Commentary - Psalm 22:22-31

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 22 is a stunningly precise prophecy of the crucifixion and its triumphant aftermath. The first half of the psalm (vv. 1-21) plunges us into the abyss of dereliction, the cry of the Messiah from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It is a cry of faithful despair, not faithless desperation. But the psalm does not end in the darkness of Golgotha. The pivot at verse 22 is one of the most dramatic turns in all of Scripture. The cry of anguish gives way to a shout of praise. The solitary sufferer is suddenly surrounded by the great assembly. The one who was forsaken by God now leads the congregation in worship. This second half of the psalm is the resurrection side of the cross. It is the glorious, postmillennial vision that was the joy set before Christ, for which He endured the cross. It prophesies the fruit of His passion: a worldwide kingdom, where all the ends of the earth, rich and poor, from every nation, will turn to Yahweh and worship Him. This is not a description of heaven; it is a description of history, the history that flows from the empty tomb.

The passage unfolds in a logical progression. The resurrected Messiah first declares His victory to His brothers, the church (v. 22). This declaration then ripples outward, calling the covenant people to praise (v. 23), explaining the basis for that praise in God's faithfulness (v. 24), and vowing continued worship (v. 25). From there, the vision explodes to encompass the entire globe. The poor are fed, the nations turn to God, and the kingdom is acknowledged as Yahweh's (vv. 26-28). The scope is total, including the rich and the dying (v. 29). This victory is not a fleeting moment but a legacy that will be declared to generations yet unborn (vv. 30-31). The final word, "He has done it," is the foundation of it all. The victory is accomplished, and the rest of history is the unfolding of that accomplished fact.

Outline

Context In The Psalms

Psalm 22 is the central panel in a triptych of messianic psalms. Psalm 21 is a psalm of the victorious king, celebrating the blessings God has poured out upon him. Psalm 23 is the beloved psalm of the Good Shepherd who leads His sheep in paths of righteousness. Between the reigning king and the caring shepherd stands Psalm 22, the psalm of the suffering servant. This is the price of the crown and the cost of our shepherding. Without the cross of Psalm 22, there is no crown in Psalm 21 and no comfort in Psalm 23. The cry of "My God, my God" is what makes possible the declaration that "The Lord is my shepherd." The progression is crucial: suffering, then glory. This is the pattern of Christ's life, and it is the pattern for the Christian life as well. The second half of Psalm 22, our text, is the bridge that connects the suffering to the glory. It is the resurrection announcement that makes sense of the crucifixion.

Key Issues

From Golgotha to the Globe

The transition from verse 21 to verse 22 is the hinge of history. In verse 21, the cry is "Save me from the horns of the wild oxen!" It is a plea from the depths of agony and apparent defeat. Then, without any narrative transition, verse 22 erupts with praise. The only thing that can explain such a dramatic shift is the resurrection. The prayer of the afflicted has been heard. The sufferer has been delivered. What follows is not just a private thanksgiving but a public proclamation of a victory with global and generational implications. Christ on the cross had this glorious vision right in front of Him. The joy set before Him, which enabled Him to endure the cross, was not just His own vindication but the salvation of the world. This psalm teaches us that the cross was never intended to be a private religious transaction. It was a public act of war against the powers of darkness, and the victory was so decisive that its effects are destined to overtake every family of every nation on earth. The Great Commission is not a desperate gamble; it is the confident announcement of a victory already won.

Verse by Verse Commentary

22 I will surely recount Your name to my brothers; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.

The first word from the resurrected Lord is a promise to testify. Having passed through the silent agony of dereliction, His first act is to speak. And He speaks not about His suffering, but about the Name of the one who delivered Him. He speaks to His "brothers." The author of Hebrews quotes this very verse to show that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren (Heb. 2:12). We who are united to Him by faith are His family. And where does He make this declaration? "In the midst of the assembly," the congregation, the church. The resurrection is the founding event of the New Covenant assembly, and its central activity is praise, led by the risen Christ Himself.

23 You who fear Yahweh, praise Him; All you seed of Jacob, glorify Him, And stand in awe of Him, all you seed of Israel.

The personal praise of Christ immediately broadens into a corporate call to worship. He summons the entire covenant community to join Him. The address is threefold for emphasis: those who fear Yahweh, the seed of Jacob, and the seed of Israel. This is a call to the people of God to recognize what has happened in the death and resurrection of their Messiah and to respond appropriately. The proper response has three parts: praise, glorification, and awe. We are to praise Him for what He has done, glorify Him for who He is, and stand in awe of the sheer magnitude of His power and grace. This is the essence of true worship.

24 For He has not despised and He has not abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; And He has not hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.

Here is the reason, the theological foundation for the praise. Why should we praise God? Because the central horror of the first half of the psalm has been answered and reversed. The cry "why have you forsaken me?" implied that God had hidden His face, that He had despised and abhorred the affliction of His Son. But now, from the other side of the grave, the verdict is in. God did not ultimately despise His afflicted one. He did not hide His face forever. The Father's turning away on the cross was a temporary, judicial reality as Christ bore our sin. But it was not the final word. The final word was the answer to His cry. God the Father heard God the Son, and He vindicated Him by raising Him from the dead. This is the heart of the gospel: our sins were laid on Christ, God poured out His wrath, and then He raised Him in victory. God heard Him.

25 Of You is my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him.

The Messiah once again speaks in the first person. His praise originates from God and is directed back to God. This praise is not a private affair; it is public, "in the great assembly." This is the fulfillment of the vows He made in the depths of His distress. A vow is a solemn promise to worship God in a particular way upon deliverance. Christ's vow, made in the crucible of the cross, is now paid in the congregation of the redeemed. Our worship services are, in a very real sense, the fulfillment of Christ's vows. He promised to build His church, and He is doing it.

26 The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise Yahweh. May your heart live forever!

The praise now overflows into blessing for the people. The "afflicted" or the "meek" will eat and be satisfied. This is the great messianic banquet. In the Old Covenant, the worshiper would eat a portion of the peace offering. Here, the fruit of Christ's sacrifice is a feast for all the afflicted who come to Him. This is not just a spiritual metaphor; the gospel has real, tangible effects. It brings satisfaction to the hungry soul. Those who seek the Lord will find Him, and their seeking will terminate in praise. The verse ends with a benediction: "May your heart live forever!" This is the promise of eternal life, the result of feasting on the bread of life.

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Yahweh, And all the families of the nations will worship before You.

Here the vision explodes beyond the borders of Israel. This is one of the clearest postmillennial prophecies in the entire Old Testament. The result of Christ's finished work is not the rescue of a small remnant from a hostile world, but the conversion of the world itself. "All the ends of the earth" and "all the families of the nations" are comprehensive terms. They will do two things: remember and turn. The gospel call is a call to remember our creaturely status and our rebellion, and to turn back to our rightful Lord. The result is worship. This is the trajectory of the Great Commission, and its fulfillment in history is as certain as the resurrection itself.

28 For the kingdom is Yahweh’s And He rules over the nations.

This is the basis for the global conversion prophesied in the previous verse. Why will the nations turn? Because the kingdom already belongs to Yahweh. This is not something we are trying to build for Him. It is a fact we are announcing. His rule over the nations is a present reality. The death and resurrection of Jesus was the D-Day of cosmic history. The beachhead has been established, the decisive battle has been won, and the King has taken His throne. The rest of history is the mopping-up operation, the progressive manifestation of a rule that is already established in principle.

29 All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship, All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.

The scope of Christ's kingdom is not just geographical; it is also sociological. It includes everyone, from the top to the bottom. The "prosperous of the earth," the rich and powerful, will join the feast and worship. And "all those who go down to the dust," the poor, the humble, the dying, will bow before Him. This includes even the one who "cannot keep his soul alive," the most desperate and helpless of men. The gospel is for the fat cats and the beggars, the kings and the paupers. All will bow, either in joyful worship or in forced submission. The victory is total.

30 Their seed will serve Him; It will be recounted about the Lord to the coming generation.

The kingdom is not a one-generation flash in the pan. It is a lasting, generational reality. "Their seed", the children of the converted nations, will also serve Him. The faith will be passed down. The story of what the Lord has done will be recounted from one generation to the next. This points to the importance of covenant succession, of raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The kingdom of God advances through the ordinary means of gospel preaching and covenant faithfulness within families and churches, generation after generation.

31 They will come and will declare His righteousness To a people who will be born, that He has done it.

The psalm concludes by looking to the future. The coming generation will in turn declare God's righteousness to the generation after them, "a people who will be born." The message they declare is twofold. First, they declare "His righteousness", the perfect righteousness of Christ credited to us by faith. Second, they declare the ultimate ground of our salvation, summarized in three magnificent words: "that He has done it." In the Hebrew, it is a single word. It is the cry of accomplished redemption. It is the Old Testament equivalent of Christ's cry from the cross, "It is finished." The work is done. The victory is won. Our salvation does not depend on what we will do, but on what He has done.

Application

This passage is a potent antidote to all forms of defeatist Christianity. We are often tempted to look at the state of the world, the weakness of the church, and our own personal failures, and to despair. We act as though the battle is in doubt. But Psalm 22 tells a different story. It tells us to look away from the turmoil of the moment and to fix our eyes on the resurrected King and the certain, global victory He has purchased with His blood.

Our task, therefore, is not to cower in fear but to live as citizens of a conquering kingdom. We are called to join the "great assembly" and to lead the chorus of praise that Christ Himself initiated. Our evangelism should be fueled not by anxiety, but by the confident certainty that "all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Yahweh." Our discipleship, especially of our children, should be undertaken with the long-term, generational vision this psalm provides. We are part of a story that is going somewhere, and that somewhere is the complete Christianization of the nations.

And when we are afflicted, when we feel forsaken, we must remember verse 24. God did not despise the affliction of His Son, and because we are in His Son, He does not despise ours. He hears our cry. The path to glory is always through suffering, but the glory is certain. The final word of the psalm must be the final word of our lives: "He has done it." Our salvation is secure, the victory of our King is assured, and His kingdom is and will be all in all.