Psalm 22:22-31
Dear RTB’ers,
Psalm 22, continued. Yesterday’s reading had so many Crucifixion references – the Gospels, the “Stations of the Cross”, Good Friday – that it’s easy to forget that David was writing this Psalm in his own time, that he was the one feeling a disconnect between him and his God, that he was being pursued. He had closed yesterday’s reading with four pleas: …O LORD, do not be far off! … come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul … Save me …! (vv. 19-21a) Yet with those pleas, David remained confident of his deliverance: You have rescued me… (v. 21b)
Then today’s reading is all about praise! Praise from every corner of the earth! David begins, I will tell of Your name to my brothers… (v. 22a). And then he lists those peoples who will praise Him: You who fear the LORD… All you offspring of Jacob… those who fear Him… the afflicted… those who seek Him… All the ends of the earth… all the families of the nations… All the prosperous of the earth… all who go down to the dust… even the one who could not keep himself alive… And finally, posterity … the coming generation… to a people yet unborn… That’s us, folks. We are those people yet unborn!
What’s the message? …that He has done it. (v. 31b) Done “it”? Done what? For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from him, but has heard, when he cried to Him. (v. 24) Even we yet unborn will be delivered from our afflictions: He has not hidden His face from him, but has heard, when he cried to Him. When we cry to Him…!
Blessings!