Psalms 22:14

Psalms 22:14

Psalms 22:14-17, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me”

Psalms 22 is a Messianic Psalm giving for us a lot of detail regarding the suffering of Jesus Christ at his crucifixion. If anyone doubts that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus came to the earth some 2000 years ago and was born of a virgin and died on the cross for the sins of the world and resurrected the 3^rd day, just spend a little time considering the Old Testament prophecies and how down to the last detail the events surroundings Jesus’ crucifixion fulfill these things exactly.

The Word “Gospel” means good news. The Gospel is very simple. Romans 10:9 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved.” Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, lived a life without sin, died on the cross for your sins and mine, was buried, and rose again 3 days later having been seen for 40 days by the apostles and their associates and then before 500 witnesses, and ascended into heaven. The resurrection is very important to understand and believe in because this is our great hope, eternal life through the blood of Christ. Psalms 22, however, focuses on the suffering of Christ.

In these verses we have many important details given, “Poured out like water, bones out of joint, pierced hands and feet, I may tell all my bones” John 20:32-37, “Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, they shall look on him whom they pierced.”

In the New Testament account of the crucifixion it gives these same details as given in the Old Testament. Water and blood poured out of the side of Jesus when he was pierced by the spear. Of course, Jesus is the water of life, and so when Psalms 22;14 says, “poured out like water,” there certainly is some reference to this. Secondly, we know that when a body is hung on a cross after having been nailed to it the weight of the body pulls the arm sockets out of joint. Thirdly, they brake not his legs. Normally during a Roman execution the centurions would brake the legs of those hanging on a cross. But none of the bones of Christ were broken just as Psalms 22:17 says, “I may tell all my bones.” And just as John 20 says, “They brake not his legs.” Fourthly the hands and the feet of Jesus were pierced when He was nailed to the cross. This is why John 20:36 says, “For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled.”

God always keeps his promises. And God promised man a way to escape eternal judgment for sin by grace though faith in Jesus Christ. There probably are two reasons God gave believers in the Old Testament so much detail regarding how Christ would die. The reason God would give great detail regarding these things is so that those who have looked forward to the promise of the Gospel and those who have looked back upon it can know through the scriptures that Jesus did indeed die on the cross for the sins of the world and that he did indeed rise from the grave 3 days later. It would be impossible for someone to take all the prophecy given in the Old Testament regarding the crucifixion of Christ and try to fulfill it on purpose unless that person was God himself fulfilling the good pleasure of His own will, especially when we consider that man cannot be born of a virgin. That is a miracle, a supernatural act that defies an obvious law of the physical world. Only God can work such miracles on His creation. Isaiah 7:14 says, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life.” There are many antichrists, but there is only one begotten Son, and that is Jesus of Nazareth who was born of the virgin Mary. He lived and died over 2000 years ago on the cross for the sins of the world. And He rose again the 3^rd day defeating death. John 3:16 calls him the “only begotten Son”. There is only one Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible. There is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ.

Consider these words, “I am poured out like water, my strength is dried up, my heart is like wax, thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” Death on a Roman cross is a cruel death, a slow and painful torture. In the days of Jesus such an execution was a very common way for the government to execute those that they considered criminals. But what Jesus suffered no other man would be able to bare, not just because of the physical torture that is involved in a Roman crucifixion but because the sins of the world were laid upon him. The suffering that Jesus Christ faced when He died on the cross for the sins of the world is hard to imagine. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned this world has been cursed. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together. Sin results in suffering and death. The end of sin is death. These verses give us some detail of just how extreme was the suffering of Christ. Some humans suffer a great many things in life. No matter what your sufferings are, however, they will never be as great as the sufferings of Him who knew no sin and yet took your sins upon himself.

Consider the phrase “My heart is like wax.” The same fire that melts the wax hardens the clay. The example of Jesus in his prayer in the garden of Gethsemane just before His betrayal and crucifixion is the example of how a child of God should prepare himself when He must face suffering. Suffering should melt your heart like wax unto the will of God and unto faith in His promises.

Matthew 39-42 says, “And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”

Philippians 1:29, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.” Those who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus for salvation will suffer persecution from the world. Sometimes the sufferings of God’s children are extreme and will bring one to the limits of what a person can endure. Revelation 2:10 says, “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” When you find yourself in a place of suffering for the name of Christ, one of the best things you can do is to remember how Jesus suffered for you and to pray the same way Jesus prayed before He was nailed to the cross. Jesus said in Luke 18:1, “men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

We live in the last days. Second Timothy 3:12-13 says, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” A day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. In the days of the apostles it was the last days, and that was 2000 years ago.

Second Thessalonians 2:1-3 says, “Now we beseech you, brethen, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” One of the great characteristics of the last days is a falling away from the faith. The best comparison for this is to compare the age of the church to that of the nation of Israel in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah 2:9 says, “And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.” Just how near the end of the last days are we? When those who should have faith do not have faith, both the weak and the mighty instead have bowed themselves down to false religions of the world. Does the church rely more on man’s word or God’s Word? Do the believers have faith in the preservation and inerrancy of God’s Word? Do the believers keep themselves unspotted from the world, or do they participate in the same immoralities and pleasures that the unsaved live for? And does the believer live under law or under grace?

Second Thessalonians 2:7 says, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” The mystery of iniquity may indeed be an explanation for the falling away. But such a falling away does not have to happen. Ephesians 5:14, “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” It is the mercy of God that leads men to repentance. Sometimes to have that mercy there must be suffering. “Awake thou that sleepest,” this is the call of the Spirit of God to the believer in the last day. Now is the time for the patient waiting for Christ. But it just may be before Christ returns to take his children from the earth that there may indeed be a great time of suffering for Christians. Because it is not the will of God that his children continue in sin, but that they be prepared for His return.

Christ knew he was going to suffer on the cross and as he headed down that road he prepared himself through prayer and through God’s Word. The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. It is certainly not the will of God that his children be caught in sin in that hour. These are the last days. There may indeed be great persecution waiting for God’s children before He comes to rescue them.

Psalms 22:18 says, “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Matthew 27:35 says, “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them and upon my vesture did they cast lots.” Just in reading Psalms 22, who possibly with an open heart to the truth could deny that Jesus is the Christ?

Matthew 27:50-51 says, “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.” As it always is with man who is sinful: his ways are opposite of God’s ways. Man focuses on the physical, but God is a Spirit, and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. While the Roman soldiers gambled over the garments of Jesus, Jesus died and rent the veil of the temple. This tearing of the veil symbolizes the separation between the Holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. The separation was done away with for those who turn from their sins and trust in Jesus.

This is why the real temple is not a building built by hands, but the body of the believer. First Corinthians 6:19 says, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” Christ suffered and died so that man could have an intimate relationship with God. Hopefully, you have allowed the veil of your heart to be parted by the blood of Christ. In these last days when the mystery of iniquity is at work in the world and there is such a falling away from the truth, the solution is to repent of sin. Awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light. First John 3:2-3 says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

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