Psalms 22:1

PSALM 22

THE GREAT OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY OF THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST

From Halley's Bible Handbook, we have the following:

"This sounds like a cry of anguish from David, but though written a thousand years before Jesus, it is so vivid a description of the crucifixion of Jesus that one would think of the writer as being personally present at the Cross. Jesus' dying words (Psalms 22:1), the sneers of his enemies (Psalms 22:7-8), the piercing of his hands and feet (Psalms 22:16), and the casting of lots for his garments (Psalms 22:18) are some of the events here described. None of these statements are applicable to David, or to any other known event or person in the history of mankind, except the crucifixion of the Son of God."[1]

There are four different ways of interpreting this psalm: (1) as a description of the sorrows and sufferings of David the king of Israel; (2) as a description of the sorrows and sufferings of some unknown righteous person of antiquity, possibly; Jeremiah, (3) as a description of the nation of Israel during their captivity or at some other period of crisis; and (4) as a predictive prophecy of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, written by King David, of course, but having little or no reference whatever to that monarch.

To this writer, the fourth option here is the only viable one. The specific things here foretold could not possibly refer to anyone else except the Messiah.

Those who in their unbelief continue to deny any such thing as predictive prophecy are, in this psalm, up against the absolute, unanswerable refutation of their false view. The accurate and extensive details of the crucifixion appearing here are so complete and convincing that their denial is possible only for some person who has been blinded by the god of this world.

The words of Peter (Acts 2:30f) are applicable here: "David, being a prophet ... he foresaw and spoke of ... the Christ." This basic truth is reiterated again and again in the inspired New Testament.

There are no less than nine New Testament references which tie the meaning of this psalm irrevocably to the prophecy of our Lord's crucifixion.

"Jesus quoted the first line of this psalm on the Cross (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).

Those who crucified him divided his garments among themselves and cast lots for his vesture (Psalms 22:18) (Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24).

The very words of Jesus' enemies were foretold in Psalms 22:8 (Matthew 27:43).

The thirst of Jesus was prophesied in Psalms 22:15 (Matthew 27:48).

The piercing of Jesus' hands and feet was foretold (Psalms 22:16) (John 20:25).

The praising of God in the midst of the assembly (Psalms 22:22) is quoted in Hebrews 2:12."

Thus, the New Testament finds the prophecy of Jesus' crucifixion no less than nine times mentioned in this psalm; and we can only wonder about those alleged Christian "scholars" who cannot find any reference whatever to Our Lord in this psalm.

With the inspired testimony of the New Testament so plainly stated, we can have no doubt whatever of the accuracy of our interpretation. It is not "ours," in any private sense; it is the testimony of the blessed Holy Spirit.

There is nothing new about this conviction on the part of this writer. One will find just as emphatic a declaration of this interpretation in our Commentary on Matthew, pp. 521,522. As Leupold said, "This interpretation is the oldest of the four methods mentioned above, and the predominant one in the Christian Church from the earliest times; and to a very large extent it still is."[2]

The great weakness of other interpretation is that, (1) the things foretold here, as far as men know, never happened to any other being who ever lived except the Lord Jesus Christ. (2) Furthermore, the worldwide blessings that are mentioned in the second section as coming subsequently from the death of the Sufferer in the first part of the psalm, cannot possibly be attributed to anyone other than Christ.

(3) There is another important reason why Christ alone is depicted here. The words here are free of any consciousness whatever of sin; there is no hint of confessing wrongs; there is no call for vengeance against enemies, only unfaltering trust and faith in God. This is utterly unlike David or any other human being who ever lived. The spiritual state of the Sufferer indicates no human being whatever, but the Lord Jesus Christ.

To refuse the obvious interpretation of the psalm as a predictive prophecy of the crucifixion of Christ leaves one in the utmost darkness and total ignorance regarding any reasonable meaning of the passage. Addis, for example, who could not find the Lord anywhere in the psalm, wrote only one fifth of a page regarding this magnificent psalm![3]

Structurally, the psalm falls into two portions: The sufferings of the Christ (Psalms 22:1-21), and the glory that would be revealed afterward (Psalms 22:22-31). We are indebted to Gaebelein for this outline, which he based upon Peter's statement in 1 Peter 1:11.[4]

Psalms 22:1-2

"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou answerest not;

And in the night season, and am not silent."

Jesus' quoting the first line of this Psalm during his agony upon the Cross has led to many opinions. It has been supposed that Christ here merely quoted these words from the psalm to call attention to the whole bundle of prophecies in it which were being fulfilled literally at that very time. It is also believed by many that God Himself did indeed, for a little while, withdraw his presence from Christ in order to make it possible for Christ to die. There is much in the sacred Scriptures to commend this view.

Christ is spoken of in Hebrews 2:9 as the One, who by the grace of God did indeed, "Taste of death for every man." Isaiah tells us that, "God laid upon him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). Paul mentioned that God Himself "Set forth the Christ to be a propitiation" (Romans 3:25), or an atonement, for the sins of all men. "Christ died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3); and "Him (Christ) who knew no sin, God made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The ultimate consequence of sin is separation from God; and, in Christ's becoming a substitute for sinful men upon the cross, he not only tasted of death, but also tasted the terrible consequences of sin in that soul-torturing experience of separation from the Creator. It is our understanding of Christ's plaintive cry, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me," that Jesus did indeed, momentarily, taste the awful agony of separation from the Father. "For a moment in that last agony, the Perfect Man was alone with the sins of the whole world."[5]