Psalm 22 really is an incredible journey. From “My God, my God why have You forsaken me” . . . to “I will tell of Your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” From “All who see me mock me” . . . they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion” . . . to “You who fear the Lord, praise Him! All you offspring of Jacob glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him.” From “I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joints . . . my strength is dried up like a potsherd . . . my tongue sticks to my jaws . . . they have pierced my hands and feet” . . . to “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”

That it is a Messianic psalm . . . a prophetic psalm concerning Jesus . . . is clear from the opening words. Jesus links Himself to the psalm’s subject fulfillment as He cries from the cross, “My God, my God why have You forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46, Mark 15:34) To read the psalm and think about Jesus is not only appropriate, it is intended. The psalm provides insight into the suffering of the Son of God . . . it is a passage into the inner thoughts of the Lamb of God on the cross . . . and, it links the pain to the purpose. It shows that by way of the cross, there would be a crown . . . that because of suffering, there would be salvation . . . that through the pouring out of wrath, there would be the pouring out of worship.

It starts in the depths of the pit of despair and winds up in heights of the congregation of heaven It begins with the lone voice of a single forsaken Man crying to an invisible God . . . and ends with a myriad of offspring of Israel lifting their voices as they praise Him and worship Him and stand in awe of Him.

What an incredible journey!

And “the bonus” for me this morning? I found myself in the psalm . . . I looked in the picture and there I was . . . “back row, third from the right.”

“Posterity shall serve Him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn, that He has done it.” (Ps. 22:30-31)

There I am! That “coming generation” . . . part of the “people yet unborn.”

As David concludes his song . . . as it rises in grand crescendo . . . as the Lamb of God reveals He is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah . . . I become part of the song. A member of that generation . . . one of those people yet unborn . . . hearing of His righteousness . . . a righteousness secured by the Righteous One who paid the price for the penalty of my sin on that awful cross . . . a righteousness made freely available by the grace of a loving God . . . a righteousness deposited to my account through faith in the Shepherd Son of God . . . a righteousness being practically worked out in my life through the transforming Spirit of God. Oh, how I praise Him that he penned my name into the lyrics of the song!

“He has done it!” So concludes the song. The journey . . . from once-for-all Sacrifice to victorious Savior . . . all part of God’s redemptive plan . . . and it is finished.

Mine is to not only see myself in the song, but to join in the song . . . to praise Him . . . to glorify Him . . . to stand in awe of Him . . . to join those from all families of all nations who have seen themselves too in the song and worship before Him.

Pretty cool song, huh? . . .