Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 27:1 (NA 2022)
Article: “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?” Psalm 22 As Direct Predictive Prophecy Concerning Jesus Christ On The Cross
Author: Mark A. Hassler

DBSJ 27 (2022) p. 81

“My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?” Psalm 22 As Direct Predictive Prophecy Concerning Jesus Christ On The Cross

Mark A. Hassler1

Psalm 22 depicts an afflicted person and his praises to God. As death looms, the sufferer cries out in agony, desperate for deliverance. From whose point of view was the psalm originally written? Several suggestions emerge from antiquity onward, including King David, Queen Esther, and other individuals or communities.2 According to many interpreters, the original sufferer typified or prefigured Jesus’s suffering: Jesus appropriated, actualized, or transformed the original sufferer’s words.

By contrast, I argue in this article that Psalm 22 in its original setting expressed the words of a dying man, Jesus Christ, spoken while hanging on the cross. The psalm articulates the outlook and experience of Jesus and no one else. Jesus did not merely quote a short snippet of Psalm 22 on the tree—he spoke the entire psalm. The psalmist and prophet David foretold Jesus’s words centuries in advance. My argument rests on the validity of the grammatical-historical method of interpretation, the inadequate evidence of an ancient sufferer before the first century, and the weight of evidence found in intertextual connections with Isaiah 53 and the clear assertions of the New Testament (analogia fide).

In my study I assess the historical record and the literary components to determine the authorial intent of Psalm 22. My analysis focuses on the canonical text as opposed to a pre-canonical stage.

The research topic matters because it affects biblical hermeneutics, exegesis, and Christology. Significantly, Psalm 22 is among the most used psalms in the New Testament. In this study I challenge the status quo by evaluating the evidence and addressing two objections to the notion of direct predictive prophecy. If the psalm constitutes predictive prophecy, then it contributes directly to the biographical portrait of

DBSJ 27 (2022) p. 82

Jesus and implies that the New Testament’s “seven sayings of Jesus on the cross” represent only a fraction of what Jesus spoke during his crucifixion. In addition, my solution proves a hermeneutical principle: a psalm can predict a far fulfillment without depicting a near scenario in the lifetime of the psalmist.3...