Analyzing Psalm 22: Declare His Righteousness
Psalm 22:30-31; John 19:28-30 - It is finished!
”Posterity will serve Him; It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and will declare His righteousness To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.“
Psalms 22:30-31 NASB1995
We’ve come to the end of Psalm 22. I don’t know about you, dear readers, but I certainly gained some new insights by reviewing this Psalm of David, a plea of the Forsaken, just before we enter Holy Week. The coming generations will be told of the Lord. Posterity will serve Him! He has performed! Enduring Word has superb commentary for this passage (some excerpts are not included):
A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the LORD to the next generation: The faithfulness of God unto the formerly Forsaken One is told throughout the generations, bringing great glory to the LORD. They will all look at what has been accomplished in and through the formerly Forsaken One and hear, “That He has done this.”
This results in service through the generations (a posterity shall serve Him).
This results in God’s fame through the generations (It will be recounted of the LORD to the next generation).
This results in the spread of the message of God’s righteousness through the generations (They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born).
We can say that Jesus thought of His Jewish brothers on the cross (My brethren, Psalm 22:22). He thought of the Gentiles who come into the assembly of the redeemed (in the great congregation, Psalm 22:25). He even thought of future generations whom He would rescue and who would trust Him (to the next generation…to a people who will be born, Psalm 22:30-31)…
This all adds to the wonderful truth – true for King David of Israel, but far more gloriously fulfilled in Jesus Christ – that none of the Forsaken One’s sufferings were wasted. Every drop of that cup of agony was and is used to the great glory of God.
In the fullest measure, Jesus appropriated the victory of the second half of this psalm just as much as He did the agony of the first half. “Just before He died, Jesus cried out, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). This is a quotation from the last verse of Psalm 22. In our text that verse reads, ‘he has done it,’ referring to God as subject. But there is no object for the verb in Hebrew, and it can equally well be translated, ‘It is finished.’” (James Montgomery Boice)
Of course this ties in perfectly with the end of Christ’s suffering, as recorded in the Gospel of John. “It is finished” means the debt has been paid.
”After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, *said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.“
John 19:28-30 NASB1995
Psalm 22 has revealed many truths to me:
We may feel forsaken when God seems far away. Even David and Jesus felt forsaken.
We can argue from the holiness of God and use that in our petitions when we feel forsaken.
His ways are mysterious and so much higher than our ways.
We must listen for the still, small voice.
The crimson worm (towla) is one of those small miracles of connected understanding we can glean when studying the Word of God
Divine goodness is embedded in our human nature from the womb because He knew us in the womb. We have to make the connection to Him to access it.
The Lion of Judah, who is infinitely good but certainly not safe, meekly withstood mocking by the masses as He died.
The Crucifixion of Jesus is predicted in incredible detail by this Psalm, hundreds of years before it became a common punishment.
A drink of sour wine by our Lord takes in “leaven”, which is the sin of the world.
The dust of death is near for every person.
The suffering of our Lord points to the total depravity of humans, who have suppressed His spark of goodness in their natures.
A hardened heart keeps God from us.
We are to fear, praise, glorify and stand in awe of the Lord. The more familiar we become with God, the more reverence we should have.
We shall praise Him before the assembly and keep our promises to Him.
Be satisfied in Jesus because He has overcome anxieties and cares, hatred and persecution, sin and temptation, spiritual forces, and sorrow and death.
YOU (yes, you) and I were in His thoughts on the Cross.
God will rule over all the nations.
We can’t buy our way into Heaven or make it by doing enough good deeds.
We are dust, but our souls live through Him.
All generations will declare His righteousness.
It is finished!
My next devotional series will explore 1 John from the New Testament. I will start with an introduction on the likely sources of this epistle (lots of arguments from Biblical scholars).
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I thank you for Psalm 22, for the prophecy of David and for the hopelessness that turns into hope in this beautiful Psalm. I also thank You for the insights and the things that I learned analyzing Your Word. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.