Psalm 22:15–17
“My strength is dried up like a piece of broken pottery, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of evildoers encircle me; they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones.”

 

Psalm 22 is famously known as one of the clearest foreshadowings of Jesus’ crucifixion. I’ve preached from this psalm many times, sharing with believers how horrific Christ’s suffering truly was. But I never imagined I would come to personally experience even a shadow of the agony it describes.

 

On June 8th, my sodium levels dropped to 118, and I was rushed to the emergency room by ambulance. After stabilizing and returning to a normal level of 133, I was discharged on June 12th. But the hardest part since then has been the torment of adhering to the strict water restrictions imposed by my doctors.

 

I was limited to just one and a half small bottles of fluid per day—and during a week of sweltering heat exceeding 100°F, my body was drenched in sweat. Trying to endure with such limited hydration felt like a form of self-destruction. Just the other evening, while grading student assignments at my desk, I tried to call out to my wife, but I couldn’t. My tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth, and I couldn’t open it to speak. In that moment, I thought: isn’t this exactly the scene from the psalm? “My strength is dried up like a piece of broken pottery, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.”

 

In my case, my wife brought me a sip of water, and I recovered. But Jesus—He hung on the barren hill of Golgotha, crucified in the blazing midday sun, His hands and feet pierced. How unbearably thirsty He must have been. So I said to my wife, “My dear, I am tasting the glory of sharing in Christ’s suffering.”