The Passion Psalms

by JAS. MARTIN | Category: Christ In The Psalms | Dec 1963

It is not without significance that in the Gospel of the King according to Matthew, the first explicit reference (as distinct from the allusions such as John 3.14, 15) to the dread manner of the death of the Lord Jesus should be found. It is recorded in Matthew 20.19 that the Son of Man should be delivered "unto the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify". This is the first mention of the dread word "crucify" in the New Testament. Men had not yet learned that the King was to be a suffering Messiah.

Immediately after the outstanding promise to build His Church upon this Rock, Himself, the Lord refers to His having to "suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed" (Matthew 16.21); but when Peter hears of this he begins to rebuke Him, and he who a little earlier had been acclaimed "blessed" hears now, "Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art a stumbling block unto Me". If, we suggest, such an one as Peter, who has tabernacled with the Master, did not apprehend that the suffering of death was the lot of the Messiah, then it is not Surprising that those whom the Spirit of God used to write of a suffering Christ must have been perplexed in their own souls, as Peter himself describes in 1 Peter 1.10, 11. Those to whom the inspired writings came were perhaps also reluctant to visualize a suffering Messiah. How much easier it was to apply the royal and blessed Psalms to a coming Christ!

But the instruction was there in Holy Writ that not only would the coming One be a triumphant King, but He was to be a suffering Saviour. The manner of His coming, in humiliation, was hidden from the world-rulers. Had they recognized in the rejected King of the Jews, the Lord of Glory, Him of whom the prophets and the psalmists wrote, they would not have crucified Him (1 Corinthians 2.8).It was left for the Lord Himself to reveal to His own (John

13.18, cp. Psalm 41.9, and John 15.25, cp. Psalm 35.19 and Psalm 69.4) and to the chief priests and elders (Matthew 21.42 cp. Psalm 118.22, 28) that these psalms of suffering spake of Himself. On the dread Cross He used the actual words of Psalm 22.1 (Matthew 27.46) and of Psalm 31.5 (Luke 23.46).

So strikingly is the detail of the awful anguish of Golgotha portrayed in Psalms 22 and 69, that to us, who have the revealed record of the Lord's death, these psalms appear rather historical records than prophetic.

The outstanding Passion Psalms are 22, 69 and 41, with such verses as 31.15, 34.20, 35.10, 42.7, 55.18, 14, 88.7, 16, 109.8, and 118.22. The sufferings of Christ, adumbrated in these psalms, grip our hearts and call for deep meditation, adoration and worship. Let us look in particular at Psalms 22 and 69 50 that we may more intimately view the dread anguish of our adorable Lord, and thus love Him the more.

In Psalm 22 we are on holy ground. With bowed heads and stricken hearts we read and re-read its plaintive cry. The words spoken on the Cross were few, but precious. Here we feel we are permitted oh so reverently! to look into the heart of the dying Saviour, and view His saddest hours with awe, and in wonderment hear His orphan cry. The psalm is set to the "Hind of the morning". Perhaps no one can define accurately the meaning of this phrase. It most probably has reference to the tune or type of music to which the psalm should be sung. Some expositors have seen in it a picture of the Lord Jesus as the young Hart of Song of the Songs 2.9, 17; 8.14, driven through the dark night, and finally encompassed by the dogs, that awful crowd that stood around Golgotha's Cross. Once their fathers had been the Assembly "in the wilderness", led by Moses, now they are "the assembly of evil-doers".

He who will in a coming day stand on the slopes of Olivet, a mountain of spices, is now on the mountains of Bether, separated from all His own, and without one to help. The load of sin of a guilty world descending upon Him, and Hades opening beneath Him,

He cries, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

Each word of this cry should be taken separately, even the repeated "Eli, Eli," and pondered well. A mine of wealth lies in each word. The anguish of being forsaken was almost more than He could bear, and all His crying was in order that communion with His God might be restored. Thrice, in undying faith, is the Strong One, El, appropriated in the little pronoun "My". Thrice do we read that our fathers "trusted" in God. They were answered, He was not; they knew deliverance, He was left unaided; they were not ashamed, while shame and spitting covered His face. But never once is an accusation laid against His God, yea rather, the reasons given are a vindication of God's righteous character. "Thou art holy ... and art enthroned upon the praises of Israel," but... "I am a worm... despised of the people". Crushed as a worm under the foot, mocked and taunted and jeered at, and then told to commit Himself to God, who seemed so silent to His deep anguish now, all call for renewed appeals for solace from the dying Man of Sorrows to the One who cared for Him at His nativity and guarded over His infant frame on the perilous road to Egypt. Seraphim had veiled their faces before Him, now cruel men shoot out their lips. The huntsmen are tightening their cordon of death around the panting Hart of the morning. We need much grace to view this heart-tearing scene, and well might we say;

"Oh wonder to myself I am,

That I can view the dying Lamb,

Can scan the wondrous mystery o'er,

And not be moved to love Him more!"

Strong bulls roar in His face and are ready to gore Him to death. He cannot retaliate. He has no desire to. He is like a drink-offering poured out; there is no power in His racked frame; His kingly heart is melted as wax in the flame of anguish. His strength is like a dried piece of broken earthenware. His thirst is unquenched. He is brought down to the dust of death. The first Adam was brought to the dust by his own sin, the second Man, who also is the lost Adam, though He had to taste death for every man (Hebrews 2.9), abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1.10).

To none other than the Lord Jesus Christ could Psalm 22. apply, for David never had such an experience. He, like Abraham, saw the day of Christ afar off and wrote as he was moved by the Holy Spirit. According to one writer, Psalm 22 is "a treasury of inspiration, embalmed in the amber of sacred song".

Never, never, in all the Lord's dire weakness does His faith in His God waver; and at the last we read, "0 Thou My Succour, haste Thee to help Me".

At verse 22 the change is very marked. The struggle of the gloom is over. Victory is assured. The Victim cried as a Victor with a loud voice, "It is finished," and, commending His spirit to His Father, He gave up the ghost.

In addition to a number of allusions to this Psalm in the New Testament, we have three citations, namely verses 1, 8, and 22. We commend to the reader's meditation the words of the writer of the Hebrew epistle, "We behold Him ..."(Hebrews 2.9-12). With the exception of Psalm 22 no other psalm is quoted or referred to more frequently in the New Testament than Psalm 69. There is no doubt that it also refers to the Messiah, though we cannot apply verse 5 to Him. The various quotations are so striking, especially verse 21, that we cannot fail to see the Lord in this psalm (Matthew 27.84). There are at least five citations from the Psalm, and a number of allusions to it, in the New Testament. On the Occasion when the Lord Jesus drove the money-changers out of the temple (John 2. 17), the disciples remembered the quotation in verse 9. After that wonderful discourse on the true Vine in John 15, He quotes verse 4, as having a fulfilment in Himself then (John 15.25). Matthew 27.27-80 is foreshadowed in verse 12. The sad end of Judas Iscariot, recorded in Acts 1, caused the beloved physician to refer to verse 25. The apostle Paul, in Romans 15.8, quotes verse 9 as referring to the reproaches that Christ bore; and in Romans 11.9, 10, he quotes verses 22, 28, as picturing rejecting Israel. It will be noted from the last citation that Paul ascribes this psalm definitely to David.

We could never have gone with Him through these raging floods, prophesied in the passion psalms, and vividly described in the Gospels, but we are encouraged to join Him in His songs of triumph, and "praise the Name of God with a song, and magnify Him with thanksgiving."

JAS. MARTIN | Dec 1963
Christ In The Psalms