What does Psalm 22:9 mean?
David credits God with caring for him from birth and blessing David with a godly heart from a young age. This is the beginning of a response to the taunts of David's enemies (Psalm 22:7–8). The ability to trust in God, based on what He has already done, is how Scripture explains the nature of true faith (Hebrews 11:13–16; Psalm 22:4–5).God is the giver of life, and all life is precious to Him. In Psalm 139:13 David wrote: "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb." Divine intervention in human history gave us the virgin-born Son of God. Galatians 4:4–5 declares, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."
It may seem hard to believe that a weaning child can trust in God, but in Bible times, a child might not be weaned until he or she was three years old. Given spiritual training from birth, a three-year-old child can trust in the Lord. Surely, Jesus received such training from Mary and Joseph and developed a strong faith. Joseph, a descendant of David, being "a just man" (Matthew 1:19), would have taken seriously his responsibility for training the infant Jesus in the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 6:4–9).
Psalm 22:1–21 depicts David's questioning of God's silence and estrangement from him in his desperate situation. The structure of this prayer, and the images it evokes, are prophecies of Messiah's sufferings. Isaiah 53:3–8 likewise predicts these experiences and explains that Messiah endured them for us sinners. Matthew 27:46 reports that Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 when he was suffering on the cross. First Peter 2:24 –25 refers to the sufferings of Jesus the Messiah and calls Jesus ''the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.''
This psalm may be divided into two parts. The first part, verses 1–21, contains an urgent prayer, in which the suppliant questions a holy God's distance from him in his time of suffering. It also contains a graphic description of the Messiah's suffering. Messiah's suffering included humiliation, the taunts of unbelievers, a distressful sense of loneliness, and intense physical pain. The second part of the psalm continues a prayer to be delivered, and includes a glimpse of resurrection and exaltation. The psalm praises God and announces a future time when God will receive worldwide acclaim and worship.
