This Psalm is very different from the two royal Psalms which we have looked at, and which we can associate with public and royal worship in the Temple. Psalm 22 is the greatest personal lament in the Psalter and expresses intolerable suffering. It is not possible to identify the original situation from which this psalm of suffering came. The Hebrew title refers to David, but if we try to puzzle out a situation in David's own life in which he experienced such suffering as the Psalm expresses, we can only speculate on what it was. The content of the Psalm presents us with the impression of a man who is overwhelmed with suffering and grief, but who ends his terrible cry of distress with a cry of praise to God.

This Psalm has been called 'The Passion Psalm' because Jesus quoted the opening words in the agony of the crucifixion. The Latin word, passio, from which 'passion' comes, means suffering. Psalm 22: 1 is quoted in Mark 15: 34 and Matthew 27 :46, and the Passion narrative of the Gospels brings out the parallels between the sufferings of Jesus and those of the psalmist. Verse 7 is reflected in Matthew 27: 39 and Mark 15: 29. Verse 8 is reflected in Matthew 27 :43. Verse 18 is reflected in Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24, Luke 23 :34 and John 19:23-24.

In other parts of the Old Testament, we find Jeremiah expressing grief in a way similar to the psalmist, when the prophet remonstrates with God about the harshness of his experiences. We also find similar remonstrations in the book of Job, especially in Job 30: 9-31. The sufferings of the Servant of God in Isaiah 52 : 13-53: 12 are like those described by the psalmist. The Christian interpretation of this psalm is that it is a prophecy of the suffering of Jesus.

Psalm 22: 1-2. The sufferer experiences a terrible sense of separation from God. This implies that previously he had known the presence of God and had entered into a personal relationship with him. To feel deprived of this was the most terrible experience possible for him.

Psalm 22:3-5. The faithfulness of God in the past is recalled. The sufferer's ancestors were never disappointed when they trusted God. The sufferer still holds to his faith despite his anguish.

Psalm 22: 6-7. The situation in which the sufferer finds himself is so terrible that it indicates approaching death. It could indicate the situation of a condemned criminal, exposed to public ridicule and cruelty, as he awaits execution.

Psalm 22: 8-11. The sufferer cries to the God whose presence he no longer feels, reminding him of his past care from the time of the sufferer's birth. He cries to God to be near to him in his time of trouble.

Psalm 22: 12-21. The sufferer's agony and humiliation are described as his enemies surround him in his helplessness. His enemies are described as a 'gang of evil men' and they attack him like wild beasts. The unspoken question in the mind of the sufferer is this: If I have trusted in God, why has he let me suffer like this? Jeremiah had already asked a similar question, and the book of Job is concerned with this problem. Only in the Servant passages of Isaiah 52-53 do we find the idea that suffering is accepted vicariously by the righteous Servant, for the sake of others. We have already seen that suffering was equated with punishment for sin in the understanding of the prophets and in the book of Deuteronomy. Psalm 22 does not provide a straightforward answer to the unspoken question which lies behind verses 1-21, but as we move to the final part of the Psalm we can see that something happens to the sufferer which allows him to change from a state of terrible grief to praise and thanksgiving.

Psalm 22:22-31. In the last section of the Psalm, every verse praises God and the praise builds up until verses 27-31 portray the one God of all the nations, the Lord who is king of the world. It is this great God in whom the sufferer continued to trust, in the depths of his agony, and his trust was proved right. The Psalm does not indicate to us how God rescued the sufferer and vindicated the sufferer's faith, but the dramatic change to praise in verse 22 shows that he was brought out of the death which he had faced. Verses 27-31 point towards the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Although the origin of this Psalm remains a mystery, being identified only with the great suffering of a man who trusted in God, some interesting suggestions have been made by scholars as to how it continued to be used. It may have been used by individuals who had passed through some terrible experience and then wanted to express this, and their sense of gratitude to God. A more speculative suggestion is that it was used in a dramatic ritual in the Temple, to act out God's rescue of a man of faith from deadly danger. The Psalm points towards God's power over death, and ultimately looks towards the resurrection of Jesus Christ.