“The Cross And The Psalms”

Sunday, March 18, 2018

The limited number of things that Jesus spoke from the cross have been the subject of much preaching over Christianity’s two millennia. The gospel writers record seven comments that he made during those six hours. Two of them are quotes from the Old Testament, and both have been in our daily Bible readings these past few weeks.

When he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, he was quoting from Psalm #22. And when he said, “Into your hands I commit my spirit,” he was quoting from Psalm #31. When heard from one hanging upon the instrument of his death, both seem to ring with a clear tone of defeat. And yet... In both of the psalms that Jesus quotes, the final assessment of the situation is more about hope and redemption than about death and defeat.

Psalm 22 begins by questioning why God is away from the psalmist, but it ends in celebration of the psalmist being drawn into the presence of God (read Psa. 22:22-24)! And while it may sound that his quotation of Psalm 31:5 is a sign of Jesus’ giving up, the psalm continues on to say, “Oh, how abundant is your goodness!” (Psa. 31:19)

Two observations here:

1) Jesus knew that in his death, the will of God was being accomplished, so his comments did not reflect his perspective on failure, but rather on the ultimate triumph of faith in an almighty, all-good God!

2) We may rightly lament our troubles—for they may be great—but we can always turn our eyes upon on the throne of God and find hope. As another psalm says, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psa. 30:5)

- Dan Lankford, minister

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