Teaching the Bible in Shorthand, Psalm 22, Part 1
- Pastor Jay Christianson
- 11 minutes ago
- 9 min read
“About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’” (Matthew 27:46 CSB)
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Psalm 22:1).
Those were among Jesus’ last words on the cross before He died. In just four Aramaic words, Jesus wasn’t issuing a cry of distress. He was making a prophetic declaration.
As a bona fide rabbi of His day, indeed the best rabbi of all time, Jesus often used a teaching technique called remez. Remez means “to allude to something.” A word, a phrase, or a single verse cited by the rabbi could teach more in moments than hours in a classroom.
Not to mention a truckload of profound spiritual revelation.
By citing one element (word, phrase, verse, or action), a rabbi cites everything attached to whatever he shared, much like teaching in shorthand. I’ll show you how that works shortly.
Jesus used this technique as He drove out the money-changers in the Temple and overturned their tables, with coins scattering everywhere. Remember what He said? “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!” (Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46). He also used remez when He bent down and wrote in the dust twice during the “woman caught in adultery” confrontation (John 8:2-11).
Jesus’ disciple, Matthew, also used this technique when he quoted Hebrew scriptures to enlighten his readers about how Jesus fulfilled prophecy (Matthew 12:18).
In fact, even Jesus’ Father used a remez to give us a mind-blowing revelation about His Son: “This is my Son, the Chosen One; listen to him!” (Luke 9:35). Yet, few people actually get it.
So, over the following parts, I want to take you through the Wonderful World of Remez to help you understand and appreciate God’s word better.
As Jesus was being crucified, there were two groups of people witnessing His agonizing final hours. The first and largest group was His fellow Jews—the leaders and the public. The second and smallest group was a smattering of Gentiles in the area and the Roman guards tasked with dispatching the messiah-wannabe as a lesson to any other Jew who would seek to overthrow their Roman overlords. Two groups that stood opposed to each other.
As Jesus struggled, his breath became extremely precious to Him. To ease the pressure on His wrists, Jesus would have to stand up, placing His body weight on His nail-pierced feet. Excruciating! To relieve that pain, Jesus would have to slump down with His body weight pulling on His arms as He hung by the nails in His wrists. Usually, this back-and-forth trading of pain would continue for hours, even days, for the crucifixion victim.
As time went on, more strain and pressure built up in Jesus’ chest, constricting His heart and lungs. Medicine describes this as “progressive asphyxia caused by impairment of respiratory movement” (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14750495). Every breath was torture, and yet Jesus had something to say.
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Psalm 22:1).
Psalm 22 has thirty-one verses. What’s easier? Quoting the entire thirty-one verses as your life ebbs away under extreme respiratory distress, or quoting the opening verse and letting the hearers recall Psalm 22 to mind, and let them fill in the entire psalm? After all, the Psalms are the Jews’ hymnbook, and in Jesus’ day, most of them knew the Psalms by heart. So, uttering the first verse would have reminded Jesus’ hearers, the Jews who knew Psalm 22, of the entire psalm.
We can be reasonably sure Jesus used Psalm 22:1 as a remez when we read it to see what He was drawing everyone’s attention to. Let’s go through Psalm 22 together as if we were there at Jesus’ crucifixion, reciting it after Jesus spoke the opening verse.
(1-2) My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning? My God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, by night, yet I have no rest.
Immediately, Jesus revealed His sense of absolute aloneness because He had already given Himself to His Father’s will, which He sealed in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus knew what would happen as He turned Himself over as humanity’s sin offering. Per His will, His Father would abandon Jesus to His necessary and planned death.
(3-5) But you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. Our ancestors trusted in you; they trusted, and you rescued them. They cried to you and were set free; they trusted in you and were not disgraced.
Despite His suffering and abandonment, Jesus’ steadfast trust in His Father remained intact.
(6-8) But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people. Everyone who sees me mocks me; they sneer and shake their heads: “He relies on the Lord; let him save him; let the Lord rescue him, since he takes pleasure in him.”
Jesus revealed that His people’s rejection had already been foretold in Psalm 22, even down to the specific contemptuous words they used. In other words, what was happening to Jesus was no surprise or accident.
(9-10) It was you who brought me out of the womb, making me secure at my mother’s breast. I was given over to you at birth; you have been my God from my mother’s womb.
As Jesus hung on the cross, the words He had inspired David to write a millennium earlier now became His own, declaring not only His trust in His Father but also His steady commitment to His Father’s plan of redemption.
(11-13) Don’t be far from me, because distress is near and there’s no one to help. Many bulls surround me; strong ones of Bashan encircle me. They open their mouths against me—lions, mauling and roaring.
As this psalm unfolded in the observers’ minds, they could suddenly see Jesus, helplessly bound to a stake, raised high. At the same time, His crucifiers and tormentors encircled Him, hungrily awaiting Jesus’ death.
(14-18) I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed; my heart is like wax, melting within me. My strength is dried up like baked clay; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You put me into the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; a gang of evildoers has closed in on me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people look and stare at me. They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing.
Let’s now become one of the Jews in the crowd. Imagine hearing Jesus begin quoting Psalm 22. By this time, our minds have flowed through the verses. Our hearts start to pound and our heads swim as we realize the scene before us has already been revealed through the foretold words of King David. One king past blending with one King future. The beginning and the apex of the Davidic family line.
We’re staring at Jesus—beaten, bloody, and writhing in pain—as these images explode in our head. David’s words are being lived before us; Jesus’ increasingly weakened state as blood and fluids drain from His body. His bones wrenched out of joint by crucifixion’s twisted up and down struggle. Overwhelming thirst making every second stretch to an eternity. The callous Roman soldiers trying to pad their pay by gambling for the victim’s clothes. Why not? The messiah-wannabe, the Insurrectionist (guilty or not), won’t need them.
And finally, the marks.
Crucifixion was unknown in David’s day. The earliest crucifixions were carried out by the Assyrians and Babylonians, approximately 300 years after the time of David. But by the Spirit’s inspiration, David felt metaphorically what Jesus would experience for real. As Jesus suffered, so too we, in a tiny measure, find ourselves empathizing as we rehearsed Psalm 22 over and over as the hours passed.
(19-21) But you, Lord, don’t be far away. My strength, come quickly to help me. Rescue my life from the sword, my only life from the power of these dogs. Save me from the lion’s mouth, from the horns of wild oxen. You answered me!
Now we hear Jesus’ prayer in the psalm. How often have we felt this way in life? Jesus now cries wordlessly to His Father as death comes near.
In complete trust, Jesus looks to the end and sees the beginning, “You answered me!”
(22-26) I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters; I will praise you in the assembly. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! All you descendants of Israel, revere him! For he has not despised or abhorred the torment of the oppressed. He did not hide his face from him but listened when he cried to him for help. I will give praise in the great assembly because of you; I will fulfill my vows before those who fear you. The humble will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will praise him. May your hearts live forever!
The One whose name means salvation brings forth salvation. As we watch Jesus fade from life, His cry of victory already resonates through David’s words in our hearts. In anticipation of the resurrection, Jesus’ declaration of victory over sin and death has already been prepared. Do the Jewish onlookers around us feel God’s call already? Jesus’ shout of triumph will forever ring in the vaults of heaven and to the depths of the earth. The way to the Father will be open shortly for the humble and the seekers.
(27-31) All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will bow down before you, for kingship belongs to the Lord; he rules the nations. All who prosper on earth will eat and bow down; all those who go down to the dust will kneel before him—even the one who cannot preserve his life. Their descendants will serve him; the next generation will be told about the Lord. They will come and declare his righteousness; to a people yet to be born they will declare what he has done.
However, this extends far beyond the Jewish people. They’re just the beginning. God has plans—big plans. “He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away (the Gentiles) and peace to those who were near (the Jews). For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household” (Ephesians 2:17-19). Someday the whole earth will know the Lord, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory, as the water covers the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). The whole earth will be under the Lord’s dominion, “On that day the Lord will become King over the whole earth—the Lord alone, and his name alone” (Zechariah 14:9).
When Jesus alluded to Psalm 22 while on the cross, I wonder how many knew what He was doing. How many were reminded of that psalm and made the connection? It’s easy for us Christians to do since we’re so familiar with the events of Jesus’ crucifixion. We look back at Psalm 22 and express our amazement. But up until that moment, the Jews surrounding Jesus only knew Psalm 22 as a lamentation, metaphorically describing intense emotional and mental suffering brought on by persecution. How many suddenly saw Psalm 22 come alive even as Jesus was dying? Israel’s greatest rabbi continued to teach up to His last breath.
Do you now understand the power of using remez? Its power comes from the impact of discovery as the hearer “fills in the blanks” and suddenly sees what the teacher is alluding to.
How many of the Jewish onlookers fell to their knees in awe and grief when they realized Jesus had unrolled a thousand-year prophecy before their eyes with just one sentence?
In my view, Jesus wasn’t crying out in distress. He was making a prophetic proclamation.
He proclaimed, “This is Me!”
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Sources:
The history and pathology of crucifixion, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14750495
Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts