TLIC Psalms. February 7. There Is None to Help.

Read Psalm 22:9-18. ⁹Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. ¹⁰On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God. ¹¹Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. ¹²Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; ¹³they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. ¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; ¹⁵my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. ¹⁶For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—¹⁷I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; ¹⁸they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

The psalmist recalls God’s lifelong care – from my mother’s womb you have been my God – and he knows that God is the only one he can count on in this great trouble for there is none to help.

Christ too had none to help on the day he was surrounded. No one stood up for him when others opened wide their mouths at him. There was no relief for his weary bones, his twisted joints, his dry tongue, his broken heart. No one covered the shame of his nakedness as they cast lots for his clothing. And as they pierced his hands and his feet, sending shock waves of pain throughout his body, no one cried out in protest, none stayed the hand of the executioner, nobody did a thing to stop it.

Not even God.

You see Jesus died alone. He had to and he chose to. The cross wasn’t a movement or a revolution. His righteous life alone could pay the penalty for our sin. His infinite life alone could take the place of all mankind. His omnipotent life alone could conquer the grave.

To live is Christ is to know that Jesus died alone so that we would never be alone, not even in death.   

Prayer. Jesus, you didn’t deserve the cross but you went there in my place. Help me stay near the cross today and each day as I learn to trust in your wondrous love for me.

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