Psalm 22
A Script for the Suffering Saviour
There’s a weight and sombreness as we read, pray and sing this Psalm. Here we are brought face to face with the gravity and ugliness of sin. This Psalm is a script for the suffering of our Saviour for our sin. David’s words foreshadow the physical and spiritual agony of Christ on the cross.
But there’s also a solace for our weary hearts in this poignant prayer. If you’ve ever felt as though God has turned his face from you, or refuses to hear your cries of pain, here is the reminder that through the cross of Christ, we meet the smiling providence of God toward us, both now and forevermore.
For the director of music. To the tune of ‘The Doe of the Morning’. A psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 ‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say,
‘let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.’
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
Each and every Psalms points to Jesus. But maybe none as obviously or more harrowingly than this. There are five clear references in this first half to the accounts of Jesus’s death (and that doesn’t include other echoes here).
After Jesus was arrested, unjustly tried, spat on, flogged and beaten, he was nailed to the cross. This Roman instrument of torture necessitated that its victim has his hands and feet pierced with a nail, which was fixed to a cross (v16; see John 20.27). Impaled on the cross, he was left there to be humiliated in front of the watching crowds.
Those who walked by Jesus, as he hung limp and helpless on the cross, tossed slurs and abuse at him. As blood trickled down his forehead, they shook their heads at him (v7; see Matthew 27.39). Ridiculing and rejecting the righteous King.
But worse than their insults was their taunting of his faith (v8; see Matthew 27.43). They pilloried his unshakeable trust in God to rescue him. They mocked him not knowing he was dying for them (Acts 2.36).
As Jesus was suspended on the cross, the soldiers tasked with his crucifixion divided out his possessions to take as their own. Instead of ripping his seamless garment, they cast lots to see who would take it home (v18; see John 19.24).
Throughout this Psalm, those who set themselves against the King are described in bestial ways. They are depicted as dogs, wild oxen, bulls and lions. And is there any other way of characterising the evil and cruel actions of those who put Jesus to death?
Yet it is not that which was the worst that Jesus suffered on that day.
On the cross, Jesus entered into the dark night of the soul David articulates when he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27.46). David’s words hint at the anguish Jesus felt, but don’t come close to the reality of what he suffered at Golgotha. The perfectly spotless and righteous one became sin for us on the cross (2 Cor 5.21). In doing so, he became a curse for us, was crushed for our transgressions and bore the holy wrath of God in our place (Gal. 3.13; Isaiah 53.5; Romans 3.25). Jesus’s agony on the cross should have been ours, but he made it his own.
19 But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
22 I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honour him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfil my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the LORD will praise him –
may your hearts live for ever!
27 All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him –
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
And here is the dawning light after the suffocating darkness of v1. The cries of our King, Jesus, have been heard by the Sovereign God. The author of Hebrews tells us that our heavenly Father heard the tortured prayers of Christ (Hebrews 5.7). Jesus had prayed to the one who could lift him out of death. And he did.
He heard the prayer of v1. But he also heard the prayers of vv19-21. God heard. And God remembered. And he answered. And he intervened. And he raised his Son from the dead to life everlasting. Life that cannot be extinguished by the fangs of a lion or the sharp edge of a sword. Life gleaming and radiant. Life characterised by praise and joy.
The author of Hebrews explicitly links v22 with Jesus, the Messiah who has fulfilled the script of Psalm 22 and the promise of liberty for God’s people.
Look at v24. Just dwell on that for a moment after considering the gravity of v1.
Those who have trusted in the one who was forsaken will never be forgotten. God will never turn his face from us or ignore the cries of our hearts.
The poor will be fed and cared for and welcomed in. The helpless and the desperate will find a home. Affluent and broke alike will feast at the great banquet table. People from all nations will draw near to the one true God through the Lord Jesus.
And all these people, small and great, will celebrate and proclaim the mighty deeds of the Lord of lords. For “he has done it!” When he was on the cross, he said, “It is finished.” He dealt with our sin and has now drawn us in to worship him, both now and forevermore in the splendour of his holiness.
Glory be to God the Father, who in love gave his Son as the suffering servant.
Glory be to God the Son, who suffered the ugliness of the world to make us beautiful once more.
Glory be to God the Spirit, who is always with us, even in the darkest valleys.
Ever three and ever One.