Today is Holy Tuesday and we're reading in Psalm 22:6-11. I cannot wait to share with you what I came across a few years back when I studied this psalm, about that word “worm” in the psalm and it's fascinating. I'm going to share it with you in just a minute, but first, let’s look over this entire section.

But I am a worm and not a man,scorned by mankind and despised by the people.All who see me mock me;they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

Yet you are he who took me from the womb;you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.On you was I cast from my birth,and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.Be not far from me, for trouble is near,and there is none to help.

- Psalm 22:6-11

The passage begins by David saying, “I am a worm and not a man despised by mankind and the people”. In contrast to his focus on God’s holiness in verse three, we see David’s realization of his own condition before a holy God. He talks about how they're saying things like “Well, if he trusts God, let God deliver him, let God rescue him.” We hear this echoed in the gospels in Jesus’s life. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows (Isaiah 53:3). We saw yesterday in the first five verses he mentions three times the word trust. He goes back and he remembers how God led his people out and rescued his people. He talks about his fathers trusting in him and that he puts his trust in him as well. We see this on the cross when Jesus exclaims, “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

Yet

This is that tension we sometimes feel. We're battling where we're at currently in our circumstances and how that makes us see things as we struggle with our view of God in the midst of feeling forsaken. We see him again in this section, go back to that word “yet”. “Yet you brought me forth from my mother's womb,” he says, and “you made me trust in you.” We also see that word “trust” come up again and we feel that tension, don't we? We're wrestling with our circumstances and what we know to be true about God and what we're feeling and all these hard things that create so much tension.

In the midst of this struggle, he's recognizing that God made him trust in him from birth, from his mother’s womb. He ordained each day. And then he says this, “but trouble is near, trouble is near and there is none to help.” Think back on Jesus's life and remember the garden of Gethsemane, where he wrestled with the circumstances and the burden that was placed on him, but he willingly yielded to the Father’s will and went to the cross. It says he did this, “for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

What we see in this psalm is a picture of Jesus’s suffering mirrored in David’s suffering. Now we come back to that word, “worm”. I just love how God uses creation to paint a picture of the gospel for us! When I first came across this, I thought it was strange. And I thought, “Well, he could just be saying I'm nothing.” You know, I'm a worm and not a man. But the word typically used for “worm” in Scripture is “maggot”, like an everyday maggot. But this word, this word in this verse is totally different. It is a specific type of worm.

A Worm

Follow me here, the scientific word for this worm is Coccus ilicis. It is a crimson worm or a scarlet worm. Let that sink in for a minute. Actually, they used these worms, particularly the substance that came out of these worms, for dyeing fabric red. So here you have this worm and when they're ready to have offspring, they will attach themselves to a piece of wood, like a tree or a post. They are so attached, they are so committed, that in order for them to come off of it, you would have to rip the worm apart. So they attach themselves to this tree and then they have offspring and the offspring are hidden underneath their body. When the offspring hatch, they begin to eat the flesh of the worm. When that happens, the worm then releases a substance that stains the offspring red. It stains them crimson red. Then the worm will die and fall off of the tree and it turns white. Is your mind blown yet?

There are so many connections as we think about this and what Christ accomplished on the cross. He was committed. He was not going to come down off of that cross. He was committed to following through in order to fulfill everything. But not only that, his blood cleanses us and we are stained by his blood, washed by his blood, because he sacrificed himself and died in our place. Isn’t it amazing how God uses created things to illustrate a picture of what Christ accomplished on the cross?

I was so excited to be able to share this with you today. I just love this picture of how Jesus was fully committed to the cross in order to fulfill God’s plan to appease and absorb God's wrath on the cross. Because we could never, we could never do that for ourselves. What a beautiful picture! I just love it when God reveals little nuggets like that. I’m in awe of how God uses things in creation to illustrate what Christ accomplished on the cross.

Meditate on this truth today: Christ was committed to the cross and he was committed to the will of the Father FOR US because we couldn't do it for ourselves. We couldn't rescue ourselves and we needed him to give his life for us, to appease the wrath of God for us so that we could be justified, so that we could be clean and washed by his blood that is poured out for us.

When trouble is near, the only one who can help is the One who makes us trust in him. We rely on his work on the cross through his Beloved Son. Even in the face of scorn and mocking, he is worthy of our trust and he is the only one who CAN help. Be not far from me, O God, for there is none to help but you. You’re all I’ve got!

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