Psalm 22

¹²             Many bulls surround Me;

                                    [wild] bulls of Bashan encircle Me;

¹³             [Enemies] open wide their mouths at Me,

                                    like a ravening and roaring lion.

¹⁴             I am poured out like water,

                                    all my bones are out of joint;

                        My heart is like wax;

                                    it is melted within My chest;

¹⁵             My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

                                    My tongue sticks to the roof of My mouth;

                                    You lay Me in the dust of death.

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Real Suffering

For the Lord’s Day:  the 31^st of October 2004

Introduction:  Many years ago, I was at home for the evening alone – my parents and brothers and sister were at an Elementary School affair which did not require my presence.  My fresh bowl of popcorn and movie of the week were suddenly interrupted by the frantic barking of Midnight – our ever faithful Border Collie.  So, I turned on the outside light, stepped out on the porch and seeing nothing I walked into the back yard towards the barn.  Suddenly I felt the hot breath of the neighbor’s bull on the back of my neck! I took off for the barn and while noting the doors were all closed, I gathered my strength and leaped up to grab ahold of the hay door fully eight feet above the ground level.  Pulling my way up and in, I turned from my perch to see the powerful Holstein pawing the ground in frustration.  The object of his affection was safely locked in the barn – I later learned, which explained his frustration and interest in our barnyard. 

 

All of us in the neighborhood were still skittish about the sudden death of one of the farmer’s in the neighborhood some dozen years earlier and as a result only one farmer still had a live bull for breeding his herd, all the others being cared for artificially.  Bulls, Stallions, Boars and even Rams were all dangerous animals to have around any farmstead.  Powerful box stalls and paddocks were always the rule for containing these necessary animals.  They were all dangerous especially if you were not careful – my immediate family had regular experience with ornery rams over many years.  And I was always careful to sell off the ram almost every year.

 

Development:  Now, the bulls of Bashan, mentioned in our passage had quite a reputation.  My Bible Background Commentary explains that in addition to powerful animals used for the breeding of oxen there was “as well a breed of ferocious undomesticated cattle that roamed free.”

 

Delitzsch also tells us the symbolic nature of the figurative speech here before us.  Given the fact that these animals were raised in the former land of Og and afterwards of Manasseh – “they are so called on account of their robustness and vigour, which, being acquired and used in opposition to God is brutish rather than human.”  He goes on to compare “these figures drawn from the animal world and applied in an ethical sense” to demonstrate how “the ancients measured the instincts of animals according to the moral rules of human nature.” 

 

Knowing that early on in the sea peoples had a history of dancing and fighting with live bulls – we could also speculate that some bulls, like those of Spain and Mexico today, were even bred for fighting.  But, my final point is only speculation – by now you should appreciate that these animals are not “Fedinand” in the Disney sense of a once popular cartoon creature, instead these are full blown dangerous man killing creatures.

 

We do not know if David had to flee into the territory of Bashan on foot, if so he could have been as vulnerable as a cow boy without his horse in the middle of a large cattle herd earlier in our own history.  David observes that these creatures would open wide their mouths in imitation of the lions with which he was accustomed of killing in order to protect the family flocks of sheep.  But, having left the sheep folds far behind – there on the lush meadows of Bashan the powerful wild bulls ruled the land and on foot David would have been all too vulnerable of being run down.

 

In fact, the next few verses almost sound like a man on the run, without horse or weapon being chased by of all things an angry wild bull.  Was he sweating gallons of water, had he been butted and thrown by the animal chasing after him?  Was his heart beating rapidly and almost ready to burst after hours of scampering across the broken plain?  Was he exhausted, had he been breathing through his mouth while running full tilt?  Had he been knocked into the dust several times only to rise and run again?  And my final question of speculation on the original implications of this passage:  is this figurative speech or the reality of a wild life challenging experience?   I cannot answer that with any hope of accuracy – I can only relate this to my own experience of running with a bull hot on my heels!

 

Now, let us take the imagery here forward almost a thousand years to the time of Christ.  Jesus is hanging on the cross and all around him are few friends but many enemies.  The brutish nature of the Sanhedrin and the Roman military has taken its terrible toll on the life and energy of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Certainly, it is recorded that no bones had been broken, but in every age – professional brutes have known their business all to well.  Hours of scourging, punching and torment had taken their toll.  And the extreme pain of being nailed to the cross would also have afflicted not only the body but also the emotions.  And the fact that it is the very religious leaders of the Jews who have inflicted this upon their own Messiah would weigh heavy upon His soul.

 

Calvin compares the sufferings of David described here with those of his own greater Son.   “We see, then, that David was not buffeted with the waves of affliction like a rock which cannot be moved, but was agitated within by sore troubles and temptations, which, through the infirmity of the flesh, he would never have been able to sustain had he not been aided by the power of the Spirit of God.”

 

Speaking of the Lord’s Anointed he continues:  “Being a real man, he was truly subject to the infirmities of our flesh, only without the taint of sin.  The perfect purity of his nature did not extinguish the human affections; it only regulated them, that they might not become sinful through excess.”

 

Application:  We know from the gospel accounts that Jesus did indeed thirst upon the cross. We also sense that this Psalm of the Cross was very near to the heart and mind of Christ on that terrible afternoon when He was crucified.  Doctors have even speculated that when Jesus died – it was more from heart failure than the ordinary collapse of the lungs.  And yet this psalm is only half done and the sufferings of our Lord on the cross are all too graphic in the printed text – let alone the brutal sciences of special effects spread out across a giant movie screen.

 

Spurgeon relates the divine poetry with grim detail.  “The mighty ones in the crowd are here marked by the tearful eye of their victim.  The priests, elders, scribes, Pharisees, rulers, and captains bellowed round the cross like wild cattle, fed in the fat and solitary pastures of Bashan, full of strength and fury; they stamped and foamed around the innocent One, and longed to gore him to death with their cruelties.”

 

How fitting is this Psalm of the Cross to direct the afflicted state of Christ’s soul on the cross.  Spurgeon observes that “the Greek Orthodox liturgy uses the expression, ‘thine unknown sufferings,’” to describe the experiences of our Lord there on the cross.

 

And what meaning and understanding are we to take from this terrible scene of real suffering?  Again Spurgeon catches the necessary implication:  “The fire of Almighty wrath would have consumed our souls for ever in hell; it was no light work to bear as a substitute the heat of an anger so justly terrible.”  He further adds that a “Dr Gill wisely observes, ‘if the heart of Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, melted at it, what heart can endure or hands be strong, when God deals with them in his wrath?’”

 

‘Thine unknown sufferings,’ the Greek Church describes the scene and if we are Christ’s by grace – the sufferings of the fire of hell shall not be ours, because He did indeed bear the burden and punishment of our sins there upon the tree.  Let us close our study on this topic early this morning – I have burdened you with enough imagery.  Let us be thankful, let us be glad that we will never ever have to know the worst of the real suffering experienced by our Lord Jesus Christ, because He has taken our rightful pain upon His own shoulders and there on the cross He did die once for all for you and for me.  Praise the Lord for what He has accomplished.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

Walton – Matthews & Chavalas. IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament.

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