Psalm 22:1-31

Q & A

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Good evening and welcome, VBVF family! I’m Mike Morris...

Welcome back to our spring midweek series, “Songs of the Messiah”...we’re finding Jesus in the Psalms...so far we’ve covered Psalms 8 and 16...tonight plus four more to go!

In John 12.21, let’s recall John’s record of our theme verse...20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was 

from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”   

That’s our goal in life...to help people see Jesus...in the Word and in us...and He is very evident in this marvelous book…

As I said, we’ll cover some background material each week...tonight, I wanted to highlight two structural elements within the book...we’ve discussed that there are five books within the book of Psalms, Books I through V, but that isn’t the only internal structure...two other features are three couplings of a psalm dedicated to the Torah of Yahweh, and another addressing the Messiah of Yahweh...if that sounds familiar, the first pair is Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, the introductory psalms we discussed last week...the other two pairs are Psalms 18 and 19, and Psalms 118 and Psalm 119…

Also, eight psalms feature a particular organizing principle: they are written as acrostic poems, with each verse beginning in sequence with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet...these are Psalms 9/10 taken together, Psalms 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, and 145...not all of them are the same and there are variations in the structures, but it is a distinctive style within the book...probably the most noticeable of the group is Psalm 119, also the longest psalm at 176 verses... 

As we begin the text for tonight, I invite you to keep a thought in your mind as we progress through this psalm...in addition to being an unprecedented view into the heart and mind of our Lord in His most difficult moments, this psalm is perhaps the best example in Scripture of how a soul who trusts in God navigates suffering, confusion, and doubt...maybe you’ll find yourself in that situation someday...if so, think back to this wonderful psalm as an illustration of how to reject fear and chaos, and turn to faith and praise…

Some great minds have thought long about this psalm; C.H. Spurgeon wrote a memorable statement about Psalm 22 in his book “A Treasury of David” …

For plaintive expressions uprising from unutterable depths of woe we may say of this Psalm, there is none like it. It is the photograph of our Lord’s saddest hours, the record of his dying words, the lachrymatory (a tear bottle) of his last tears, the memorial of his expiring joys. David and his afflictions may be here in a very modified sense, but, as the star is concealed by the light of the sun, he who sees Jesus will probably neither see nor care to see David.… We should read reverently, putting off our shoes from off our feet, as Moses did at the burning bush, for if there be holy ground anywhere in Scripture, it is in this Psalm.

While there is little if any debate that this psalm was written by David, as the superscription says, there is great debate about how David could have written Psalm 22 at all...the content, especially the details of the text, make it difficult to imagine a circumstance David could have experienced that would have brought about a psalm like this one...while David suffered, nothing we know of matches this... 

Derek Kidner, in the Tyndale OT Commentary, quotes A. Bentzen when he says:

No incident recorded of David can begin to account for this. As A. Bentzen points out, it is ‘not a description of illness, but of an execution’ 

And contributing to this detachment from the historic interpretation, this psalm, as much as any psalm in the book, fits the historical experience of Jesus...there is no other psalm that begins to capture as well the agony of the crucifixion of the Christ...and as you would expect, there is a close relationship between Psalm 22 and the gospel accounts, including from the very lips of our Lord...Sam Storms, in his commentary on the book of Psalms, says: 

There is no escaping the fact that this psalm, however much it may speak of David’s personal experience, is primarily Messianic. The opening words of the psalm (22:1) are found on the lips of Jesus as he hung on the cross (cf. Matthew 27:46, Hebrews 1.13, Mark 15.34 ). The taunt of the scorners, “And those who were passing by were hurling abuse at Him, ‘wagging their heads’ ” (Matt. 27:39), is from 22:7. They also challenged him (Matt. 27:43) with the very words of 22:8. And Jesus cried out in fulfillment of 22:15, “I thirst” (John 19:28). Finally, his garments were parted among those who pierced his hands and feet, even as 22:16–18 describes.

Also, 22.18 is quoted in John 19:24 and Luke 20:17; and Psalm 22.22 is referenced in Hebrews 2:12; Acts 4:11

Of all the points in Scripture where the OT and the NT come together, I would suggest nowhere do they more accurately and more closely coincide than Psalm 22... 

This psalm can be outlined in a number of ways; Hamilton sees the entire psalm as one lengthy chiasm… I’m not going to teach through the psalm as a chiasm, but I thought some of you might want to get a picture and take a look at the psalm from this point of view later...

22:1–2 Distress

 22:3–5 Trust and Deliverance

  22:6–8 Despised

   22:9–11 Be Not Far

    22:12–13 Surrounded by Bulls and Lions

     22:14–15 The Dust of Death

    22:16–18 Surrounded by Dogs and Lions

   22:19–21 Be Not Far

  22:22–25 Not Despised

 22:26–28 Repentance and Worship

22:29–31 Celebration

I’m going to address the text in two parts: vv. 1-21 and vv. 22-31...the first part is a unique back and forth monologue within the heart and mind of Jesus, part lament and part prayer, as He endures the suffering of the crucifixion...the second part is a resolution of this internal conflict as Jesus turns with His whole heart to praise the Father...please hear this as if Jesus were speaking...and I think this psalm isn’t something you learn as much as it’s something you feel and absorb into your soul as you draw nearer to Jesus...perhaps you can set your heart and mind in that way as we look at this passage...

With that as introduction, let’s jump into the text…

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22.1-21

The psalm begins with perhaps the most heartfelt cry of abandonment in all of Holy Writ...

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

  Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,

  and by night, but I find no rest.

These are the words Jesus spoke from the cross, in His native language of Aramaic...listen to His heart...He acknowledges His relationship to God...”my God, my God”...given that closeness, He laments that while He has not forsaken God, He questions why God has given Him over to suffering...this is a cry of grief and confusion, but not faithlessness and disbelief...

Of course, Jesus knew then, and we know now, why God temporarily turned His back on His Son...Jesus took on the full, terrible weight of sin of all those whom the Father had chosen to redeem... 

II Cor 5.21: For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. This is the moment that Galatians 3.13 speaks of...Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…

The words here convey a deep sense of disorientation...I haven’t forsaken You, God, but I’m crying out to You day and night and You do not answer...why aren’t You answering Me?

Verse 3 begins the back and forth nature of this psalm...now the sense of abandonment and confusion in verses 1 and 2 changes as the focus shifts to the goodness and faithfulness of God…

3 Yet you are holy,

  enthroned on the praises of Israel.

4 In you our fathers trusted;

  they trusted, and you delivered them.

5 To you they cried and were rescued;

  in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

Jesus prays to the Father, acknowledging that God is good...His sense of isolation is not because the Father has wrongly turned His back on His Son, for the character of God has not changed...He is still holy, enthroned on the praises of His people...but the anguish of Jesus deepens as He remembers how God delivered and rescued the Israelites in the past as they trusted in Yahweh...yet now, Jesus asks for help but the heavens are silent...

The narrative turns back to the lament of Christ…

6 But I am a worm and not a man,

  scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me;

  they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;

8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;

  let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

Now Jesus, who understands the humility He is experiencing in leaving the glory He knew with the Father, now senses even greater humility...this seems to me the low point of His life and ministry, as He knows the full load of the sin of God’s people, and He endures the hate and derision of the people of Israel and the Romans as well...while God seems silent, those who hate Jesus shout their scorn and contempt, though He is very God, and their savior; they reject Him calling out for His death…

Verse 7 is spoken by the crowd at the cross in Matthew 27.39…

Matthew 27.39-40... And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 

Verse 8 is spoken by the chief priests, scribes, and elders in Matthew 27.43...

Matthew 27.43... He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Again the focus shifts back to confidence in God…

9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;

  you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

10 On you was I cast from my birth,

  and from my mother's womb you have been my God.

Jesus thinks back through His earthly life...every moment, even before His birth, was wrapped in the love and care of His Father...the Holy Spirit was also present with Him, from His very conception...there was never before a time when the Father and the Son and the Spirit were apart...from the womb before birth, as the infant Jesus nursed...from always, the Son had known the close fellowship and presence of the Father, but now, that love and nearness of His Father He had always known seems distant...

Jesus turns again and laments before the Father, crying out for His presence and help…

11 Be not far from me,

  for trouble is near,

  and there is none to help.

12 Many bulls encompass me;

  strong bulls of Bashan surround me;

13 they open wide their mouths at me,

  like a ravening and roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water,

  and all my bones are out of joint;

my heart is like wax;

  it is melted within my breast;

15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,

  and my tongue sticks to my jaws;

  you lay me in the dust of death.

16 For dogs encompass me;

  a company of evildoers encircles me;

they have pierced my hands and feet—

17 I can count all my bones—

they stare and gloat over me;

18 they divide my garments among them,

  and for my clothing they cast lots. 

While Jesus has lamented over His distance and isolation from the Father, now He speaks of the physical suffering of the cross…

He pleads for the Father to draw near to Him, for no one else can possibly help...Jesus Himself is now helpless, in the hands of His enemies, the Jewish religious leaders who have wanted to kill Him for at least 18 months, and in the hands of the Romans they have enlisted to place Him on the cross…

Jesus describes His enemies as strong bulls, hungry lions, wild dogs, wild oxen...an apt description of the adversaries arrayed against Him, from the chief priest, to the Roman guards, to the hate-filled Jews lining the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering, which He would walk on the way outside the city to Golgotha, the Place of a Skull…

The psalms says Jesus would be “poured out like water” with His joints painfully separating from the agony of the act of crucifixion as He hung from His widespread arms, and stood on the nail in His feet...internally, His heart felt as if it would melt and flow away, with no strength left to try to survive on the cross, feeling like a broken piece of pottery...the hours of the betrayal, arrest, mock trials, and now the crucifixion have combined to severely dehydrate His body, with His tongue now completely dry, and stuck to the inside of His mouth...as we read this, it’s amazing He was able to speak at all from the cross, between this and the growing inability to breathe as the hours passed...

The center of the chiasm, the center of the psalm itself, is the end of verse 15: you lay me in the dust of death. This would have been a figurative statement for David, as we know he didn’t die in any event like this...but for Jesus, this was the truth...Jesus died a gruesome and agonizing death...He experienced the very worst death known at the time, one that until the first century would have been unknown...and the near-unbelievable truth was that the Father was the one responsible, as He and the Son worked together to accomplish redemption for His people…

Isaiah 53.10 tells us that ...it was the will of the Lord to crush him; He has put him to grief...He laid Jesus in the dust of death, and raised Him to life again through the Spirit...we’re told in Romans 8.11...

But the text continues with the agony of His death...surrounded by evildoers, the Son of God is nailed to a cross through His hands and feet, hanging in the hateful sight of a mocking crowd, thin and stretched to the point that His bones could be counted...and when His garment was removed for the crucifixion, the guards cast lots for it just as this psalm said they would...Matthew 27.35... And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 

The first part of the psalm ends with verses 19 through 21, as Jesus pleads for the Father to come near, for salvation and deliverance from the hands of the wicked…

19 But you, O Lord, do not be far off!

  O you my help, come quickly to my aid!

20 Deliver my soul from the sword,

  my precious life from the power of the dog!

21   Save me from the mouth of the lion!

You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

For a second time, Jesus calls for the Father to not be far off, to come quickly to help...deliver me, save me, rescue me...and right on the heels of this plea for help, the tone of the psalm completely changes...

“You who fear the Lord, praise Him!”

Now the voice seems to turn back to David, who leads in praise...now the back and forth cycle of lament and faith turns fully to praise and joy, expressed in three different ways...the first is directed toward Israel...

22 I will tell of your name to my brothers;

  in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!

  All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,

  and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

24 For he has not despised or abhorred

  the affliction of the afflicted,

and he has not hidden his face from him,

  but has heard, when he cried to him. 

25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;

  my vows I will perform before those who fear him.

26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;

  those who seek him shall praise the Lord!

  May your hearts live forever!

The blessing of Christ’s sacrifice and victory over death and sin issues forth in praise...the depths of confusion and lament in verses 1 through 21 are matched by confident praise to the Lord...He pledges that he will tell of the goodness of God to his people, who are called by uniquely covenant names: brothers, the congregation, the offspring of Jacob, the offspring of Israel...the Lord has again proven Himself faithful to His suffering servant...He has heard and answered...and now the psalmist calls upon all Israel to praise the Lord for His faithfulness and mercy… this reminds us of Romans 1.16... For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 

But that isn’t enough...he extends the call to Israel to all people...this call to praise now reaches to the Gentiles, too… all humanity will sing praise to the Lord...

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember

  and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

  shall worship before you.

28 For kingship belongs to the Lord,

  and he rules over the nations.

29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;

  before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,

  even the one who could not keep himself alive.

Now the blessing of Christ’s sacrifice reach to the ends of the earth...this declaration is universal in scope, proclaiming God’s dominion over all the nations of the earth...no nation is excluded from the rule of God, and His kingship extends to all people...before Him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord...

But even that declaration isn’t enough...now His reign extends now just physically but temporally as David speaks of generations yet to come...Christ’s deliverance will endure for all time…

30 Posterity shall serve him;

  it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;

31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,

  that he has done it.

What a fitting ending to Psalm 22...”He has done it!”...by His sacrificial death, Christ is victorious over the devil, sin, and death...and that victory reaches all people, across all space and time...

Application

What do we learn about Jesus from this wonderful psalm?

That as Jesus did, so too we must trust God – and when you feel that you can’t trust Him anymore, trust Him.

That just as our Lord suffered, suffering is part of our existence, too – and a favored tool of God to shape us into the image of Christ.

That God, in His perfect nature and character, never changes...He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever.

That like Jesus, we must persist in reaching out to Him, even when we think He isn’t listening or has given up on us.

That God is faithful, even when we are confused and feeling overwhelmed, as Jesus felt.

That the gospel is for all people at all times – for we all need a savior.

That we will ultimately find it in our hearts and souls to praise Him, for He is worthy.

Taught by Mike Morris

Associate Pastor of Verse By Verse Fellowship

Messianic Psalms