Psalms 22:27–31
All nations will turn to the Lord and all generations will hear the story of His righteousness, for He has finished the work.
Scripture Text
22:27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before You.
22:28 For the kingdom is Yahweh’s. He is the ruler over the nations.
22:29 All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even He who can’t keep His soul alive.
22:30 Posterity shall serve Him. Future generations shall be told about the Lord.
22:31 They shall come and shall declare His righteousness to a people that shall be born, for He has done it.
All nations will turn to the Lord and all generations will hear the story of His righteousness, for He has finished the work.
The redemptive achievement of God through the suffering of His servant is so significant that it demands the worship of all nations and ensures its own transmission to all future generations.
To conclude the psalm with a global and intergenerational prophecy, declaring that the sufferer’s deliverance will lead to universal worship and the perpetual proclamation of God’s finished work. The redemptive achievement of God through the suffering of His servant is so significant that it demands the worship of all nations and ensures its own transmission to all future generations.
- 22:1-2
- 22:3-5
- 22:6-11
- 22:12-18
- 22:19-21
- 22:22-24
- 22:25-31
A cry of forsakenness moves through remembered trust, public humiliation, urgent petition, answered praise, and finally worldwide testimony to the Lord's righteous saving work.
Psalm 22 argues that the deepest experience of righteous suffering, even the felt absence of God, can be brought before the holy Lord in covenant faith. Because the Lord hears the afflicted one, suffering does not have the last word; divine deliverance becomes congregational praise, food for the poor, worldwide worship, and a proclamation of righteousness to generations not yet born.
Theological logic
- The sufferer feels forsaken but continues addressing God personally.
- God's holiness and former deliverances remain true even when present prayer seems unanswered.
- Public shame and hostile mockery intensify righteous suffering by challenging the sufferer's trust in God.
- Lifelong dependence on God grounds the plea for present nearness.
- The sufferer's extremity is real, embodied, public, and deathlike.
- The turning point comes through petition for the LORD's nearness and deliverance.
- The LORD hears the afflicted one and is therefore worthy of praise in the assembly.
- The LORD's deliverance has communal, global, and generational consequences.
- : Matthew connects Psalm 22's garments, mockery, and opening cry with the crucifixion of Jesus.
- : Mark presents Jesus' crucifixion through Psalm 22 language, including divided garments and the cry of abandonment.
- : John explicitly connects the soldiers' division of Jesus' garments with the Scripture pattern reflected in Psalm 22.
- : Hebrews quotes Psalm 22:22 to present the sanctifying Son declaring God's name among His brothers.
- : Psalm 69 provides another righteous-sufferer lament that later Scripture connects with the suffering of Christ.
- : Psalm 22's righteous sufferer and Isaiah 53's suffering servant converge canonically in the New Testament presentation of Christ's suffering and vindication.
When Jesus died on the cross, He cried out 'It is finished,' fulfilling the 'He has done it' of Psalm 22; because of His finished work, we are part of the 'unborn' generation that now lives and worships in His righteousness.