The Words in the Wounds
Thursday (October 16)
Words in the Wounds
Psalm 22:16-18
They have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
Aren’t you amazed that this psalm wasn’t written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John after Christ’s ascension, but it was written prophetically by David generations before Christ ever came to earth? Often, if you’re like me, you flip through these poetic pages for a quick little bite of encouragement, especially on days when you don’t have the mental energy for a full-course study, yet, even here, even in a simple song from a great poet, our Redeemer transports us to Calvary. And without even realizing the significance of his own words, in the very chapter before he’ll depict the LORD as the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23, He pictures Him here in Psalm 22 as the sacrificial Lamb, dying in our stead for our salvation!
Psalm 22:16-18 is sweeping gospel imagery, isn’t it? For David, it’s dark where he is, too—perhaps excruciatingly dark—and this psalm marks a personal time of questioning and confusion. Don’t miss that, friend. Realize that even prophetic utterances like these are often personal ones as well. That’s why the well of meaning is so deep. We don’t know at what point David becomes aware that he’s speaking of Someone else as he pens a new song; we don’t know if what he intended as symbolic imagery for his own present suffering turned out to be precise and prophetic imagery for Christ’s Passion, or whether David is in a trance as he writes this, making no connection in his mind at all between the description and his present state of being. But I imagine that the walls are closing in on him in some way. Maybe anxiety is reaching a fever pitch, and that question’s been reverberating off the walls of his heart for some time now, “Father, why have You forsaken me?” He isn’t the first saint to ask it, nor the last. Ah, but listen to the resounding voice of our Redeemer through Isaiah 49:16: “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before Me.”
Oh friend, reach out to those pierced hands of your Redeemer right now! Your anguish is written in those wounds as well.