All
those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying, “He trusts in Yahweh; let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
Psalm 22:7-8
Psalm 21 [10.] You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
their posterity from among the children of men.
For they intended evil against you.
They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
For you will make them turn their back,
when you aim drawn bows at their face.
Be exalted, Yahweh, in your strength,
so we will sing and praise your power.
Psalm 22 [1.] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer;
in the night season, and am not silent.
But you are holy,
you who inhabit the praises of Israel.
Our fathers trusted in you.
They trusted, and you delivered them.
They cried to you, and were delivered.
They trusted in you, and were not disappointed.
But I am a worm, and no man;
a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
All those who see me mock me.
They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
“He trusts in Yahweh;
let him deliver him.
Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
But you brought me out of the womb.
You made me trust at my mother’s breasts.
Psalm 22 [10.] I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb.
You are my God since my mother bore me.
Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near.
For there is no one to help.
Meaning:
Psalm 22 begins with the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). In these verses the psalmist describes what makes his suffering worse: the scorn of the people who watch him. Centuries later the Gospels show these very words coming true at the cross of Jesus.
- “All those who see me mock me”
The sufferer is exposed to public view. Just before, he has said, “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.” His pain becomes a spectacle, and onlookers treat it as entertainment. Mockery adds shame to suffering, and in the ancient world public shame was felt very deeply.
- “They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads”
Shaking the head was a gesture of contempt, a silent way of saying that the sufferer was finished. Mark records that at the cross “Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads” (Mark 15:29-30). Matthew uses the same words (Matthew 27:39). The details of the psalm match the scene at Golgotha closely.
- “He trusts in Yahweh; let him deliver him”
The cruellest part of the mockery attacks the sufferer’s faith. His enemies imply that if God really cared about him, God would rescue him, and since God has not, his faith must be empty. This taunt questions both the man and his God.
At the cross the chief priests said, “He saved others. He can’t save himself” (Mark 15:31-32). They did not realize that their words fulfilled the Scripture they claimed to know.
- “Let him rescue him, since he delights in him”
The mockers were right about one thing: God did delight in him. At Jesus’ baptism a voice from heaven had said, “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). God did deliver him, not by taking him down from the cross, but by raising him from the dead. The psalm itself turns from suffering to praise: “I will declare your name to my brothers. Among the assembly, I will praise you” (Psalm 22:22).
The Significance of Psalm 22:7-8
- When faith is mocked
Believers may hear the same kind of taunt, when others ask where their God is in their trouble. Psalm 22 shows that God’s silence for a time is not the same as God’s absence. Jesus endured this mockery and “committed himself to him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:23).
- God’s timing in deliverance
God did not deliver Jesus in the way or at the time the mockers demanded, yet his deliverance was far greater. We can trust that God’s answers, though sometimes delayed, are always good.
Cross-References:
Mark 15:29: "Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads," The psalm fulfilled at the cross.
Mark 15:31: "He saved others. He can’t save himself." The leaders’ mockery.
Mark 1:11: "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." God did delight in Jesus.
Hebrews 12:2: "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame," Jesus endured the shame.
Conclusion: Psalm 22:7-8 describes a righteous sufferer surrounded by mockers who shake their heads and taunt him for trusting in God. These words were fulfilled when passers-by and religious leaders mocked Jesus on the cross. The taunt that God would not rescue the one he delights in was answered when God raised Jesus from the dead, and the psalm encourages all who are mocked for their faith to keep trusting him.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible