Psalm 22

¹⁶             For dogs encompass Me;

                        a pack of villains encircles Me;

                        like lions, they have pierced My hands and feet -

¹⁷             I can number all My bones -

                        enemies stare and gloat over Me;

¹⁸             They divide My garments among them,

                        and over My robe they cast lots.

¹⁹             But You, O Lord, do not be far off!

                        O You My help, come quickly to My aid!

²⁰             Deliver My soul from the sword,

                        My precious life from the power of the dog!

²¹             Save Me from the mouth of the lion!

                        rescue Me from the horns of the wild oxen!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Save Me Lord!

For the Lord’s Day:  the 7^th of November 2004

Introduction:  Just this last week, we saw an unusual video encounter between a man and a lion.  Now, the only reason I would mention this recorded media scene is to describe how the male lion rushed in for a bite, retreated and than advanced again.  Each time, his teeth pierced the skin of the idiot that had clambered into the lion’s den.

 

Now, the reason I mention this is the historic argument over the meaning of the Hebrew in the third line of verse sixteen.  “Like a lion” is in all of the ancient manuscripts, but many commentators believe that the word “mauled” should be used in place of the ordinary “piercing” read in most translations.  However I do not believe that it is nonsensical to describe the “piercing” wounds received in the “mauling” of the animal in question.  Commentators usually come to the same conclusion in the spilling of a lot more ink!  So, this appropriate reading is appropriate even before we come to the prophetic setting of this Psalm in the death of Christ on the cross.  It is here in these verses today that we sense the awesome prophetic reality of this Psalm of the Cross.

 

Development:  We begin this section with a consideration of the considerable jeering members of the crowd that surrounded the crucifixion cross.  Like a wild pack of dogs or hyenas that ordinarily clean up after the lions – the oppressors of Christ gather to cheer the work of the pagan Roman soldiers charged with the dirty deed of mauling and killing the Messiah of Israel – King of the Jews as Pilate insisted upon naming. 

 

“For dogs encompass Me; a pack of villains encircles Me; like lions, they have pierced My hands and feet”  The non-Jewish dogs of pagan Rome, are joined by the villains of the Sanhedrin in a solid demonstration of unity against any One who would challenge the rule of Rome and her Jewish religious lackeys. 

 

Like the lions and dogs of David’s shepherd days the very Lamb of God is just as endangered as the young lambs protected by David in his shepherd years.  Having raised sheep for ten or more years, I can certainly testify to the danger of wild dogs.  Time was, when the annual dog tag fees were spent to recompense the farmers for any young livestock taken by former pets let loose in the rural environment.  One of the local legends tells us that there are certain wilderness areas where one ought not to travel without a weapon.  The older packs of wild dogs seemingly have mated with the coyotes that migrated into the area about twenty years ago.

 

A local man even got into trouble for shooting a wayward canine that chased his son down a village street.  After all you are not supposed to discharge a firearm within the corporation limits in our area.  But, given the circumstances – the punishment was not extreme, and the local courts knew enough not to force the issue - since an angry electorate might have remembered it at the next election.  My essential point here is the very real danger of wild animals in the streets, or in this case the human trash that packed the religious courts of the Old Covenant Church in the time of Christ.  And like the lion, they literally not only mauled our Lord, but pierced his hands and feet as well.

 

In the seventeenth verse we sense the pain and suffering of our Lord, not only from the cross but also from the incredible beating which he had received by the sporting soldiers who were probably charged with weakening all of those to be executed so that their afternoon guard duty would not wear on too awfully long.  “I can number all My bones - enemies stare and gloat over Me.”  Calvin, after examining three possible interpretations, gives us this bleak assessment.  He notes that David complains of a body being so lean and wasted that his bones appear to protrude from all the body parts.  And then he adds that his enemies “took pleasure in seeing him in so pitiable a condition.”  Thus, Calvin adds: “the two clauses of the verse are beautifully connected together.  The cruelty of his enemies was so insatiable, that beholding a wretched man wasted with grief, and as it were pining away, they took pleasure in feeding their eyes with so sad a spectacle.”

 

In the next verse, we have the grand vision of David’s prophecy, which was exactly recorded centuries before we read of its fulfillment at the foot of the cross.  There are no lexical or translation tricks with which the liberals can soften the image proposed, almost a millennia before.  Verse seventeen simply reads:  “They divide My garments among them, and over My robe they cast lots.”

 

For this reason as every other line in this psalm proposes – we must name it “The Psalm of the Cross,” simply because the scene is so vividly laid out for all to consider long before Jesus recited these verses when He was lifted up for all the world to see and hear.

 

Application:  Ah, the world has done its worst, the very priests who had been appointed to sacrifice the symbolic lambs since the time of Aaron; they had now worked their way up the food chain so to speak – in order to enthusiastically sacrifice the very Son of God.  Once, in a classroom setting – some students asked why, in a country with religious freedom – why would the Salem witch trials result in executions?  They had been reading The Crucible in another class.  I was quick to point out that the Puritan judges had argued against the use of spectral evidence in the cases at Salem, but that the popular fancy had run away into mob rule, probably influenced by a blighted oat crop.  Simply in order to save family members, themselves and the public order – the public magistrates reluctantly sentenced the “worst offenders” simply for the public good.  I also argued, that since unfettered witchcraft eventually worked its way up to the murder of humans, therefore once that was accomplished – only then, did execution became a legally viable sentence.  And so, the very institution that had been organized for the service of God – in the end, the leaders turned against their God and sacrificed His only Son.  But the Lord in His sovereign grace and glory did turn what mere men meant as wicked and evil acts – these He turned to achieve His final purpose and plan.

 

There on the cross, Jesus was not given entirely over to pain and suffering, but also – even in the midst He turned in hope to His Father in heaven.  In our last three verses for today (eighteen to twenty), we read a threefold hope that remained to sustain our Lord in His greatest hour of need.

 

¹⁸   “But You, O Lord, do not be far off! O You My help, come quickly to My aid!”

^{19     “}Deliver My soul from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog!”

²⁰   “Save Me from the mouth of the lion! rescue Me from the horns of the wild oxen!”

 

As in all of his life experiences, David counted on the strong hand of the Lord God of heaven and earth, and he was never ever disappointed.  David lived a full life and died quietly and peaceably in his bed.  Not so was it to be for his greater Son – but even in the worst of situations, our Lord too was able to claim the aid of His Father in heaven.  “Be not far off!” is the first of these petitions.  Come closer to sustain Me is the perfection of prayer practiced by Jesus, not only the night before, but in the several hours appointed for His death on the cross.  “Come quickly,” He adds and let us finish all that has been appointed.  Isn’t this ever and forever the prayer of the Church – “come quickly” Lord and finish Your historic purposes and let all heaven break loose at the ending of the age.

 

But, there were still some minutes to linger on the cross at this stage, and many verses to go before Christ could sleep in the dust of death for barely a nap by our standards.  There are four heartfelt petitions to finish this psalm portion.  The first is to be delivered from the power of the sword.  The image that comes to my mind here is the New Covenant instruction proposed in Luke 12: 4-5  “Do not fear those who kill the body, and after than have nothing more that they can do.  But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

 

But of course, we readily affirm that even in the process of bringing about the death of death – the perfection of Christ’s character and person gives hope in even such dire straits because we read further in Hebrews 4: 12:  “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  In those very “thoughts and intentions of the heart,” our Lord Jesus Christ was safe in the Father’s hands.

 

The second petition here takes up the running theme of this section in the psalm concerning the power of the pagan dogs represented by Pilate and the Roman squad of executioners.  All of the barking and baying of these hounds from hell could not in the long run accomplish anything firm and final.  Their all too human guards could not even make the burial tomb as secure as they supposed.

 

A third petition concerns the imaginary feline image of the king of beasts himself: the lion, whom even David and Sampson bested with simple weapons and even bare hands alone.  Our imaginations may of course go back in time to the safety of Daniel who survived the lion’s den of the Persian kings.  Yes, the lion’s bite can certainly pierce the skin – even as the combined powers of church and state mauled and nailed our Lord to the cross, but finally the Lord God of heaven and earth rules all things and even the cross could not contain the very Spirit of our God in Christ.

 

A last petition here returns to the savage bulls of Bashan which we considered last week.  Yes, oxen are gentle creatures usually – but they are specially fixed to use their strength peaceably.  I have seen and petted teams of oxen brought to fairs to demonstrate the one time friendly and faithful beasts.  I even have a small yoke from my grandfather, which was at one time used to train small calves to the adult task.  But, take any one of these noble beasts and give them a good shot of testosterone and you have the natural animal in its natural state.  These were of course the unredeemed priests of Israel who turned against the Lord’s anointed.

 

From all of these the Lord God delivered Jesus Christ, and from even more – up from the grave He arose and thereby delivered us from eternal death and destruction.  May we all take great comfort in the work of God demonstrated in this solemn and hopeful “Psalm of the Cross.”  Amen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

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

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.

http://www.tulip.org/selah/sel022g.htm

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe go to:  http://www.four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/ccrlist/