"these things the Lord has done"

Psalm 22

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

You are far from my plea and the cry of my distress.

O my God, I call by day and you give no reply;

I call by night and I find no peace.

Yet you, O God, are holy,

enthroned on the praises of Israel.

In you our fathers put their trust;

they trusted and you set them free.

When they cried to you, they escaped.

In you they trusted and never in vain.

But I am a worm and no man,

the butt of men, laughing-stock of the people,

all who see me deride me.

They curl their lips, they toss their heads.

"He trusted in the Lord, let him save him;

let him release him if this is his friend."

Yes, it was you who took me from the womb,

entrusted me to my mother's breast.

To you I was committed from my birth,

from my mother's womb you have been my God.

Do not leave me alone in my distress;

come close, there is none else to help.

Like water I am poured out,

disjointed are all my bones.

My heart has become like wax,

it is melted within my breast.

Parched as burnt clay is my throat,

my tongue cleaves to my jaws.

Many dogs have surrounded me,

a band of the wicked beset me.

They tear holes in my hands and my feet

and lay me in the dust of death.

I can count every one of my bones.

These people stare at me and gloat;

they divide my clothing among them.

They cast lots for my robe.

O Lord, do not leave me alone,

my strength, make haste to help me!

Rescue my soul from the sword,

my life from the grip of these dogs.

Save my life from the jaws of these lions,

my poor soul from the horns of these oxen.

I will tell of your name to my brethren

and praise you where they are assembled.

"You who fear the Lord give him praise;

all sons of Jacob, give him glory.

Revere him, Israel's sons.

For he has never despised

nor scorned the poverty of the poor.

From him he has not hidden his face,

but he heard the poor man when he cried."

And my soul shall live for him, my children serve him.

They shall tell of the Lord to generations yet to come,

declare his faithfulness to peoples yet unborn,

"These things the Lord has done."

The Raising of the Cross - Peter Paul Rubens