Matthew connects Psalm 22's garments, mockery, and opening cry with the crucifixion of Jesus.
Psalms 22
The Forsaken Sufferer and the Worldwide Praise of the LORD
A cry of forsakenness moves through remembered trust, public humiliation, urgent petition, answered praise, and finally worldwide testimony to the LORD's righteous saving work.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB),Public Domain · Translation notes · Reference sources
- A Faithful Cry from the Depths22:1-2
The sufferer speaks honestly to God about felt abandonment and unanswered prayer.
- Remembering the Holy God Who Delivered Before22:3-5
The sufferer confesses God's holiness and remembers the trust and deliverance of the fathers.
- Despised, Mocked, and Still Dependent22:6-11
Public shame and mocking taunts are answered by appeal to God's lifelong care.
- Surrounded by Deathlike Hostility22:12-18
The sufferer describes fierce enemies, bodily weakness, exposure, and the dividing of garments.
- Nearness Sought at the Edge of Death22:19-21
The sufferer urgently asks the LORD to come near, help, and rescue.
- The Afflicted One Heard and the Assembly Summoned22:22-24
Deliverance turns into praise, testimony, and a summons for the LORD-fearing congregation.
- From the Poor to the Nations to the Unborn22:25-31
The psalm ends with satisfied poor, worshiping nations, future generations, and proclamation that the LORD has acted.
Biblical Theology
How This Chapter Fits
Theological Argument
Psalm 22 argues that the deepest experience of righteous suffering, even the felt absence of God, can be brought before the holy LORD in covenant faith. Because the LORD hears the afflicted one, suffering does not have the last word; divine deliverance becomes congregational praise, food for the poor, worldwide worship, and a proclamation of righteousness to generations not yet born.
Forsakenness is voiced, faith is remembered, shame and danger are named, rescue is pleaded, praise is vowed, the afflicted are strengthened, the nations are summoned, and future generations are told that the LORD has acted.
- The sufferer feels forsaken but continues addressing God personally.
- God's holiness and former deliverances remain true even when present prayer seems unanswered.
- Public shame and hostile mockery intensify righteous suffering by challenging the sufferer's trust in God.
- Lifelong dependence on God grounds the plea for present nearness.
- The sufferer's extremity is real, embodied, public, and deathlike.
- The turning point comes through petition for the LORD's nearness and deliverance.
Christological Focus
Psalm 22 is one of the Psalter's clearest canonical witnesses to the suffering Messiah. Its opening cry, mockery, public shame, bodily distress, and divided garments are taken up in the crucifixion narratives, while its movement into praise, assembly proclamation, and worldwide testimony coheres with Christ's resurrection, exaltation, and the gospel's spread to the nations.
Psalm 22 argues that the deepest experience of righteous suffering, even the felt absence of God, can be brought before the holy LORD in covenant faith. Because the LORD hears the afflicted one, suffering does not have the last word; divine deliverance becomes congregational praise, food for the poor, worldwide worship, and a proclamation of righteousness to generations not yet born.
Covenant Significance
Psalm 22 is covenant prayer from within the Davidic worship tradition. The sufferer appeals to the LORD's holiness, remembered deliverance, lifelong covenant claim, and mercy toward the afflicted; the answer expands beyond the individual to Israel's assembly, the nations, and future generations who will hear of the LORD's righteous saving act.
- Covenant address under anguish - The repeated address to 'my God' shows that lament arises from relationship with the LORD, not from distance from covenant faith.
- Davidic righteous-sufferer pattern - The psalm places Davidic suffering within a pattern that the canon later recognizes as fulfilled in the Messiah's humiliation and vindication.
- Assembly and nations - The LORD's answer to the afflicted one produces praise in Israel's assembly and worship among all families of the nations.
- Generational covenant testimony - The closing verses emphasize that God's righteousness is to be proclaimed to future generations and to a people not yet born.
Formation
Theological BurdenPsalm 22 forms the heart to keep praying when God feels far, to remember God's holiness when circumstances accuse Him, to endure mockery without surrendering trust, to receive Christ as the righteous sufferer who entered our forsakenness, and to turn God's saving work into praise and proclamation.
Canonical Connections
Mark presents Jesus' crucifixion through Psalm 22 language, including divided garments and the cry of abandonment.
John explicitly connects the soldiers' division of Jesus' garments with the Scripture pattern reflected in Psalm 22.
Hebrews quotes Psalm 22:22 to present the sanctifying Son declaring God's name among His brothers.
Psalm 69 provides another righteous-sufferer lament that later Scripture connects with the suffering of Christ.
For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David.
A Faithful Cry from the Depths
The sufferer speaks honestly to God about felt abandonment and unanswered prayer.
Psalms 22:1–5
David cries out from a place of deep abandonment, yet he anchors his hope in God’s holiness and the record of His faithfulness to previous generations.
Biblical Theology
Theological Movement
The lament begins with distance, delay, and unanswered crying, but it does not abandon relationship. The sufferer still says my God, confesses the Holy One's enthronement, and recalls generations who trusted, cried, and were delivered...
Typological RoleType
David's role as the righteous anointed sufferer provides a real but limited pattern that Jesus assumes and fulfills in his cross. Christ's use of the opening cry identifies his suffering with the psalm while his saving work exceeds David's experience.
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:45-46
Canonical Links
Matthew 27:45-46Fulfillment Anticipation
Jesus voices the psalm's opening lament during the darkness of crucifixion, locating the righteous sufferer's cry within his saving death.
Hebrews 5:7-9Typological Trajectory
The obedient Son offers loud cries and tears in suffering and is heard, bringing the faithful lament pattern to its messianic completion.
1My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
2I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.
Remembering the Holy God Who Delivered Before
The sufferer confesses God's holiness and remembers the trust and deliverance of the fathers.
3Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4In You our fathers trusted; they trusted and You delivered them.
5They cried out to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disappointed.
Despised, Mocked, and Still Dependent
Public shame and mocking taunts are answered by appeal to God's lifelong care.
Psalms 22:6–11
Though reduced to a worm in the eyes of men and mocked for his faith, the psalmist pleads for God's help based on their lifelong bond from the womb.
Biblical Theology
Theological Movement
The speaker descends socially from covenant member to reproached nonperson as observers weaponize his trust against him. He then moves backward through his own life, remembering that God brought him from the womb and sustained dependence from infancy...
Typological RoleType
The mocked righteous Davidic sufferer is a type of Christ, especially where trust in God becomes the ground of public scorn. The Gospel's close verbal correspondence identifies Jesus as the greater sufferer whose resurrection vindicates his filial trust.
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:39-43
Canonical Links
Matthew 27:39-43Fulfillment Anticipation
Passersby and leaders mock Jesus' trust in God with language that closely follows the taunt directed at Psalm 22's sufferer.
Hebrews 2:10-13Typological Trajectory
The sanctifying Son shares the condition of his brothers and declares his trust in God, fulfilling the faithful sufferer's dependent posture.
6But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.
7All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:
8“He trusts in the LORD, let the LORD deliver him; let the LORD rescue him, since He delights in him.”
9Yet You brought me forth from the womb; You made me secure at my mother’s breast.
10From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.
11Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
Surrounded by Deathlike Hostility
The sufferer describes fierce enemies, bodily weakness, exposure, and the dividing of garments.
Psalms 22:12–18
The psalmist is physically broken and socially stripped, surrounded by bestial enemies who pierce his body and gamble for his very clothes.
Biblical Theology
Theological Movement
Hostility closes in through images of powerful animals and organized evildoers, while the sufferer's body moves toward complete dissolution and death. Human strength, dignity, and possessions are progressively taken away...
Typological RoleType
The surrounded and humiliated righteous Davidic sufferer forms a type that reaches historical fulfillment in Jesus' crucifixion. The soldiers' division of his garments supplies the clearest inspired correspondence, while other poetic details should be handled...
Fulfillment: John 19:23-24
Canonical Links
John 19:23-24Fulfillment Anticipation
Roman soldiers divide Jesus' garments and cast lots for his tunic, and the Gospel explicitly presents the event as Scripture fulfilled.
12Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13They open their jaws against me like lions that roar and maul.
14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
15My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.
16For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.
17I can count all my bones; they stare and gloat over me.
18They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
Nearness Sought at the Edge of Death
The sufferer urgently asks the LORD to come near, help, and rescue.
Psalms 22:19–21
David cries for the Lord to come quickly and rescue his soul from the sword, the dogs, the lions, and the oxen.
Biblical Theology
Theological Movement
After describing total exposure, the sufferer turns directly and repeatedly toward the LORD: do not be far, come quickly, deliver, save. The threats are named without granting them ultimate authority, and God is named as strength...
Typological RoleType
The righteous Davidic sufferer's urgent appeal and divine answer form a type of the obedient Messiah who is heard and delivered through resurrection. Jesus' vindication surpasses temporal rescue because death itself is defeated rather than merely postponed.
Fulfillment: Hebrews 5:7-9
Canonical Links
Hebrews 5:7-9Typological Trajectory
Jesus offers urgent prayers with loud cries and tears, is heard because of his reverent submission, and becomes the perfected source of salvation.
Hebrews 2:14-15Fulfillment Anticipation
Through death Christ destroys the one wielding death's power and frees those held in slavery, completing the movement from mortal threat to rescue.
19But You, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.
20Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of wild dogs.
21Save me from the mouth of the lion; at the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me!
The Afflicted One Heard and the Assembly Summoned
Deliverance turns into praise, testimony, and a summons for the LORD-fearing congregation.
Psalms 22:22–26
The psalmist vows to declare God's name in the great assembly, celebrating that God has heard the cry of the afflicted and will satisfy the hearts of the humble forever.
Biblical Theology
Theological Movement
The solitary sufferer's answered prayer becomes public proclamation in the great assembly. God is praised because he neither despises affliction nor hides from the afflicted, and restored worship reaches the poor through a satisfying covenant meal...
Typological RoleType
The delivered Davidic sufferer who declares God's name in the assembly is a type fulfilled by Christ, who calls the sanctified his brothers and leads their praise. Resurrection enlarges the psalmist's restored testimony into the Messiah's gathered family.
Fulfillment: Hebrews 2:10-12
Canonical Links
Hebrews 2:10-12Fulfillment Anticipation
Hebrews quotes the promise to declare God's name among brothers and applies it to Jesus, who brings many sons and daughters to glory.
Hebrews 13:10-15Typological Trajectory
Through Jesus the worshiping community continually offers public praise and confessed allegiance, extending the delivered sufferer's congregational thanksgiving.
22I will proclaim Your name to my brothers; I will praise You in the assembly.
23You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All descendants of Jacob, honor Him! All offspring of Israel, revere Him!
24For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help.
From the Poor to the Nations to the Unborn
The psalm ends with satisfied poor, worshiping nations, future generations, and proclamation that the LORD has acted.
25My praise for You resounds in the great assembly; I will fulfill my vows before those who fear You.
26The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him. May your hearts live forever!
Psalms 22:27–31
All nations will turn to the LORD and all generations will hear the story of His righteousness, for He has finished the work.
Biblical Theology
Theological Movement
The praise generated by one deliverance reaches outward to every end of the earth, every family of the nations, the prosperous and the dying, and generations not yet born. The LORD's kingship supplies the universal ground, while remembered grace produces turning and worship...
Typological RoleType
The delivered Davidic sufferer's testimony producing worldwide worship is a royal type fulfilled by the slain and risen Christ. In Revelation the Lamb's completed redemption creates a multinational kingdom whose praise reaches the throne of God.
Fulfillment: Revelation 5:9-14
Canonical Links
Revelation 5:9-14Fulfillment Anticipation
The slain Lamb receives universal worship because his blood ransomed a multinational people and made them a kingdom serving God.
Philippians 2:9-11Typological Trajectory
The humbled and exalted Jesus receives universal confession and bowed allegiance, completing the movement from suffering to worldwide royal worship.
27All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD. All the families of the nations will bow down before Him.
28For dominion belongs to the LORD and He rules over the nations.
29All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before Him—even those unable to preserve their lives.
30Posterity will serve Him; they will declare the Lord to a new generation.
31They will come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn—all that He has done.