Trusting God Through Our Trials Sample

God has a Plan

Psalm 22 describes a time of intense suffering in David’s life. He is on the run. Perhaps Saul is pursuing him. David is desperate and cries out to God. Little does David know that these words the Holy Spirit puts on his tongue describe the crucifixion of God’s own son a thousand years in the future. What’s even more remarkable is that David describes crucifixion, which he had never seen, which had not even been invented, as a form of execution. David’s language for his own suffering is vividly echoed in the Gospels to describe the crucifixion of Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Jesus would utter these same words from the cross. When he took our sin, he was separated from the Father, for the first time in all eternity. Their perfect oneness and community was shattered, and it was incredibly painful for Jesus.

David said, “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads.” Matthew describes Jesus, “And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads.”

David said, “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him” In Matthew we read: “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.” This describes the physical collapse of Jesus’s body on a cross. “They have pierced my hands and feet.” For David, this was figurative language for an attack. For Jesus, this was literally true on the cross. “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” This exact event happened at the cross.

Psalm 22 is the psalm of the cross, which was figurative for David and literal for the Son of David. It was true for David in a limited sense, but true for the Son of David in the ultimate sense. What a remarkable portrait of Christ’s suffering on the cross, given that it was painted a thousand years before Christ even came and before crucifixion was even used. God is the sovereign God and He is working His plan, a plan that culminates with a savior dying for sinners.