By Doug Redford
Psalm 22 begins with one of the most anguished cries in Scripture and one of its most heart-wrenching questions: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (New International Version). We do not know what specific circumstance moved David, the psalm’s author, to utter those words; but we do know what moved the son of David, Jesus Christ, to do so. Psalm 22 has been labeled “the psalm of the cross,” because of several verses that find their fulfillment in the agony of Calvary (vv. 1, 7, 8, 15, 16, 18).
Consider other verses from the Psalms that Jesus could have prayed from the cross, such as Psalm 54:1: “Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might.” Or Psalm 59:2: “Deliver me from evildoers and save me from those who are after my blood.” That God did not choose to save, vindicate, or deliver Jesus from the cross gave Jesus’ enemies ammunition with which to mock him and question his claim to be the Messiah: “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself!” “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (Matthew 27:42, 43).
But Jesus could not pray such prayers as those cited in the two psalms previously quoted and fulfill his purpose for coming to our world: “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). For God to save Jesus meant that we could not be saved; for Jesus to be delivered from evildoers meant that we evildoers could never be delivered. Those who were “after [Jesus’] blood” (Psalm 59:2) were among those for whom he shed his blood as a covering for humanity’s sin.
Jesus himself stated, with the cross just hours away, that he could have offered prayers of deliverance to the Father, who would have provided an entire army of angels to come to the Son’s aid (Matthew 26:53). What Jesus prayed concerning his mockers was not a demand for vengeance but a plea for mercy: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Of course, Jesus knew what they were doing, just as he knows all that each of us has done. But he also knew what he was doing for all of us. That is what we remember at Communion: in Jesus’ words, “my body given for you . . . my blood . . . poured out for you” (Luke 22:19, 20).
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities arise.
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