My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the one Israel praises.
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 ‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say,
    ‘let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
    since he delights in him.’

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
    you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,
    for trouble is near
    and there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls surround me;
    strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
    open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
    it has melted within me.
15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    you lay me in the dust of death.

16 Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.

19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
    my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
    save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

Psalms 22,23 and 24 have been characterised as ‘The Cross, the crook, the crown.’ Warren Wiersbe adds to this, saying: ‘Psalms 22, 23 and 24 are sometimes called the ”Shepherd Psalms” because they speak of Jesus Christ in His shepherding ministry. In Psalm 22, the Good Shepherd dies for the sheep (John 10:11). In Psalm 23, the great Shepherd lives and cares for the sheep (Heb. 13: 20-21). In Psalm 24, the Chief Shepherd returns in glory for the sheep (1 Pet.5:4).’

Following on from this, he says about verses 1-21 of our psalm: ‘Because he was a prophet (Acts 2:30), David was able to write about the Messiah centuries before He came. Crucifixion was not a Jewish form of capital punishment, yet David described it accurately. As you read, you see Jesus at Calvary: His cry to the Father (v.1; Matt.27:46); the period of darkness (v.2; Matt.27:45); the ridicule of the people (vv.6-8; Matt.27:39-44); His thirst and pain (vv.14-15; John 19:28); His pierced hands and feet (v.16; Luke 24:39); and the gambling for His clothes (v.18; John 29:23-24). Remember, He endured all these things for you.’

I understand that thirteen Old Testament texts are quoted in the gospel passion narratives, of which nine come from the psalms. Of those nine, five are found in Psalm 22. So exactly does it portray the suffering of Jesus that it has been called ‘the Fifth Gospel’. So, as when we were studying Isaiah 53, I suggest we need to pause here, and remove our shoes, and consider the wonder of it all: the wonder that, like Isaiah, it was as though David stood at the foot of Jesus’ Cross, hundreds of years before it happened; but even more the wonder that it happened. Our God was ”contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man” (Charles Wesley), and He died in our place. As Wesley also in wonder exclaimed: ”Amazing love, how can it be, that thou, my God, should’st die for me?”