Psalm 22

Everyone has heard of Psalm 23, right? "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want," and so on. But Psalm 22 should sound pretty familiar as well . . .

"My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (v1)

Yeeees, those are the very words that Jesus spoke on the cross, just before He died. They were His "father" David's words, a thousand years before the crucifixion.

As one continues to read this Psalm it will soon become very apparent that this entire chapter, written by King David, was about Jesus. It depicts Him was on the cross, dying for all of us. David wrote what God placed on his heart.

I encourage you to read the entire chapter and see how many New Testament verses you can find. There are several.

Psalm 22

But the one phrase I want to talk about today is found in verses19-21

"¹⁹But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me.

²⁰Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.

²¹Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen."

David isn't talking about animals here. He is referring to people who act like these animals. He's not talking about fuzzy little puppies when he mentions "the dogs." Back in David's time, dogs were mostly vicious feral scavengers.

In David's day these "animals" in Psalm 22 were probably referring to Saul and his army, and the Philistines. In Jesus' day they were the Pharisees and the Romans, AND even the Gentiles. Yep. You and me.

"²⁵The woman (a Canaanite woman - a Gentile) came and knelt before him (Jesus). “Lord, help me!” she said.

²⁶He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

²⁷“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” - Matthew 15:25-27

So, who are "the dogs" of today? Hamas? Hezbollah? Russia? Unbelievers? Charlie Kirk's shooter? Could be. Yet even these would be welcomed by Jesus if they repented and came to Him on their knees.

To learn more about these dogs and what all of this means, click on the link below. It's short.

The Power of The Dog - GotQuestions.org