Amazing Prophecies from the Bible

A Monthly Feature to Build Our Faith

If there was ever a prophecy to stir our hearts, it would be the series of prophecies made by King David in Psalm 22. This prophetic Psalm has been seen as a narrative of what happened to our Lord on the Cross. As you carefully study the Psalm and compare it to our Lord’s experience on the Cross, it is mind boggling in its prediction and accuracy of the Passion Narrative. No Psalm is more frequently quoted or alluded to in the New Testament. Let’s briefly look at this amazing Psalm and its’ fulfillment in our Lord’s life.

One of the first things to mention about this Psalm is that we don’t really know exactly what happened to David to make him write it. We know David had many enemies in his life from Goliath and Saul to his own son Absalom. However, we just don’t know the specific events in his life that explain this Psalm. This leads us to see the Holy Spirit working in him in an amazing way to set the stage for his greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I am sure that David himself did not fully realize what he was writing or why. All David knew was that he had experienced unjust suffering in his life that left him feeling forsaken and alone. The fact that all of the others details surrounding that suffering would so wonderfully connect to the passion of our Lord is just another demonstration of how the Lord is able to inspire His Word to magnify His power and grace to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Psalm begins with words of total forsakenness. No other Psalm in the Bible begins like this one. We hear David cry out in verse 1 of this text:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?”

These words are quoted by our Lord in Matthew 27:46 at the very moment when darkness covers the Land and the judgment of God falls on Him for our sin. Hence the ultimate feeling of being “forsaken” is due to sin. In the case of our Lord, the sin is not His but ours that He is carrying on our behalf as our Kinsman-Redeemer.

As you continue through this Psalm, virtually every verse is tied to the New Testament accounts of our Lord’s passion on the Cross. I encourage you to sit down with your Bible in this Lenten Season and see the amazing parallels between this Psalm and what our Lord has done for us. There are too many things to list here in this brief article. However, the one amazing parallel and prophecy that stands out to me is found in verse 16 which states:

“Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me; they have pierced my hands and my feet.”

These words from David in Psalm 22 should take our breath away. We have a clear picture of crucifixion that wasn’t even invented or used in the world at that time. Death by crucifixion was not used as a form of punishment or execution until the period of the Persians, a period of time at least 400 years after the days of King David. That means that David was speaking about something that didn’t even exist in his day. Nowhere do we have any record or picture of David ever being “pierced” in his hands and feet. That was something that just didn’t make sense in his day or in his life. David was simply being used as a vessel of God’s amazing purposes for us. What an incredible thought!

As I read this Psalm and think about all the amazing prophecies is has about our Lord, I feel like singing. That is the goal of the Lord’s amazing prophecies. The Lord wants us to know that everything in His Word is something beyond human reason and explanation for our redemption. When we see passages like Psalm 22, we realize that God is real and His Word is true. We are not left with “blind faith.” Instead, we have clear unmistakable evidence through these amazing prophecies of the Lord’s purposes in our Savior. I encourage all of you to open your hearts and minds to these amazing prophecies and begin to join that chorus of singing that will never end.