Steven A. Bush - June 5, 2022
The Doe of the Dawn, The Song of the Cross
"The Doe of the Dawn," Psalm 22, is the Song of the Cross. Written a thousand years before Christ, Jesus claims the song as His own as He suffers in our place. Psalm 22 is a lament that begins like a dirge but morphs into a victory song. Weeping indeed endured for that night when darkness fell on Golgotha, but joy came on Sunday morning. Demons choked on their laughter when the bruised heel of Jesus' atonement crushed the serpent's head. We must remember, with every ounce of our beings, with full conviction: our Lord's agony led to our victory; His forsaking led to our forgiveness and acceptance; His piercing and suffocating and blood-shedding extinguished the fire of God's wrath against our sin; His cruel and heinous death birthed our eternal life. The late Jerry Bridges said it so powerfully: “Christ exhausted the cup of God’s wrath. For all who trust in Him there is nothing more in the cup. It is empty.” The stalwart reformer, Martin Luther, exhorts us all as follows: “Learn to know Christ and Him crucified. Learn to sing to Him, and say, ‘Lord Jesus, You are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon Yourself what is mine and given me what is Yours. You have become what You were not so that I might become what I was not.'” Amen and Amen...