454_Hallelujah! What a Savior
Psalm 22:1-8 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
27-31 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
28 For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.
A few years ago, a young missionary couple living in a remote African village in Africa lost their first child. Their grief was deep and raw. But those who knew them saw not just their sorrow—but their worship. A few days later, they knelt beside that tiny grave and sang, “Man of Sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim—Hallelujah, what a Savior.” That hymn, sung through tears, testified their knowledge that the Lord was still their faithful, present, and victorious Savior.
Likewise, Psalm 22 opens in the pit of despair but ends with the shout of victory. It begins with “Why have You forsaken me?” and ends with “He has done it!” As the Lord cried out on the cross, “It is finished!” The psalm has two distinct movements. The first part, from verse 1 to 21, is a lament of abandonment and suffering. The second part, from verse 22 onward, is a song of triumph, a proclamation of praise and of resurrection hope.
David may have written these words in the anguish of betrayal, perhaps fleeing from Saul or Absalom. Yet his words, intense and poetic as they are, stretch far beyond his own experience. 1 Peter 1:10-11 explains how the prophets “searched and inquired carefully” about the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. The Spirit of Christ in David pointed forward—across a thousand years—to the day Jesus Christ would hang on a Roman cross.
Quotations from Psalm 22 abound in the New Testament. The Gospel writers saw in it the crucifixion, described in graphic detail in verses 12 to 18- though this method of execution was not yet invented in David’s time. The description is chillingly accurate: bones out of joint, heart weakening, mouth dry, surrounded by evil men, pierced hands and feet, the soldiers gambling for his clothing. The psalm reads like an eyewitness account, but it was written centuries before the event.
It begins with the bitterest cry a man can utter: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As Jesus hung in agony on the cross, he spoke these very words. But where he typically addressed God as Father, here he cries out to his God. For here he is the sin-bearer—the Lamb of God who gives himself in sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is the Son of man who is willingly rendering a man’s duty to God. He demonstrates perfect obedience to God in love, even in the throes of humiliation and physical suffering.
To the watching world, it seems as if God has cast him off. He reminded the watchers of this psalm through these words. Yet he clings to faith, calling out “My God” rather than “God”. It’s the language of faith in the midst of seeming abandonment.
As the victim remembers God’s past deliverance, he says, “Our fathers trusted you and you delivered them,” he says. “But I am a worm, and no man.” In that one line we glimpse the humiliation of the Lord’s passion. Being equal with God, he emptied himself to become a man, a servant, and to be treated like a criminal. Despised, mocked, stripped, and crucified, he who knew no sin was made an offering for sin. He bore his pain in silence, refusing to take revenge or throw off the burden.
The insults hurled at Jesus on the cross also echoed the very words of Psalm 22. “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him,” they sneered (Matthew 27:43). The devil often deals in half-truths. The Lord trusted in his God, but his deliverance was not immediate. There was no rescue at the cross. It was in God’s own time that he vindicated and glorified him.
The change occurs in verse 21. “Save me from the lion’s mouth… You have answered me.” The tide turns. The cry of pain becomes a declaration of praise. Resurrection light has broken through the gloom. The agony of seeming abandonment and the resulting mockery ends in peace, as the Lord says at the end, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
The rest of the psalm is a celebration of victory. “I will declare your name to my brothers,” he says. Hebrews, speaking of Jesus Christ, quotes this to prove that he is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. The beginning allusion to psalm 22 takes us all the way to its victorious close. The Son of man has conquered sin and death, and is raised in triumph to the right hand of God, praising him for his deliverance.
The gospel, the good news, doesn’t stop at the cross. It begins there, but it spreads outward—to the congregation, to the meek, to all nations, to future generations. Verse 26 says, “The meek shall eat and be satisfied.” Those who choose to follow the path of Christ will be satisfied for ever with the goodness of his atonement on the cross.
And then, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.” From every tribe and tongue, from every nation, people will worship the One who cried out in agony so that we would never feel that pain. All the ends of the earth shall bow before him one day. Those who could not keep their souls alive will gratefully acknowledge his redemption. Even the unborn, generations yet to come, are included in this great chorus of redemption. Verse 30 says, “Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation.”
The psalm ends with the phrase, “He has done it”—or in Hebrew, literally, “It is finished.” The final words from the cross were not a cry of defeat, but of victory. The curtain was torn, the price was paid, the grave was defeated, and we were saved. The cross, once a symbol of shame and horror, is now a glorious altar. And the One who hung there is no longer in agony—He is risen, reigning, and returning. Hallelujah! What a Savior.
No matter how dark the valley, or how silent God seems, there is hope and victory for those who are Christ’s in the obedience of faith. Our Lord Jesus testifies, from the path of seeming aloneness, that God never forsakes his own. Through his obedience he has atoned for our sin, our shame, and our separation, so that we may keep his commandments and walk in the light of His love. In seasons of sorrow or silence, let us remember Psalm 22. Our Lord, our mediator, has been there as a man. He knows. And because of Him, our sorrow will also end in song.
Like that grieving missionary couple, let us choose to worship—even with tears in our eyes. Let us trust the God who answers, even when He seems silent for a time. The cross proves His love. The resurrection proves His power in us who believe. And nothing can separate us from his love. All the earth will see the riches of his grace and power in his kindness towards us.
Hallelujah! What a Savior.