There are so many wonderful psalms in the Book of Psalms. For example, Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in a time of trouble.” Psalm 34:7 says, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.” And in verse eighteen of the same Psalm it says, “The Lord is near the broken hearted, He saves those who are crushed in spirit.” In Psalm 37:3 we find this word of instruction, “Trust in the Lord and do what is good; dwell in the land and live securely.” And similarly in Psalm 90:12 the psalmist asks, “So teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
In Psalm 22, we find passages that are applied directly to Jesus as he hung upon the cross. In verse one he cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Why are you so far from helping Me and from the words of My groaning” This psalm was fulfilled in Matthew 27:4546 when Jesus hung upon the cross. The passage in Matthew says, “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour (this was about twelve noon when the sun should have been shining at its brightest and until three in the afternoon), there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour (three o’clock), Jesus cried out with a loud voice,”Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” which is to say, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” You see, it was at that time, as He hung on the cross for our sins, He became dark, ugly sin, and for the first time in eternity God the Father could not look upon His Son because God in His Righteousness could not fellowship with dark, ugly sin! But that’s what Jesus did for us.
Then in Psalm 22:18, it says, “They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing.” Both Luke’s and Mark’s Gospel verifies that this is exactly what happened. Whether it was the Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross or some of the people of the crowd, Mark 15:24 records the incident in this way, “And when they crucified Him, they divided his garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.” In other words, they gambled on who should get what! It’s interesting that most of the Psalms were written by King David some five hundred years before they were ever spoken by Christ or fulfilled by the actions of the soldiers! These aren’t words of “aftermath” inserted to apply unto the crucifixion of Jesus, they are exact sayings that were prophesied that Jesus would say and the people would do, five hundred years before they ever happened!
