22/12/2023 - LIKE A POTSHERD

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My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue clings to My jaws; you have brought Me to the dust of death.  Psalm 22.15

King David wrote this Psalm by divine inspiration, speaking of the estrangement between Jesus and the Father on the Cross (Mark 15.34). The psalmist couldn’t have said these words if it hadn’t been for the precise revelation of the heavenly throne. After all, he lived about a thousand years before Christ, who would come from one of his descendants. There was a special anointing on David that guided him to compose songs filled with prophecies and to emerge victorious in all wars.

The prophet’s anointing made Jesse’s son see a thousand years ahead, when the Savior would be on the cross. By confessing that his strength had dried up, David understood what was going on inside Jesus. The Master had this feeling when He saw God turn His back on Him because of man’s sins, becoming sin in our place. The same anointing revealed this fact to Paul: For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Hallelujah!

When a Christian commits iniquity, his strength is also sapped. Thus, he is defeated in his battles against the enemy. But today, this failure must never happen, because you will be forgiven, purified and set free if, after sinning, you confess your mistake: It shall come to pass in that day, that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil (Isaiah 10.27). Confession precedes forgiveness and restitution!

What value has a potsherd? None! But we are not broken. Our strength may dry up, but by confessing our transgression and abandoning it, the Lord fulfills His promise, which says: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1.9). Blessed be the Creator who created the statute of confession. Through this recognition, we return to the position prior to the error!

The anointing of a prophet led King David to be used in this Psalm to show what happens to us if we slip up in our holiness. The apostle John was also the Lord’s instrument when he spoke of the institute of forgiveness, the confession. David said that his tongue clung to his palate, meaning that life no longer interested him. This feeling is similar to the one we have when we get sick and refuse food because it “loses” its taste. The Savior suffered all this for us on the cross!

Because of some sad events, have you ever felt so worthless that you despised everything you have or are? Christ felt that way when He saw His Father turn His back on Him. God did this to His Son because He is holiness: a consuming fire. Therefore, He could destroy Jesus. When Jesus comes in His glory, He will annihilate the wicked with the breath of His mouth (Isaiah 11:4; 30:33; 2 Thessalonians 2:8). Divine foreknowledge is beautiful and never fails!

Jesus went into the dust – the lowest place in the realm of the region of death, where demons tread – and suffered no harm. Because He had never sinned, there was no sense of error in Him. The Messiah stripped Satan and his demons of the authority they had stolen from man. This the Master did in full (Colossians 2:15). He triumphed for us!

In Christ, with love,

R.R. Soares