Do you ever doubt if Jesus’ death was sufficient to atone for your sins? God doesn’t, so you don’t have to either. The resurrection is proof that Jesus did the work that he set out to accomplish at the cross, and that work is sufficient for your need and mine, that God was satisfied with what Jesus accomplished at the cross. God heard Jesus’ cries at the cross and vindicated him, just as he will vindicate everyone who trusts in him.

If you were here last week, you know that the first part of Psalm 22 is anything but happy. Psalm 22 is the cry of a righteous person who is suffering for no fault of their own. It is intense. The psalmist feels abandoned and ignored by God, and taunted and despised by people. It’s a heartbreaking cry for God to listen. After describing his anguish, the psalmist cries out:

But you, O LORD, do not be far off!
you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
(Psalm 22:19–21)

Why is this psalm in the Bible? For one reason, because this is our experience sometimes. Sometimes we will suffer innocently. Sometimes we will feel abandoned and ignored by God, and taunted and despised by people. Sometimes we’ll cry out to God to pay attention to our cries. This psalm gives language to how you may feel at some point in your life. “Lament is the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God’s goodness” (Mark Vroegop). It’s given because you may one day need the words of this psalmist.

But there’s another reason Psalm 22 is in the Bible. It’s in the Bible because it so accurately describes the suffering of Jesus, the ultimate innocent sufferer. It describes his anguish on the cross, so much so that as he hung on the cross he quoted, verbatim, the words of this psalm (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). Not only that, but other details in this psalm show up on the day that Jesus was crucified. Close your eyes and read verses 16 to 18, and you would think the psalmist is describing the crucifixion of Jesus:

For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.

As one scholar says of this psalm, “More than any other passage of Scripture it penetrates into the actual suffering of our crucified Lord” (Alec Motyer).

But here’s the other reason why I think this psalm is in the Bible. It’s in the Bible because it helps us understand not just the crucifixion of Jesus but the resurrection of Jesus. Written a thousand years before Easter Sunday, this psalm helps us understand what happened on that first Easter when Jesus rose from the dead. We’re not guessing when we say this. Hebrews 2:11-12 applies this second part of this psalm to Jesus.

In other words, if you want to understand all the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus and what it means for us today, you couldn’t do any better than to look at this psalm. It’s a portrait of the death and triumph of our Savior.

In verse 21, something happens:

Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

In verse 21, the innocent sufferer is rescued from God. The rest of this psalm describes what happened.

It tells us that the resurrection means three things:

First, the resurrection means that Jesus is vindicated (22:22-24)

Read verses 22 to 24. The psalmist says:

I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.

On the cross, Jesus bore God’s wrath against the sins we committed. He willingly offered his life to make full payment for our sins. How do we know that the payment was sufficient, that God was satisfied with Jesus’ work? Because, as verse 24 says, God didn’t despise or abhor the affliction of Jesus. He hasn’t hidden his face from Jesus. He heard Jesus’ prayer and vindicated him by raising him from the dead.

Jesus’ resurrection is a sign that God heard Jesus’ prayers on the cross and rescued him, that he didn’t despise or abhor what Jesus did on the cross. 1 Timothy 3:16 speaks of his resurrection this way: “He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit…” As one theologian writes:

…Christ’s resurrection says something. It is the announcement of his justification. (Fred Zaspel)

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