Psalm 22:31 says: “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” Done what? It is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It is what Jesus has done for us! Psalm 22 is known as the crucifixion Psalm. There are prophetic statements made in this Psalm. They were penned by King David about 1000 years before Christ’s crucifixion took place. His crucifixion is recorded in all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Other prophecies in Psalm 22 have also been fulfilled, and some have yet to be fulfilled. The entire gospel is presented in Psalm 22, thus it ends with the phrase: “… that he hath done this.” In Psalm 22:1-22 we will take a look at the crucifixion. First, we see that Jesus was forsaken of His Father when He bore our sin on Calvary’s cross. Psalm 22:1 tells us: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” We find the “words of His roaring” in all of the verses of Psalm 22. In verses 1-5, He states that God could deliver Him. God did not deliver Jesus from the cross because Jesus had to bear our sins on that cross to make a way for us to be saved.
I believe verses 9-12 could be Jesus’ thoughts as He hung on the cross. He thought all the way back to His virgin birth. We see His humanity. In Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, we find those well-known words Jesus cried while hanging on the cross. On the cross, Jesus was forsaken by His heavenly Father and He was despised by the people. Psalm 22:6-8 says: “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” It is amazing! The Gospels record the crucifixion exactly as Psalm 22 prophesied. Verses 14-15 detail His physical condition. Verse 16 tells us: “… they pierced my hands and my feet.” Verse 18 says: “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Because our sins must be exposed for what they are, Christ had to suffer the humiliation of hanging naked on the cross. He did it all for us! It ought to make us want to live for Him!
Psalm 22:22 transitions from the crucifixion to His resurrection. It says: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” Immediately after Jesus resurrected, He told Mary Magdalene in John 20:17: “… but go to my brethren, and say unto them…”. Jesus considered His disciples, and other Jewish believers, His brethren. When talking about Christ’s resurrection in I Corinthians 15:6, the Apostle Paul tells us: “After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once…”. Next, we see the early church, which was mainly made up of Jewish believers. Verse 22: “… in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” Verse 23: “Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.” Then, we see the entire church (Jews and Gentiles) in verse 25: “My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation…”. In verse 27, we see the great missionary movement of the church age. The Gospel of Christ has gone around the world. In verses 28 and 29, we see the Lord’s kingdom. Finally, in verses 30 and 31, we see the message of the cross. The Gospel has been preached from generation to generation, and it will continue to be preached. Who has done this? None other than Jesus Christ our Lord.
Leave A Comment