Solomon's Porch Christian Community

Introduction

In Forsaken For Us All Part 6, we will continue to examine the great Messianic text of Psalm 22. Our Memory and Meditation Verses as we Remember the Crucifixion are Psalm 22:1-15. The series aims to improve and guide our Christian meditation together. Read Forsaken For Us All Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 before going any further if you’d like.

Water Is Life

Water is the one thing we cannot live without. After I speak on fasting I always get at least one person that comes up to me and says, “Whew, I could never fast.” I always surprise them when I tell them they’d likely live more than 30 days without a bite. However, three days without drinking will put you in a pine box–right quick–as my great-grandmother used to say. That means you’re dead kids. Pine boxes were coffins a few generations ago.

Land Is Dry As Dust

Water is important. The major cities of the world are all built near water. Raging water is dangerous. People lived near enough to rivers and streams to dig shallower wells. They lived near enough to irrigate their crops. They wanted to be near to move their goods for trade. Two-thirds of the world is water. So we set sail on it. The dry land rose up from the water, jutting out and becoming the Pangea on the Third Day of Creation. The thing about land is that it is dry. Rock. Dirt. Dust. Desert. Mountain. Plateau. Plain. They all drink the water. The land is dry as dust.

Poured Out Like Water

The Forsaken For Us All series closes with Psalm 22:14–15, the final verses in our Memory & Meditation Verses. Jesus tells the Father, “I am poured out like water” (Psalm 22:14).” I remember heading out into the backyard as a child with my metal Tonka Truck and Bulldozer to make a place where a boy could get muddy—much to my father’s chagrin when he got home. The dry July Tennessee red clay deeply disappointed me. No matter how much water I put into the hole, it would only remain for a few seconds. The good news was that I could get muddy. The bad news was I could not make a mini-lake for my Tonka truck trails to go around. 

The 2010 Flood was terrible here in Nashville. Where is that water now? The land drank it. Noah’s Flood is written about in the Bible and the stories of every other ancient people as well. Where is that water now? The dry land drank it up. It took a few days, but in the end, the dry land drank it all down. Jesus was poured out like water on the dry land and drank the cup of death to the dregs.

Poured Out His Blood

The Lord Jesus, His life poured out like water, and His body racked with pain says “all my bones are out of joint.” In that condition, He gave “blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28).” The Second Adam’s trial ends with the sons of the first Adam crucifying Him. Jesus is securing His enemy’s redemption and killing death with death. He finished his race “scorned by mankind and despised by the people (Psalm 22:6).” When He is His thirstiest on the Cross is when we see the prophecy from Psalm 22 come into existence. 

Thirst and The Crucifixion

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah (Mark 15:34-35).” He must have been in agony. They couldn’t understand what He said. His speech was garbled. Eloi and Elijah sound similar when coming from a man that is suffocating, brutally beaten, and incredibly thirsty.

On The Cross Near The End

You remember that “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani” is the opening verse of Psalm 22 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” in the Hebrew tongue.

Mark 15:36 tells us that after He says this someone gives Him something to drink. “And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 

Psalm 22:15 is the context for this. David, experiencing in His vision what Jesus experienced in the moments before the sour wine says, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws (Psalm 22:15a).” These are the words of a man in the throes of a terrible thirst.

The Dust of Death

These are the final moments before the end. After He drinks Jesus gives up His spirit. “And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom (Mark 15:37).” In Psalm 22, when David is at his thirstiest he utters, “you lay me in the dust of death (Psalm 22:15b).” What did Jesus cry out? What did He say after the wine exactly? John tells us. “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” Finished, yes, but the cost of our atonement was the Father laying the Only Begotten in the dust of death. He was forsaken for us all.

That Concludes Our Series: Forsaken For Us All

To close, here is a hymn to listen to this week as we continue to consider together until we meet on the Lord’s Day morning, Who exactly was Forsaken For Us All: O Sacred Head Now Wounded

From here we will turn our hearts to meditate on the Resurrection. Remember: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:49).” Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Even so, Come.

Begin Reading our next series: Putting On Immortality Part 1

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Learn more about Solomon’s Porch Christian Church on our Home Page & What We Believe

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord,

Pastor Jeremy

Additionally, you can read our previous Series Christ, His Church, & Marriage if the mood strikes ya!