Christianity is fundamentally built on the belief that the life and mission of Jesus Christ on earth were a continuation and fulfilment of God’s earlier revelation, known as the Old Testament.
Each of the four Gospel writers, who open the New Testament with accounts of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, as well as the great missionary Paul, cite numerous passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, declaring that Jesus Christ fulfilled them. Most of these fulfillments centre around His birth, death, and resurrection.
However, over time, the concept of prophecy has lost some of its persuasive power. Some argue that we shouldn’t seek or regard anything in the life of Jesus as the fulfilment of prophecy because, in their view, there is no such thing as prophecy, just as there is no supernatural. Inevitably, these critical positions erode the confidence of Gospel readers, who begin to question the significance of the short expressions and phrases that the evangelists gathered from ancient biblical writings and applied to Jesus’s life.
One case particularly worth studying in the context of the Easter celebration is Psalm 22. Jesus Himself, in agony on the cross, suffering terribly and feeling a crushing sense of loneliness, cried out words that are, in fact, the opening lines of this Davidic poem: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”[1] But why did Jesus use these words?
From the very beginning, Jesus’s life was perceived by the people as being closely connected to the illustrious King of Israel, David, who had lived about a millennium before Christ. The Gospel writers, particularly the most meticulous of them, Luke, repeatedly mention that Joseph, Mary’s betrothed “belonged to the house and line of David”[2] and that Jesus was born in the “town of David.”[3] During His ministry as a teacher and healer, Jesus was frequently called the “Son of David,” a title that unmistakably identified Him as the long-awaited liberator sent by God—the Messiah.
The second Psalm, also written by David, sets the tone for the entire Psalter by presenting the founder of the Davidic dynasty as having typological significance, pointing toward the new David, the Messiah. “What is implicit in the Psalms becomes explicit in the prophets. Numerous Old Testament prophets, under inspiration, predict that the Messiah will come as the new antitypical David, recapitulating in his life the experience of the first David.”[4]
With this understanding of the essential link between the first David and the new David—the Messiah—let’s return to Psalm 22. The intensity of the description of both emotional and physical suffering is extraordinary. Everything is written in the first person, suggesting a personal experience, yet the language surpasses ordinary human suffering and leans toward depicting death itself: “But I am a worm, not a man”[5]; “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint”[6]; “You lay me in the dust of death”[7]; “they pierce my hands and my feet”[8]. The relentless approach of death is also conveyed indirectly: “people stare and gloat over me”[9], leading to the rightful conclusion that “it is not a description of illness, but of an execution.”[10]
Theologian Jacques Doukhan highlights that the prophet Daniel provides a specific connection to the messianic significance of Psalm 22. In Daniel 9:26, the second phrase referring to the destruction of the Anointed One, He “will have nothing,” is linguistically linked in Hebrew to verse 11 of Psalm 22: “there is no one to help.” Thus, Daniel points to the Messiah as the fulfilment of the tragic destiny described in Psalm 22.
These details prepare us to grasp more deeply the striking parallels between Psalm 22 and the crucifixion of Jesus, both in its specific details and in its subjective experience. All of Jesus’s disciples abandoned Him, reflecting verse 11: “there is no one to help.” His unbearable thirst and extreme dehydration fulfilled verse 15: “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.” The method of execution—crucifixion—is foreshadowed in verse 16: “They pierce my hands and feet.” The gospel writers could not ignore the fulfilment of verse 18: “They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” Even the Jewish leaders who conspired to condemn Jesus seemed to recognise the parallel with Psalm 22, mocking Him with words from verse 8: “‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say, ‘let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’”[11]
It is very likely that Jesus, having adopted the opening words of Psalm 22 and being guided by this Davidic poem throughout His ordeal, also drew upon it for His final expression, “It is finished!”[12] This phrase may be linguistically connected to “He has done it” in verse 31 of Psalm 22, giving a new meaning to what initially seems like a fatalistic exclamation, transforming it into a declaration of triumph.
The psalm is remarkable for its dramatic shift in tone. After envisioning himself already in the grave, exhausted and broken, the author suddenly addresses God: “I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you.”[13] Something extraordinary has happened—something akin to a new beginning. It is not a return to the hateful, murderous crowd, nor a resumption of the torture after a brief respite, but rather a passage to a full, radiant, triumphant existence, just as Jesus experienced after His resurrection.
I must admit that for many years I felt a bit puzzled and uncomfortable with the connections the New Testament writers made between expressions from the Old Testament and events in the life of Jesus Christ. The applications seemed somewhat arbitrary to me, not exactly the best examples of sound interpretation of sacred texts. However, a recent study of Psalm 22 and the prophecies fulfilled in the birth and resurrection of Jesus has opened my eyes to essential typological links. When the early Christians referenced just a few words from the Old Testament, they were actually evoking larger passages with well-established messianic significance. And the linguistic connections, often blurred through translation, are remarkable.
I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that Jesus, immediately after His resurrection, in His first instruction to the women at the tomb, “Go and tell My brothers”[14], once again echoes the language and tone of Psalm 22: “I will declare your name to my people.”[15]