Prayers Of The Suffering Messiah

by TOMS, A.F. | Category: Old Testament Insights Into Prayer | Aug 2003

One of our own poets has written:

The words that He spake, the deeds that He wrought,

In the Gospels the record stands,

But His innermost grief, and His innermost thought

Are only made known in the Psalms.

(J. Mawhinney)

Recognizing the truth of these words we turn to some of the Messianic psalms to reflect on the thoughts and prayers of the Saviour's heart as He undertook the great work of our redemption. We begin:

When He came into the world

Verses 5 to 8 of Psalm 40 express the thoughts of the Lord Jesus as well as of David, as Hebrews 10:5 makes clear. There is an interesting variation between the two scriptures. The writer to the Hebrews was guided by the Holy Spirit to quote from the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. In the Septuagint 'A body You have prepared for Me' is substituted for 'My ears You have opened' in the Hebrew text of the Psalm. In his Expository Dictionary, W.E. Vine comments helpfully that the thought in both scriptures is of preparation for obedience. The opened ear to receive the Father's word and His holy body through which that word was to be obeyed are thus linked together, 'Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:

"...'Behold, I have come -

In the volume of the book it is written of Me -

To do Your will, O God.'"'

We are on sacred ground, listening in to the Son's most intimate communion with His Father. He knew so well that the sacrifices and offerings of the old covenant could never take away sin. God had ordained them as a temporary measure, but He had no pleasure in them, 'For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins' (Heb.10:4). 'Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:"...'Behold I have come...'".' He came to do what the blood of bulls and goats could never do. In the wonderful purpose of God it pointed forward to the one great sacrifice for sins for ever, and in that the Father found infinite pleasure. The Son found pleasure in it too, for in the volume of the book it was written of Him that He delighted to do the Father's will; not merely that He bowed to it, but He delighted in it.

This was not the first time, of course, that They had communed together about the redemption of the human race. In the eternal counsels of deity, before the volume of the book was written, or ever earth's foundations were laid, the three Persons of the Godhead had decreed in their 'determined counsel and foreknowledge' that the Son should give Himself to become the sin-bearer through the offering of His body once for all. This He had now come to do. The body prepared became the body offered in sacrifice, and again the psalms come to our help in understanding something of what it cost Him

As He hung upon the cross

Psalm 22 is clearly recognized as a psalm of the cross. Eleven times the gospel writers either quote directly from it or refer to statements in it. His physical suffering at the hands of cruel men is plainly foretold; the excruciating pain through suspension on a cross by pierced hands and feet, bones wrenched out of joint, thirst so intense that His tongue cleaved to His jaws. It is all there in the psalm including the mental anguish as priests and elders hurled their cruel jibes at Him, shooting out their lips and shaking their heads in derision as they mocked His trust in God.

It is remarkable how much of David's own experience is used by the Holy Spirit to reveal the intensity of the Lord's sufferings. But the psalm takes us beyond David's experience to suffering which could only have been true of the Lord Jesus. It seems as though His holy mind was going over the words of this very psalm as He hung upon the tree. David was one of the nation's fathers who were never forsaken when they called on God in times of distress. 'But I am a worm, and no man; He cried, A reproach of men, and despised of the people. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?' As another of our poets has movingly expressed it,

Out from the darkness rings an awful cry,

The lonely, orphan cry of suffering love,

That reached the very heart of God on high,

Yet brought no answer from the Throne above. (Albert G. Jarvis)

Did His cry really reach His Father's heart? We believe it did, for 'God was in Christ' the scripture says, 'reconciling the world to Himself' (2 Cor.5:19). He was a 'Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief' and throughout His sojourn on earth, bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows, His Father had ever been with Him. But there was no sorrow to be compared with what He endured as He bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Pet. 2:24). It was as the three hours of darkness drew to a close that His anguished cry rang out,

"My God! My God! Why dost Thou Me forsake?"

Wrung from His soul by sorrow's deepest woe;

This is the sacrifice the Lord must make,

Here is the depth to which His soul must go. (A.G.J.)

'Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD' (Ps.130:1). In another psalm of the cross, Psalm 69, eight times quoted in the New Testament, He said, 'the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me' (v.9) and the apostle Paul quotes these words in Romans 15:3, attributing them to the Lord Jesus, to remind us that even Christ did not please Himself. The strong crying and tears of Gethsemane's garden gave place to the groans of Calvary's tree. 'Reproach has broken my heart, And I am full of heaviness', He said. From a broken heart He cried,

'Deliver me �

Let me be delivered from those who hate me,

And out of the deep waters �

Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good;

Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies' (vv.14,16).

Thank God, He was heard for His godly fear and the One who was able to deliver Him from death (in the sense of 'out of' it) raised Him by His mighty power and seated Him

High on heaven's throne

Thankfully and wonderfully these two psalms of the Cross, which tell so vividly and poignantly of the sufferings of the Christ tell also of the glories that followed. With wondering hearts we reflect on the glory and majesty of our Redeemer as He rose from the grave and took His seat on high. David rejoiced in it as he wrote:

'The LORD said to my Lord,

"Sit at My right hand

Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"' (Ps.110:1).

'He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high', prophesied Isaiah (52:13). None higher than He, for God 'has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every nam'e (Phil.2:9). What a time that must have been in heaven!

'Lift up your heads, O you gates!

And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!

And the King of glory shall come in' (Ps.24:7).

Our poet captures something of its awesome grandeur:

All heaven waits the Blessed One to greet

As the eternal doors swing open wide,

Through which the Man with pierced hands and feet

Advances upward to His Father's side. (A.G.J.)

Psalm 16 is another of David's choice psalms, which foretells an experience that passes far beyond his own and can only speak of David's greater Son. Of it Peter said, in his Pentecostal address, '"David says concerning Him:

'I foresaw the LORD always before my face,

For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.

Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad.'..."'

With such words of confidence in His heart and upon His lips our Lord Jesus went forward to Calvary. 'For the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God' (Heb.12:2). He knew so well that His body would not see corruption, but that it would rest in the tomb in the sure hope of resurrection, and that His soul would visit Sheol to lead captivity captive, escorting home to eternal glory all the faithful ones of Old Testament times who had waited patiently for this glorious day. It's all there in this precious psalm, the resurrection from the dead so plainly foretold that Peter and Paul both referred to it in their preaching to prove the resurrection of the Christ, '"that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption"' (Acts 2:31).

Firstborn from the dead (Col.1:18), the path of life was opened to Him by His Father as He returned to the fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore which belong to the Father's presence. Therefore my heart is glad, He said. Yes, and our hearts may well be glad also, for He has gone in bringing 'many sons to glory. Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming' (1 Cor.15:23). Rejoice, Christian, rejoice. Heaven's joy and pleasures shall be ours also, because we are His. Our grateful hearts rise up in thankfulness and praise to Him, for 'He has done this'.

TOMS, A.F. | Aug 2003
Old Testament Insights Into Prayer