Psalm 22 The Word From the Cross IV

VI Brief Reflections

Todah Cycle[1] = a sequence of experiences on the life of the ancient Israelite worshipper in which the singing of a psalm (or series of psalms) concluded with the joyful offering of some form of sacrifice in the sanctuary. Leviticus governed the legislation of the Todah or Thanksgiving Sacrifice.

Unlike burnt, sin, or guilt offerings the Todah was never offered because of sin and was obligatory. Burnt offerings were preferred in the Mosaic covenant.
Todah or Thanksgiving Sacrifice expressed pure gratitude and joy for a gratuitous act of deliverance bestowed on the worshipper by YHWH. Todah sacrifice was preferred in the Davidic covenant.

Many people don’t know about rabbinic teacher habit of stating first line. He is not forsaken, understands weight of suffering. Permission of lament and grieve for Christian experience.

Large amounts of choice bread, including leavened bread, where offered with the Todah. Most other sacrifices bread not offered and certainly not leavened.
3 Entire sacrificial animal was consumed before the next sunrise. Thus family & friends were brought. Burnt offerings the entire animal was wholly burned, or sin offerings consumed by the priests.

Thus, a Todah sacrifice was a joyous event and the occasion for a feast in the sanctuary premises. This aspect of the Todah lent it a superior form of worshipping God.

4 Long before the birth of Jesus, the psalms were read by the people of Israel as messianic: prophecies about the Messiah and first-person speech of the Messiah, the future Son of David

5 There is a movement from lament to praise and thanksgiving for deliverance

[1] John Bergsma & Brant Pitre, A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament (Ignatius Press: San Francisco 2018) 583-587