General Overview
Psalm 22 belongs
to a category of more than 3 dozen psalms known as “Psalms of Lament”. This
type of psalm has 5 elements: addressing God, complaining, asking for help, making
a vow of trust, making praises (which often includes demanding that others do
so as well). Another important element is that the protagonist doesn’t die,
but glorifies God for having heard and being a protector.
Superscriptions
A great
many psalms begin with a superscription, a sentence that is often an introduction
or a simple idea. In Jewish versions, this superscription is treated as a
separate verse, and so is always treated as “verse 1”, with the song that
follows is considered to be “verse 2”. In Christian translations of the text,
the superscription is treated as an extension of the song, and so the
superscription as well as the first verse are jointly specified as
“verse 1”, which results in Jewish and Christian versions of many Psalms often
being off by a count of 1.
Psalm 22,
however, is different because a great many Christian versions of the text that
drop the superscription for this psalm altogether, which is odd. This is true
of the ESV, the KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT, NRS, and many others. Later versions of
some translations (e.g., the NKJV) sometimes include the superscription.
The Tone of this Song
Our
superscription begins with “למנצח” which is often translated as “For the conductor, leader, chief
musician, choirmaster, overseer”. The Hebrew can also refer to a “champion,
victor, winner”.
The next
word “על”
means “concerning, about”.
And the
next expression describes the song in general: “אילת השחר”, pronounced “ayelet
hashachar”. Now, “hashachar” means “the dawn”, as in the end of darkness and
coming into a new day, with the emanation of light beginning to show. The
modifier “ayalelt” is used elsewhere as an expression of beauty and glory. And
there is no lack of interpretations as to what it may refer to. There’s a
kabbalistic commentary on “Song of Songs” called “ayelet ahavim (“ahavim” is “love”,
in the plural form)”.
Since there’s no absolute certainty what the exact intent of applying “ayelet”
to “dawn”, we will just accept that it’s a positive application that inspires
someone who sees it, and leave it at that (it is never used in a negative
sense).
I bring this up because this title of “a dawn
of ayelet” represents the entirety of Psalm 22 perfectly, since it begins with
an utter darkness (“My God, why have you deserted me?!”), and after a few
verses there’s a small glimmer of hope. Eventually, the singer declares “He
[God] has heard [me]!” and the lightness of the song gets stronger, with the
last third of the song full of praises.
So, if you
go into this song with the understanding that it’s a “Song of Lament” which
ends with the protagonist praising God, it takes on a different color than
holding that someone’s going to die in it.
Is This a Messianic Song?
The short
answer is: “Yes”.
But not in
the way that many Christians hold it as such.
There are a
number of songs, such as this one, which echo the cries of the Jews who were in
exile in Babylon. Look at Psalms 14 and 53 that begins with “… God isn’t here!”,
echoing the frustration and disappointment that Psalm 22 also begins with: “Why
have you abandoned me?!” And like those songs, the realization that God has not
abandoned those claims otherwise dawns upon them who wait for His salvation and
redemption from the heart of enemy territory.
Piercing
In Psalm
22:16 (or 22:17 in the Hebrew version), there’s a sentence that Christian
translations will generally say something like “My enemies are piercing my
hands and feet.” And the general view by Christians is that this refers to
being crucified.
Several
problems with this view are:
Crucifixion wasn’t known to the
singer, who was likely a resident of Babylon.
The Masoretic Text (MT) uses “like a lion” instead of “pierced”. That version
is a bit grammatically clumsy, but then, there is no lack of clumsy verses. Some
hold that the last letter was in error, and there are many examples where the
letter “yud” and the letter “vav” are incorrectly used, using a “yud” where it
should be a “vav” and visa verse.
The Greek version of the text (LXX)
uses a verb meaning “to dig into the dirt” or “to excavate from the dirt”, and
not “pierce. It is used in the Torah several times when there is well digging
going on. One example is Genesis 26:32 which uses ὤρυξαν just as Psalm
22 does. However, many have incorrectly interpreted this as “piercing the
ground” so “piercing the hands and feet” because of a forced ambiguity.
The Dead
Sea Scroll (DSS) version puts that ambiguity to rest, because it used a Hebrew
word that can only mean “to dig/excavate the earth” everywhere it is used. And
so, “A company of evil-doers encompass me, my hands and feet are digging out of
the earth”. This fits with the previous verse where the protagonist has been
case into “the dust of the dead”, and he is now digging his way out.
I took the image of the scrap found, upscaled it as best I
could, adjusted the contrast and brightness, played with the colors, and was
able to see what was written there. (See the images at the end of this post.) The
scribe wasn’t the best, poor penmanship and application of ink, and he even
made a typo, having it as “HER hands and feet”, but it is interesting to
see that “hands and feed digging into/out-from the earth” which seems to
indicate that this DSS scrap was using the same/similar vorlage as the LXX.
So, the only place where we find “pierced” is in the
Christian translations, in a text that was ignorant of crucifixions and where
the protagonist isn’t killed, as is the case of all Lamentation Songs.
Did Jesus get thrown into the dust of the dead, a grave? And
did he claw his way out?
Not according to the Gospels.
Does Psalm 22 contain the word “pierced”?
No.
Conclusion
I could, of course, go into greater detail and even write a
book-length explanation to point out a lot of things that I didn’t include here
for the sake of brevity. But I won’t, and hopefully what I did type was useful.
If there is something that needs more explanation in your opinion, let me know
and I will make minor updates to this post.
But, suffice to say, Psalm 22 is about hope and delight as
the oppressed in Babylon came from their world of darkness, to a dawn of a new
day, where light shone on their hopeful faces.
Here is the meme used:
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