He Has Done It

Today's Readings
2 Chronicles 24-25 | Romans 12 | Psalm 22:19-31 | Proverbs 20:8-10
Tomorrow's Readings

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.

Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
(Psalm 22:1-8)

I am speechless in the face of this psalm. OK, nearly speechless..

Psalm 22 is a messianic psalm - like Isaiah 53, you could almost believe it had been written after the events surrounding Jesus' death and resurrection. I know that it was Jesus' spilled blood that satisfies the debt of sin. But when I read the first line of this psalm, I almost think his greatest suffering must have been not the dying but rather the separation from God the Father. We spoke last week in church of the fact that the trinity is the foundation of any doctrine, or understanding, of relationships; the triune God, in eternal communion and love, self sufficient in every respect. And when the Son hung on the tree, crying out 'My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!' we understand that some sort of separation occured. I don't know anymore than that, and refuse to speculate, but having known loss after my own fashion, I shudder at the thought.But consider verse 24:

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.

We know that the story does not end at abandonment and death. The glory of the gospel lies in the indestructible life of the Son, the untouchable faithfulness of the Father, and the unknowable power of the Holy Spirit. Christ was not abandoned; and we with him are remembered, and possess a hope secured by the power, faith, and life of the triune God. We triumph in his triumph, even he who was mocked at the tree: he who could not save himself. And yet his glory shall be told to all generations, for in the deepest darkness of despair his righteousness brought light and life to us all. He has done it; and it is finished.

All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.
(vv. 29-31)