On the Cross, Jesus Prayed Psalm 22, Written 1,000 Years Earlier

Introduction

One Sunday, just days before Easter, a preacher opens his Bible to Psalm 22. Not to the crucifixion account in the Gospels. To a psalm written by David, about a thousand years before Jesus would climb the cross. And yet, verse after verse, you hear the voice of Christ suffering, praying, hoping, triumphing.

This psalm is Jesus' inner prayer. While they were nailing him to the wood, while they were casting lots for his clothes, while his bones were being pulled out of joint, he carried in his heart these words that David had written a thousand years earlier. If you are walking through a season of suffering, grief, or loneliness today, this psalm speaks to you too. Because what Jesus endured, he endured for you.

The Outline of the Message

1. A Psalm Written a Thousand Years Before the Cross

Psalm 22 is a messianic, prophetic psalm. David composed it about a thousand years before Christ came. The Old Testament contains more than three hundred prophecies about Jesus, and every one of them was fulfilled to the letter. This psalm holds several of them, and they are remarkably precise.

David was an ancestor of Jesus and a foreshadowing of the Messiah. He was imperfect and committed several sins, but he sought to follow God's will. Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of that pattern. The psalm opens with the most gut-wrenching cry in the Bible: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" These are the very words Jesus will cry out in Aramaic from the cross.

2. Jesus' Prayer at the Heart of His Suffering

On the cross, Jesus no longer calls God "Father," as he usually did. He simply says "my God." In that moment, he was taking on himself the full weight of God's wrath against your sin. That was the price that had to be paid for your forgiveness.

David describes ahead of time what Jesus would experience physically: "My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me." Then this astonishing line for its era: "They pierced my hands and my feet." Written a thousand years before crucifixion ever became a Roman method of execution.

"They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing." The Roman soldiers did exactly that at the foot of the cross, as John's Gospel records. Jesus suffered a slow agony from Thursday night in Gethsemane through Friday evening, and more than six hours nailed to the wood. He could have come down from the cross, as the mockers demanded. He didn't. Because without that cross, none of us could stand before God today.

3. The Resurrection: Jesus Gathers His Brothers Around the Father

Halfway through, the psalm turns. Suffering gives way to victory. "I will declare your name to my brothers. In the midst of the assembly I will praise you." That assembly is the church. The writer of Hebrews confirms that these are the words of the risen Christ.

Through his resurrection, Jesus was vindicated before God. The empty tomb, despite the heavy stone and the guards, is the public proof of his sacrifice. All of Christianity rests on this event, and millions of Christians across the centuries have been ready to die for it.

And the psalm widens the vision even further: "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations shall worship before you." Every time a church gathers today, anywhere on earth, that prophecy is being fulfilled before your eyes.

Key Takeaways

• Your worth before God is beyond measure. He loves you so much that he gave up his own Son for you.
• God is love, and God is justice. At the cross, his love and his justice met.
• Jesus tasted abandonment so you never have to. God will not despise you, will not turn you away, and will not hide his face from you.
• The resurrection validates it all. The forgiveness of your sins is fully secured because the tomb is empty.
• You are part of prophecy being fulfilled. When you worship the Father, you are living out the promise of Psalm 22.

Personal Application

• What trial are you walking through right now, and how does Jesus' cry "My God, my God" change the way you carry it?
• Take ten minutes this week to slowly read Psalm 22, imagining Jesus praying it on the cross. What does that stir in you?
• Is there an area of your life where you feel forsaken by God? How does the promise that "he has not hidden his face from the afflicted" meet you there?
• Who, this week, can you tell about what Jesus has done for you, in the spirit of "I will declare your name to my brothers"?
• How does your participation in Sunday worship take on new meaning when you realize it is fulfilling a three-thousand-year-old prophecy?

Verses Cited in This Message

• Psalm 22 (WEB) · The messianic psalm read in full
• Philippians 2:2-7 · The humility of Christ
• Leviticus 23:3 · The Sabbath, a day of gathering
• Hebrews 2:9-12 · Jesus tasted death for everyone
• John 17:23 · God loves us as he loves his Son

FAQ

Is Psalm 22 really a prophecy about Jesus?

Yes. It was written by David about a thousand years before Jesus, and several of its details match nothing in David's own life: pierced hands and feet, divided garments, public exposure of the body, salvation announced to all nations. Jesus himself quotes it from the cross. The Gospels show several of its details being fulfilled to the letter on the day of the crucifixion.

Why does Jesus say "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" if he is God?

On the cross, Jesus carries the sin of the world. In that exact moment, he no longer calls God "Father" as he usually did, but "my God," because he is taking on himself the full weight of God's wrath against sin. That was the price that had to be paid for your forgiveness. The perfect communion between the Father and the Son resumes in his final word, when everything is accomplished.

What does this psalm say to someone suffering today?

The psalm makes this clear promise: God "has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard." If Jesus experienced abandonment on the cross, it was so that you never have to. Your prayer, today, is heard.