Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Psalm 22:3-5 But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.
CRY OF TRUST
Certainly Satan was at that cross tormenting Christ with every doubt he could, assailing Him with temptations hoping to draw from Christ even one small sin. And one of the temptations that faced Christ was this basic, simple question which so many others constantly ask of God: "I cried to God in my despair and He did not answer me, therefore why should I continue to trust in Him?"
But Christ answers Satan's charges and accusations the same way He always does -- with Scripture. In the midst of such torments that we cannot imagine, Christ reaches back and takes comfort in the word of God, in the history of the people of God. "I am in torment," the Christ says, "the Lord will not answer me, He has not delivered me. But I know that through all the history of God's people, always when they cried to the Lord, when they trusted in Him, He delivered them."
This is the crucial stand upon which the Messiah stakes all in the greatest depths of His agony, even as His soul cries out in pain, "Why?" He confesses, "Those who trust in You, O God, are always delivered, even as Job confessed, 'Though I do not understand my current condition, though I do not understand why the Lord has afflicted me, Yet this I know, that my Redeemer lives, and I shall see Him in my flesh, I and not another, how my heart yearns within me.'"
Notice how many times in these two verses the word "trust" is used. Jesus leans back for comfort and in His tribulation finds comfort in one place and one place alone: God cannot and will not renounce His promises. God has never yet failed to deliver those who trusted in Him, and He isn't about to start. The great big question, "Why?" is immaterial, the important thing is the sure and certain confidence that it will come to an end, that God will deliver -- and oh, how sweet the deliverance will be!
