Psalm 22 (b): v. 22-31

To the chief musician upon Aijeleth Shahar,
A Psalm of David.

...

22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him;
all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him;
and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
neither hath he hid his face from him;
but when he cried unto him, he heard.

25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation;
I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied;
they shall praise the LORD that seek him;
your heart shall live for ever.

27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD;
and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD's;
and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship;
all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him;
and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him;
it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness
unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

JW: In this psalm David speaks...of the exaltation of Christ, ver. 22-31.

22: 'Declare' - when thou hast delivered me. 'Thy name' - that power and faithfulness and goodness, which thou hast manifested on my behalf. 'Congregations' - Christ...extends this name to all his disciples, Matt. 12.48, 49, and to whom this very text is applied, Heb. 2.11, 12.

24: 'Abhorred' - he did not turn his face away from it, as men do from things which they abhor. '[God did not hide his face] From him' - for ever; tho' he did so for a time. (Sorry, Mr. Wesley, but I disagree.)

26: 'Satisfied' - This is doubtless to be understood of those spiritual blessings, that grace and peace, and comfort, which all believing souls have in the sense of God's love, the pardon of their sins, and the influence of God's spirit.

27: 'The world' - All nations from one end of the world to the other. So this is an evident prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, and a clear proof that this psalm immediately speaks of Christ, to whom alone this and divers of other passages of it, belong. 'Remember' - They shall remember their former wickedness with grief and shame, and fear...their great manifold obligation to God, which they had quite forgotten, his patience in sparing them so long, in the midst of all their impieties, and in giving his son for them; they shall remember the gracious words and the glorious works of Christ, what he did, and suffered for them.

31: 'His' - God's righteousness: his wonderful grace and mercy unto mankind, in giving them Christ and the gospel; for righteousness is often put for mercy or kindness... 'That he' - They shall declare that this is the work of God, and not of man.

Click for parts "(a)" and "(a): Remix". Where verses 1-21 of Psalm 22 clearly are fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus, these verses find fulfillment in Jesus' resurrection and what follows it. Let's start with Wesley's last observation: that this is the work of God, and not of man. This is huge, not only for understanding that it is God who works for and in and through us, but even so in the person of Christ. Read the New Testament carefully and you'll see that it Jesus does not raise himself from the dead. Jesus does not glorify himself. "God raised Jesus from the dead." "Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name." This is in no way to deny the divinity of the Son from eternity, but it is to recognize that as the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct Persons in the Godhead that it is the Father and the Spirit who glorify the Son.

And this is a significant reason why I have taken issue with the notion (that Wesley holds to, though he's not alone on this) that the Father literally turned his face away from his Son on the cross. Verse 24 makes this clear that in retrospect, it may have seemed that God was looking away or was absent when that evil was being done, he in fact was there and grieved over it. Indeed if God had hid his face, then we have a God who looks the other way at injustice. I refuse to believe that. I think it's poor exegesis and has even worse pastoral implications.

...

This (part of the) Psalm is about praise, so...

I praise You, Father, for not turning your face away but for hearing your Son and the cries of your people who endure pain and suffering from every angle.

I praise You, Son, for tasting and enduring everything that is human, even death, so that we would not be alone in this life or the next.

I praise You, Spirit, for the work You are doing in the midst of your people and this world in preparation for the marriage of the one to come, where heaven and earth shall forever be joined and celebrate a wedding feast of the union of God and humanity in the Person of Christ.

Death is here, but we know the cure for death has been injected and we await the day where the cure becomes complete. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.