March is known for its gusty winds. Strong winds blow with Epic Fury whenever hot and cold air collide. We awoke Saturday morning to unsettling news of bombs falling, innocents hiding, and dictators being targeted. Breaking news perked up our ears. Quickened heartbeats nudged anxiety awake. Few things chill the soul more than the winds of war.
What’s happening in the Middle East may be seen as an acceleration of end-times prophecies. I am no expert on those, but I have studied another prophecy that fills my soul with confident hope for such a time as this. It was written by David a thousand years before Jesus walked the earth. It’s a psalm every good Jewish boy memorized with the help of their rabbi. (Girls in Jesus’ day also memorized Scripture at home or in the synagogues.)
One technique rabbis often used to aid memorization was remez. The rabbi would recite a line of Scripture, and the student would then recite the next line from memory. This back-and-forth would continue until the entire passage was recited.
Jesus, being the good rabbi, used Psalm 22 in this way as final evidence that He was who He claimed to be. While on the cross, He uttered the first line of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” David wrote Psalm 22 from the perspective of someone in great despair and feeling all alone. Every Jew within earshot of Jesus would have immediately recognized this as the beginning of Psalm 22. As they recited the psalm in their minds, they would have seen the rest of the psalm unfold in dying color before their eyes:
(Psalm 22:7-8) “Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads, saying, ‘Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him! If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him!’”
(Psalms 22:15-18) “My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead. My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs; an evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. My enemies stare at me and gloat. They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.”
David finished his psalm with, “They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.” (Psalm 22:31 ESV) Perhaps that last line jarred them as they heard the beaten, bloody, mocked, crucified, and thirsty man hanging in front of them utter His last words, “It is finished.” (John 19:30)
So, what does this have to do with our anxiety about the events unfolding in our world this week? Jesus, the ultimate rabbi, quoted David NOT because God turned His back on Him, but to begin the remez process. Even as the weight of the world’s sin was laid on Jesus, God never turned His back on Him. David included this in his psalm, “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.” (Psalm 22:24) John the apostle quoted Jesus before His crucifixion, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it is has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” (John 16:32) Unity prevails in the Trinity.
Even with the weight of all our sins, God will never turn His back on us. We get to live in happy certainty, knowing God’s plan is unfolding just as He designed. Since David prophesied the Good Friday scene with such incredible accuracy, we can confidently take a deep breath knowing, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” (Acts 17:24-25) Bask in His presence. Pull others into His circle. Remain fearless. Just breathe.
“Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord!
(Psalm 150:6)
