Psalm 22
31 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Matthew 27×5Luke 23×4Psalms 40×4Mark 15×3Psalms 71×3Psalms 35×3
Summary
Chapter summary
The psalm of the cross. 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?': Jesus' own cry. Despised of the people, mocked ('He trusted on Jehovah; let him deliver him'), poured out like water, bones out of joint, hands and feet pierced (a line the Hebrew manuscripts differ over, and one the Dead Sea scroll from Nahal Hever supports) garments parted and lots cast: each detail walked at Calvary. At verse 22 the forsaken one turns to praise: 'I will declare thy name unto my brethren' (Hebrews 2:12). The ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto Jehovah; a seed shall serve him; 'he hath done it.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 22The history
"Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round" names a real place. Bashan was the high, well-watered plateau east of the Sea of Galilee, famous for its pasture and for cattle so large the prophets used them as a byword. A ring of Bashan bulls is a wall of muscle with horns, closing in.
"Dogs have compassed me" is not a household pet. Dogs in that world ran in scavenging packs on the edges of towns and around refuse and corpses; to call a person a dog was among the harshest insults available. The two images together — bulls and dogs — say the crowd is both powerful and filthy.
The physical details are those of slow death by exposure: bones out of joint, heart melted like wax, strength dried up like a broken piece of pottery, the tongue stuck to the jaw with thirst, and hands and feet pierced. That last phrase is the most argued line in the psalm — the traditional Hebrew wording reads "like a lion," while the ancient Greek translation and some Hebrew manuscripts, including a fragment found at the Dead Sea, support "they pierced." The versions differ by a single stroke of the pen, and the reader deserves to know that rather than be handed one reading as though it were undisputed.
Dividing a condemned man's clothes among the executioners was normal practice, and casting lots was how the ancient world split anything indivisible — pieces of pottery or stones drawn or thrown to decide. An outer cloak was worth real money and would not be cut up.
What it meant to them
The psalm begins with an abandoned cry and ends with the ends of the world remembering and turning to the Lord — a scope wildly out of proportion to one man's rescue. That gap sat in Israel's songbook for a thousand years.
Jesus quoted its first line from the cross, and the Gospel writers report the mockery, the thirst, and the divided garments as they happened. First hearers sang a lament; later readers found they had been singing a description.
Sources cited
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 22
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This site records the readings below for this chapter. Spelling and word-order differences that change no meaning are passed over.
Psalm 22:16
"They pierced my hands and my feet" — or "like a lion"?
One Hebrew letter separates "they pierced" from "like a lion." The Greek Old Testament read "pierced" centuries before the crucifixion, and a scroll fragment supports it, but the medieval Hebrew reads "lion," and the case deserves to be heard at full strength.
What the manuscripts read here →
Connections from this chapter
v. 1 · Quoted here
'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani': Jesus (Mark's Aramaic).
Mark 15:34→At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 1 · Fulfilled in the pattern · A picture of Christ · The form invites the whole passage · Quoted here
Jesus quotes the psalm's first line, and in Jewish usage a first line calls up the whole psalm. Psalm 22 then runs on to pierced hands and feet (v. 16), garments divided by lot (v. 18), and ends in a congregation praising God (v. 22). The cry names the whole arc, not one line.
Matthew 27:46→About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 1 · Same kind of writing
both individual laments, both drawn on in the Passion; shared dereliction-to-vindication arc. FLOOR.
Psalms 69:1→Save me, O God, for the waters are up to my neck.
Gunkel
v. 1 · Written to them
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me
topics/suffering→MannaFest topical index
v. 6 · A picture carried by one word
'I am a worm (tolaat)' -- the psalm Jesus quotes (Matt 27:46) uses the same tolaat that names the crimson dye-grub. FLAG: surface the lexical fact only; the mother-worm life-cycle sermon is folklore.
Strong's H8438→STEPBible; Ps 22:6; Matt 27:46
v. 16 · A picture of Christ
They pierced My hands and My feet
John 20:25→So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands, and put my finger where the nails have been, and put my hand into His side, I…
Read the whole verse
So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands, and put my finger where the nails have been, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe.”
MannaFest topical index
v. 18 · Fulfilled in the pattern · Quoted here
“They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture” (Ps 22:18). John records the soldiers doing exactly that at the cross, down to the seamless coat they would not tear (John 19:23–24).
John 19:24→…This was to fulfill the Scripture: “They divided My garments among them, and cast lots for My clothing.” So that is what the soldiers…
Read the whole verse
So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it. Instead, let us cast lots to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill the Scripture: “They divided My garments among them, and cast lots for My clothing.” So that is what the soldiers did.
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 18 · A picture of Christ
They divided His garments and cast lots
Matthew 27:35→When they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments by casting lots.
MannaFest topical index
v. 22 · Quoted here
'I will declare thy name unto my brethren': Hebrews, the psalm's vindication turn.
Hebrews 2:12→He says: “I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing Your praises in the assembly.”
public-domain commentaries in agreement
Where scholars push back(3)
Matthew 27:46. Psalm 22 is written as one man's lament, and many read it as David's own suffering rather than a prediction.
John 19:24. Psalm 22 is written as an individual lament, and many read the line as figurative language for a man stripped of everything.
Matthew 27:46. Porter and Hays both caution that a quotation does not automatically carry its whole context, and that the reach of an allusion has to be argued, not assumed.
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.