PSALM 22 (part 3): "They pierced my hands and my feet" (Psalm 22:12-21)

Christ’s 1st Lamentation from the Cross was His spiritual suffering (v1-5), the 2nd was His mental suffering (v6-11). Now, we study His 3rd Lamentation, His physical suffering. 1st, He describes demonic forces around Him, eager to consume, after leaving His body to go down to Hades: “Many BULLS have surrounded Me; strong BULLS of Bashan have encircled Me. They gape at Me with their mouths, like a raging and roaring LION” (v12-13). If God would not deliver Him, He’d be at their mercy forever. The roaring lion is applied to satan in 1Pet 5:8. Bashan is near Mt Hermon, where the fallen angels of Gen 6:1-4 came to interbreed with women (Enoch), making the Flood necessary. Their offspring (Nephilim) became disembodied demons at death. Later was a 2nd angelic intrusion (Gen 6:4) to create Nephilim (giants) to stop Israel enter their Land. Bashan was a key location of the giants (Deut 3:11-13). The physical description describes a man executed by crucifixion, invented 800 years later, v14: “I am poured out like water.” This describes his total weakness, utterly spent, as water poured on the earth, the result of crucifixion, death by slow suffocation. Every breath was a painful effort; he can only breathe by pushing down on the nails, creating total exhaustion. “and all My bones are out of joint” (as if stretched on a torture rack, dislocated, but not broken). After being nailed to the Cross, His body was raised upright as the Cross was raised and put into a cross hole, dislocating his bones. “My heart is like wax; it has melted within Me.” He died with a ruptured, broken heart (Ps 69:20, John 19:33-34. v15: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd (broken piece of pottery), and My tongue clings to My jaws” - severe dehydration, the result of crucifixion (John 19:28-29). “You have brought Me to the dust of death” (an execution - on the point of death). v16: “For DOGS have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet.” Dogs was a pejorative for unclean Gentiles. This refers to the Roman soldiers, who pierced His hands & feet, a procedure unique to crucifixion (see v20, where the dog applies the sword of capital punishment). The Masoretic version: “like a lion, my hands & my feet’ does not make sense. The difference is due to a copy error. The earliest versions & oldest Hebrew manuscripts confirm the original was: “They pierced My hands & My feet.” In the Middle Ages, the Rabbis embraced a scribal error, that became the dominant version, as Christians used the original to point to Jesus, as with Zech 12:10 (John 19:37). v17: “I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.” He was naked & exposed, so onlookers stared at him, another aspect of crucifixion - a public humiliation & deterrent. He took our shame, so we might be clothed in His honour & glory. His bones were not broken - prophesied of Christ in Ps 34:20, and required for Passover Lambs (Ex 12:46, Num 9:12), fulfilled by Jesus (John 19:32-37). v18: “They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.” This confirms He was stripped naked for execution not needing his clothes anymore. John 19:23-24, Matt 27:35, Mk 15:24, Lk 23:34 record how both parts of this prophecy were fulfilled by Jesus. He gave His blood to cleanse us & His garments to clothe us. So, v12-18 describes an execution of a man nailed to a torture rack, where his heart, bones, hands, tongue, feet were all affected, physically deteriorating over time unto death. As before, after the Lamentation He turns to God to declare His faith & make His request: “But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me!” Deliver Me from the Sword (Capital Punishment, Rom 13:4 - an execution), My precious life (‘my only one’) from the power of the dog (Romans, see v16)” (v19-20). Although He had to die, its effects will not last long, for God heard His prayer, reversed the verdict & delivered Him by raising Him from death. He also prayed to be delivered from the tormenting demonic powers He’d face in Hades: “Save Me from the lion’s mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen!” (cf. v12-13). Even after paying the price in full for our sin on the Cross, in His identification with us, He had to experience the full curse of death for us, including what happens after death, when man’s soul went to Hades (not Heaven), as the ancient creed says: ‘He descended into Hell (Hades).’ He did this, so we’d not have to go there. So, He went into the heart of the earth (Matt 12:40, Ro 10:7, Eph 4:9-10). Thus, as He was about to die & go into the lion’s mouth in Hades, He cried out for God to deliver Him from the power of Hades, which God did by regenerating His whole humanity & raising Him up the 3rd day (Acts 2:24,27, 31-32). In His resurrection He dynamically defeated the hordes of hell, disarming & triumphing over them (Col 2:15), being raised far above all powers (Eph 1:20-22), and has the keys of Hades & Death (Rev 1:18).