Scripture Reading: Psa. 22; Matt. 27:45-46; Heb. 2:10-12
Ⅰ
"The hind of the dawn" indicates that Psalm 22 is a psalm concerning Christ in resurrection—S. S. 2:8-9.
Ⅱ
The subject of Psalm 22 is the Christ who has passed through His redeeming death and entered into His church-producing resurrection.
Ⅲ
Psalm 22:1-21 shows us Christ passing through His redeeming death:
A
The suffering of Christ unto death was through men's reproach, despising, deriding, sneering, head shaking, and mocking—vv. 6-8.
B
Christ trusted in God for deliverance, for resurrection; He intended to die and to be delivered from death, that is, to be resurrected from the dead—vv. 9-11.
C
Verses 12-18 show how Christ passed through the suffering of crucifixion.
D
God judged Christ and put Him to death for our redemption—Isa. 53:4, 10:
１
In the first three hours that Christ was on the cross, He was persecuted by men for doing God's will.
２
In the last three hours, Christ was our Substitute, He became sin on our behalf, and He died a vicarious death to redeem us from our sins and from God's judgment—2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:3.
E
On the cross Christ was forsaken by God—Psa. 22:1; Matt. 27:45-46:
１
When the Lord Jesus died on the cross under God's judgment, He had God within Him essentially as His divine being; nevertheless, He was forsaken by the righteous and judging God economically—1:20; 3:16-17:
ａ
The Lord Jesus had been born of the Spirit; thus, the Spirit was one of the essences of His being—1:20; Luke 1:35.
ｂ
When the Spirit of God descended and came upon the Lord Jesus, He already had the Spirit of God within Him—Matt. 3:16.
ｃ
On the cross Christ, the God-man, presented Himself to God as the all-inclusive sacrifice through the eternal Spirit—Heb. 9:14.
ｄ
After God had counted Christ as a sinner to be our Substitute and had accepted His offering, God as the Holy Spirit who had come upon Him forsook Him—Matt. 27:46.
２
Although God as the Spirit left the Lord Jesus economically, Christ was still a God-man and died as such; therefore, in His death there is a divine and eternal element—1 John 1:7; Heb. 9:12.
Ⅳ
After passing through His redeeming death, Christ entered into His church-producing resurrection—Psa. 22:22-31:
A
The intrinsic significance of Christ's resurrection is that in resurrection Christ was born to be the firstborn Son of God; that we, the God-chosen people, were regenerated in Christ's resurrection; and that in resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit—2:7; Acts 13:33; 1 Pet. 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
B
"I will declare Your name to my brothers"—Psa. 22:22a:
１
"I" is the resurrected Christ who declares the Father's name to His brothers—Heb. 2:12a.
２
In Christ's resurrection the believers were regenerated to be the many sons of God and the many brothers of Christ—Eph. 2:6; 1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:29; John 20:17.
３
When Christ in His humanity was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God, all His believers were also begotten of God to be God's many sons; thus, through the resurrection of Christ, God now has a group of sons, a corporate sonship—Heb. 2:10.
C
"In the midst of the assembly I will praise You"—Psa. 22:22b:
１
"The assembly" is the church, and "You" is the Father.
２
"My brothers" became "the assembly," the church; the Lord's many brothers constitute the church—Heb. 2:11-12.
３
The church is a living composition of the many sons of God, who are the many brothers of Christ brought forth in His resurrection—v. 10; John 20:17; Rom. 8:29.
４
When we, the many sons of God, meet as the church and praise the Father, the firstborn Son praises the Father in our praising—Heb. 2:12b; cf. Matt. 26:30:
ａ
It is not that He praises the Father apart from us and alone; rather, He praises within us and with us through our praising.
ｂ
The more we sing to the Father, the more we enjoy His presence, His moving, His anointing, and His life-imparting within us.
D
"All the ends of the earth / Will remember and return to Jehovah, / And all families of the nations / Will worship before You; / For the kingdom is Jehovah's, / And He rules among the nations"—Psa. 22:27-28:
１
The church is produced by the resurrection of Christ, and the church ushers in His kingdom for Him to rule and reign—Matt. 16:18-19.
２
Today the church is the kingdom; the church is the reality of the kingdom and a miniature and a precursor of the manifestation of the kingdom—Rom. 14:17.
E
"A seed will serve Him; / That which concerns the Lord will be told to a coming generation. / They will come and declare His righteousness / To a people yet to be born, that He has done this"—Psa. 22:30-31:
１
These verses refer to the preaching of the gospel and to the believers, who are the seed of Christ.
２
We will tell the coming generation that the Lord has done this.