Psalm 22

¹My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?
² O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent.

³ But You are holy,
Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
⁴ Our fathers trusted in You;
They trusted, and You delivered them.
⁵ They cried to You, and were delivered;
They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.

⁶ But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
⁷ All those who see Me ridicule Me;
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
⁸ “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”

⁹ But You are He who took Me out of the womb;
You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.
¹⁰ I was cast upon You from birth.
From My mother’s womb
You have been My God.
¹¹ Be not far from Me,
For trouble is near;
For there is none to help.

¹² Many bulls have surrounded Me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.
¹³ They gape at Me with their mouths,
Like a raging and roaring lion.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It has melted within Me.
¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And My tongue clings to My jaws;
You have brought Me to the dust of death.

¹⁶ For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
¹⁷ I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
¹⁸ They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.

¹⁹ But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me;
O My Strength, hasten to help Me!
²⁰ Deliver Me from the sword,
My precious life from the power of the dog.
²¹ Save Me from the lion’s mouth
And from the horns of the wild oxen!

You have answered Me.

²² I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.
²³ You who fear the Lord, praise Him!
All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,
And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
²⁴ For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.

²⁵ My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;
I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
²⁶ The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever!

²⁷ All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
²⁸ For the kingdom is the Lord’s,
And He rules over the nations.

²⁹ All the prosperous of the earth
Shall eat and worship;
All those who go down to the dust
Shall bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep himself alive.

³⁰ A posterity shall serve Him.
It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation,
³¹ They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born,
That He has done this.

This is “the great messianic psalm.” In case you missed the obvious reference in the first verse (“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”), maybe you caught it in verse 14 (“I am poured out like water…my heart is like wax; it has melted within me”). But if you missed that one too, there’s verses 16-18 that are quite hard to miss.

The whole first 2/3 of this psalm are devoted to the suffering of the Messiah. In the first stanza, God has forsaken him. God no longer hears him, as we know, when Christ takes on the sins of the world (forgive my use and not use of capital letters, but things are confusing when every “he” is capitalized but don’t refer to the same person). The second stanza affirms that the Messiah still does not lose his faith in God, even when he is severely humiliated in the face of his enemies (stanza 3). In stanza 4, we go back to seeing the Messiah’s trust in God, and the fact that he has been faithful to God since the moment of his birth. In the next stanza, everything turns back to the enemies of the Messiah, who are now characterized as “bulls” and “lions” in verses 12 and 13. They are savage like animals (as opposed to more gentle animals, like, say, lambs that they might tear apart). The following two stanzas (verses 14-18) prophesy his suffering rather accurately. Finally, in verses 19-21, he turns back to God, still not losing his faith and asks for deliverance again.

You have answered Me.

I love the way that the editors of this version have set this line apart from the rest of the verse. It is the turning point of the psalm. Before it, we have the Messiah surrounded by savage enemies and suffering horribly at their hands, but then God hears him. After this point the psalm turns into a praise of God. It’s almost as if these words fill in for the resurrection. The most pivotal moment in, well, everything.

Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever!

The excitement in these lines is so apparent. Throughout the last third of this psalm, we are reminded to praise the Lord. Are you in the assembly? Praise Him. Do you fear Him? Praise Him. Descendant of Jacob? Praise Him. Do you seek Him? Praise Him. All the ends of the world, all the families of nations, all the earth, even the people who cannot support themselves, will remember what God has done for us and, that's right, will praise Him!

A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, they will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this

That’s us! Posterity means “future generations,” by the way. All the generations after the event will pass along to the next generation the message of Christ and of a righteous God. It’s easy to get caught up in legalistic portions of Christianity. But, even before Christ was born, this psalm points out the only important pieces, praising God and remembering the Messiah.