So, this morning that is exactly what I have prepared to speak on – the prophesy of David in Psalm 22 about the crucifixion of Christ.
There are times when faith speaks with confidence like: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” And then there are times when faith cries out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Both statements come from the Psalms. I’m sure we’re all familiar with Psalm 23 – “The Lord Is My Shepherd.” And you are very likely familiar with at least parts of Psalm 22.
Sometimes we may like to imagine that strong faith never struggles, never weeps or asks “why?” But Scripture gives us a more honest picture. As people of faith, we experience grief as well as face circumstances we sometimes just don’t understand. As Christians, we turn to prayer through the tears and we sit back and wonder when an answer will come.
Psalm 22 is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament and it begins in a very, very dark place with David’s cry of abandonment and it ends with a declaration of what God has done, moving from suffering to praise, and isolation to fellowship, from one man’s anguish to people around the world worshiping the Lord.
And standing at the center of our understanding of this psalm is Jesus Christ.
David wrote these words, and we should hear the suffering expressed in them. But through the New Testament we can see the remarkable fulfillment of those words of foreshadowing (or prophesy), in the suffering of our Savior.
This morning, we will consider five truths from Psalm 22 that can help us remain faithful when God seems far away in our lives.
1. We can bring our anguish to God
Listen as we read the first two verses:
“1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? 2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.”
Psalm 22:1-2
Now this is no casual complaint. It is a picture of a believing soul who is in the middle of a terrible crisis. We can hear in this the anguished language of someone in deep distress. He has prayed all throughout the day and then continued praying all throughout the night. And still no relief comes.
Perhaps we can relate to something in that experience ourselves. For instance, I’m sure we’ve all prayed for someone who is sick, but that person remains sick. Or maybe we’ve asked for help with a burden we might have, but the burden remains there still.
We begged God for a door to open, but every door still seems closed to us.
The hardest part may not be the difficulty itself. Sometimes the hardest part is the silence.
“Lord, I know You can help. Why has help not come?”
Notice something important about David’s opening words. Even as he asks why, he says, “My God.”
His understanding is shaken, but he is still reaching toward God. He doesn’t understand what God is doing, but he continues speaking to Him.
Faith does not require us to pretend that everything is easy. It requires us to keep trusting the One to whom we pray.
Those words we read in Psalm 22, we find again in Matthew 27 where Jesus took those very same words and uttered them as He hung upon the cross, saying:
“46b My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46b
Jesus clearly shows with those words that His suffering was very real. The nails in his wrists and feet were real. The humiliation and anguish was all too real. Jesus was not merely acting out pain just to fulfill the prophesy of Psalm 22 or so that we could have a moving story to tell. Jesus Christ, the living son of Jehovah God truly suffered.
Hebrews 5:7 describes His prayers with “strong crying and tears.” If the sinless Son of God prayed through tears, we should never assume that tears are evidence of weakness or even faithlessness.
A Christian may cry at a graveside or tremble with fear before a surgery. A Christian may feel overwhelmed by loneliness.
The question is not whether we ever hurt. The question is where we take that hurt.
David brought his anguish to God. Jesus cried out to the Father. How much more so then should we do the same?
When you cannot understand your circumstances, keep praying to the God who understands you.
2. God’s character remains steady when our circumstances change
After the opening cry in Psalm 22, verse 3 introduces a powerful statement:
“3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.”
Psalm 22:3
David has just described how abandoned he feels in verses 1 & 2. Then he says, “But you are the holy one.”
David’s circumstances are painful, but God is still holy. His prayers seemed unanswered, but that does not mean God is not there or that he has become untrustworthy.
David continues in verses 4 and 5:
“4 In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted, and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.”
Psalm 22:4-5
David remembers the history of God’s faithfulness. The God to whom he is praying is the same God who heard Israel in Egypt. He is the God who brought His people through a parted sea and the same God who sustained them when they could not sustain themselves, providing manna in the desert.
David does not yet see his own deliverance, but he remembers that God has delivered before. The same with Jesus on the cross. He remembers, he knows that God will deliver Him.
We need to have that same discipline in our lives because pain has a way of narrowing our vision so much, until the present trouble is ALLthat we can see.
One difficult season has a way of making us forget years of blessings if we allow it to. One single unanswered question can crowd out everything we know about God.
We must make remembrance a priority in our lives, and not just on Sundays around the Lord’s Table! We must set our minds and hearts to deliberately remember what Scripture reveals about God’s character, the promises He has kept. We must remember the mercy He has shown us. And we absolutely must remember the cross and His son tortured and hanging there, where His love was demonstrated at such tremendous cost.
“8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8
Our suffering must be understood in light of that love. We cannot assume that God’s love rises and falls with the changing of our circumstances.
If good health were the measure of God’s love, what would we say about faithful Christians who suffer illness? Or, if financial comfort were the measure, what would we say about the poverty endured by so many Christians?
If freedom from suffering were the measure, what would we say about Jesus?
The cross teaches us that someone may be deeply loved by the Father and still endure terrible suffering.
David also remembers God’s care in his own life. In verses 9 and 10, he looks back to his earliest days and acknowledges his dependence upon the Lord.
“9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. 10 From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.”
Psalm 22: 9-10
And then, in verse 11, David prays:
“11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near; and there is no one to help.”
Psalm 22:11
“Trouble is near.” That may describe exactly how life feels to someone today. The bills are near. The illness is near. The grief is near. The uncertainty is near.
David’s answer to that trouble that was so near, was to ask God to be near as well. Faith does not deny the nearness of trouble. It seeks the presence of God in the middle of it.
When present circumstances are difficult to understand, hold firmly to what God has already revealed about Himself.
3. The suffering Savior understands humiliation and pain
Now verse 6 is the verse which really hit me and put me on the path of putting together this lesson. Beginning in verse 6, the psalm describes suffering that includes public shame:
“6 But I am a worm, and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people.”
Psalm 22:6
Let those words sink in for a moment. “I am a worm.” This is the language of someone being treated as though he has absolutely no value. But I want to pause here for a moment and talk about that word “worm.” In the English it gets the point across I believe, however, in Hebrew there are two different words used in different places in the Old Testament for “worm.” Often you’ll find the Hebrew word “rimmah” which is quite literally “worm” or “maggot.” However, here in Psalm 22 verse 6 he uses the Hebrew word “tola” which refers to a specific worm from which they create a crimson-colored dye. Some accounts say when the mother worm attaches to a tree and dies it stains the tree red. Think about that for a moment as an analogy to the bloodied and suffering Christ, attached to a tree, his blood staining that tree as he dies. It is my belief, my opinion, that David uses that word “tola” specifically for that reason.
Verses 7 and 8 continues - and remember these verses are also a prophesy of Christ on the cross:
“7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. 8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let Him deliver Him, since he delights in Him.”
Psalm 22:7-8
When we read the accounts of the crucifixion, we hear this same cruel challenge.
Matthew 27:43 records the mockers saying:
“43a He trusts in God. Let God rescue Him now if He wants Him...”
Matthew 27:43a
They took Jesus’ trust in the Father and used it as material for ridicule just as Psalm 22 prophesies.
People still reason that way. They say…
• “You say God loves You? Then why are You suffering?”
• “If you are a Christian, why has this happened to you?”
• “If God cares about you, why has He not fixed this?”
But the people mocking Jesus misunderstood what was happening right before their eyes. They believed the cross proved His failure. While in reality, He was accomplishing the work for which He had come to do.
They wanted Him to come down from the cross to prove Himself. But He remained there in obedience to the Father and in love for us.
As the psalm continues, its descriptions become even more striking.
Verse 14 says:
“14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.”
Psalm 22:14
And verse 15 continues by describing his thirst and how his mouth is so dry His tongue is clinging to the roof of His mouth.
And then in verse 16, the scene just can’t get any more vivid:
“16 Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.”
Psalm 22: 16
And verse 18 declares:
“18 They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”
Psalm 22:18
John 19:23-24 is the place where we find the fullfillment of that very prophecy as it explicitly connects the soldiers’ treatment of Jesus’ garments with this Scripture.
These connections are not details we have invented because they sound similar. The Gospel writers themselves direct us to understand the crucifixion in light of this Psalm.
Acts 2:23 teaches that Jesus was delivered according to God’s determined counsel and foreknowledge. The cross was not a surprise for God.
That does not excuse the wickedness of those who crucified Jesus. Acts 2 holds them responsible. But their actions did not defeat God’s purpose.
God brought salvation through the suffering they inflicted. And we must remember why Jesus suffered.
First Peter 2:24 tells us:
“24 He Himself ‘bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
I Peter 2:24
Our sin is not a small matter. We sometimes soften it with phrases such as, “Nobody’s perfect,” or, “Everybody makes mistakes.”
Those statements can become ways of avoiding the seriousness of our rebellion against God.
At Calvary, we see what our forgiveness required. The Savior suffered for sins He did not commit so that sinners, including you and I, could receive forgiveness they could never earn.
Yet this same passage also gives comfort to those who suffer. Jesus knows what it’s like to be mocked. He knows what it’s like to be rejected and He knows physical pain and what it is to cry out in anguish.
Hebrews 4:15-16 teaches that we have a High Priest who understands our weaknesses and invites us to approach the throne of grace.
When we pray, we are not trying to explain human suffering to a Savior who has never experienced it.
The One who hears our prayers bears the marks of suffering Himself.
4. Suffering does not get the final word
For much of Psalm 22, we hear desperate appeals for help. But beginning in verse 22, the emphasis changes:
“22 I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you.”
Psalm 22:22
Then verse 24 gives a beautiful assurance:
“24 For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from Him but has listened to His cry for help.”
Psalm 22:24
Now compare that with the opening of this psalm. It began with the question, “Why have you forsaken me?” And now it declares, Jehovah heard his cry.
Both statements deserve to be taken with the full weight of its message - the anguish was real, and so was God’s answer.
The feeling of abandonment by David and by Jesus was not the whole story. When we read this psalm in light of Jesus, we know that the cross was followed by the resurrection.
Acts 2:24 declares that God raised Him up because it was not possible for death to hold Him.
The people at Calvary saw Jesus die. His disciples grieved. His body was placed in a tomb.
But the tomb did not have the final word. God did!
That fact, that truth changes how Christians face suffering.
It does not mean every illness will be healed in this life or every financial difficulty will disappear or that every broken relationship will be restored as we would wish it to be.
Scripture does not promise those things.
It promises that those who belong to Christ have a hope that reaches beyond this life.
Because Jesus lives, death can’t destroy the Christian’s future and our labor in the Lord isn’t in vain.
Because of Jesus, because He lives, the pain of the present cannot cancel the promises of God.
“17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
Paul here places the troubles we face in the here and now up against an eternal glory. He is teaching us to look beyond what is temporary, that is the things of this life, to what is eternal.
Paul was no stranger to suffering. But he excelled as a man who had learned to measure his suffering against the glory of eternal life in Heaven.
We often want God to explain the whole story while we are still living through a painful chapter in our own lives here and now.
Jehovah has not promised to answer every question in this life. But He has shown us, through Jesus Christ, that suffering and death will not have the final victory.
Our hope rests in the risen Lord, even when our circumstances remain difficult.
5. God’s deliverance calls for worship and proclamation
The back end of Psalm 22 looks beyond the suffering of the individual and looks to the congregation, nations, and generations that are yet to come.
Verse 25 speaks about the praise offered up by the congregation and verse 27 declares:
“27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,”
Psalm 22:27
And then in verse 28 David gives the reason for that subjugation.
“28 For dominion belongs to the LORD and He rules over the nations.”
Psalm 22:28
What a change in perspective! The psalm begins with a man surrounded by his enemies and it ends with a vision of the Lord’s rule that extends over all nations!
At the cross, the world saw someone who appeared powerless. But through the resurrection, Jehovah declared His victory.
The gospel of the crucified and risen Savior was then to be preached to every creature.
Jesus commanded in Mark 16:15–16:
“15 He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.’ ”
Mark 16:15-16
The message was not reserved for just one nation, or one social class, or one generation.
And then we come to the last two verses in this Psalm. It speaks of a coming generation that will hear what God has done.
“30 Posterity will serve Him; future generations will be told about the Lord. 31 They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!”
Psalm 22:30-31
Someone taught us.
Someone opened a Bible.
Someone preached Christ to us. Someone cared enough to tell us the truth.
Now we must ask: Who is hearing it from us?
Our children, our friends, our families, all the lost of the world, need more than the knowledge that we attended worship. They need to understand why we worship.
Our neighbors need more than the knowledge that we are religious. They need to hear the good news of Jesus.
The congregation needs more than our presence in a seat. It needs our participation in the work God has given His people.
Notice also how suffering and worship appear together in this psalm.
The person who has cried out to God now speaks of praising Him among His people.
Our trials should deepen our compassion for one another.
When someone comes into this assembly carrying grief, we should not make that person feel that there is no room here for tears. I’m not saying we do that, only that we need to be on guard to ensure we let the grieving know they can share their grief with us.
When a brother or sister struggles, we should help bear that burden. And when someone receives help, we should rejoice together.
Romans 12:15 says:
“15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”
Romans 12:15
A congregation shaped by the crucified Savior should know how to do both.
Keep trusting through the unanswered questions
As we near the end of this lesson let us remember we are to keep trusting through life’s unanswered questions. Psalm 22 gives us words for some of life’s darkest moments.
It teaches us to bring our anguish to God, and reminds us that His character remains trustworthy when our circumstances seem and are confusing.
Psalm 22 directs our eyes to the suffering of Jesus. Assuring us that suffering does not have the final word.
And this psalm calls us to worship the Lord and tell others what He has done.
Perhaps someone here today identifies most strongly with the beginning of the psalm.
You feel tired, alone. You’ve prayed and prayed and you’re still waiting.
Keep bringing that burden to God. Let your brothers and sisters help carry it. Hold to what Scripture reveals about His faithfulness, even when you cannot yet understand His providence.
Perhaps someone else needs to consider the cross more seriously.
Jesus did not suffer merely to give us an example of courage. He suffered to provide the way through which sinners can be reconciled to God.
We cannot earn that salvation. We must receive His grace through the obedient faith His word requires.
If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, turn from your sins with repentance, confessing your faith in Him, and be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, as those who responded to the gospel were instructed in Acts 2:38.
If you are a Christian who has wandered away, return to the Lord in repentance and prayer. First John 1:9 assures us that He is faithful and just to forgive those who confess their sins.
The Savior who cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”is the very same Savior whom God raised from the dead.
He understands suffering. He has overcome death. And He calls us to follow Him faithfully—even through the days when we cannot yet see how the story will unfold.
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