Introduction
The US-based British author Os Guinness begins his book entitled Unspeakable Evil with a personal recollection of the 9/11 atrocity. He happened to be in New York City on that very day, and this is what he writes:
“September 11th, 2001, was marked down in my calendar for a dinner discussion in Manhattan on the theme of evil. When the dinner did take place, a week after the ruthless terrorist strike, the only other people in the hotel were the survivors from an investment firm that had lost nearly 70 people in the tragedy. One of them who attended our discussion had made it down safely from the 104th floor of the second tower and was a harrowing witness to the day of terror. As our host said in introducing the discussion of some key readings on evil, “When I read some of these readings before September 11, I thought they were far too dark. When I read them again after September 11, they weren't nearly dark enough.”
Evil and the cross
Among the questions it seems most natural to ask in the wake of shocking calamities like 911 are, “Why?” “Where was God?” “Why didn’t he stop it?” And it is that very sense of utter bewilderment, that opens the psalm we are going to look at together today, Psalm 22.
It’s a psalm of lament, or complaint, that carries an important truth - some of you need to hear this right now - sometimes God puts you on your own in difficult places and dire situations because he wants you to know that ultimately you don’t need anything or anybody but him.
In this sixth of seven Old Testament passages that speak prophetically about the cross, Psalm 22 sounds the depths of wretchedness, and desolation, and the pits of being Godforsaken, the sense that God himself has dumped you and walked away.
The passion narratives in the Gospels, that describe Christ’s sufferings, include 13 direct quotes from the Old Testament and 5 of them, over a third, come from this one psalm.
The heading of Psalm 22 says that it was written by David, as roughly half the psalms were. But when you read through the accounts of David’s life in the books of Samuel and Chronicles, no event described there remotely corresponds to the distress described here.
Even when David is taking refuge in desert caves, hunted down like a dog by Saul, or when he is humiliatingly ousted from his throne by his arrogant son Absalom, nothing matches the afflictions, the indignity, or the loneliness expressed in this psalm. Nothing even comes close. So Psalm 22, though written by David in the first person, is patently not about himself.
We sometimes think of David as a king, or a shepherd, or a songwriter, or a war hero. He was all these things. But in Acts 2 he is described instead as a prophet and this is a prophetic psalm, pointing unmistakably to the abandonment, anguish and agony of the cross around 1,000 years later.
Psalm 22 is a prophetic vision of the Messiah’s sufferings. It depicts a man in extreme pain, thirsty, his hands and feet pierced through, surrounded, helpless, distressed, mocked and hated, the object of derision, his clothes the prize of a game of dice.
As we read through the psalm, three ways that Jesus suffered on the cross come into focus.
Verses 1-5 describe his spiritual abandonment. Verses 6-10 describe his mental anguish. And verses 11-21 describe his physical agony.
Spiritual abandonment
Let’s read the first section then; his spiritual abandonment.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
The first line of this psalm, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” was quoted, as I’m sure most of us know, by Jesus on the cross. Matthew and Mark both mention it.
Did you know that this is the only one of twenty-one prayers of Jesus in the Gospels where he does not address God as Father? That’s because, for the first time ever, Jesus felt the pain of separation from his Father.
Jesus wasn’t expressing a loss of faith here; it was a loss of fellowship. It wasn’t a cry of doubt; it was a call of disorientation. On the cross, as the weight of the world’s wickedness pressed down on him, as the ugliness of sin crushed him, the Father turned his face away.
“I cry out, but you do not answer,” he says in v2. Feel his loneliness and dereliction. All his desperate praying fall on deaf ears. The heavens are like brass. Why?
Day turns to night in v2, foreshadowing the darkness that came over the land as Jesus’ death drew near.
“You delivered our ancestors” he says in v4. So often in the past, the Lord had brought about great victories, miraculous escapes. But this time, there is no rescue. Why? Why? Why? This is his spiritual abandonment.
Mental anguish
Verses 6-10 show us his mental anguish.
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. ‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say, ‘let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’ Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Feel his humiliation. “I am a worm, and not a man” he says in v6 as he listens to a volley of insults. He hangs there uncovered as people jeer and laugh. They goad him. What a loser. With a crown of thorns pressed down on his head, what sort of pathetic king is this? Both Matthew and Mark agree that both condemned thieves on his right and left begins by heaping insults on Jesus.
And it’s not just that they make fun of him. They hate him. “Scorned by everyone,” v6, “despised by the people.” They see him as a let-down.
In v10, he thinks back to his childhood, moments of tenderness and safety, being held and comforted in his mother’s arms. Mary of course is there at the cross, distraught, barely able to watch, but unable to walk away from her boy.
Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ depicts the final 12 hours of Jesus’ life. The film divided critical opinion. Many panned it for its excessive violence. One critic called it The Greatest Gory Ever Told.
On its release, the New York Post ran a front-page story reporting audience reaction as extremely positive with some viewers weeping and declaring they would never be the same again.
But some viewers left the cinema sniggering. One said he had to press his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud as he watched. He called it the most preposterous thing he had ever seen.
In the psalm as well, they mock him and laugh at his useless faith; “he trusts in the Lord, let the Lord rescue him.” On the cross they goad him in the same way; “he saved others, let him save himself.”
Physical agony
If v1-6 speak of his spiritual abandonment, and v7-10 describe his mental anguish, v11-21 tell us of his physical agony. He is utterly drained and in an advanced state of exhaustion.
Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. 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. 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. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
The Gospels tell us that Jesus was scourged before carrying his cross to Golgotha. The Romans used whips with pieces of bone and iron attached. By the time they nailed Jesus to the cross, his back will have been like butchered meat. Such was the severity of the flogging they dished out, that David describes in v14 all his bones being out of joint.
The shock from loss of blood and the heat of the midday sun would have led to extreme dehydration. Verse 15 mentions this; “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, [that’s a fragment of sun-baked clay] and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.” All four Gospels describe Jesus’ thirst and that he was offered vinegar to drink, which he refused.
Verse 16 describes the tell-tale wounds of crucifixion. It says, “they have pierced my hands and my feet.” This is particularly remarkable because the Jewish means of capital punishment in David’s time was stoning. But crucifixion, blunt iron spikes through the hands and feet was a form of execution devised by the Romans four centuries after Psalm 22 was written. In fact, in the days of King David, the city of Rome hadn’t even been founded, let alone developed into an empire!
David talks about being surrounded by roaring lions, strong bulls, powerful dogs and wild oxen. Fierce animals, snarling, snorting, prowling; these are what the pack of villains in v16 seem like to him. Intimidating and terrifying, like the sadistic execution squad that had the grim assignment of being the human face of Rome’s killing machine.
Jesus went through living hell and his pain was excruciating. Like Os Guinness’ reflections on evil, in the wake of 9/11, this psalm isn’t nearly dark enough.
Resurrection
Psalm 22 is a lament, a grieving song – or at least the first 21 verses are. Because from v22 onwards, the tone suddenly shifts from pain and torment to praise and triumph.
The psalm is like the flight of a boomerang. Only a fool would judge the flight of a boomerang based on the first half of its trajectory, and only a fool would criticise God’s hiddenness from Jesus while he was suffering on the cross.
Here’s how the psalm ends - v22:
I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honour him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will fulfil my vows. The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will praise him – may your hearts live for ever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him – those who cannot keep themselves alive. Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!
Why does the psalm change tone so abruptly? Because David’s prophetic focus travels from Good Friday to Easter Sunday and beyond. It’s all about the Messiah’s resurrection and ascension. He is raised from death, and he reigns on high.
God has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one, v24. Now, Jesus can build a mighty church from all the families of the nations (v27), and all future generations (v30). The poor (v26) and the rich alike (v29) will feast and worship and be satisfied. He is worthy of praise (v22) and honour (v23). Many will turn to the Lord and bow down before him (v27). His rule and dominion (v28) extend to the ends of the earth. He has done it (v31)! Or as Jesus put it, “It is finished!”
A couple of weeks ago, the former world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman died. Curiously, the fight he was probably best known for was one he lost - to Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa; the legendary “Rumble in the Jungle.”
When you watch the fight on YouTube, it is scarcely believable Foreman lost that bout. Foreman absolutely pounded his opponent for seven rounds. He landed punch after punch and Ali was barely able to move himself off the ropes. Everyone thought the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
But Ali’s strategy, was to soak up every punch until Foreman’s strength was spent, his arms heavy and stiff with lactic acid. Then, in the eighth round, Ali sprung off the ropes, and with just a few, well-aimed, powerful blows Foreman was down and out for the count.
The devil had Christ on the ropes on Good Friday: he landed every blow; mockery, spit in the face, getting thumped blindfolded, thorns pulled down on his head, flogging, shame, extreme thirst, spikes through his hands and feet, blood loss, shock, excruciating pain, exhaustion and slow asphyxiation… and it looked to all the world that Satan had won by a landslide.
But Jesus was soaking it all up, and in the eighth round – or rather, on the third day – he rose again, and dealt the evil one an authoritative and decisive knockout blow.
Response
As he got older, the genius artist Michelangelo declined many prestigious and lucrative commissions, choosing instead in his last few years to depict the crucifixion.

He did many, many line drawings of it and he chiselled a famous sculpture called La Pietà of Jesus’ body being taken down from the cross for burial. And he said, “Neither painting nor sculpture will be able any longer to calm my soul, now turned towards that divine love that opened his arms on the cross to take us in.”
Why is the cross the supreme symbol of our Christian faith? Why not a manger to remind us that he came humbly as a baby? Why not an empty tomb to remind us that he conquered death? Why the cross?
Because, more than anything else, it tells us that we are loved. And it tells us that we are friends of God. Greater love has no man than this; that he lay down his life for his friends.
Kenneth Bailey, in his book Jesus, through Middle Eastern Eyes, reports an event that was confirmed to him by a high-ranking American intelligence officer, serving in Jordan at the time.
One night in the early 1980s, King Hussain of Jordan, was informed by his security police that a group of about 75 Jordanian army officers were at that very moment meeting in a nearby barracks, plotting a military overthrow of his kingdom. The security officers requested permission from the king to surround the barracks and arrest the plotters.
After a long pause, the king refused and said to them, “Bring me a small helicopter.” So a helicopter was brought. The king climbed in with the pilot, and they flew to the barracks and landed on its flat roof. The king then told the pilot, “If you hear gunshots, fly away at once without me.”
Unarmed, the king then walked down two flights of stairs, and suddenly appeared in the room where the plotters were meeting. He then quietly said to them, “Gentlemen, it has come to my attention that you are meeting here tonight to finalise your plans to overthrow the government, take over the country and install a military dictator. If you do this, the army will break apart and the country will be plunged into Civil War. Tens of thousands of innocent people will die. There is no need for this. Here I am! Kill me and proceed. That way, only one man will die.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. They saw a king, ready to lay down his life for the people he loved. It melted their hearts and from that day on they would walk through fire for their king. So the rebels, as one, rushed forward to kiss the king’s hand and feet, and they pledged loyalty to him for life.
As you reflect on what Jesus was willing to go through for you, what is your response going to be? Are you going to kiss the hands and feet of the King of kings, still scarred with the wounds of the cross? Are you going to pledge loyalty to him – maybe for the first time today, or perhaps in coming back to him after a season of listening to the enemy? Are you ready to walk through fire for your King, if that is what it takes?
Let’s stand to pray…
Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 6 April 2025.