"For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet" (Psalm 22:16).

This is the central verse of the 22nd Psalm, the remarkable prophetic psalm which describes in terrible detail the sufferings of Christ on the cross a thousand years before they were fulfilled.

Except for John, His disciples were not there to comfort Him. For the most part, the mobs howling around the cross were His enemies. The "assembly of the wicked" may well have been a gathering of demons -- personified as strong bulls and ravening lions, including Satan himself. The "dogs" that were "compassing" Him may refer to the Roman soldiers or possibly to a mob of homosexuals (who had been called "dogs" by Moses in Deuteronomy 23:17-18).

The terrible spikes that pierced His hands and feet had been affixed by Gentiles, but the whole scenario had been arranged by the Jews. However, all of us are guilty of piercing His very heart as well as His hands and feet, because He died to save us from our sins. He "by the grace of God" had to "taste death for every man" (Hebrews 2:9).

The day is coming, however, when "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. . ." (Zechariah 12:10).

But what about the rest of us? "Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him" (Revelation 1:7).

That was indeed an awful day when He hung on the cross, surrounded by wickedness, but many today can call it Good Friday, because there, all evil men and devils and even death itself were defeated forever. HMM