There are 150 Psalms in the Tenach. They range in type from laments to exaltations and were used in worship and sung by Levitical choirs. King David wrote 73 of them, and the rest are attributed to at least 8 other composers.

Some of their subjects include extolling the attributes of God, thanksgivings, intimate confessions of sin, admissions of doubt and fear, retellings of Israel’s history, proverbial wisdom, personal and corporate supplications, and prophecy.

It is this last subject we will focus upon as we discover more about The Messiah. There are at least 20 psalms that point beyond the immediate to the future, specifically to the one who is to come, The Messiah. Many of these describe the eventual rule and reign of The Messiah as King. Yet some of them portray the “suffering servant” who is experiencing deep anguish, pain, and abandonment by God.

This is the theme of Psalm 22, written by David, between 900 and 1,000 B.C.E.               Let’s look at it closely.

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

²O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.

From these verses we infer that the speaker is a man who is undergoing severe agony, exclaiming that he is alienated from his God. Remember from Stone 7 that The Messiah would take our sins upon himself and thus incur alienation from the Father in our place.

³Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.

⁴In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.

⁵They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

The speaker's confession of faith in God reveals that he is a righteous man, a true believer in the God of Israel, the God of his fathers; therefore, an Israelite himself.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

⁷All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

⁸“He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him.”

Now the man’s situation becomes clearer. His misery has made Him the reproach of evil men who have gathered to mock Him in his pitiful condition. They despise him and hurl taunts at him by saying, "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him.”  Do you see the similarities with Isaiah 53 from Stone 7?

⁹Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast.

¹⁰From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Here we discover that the speaker is no ordinary man, for he can boast that he trusted in God from the womb, that as a suckling infant, he knew God. This reveals that the speaker has a unique nature. Could he be the Divine 2^nd Person of God?

Contrast this with King David’s admission in Psalm 51:5:  “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” King David did not consider himself sinless or faithful from birth, but born in sin and needing forgiveness, the condition of all human beings.

¹¹Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.

¹²Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

¹³Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me.

From these verses we learn that the speaker has no ordinary enemies. He sees those around Him figuratively as "bulls of Bashan."  Bashan was a high tableland east of Galilee, famous for its rich fields and abundant pasture land. Those responsible for his agony were strong and forceful men, both politically and physically.  From the passage in Isaiah 53 we learned that in spite of their murderous, bloodthirsty state, he was dying even for them. Herein is love beyond all measure.

A “roaring lion” is an expression in the Scriptures for the devil, hasatan [see Psalm 91:13].  This evil predator of souls was the controlling intelligence behind the people who had schemed, arrested, tried, and put him to death. They cooperated with the prince of darkness.

¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me [or--in the midst of my bowels].

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.

¹⁶Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.

¹⁷I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.

¹⁸They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

All the complaints here speak of the physical experience of a type of execution called crucifixion, unknown in the world before the 6^th century B.C.E., hundreds of years after this psalm was written. Many physicians have corroborated these physical occurrences. The first two describe his chief sensations.

• "I am poured out like water." Gravity was pulling Him downward against the resistance of the 3 spikes, which were nailed into his wrists and crossed ankles. He had a sense of falling, as He battled to keep His body in a raised position. His blood was pooling into his lower extremities and every muscle was straining. There was also blood pouring out of the wounds he received in a brutal beating before he was crucified.

• "All my bones are out of joint." "Out of joint" is better translated "spread apart.” The grotesque twisting and stretching of his body produced a sensation of extreme pressure on His joints. Authorities now believe that in a typical crucifixion, the victim's arms were attached to the crossbar before it was lifted onto the stake. Perhaps the pull on his arms as he was yanked off the ground actually dislocated his shoulders.

  As the hours wore on, he sensed approaching death.

  He perceived three threats to His vital functions:

• "My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels." He was aware that he was on the brink of heart failure. From his extreme ordeal, the wall of his heart was rupturing, and blood was seeping (melting) into the heart cavity.

• "My strength is dried up like a potsherd." A “potsherd” is a piece of broken pottery. His strength was gone from all he had endured. He realized He could no longer push his body up to take another breath. He was beginning to asphyxiate.

• "My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth." From the extreme loss of blood, and gasping for breath, he was acutely dehydrated.

The next statement summarizes his condition as he neared the end of his ordeal. “You lay me in the dust of death." In other words, he knew he was to die and that it was God's will.

In the next verses he returns to observing those around him.

"Dogs have surrounded me: a band of evil men [or--the assembly of the wicked] have encircled me." "Dogs" was a derogatory term used by Jews for gentiles, because they ate “unclean” food. The term "dogs" here in Psalm 22 probably refers to the gentile soldiers who stood around mocking him as he died. The "assembly of the wicked" comprises all of the onlookers who hated Him—the soldiers and religious leaders, as well as the mob, a cross section of all humanity.   

The following verses are three more proofs that Psalm 22 describes a crucifixion:

• "They pierced my hands and my feet." Could there be any clearer proof that the psalm describes a crucifixion?  There is no other known method of execution where hands and feet are pierced.

• "I can count all my bones: people stare and gloat over me." Because Roman executioners typically confiscated the clothing of their victims, he hung naked, except for, perhaps a loincloth. His wasted condition and extended torso allowed for all his ribs to protrude so he and all the onlookers could see them.

• "They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” It was  customary at a Roman crucifixion for the attending soldiers to divide the          garments of the condemned man among themselves.

A  final note on who killed The Messiah:  Everyone and no one.  Because he died in the place of sinners, we all are responsible for his death.  If there had been no sinners, there would be no need for a "sin-bearer." No one because he willingly died for us.  He had many opportunities to abandon his mission, to spurn the Father's plan and to save himself.  Yet he went all the way to pay the price he did not owe for the debt we could not pay.  This is amazing grace.

¹⁹But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

²⁰Deliver my precious life from the power of the dogs.

²¹Rescue me from the mouth of lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

²²I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.

²³You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

²⁴For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of his afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

²⁵From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.

²⁶The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him—may your hearts live forever!

²⁷All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and 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—those who cannot keep themselves alive.

³⁰Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the LORD.

³¹They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn—for he has done it.

The last thirteen verses indicate a radical change of focus from his present agony to prayer and praise for his deliverance and restoration. Three main consequences follow the ordeal of The Righteous Messiah.

1. vv 19-22  God would hear his cry and deliver him from his enemies, described again as dogs, lions, and wild oxen. He proclaims that in the congregation of his brothers that he would praise God and declare His Name. Yet how can this be? He who was laid in the dust of death now appears to his brothers and praises God? There is only one answer: He came back to life from death—he was resurrected!

2. vv 23-26 is an exhortation to the children of Israel to praise, honor and revere God for what He has done. Those who are humble and seek the LORD will be shown his salvation and their hearts will live eternally. What a promise!

3. vv 27-31  What this suffering servant has done would be told throughout the world and throughout future generations to “a people yet unborn.” His death and resurrection would cause peoples from all the nations of the world to turn to the LORD and worship Him. A righteous seed from all nations and peoples would be raised up to serve Him. “FOR HE HAS DONE IT.”

Here is a song that beautifully describes what God has done for us through His Son:

On the mount of crucifixion,
   Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgates of God's mercy
   Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
  Poured incessant from above,
And heaven's peace and perfect justice
  Kissed a guilty world in love.

For you who have traveled on this road of discovery, thank you for staying with the journey to this point. Now you are at a crossroad. What does knowing who the Messiah is mean for you?

Go to Stone 10 to find out. ->

Prayer:  "God, did you really come in the Person of Y'shua to die for me?  Help me to know and to believe."