By Mark Grace, CCCNZ Ambassador
E mahara nga pito katoa o te whenua, a ka tahuri ki a Ihowa: ka koropiko ano nga hapu katoa o nga iwi ki tou aroaro.
E manatunatu ifo ma liliu mai ia Ieova o tulu‘iga uma lava o le lalolagi; e ifo atu foi i ou luma aiga uma o nuu ese.
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
Psalm 22:27
The vision of Psalm 22:27-31 is remarkable.
The psalm speaks of a renewed world, where all the ends of the earth will remember God. A world where all the families of the earth will bow down to him—all the rich of the earth will worship, and all those who don’t even have enough to survive will bow before him. At the centre of all things is the Lord.
Suffering and pain is not the last word in our lives. The vision of new creation that David has is not just a picture of consolation but of restoration. Tim Keller writes in Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering:
“The most rapturous delights you have ever had—in the beauty of a landscape, or in the pleasure of food, or in the fulfilment of a loving embrace—are like dewdrops compared to the bottomless ocean of joy that it will be to see God face-to-face (1 John 3:1–3). That is what we are in for, nothing less. And according to the Bible, that glorious beauty, and our enjoyment of it, has been immeasurably enhanced by Christ’s redemption of us from evil and death.” (117–8)
If this psalm had a tune, it would be the Last Post. The power of the Last Post comes from its association with the armed services, but to me it seems to express the pain, silence and hope of Easter.
I have read that the first notes of Last Post traditionally signalled to a unit in the field that the Commanding Officer had set the last entry, and it was time to retire for the night. Then the silence and the reveille that followed was the wake-up call to begin the day.
I think that the Last Post can be a metaphor Christ’s death, his three-day silence in the tomb, and his triumphant resurrection.
In the same way, the Last Post echoes the flow of this psalm. David’s prayer is full of pain and anguish, but then suddenly, he sings with joy about the renewal of all things with the rousing affirmation that “he has done it!”
I remember weeping at 9-year-old Julia’s funeral as her father sang with the music team “It Is Well with my Soul”. How could he sing that song in the midst of the darkness he was walking through?
He understood that the death, pain, and suffering of this life is not the end of the story. Christ won the victory over death, and his triumph is the final word. One day, after years of silence, the trump will resound again, and Christ will return to wipe away every tear.
Sorrow and suffering is not the final word in our life. The victory that Christ has won is.
