PSALM 22

The Fifth Gospel [1]

God is Far Away (vv.1-11)

1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? [2]	Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning/roaring.[3]
2 O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;	And by night, but I have no rest. [4]
3 Yet You are holy,	O You who are enthroned upon the praises (tĕhillâ) of Israel.
4 In You our fathers trusted; [5]	They trusted and You delivered (palat) them.
5 To You they cried out and were delivered (mālaṭ);	In You they trusted and were not disappointed.
6 But I am a worm and not a man, [6]	A reproach of men and despised by the people.
7 All who see me sneer at me;	They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
8 “Commit yourself to Yahweh;	let Him deliver (palat) him;
Let Him rescue him,	because He delights in him.”
9 Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;	You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.
10 Upon You I was cast from birth;	You have been my God from my mother’s womb. [7]
11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near;	For there is none to help. [8]

The Enemies are Close (vv.12-21)

12 Many bulls have surrounded me;		Strong bulls [9] of Bashan have encircled me.
13 They open wide their mouth at me,		As a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,		And all my bones are out of joint; [10]
My heart is like wax;		It is melted within me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,	And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;			And You lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded me;	A band of evildoers has encompassed me;			They pierced [11] my hands and my feet (cf. Isaiah 53:5; Zechariah 12:10).
17 I can count all my bones.			They look, they stare at me;
18 They divide my garments among them,			And for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But You, O Yahweh, be not far off;			O You my help, hasten to my assistance.
20 Deliver/Rescue my soul from the sword,			My only life from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth;			From the horns of the wild oxen [12]
You answer me.

The Nations are brought close to Yahweh (vv.22-31)

22 I will tell of Your name to my brethren;			In the midst of the assembly I will praise (hālal) [13] You.
23 You who fear Yahweh, praise (hālal) Him;	All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,			And stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel.
24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;		Nor has He hidden His face from him;
But when he cried to Him for help,		He heard.
25 From You comes my praise (tĕhillâ) in the great assembly;		I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him.
26 The afflicted will eat and be satisfied;	Those who seek Him will praise (hālal) Yahweh.				Let your heart live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth [14] will remember and turn to Yahweh,		And all the families of the nations will worship before You. [15]
28 For the kingdom is Yahweh’s		And He rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship,	All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, [16]			Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.
30 Posterity will serve Him;			It will be told of the Lord/Adonai to the coming generation.
31 They will come and will declare His righteousness			To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.

[1] “Pride of place for the use of Psalm 22 belongs to the writers of the NT. Direct citations of this psalm occur fourteen times (cf. v. 1 with Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34; v. 5 with Rom 3:5; v. 7 with Matt 27:39; Mark 15:29; v. 8 with Matt 27:43; Luke 23:35; v. 18 with Matt 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24; v. 22 with Heb 2:12; v. 23 with Rev 19:5; v. 31 with John 19:30). In addition, J. H. Reumann suggests that allusions to the whole psalm are reflected in the NT (e. g. Mark 9:12; 14:21; Luke 24:27; Acts 13:29; 1 Pet 1:11), as well as several of the psalms individual verses (cf. v. 13 with 1 Pet 5:8; v. 15 with John 19:28; v. 21 with 2 Tim 4:17; v. 24 with Heb 5:7; v. 28 with Rev 11:15; 19:16; v. 29 with Matt 27:42; Mark 15:31)” (in Richard D. Patterson, “Psalm 22: From Trial to Triumph” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society Volume 47.2; June 2004 pp.228f.)

[2] The Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser wrote, “Most oral interpretations of this passage put the emphasis on the wrong part of this phrase, saying in the public reading of Scripture, “My God, my God!” But that is to swear against and blaspheme God rather than to show that the speaker still regards God as his very own Father.

“Instead, the emphasis should fall on “My God, my God.” That is where the emphasis falls in the Hebrew” (The Messiah in the Old Testament, 114).

Despite this observation from the text, it is common for people to say that Jesus’ appropriation of Psalm 22 from the cross (Matthew 27:46//Mark 15:34) was a cry of defeat, disappointment, frustration and failure. One Jewish response to Christian missions asks, “Why did Jesus give vent to feelings of despair and failure while supposedly knowing that he was really acting out a preordained cosmic plan?...We must conclude that in those last agonizing minutes he truly felt personally abandoned, his mission coming to grief. Such being the case, Jesus could not be the Messiah that Christian missionaries believe him to be” (Gerald Sigal, The Jew and the Christian Missionary: A Jewish Response to Missionary Christianity p.97).

Verse 1 is not a cry of failure but faith (cf. Psalm 3:7; 25:2; 42:6; 89:26-29). To be sure, these are words of agony, but agony in the context of steadfast trust in God.

[3] See Judges 14:3; Job 3:24; Psalm 32:3; Amos 3:4; Zech.11:3.

[4] If any ultimate meaning is to be found in our suffering and any answers to our questions we must look to the Suffering Servant who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 52:13-53:12).

[5] Trust (בָּטַח [batach]) occurs in the Psalms 50x out of a total of 181x in the OT. It occurs 4x in Psalm 22 (vv.4 [2x],5,9).

[6] What a far cry from Psalm 8, “Yet You have made him [man] a little lower than God.”

[7] Question 74 of the Heidelberg Catechism cites Psalm 22:10 when it asks,

Are infants also to be baptized?

Yes: for since they, as well as the adult, are included in the covenant and church of God; and since redemption from sin by the blood of Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to them no less than to the adult; (Luke 1:15; Ps. 22:10; Isa. 44:1–3; Acts 2:39) they must therefore by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the christian church; and be distinguished from the children of unbelievers as was done in the old covenant or testament by circumcision, instead of which baptism is instituted in the new covenant.

[8] “Verse 11 is the transition between the two halves of part 1. It is the conclusion to verses 9-10…and to the entire first half of part 1…Verse 11 also points forward to the second half of part 1 by anticipating the vocabulary and prayer of the last lines of part 1…” (Clifford, 125).

[9] The word “bulls” does not occur in the Hebrew text of v.12b. It is added by the NASB95 for clarification.

[10] Note the body parts mentioned in vv.14-17 which are bookended by “bones”: bones (v.14b), heart, strength, tongue, jaws, hands, feet, bones (v.17a).

[11] “They pierced my hands and my feet” is based on the LXX and a Dead Sea Scroll from Nahal Hever (dating from 50-100 AD). The Masoretic text (centuries younger than the scroll from Nahal Hever) reads ka-‘ari which means “like a lion” (ka-‘ari is a hapax). Following the Masoretic tradition the Jewish Publication Society translates, “like lions [they maul] my hands and feet” (emphasis added; cf. Isa.38:13). The Christian tradition has usually followed the LXX, seeing this verse as a prophetic description of the crucifixion. The literary structure of this section of Psalm 22 (vv.12-21) favors “pierced”:

bulls (12a)

lion (13b)

dogs (16a)

pierced (16c)

sword (20a)

dog (20b)

lion (21a)

wild oxen (21b)

To translate v.16c as “like lions” violates the chiastic structure in vv.12-21.

[12] The chiastic description of enemies as wild beasts in vv.12-21 should be contrasted with of our being created in the image and likeness of God. The helplessness of the Psalmist against these wild beasts is further highlighted by his cry, “I am a worm and not a man” (v.6).

[13] The root for “praise”, (הָלַל [hālal]), occurs 206 times in the OT. Close to a third of the occurrences are in the Psalms. It is significant that most of these occurrences are plural (except Ps 146:1; Ps 147:12, collective). This shows us, as does the use of the psalms in the worship that praise of Jehovah was especially, though by no means uniquely (Ps 146:1), congregational (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 217).

[14] The expression “ends of the earth” occurs 16x in the Old Testament. It often emphasizes the worldwide rule (cf. Psalm 135:7) and or salvation of Yahweh through His anointed (See 1 Samuel 2:10; Psalm 2:8; 46:9; 59:13; 61:2,6-7; 67:7; 72:8; 98:3; Isa.45:22; 49:6; 52:10; Micah 5:2-4; Zech.9:9-10; cf. Psalm 65:5,8; Acts 1:8). The “ends of the earth” confirms this as a “Messianic Psalm.”

[15] To hear Psalm 22:27-31 sung listen to New Song.

[16] This is a fascinating affirmation of continued existence after physical death. Jesus was delivered from death, but death does not deliver one from Jesus.