Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
In that last hour as He hung upon His cross, Jesus was thinking especially of boys and girls. The proof of this is found where we have perhaps overlooked it--Psalm 22.
That is the psalm that details for us the transition in His thoughts on the cross from His despairing cry, "My God why have You forsaken Me!" to His last triumphant, joy-filled shout, "It is finished!" Psalm 22 reveals His thoughts as though a stenographer was recording them.
The last few verses of Psalm 22 have been rather confusing in many translations. Note how Peterson (The Message) seems to have caught the idea:
"Shout Hallelujah, you God-worshipers; give glory, you sons of Jacob; adore Him, you daughters of Israel. He has never let you down, never looked the other way when you were being kicked around. He has never wandered off to do His own thing; He has been right there, listening. ... From the four corners of the earth people are coming to their senses, are running back to God. Long-lost families are falling on their faces before Him. ... All the poor and powerless, too--worshiping! Along with those who never got it together--worshiping! Our children and their children will get in on this as the word is passed along from parent to child. Babies not yet conceived will hear the Good News."
And then comes that one Hebrew word, the last word of Psalm 22 that defies translators: Asah, the word that means "It is finished!" Jesus' last thoughts were of the grand Loud Cry that closes the gospel dispensation when the earth is lightened with the glory of the final message, when the Voice from heaven calls all of God's people to "Come out of her [Babylon]."
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 3, 2002.
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