Psalm 22:1 – My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me
The Psalm 22:1 crucifixion prophecy points to one of the most significant revelations about Christ in the Old Testament. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). A thousand years before Christ, David wrote these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. A thousand years later, Jesus cried them from the cross in the darkness of His greatest agony. This psalm is not merely a prayer of distress but a prophetic portrait of the crucifixion, painted with stunning detail long before crucifixion was invented.
The Cry of Dereliction
When Jesus hung on the cross, darkness covered the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. In that supernatural darkness, He cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). He was quoting Psalm 22:1—the opening line of a psalm that would prove to describe His experience with prophetic precision.
This cry represents the deepest mystery of the atonement. How could God forsake God? How could the eternal Son experience abandonment from the eternal Father? We touch here the edge of something beyond human comprehension—the moment when the sin-bearer experienced the full weight of divine wrath against sin.
Jesus was not merely feeling abandoned; He was experiencing the reality of bearing sin. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). When our sin was placed on Christ, the Father’s holy wrath against that sin fell on Him. The forsaking was real because the sin-bearing was real.
The Prophetic Details
Psalm 22 describes crucifixion before crucifixion existed. David wrote around 1000 BC; crucifixion was developed by the Persians and perfected by the Romans centuries later. Yet the psalm describes: bones out of joint (v. 14), heart melted like wax (v. 14), strength dried up (v. 15), hands and feet pierced (v. 16), and garments divided by lot (v. 18).
“They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16). This is remarkable because the Jews executed by stoning, not by piercing. David had no natural reference point for this kind of death. He wrote what the Spirit revealed about an execution method that would not be common for centuries.
“They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture” (Psalm 22:18). The Gospels record its fulfillment: “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” (John 19:23-24).
Exploring the Psalm 22:1 crucifixion prophecy helps us see how every detail of the Old Testament points to Christ.
The Mocking Fulfilled
“All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him” (Psalm 22:7-8). These exact taunts were hurled at Jesus: “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God” (Matthew 27:43).
The mockers did not know they were fulfilling prophecy with every sneer. They imagined they were inventing creative insults; they were actually reading lines written for them a millennium earlier. Their ridicule became unwitting testimony to the truthfulness of Scripture and the identity of the One they mocked.
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels” (Psalm 22:14). Medical experts note that crucifixion would dislocate joints as the body sagged, and that the stress on the heart could cause it to rupture—the literal “breaking” of the heart. When the soldier pierced Jesus’ side, blood and water came out (John 19:34), suggesting the pericardium had filled with fluid, possibly indicating heart rupture.
From Agony to Victory
Psalm 22 begins in darkness but does not end there. The psalm transitions from suffering to triumph, from rejection to acceptance, from death to universal worship. “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee” (Psalm 22:27).
The crucifixion was not defeat but victory. What looked like the end was actually the beginning. “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11). The suffering servant would see results—nations turning, peoples worshiping, generations praising. The cross was the means to this glorious end.
The psalm ends with a declaration: “He hath done this” (Psalm 22:31). Some translations render it “It is finished”—the very words Jesus spoke as He died (John 19:30). The work of redemption, prophesied in Psalm 22, was accomplished at Calvary. What David saw in prophetic vision, Jesus completed in historical reality.
Why Forsaken?
The question “Why?” is not answered directly in Psalm 22. But Scripture elsewhere provides the answer: He was forsaken so we would never be. He experienced abandonment so we could experience acceptance. He bore separation so we could have union.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). The forsaking was purposeful—it accomplished our reconciliation. The darkness on Calvary was the price of our eternal light. The cry of dereliction was the cost of our eternal comfort.
Because He was forsaken, God promises believers: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). The same God who turned His face from His Son bearing our sin will never turn His face from those who trust in that Son. Christ exhausted the forsaking so we could exhaust its opposite—eternal, unbreakable fellowship with God.
The Psalm Jesus Prayed
By quoting the first verse of Psalm 22, Jesus was directing attention to the entire psalm. In Jewish practice, citing the opening line of a Scripture was a way of invoking the whole passage. Jesus was saying, in effect, “This psalm is about me. What David wrote, I am experiencing. Watch and see the prophecy fulfilled.”
Every detail of Psalm 22 was being enacted around the cross. The mocking, the piercing, the thirst, the garment lottery, the encircling enemies—all were happening as Jesus hung dying. He was not merely suffering; He was fulfilling. His death was not accident but appointment, not tragedy but triumph.
The religious leaders who mocked, the soldiers who gambled, the crowds who watched—none realized they were participants in the greatest drama of history, actors in a script written a thousand years earlier. But Jesus knew. And in quoting the psalm, He invited everyone to know as well.
Our Response to the Cry
How should we respond to Psalm 22? First, with wonder at the prophetic precision of Scripture. No human could have written this psalm by mere imagination. Divine inspiration alone accounts for such detailed foreknowledge.
Second, with gratitude for the suffering described. Every phrase records agony that Christ endured for us. The bones out of joint, the melted heart, the dried-up strength, the pierced hands and feet—all were borne for sinners. We were the cause of His suffering; we are the beneficiaries of His sacrifice.
Third, with faith in the One who fulfilled the prophecy. If God so precisely predicted the manner of Christ’s death, we can trust His promises about the benefits of that death. The same Word that foretold the cross declares that all who believe are forgiven, justified, reconciled, and secure.
The Answered Prayer
The psalm begins with a question: “Why hast thou forsaken me?” It ends with an answer—not explaining the “why” but revealing the “what for.” The forsaking led to the salvation of multitudes: “A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this” (Psalm 22:30-31).
Generation after generation has come to God through the cross. People yet unborn when David wrote, when Jesus died, when the apostles preached—all have been saved through what “he hath done.” The work is finished, the salvation secured, the righteousness declared. Because He was forsaken, we are accepted.
The cry from the cross still echoes, inviting sinners to find in Christ’s abandonment their eternal acceptance. Will you hear that cry and believe? Will you trust the One who was forsaken so you would never be? The prophecy has been fulfilled; the salvation has been accomplished; the invitation stands open. Come to the crucified Christ and live.