Day 35- I'm Blown Away!
So Eriek came home from his Theology
class today and blew me away. It’s something
so simple and it seems so obvious, but because I haven’t
read through the Psalms I never noticed. I have to
admit, I’m pretty surprised and a little disappointed
I’ve never heard this until today.
Rabbis would refer to the first line
of a Psalm as a reference to the entire Psalm and
everything contained in it. Kind of like you may recognize
the first line of Psalm 23 because it’s recited
at many funerals, “The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.” But when a rabbi would refer
to a Psalm by using the first line, the listeners
were expected not just to know the Psalm but to understand
the ideas and messages contained within it.
Which brings to point something Jesus
said as He was hanging on the cross, “My God,
My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46
& Mark 15:34) There’s a ton of theological
debate and all kinds of different ideas over this
verse. I’m not here to debate all that stuff,
I just want to point out something that blew me away.
Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher, and “My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?” is the first
line of Psalm 22.
As Jesus was hanging on the cross, He
was still teaching. Psalm 22 depicts and describes
without any stretch of the imagination the crucifixion
of Jesus. Through the writing of David nearly 1,000
years before Jesus, you experience the sense of separation
from God in the beginning of the Psalm. It talks about
the literal events that happened on the day of Jesus’
crucifixion- piercing of the hands and feet, mouth
dried out, casting lots for His clothes, not a bone
broken. You can sense the agony as He asks God to
save Him, but during the entire Psalm, God is being
praised and trusted.
Can you imagine knowing that Psalm so
well, and then being in earshot as Jesus cries out
on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?” Suddenly the weight and understanding
of that Psalm that may not have made total sense before,
hits you like a ton of bricks. Knowing that as Jesus
speaks that line, He is praising and trusting God
knowing that (Psalm 22:27-28), “All the ends
of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations shall worship
before You. For the kingdom is the Lord’s and
He rules over the nations.”
Lord,
Thank You so much for opening my eyes and heart more
fully to Your Word and My Savior. I’m only beginning
to get a glimpse of the picture and I know I need
to let this sink in quite a bit more, but You continue
to amaze and astound me! Thank You Lord for increasing
my knowledge and my heart’s understanding of
Your Word.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
