“Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?” !Isaac Watts
Psalm 22 is Messianic, the fourth in the Psalter. It is the most often quoted psalm in the New Testament. It would seem that crucifixion was invented by the Persians between 300-400 BC, in other words, 600-700 years after David penned the graphic description of this horrible form of death. We sense we are on holy ground here. The first sentence, spoken by our Lord from the cross, asks two questions in one: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Ps 22:1). The first question, “why…You…?” is agonizing. Why would the Romans care whether He lived or died? Or the priests? It was their scheme to have Him killed. The people He had healed? Were none of the formerly lame to be there for Him, none of the once-blind to give Him one look of love? No, He looked “for comforters, but…found none” (Ps 69:20). Even His own disciples “all forsook Him and fled” (Mk 14:50). But He asks, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” The answer is given in verse 3, “But You are holy.” This One whose cry returned unanswered knew the answer. If He was to be made sin for us, then God must turn away. And the second question? “Why…Me?” God had often come to the aid of others: “Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; they trusted in You, and were not ashamed” (Ps 22:4-5). The answer startles us: “But I am a worm, and no man” (v 6). A worm? Yes, the scarlet or crimson tôlâ, the creature crushed for dye to provide the scarlet robes of royalty. But in this case the opposite was true. “Though your sins…are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa 1:18). We are the living answers to the question wrung from His heart. How grateful we should be!