Holding on to Hope: Easter in Old Testament PoetryНамуна

Are you struggling right now?

Maybe you’re in a tough season, walking an excruciating journey, or feeling stretched beyond what you can endure?

If so, let today’s reading bring you hope as you rest in the care of our Savior.

We’re looking at what took place while Jesus died on the cross, the completion of His divine assignment, and His resurrection—as eloquently captured in Old Testament poetry.

Let’s start with some circumstances prophesied in poems hundreds of years before they took place.

In Psalm 69:21, it says “for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” When Jesus was thirsty, they gave Him a sponge of sour wine to drink.

In Psalm 22:16b, 18: “—they have pierced my hands and feet…they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” All accounts document how He hung on the cross and both Matthew and John record soldiers casting lots for His clothes.

Psalm 22 is known as a poem of lament, or a poem of sorrow and mourning. The Israelite people would use these laments to communicate grief.

While in anguish on the cross, Jesus cried out to God, “Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani,” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” For the only time in eternity, Jesus lost intimate connection with the Father as He became sin for us. Jesus communicated this agony—and perhaps helped onlookers understand what He was doing—through the words of ancient grief poetry.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1)

All people know what it’s like to feel alone in pain and sorrow and sin. And because He took our sin upon Himself on the cross, our Savior knows what that feels like too. In those times, let’s learn from the model of Jesus and cry out to God.

We have Christ’s cry recorded in the Bible because, although Jesus may have felt alone, God still heard Him when He called. (As promised in the poem of Psalm 22.)

The same is true for you.

Let this awareness leave you in awe of God’s great love and give you peace to bring your own cries to the Father.

Tomorrow, we conclude our plan with an exploration of Christ’s unending reign. See you then!