13. Psalm 22 — A Thousand Years Before the Cross

The Christian Statement

Psalm 22 is one of the most extraordinary documents in the Hebrew Bible. Written by David approximately 1000 BC, it describes in first-person detail an experience that David himself did not have — but that the New Testament records as the experience of Jesus on the cross.

The correspondences between Psalm 22 and the crucifixion narrative are too numerous and too specific to be accidental:

• "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (22:1) — quoted by Jesus from the cross (Matthew 27:46)
• "All who see me taunt me; they mock me and shake their heads" (22:7) — Matthew 27:39
• "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD deliver him!" (22:8) — Matthew 27:43
• "I am a worm, not a man; people insult me and despise me" (22:6) — the Romans used crucifixion specifically as a dehumanizing death
• "Dogs surround me; a gang of evil men crowd around me; like a lion they pin my hands and feet" (22:16)
• "I can count all my bones; my enemies are gloating over me" (22:17)
• "They are dividing up my clothes among themselves; they are rolling dice for my garments" (22:18) — John 19:24

The crucifixion is not described in the New Testament as a fulfillment of Psalm 22 — it is described as something that happened, and the correspondences with Psalm 22 are noted. David, writing a thousand years before the cross, described something he had not experienced. The question the text raises is: how?

✶ Jewish Objection: David was describing his own suffering, not predicting the Messiah. It's a lament Psalm, not a prophecy.

✔ How to respond: David wrote many lament Psalms about his own suffering — and none of them contain the specific physical details of Psalm 22. David was never surrounded by people who divided his garments and cast lots. He was never in a situation where he could count his bones and describe the piercing of his hands and feet. The lament Psalms that describe David's actual experience are general about the nature of the suffering. Psalm 22 is specific in ways that exceed anything in David's documented biography. If it is only about David, what experience of David's does it describe? And why does the New Testament record that Jesus's last words from the cross were its opening line?