"And sitting down they watched him there." (Matthew 27:36)

When the Roman soldiers had finished torturing Jesus and gambling over His garments, finally nailing Him to the cross; and when the Jewish elders, scribes, and chief priests had finished mocking Him and challenging Him to come down from the cross if He could, they all just sat down to enjoy watching Him suffer and die!

But amazingly, what they saw as they watched had been described already, a thousand years before its fulfillment, in the remarkable prophecies of the 22nd Psalm, written as though coming from the inmost thoughts of the suffering one Himself, there on the cross. Even His initial cry was prophesied: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1).

"All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, he trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. . . . I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. . . . My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. . . . they pierced my hands and my feet. . . . they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture" (Psalm 22:7-8, 14-18).

Space does not allow citing it all here, but one should read the entire psalm, comparing it in detail with the scene at the cross, to feel the profound impact of this moving prophecy and its fulfillment. But also note its conclusion. "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. . . . They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this" (Psalm 22:27, 31). HMM