Psalms 22 Footnotes

Ps 22 This was David’s prayer for deliverance from his enemies who surrounded him to put him to death, but it was also indirectly prophetic of the prayer of Jesus from the cross. While the words of David may be highly figurative for his experience, they became historically precise in the suffering of the Savior. David’s prayer to be delivered from death (v. 20) was eventually answered, prompting him to praise God in the assembly (vv. 22,25). Jesus’s prayer, using the words of this psalm, was answered in the resurrection, for Heb 2:12 quotes the Davidic words of praise in v. 22 as the word of the risen Lord.

22:1 The most lamentable condition is the feeling of being forsaken by God in the time of suffering or danger. David’s cry expressed that sense because of unanswered prayer. For Jesus to cry these words from the cross (Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34) is usually taken to mean that he believed the Father had abandoned him to die for the sins of the world. However, passages of Scripture were not referenced in ancient times by chapter or verse but by their opening words; the Gospels may be indicating that Jesus recited the entire psalm, which ends on a note of victory. “The Deer of the Dawn” mentioned in the superscription was probably a secular song used as a pattern in performing the psalm.

22:18 The garment was the sufferer’s one remaining possession; to divide his clothing before he was dead was the last indignity inflicted on him (Jn 19:24).