Let The Context Decide What Is Going On In Psalms 22

We have previously written to prove Psalms 22:1 clearly indicates the person in the verse (let’s assume David) was forsaken when it says “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” However, 22:24 is used by some to argue David was not really forsaken – “For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.” But notice the writer has switched from using first person pronouns to third person pronouns here. David is not talking about himself specifically in verse 24, but uses the third person to state a general rule. The idea is that God has normally delivered others in David’s position, so David expects God to do the same for him (in the future).

It should be very evident David has not been delivered yet. Notice these three verses just before 24 (written using first person pronouns so referring to David instead of others in the past):

19 But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

The above contextual considerations are an ungetoverable problem for those who say David has not really been forsaken in Psalms 22. David is still in a position of needing help, needing delivering, and needing saved (physically I assume).

When David says in verse 22 “I will (in the future, ptd) declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee,” he is talking about (of course) after God helps him (19), after God delivers him (20), and after God saves him (21). This is just like Psalms 35:17-18, that is, David will give God “thanks in the great congregation” after God rescues him. Both Psalms are screaming – “forsaken but expected deliverance.”

We have the same thing in the early part of Psalms 22 (grammatical first person):

1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

2 O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

Again, we see David is forsaken, but expecting deliverance because such had been done before for others (indicated by a switch to third person):

4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

Observing grammatical person is a critical function of determining the context of a statement. Anybody that purposely ignores switches in person is purposely ignoring context markers of a passage. Many with a preconceived position like to cry “context” to try to intimidate those who aren’t confident enough to examine the actual context of a text for themselves. Don’t be swayed by such tactics. Just because someone hollers “my position is correct because I am taking things in context,” that doesn’t necessarily mean at all they are taking things in context. As I said, it could just be an intimidation tactic.

Sometimes gospel teachers claim “context” when they are really just arraying one verse against another, even in the same context. It’s almost as if they think they can ignore a verse that proves their position false if they find another verse nearby that seems to fit their position. That has been a denominational tactic for many decades. Let’s repeat what we tell denominational debaters – all verses have to be true. Taking something in context is more than just observing ideas taught in nearby verses, it also involves actually observing from the text how those ideas stand in relations to what’s at issue.

We see this same “forsaken but expected deliverance” idea in Psalms 13:1-6, 44:22-26, 88:14,6-7,1-2, 108:11-13, 60:1,9-10,5,12, 79:5,8-10, Judges 6:1,13-14, and Isaiah 54:7-8. Why does everybody agree all these passages describe our “forsaken but expected deliverance” idea, but not Psalms 22? Isn’t it only because Jesus does not quote those passages to apply them to himself as He does Psalms 22:1? Why is that thought so scary to some?

The context of Psalms 22 overwhelmingly confirms that the one being prophesied about in verse 1 (Jesus) was indeed forsaken. Why are so many inclined to deny the obvious in this case?

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