Psalms 22:15, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures a man whose vigor has withered and grown brittle like baked clay, whose mouth is parched so his tongue sticks fast, whose spirit is weighed down, and who is brought low to the very dust with strength gone and death at hand. Though it reflects David's own suffering, it belongs chiefly to his greater Son and finds its full and final meaning in Jesus Christ in His humiliation and in the flesh. It is a prophecy of His sufferings at His first coming, foretelling the manner and circumstances of His death and fulfilled exactly and literally in the closing Gospel events at His crucifixion by Jews and Romans at Golgotha. There on the cross He stood in the sinner's place with the sins of the world laid upon Him, bearing humanity's burden and paying in man's behalf the penalty of God's violated law, and that exact fulfillment stands as the sign proving Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised Messiah sent by the Father. His wasting strength, parched thirst, and nearness to death prove He truly bore human infirmities in a real life-and-death struggle without sin, revealing God's eternal justice and holiness, the binding obligation of His law, and the hatefulness and guilt of sin, while making Him a Fellow-sufferer and Fellow-helper whose experience His followers must share.

Words and Prophetic Setting

The sufferer's strength is dried up, exhausted and gone, made brittle like a potsherd, while the tongue clings and sticks to the jaws in parched dryness and the mouth is dry. The spirit is weighed down as he is brought down into the dust of death, with strength gone and death near, picturing the extremity of suffering. These words belong to a prophecy of Christ's suffering and death that was fulfilled literally and exactly in His death by crucifixion. They picture deep suffering, despondency and temptation followed by victory, and they support that Christ truly bore human infirmities and poured out His life unto death.

The psalm reflects David's own suffering and belongs primarily to David's account, with some of its sufferings also experienced by David. It was typical of the experience of David's greater Son, showing what Jesus passed through for humanity when the sins of the world were laid upon Him. It reaches its full and final antitypical expression in Christ, in His agony and sacrifice for humanity.

The psalm describes the experience of Jesus Christ in the flesh. The verse is preeminently prophetic of the Lord in His humiliation, belonging to a prophetic description of His sufferings and experience.

Suffering Fulfilled at Calvary

The verse belongs to the prophecy of Christ's sufferings at His first coming, fulfilled in the closing events recorded in the Gospels and in His life and death at Calvary. It is among the prophecies that foretold the Messiah and His experiences, forming part of the prophetic picture of Christ's life and death. Its description of the Messiah's suffering at Calvary was fulfilled literally in Jesus' death.

It foretells the manner and circumstances of Christ's death, describing His physical suffering and wasting strength, His tongue sticking to His jaws, and His being brought into the dust of death. These details had an exact and literal accomplishment at the crucifixion of Christ by the Jews and Romans and were seen before the eyes of the Jews. The failing strength and parching thirst are the agonies of death by Roman crucifixion, endured at Golgotha, the place of the skull, as the climax of His life of suffering. Together with them stand life poured out like water, bones out of joint and counted, heart melted like wax, encirclement by dogs and evildoers, pierced hands and feet, and the cry of being forsaken by God.

It is part of the prophecy that Jesus would be betrayed, condemned, and crucified, to be read with reference to Him, for the meaning of these Psalms cannot be fully understood without recognizing that reference. It foretells details of the Messiah's suffering, including His agony as He bore the sins of humanity and the very words He spoke on the cross, and those predictions were fulfilled in Jesus' life and death. His lowly life and ministry, rejection by His people, injustice shown Him in His trial, death with criminals, and burial with the rich were all lived out by Jesus in His whole life, with Jews and Gentiles taking part in the tragedy enacted when the Messiah died on the cross. This exact fulfillment stands as a sign of the first advent proving that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah sent by the Father. After His resurrection He pointed His discouraged disciples to these Scriptures to show that He was fulfilling all that God had written from Genesis to Malachi.

On the cross He stood in the sinner's place when the sins of the world were laid upon Him, passing through for humanity and for sinners' sake the experience that leads to death on the cross. As the great sin-bearer He paid in man's behalf the penalty of God's violated law, cursed for man's sake, bearing humanity's burden and suffering on its behalf in agony and earnest prayer for humanity. The psalm reaches its full and final expression in Christ's agony and sacrifice for humanity, though some of its sufferings were also experienced by David as typical of David's greater Son. The verse expresses His inner and physical human experience in His life-and-death struggle: physical exhaustion and wasting strength, deep suffering, despondency and temptation followed by victory. It shows His human heart and human feelings trembling over the consummation, efficiency, and success of the plan of salvation, questioning not God but whether He Himself was sufficient for the work, with human limitations seemingly shutting from Him the knowledge of His triumph so that all He could do was leave His case in the hand of God, suffering the very agony of the lost and being tempted with doubts, yet without sin and without distrust of God.

His physical suffering, with exhausted strength, parched mouth, and nearness to death, proves He truly bore human infirmities and poured out His life unto death. His sufferings reveal the eternal justice and holiness of God, the unchangeable excellence and binding obligation of His law, and the hatefulness and guilt of sin. By His sufferings Christ honored the divine law, and He did not suffer to purchase liberty to despise and disobey it. The latter part of the psalm sets forth the Messiah's eternal reign of righteousness, which could not be fulfilled in fullness without the Lord's resurrection.

Faith and Human Application

The drying of strength and parching of the mouth and the bringing down to the dust of death set forth part of the experience of Jesus Christ. In that experience He met in Himself all human experiences and trials and conflicts. He is therefore a Fellow-sufferer and Fellow-sympathizer and Fellow-helper, as well as a mighty Saviour all the journey through. As followers of Christ, His experience must also become theirs, so that the faith of Jesus may be developed in them.

Hanging on the cross in agony and weakness, in suffering and pain under a shameful punishment, His strength dried up and His life drawing to the grave, He was deserted and mocked and despised and blasphemed and rejected by the great and wise and noble of His own people. He hung with no sceptre or royal crown, with no outward dominion or glory or majesty or power or signs of might. It was with only that suffering condition to look at that the dying thief believed in Him. The thief looked forward to His kingdom even while beholding Him in that low and dying state.

Being brought into the dust of death also describes a fearful condition of deep misery. That misery comes through disobedience and failure to heed counsel. It is the portion of a proud and self-justifying heart.