In You they trusted and were not disappointed.

Psalm 22:1-18 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

A Cry of Anguish and a Song of Praise.

For the choir director; A Psalm of David.

22 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
² O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
³ Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
⁴ In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.
⁵ To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.

⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
A reproach of men and despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me sneer at me;
They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
⁸ “ Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him;
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”

⁹ Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;
You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.
¹⁰ Upon You I was cast from birth;
You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

¹¹ Be not far from me, for trouble is near;
For there is none to help.
¹² Many bulls have surrounded me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
¹³ They open wide their mouth at me,
As a ravening and a roaring lion.
¹⁴ I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.
¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
And You lay me in the dust of death.
¹⁶ For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;

¹⁸ They divide my garments among them,
And for my clothing they cast lots.

God said of David: 'I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.'(Acts 13:22) David was so in tune with the heart and the will of God that as he struggled through some of his most difficult times, he actually experienced, in the spiritual realm some of the anguish that the Lord Jesus felt in His physical body on the cross. This Psalm written by David many years before the birth of Jesus captures many of the things Jesus experienced on the cross.

David begins with,  My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?  In Matthew 27:46, when Jesus was on the cross, it says:     About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"

In verse 7-8, David writes: ⁷ All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, ⁸ “ Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.” Matthew 47:39-43 says:  And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” ⁴¹ In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, ⁴² “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. ⁴³ He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.

David writes: ¹⁴ I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me. ¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death, a vivid description of the pain of crucifixion, something David never experienced, but is described in the account of Jesus on the cross.

The Psalm ends: ¹⁸ They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots. Matthew 47:35 says:  And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots.

We also see though that woven between the verses of despair and anguish, David writes of hope and deliverance. He says: Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. ⁴ In You our fathers trusted; They trusted and You delivered them. ⁵ To You they cried out and were delivered; In You they trusted and were not disappointed…⁹ Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb; You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts. ¹⁰ Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been my God from my mother’s womb. ¹¹ Be not far from me, for trouble is near; For there is none to help.

We can take courage from this. If David could write about things that were yet to happen but came to pass, then surly we can trust that the deliverer he knew will deliver us also. God says: "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you."(Deuteronomy 31:6) God says:  "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you (Jeremiah  1:5) Though we know that Jesus was indeed laid in death, He also was raised up again and He lives. We too share in Christ’s victory over the grave. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:51-58:     Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; ⁵⁷ but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

We also can have confidence, not only in the deliverance of God and His steadfast love for us, but that if prophetic scriptures about the coming of the Messiah and His death on the cross have been fulfilled, then so too will the scriptures that speak of His coming again. The mockers will mock. 2 Peter 3:3-9 says:

 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, ⁶ through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. ⁷ But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. ⁸ But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

In light of this Peter asks the question, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, ¹² looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…?

What sort of people should we be?

I believe we should be people who follow the commandment Jesus called the great commandment.  We should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind;  and only through that love,  a love that responds to God’s love, We love because He first loved us.

In that love, the love of God,  we then love others as ourselves.

What sort of people should we be?

We should be people who follow the commission of Jesus: We should:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you

We should be His church of whom He said: I will build my church, and the gates of hell  shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed  in heaven.”(Matthew 16:18-19)

We should be People do who as He said:  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.(John 14:12)  Those works include loving the unlovely, they also include causing the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the mute to speak and raising the dead to life.

Because we know He is coming back to recreate and restore all things to the way God intended and because we know that God desires that none would be lost, that all would come to repentance, we should:

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Whether we hasten the day or simply work until He comes we should be people who like Jesus:

do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. (John 5:19)

We should be people who join with those in Revelation 22:

 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

²⁰ He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.