Christ's Cosmic Battle at Bashan

Psalm 22 is the psalm Jesus quotes from the cross. It is also a psalm full of animals - dogs, lions, and bulls of Bashan.
Bashan is the giveaway. That was the territory associated with the Rephaim and with the gates of the dead, so when the psalm says bulls of Bashan encircle the sufferer, it means much more than four-legged bovine animals. It points to the supernatural dimension of what is happening at Golgotha.
Read that way, the crucifixion is not only a miscarriage of Roman justice. It is the powers of darkness closing in, convinced they have won.
And the psalm does not end in abandonment. It ends with the nations remembering and turning to the Lord.
Scripture links:
- Psalm 22:12 - strong bulls of Bashan surround me.
- Matthew 27:46 - Jesus cries out the opening line of that psalm.
He did not quote a verse. He invoked a whole psalm, and the ending was the point.