Psalm 22 (part 1) — What Did It Mean Before Jesus Quoted It From the Cross?

In Psalm 22 he speaks in the person of the Savior about the manner of his death. ... The psalmist places all these teachings in front of us because the Lord suffered all this not on his own account but for us.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

After I became Christian I flipped open the Bible one day and came upon Psalm 22 with the distinctive opening line, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

I was stunned. Of course, these are words that Jesus said on the cross. Surely this was prophecy, being written so long before Jesus' passion. Reading further I came upon more familiar moments, all from  accounts of Jesus' crucifixion.

He committed his cause to the Lord; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him! (Passersby, priests, soldiers and, specifically, one of the two thieves who was crucified with Christ.)

They pierced my hands and feet. (Crucifixion)

I can count all my bones (None of his bones were broken.)

They stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots. (The soldiers dicing for Jesus' robe.)

We can see how this would have great resonance with Christians. It sure did with me. And the Church Fathers were all over it. But, of course, they had the example of Christ on the road to Emmaus showing how all the scriptures related to his coming as Messiah.

That makes it kind of easy to forget it was a psalm that the Jewish people prayed in ancient days before the time of Jesus. Psalm 22 is read on Purim, which commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from a Persian Empire official who was scheming to massacre them with government sanction. So it  is considered a prophetic psalm but about Queen Esther who saved the people. In fact, Jesus would have prayed it as an observant Jew within the community. The fact that he could quote that first line knowing people would get deeper meaning meant he was referring to the significance it already had to the faithful.

We're going to get a couple of takes on this psalm, today reflecting on the psalm itself and next week from Pope Benedict XVI meditating on Jesus quoting it on the cross.

Detail, Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Folio 150

This psalm is long and powerfully descriptive. The psalmist laments God's absence and silence and attacks by humans. However, interwoven in this is trust in God as strength, as one who is listening, as one who will reign and have dominion over nations. The big question in our own lives, as in that of the psalmist, is how do we react when we are in agony and God seems to be absent?

Only as we understand what the psalm means on its own are we better able to understand why Jesus chose these words to reflect his own agony of abandonment by his Father at the final moment of crisis represented by the cross.

Far from being just a prediction of events surrounding Jesus' death the psalm reflects a model of response to abandonment and divine delay ... By quoting just verse 1 of this psalm, Jesus could draw on a long history of awareness on the part of his listeners who knew how the first nineteen verses illustrate the struggle of the faithful sufferer who waits for deliverance by God. ...

The psalmist's faithful response to the absence of God is placed within a broader context of an eschatological* vision of hope. In the midst of fulfilling a vow of praise "in the congregation" — a praise grounded in the past history of Yahweh's faithfulness even in the face of his absence (22:22-24) — the psalmist suddenly sifts gears with a remarkable profession: "My praise in the great assembly [is] from with you!" This phrase is remarkable because the psalmist realizes that even when Yahweh is most distant and entirely absent from our experience, the ability to praise him is a testimony to his enduring presence with those who fear him. The very ability to praise comes from God himself.

This realization catapults the psalmist from a historical reflection to a vision of eschatological hope. ...

It admits the possibility that faithful living may not result in deliverance — that suffering and death are realities for the faithful. But, at the same time, it also understands that present suffering and evil will not ultimately prevent the fulfillment of God's plans. ... The faithful psalmist remains loyal and takes solace in the knowledge that regardless of the personal outcome, God's will will be done.

Psalms vol. 1 (The NIV Application Commentary)

 Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here. 

 

*relating to death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind