Dear Friends,
How anyone can read the Bible thoughtfully and not know it is the Word of God is a mystery that puzzles me no end. Take today’s devotional (written nearly 1000 years before Christ was born) and think about it. You are I can’t tell what will happen tomorrow. Who is the only One who can accurately predict the future? God bless you.

Because of Calvary,
John Janney

• Psalm 22:1-18 (ESV)

  1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
  Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
  2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
  and by night, but I find no rest.
  3 Yet you are holy,
  enthroned on the praises of Israel.
  4 In you our fathers trusted;
  they trusted, and you delivered them.
  5 To you they cried and were rescued;
  in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
  6 But I am a worm and not a man,
  scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
  7 All who see me mock me;
  they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
  8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
  let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
  9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
  you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
  10 On you was I cast from my birth,
  and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
  11 Be not far from me,
  for trouble is near,
  and there is none to help.
  12 Many bulls encompass me;
  strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
  13 they open wide their mouths at me,
  like a ravening and roaring lion.
  14 I am poured out like water,
  and all my bones are out of joint;
  my heart is like wax;
  it is melted within my breast;
  15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
  and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
  you lay me in the dust of death.
  16 For dogs encompass me;
  a company of evildoers encircles me;
  they have pierced my hands and feet—
  17 I can count all my bones—
  they stare and gloat over me;
  18 they divide my garments among them,
  and for my clothing they cast lots.

“This psalm opens with the exact words Jesus uttered from the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?’ It then goes on to mention specific aspects of His passion: the reproach and ridicule; the piercing of His hands and feet; the dividing of His garments; and the casting of lots by the Roman soldiers to see which of them would get His robe. Here, then, is yet another prophecy of the Suffering Servant. Jesus obviously was familiar with this psalm and had it in mind during His atoning death. He clearly identified Himself with this particular prophetic utterance from the Old Testament.” [R. C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross, (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2007), p. 115-116]