Psalms · psalm 22 of 150
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Psalm 22 begins with David's cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, and describes extreme suffering: mockery, thirst, bones out of joint and hands and feet pierced. Midway the poem turns to praise and ends announcing that all the ends of the earth will turn to the Lord. Jesus quoted verse 1 on the cross, and the Gospels see in the psalm a picture of his passion.
The title directs it to the choirmaster, according to The Doe of the Dawn, and attributes it to David. It is an individual lament with two great parts: suffering and plea, then praise and hope for the nations. It is the psalm that the New Testament uses most to describe the passion of Jesus, because its details appear in the accounts of the cross.
The psalm opens with a cry: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He is far from saving him and from the words of his groaning. He cries by day and night and finds no rest. Yet he acknowledges that God is holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel, and that his fathers trusted in him and were delivered.
David describes himself as a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see him mock him, make mouths at him and wag their heads, saying that he trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him. He remembers that God took him from the womb and made him trust at his mother's breasts. Bulls of Bashan surround him and lions roar. He is poured out like water, his bones are out of joint, his heart is like wax, his strength is dried up like a potsherd and his tongue sticks to his jaws. Dogs encompass him; they have pierced his hands and feet, and he can count all his bones. They divide his garments among them and cast lots for his clothing.
He cries again: O Lord, do not be far off; come quickly to help me. Then the psalm turns: David will tell of God's name to his brothers and praise him in the midst of the congregation, for God has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. The humble shall eat and be satisfied, and all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. Future generations will be told that he has done it.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
David feels forsaken by God. Jesus spoke these words from the cross according to Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, making the pain of this psalm his own, a psalm that ends in praise.
Dogs surround him and they have pierced his hands and feet. Christians see here a picture of the crucifixion, though the Hebrew text of this verse is difficult and translations explain it in different ways.
They divide his garments among them and cast lots for his clothing. The Gospels tell that the soldiers did this with Jesus's clothes, and John 19:23-24 cites it as fulfillment of Scripture.
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. The psalm that began with one forsaken man ends with a vision of all the nations worshiping.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? — Psalm 22:1
Answer: That they trusted in God and he delivered them. — Psalm 22:4
Answer: As a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. — Psalm 22:6
Answer: Bulls of Bashan, roaring lions and dogs. — Psalm 22:12-13
Answer: They divide them among them and cast lots for his clothing. — Psalm 22:18
Answer: They will remember and turn to the Lord. — Psalm 22:27
Psalm 22 teaches that one can pray from a place of abandonment. David does not hide his pain, and Jesus repeated it on the cross. For someone who suffers, it is a comfort to know that the Son of God entered the feeling of abandonment and that the psalm does not end there. In a small group you can pray with this psalm for those going through a dark night.
It also shows how to look at the cross: not only as suffering but as the road by which God brings the nations back. The second half of the psalm invites praise, telling the next generation what God has done and joining the mission that all the ends of the earth know the Lord.
Psalm 22 closes with the affirmation that God has done his work and that future generations will know it. Psalm 23 contrasts with that abandonment: the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
Jesus quoted verse 1 in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, in Aramaic. Christians see in those words the real weight of the suffering he bore for us, and many recall that the psalm ends in victory, which points to his resurrection.
The Hebrew text of verse 16 is difficult, and the ancient versions read it in different ways. Many translations say pierced, and Christians see in it a reflection of the crucifixion, though the New Testament does not explicitly quote this verse.
The Gospels record verse 1 on the cross, the dividing of garments (verse 18) in Matthew 27:35 and John 19:23-24, and the mockery of verse 8 in Matthew 27:43. Hebrews 2:12 puts verse 22 on the lips of Christ, who calls his people brothers.