Psalms 22:14, commentary and pictures

It describes utter collapse under suffering, with strength spent like spilled water, bones wrenched and aching out of place, and the inner heart failing and dissolving like heated wax. Psalm 22 is a prophecy of the humiliation, betrayal, condemnation, crucifixion and sacrifice of Jesus Christ in human flesh. It foretold the manner and circumstances of his death and was exactly and literally accomplished at his crucifixion in the sight of the Jews. He endured this bearing the sins of the world in the sinner's place, giving his very life for lost humanity and dying of a broken heart. By so suffering he honored God's law and revealed its binding obligation and the guilt of sin, while meeting every human trial as fellow-sufferer and helper so the tempted may overcome through him.

Prophecy of Christ's Suffering

Psalm 22 is a prophecy of the sufferings and experience of Jesus Christ in human flesh, depicting His humiliation and the sacrifice He made for the world. It is to be read in connection with His betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion, which explain its meaning, and its fulfillment is seen in the closing events of the Gospels. It foretells the Messiah's suffering in bearing human sin and the events of His life and death.

The psalm reflects David's experience in part, for some of its words were reflected in David's own life. It has a primary application to David, but David's experience points to that of his greater Son. The prophetic utterance through David about the sufferings and experience of Jesus was fulfilled in its full agony and sacrifice in Christ's life, when the sins of the world were laid upon Him, as the final antitypical application.

This verse foretells the manner and circumstances of Christ's death, describing His suffering on the cross as poured out, with bones out of joint and heart melted like wax. It had an exact and literal accomplishment at the crucifixion of Christ, in the sight of the Jews who witnessed it. Seeming unlikely to human judgment, it was fulfilled exactly and literally before their eyes.

That fulfillment before the eyes of the Jews was a sign of the times for the first advent, proving that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. The whole life of Jesus fulfilled all that was written there, proving Him to be the Messiah witnessed by God's Word from Genesis to Malachi. What was foretold includes His work and ministry, His lowly life, His rejection by His people, the injustice shown Him in His trial, His death with malefactors, His burial with the rich, the agony of His life as He bore the sins of men upon His heart, and His very words upon the cross.

Agony Described and Applied

The verse describes total bodily and inward collapse under suffering, like water poured out upon the earth with strength spent, with aching bones pressed out from their sockets and out of joint, and with the heart melting like wax on a glowing hearth and failing down inside a fearful, fainting breast. That agony was the climax of suffering in His life when He bore His cross to the place of a skull called Golgotha and was crucified there, portraying utter physical exhaustion and dislocation with inward melting and failing of heart. The description foretells the manner and circumstances of His death in the flesh, when His body felt broken and His inner being was overwhelmed with anguish, and it had an exact and literal accomplishment at the crucifixion.

He suffered this while standing in the sinner's place with the sins of the world laid upon Him, bearing human sin upon His heart for the repentant sinner. That bearing extended even to what the lost must pass through. The language of being poured out means He gave His very life for lost humanity and a marred creation. He died of a broken heart and would have died even without crucifixion, fulfilled when His side was pierced.

The verse shows how deeply He felt life-and-death trials while being tempted, with intense human anguish in which His human limitations seemed to hide the knowledge of His triumph and He questioned whether He was sufficient for His work. His distress included despondency and pressure to doubt that He was God's Son and to doubt His mission, with prayers of agony offered on humanity's behalf as He bore suffering and died as humanity's representative, yet He did not yield and emerged victorious. Those sufferings reveal God's eternal justice and holiness, the unchangeable excellence and binding obligation of His law, and the hatefulness and guilt of sin, for by His suffering He honored the divine law and did not purchase for redeemed sinners liberty to despise and disobey it. In Himself He met all human experiences, trials, and conflicts as fellow-sufferer, fellow-sympathizer, and fellow-helper as well as mighty Saviour all the journey through, and He took human infirmities and experienced sickness. His experience must also become the experience of His followers so the faith of Jesus may be developed in them, and His victory gives hope that those who are tempted can also overcome through Him.