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Commentary on Psalms 22 verses 11–21
In these verses we have Christ suffering and Christ praying, by which we are directed to look for crosses and to look up to God under them.
I. Here is Christ suffering. David indeed was often in trouble, and beset with enemies; but many of the particulars here specified are such as were never true of David, and therefore must be appropriated to Christ in the depth of his humiliation.
1.He is here deserted by his friends: Trouble and distress are near, and there is none to help, none to uphold, Psa 22:11. He trod the wine-press alone; for all his disciples forsook him and fled. It is God's honour to help when all other helps and succours fail.
2.He is here insulted and surrounded by his enemies, such as were of a higher rank, who for their strength and fury, are compared to bulls, strong bulls of Bashan (Psa 22:12), fat and fed to the full, haughty and sour; such were the chief priests and elders that persecuted Christ; and others of a lower rank, who are compared to dogs (Psa 22:16), filthy and greedy, and unwearied in running him down. There was an assembly of the wicked plotting against him (Psa 22:16); for the chief priests sat in council, to consult of ways and means to take Christ. These enemies were numerous and unanimous: "Many, and those of different and clashing interests among themselves, as Herod and Pilate, have agreed to compass me. They have carried their plot far, and seem to have gained their point, for they have beset me round, Psa 22:12. They have enclosed me, Psa 22:16. They are formidable and threatening (Psa 22:13): They gaped upon me with their mouths, to show me that they would swallow me up; and this with as much strength and fierceness as a roaring ravening lion leaps upon his prey."
3.He is here crucified. The very manner of his death is described, though never in use among the Jews: They pierced my hands and my feet (Psa 22:16), which were nailed to the accursed tree, and the whole body left so to hang, the effect of which must needs be the most exquisite pain and torture. There is no one passage in all the Old Testament which the Jews have so industriously corrupted as this, because it is such an eminent prediction of the death of Christ and was so exactly fulfilled.
4.He is here dying (Psa 22:14, Psa 22:15), dying in pain and anguish, because he was to satisfy for sin, which brought in pain, and for which we must otherwise have lain in everlasting anguish. Here is, (1.) The dissolution of the whole frame of his body: I am poured out like water, weak as water, and yielding to the power of death, emptying himself of all the supports of his human nature. (2.) The dislocation of his bones. Care was taken that not one of them should be broken (Joh 19:36), but they were all out of joint by the violent stretching of his body upon the cross as upon a rack. Or it may denote the fear that seized him in his agony in the garden, when he began to be sore amazed, the effect of which perhaps was (as sometimes it has been of great fear, Dan 5:6), that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another. His bones were put out of joint that he might put the whole creation into joint again, which sin had put out of joint, and might make our broken bones to rejoice. (3.) The colliquation of his spirits: My heart is like wax, melted to receive the impressions of God's wrath against the sins he undertook to satisfy for, melting away like the vitals of a dying man; and, as this satisfied for the hardness of our hearts, so the consideration of it should help to soften them. When Job speaks of his inward trouble he says, The Almighty makes my heart soft, Job 23:16, and see Psa 58:2. (4.) The failing of his natural force: My strength is dried up; so that he became parched and brittle like a potsherd, the radical moisture being wasted by the fire of divine wrath preying upon his spirits. Who then can stand before God's anger? Or who knows the power of it? If this was done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? (5.) The clamminess of his mouth, a usual symptom of approaching death: My tongue cleaveth to my jaws; this was fulfilled both in his thirst upon the cross (Joh 19:28) and in his silence under his sufferings; for, as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth, nor objected against any thing done to him. (6.) His giving up the ghost: "Thou hast brought me to the dust of death; I am just ready to drop into the grave;" for nothing less would satisfy divine justice. The life of the sinner was forfeited, and therefore the life of the sacrifice must be the ransom for it. The sentence of death passed upon Adam was thus expressed: Unto dust thou shalt return. And therefore Christ, having an eye to that sentence in his obedience to death, here uses a similar expression: Thou hast brought me to the dust of death.
5.He was stripped. The shame of nakedness was the immediate consequence of sin; and therefore our Lord Jesus was stripped of his clothes, when he was crucified, that he might clothe us with the robe of his righteousness, and that the shame of our nakedness might not appear. Now here we are told, (1.) How his body looked when it was thus stripped: I may tell all my bones, Psa 22:17. His blessed body was lean and emaciated with labour, grief, and fasting, during the whole course of his ministry, which made him look as if he was nearly 50 years old when he was yet but 33, as we find, Joh 8:57. His wrinkles now witnessed for him that he was far from being what was called, a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. Or his bones might be numbered, because his body was distended upon the cross, which made it easy to count his ribs. They look and stare upon me, that is, my bones do, being distorted, and having no flesh to cover them, as Job says (Job 16:8), My leanness, rising up in me, beareth witness to my face. Or "the standers by, the passers by, are amazed to see my bones start out thus; and, instead of pitying me, are pleased even with such a rueful spectacle." (2.) What they did with his clothes, which they took from him (Psa 22:18): They parted my garments among them, to every soldier a part, and upon my vesture, the seamless coat, do they cast lots. This very circumstance was exactly fulfilled, Joh 19:23, Joh 19:24. And though it was no great instance of Christ's suffering, yet it is a great instance of the fulfilling of the scripture in him. Thus it was written, and therefore thus it behoved Christ to suffer. Let this therefore confirm our faith in him as the true Messiah, and inflame our love to him as the best of friends, who loved us and suffered all this for us.
II. Here is Christ praying, and with that supporting himself under the burden of his sufferings. Christ, in his agony, prayed earnestly, prayed that the cup might pass from him. When the prince of this world with his terrors set upon him, gaped upon him as a roaring lion, he fell upon the ground and prayed. And of that David's praying here was a type. He calls God his strength, Psa 22:19. When we cannot rejoice in God as our song, yet let us stay ourselves upon him as out strength, and take the comfort of spiritual supports when we cannot come at spiritual delights. He prays, 1. That God would be with him, and not set himself at a distance from him: Be not thou far from me (Psa 22:11), and again, Psa 22:19. "Whoever stands aloof from my sore, Lord, do not thou." The nearness of trouble should quicken us to draw near to God and then we may hope that he will draw near to us. 2. That he would help him and make haste to help him, help him to bear up under his troubles, that he might not fail nor be discouraged, that he might neither shrink from his undertaking no sink under it. And the Father heard him in that he feared (Heb 5:7) and enabled him to go through with his work. 3. That he would deliver him and save him, Psa 22:20, Psa 22:21. (1.) Observe what the jewel is which he is in care for, "The safety of my soul, my darling; let that be redeemed from the power of the grave, Psa 49:15. Father, into thy hands I commit that, to be conveyed safely to paradise." The psalmist here calls his soul his darling, his only one (so the word is): "My soul is my only one. I have but one soul to take care of, and therefore the greater is my shame if I neglect it and the greater will the loss be if I let it perish. Being my only one, it ought to be my darling, for the eternal welfare of which I ought to be deeply concerned. I do not use my soul as my darling, unless I take care to preserve it from every thing that would hurt it and to provide all necessaries for it, and be entirely tender of its welfare." (2.) Observe what the danger is from which he prays to be delivered, from the sword, the flaming sword of divine wrath, which turns every way. This he dreaded more than any thing, Gen 3:24. God's anger was the wormwood and the gall in the bitter cup that was put into his hands. "O deliver my soul from that. Lord, though I lose my life, let me not lose thy love. Save me from the power of the dog, and from the lion's mouth." This seems to be meant of Satan, that old enemy who bruised the heel of the seed of the woman, the prince of this world, with whom he was to engage in close combat and whom he saw coming, Joh 14:30. "Lord, save me from being overpowered by his terrors." He pleads, "Thou hast formerly heard me from the horns of the unicorn," that is, "saved me from him in answer to my prayer." This may refer to the victory Christ had obtained over Satan and his temptations (Mt. 4), when the devil left him for a season (Luk 4:13), but now returned in another manner to attack him with his terrors. "Lord, thou gavest me the victory then, give it me now, that I may spoil principalities and powers, and cast out the prince of this world." Has God delivered us from the horns of the unicorn, that we be not tossed? Let that encourage us to hope that we shall be delivered from the lion's mouth, that we be not torn. He that has delivered doth and will deliver. This prayer of Christ, no doubt, was answered, for the Father heard him always. And, though he did not deliver him from death, yet he suffered him not to see corruption, but, the third day, raised him out of the dust of death, which was a greater instance of God's favour to him than if he had helped him down from the cross; for that would have hindered his undertaking, whereas his resurrection crowned it.
In singing this we should meditate on the sufferings and resurrection of Christ till we experience in our own souls the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.
And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. [Psalms 22:18] And sitting down they watched him there; And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. [Psalms 22:18] Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
They divide his garments among them and cast lots on his vesture, when each individual tears and destroys the glory of his Word, I mean the words of the holy Scriptures, now this way, now that, and when they take up opinions about him from misleading schools of thought such as godless heretics invent.
To God the things that are to come are present, and for him who foreknows all things, they are as though they were past and over; as it is written, “Who has made the things that are to be.”
Now, the soldiers divided his garments among themselves, but not his tunic. Notice how they frequently caused prophecies to be fulfilled by their wicked deeds. I say this for this detail had been foretold of old. Furthermore, even though there were three crucified, the prophecy was fulfilled only with reference to Christ. Why, indeed, did they not do this in the case of the other two, but only with regard to this One alone? Kindly notice, too, the exactness of the prophecy. The prophet declared not only that they divided the garments among themselves but also that they did not divide them. Thus, the soldiers divided some of Christ’s garments into parts, but they did not divide the tunic; on the contrary, they settled its possession by lot.
"They divided My garments for themselves, and cast the lot upon My vesture" [Psalm 22:18].
These garments are the prophecies and readings of the heavenly Scriptures by which the mystery of Christ the Lord was announced.… The Savior’s opponents, namely, the wicked heretics who daily lay their unholy hands upon him as the soldiers did, … divide these Scriptures for their own purpose and scatter the garments of the one body throughout the various members, and while they strip the Lord, they clothe him with their own teachings.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 22:18 vividly portrays the ultimate humiliation and profound deprivation of a suffering individual, whose very clothing is callously divided and gambled over by hostile onlookers. This verse encapsulates the deep indignity and complete powerlessness experienced by the psalmist, serving as both a poignant cry from the depths of abandonment and a remarkably precise prophetic utterance foreshadowing a pivotal event in redemptive history.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Psalms 22:18 is situated within a psalm that undergoes a dramatic transition from intense lament to triumphant praise. The psalm opens with the agonizing cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1), setting a tone of profound suffering and isolation. The verses immediately preceding verse 18 describe the psalmist's enemies as a "company of evildoers" who have "pierced my hands and my feet" (Psalm 22:16), imagery that further intensifies the sense of physical and emotional torment. This particular verse, detailing the division of garments, marks a specific act of public degradation, emphasizing the complete vulnerability and objectification of the sufferer before a callous crowd. The subsequent verses then begin a profound shift, moving towards a declaration of trust in God's deliverance and a vision of universal praise and recognition of God's dominion (Psalm 22:22-31).
Historical & Cultural Context: In the ancient Near East, clothing was far more than mere covering; it represented a person's identity, status, and dignity. To be stripped of one's garments was an act of extreme public humiliation and shame, often inflicted upon prisoners of war, criminals, or those being executed. It signified the complete dehumanization and subjugation of the individual, leaving them utterly exposed and vulnerable. The act of "casting lots" was a common practice for making decisions, distributing goods when consensus was not possible, or when a random, seemingly divinely guided, outcome was desired. This method, applied to personal effects, underscores the callous indifference of the perpetrators, treating the sufferer's last possessions as mere spoils of war or a game of chance, rather than respecting any vestige of personal dignity. This practice is seen in various contexts, from dividing land (Numbers 26:55) to identifying culprits (Joshua 7:14).
Key Themes: Psalms 22:18 contributes significantly to several overarching themes within Psalm 22 and the broader Psalter. Foremost is the theme of Profound Suffering and Humiliation, where the psalmist's experience is depicted in excruciating detail, highlighting the depths of human anguish and abandonment. This verse particularly emphasizes the public degradation of the sufferer, stripped of all personal dignity and reduced to an object of plunder. Another crucial theme is Divine Foresight and Prophecy, as this specific detail of garment division and lot-casting stands out as a remarkably precise foretelling of future events, underscoring God's meticulous plan and foreknowledge, especially concerning the Messiah. Furthermore, it touches upon the theme of Loss and Deprivation, symbolizing the complete stripping away of all earthly possessions and the ultimate vulnerability of the righteous sufferer, mirroring the profound loss experienced by the suffering servant in Isaiah. The psalmist's experience prefigures the ultimate act of self-emptying for the sake of others.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 22:18 powerfully employs several literary devices, making its message profoundly impactful. Most prominently, it functions as a profound Prophecy or Foreshadowing, detailing events that would precisely unfold centuries later during the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The specificity of the actions—dividing garments and casting lots for a vesture—lends an uncanny predictive quality to the verse, pointing to God's meticulous plan. Imagery is also vividly used, painting a stark picture of public humiliation and utter destitution. The reader can visualize the scene of a helpless individual being stripped bare, their personal effects becoming objects of callous gambling. This imagery evokes strong feelings of empathy for the victim and revulsion towards the perpetrators. Furthermore, the garments themselves serve as a form of Metonymy or Synecdoche, where the clothing represents the entire person's dignity, status, and earthly possessions. The stripping of the garments is not merely a physical act but a symbolic assault on the sufferer's very identity and humanity, leaving them utterly exposed and shamed.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
This verse profoundly connects to the theological theme of divine sovereignty and the suffering of the righteous. It illustrates that even in the deepest moments of human degradation and injustice, God's foreknowledge and overarching plan are at work. The psalmist's suffering, though real and agonizing, is not random but part of a divinely orchestrated narrative that ultimately points to a greater purpose. This suffering, culminating in complete dispossession and public shame, foreshadows the ultimate sacrifice where the innocent one bears the sin of many, leading to a cosmic victory. It highlights how God can use even the most heinous acts of human cruelty to fulfill His redemptive purposes, turning profound humiliation into a pathway for ultimate glory. The psalmist's cry is a testament to the reality that God is intimately acquainted with suffering and can redeem even the most grievous circumstances for His redemptive purposes.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 22:18 invites us to contemplate the profound cost of redemption and the depth of Christ's suffering on our behalf. It challenges us to look beyond the superficiality of our own comforts and consider the ultimate humiliation endured by the innocent for the sake of the guilty. When we face moments of injustice, public shame, or the loss of what we hold dear, this verse reminds us that our Savior experienced the ultimate stripping away of dignity and possessions. His willingness to endure such degradation provides us not only with a powerful example of steadfast endurance in the face of cruelty but also with the assurance that He understands our pain intimately. It strengthens our faith in the meticulous nature of God's Word, demonstrating that every detail, even seemingly minor ones like the division of garments, is part of His grand, unfolding plan. We are called to respond with gratitude, humility, and a renewed commitment to live lives that honor the One who was stripped bare for our salvation, finding strength in His ultimate victory over shame and death.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why is this verse so significant for Christians?
Answer: This verse is profoundly significant for Christians because it is one of the most direct and explicit Old Testament prophecies concerning the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Its fulfillment is meticulously recorded in the New Testament Gospels, particularly in John 19:23-24, which explicitly states that the soldiers divided Jesus' outer garments and cast lots for His seamless tunic, precisely as foretold in this psalm. This precise fulfillment serves as powerful evidence for the divine inspiration of Scripture, the foreknowledge of God, and the identity of Jesus as the promised Messiah. It underscores that Jesus' suffering was not a random event but a preordained act of redemption, meticulously planned by God centuries in advance, affirming the trustworthiness of God's Word and His redemptive plan for humanity.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 22:18 finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. On Calvary, the Roman soldiers, with chilling indifference, literally "parted" Jesus' outer "garments" among themselves, and then, finding His inner "vesture" (a seamless tunic) too valuable to tear, they "cast lots" for it, just as this psalm prophesied. This moment, recorded in John 19:23-24 and corroborated by Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24, and Luke 23:34, is a stark testament to the divine foresight embedded within the Old Testament. Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, was stripped of every earthly possession and dignity, enduring the ultimate public humiliation. This act was not merely a cruel detail but a symbolic representation of His complete self-emptying (Philippians 2:7) for humanity's sake. By being stripped bare, He took upon Himself the shame and nakedness of our sin, allowing us to be clothed in His righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). His complete dispossession on the cross paved the way for our eternal inheritance, demonstrating that through His profound suffering and humiliation, true spiritual riches and an imperishable garment of salvation were secured for all who believe.