View From The Cross

This article is called “The View from The Cross”

Some passages of Scripture are so remarkable it’s almost impossible for a human to deal with them. Psalm 22 is one of these passages.
Psalm 22 is called the “Psalm of the Cross,” because it describes more accurately and minutely the crucifixion of Christ than does any other portion of the Word of God.

We know from 2 Timothy 3:16 that All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness, and that includes Psalm 22. And yet, it’s difficult to fully comprehend the enormity of it.

This passage is an emotional rollercoaster ride, like receiving a phone call informing you that you have inherited 20 million dollars and then 10 minutes later receiving another call from your doctor advising that you have only 2 weeks to live.
On the one hand, we see the cross’s glorious consequences for each one of us who believes, while on the other hand, we see the enormous cost and the horror of it.

Psalm 22 is like an x-ray penetrating Our Lord’s thoughts and inner life as He hangs on that terrifying instrument of torture. In it we see the distress of His passion, His very soul is laid bare.

The Gospels record the historical fact of His death and some of the events associated with His crucifixion, but only Psalm 22 reveals His thoughts and His inner cry.

It is a view of the crucifixion of Christ from Christ himself!

We see those beneath His cross and see what went on in His heart and His mind as He hung there.

We look into His soul as He became the sacrifice for the sins of the world.
As He was suspended there between heaven and earth, He became the ladder let down from heaven to this earth so all men and women might have a way to God.

Psalm 22 takes us there onto that cross as He was made sin for us; He who knew no sin … that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Or, as the Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:24, “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. We are healed from sin because the Son of God died for us!
There’s no doubt that while in Psalm 22 we are on holy ground!

MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?

Psalm 22 opens with the heart-ripping and desperate cry of a man alone and forsaken of God.

Attempts have been made to play down the stark reality and bitter truth that Jesus was forsaken of God. But all the languages the bible was originally written in the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Aramaic are all very clear. In each language, the cry means Jesus was forsaken of God!
Now, this is important. Psalm 22 is a record of His human suffering.

He is hanging there on the cross as a man, or as John 1:29 says, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.
We can look to the epistle to the Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9 to get a greater understanding of this: But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels…

He was made a man. But why?
… for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

He left heaven’s glory and became a man. He became a man to reveal God to man, but most of all to redeem man and to destroy the one who had the power of death, the devil, Satan. That’s Hebrews 2:14.
Jesus could not save anyone from eternal death by His life. His teachings while He walked on this earth cannot save. It was His sacrificial death that saves. The death that was foretold all through God’s Word for hundreds of years.
Christ Jesus on the cross is the perfect man.

He had learned to rest upon God, to trust Him in all He did. He said, “I always do the things that please Him” (see John 8:29). But in that desperate hour, He was abandoned of God. There was no place to turn, either on the human plane or on the divine. He had no place to go. The man Christ Jesus was forsaken.
No other person has ever had to experience that. No one. Only He alone.

Why did God forsake Him? Let’s go back to Psalm 22 and verse 3; But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.
On the cross in those last three hours, in the impenetrable supernatural darkness that enveloped the world, the Son of God was made sin.
He was forsaken for a brief moment, but in that very moment “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself”. 2 Corinthians 5:19.
The Lord Jesus Himself said, “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” John 16:32.

The Father was with Him when He was in prison. The Father was with Him when He was being beaten. The Father was with Him when they nailed Him to the cross. But on the cross, He made His soul an offering for sin, and it pleased the Father to bruise Him.

He was Forsaken!

Friends, you and I simply don’t know what it is to be forsaken of God. The vilest human on this earth today is not forsaken of God—anyone can turn to Him. But when Christ took my sin upon Himself, He was forsaken of God!
When Jesus asks, “why you have forsaken me?” it’s not the “why” of impatience, puzzlement, despair or doubt. No, it is the human cry of intense suffering, aggravated by the anguish of His innocent and holy life.

That awful and agonizing cry of His loneliness! He was alone with the sins of the world upon Him. And remember that the pictures and images we associate with Christ on the cross today bear no resemblance to reality. Isaiah 52:14 gives us the true picture.

His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men, friends, they barely recognised him as a human he was so badly disfigured! Isaiah 50:6 says, “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” They ripped His beard from His precious face!

Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? Says Psalm 22:1.
The word is actually “roaring.”
At His trial He was silent, “As a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” that’s Isaiah 53:7. When they beat Him, He said nothing; when they nailed Him to the cross, He didn’t whimper But when God forsook Him, He roared like a lion. It was a roar of pain. Many times on the farm I’ve been out hunting pigs. When the dogs attack a pig, there’s nothing quite like the shriek of that animal.

I think the shriek of our Lord from the cross resounded through the universe that He created. Now the Creator Himself was suffering! On that cross He cried like a wounded animal, not sounding like a human cry but like a wild, roaring lion.

It was the shriek, the wail of uncomparable despair as our sins were pressed down upon Him.
First He roared like a lion, but then He says, “I am a worm” (Psalm 22:6). What does He mean? Well, He has reached the very lowest place.
He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. – Isaiah 53:3
The word used here for “worm” is “tôlāʿ” the coccus worm, which was used by the Hebrews in dyeing all the curtains of the tabernacle scarlet red. When He said, “I am a worm,”

He meant more than that He had reached the lowest level. It was He who had said, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).
There is only one thing that will take the spot of sin out of our life, and that is the blood of Christ. Only the blood of the Lord Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin. Only His blood!

FATHER, FORGIVE THEM (LUKE 23:34)

Jesus’ suffering on the cross was intensified by that brutal mob of hardened spectators beneath Him. Looking through His eyes we see what He saw.
All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” –Psalm 22:7, 8

Is it so hard to imagine the depravity of the human heart when we see the crowd, including the religious leaders of the day, “Sitting down, they kept watch over Him there” (Matthew 27:36)?

The venom and vileness of the human heart were being poured out like an open sewer as they remained there and ridiculed Him in His death.

Even a poisonous snake, after it has put its fangs into its victim and emitted its poison will slither away in the grass. But not this crowd, and not the human heart in rebellion against God.
Here is where Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
He asked forgiveness for their sin!
We know that the centurion in charge of the execution was saved, along with a whole company of Pharisees. Saul of Tarsus, who would be the great Apostle Paul, was probably in that crowd.

WOMAN, BEHOLD YOUR SON! (JOHN 19:26)

As Jesus looks over the crowd, He sees eyes of pure hatred looking up at Him, but He also sees eyes of love.

He sees His mother with the Apostle John down there. “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother,” according to John’s Gospel.

As Jesus looks at her, He is back in Bethlehem at the time He was born. He says to the Father, But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb, You have been My God. –Psalm 22:9, 10.

To His mother, He says, “Woman, behold your son!” The reason for His coming into the world is now being accomplished. This is the most important hour in the history of the world.

Then His attention moves back to those who are doing the crucifying.
Many bulls have surrounded Me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. –Psalm 22:12

Of the soldiers that were crucifying Him, He says they are like the bulls of Bashan, but He doesn’t stop with that. He is being devoured by wild animals. That’s what His tormentors had become:
They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion –Psalm 22:13.
He is talking about Rome now, comparing them to a roaring lion, for the lion was the picture of Rome. Rome crucified Him.

Notice His condition: I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it has melted within Me. –Psalm 22:14
This accurate description is remarkable when you consider that crucifixion was unknown when this psalm was written. The Roman Empire was not even in existence, and it was Rome that instituted execution by crucifixion. Yet here is a vivid picture of a man dying by crucifixion.
“I am poured out like water”—the excessive perspiration of a dying man out in that sun.
“All My bones are out of joint”—the horrible thing about crucifixion was that when a man began to lose blood, his strength ebbed from him, and all his bones slipped out of joint. It was terrible, unbelievable suffering.
Then He says something strange, “My heart is like wax.”
Many doctors have said a ruptured heart would have produced what John meticulously recorded: “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out” (John 19:34). It seems that Jesus died of a broken heart.

I THIRST! (JOHN 19:28)

As He is hanging there ready to expire, with excessive perspiration pouring from Him, He suffers the agony of thirst.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to My jaws; you have brought Me to the dust of death. –Psalm 22:15.

Down beneath the cross, they hear Him say, “I thirst.”

For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet – Psalm 22:16.
“Dog” was the name for Gentiles. The piercing of His hands and feet is another accurate description of a crucifixion.

I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing, they cast lots – Psalm 22:17, 18.

He was crucified naked. It’s difficult for us, in this age of nudity and pornography, to comprehend the great humiliation He suffered by hanging nude on that cross. They had taken His garments and gambled for ownership.

Friends, He went through it all, crucified naked, that you might be clothed with the righteousness of Christ and stand before God throughout the endless ages of eternity.

FATHER, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT (LUKE 23:46)

But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog. –Psalm 22:19, 20.

The word “precious” or “darling” is better translated as “my beloved Son …” (Matthew 3:17).
Jesus is saying, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Save Me from the lion’s mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen. –Psalm 22:21

The King James Version translates “wild oxen” as “unicorns.” Or a vicious and wild bull that had one horn—uni means one. The thought is one horn.
This is quite amazing because the cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified was probably not the shaped cross we see today.

There is ample evidence that the cross was a single piece of wood, a tree as is meant by the Greek words used for cross, Stauros and Xulon.

It’s a technicality and the symbol of the cross has bought many millions into eternal life for centuries, however, amazingly, this word, Xulon is mentioned in Revelation 22 as the tree of life.
Could it be that the tree on which Jesus died will be there, alive, throughout the endless ages of eternity, to let you and me know what it cost to redeem us? This may be a discussion for another time.

We’ve witnessed the sufferings of Christ, but now there’s a radical shift that turns our focus to the glory that should follow: I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly, I will praise You. –Psalm 22:22

Jesus probably spoke this entire psalm while He was on the cross.
He did not die defeated. When He reached the very end, He said this is the gospel that will be witnessed to. “I will declare Your name to My brethren.” As a result, we see the apostle Peter among the religious leaders, saying to them, “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12

TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE (LUKE 23:43)

My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever! –Psalm 22:25, 26

The thief on the cross said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Christ responds, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”

The redeemed will be there to praise, and that includes the thief He took with Him that very same day. Although he was a man unfit to even live down here, according to Rome’s standard, the Lord Jesus makes him fit for heaven by His death on the cross.

IT IS FINISHED! (JOHN 19:30)

There is a seventh word; it is His last. They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this. –Psalm 22:31
“To a people who will be born …” includes you and me, friends.
They shall declare His righteousness—not your righteousness, for God says your righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight. How will they declare His righteousness? “That He has done this.”

Many translate that as, “It is finished,” the last word Jesus spoke on the cross. When He said it, it was but one word—Tetelestai! Finished!

Your redemption is a completed package, and He presents it to you wrapped up with everything in it.

He doesn’t want you to bring your package of goodness along. He doesn’t need that. When He died on the cross, He provided a righteousness that would satisfy a holy God.

All He asks of you is to receive this package, this gift of God, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

If you reject it, God must treat you as He treated His Son when He cried, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” It will be hell for any man to be forsaken of God. Jesus Christ went through it Himself so you might never have to utter that cry.

Psalm 22 reveals the heart of our Savior as He was made a sin offering on our behalf.

He completed the transaction in triumph.

He offers to us a finished redemption.

We will never be worthy of it, we can’t earn it, we can’t buy it—we must receive it as a gift.

The Lord Jesus Christ did all that was needed to save us.

It is finished!