“I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee.” Hebrews 2.12
Who is it that uses these words? —It is Christ—“He that sanctifies.” And the place where we find them is Psalm 22.22, which we must carefully study, if we would learn all that it is intended we should learn from them. In our study thus far we have seen that the Lord’s statement, “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren,” shows us His wonderful love and condescension; He is not ashamed to call us poor sinners brethren; now we are to learn a lesson of even greater comfort and encouragement—a lesson of how to conquer by faith, the faith of Jesus Christ. He who reads the words, “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren,” without considering the circumstances under which they are uttered, loses the most wonderful and precious lesson in the whole Bible. Let us therefore study the picture that is presented to us in the twenty-second Psalm.
The Psalms as a whole are the words of Christ. “David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His Word was in my tongue.” 2 Samuel 23.1, 2. Indeed, in the whole Bible we have the Spirit of Christ, in the prophets, testifying (1 Peter 1.10, 11), although often, as in so many of the Psalms, the writers described their own personal experiences. Thus in Inspiration we have the mystery of the Incarnation. Christ in the flesh, as Man, has all the experiences of mankind, so that no one can have suffered anything or passed through any sort of trial that Christ has not endured; nay, more, that Christ does not at that very moment share. When we read the Bible, but especially the Psalms, with this in mind, we find in them unsearchable riches of comfort.
But this applies most especially to the twenty-second Psalm, for in that we have the most unmistakable evidence that it is a description of Christ’s experience, and yet it is most intensely human. In it every soul can read his own struggles and temptations, and discouragements,—and, if he has faith, his own victories.
Before we take up the Psalm in regular order, let us note a few verses which show us that it comes as a whole right from the heart of Christ.
Verse 1: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me.” Compare Matthew 27.46, and the connection.
Verse 6: “But I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” Compare Isaiah 52.14; 53.3
Verses 7, 8: “All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him; let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him.” Compare Matthew 27.39, 43
Verse 16: “They pierced My hands and My feet.” Verse 18: “They part My garments among them, and cast lots for My vesture.” Compare John 19.23, 24
These verses show us that the Psalm is the outpouring of Christ’s soul in His most trying earthly experiences. Nevertheless it is “a Psalm of David.”
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” “O My God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou