Psalms 22:11 - Meaning and Application

In these verses we see Christ suffering and Christ praying. That teaches us to expect crosses in this life and to look up to God under them.

Here is Christ suffering. David was often in trouble and surrounded by enemies, but several details here fit David poorly and Christ perfectly. Christ was deserted by his friends: trouble and distress were near, and no one came to help or support him (Psalms 22:11). He trod the winepress alone, because all his disciples left him and fled. It is God’s honor to help when every other help fails.

He was also insulted and surrounded by enemies. Some were powerful, like bulls, strong bulls of Bashan (Psalms 22:12), proud and fierce. These picture the chief priests and elders who persecuted Christ. Others were lower and more contemptible, like dogs (Psalms 22:16), filthy, greedy, and tireless in chasing him down. There was an assembly of the wicked plotting against him (Psalms 22:16), just as the chief priests gathered to plan how to take Christ.

His enemies were many and united, even when their own interests were different, like Herod and Pilate. They had pushed their plot far and seemed to have won, for they had surrounded him (Psalms 22:12) and enclosed him (Psalms 22:16). They were threatening and fierce, gaping at him with their mouths, ready to swallow him up like a roaring lion on the prey.

He was crucified. The Psalm even describes the manner of his death, though crucifixion was not the Jewish custom: “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalms 22:16). His hands and feet were nailed to the cross, leaving his whole body hanging in great pain. No Old Testament text was more fiercely altered by the Jews, because it so clearly predicts Christ’s death and its exact fulfillment.

He was also dying in pain and anguish, because he was paying for sin, which brought pain into the world and would otherwise have left us in endless suffering. “I am poured out like water” shows the collapse of his whole body, weak and yielding to death. “All my bones are out of joint” may point to the strain of the cross, where his body was stretched like on a rack. It may also reflect the terror of his agony in the garden, when he began to be deeply distressed. His bones were put out of joint so that he might set the broken order of creation right again.

“My heart is like wax” shows the softening and melting of his spirit under the weight of God’s wrath against sin. That wrath he took on himself, and by bearing it he also answers the hardness of our hearts. “My strength is dried up” means his natural power was spent away, as if the life within him had dried up under divine judgment. If this happened to the green tree, what will happen to the dry?

“My tongue sticks to my jaws” shows the dryness that often comes before death. This was fulfilled in his thirst on the cross (John 19:28) and in his silence while suffering. Like a sheep before its shearers, he did not open his mouth or protest what was done to him. “You lay me in the dust of death” means he was brought to the very brink of the grave, for nothing less could satisfy divine justice. The sinner’s life was forfeited, so the sacrifice’s life had to become the ransom. Adam was sentenced, “You shall return to dust,” and Christ, obeying even death, speaks in a similar way.

He was stripped. Nakedness came into the world through sin, so our Lord Jesus was stripped of his clothes when he was crucified, that he might clothe us with the robe of his righteousness and cover our shame. “I can count all my bones” shows how lean and worn his body had become through labor, grief, and fasting during his ministry. He did not look like a glutton or a drunkard, as his enemies accused. It may also mean that his body was stretched on the cross so that his ribs could be counted. “They stare at me” can mean both his bones seemed to stand out and the people looked on with cold amazement instead of pity.

“They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (Psalms 22:18). The soldiers did exactly this, including the seamless coat (John 19:23-24). This may seem small compared to the rest of his suffering, but it is a clear proof that Scripture was being fulfilled in him. Since it was written, Christ had to suffer in this way. Let this strengthen our faith in him as the true Messiah and stir our love for him as the best of friends, who loved us and suffered all this for us.

Here is also Christ praying, and by prayer he supported himself under the weight of his sufferings. In his agony, he prayed earnestly that the cup might pass from him. When the prince of this world, with his terrors, came against him and gaped at him like a roaring lion, he fell on the ground and prayed. David’s prayer here was a picture of that. He calls God his strength (Psalms 22:19).

When we cannot rejoice in God as our song, let us still rest on him as our strength. If we cannot taste spiritual joy, we can still take comfort in spiritual support. The psalmist prays first that God would stay near and not keep his distance: “Be not far from me” (Psalm 22:11), and again in Psalm 22:19. Whoever stands away from my pain, Lord, do not you do the same. When trouble comes close, it should push us to draw near to God, and then we may hope that he will draw near to us.

He also asks God to help him and hurry to help him. He wants help to endure his troubles, so he will not fail or lose heart, and will not shrink back from his work or collapse under it. The Father heard him because of his reverent fear (Hebrews 5:7), and gave him strength to carry out his mission.

He then asks God to deliver and save him, in Psalm 22:20 and Psalm 22:21. The first concern is the safety of his soul, his “darling,” or only one (Psalm 49:15). He is saying, in effect, “Father, I commit my soul into your hands so it may be brought safely to paradise.” He calls his soul his only one because he has only one soul to care for, so he should guard it carefully. If he neglects it, the loss is greater than the loss of anything else. Since it is his only one, it should be his dearest concern. He does not truly treat his soul as precious unless he protects it from harm, provides what it needs, and watches over it tenderly.

The danger he faces is the sword, the burning sword of God’s wrath that turns every way. He feared that more than anything else (Genesis 3:24). God’s anger was the bitter part of the cup placed in his hand. So he prays, “Deliver my soul from that. Lord, though I lose my life, let me not lose your love. Save me from the power of the dog and from the lion’s mouth.”

This seems to point to Satan, that old enemy who bruised the heel of the woman’s seed and the ruler of this world, whom Christ had to meet in close conflict and who was coming against him (John 14:30). The prayer is, “Lord, save me from being overwhelmed by his terror.” He also says, “You have answered me before, from the horns of the unicorn,” meaning, “You have already rescued me from him when I prayed.” This may point to Christ’s victory over Satan and his temptations in Matthew 4, when the devil left him for a season (Luke 4:13). Now Satan returned in another way, attacking him with terrors. “Lord, you gave me victory then, give it to me now, so I may spoil principalities and powers and cast out the ruler of this world.”

Has God delivered us from the horns of the unicorn, so that we have not been tossed about? That should encourage us to trust that we will be delivered from the lion’s mouth, so that we are not torn apart. He who has delivered does deliver, and will deliver. This prayer of Christ was surely answered, because the Father always heard him. Though God did not save him from death, he did keep him from seeing corruption. On the third day he raised him from the dust of death, and that was an even greater sign of favor than helping him down from the cross. That would have stopped his work, but his resurrection completed and crowned it. As we sing this, we should think on Christ’s sufferings and resurrection until we feel in our own souls the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.