Psalm 22:4
4 Our fathers ['ab] trusted [batach] in thee: they trusted, [batach] and thou didst deliver [palat] them. KJV-Interlinear
4 In
Thee our fathers trusted; They trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. NASB
The prayers from the
cross continue.
Our fathers, is a
personal reference to ancestors, generations in times past. Jesus acknowledges and identifies as a
descendant of those ancestors. He is
God, but He is also man. He is the
descendant of Adam, through Noah, through David, and his lineage is well
documented throughout the scriptures, even after David, through Solomon and
Nathan, from whom both of his human parents, Joseph and Mary, were descended.
Furthermore, here is the
testimony of Jesus that God heard the prayers of those ancestors, and came to
their aid, when they called on Him. The
Old Testament is full of the many stories of Noah, Jonah, Gideon, Elijah, Daniel,
and so forth.
And many of those
ancestors were in some very tight spots.
And God did come to their aid.
But all of them went
through hardships for a reason. Those
hardships were not dismissed, or cancelled, but were allowed to run their
course until their purpose had been served.
Likewise, Jesus had a
mission and purpose in His first advent.
And that was to go to the cross and pave the way for salvation for all
of humanity. To cancel that mission
would have nullified salvation and then history would have had no purpose or
meaning.
So, God is faithful and
always comes through. The divine plan
takes precedent over all other desires of humanity.
Certainly we will be
hurting in some way from time to time, but there is always an objective and
purpose.
We need only stick it
out, regardless of how dismal life seems, regardless of how silent God seems.
Perhaps you know the
reasons for your suffering, perhaps you need to learn the reasons for your
suffering. Perhaps your suffering has
nothing to do with you, but is affecting someone else.
But for whatever reason,
whether we recognize it or not, God always has a purpose and plan, and that
purpose will generally be made clear sooner or later. Assuming you keep your eyes on God, and do
not run off the emotional roller coaster into complaining and blaming and such.
And at this point I might
add and little question for you to ponder.
Do you ever wonder, of course you didn’t, but for now, did you ever
wonder why this psalm, 22, precedes the next psalm, 23? And I do not mean the obvious numerical
order, but I am referring to the content.
