In the book of Psalms, there are certain highlight psalms. The top psalms we have seen thus far are Psalm 2, Psalm 8, and Psalm 16. Now we come to the fourth top psalm, Psalm 22.
Generally speaking, we love every psalm because every psalm is full of an aspiration to seek after God, to pray to Him, to contact Him, and to receive the spiritual help from Him. Even Psalm 1 does this. We have seen that Psalm 1 uplifts the law instead of Christ, but we should not condemn Psalm 1 to the extent that we give it up. That is wrong. We have to love every psalm because every psalm as the Word of God is eatable (Jer. 15:16; Matt. 4:4). If you are weak or down, you can read one psalm a number of times with some amount of prayer. Then you will be nourished. Every psalm can be a spiritual supply to us.
But often we receive this spiritual supply in a wrong way. Eating is not that simple. We need the proper groceries and the proper way to cook them. This is why we need to enter into the right way to understand all of the psalms one by one. My burden is mainly to show us that the book of Psalms, in the proper understanding, is centered on Christ. The Psalms are fully Christ-centered. Christ is not only the centrality but also the universality of the Psalms. I believe that the Lord has given us the proper and particular way to study, to know, and to interpret the Psalms. In this message we want to see that Christ is particularly revealed in Psalm 22.
The title of Psalm 22 says, "To the choir director: according to the hind of the dawn." This title of the melody of this psalm is very meaningful. The hind of the dawn here refers to the Christ in resurrection. There was such a teaching in the church, in the Body of Christ, in the past. I received this light through Brother Watchman Nee. This title of Psalm 22 shows that it is a psalm concerning Christ in resurrection. Christ is a hind. He is a leaping, jumping, active, living deer. A hind is a fast animal. When a hind runs, it leaps; it jumps. Christ in resurrection is the leaping One (S.S. 2:8-9).
Our going to Russia for the spread of the Lord's recovery has been a "leaping" move. Even a year ago, we did not have the idea to go to Russia. The decision to follow the Lord to "leap" for His move in Russia was on Memorial Day of last year, 1991. This move is surely the move of the Christ in resurrection. Psalm 22 is on Christ as the hind of the dawn, the resurrected Christ in the early morning.
Of course, without death, there is no resurrection. The resurrection follows the crucifixion. The first twenty-one verses of Psalm 22 cover the death of Christ, the crucifixion of Christ, and the last ten verses cover His resurrection. Isaiah 53 is a particular chapter on Christ's death in detail. Psalm 22 is another chapter of the Bible in the Old Testament on the death of Christ which is full of details. We need these two chapters in order to see a thorough, detailed picture of Christ's death.
The subject of Psalm 22 is the Christ who has passed through the redeeming death and entered into the church-producing resurrection. His death is for redeeming, and His resurrection is for producing the church.