Let us continue our study of Psalm 22 entitled, ‘To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David’.  The phrase ‘Aijeleth Shahar’ is the mourning hart or crying deer.  This Psalm, like no other, allows David to look into the prophetical telescope to the Day of Atonement on Calvary’s tree.

We look this week at verses 6-11 which say, “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.  All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.  But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.  I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.  Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.”

In verse 6 we find the LORD, the great I AM, a reproach and despised by the people.  The word ‘despised’ means to think a vile person.  The word ‘reproach’ means to defame by stripping off the clothes.  The reason for this is because of our Lord’s opening statement in saying, ‘I am a worm, and no man;’ He has placed Himself below a man when he sees Himself as a worm.  The fisherman in order to catch the fish disguises the hook with a worm.  Our Lord disguised His deity in the worm of the flesh.  Satan bites into the worm of the flesh and destroyed that which had given him so much power over man.  The great I AM was left to still be the great I AM.  Satan destroyed only the worm that housed the very God of all creation.

This worm was also known as the scarlet worm.  This worm’s juices were used to dye garments a crimson red.  O, that crimson blood of Jesus washes our sins away and makes us as white as snow.

We are told in verse 7 that our Lord was made the punch line of all their jokes.  We are told they made faces at Him.  They stuck out their tongues and shook the head.  My, how patient is our Lord.  The angels veil their faces and cry, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ but they made their faces like depraved animals at the creator of all things.  John Stevenson said, “At Calvary every lip, finger, hand, foot, head, and eyes were a mouth piece to say something in scorn of the darling Son of God”.

In verse 8 we have the words of the scorner hundreds of years before they are uttered.  They attack our Lord because of His trust in His Father.  They wonder why His Father would not deliver Him if He delighted in Him.  They know it has been said there was a voice from heaven saying, ‘This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased’.   O how this must have been a hot poker in the heart of our Saviour but an even greater blow to the Father.  What patience of hot anger the Godhead displayed at Calvary.

Our Lord draws strength in verses 9-10 as He muses upon His miraculous birth.  In verse 9 and 10 He is reminded of His birth when He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the virgin’s womb.  This birth cast Him helplessly upon the Father to do the will of Him that sent Him.  Let us in our darkest hour muse upon our great birth from death to life and darkness into the light.

In our Lord’s darkest hour He felt the Father had forsaken Him.  He turns from the feelings of being forsaken to the fact that He is always there.  What a lesson for us all in our time of death to self.

In verse 11 our Lord turns His trust into a prayer.  He asks the Father to be near Him.  He knocks on the door of prayer with two knocks of mercy.  The first knock says, ‘for trouble is near’.  Our Lord is always quick to help in our time of need.  The second knock was worded ‘for there is none to help’.  Our Lord comes quickly when we have exhausted our store of endurance.

Let us not miss a great truth in our Lord’s dark cross of suffering.  He spent much time in wording prayer to the Father.  Lord, please let us not do less or more than pray in our fiery trials of life.