Thoughts On Psalm 22

by J. MILNE | Category: General | Sept 1944

"The sword awakened cannot rest

"Go to Gethsemane, my soul,

Till God has slain His Son;

Watch with the Saviour there;

The Christ must die on Golgotha,

Ponder His pretaste of the cup,

For my sin to atone."

Then to the cross repair."

All who love the Lord Jesus Christ delight to meditate upon His Cross, and to have their hearts softened by His sufferings thereon. Psalm 22. sets forth minute details of these sufferings. While musing upon this Psalm, it seems as though one were actually there beholding the Divine Sufferer, so vivid are the details brought before us. We seem to hear that piercing cry: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Why art Thou so far from helping Me, and from the words .of My roaring? " (verse 1).

That blessed One had just been before the tribunals of men which had condemned Him to death, and now their sentence was being carried out. While He hung upon the cross, God's judgement on account of human guilt fell upon Him. He was the Antitype of the sin offering of Leviticus 4. "Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5.21). God was dealing once for all with the question of sin in the Person of His beloved Son. This matter had to be settled, and here is the only One capable of dealing with it here is the place where the mighty work could be done. We read, "When they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him" (Luke 23.38, A.V.). The holy law of God had to take its course, for sin must be judged, punished. God hid His face from His Son, who ever loved and served His Father here upon earth; in whose heart from the manger to that dying moment there was one uninterrupted flow of love. What a depth of meaning there is in the word "Why"! "Why bast Thou forsaken Me?"

'Twas thus that He the Divine Sufferer had become the Sin-bearer.

He was making peace by the blood of His Cross. This was why God forsook Him. The righteous requirements of God's holy law were exacted from the Sin-bearer. Men had done their worst to Him who loved them. What a scene is Calvary's Cross! It was the public execution of the Holy One, with His back excoriated, His hands and feet pierced, He was mocked, vilified, dying, deserted, His spirit assailed. Well might Jeremiah write in his Lamentations, chapter 1. 12, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the LORD bath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger."

Nailed upon Golgotha's tree,

Faint and bleeding, who is He?

Hands and feet so rudely torn,

Wreathed with crown of twisted thorn,

Once He lived in heaven above,

Happy in His Father's love;

Son of God, 'tis He, 'tis He;

Nailed upon Golgotha's tree."

That God should so love the world as to give His Son, teaches us how full and tender is His compassion for fallen men. That the death of God's Son should have been necessary, before we could be saved, proves the inflexible justice of Him who will not allow sin to pass unpunished; also the fact that God should hide His face from Him, whilst He bore our iniquity, proves how revolting sin is to the holy nature of God. "The LORD had laid (or made to light) on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53.6). Our sin and guilt were laid on His innocent head. Let us often meditate on what that blessed One suffered there because of our sin! "They pierced My hands and My feet" (verse 16). We can, in measure, understand something of what this means. Besides, He was surrounded by His enemies and deserted by His friends. He was also assailed by Satan. But the pains of crucifixion, the forsaking of friends, the taunts of men and the assaults of the Devil, were small compared to the hiding of God's face from His Son. This involved suffering of which we know nothing. Even in the garden of Gethsemane, the bitterness of His sorrowful soul was supported, the darkness of the night was relieved by Him whom He called "My Father," and there too angels ministered to Him, but here upon Calvary's cross He was forsaken. It was the withdrawal of the light of God's countenance that caused that blessed One to suffer most. Into such a matter as the sufferings of Christ angels have desired to look.

In verse 8 we have the answer to verse 1, "But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest (art enthroned upon) the praises of Israel." God's holiness is essential and underived. God the Father is holy; God the Son is holy; God the Spirit is holy. The anthem of eternity is, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God

Almighty." "God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness "(Psalm 47.8, A.V.). In His sight the heavens are not clean (Job 15.15), and the angels are charged with folly (Job 4. 18). The seraphim cover their faces and their feet in adoration as they fly, while they cry one to another, "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6.2, 3). God's holiness then required atonement to be made for sin, and the Lord Jesus alone met the requirement of His holiness.

J. MILNE | Sept 1944
General