Christ's Trust was Our Deliverance
8/17 Reading Portions: 1 Samuel 9; Romans 7; Jeremiah 46; Psalm 22
“He trusts in the LORD; let Him deliver Him; let Him rescue Him, for He delights in Him!” Psalm 22:8
Psalm 22 is often called “The Psalm of the Cross” …and for good reason. David penned this psalm about 1,000 years before Jesus was crucified— a few hundred years before the Persians invented crucifixion as a form of capital punishment, and several hundred years before the Romans perfected it. Written in first-person as if David himself were hanging upon the cross, it begins with the words Jesus quoted during His crucifixion (Psa 22:1; Matt 27:46). Smack dab in the middle of the psalm (Psa 22:16), the Romans (dogs) and the jealous religious Jews (company of evildoers) surrounded Jesus and crucified Him (they pierced My hands and My feet). Every verse speaks of Jesus Christ and Him crucified in some way, shape or form— most especially in our verse today.
David prophetically quotes the words of those who would mock Jesus as He hung upon the cross:
“He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God; let God deliver Him now, if He desires Him. For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Matthew 27:42-43
The statement of those mocking the Lord was not only fulfilled prophetically, but it was also significant ironically. Because the Lord Jesus, as perfect Man, trusted God, He needed not to be delivered from God’s wrath or physical death. His trust in the Father empowered Him to endure. Because Jesus Christ, as perfect Man, trusted God, we who turn to Christ with trusting faith may be delivered from sin and the pains of death through Him. Because Jesus delighted in the Father and the Father delighted in the Son, we are rescued from God’s judgment and made new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17, 21); and thus, we can now delight in Christ and delight in our heavenly Father through Christ! Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Because Messiah trusted God,
His life He did lay down;
And by His trust, we can trust too,
And thus, we lost are found.
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