Member
Troy a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 22:1. A Prophecy of Christ's Passion?
Psalm 22 is one of the best-known psalms because the Passion narratives in the Gospels refer to it quite frequently. In fact, Psalm 22 was the principal resource employed by the New Testament evangelists as they attempted to portray the life, death and resurrection of Jesus to show that he was the Messiah.
Of the thirteen (some count seventeen) major Old Testament texts that are quoted in the Gospel narratives, nine come from the Psalms, and five of those from Psalm 22. The best known of them all is the cry of dereliction, "Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani" (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).
The problem is this: how do we move from the context of the psalmist to that of our Lord? In what sense were the psalmist's words appropriately applied to Jesus as well as to their original speaker (who probably was David, according to the psalm's ancient title)?
The psalm does not immediately appear to have been written as a direct prediction. In fact some claim that the psalm actually contains nothing that its human author or its original readers would have recognized as pertaining to the Messiah.
The psalm begins by expressing grief and suffering in what is known as the "lament" form. In Psalm 22:22, however, the lament turns into a psalm of thanksgiving and praise for the deliverance that has been experienced. Structural divisions are clearly marked by the emphatic use of certain words: "my God" and "yet you" (Psalm 22:1, 3), "but I" (Psalm 22:6), "yet you" (Psalm 22:9) and "but you" (Psalm 22:19).
What in this text forces us to look beyond David to a messianic interpretation, as the church has done for two millennia? One of the first clues is the strong adversative that comes in Psalm 22:3 with its reference to the "Holy." This adjective may function as an attribute ("Yet you are holy") or as a reference to the divine person himself, as in the NIV's "Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One."
If the second option, "Holy One" (qād̠ôš[/SIZE]), is the correct rendering, as I believe it is, then it is interesting that this Holy One is further linked with the coming Man of Promise "in [whom the] fathers [Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others] put their trust" (Psalm 22:4). From Genesis 15:1-6 it is clear that the patriarchs did not merely put their trust in God (as simple theists); they rested their faith in the "seed" promised to Abraham (in lieu of Abraham's offer to adopt his Arab servant Eliezer). To this same Lord the psalmist turned for deliverance when he was beset by some unspecified suffering and anguish.
Yet the psalmist's suffering was merely illustrative of the suffering that would come to the Messiah. What happened to David in his position as head of the kingdom over which the Lord himself would one day reign was not without significance for the kingdom of God. To attack David's person or realm, given that he was the carrier and the earnest of the promise to be fulfilled in Christ's first and second comings, was ultimately to attack God's Son and his kingdom.
Small wonder, then, that this psalm was on Jesus' mind as he hung on the cross. The so-called fourth word from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and the sixth word, "It is finished," come from the first and last verses of this psalm. Not only is the first verse quoted in two Gospels, but Psalm 22:7-8 is clearly alluded to in Matthew 27:39, 43; Psalm 22:18 is quoted directly in John 19:24 and in part in Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24 and Luke 23:34; and Psalm 22:22 is quoted directly in Hebrews 2:12. The final verse, Psalm 22:31, is cited, in part, in John 19:30. No wonder this psalm has been called "the Fifth Gospel."
I conclude that the God in whom David's forefathers trusted—the Man of Promise, the Messiah—is the same one to whom David now entrusts his life as he experiences savage attacks. And those attacks were only a foreshadowing of what the Messiah himself would one day face.
But there is really no despair here. Triumph was certain; the dominion of the coming One would be realized (Psalm 22:28). Just as God sat down and rested at the conclusion of creation, there would be a day when the Lord would cry, "It is finished!" as redemption was completed. Yet even this would be only a foretaste of the final shout of triumph in Rev. 21:6 over the fulfillment of the new heavens and new earth: "It is done."
John Calvin observed, "From the tenor of the whole [psalm], it appears that David does not here refer merely to one persecution, but comprehends all the persecutions which he suffered under Saul." Though that is doubtless true, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit David went beyond the boundaries of all his own sufferings as he pictured the one who would suffer an even greater agony.
Yes, David did see the sufferings of that final one who would come in his life; but he also saw that the Messiah would emerge victorious, with a kingdom that would never fail.
yort (TROY)<!--EndFragment-->
Psalm 22:1. A Prophecy of Christ's Passion?
Psalm 22 is one of the best-known psalms because the Passion narratives in the Gospels refer to it quite frequently. In fact, Psalm 22 was the principal resource employed by the New Testament evangelists as they attempted to portray the life, death and resurrection of Jesus to show that he was the Messiah.
Of the thirteen (some count seventeen) major Old Testament texts that are quoted in the Gospel narratives, nine come from the Psalms, and five of those from Psalm 22. The best known of them all is the cry of dereliction, "Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani" (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).
The problem is this: how do we move from the context of the psalmist to that of our Lord? In what sense were the psalmist's words appropriately applied to Jesus as well as to their original speaker (who probably was David, according to the psalm's ancient title)?
The psalm does not immediately appear to have been written as a direct prediction. In fact some claim that the psalm actually contains nothing that its human author or its original readers would have recognized as pertaining to the Messiah.
The psalm begins by expressing grief and suffering in what is known as the "lament" form. In Psalm 22:22, however, the lament turns into a psalm of thanksgiving and praise for the deliverance that has been experienced. Structural divisions are clearly marked by the emphatic use of certain words: "my God" and "yet you" (Psalm 22:1, 3), "but I" (Psalm 22:6), "yet you" (Psalm 22:9) and "but you" (Psalm 22:19).
What in this text forces us to look beyond David to a messianic interpretation, as the church has done for two millennia? One of the first clues is the strong adversative that comes in Psalm 22:3 with its reference to the "Holy." This adjective may function as an attribute ("Yet you are holy") or as a reference to the divine person himself, as in the NIV's "Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One."
If the second option, "Holy One" (qād̠ôš[/SIZE]), is the correct rendering, as I believe it is, then it is interesting that this Holy One is further linked with the coming Man of Promise "in [whom the] fathers [Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others] put their trust" (Psalm 22:4). From Genesis 15:1-6 it is clear that the patriarchs did not merely put their trust in God (as simple theists); they rested their faith in the "seed" promised to Abraham (in lieu of Abraham's offer to adopt his Arab servant Eliezer). To this same Lord the psalmist turned for deliverance when he was beset by some unspecified suffering and anguish.
Yet the psalmist's suffering was merely illustrative of the suffering that would come to the Messiah. What happened to David in his position as head of the kingdom over which the Lord himself would one day reign was not without significance for the kingdom of God. To attack David's person or realm, given that he was the carrier and the earnest of the promise to be fulfilled in Christ's first and second comings, was ultimately to attack God's Son and his kingdom.
Small wonder, then, that this psalm was on Jesus' mind as he hung on the cross. The so-called fourth word from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and the sixth word, "It is finished," come from the first and last verses of this psalm. Not only is the first verse quoted in two Gospels, but Psalm 22:7-8 is clearly alluded to in Matthew 27:39, 43; Psalm 22:18 is quoted directly in John 19:24 and in part in Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24 and Luke 23:34; and Psalm 22:22 is quoted directly in Hebrews 2:12. The final verse, Psalm 22:31, is cited, in part, in John 19:30. No wonder this psalm has been called "the Fifth Gospel."
I conclude that the God in whom David's forefathers trusted—the Man of Promise, the Messiah—is the same one to whom David now entrusts his life as he experiences savage attacks. And those attacks were only a foreshadowing of what the Messiah himself would one day face.
But there is really no despair here. Triumph was certain; the dominion of the coming One would be realized (Psalm 22:28). Just as God sat down and rested at the conclusion of creation, there would be a day when the Lord would cry, "It is finished!" as redemption was completed. Yet even this would be only a foretaste of the final shout of triumph in Rev. 21:6 over the fulfillment of the new heavens and new earth: "It is done."
John Calvin observed, "From the tenor of the whole [psalm], it appears that David does not here refer merely to one persecution, but comprehends all the persecutions which he suffered under Saul." Though that is doubtless true, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit David went beyond the boundaries of all his own sufferings as he pictured the one who would suffer an even greater agony.
Yes, David did see the sufferings of that final one who would come in his life; but he also saw that the Messiah would emerge victorious, with a kingdom that would never fail.
yort (TROY)<!--EndFragment-->