A messianic psalm
Psalm 22: My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me
Psalm 22 opens with a cry of abandonment and moves through mockery, thirst, and pierced hands and feet, with enemies casting lots for the sufferer's clothing. Yet it turns to trust and ends in praise, promising that all the earth will remember and worship the LORD. It is the great psalm of suffering that gives way to deliverance.
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”Psalm 22:1
The psalm itself
Psalm 22 is a lament of David, a raw prayer from the edge of despair. He feels forsaken, crying out day and night without answer, yet he recalls that his fathers trusted God and were delivered. He describes himself as scorned and mocked, surrounded by enemies pictured as bulls and lions and dogs. His strength drains away, his bones are out of joint, his tongue clings to his jaw, and hostile hands close around him while onlookers divide his garments by lot. Then the psalm turns. God has not despised the afflicted after all. David vows to praise God in the assembly, and the song widens until all the ends of the earth turn to the LORD and future generations are told of His righteousness. Suffering does not have the last word.
How the New Testament reads it of Christ
The Gospels read Psalm 22 of Jesus more vividly than almost any text. On the cross Jesus prays its opening words in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34. Matthew 27:39 to 43 shows the mockers wagging their heads and taunting that God should rescue him, echoing the psalm. John 19:24 quotes the dividing of garments and casting lots as fulfilled precisely at the cross. The pierced hands and feet have long been read of the crucifixion. These are direct and detailed connections, some quoted by name and others clearly alluded to by the evangelists. The psalm's closing turn to worldwide worship is echoed as the crucified and risen Christ becomes the one whom all nations are called to praise.
Christ in this psalm
Christ takes the psalm onto His own lips. Its opening cry is His, spoken in real anguish as He bears the weight of sin. The mockery, the thirst, the exhaustion, the pierced hands and feet, and the soldiers gambling for His robe all meet in the crucifixion with startling exactness. Yet the psalm does not end forsaken, and neither does Christ. The lament turns to vindication and praise, foreshadowing resurrection and the gathering of the nations to worship. David voiced genuine suffering that pointed forward, and in Jesus the pattern of righteous suffering vindicated becomes literal and complete. The one who cried out abandoned was heard, raised, and now proclaims God's name to His brothers, drawing every family of the nations into the praise the psalm promised.
Questions people ask
Was Jesus quoting Psalm 22 on the cross?
Yes. In Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 Jesus prays the psalm's opening words of forsakenness. By quoting the first line He evokes the whole psalm, which moves from anguish through pierced hands and divided garments to trust and worldwide praise. It is both a real cry of suffering and a pointer to the psalm's hopeful end.
How does Psalm 22 describe the crucifixion?
The psalm pictures mockers wagging their heads, extreme thirst, bones out of joint, pierced hands and feet, and enemies casting lots for the sufferer's clothing. The Gospels tie these to Jesus, and John 19:24 quotes the divided garments as fulfilled at the cross. The details are among the most striking and specific messianic connections found anywhere in the Old Testament Scriptures.