For dogs have encompassed me; an assembly of evil-doers have surrounded me they pierced my hands and my feet.
Psalm 22 describes the cross long before crucifixion was known. Verse 16 is the moment the circle closes around the Sufferer, and it raises two questions: who are these "dogs," and how could David describe a death that no one around him had ever seen?
The verse names two groups. Commentators read them as Gentile and Jew, joined against Christ. One writer points to enemies who became allies at the cross:
Pilate and Herod had been enemies. Yet they could bury their hatred and agree together in rejecting the Son of God. The Jews had nothing but contempt for the Gentiles, whom they called "the uncircumcised." Yet they could join them in heaping insult and shame on Christ. "For dogs (Gentiles) encompass me; a company of evildoers (Jews) encircles me" (Ps. 22:16). Satan is well able to bring about unity for the accomplishment of his dreadful purposes.
The word is not a throwaway insult. In this psalm each animal name stands for something:
In verse 12, bulls, that is, violent men who do their own will; in verse 16, dogs, that is, shameless ones. In verse 21, the lion's mouth, that is, Satan's power over death.
The picture carries the whole nature of a street dog over to the crowd at the cross:
How completely the Cross showed what man is! "Dogs" — heartless, shameless, unclean, feeding on refuse, hunting in packs like "a company of evildoers" here. They gathered around a sight of distress beyond compare. They had no pity for it, and there was no escape from it.
Here the psalm names the exact way Christ would die. David had never seen such a death:
The Psalm foretold the way He would die: "They have pierced my hands and feet" (verse 16). At that time crucifixion was unknown. How David himself must have wondered when he wrote those words. They did not refer to his hands. His hands were not pierced.
The rest of the psalm fills in more marks of that same death:
The bones out of joint — hands, arms, shoulders and pelvis (verse 14). The heavy sweating caused by intense suffering (verse 14). The action of the heart affected (verse 14). Strength gone and extreme thirst (verse 15). The hands and feet pierced (verse 16)… Remember that crucifixion was a Roman form of execution, not a Jewish one. The proof of inspiration is irresistible.
Scholars have long argued over one Hebrew word here. A commentator weighs the evidence and gives his verdict:
It is a question of reading. Cahari means "as a lion." Caharu, most likely, means "they pierced," and the difference in Hebrew is very slight. All the ancient translations give "they pierced." The Masora (the ancient Jewish record of the text) confirms it. One of the most critical Jewish scholars approves it, appealing to his own good Jewish manuscripts… What is most against "pierced," though it proves nothing, is that the New Testament never refers to it, though it refers to other parts of the Psalms. However, my own conviction is that "they pierced" is right.
The same word appears in a law about a slave who would not go free. The link runs through an older wording of Psalm 40:6:
A slave who was due to go free could refuse it because he loved his master; then his master bored his ear through with an awl. This is far from obedience forced by fear of punishment. The slave gladly suffers pain and sheds his blood rather than stop serving. There is no doubt that this pictures the divine Servant binding Himself to endless service of His own will, because of His love for God and for the Bride. In Psalm 40:6 He says, "You have opened my ears" — the word translated "opened," kahhrah, is translated in Psalm 22:16 "pierced" (my hands and feet).
The verse shows the human side of the cross. The psalm does not stop there:
It was they indeed who surrounded Him. They pierced His hands and His feet. But the psalm adds, "YOU have brought me into the dust of death." No human hand, no human will, no power of Satan could have bowed Him like that. Many times men filled their hands with stones to stone Him. Once the men of His own city led Him out as if to certain death. Yet He passed by, unharmed by them all. Until His appointed hour came He kept His place in safety for the Father.
- Surrounded. Two groups close the circle: "dogs" and "a company of evildoers" — Gentile and Jew joined in one crime against Christ.
- Shameless. Each animal name is chosen with care. Bulls are violent men doing their own will. Dogs are the shameless. The lion's mouth is Satan's power over death.
- Pierced. David describes nailed hands and feet before anyone died that way. Crucifixion was Roman, not Jewish. His own hands were never pierced.
- Disputed. One reading gives "like a lion," but the ancient translations and Jewish witnesses back "they pierced." The same word marks the slave who will not leave his master.
- Surrendered. Men did the piercing, yet the psalm turns to God: no hand could have brought Him down until His hour came.
I may count all my bones. They look, they stare upon me;
On the cross the Sufferer looks down at a body so wasted that He can count His own bones, while the crowd gazes at Him as if at a show. Two questions press: how did anyone write this scene down long before Israel had seen a crucifixion, and what did the staring cost Him?
The details listed here match one particular form of execution.
"Psalm 22 is a vivid picture of death by crucifixion. The bones of the hands, arms, shoulders and pelvis out of joint; the heavy sweating that comes with intense suffering; the heart affected; strength gone and extreme thirst; the hands and feet pierced; the body left partly naked, with the shame that brings — all of these belong to that way of dying… Crucifixion was a Roman form of execution, not a Jewish one. Remember that, and the proof of inspiration is overwhelming."
Readers comparing translations will find that some number the line about the pierced hands and feet as verse 17, and there has long been discussion over how the Hebrew there should be read.
I now turn to Psalm 22:17. The most ancient Hebrew reading is said to give "like a lion."… The reason for reading it as it stands in the English translation is that the ancient Jews insist it is so in the old Hebrew… The Septuagint (about a century and a half before our Lord) translates it, "they pierced my hands and my feet"; so does the Vulgate.
The picture is of a body so drained and drawn that its frame shows through.
He was also so emaciated as to speak of His bones being visible (v. 17). And here, centuries before the Lord Jesus was crucified, He speaks of His enemies dividing His garments among themselves.
The second half of the verse turns from His body to their faces. What was done to Him left them entirely unmoved.
Exposed — every bone to be counted — to such eyes as these, that gaze and stare and do not flinch: not ashamed in the presence of their Judge and Maker. Parting among them the garments they have stripped from Him, and casting the lot… to decide the ownership of that seamless priestly robe which marks Him as what He is, "the Mediator between God and men," upon whom all the blessing of man depends.
Being looked at like that was not a small thing next to the physical pain. It registered on Him, and it draws His people into fellowship with Him.
Christ is an example to us in His suffering from men. I am partaker of His sufferings… He suffered also perfectly with the feeling of a man. "Reproach has broken my heart." "They can count all my bones." "They look and stare at me." Hanged up as a criminal before the world, He felt it all; and the more refined the feeling, the more sharply His disciple's unfaithfulness was felt by Him. It was love to Peter that brought him back.
He could count His bones — yet not one of them broke. Commentators link this to what the soldiers did at the cross.
The soldiers broke the legs of the robbers, but found that the Lord was dead already. They disobeyed orders, and one of them pierced the side of the Lord Jesus with a spear instead. This had to happen, for Scripture had foretold this very thing, and also that no bone of His should be broken (Zech. 12:10; Ex. 12:46). The bones, the framework of the body, speak of the basic truth about His person, which stayed unchanged and unbroken all through His dreadful sufferings.
Men are the ones staring here. But the psalm's deeper subject is what He took from God's hand. That is why it ends in blessing.
Man is in the scene, both Jew and Gentile, but only as the blind tool that carries out God's will. It is from God's hand that the Lord takes the cup… And just because He suffers here from the hand of God, and is forsaken, we have atonement in this psalm… where atonement is found, grace and blessing flow out in ever-widening circles, until they reach the ends of the earth.
- Foretold — The wasted body, the pierced hands and feet, the raging thirst: a Roman execution described centuries before Israel ever saw one.
- Counted — He is worn to the frame, every bone visible, stripped bare in front of a crowd whose eyes gaze and do not flinch.
- Felt — He suffered with the full feeling of a man; hung up as a criminal before the world, He felt all of it.
- Kept — Not one of those bones broke. His person came through the suffering unchanged.
- Reached — His deepest suffering came from God's hand. So the psalm ends in blessing that spreads to the ends of the earth.
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
Soldiers at the cross shared out the clothes of the One they had just crucified. Scripture had recorded that small act a thousand years earlier, which raises a question: why would God write down something so minor, and what does it say about the One being stripped?
The soldiers were not thinking about Scripture at all. God had marked their act in His word long before they did it:
Little did the soldiers who had charge of the execution think beyond their poor extra pay. But God's eye was now, as ever, on His Son, and He had taken care in His word to mark it. One of the most clearly Messianic psalms (Ps. 22:18) holds the exact prediction, written a thousand years beforehand. It says the soldiers would take the Saviour's garments, and it points unmistakably to Him... The very smallness of what is mentioned bears witness to the accurate reality of the prophecy. He is the proven Messiah as well as the rejected one.
That day the same soldiers acted out one written prediction after another:
This is particularly striking if we take the case of the Roman soldiers — men who were unaware that the Scriptures even existed... His appearance was to be "so marred, beyond human semblance," according to Isaiah 52:14, and the crown of thorns and the beatings fulfilled this. The Judge of Israel was to be struck "with a rod on the cheek," according to Micah 5:1; this the soldiers did... Verse 24 records their fulfilment of Psalm 22:18... We think we are right in saying that at least 24 prophecies were fulfilled in the 24-hour day when Jesus died.
Verses 16-20 turn to the soldiers around the cross. Watch how they behaved while He was dying:
In verses 16-20 the Gentile opposition to Christ passes before us. Like dogs, acting without heart or conscience, they hand over to death One whom they admit is innocent. They pierce His hands and His feet. Then, with a brutal callousness that knows neither shame nor feeling, they stare at Him and gamble for His clothes.
In Israel the lot was never a mere game of chance. That is what makes this gambling so dark:
They cast the lot — in Israel sacred to the Lord (Prov. 16:33) — to decide who owns that seamless priestly robe, which marks Him out as what He is, "the Mediator between God and men," the One on whom all man's blessing depends... Was it not, in fact, a sign of the most solemn kind — men stripping Christ of His clothing, holding Him up like that to the scorn of men? And what could suit the deed better? They took, as it were, the lot which belonged to God — the sign of His sovereignty even in what man calls "accident" — and used it to dishonour and degrade the One for whom God had decreed the highest honour.
The psalm mentions two things: garments divided, and one item decided by lot. The soldiers' plunder shows what the Lord owned, and one writer draws a careful suggestion from the garment itself:
All four Gospels tell us about the soldiers' gamble for the Lord's garments. A man's coat was his own. Under the law of Moses, even a coat pledged during the day had to come back to him at night. These clothes the soldiers gambled for were the Lord's only possessions, and even these they took from Him. How poor He became for our sakes! ... We are wary of fanciful interpretations of Scripture. But a man's garment often shows his character in Scripture. If it does so here, we suggest this garment may picture the perfect evenness and consistency of the Lord's life and character — He was everything He ever said.
There is another side to this. Men were taking; He was giving:
Then they crucify Him and divide His garments among them, casting lots. All the while the light of prophecy shines steadily on all this, like the great Eye of God — unnoticed, yet noticing in silence, until the time comes to act... But is He not in fact providing, at His own cost, the clothing to cover men's nakedness — even for His enemies? And by divine appointment too, which the lot in Israel spoke of. Certainly this alone is how any of us can say, "He has covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isa. 61:10).
- Written — Scripture named the fate of His clothing a thousand years early. The smaller the detail, the stronger the proof.
- Witnessed — soldiers who had never read the Scriptures acted them out. That single day saw at least twenty-four prophecies come true.
- Watched — men who admitted He was innocent stared and gambled while He suffered. God's eye was on every moment.
- Wagered — in Israel the lot marked God's own decision. Men used it to dishonour the One God had decreed to honour most.
- Woven — the coat they would not tear pictures a life of unbroken consistency. They stripped it from Him, and He covers the naked with the robe of righteousness.