Psalm 22--Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Psalm 22
English Standard Version

Why Have You Forsaken Me?
To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.
22 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.

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.

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!”

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.
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.

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!

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!

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.
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.

---

You may recognize some of these words, especially the opening words of this psalm as words that Jesus spoke from the cross.  He was trying to point people back to remember Psalm 22 as this psalm is prophetic in nature describing the crucifixion of Jesus many, many years before crucifixion even existed.  While these may partially be the words of David, the Spirit inspired them because these are the words of Christ as He took on the sin of the world and His communion and fellowship with the Father was broken as the wrath of God was poured out on Him.

First we see that the one speaking these words feels like God is far off.  In the midst of suffering, there is no "answer" given because in the case of Jesus, God's answer is that the cross was necessary for us to be saved.  Not only was Jesus suffering physically, but emotionally and psychologically as this passage indicates and we can gather from the Gospels that He had been going without any sleep for close to a week.  He had a drive to accomplish so much and say so many things before the time came for His death.

It is because of the holiness of God that the speaker feels far off from God.  This seems to indicate that perhaps David had sin in his life that broke his fellowship with God, but Jesus had no sin of His own--it was only when He took on our sin that His fellowship was broken so that He would experience everything that we have experienced and be tempted like us in every way, yet without sin.  The speaker must trust that God is the same yesterday, today and forever and that He would be faithful to keep His covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--in the case of Jesus, it was being fulfilled by His very death on the cross, "And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." (Genesis 22:18).  That promise that I just quotes is from another place that pointed forward to the cross of Christ and the penal substitutionary atonement that He would provide (Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah).

Jesus was not even recognizable as a man on the cross and He was viewed as being cursed by God because "cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree" (from the book of Deuteronomy).  The people wagged their heads at Him in disgust and judgment just like it says they would here. (See Mark 15:29.  Also see Jeremiah 48:27 which also says that He would die between thieves as well as wagging their heads at Him).  The words said here are nearly identical to the words of those who ridiculed Jesus while He hung on the cross.  (Matthew 27:42, Mark 15:31, Luke 23:35."  These words also sound very similar to the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4 where Satan starts every temptation by saying, "If you are the Son of God...."

The speaker recounts that God has taken care of him ever since he was in his mother's womb and that there is no reason to distrust God now, even if it doesn't feel like God is present in the moment.  How much we could learn from this that truth is not determined by feelings!

The enemies of the LORD surround the speaker and he calls out for the LORD to do something.  Now probably one of the best descriptions of the crucifixion of Christ in verses 14-18.  Even the part about the soldiers dividing His garments among themselves.  Jesus would be dehydrated and the dogs (unclean animals) would be hanging around to lick up Hs blood and the birds would be eating His flesh.  His bones would not be broken, but would be out of join (dislocated) and he would probably be able to feel most all of them.  His heart would be failing as it says here, it would feel like melting wax.  His tongue would stick to his mouth because of dehydration (one of His last things He said was "I thirst"), and He would be laid in a borrowed tomb.

The LORD would eventually show that Jesus was not guilty and He would be resurrected from the dead, but the salvation that David seems to call for here to take that bad situation away did not come for Jesus because Jesus had His heart and mind and eyes fixed on the cross from before the foundations of the world.

Then there is a turn in the text as no longer does the speaker cry out to the LORD to show Himself, but he rejoices because He has shown Himself and has delivered His people once again.  All the people will praise Him for His deliverance.  The LORD does not hide his face from those who are afflicted, but hears them when they cry.  The LORD will comfort the afflicted in His way and in His time.

So then, why does this change to praise from all the nations if this is not about the cross and the resurrection.  Certainly the entire world would not care about the LORD saving King David, but the whole world does need to take notice and rejoice over the LORD's salvation that is provided through the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Kingship belongs to the LORD and he rules over all the nations.  That's exactly what we see in the book of Revelation when Jesus takes the throne one day, but for now, it is the Father who sits on the throne waiting for everything to be fulfilled and for the kingdom of His Son to begin.

Everyone rich and poor, great and small, and even those not yet born are to hear the works that the LORD has done and worship Him, bow down before Him, and will tell others of His great deeds--especially the salvation that He has provided.