Psalm 22 - A View of the Savior

There are many Psalms that are called "Messianic Psalms." These are Psalms that point us to Jesus. Psalm 22 is one of these Messianic Psalms.

Look at these obvious references to the crucifixion of Christ.

• "My God, my God, why have  your forsaken me?" v.1
• But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. v.6
• All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. v.7
• “He trusts in the LORD,” they say, “let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” v.8
• I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. v.14
• My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. v.15
• Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. v.16
• All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. v.17
• They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. v.18

Those are the obvious Messianic references/prophecies that were fulfilled through our Lord Jesus Messiah ("Christ" is Greek for "Messiah") What's really cool to see is that Jesus fulfilled prophecies, not only by things He said (which a clever man might be able to do) but He also fulfilled all kinds of prophecies by things that were done to him by others. Amazing.

I'm sure I'm not the first to think this, but I think the last few verses are also Messianic. What do you think?

26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise him— may your hearts live forever! 

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 

28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. 

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him— those who cannot keep themselves alive. 

30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. 

31 They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!

So what do we take from this? When we celebrate Advent (at Christmas time for all my Baptist friends) We celebrate Christ's first coming as we look forward to His second coming. All through scripture we find prophecies that were partially fulfilled in Christ's first coming and will be ultimately fulfilled in His second coming. Psalm 22 looks that way to me. As we see Psalm 22 point to and describe the crucifixion we can be certain (plus we read it in Philippians and other places) that all will one day kneel before him.

So..... here's a cool thought..... we get to be part of the fulfillment of Psalm 22. We can be the ones who tell the generations that follow us about the Lord. We can proclaim His righteousness and shout "He has done it!"

Bottom line:

Psalm 22 and it's depiction of the crucifixion shows that Christ's death was part of God's plan - not an accident.

When we see obvious fulfillment of prophecies concerning Christ's first advent we can be certain of the fulfillment of prophecies concerning His second coming.

We need to be telling others about Jesus.

The End of the Old - the Start of the New

"Memory Tuesday" just doesn't have the ring of "Memory Monday" but I guess I should change the name to be more reflective of what really happens. Many things distracted me from blogging yesterday.

One thing that I was working on yesterday was the script for this year's Living Christmas Tree - fondly referred to most often as "the Tree." I was reading about Gabriel's announcement to Zacharias that he would have a son in his old age and they he should name him John. Gabriel said "you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth.  Then Gabriel quoted one of the prophets "He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children'"
So I had to look it up to see who Gabriel was quoting - and I probably already knew this, but was reminded again - that it was Malachi.

Now how cool is this? The very last two verses of the Old Testament are quoted by Gabriel as he is announcing the beginning of the New Covenant (with the birth of John the one to prepare the way for the Lord.) It gave me goose bumps to see that.

So that is what inspired today's "Memory Monday on a Tuesday."

ACTS 13:23 From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus,

That may seem like an odd verse to learn, but it reminds us that God keeps His promises and that Jesus fulfilled the promise made to David about his kingdom. Hundreds - maybe even thousands of other promises in the Old Testament were fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Read the first several chapters of Matthew some time and count how many times he says, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets." It's really cool to see!

Well, I'm back to script writing. Have a great week.