He has done it!

Those are the final words of Psalm 22.

Four exclamatory words filled with Eastertide hope!

(I encourage you to open your Bible and slowly read through this psalm).

But what do they mean? How could such words of confidence written nearly one-thousand years before Christ foretell his death and resurrection?

As David pens Psalm 22, he is experiencing extreme opposition and intense suffering that literally brings him to death's door. But the agonizing language of lament goes far beyond what David himself could have experienced. Nothing in this psalm leads us to believe that he is describing his own personal experience of execution. The language rather describes what becomes historically true only in the "seed" of the woman, the Son of David. Psalm 22 is a graphic portrait of God on the gallows; so much so that the psalm has been called the "Fifth Gospel" account of the crucifixion.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote: "Only the suffering God can help." That is why throughout this psalm David passionately cries to God for help in time of need (see verses 2, 11, 19). Yes, only a suffering God can help. But not a God who only suffers. Apart from the resurrection of the Son of David, his suffering of death would be of little help. If the cross of Christ defeated evil, the resurrection of Christ defeated death.

Death is separation, and separations need bridges. If God's Son never suffered and died, his provision for us earthlings would be like a bridge broken on the near end. He could not identify with us in our sin and suffering. But if God's Son only suffered and died, his provision would be like a bridge broken on the far end. He could not deliver us from our sin and suffering and bring us into new life. Thankfully, the resurrection of Christ—the one mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5)— is the guarantee that the bridge to authentic life is not broken on either end.

Did God respond to David's passionate cries for help? Does he respond to ours? The answer to those questions is found in verse 21 where the psalmist confidently affirms, "You have answered me!" While we do not know the precise way in which God answered David's prayer historically, we do have indications of how he answered prophetically. Looking back on the Son of David's sufferings, the writer to the Hebrew Christians pens these words: "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission" (Hebrews 5:7-8). Could it be the psalmist points us to the fact that the ultimate answer to his prayers as well as those of his counterpart, the Messiah, would be in the form of resurrection in the future rather than rescue in the present?

In spite of his prayer, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me" (Matthew 26:39), the Son of David was not delivered from evil, but he was delivered through evil—or better, by overcoming evil. Jesus prayed to be delivered on Good Friday, but he was delivered on Easter Sunday. He prayed to be rescued from death, but he was rather resurrected from death. Just as the Son of David's submission to death definitively conquered the penalty and power of evil, so also his resurrection from death is the guarantee that those who believe in him will one day be delivered from the very presence of evil. Jesus' historical, bodily resurrection is proof positive that "He has done it!"