no more.
But "My brethren" and "Thy name" disclose a wider range of blessing, and speak of a place and love which had been His alone, but which He would now share with others. Never had He so spoken of them before. But now that the work of redemption had been accomplished in His cross, He, as man risen from the dead, associates them with Himself in the closest and tenderest way. Beautifully is this expressed in Hebrew 2 where the Spirit quotes from this psalm of suffering: "For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee." And in the day of glory that is coming, He will take His place as first-born among many brethren (Rom. 8:2929For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)). How this tells of our present and eternal identification with Christ the Son of God's love. How powerfully it appeals to our affections; and what an estimate it gives of that atoning work in virtue of which the exceeding riches of God's grace can be thus displayed.
And not only are we before the face of His God and ours as His brethren, standing there in Him, the last Adam, in all the infinite worth of that work which He wrought as the smitten Shepherd, made, as it is said, "the righteousness of God in Him"; but He has declared unto us the Father's name—"My Father, and your Father." How far beyond deliverance from judgment this carries us, those whose hearts have by the Spirit entered into it alone can tell. It cannot be learned from books; it must be experimentally known. Interesting it is to observe that the very name of "Abba, Father," which the blessed Lord used in Gethsemane, is that which the Spirit puts in the mouth of each believer now (Rom. 8:1515For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (Romans 8:15)). Brethren, what nearness to God is ours! What a place! Ourselves too the objects of the Father's love—loved as Christ is loved (John 17:23, 2623I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)
26And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26)).
But let us not forget that if His place is ours, His relationship as man to the Father ours, the love wherewith He is loved ours, and ours too His glory by-and-by, let us not, I say, forget that He it is who has brought us into it, and that we owe it all to Him who gave Himself for us. His was the toil, His was the shame, His was the suffering, His was the death. If we are the redeemed, He is the Redeemer; if we are saved, He is the Savior; if we are the sheep, He is the Shepherd; if we are the many brethren, He is the First-born. The glory then of Redeemer, Savior, Shepherd, First-born, is His, and His alone. Who can share that glory with Him? None. We love to think that it must be so. Who that knows Him would pluck a laurel from His brow to grace his own? Were anyone so base, all heaven would cry him down.
Other streams of blessing follow in this psalm as the fruit of the smitten Shepherd's work. The seed of Jacob shall fear and glorify Him, and all the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord. It is sweet to think of this. In the day of Israel's restoration, Jehovah "will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." Zech. 12:1010And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10). Then they will know that He was wounded for their transgressions, and bruised for their iniquities; that the chastisement of their peace was upon Him, and that by His stripes they are healed (Isa. 53). And then will be fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet:
"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jer. 31:31-3431Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: 33But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31‑34).
From among restored Israel, God will raise up His messengers who will declare His glory among the Gentiles (Isa. 66:1919And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. (Isaiah 66:19)). Their mission shall be fruitful in blessing. "Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD." Zech. 8:2222Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. (Zechariah 8:22). But we refrain from entering into this deeply interesting subject, as it would carry us beyond the limits of our present paper. Our psalm describes these widening circles which find their center in the cross of Christ, "My brethren," "the seed of Jacob," and "the ends of the world." Each shall have its appointed glory; for the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. In them all the Lord shall be glorified, and the sufferings of the smitten Shepherd shall be a subject of wonder and praise throughout eternity.