Psalm 22 describes the sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth on a Roman cross. The Psalm begins with the cry of dereliction, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (22:1)—words we hear from Jesus’s mouth while he hangs on the cross, arms stretched wide (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). Despised and rejected, mocked and mutilated, he says of himself, “I am a worm and not a man” (22:6-8). His enemies surround him, his strength dries up, his body declines (22:14-18). Suffering. Asphyxiating. Tortured. He finally breaths his last and dies on a Roman cross like so many before him.
And yet this is no ordinary death. Psalm 22 was written around a thousand years before the actual event of Christ’s crucifixion and death, reminding us that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). This was planned. Who would plan such a thing? The One dying. Why? Because this is the penalty that we deserve for our rebellion against the God who created us, and his dying in our place is the only way that we can be forgiven, reconciled, and saved. As a fourth century pastor named Ambrose once said about Psalm 22, “[Christ] became all these things so that he might dull the sting of our death, that he might take away our state of slavery, that he might wipe away our curses, sins, and reproaches.” He became a slave so that you might be free. He suffered so that you might flourish. He died so that you might live. Therefore, on this Good Friday, remember him, turn to him, and worship him as your Savior and Redeemer (22:27).
- Pastor Garrison Greene