Embrace the Word for Monday, February 9, 2026
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Psalm 22 is a Psalm of David, as the superscription states. Also in the superscription we find the statement: “According to the Doe of the Dawn.” This is most likely a musical reference, probably the arrangement in which the Psalm was originally sung. Psalm 22 shares themes with Psalm 17, as they each express the anguish of death and the need for a resurrection. But Psalm 22 is much more intense in how it conveys these matters. We cannot be certain as to the particular circumstances behind David’s troubles, but the agony that David expresses reflects a profoundly dangerous situation. As this reflection on Psalm 22 unfolds, we shall come to consider not only David’s own “fatal” experience, but also how his anguish would serve as a pattern previewing the truly fatal experience that his offspring would face.
Psalm 22 opens with a most poignant cry of desertion: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (22:1). These are horrifying words! The shape of these horrifying words are expressed as two questions, which painfully convey the deep pain that David is facing. The physical pain that David is facing is expressed in this Psalm in just a moment, but what David opens with is the painful realization that God was silent toward him. David feels forsaken and abandoned by God. This silence only went one way, for David continued crying out: “O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest” (18:2). David’s loud groaning and weary cries are met with silence.
Though forsaken, David persists in acknowledging that God is holy and trustworthy: “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame” (22:3-5). Even though David has been forsaken, he is clear that the dire predicament of his situation does not stem from any flaw in God’s character. David has an awareness about him to confess that God had always proved to be faithful and reliable to His people. David locates the abandonment in himself: “But I am a worm and not a man” (22:6a). By calling himself a worm, David is admitting that it is his sin that explains his abandonment. David is confessing that his situation is a deserved forsakenness. Moreover, David evidences an ongoing trust in the Lord during this horrific ordeal. David knows that he is an unworthy worm, but that does not keep him from calling upon the One whom he knows can help—whom he knows is faithful.
While David asserts that God has turned away in silence, having nothing to do with him, he goes on to detail the ways in which his enemies have turned towards him with a malicious mouthiness: “scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” (22:6b-8). David’s enemies loathe him, make gestures toward him, and mock him. They derisively urge him to trust in the Lord while they dismissively call for the Lord to deliver him. Seeing David in the situation that he is in, causes his enemies to taunt him mercilessly.
David’s reaction to his enemies’ mockeries is to turn to the Lord and cry out: “Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help” (22:9-11). Back in verse 3, David cried out to the Lord, because he knew that the Lord had always been faithful to his forefathers; but now David frames the faithfulness of God in an even more personalized way. David confesses that the Lord has always been faithful to him through each stage of his life and for every day of his life. To the God who has always been dependable, David perseveres in his dependence upon the Lord.
David was not only verbally attacked and accosted by his enemies, he was also brutally assailed and assaulted by them. David’s enemies are wild beasts: “Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion…dogs encompass me…wild oxen!” (22:12-13,16a,19b). These wild beasts are dangerous, devouring, and dominating. And yet, David is speaking of his enemies metaphorically: they are not really wild beasts; they are wicked humans: “a company of evildoers encircles me” (22:16b). And what these wicked humans do is described as a scene of vicious terror: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death” (22:14-15). David, once again, metaphorically describes what his enemies have done to him. And what David describes strongly suggests that he has been striped and left for dead. David’s strength is gone; his damaged body lay like broken pottery; he is wasting away as his life drains away; he is ready to return to the dust from which he came. David continues: “they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (22:16b-18). David’s hands and feet have been torn to pieces and while his body lay naked, not only are his bones visible, his enemies gawk and gloat at him, while dividing up his garments. No concern is shown toward a dying man, but his clothes do solicit much value.
While describing that he is on the verge of death, David still trusts in the Lord: “But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! Save me from the mouth of the lion!” (22:19-21a). David's situation is dire; he still feels as though God has forsaken him; but he continues pleading to the Lord. From all appearances, David thinks he is abandoned by God, but in an urgent, desperate cry of passion, his cry is, nevertheless, faith-filled. And in the moment that David was being pierced by a sword, overpowered by the dogs, in the mouth of the lion, and now trapped in the horns of an angry oxen, the Lord intervenes: “You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!” (22:21b). David abruptly confesses his rescue. The Lord has come near, and in a momentous change, the God of whom David said, “but you do not answer” (22:2), did. Rescue came at a moment of hopeless despair. When rescue seemed impossible, it wasn’t.
What remains of Psalm 22 is the testimony of the one whom God delivered: “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you” (22:22). Standing in the assembly of the righteous (See Psalm 1:5), David calls for the congregation to join him: “You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him” (22:23-24). David calls on the congregation to join him in praising the Lord, who answers the prayers of the distressed. The Lord neither despises nor detests His people, nor does He forsake, but He hears the cries of His people. David proceeds to encourage the congregation to seek the Lord, “The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD!” (22:26a); followed by a prayer over them: “May your hearts live forever!” (22:26b).
David then turns from the congregation of the righteous to all the world around him: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations” (22:27-28). David shifts his praise from that of worship with the congregation to witness before the world. David is applying the Abrahamic promise that all nations would be blessed (See Genesis 12:1-3). The rescuing work of God is not parochial, but global. The rescuing work of God would not be a short-term act, but something pertinent for all generations: “All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it” (22:29-31). Through the worship of the ones rescued by the Lord, the ends of the earth shall have a witness that calls them to worship the God who rescues. May God’s people worship and witness of a God who “has done it” (22:31b).
As we reflect on Psalm 22, we should consider how the words and descriptions of Psalm 22 find fulfillment in Christ. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (22:1) is spoken by Jesus on the cross (See Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). “They wag their heads” (22:7) is echoed by the crowds (See Matthew 27:39; Mark 15:29). “Let him rescue” and “He delights in him” (22:8) are the mocking taunts slung at Jesus (See Matthew 27:43). The dividing up of garments and casting lots for the clothing (22:18) are either explicitly stated (see John 19:24), or echoed (See Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34) around the cross. So, was David describing his own experience or the experience of Jesus? Both! David seems to be fully aware that his offspring would be the seed of the woman that would be attacked by the seed of the serpent. Thus, David saw his sufferings as pointing to the suffering of his offspring, as reflected in the statement: “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (See Genesis 3:15). David’s pattern of suffering unfolding in his own near-death experience from the hands of his wicked enemies foretells of the literal dying of David’s offspring—the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as David was raised from his suffering and sense of abandonment to the place of exaltation and victory, so the Lord Jesus Christ was raised victorious and exalted to the right hand of God. And while David’s suffering was related to his own sin, Jesus, the sinless one, nevertheless was regarded as sin (See 2 Corinthians 5:21) as our Substitute, who gave us His righteousness.
That’s all for Embrace the Word for Monday, February 9, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Wednesday, February 11, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 23.