We are going to look at verses in Psalm 22 that are prophecies about the crucifixion of Jesus, and the how the life cycle of the red aphid/worm (Hebrew: "tola" in 22:6), also parallels His death.
Verse 1: of Psalm 22 is what Jesus quoted, word for word, in Aramaic, from the cross.
Matthew 27:43-45 “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lemasabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)
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I only found this out within the last 2 years, that this was a quote from Psalm 22! Then when I read Psalm 22...I was like wow! Ok, I totally get why Jesus would say the first line of this Psalm!
For some reason I had just never noticed or paid attention to the footnote in my Bible in Matthew 28 - but I had also never heard anyone teach on this subject. And I feel it's important to know and understand this why Jesus said this.
So: WHY is Jesus quoting the opening line important?
The first phrase of a book [sometimes] functioned as its title in the Jewish mind. For example, consider the Hebrew name of the Book of Genesis: which means, ‘In the beginning.’ (which is the first words of the book of Genesis: "in the beginning".
Or the name of the Book of Leviticus: which means, ‘And he called.’ These phrases are the opening phrases of those books, but if one says one of them, the book as a whole is brought to mind.
Jesus quoted the opening phrase of Psalm 22, effectively saying the title of that psalm. He wanted those looking on to bring that psalm to mind and consider it. - (Hans Bjelke, Quora.com)
Psalm 22 begins with a person crying out to God for help, and ends with God hearing him and making him victorious and proclaiming the Lord’s righteousness.
While Jesus had difficulty breathing and speaking because of his physical condition, he couldn’t say the entirety of the Psalm (obviously), but he could direct those around him to remember this particular Psalm. If 30% of a particular Psalm matched up with a 12 hour situation in my life, I would want to point people to that!
(And crucifixion was not the means of capital punishment in Judaism, so people weren't automatically thinking about this Psalm, which is why he was directing people's thought to it!)
Some people believe that Jesus was actually asking God why he had forsaken him. But you can also look at this way:
This was not a question of Jesus looking for an answer, but a way of expressing himself. He knew what was taking place beforehand and was not surprised.
Jesus being betrayed, arrested, and crucified was not a surprise to him. He knew all of this would happen.
He says in Matthew 12 : “as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Later in Matthew 20, Jesus says “we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again”
Consider what Jesus says as recorded by John
John 13, he said to his disciples at the last supper, before anything had happened, that one of them would betray him:
“ this [betrayal] is to fulfill the Scripture:
‘The one who shares My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ (Psalm 41:9)
I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it comes to pass, you will believe that I am He.”
John 10: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep..I lay down My life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord…This instruction I have received from My Father.
In Luke 24, (44-46) Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was risen, but they had trouble believing it was him, even after he showed them the wounds in his hands and his feet.
Jesus said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.”
So there were Psalms that his purpose was to fulfill, and You know he had to open their minds to Psalm 22 especially, and we are going to go through the rest of this psalm and see just how much these verses were fulfilled by Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion and resurrection:
keep in mind ***This is an amazing foretelling of the crucifixion written by David 1000 years before Jesus, at a time when Rome was not in power over Israel, and when crucifixion was not a Jewish means of capital punishment.***So Psalm 22 really would not have made sense to the Jewish reader - until THIS DAY happened.
:2 I cry in the daytime, And in the night season,
Jesus was on the cross during the daytime, and taken off the cross before 6 PM in the evening (to fulfill Jewish law from Deut. 21:22-23), BUT there was daylight AND darkness while he was on the cross (from noon - 3 PM)
“From the sixth hour until the ninth-hour darkness came over all the land." Matthew 27:45
:6 I am a worm (tola), and no man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people
The creature called tôlā’ in Hebrew is either translated as”worm” or “scarlet”. When David wrote it, it could have meant worm, but the tola is red aphid-like insect, which produces a brilliant red dye, and Jesus is the human embodiment of this insect (more on that)
One of his own disciples betrayed him, the Pharisees, scribes, priests and elders wanted him dead, as well as the crowds, who asked for Jesus to be crucified.
:7 All who see me mock me; they shake the head, saying
:8 “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
One person can try to fulfill something by themselves, but to have others fulfilling something is much more difficult. But see how 4 groups of people - including Jews, gentiles, criminals and religious leaders - all fulfilled verses 7-8!
The Roman soldiers: Before being nailed to the cross, they spat on Jesus and mocked him
Those who passed by: hurled insults at him While he was on the cross, , shaking their heads and saying, “Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”
chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders: In the same way the mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him
rebels who were crucified with him: also heaped insults on him.”
I wonder if the Chief Priests and teachers of the Law and elders were “aware” that they were quoting Psalm 22!
:14 I am poured out like water
Before his death, Jesus had very likely lost a lot of blood from the flogging. Some people didn’t even survive that, so your very life, your blood, is pouring out of you. The weakness that a human feels after losing a lot of blood, is like your energy and your life has just been poured out.
Additionally, when a Roman soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, blood and water poured from him (John 19:34)
:14 And all My bones are out of joint;
when a cross, with a person nailed to it, is on the ground and then is raised up and then dropped into the cross’s supporting hole in the ground, the arms and shoulders of the person were often pulled out of joint. It was all designed to make it torturous and painful to breathe.
:16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The band of wicked men has enclosed Me.
Fulfilled: When David wrote this, dogs could have been interpreted as anything at that time including actual dogs, but in the time of Jesus 1000 years later, the Jews referred to Gentiles as “dogs”. Jesus was surrounded by both gentiles (dogs / Romans soldiers) and his own countrymen, all intent on murdering the son of God.
:16 They pierced My hands and My feet;
Fulfilled: This is exactly what happened when the Roman soldiers (Gentile dogs) nailed Christ to the cross. Days later, Thomas refused to believe that Jesus had physically risen unless he saw the wounds inflicted by the nails and the spear. Jesus told Thomas to touch his wounds and believe (John 20:24-27).
17 All my bones are on display; they stare and gloat over me
A crucified man was naked (or had just a small piece of clothing on) on the cross so that all /most of his bones were on display to everyone around.
18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.
This is recorded by all four gospel writers.
Matthew 27:35-36 Then they (the Roman soldiers) crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet:
“They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.”
Additional Scripture fulfilled by the crucifixion - Psalm 34
John 9:31-36 n order that the bodies would not remain on the cross during the Sabbath, the Jews asked to have the legs broken and the bodies removed. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and those of the other. But when they saw that Jesus was already dead, they did not break His legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
Now these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of His bones will be broken.” (Psalm 34) And, as another Scripture says: “They will look on the One they have pierced.” (Zechariah 19,)
Psalm 34:15-20
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their cry;
17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.
The Shift:
There is a shift after verse 21, the Psalm goes from petition and lament to praise to God for hearing and answering
:19 You have answered Me.
:24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
He has NOT hidden his face from him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.
Though mankind may have despised Jesus, even his own disciples forsaking and abandoning him, God did not. Despite what I’ve heard people teach over the years, God the Father did not turn away from Jesus, or hide his face from him. Rather, the Father heard him.
(if you have not read through Psalm 22, these verses might surprise you, because they contradict the 1st verse that we most familiar with. )
I think we sing a song, I don’t know the name of it, but one of the lines is “the father turns his face away”. Now if that is in reference to Jesus being on the cross, then we might have to rethink how we sing that verse, maybe it should be “the father did not turn his face away”.
I know it’s a popular teaching, but does the Bible say here in verse 24? God did not turn his face away from him and heard his cries.
:31 They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, That He has done this.
Acts 2: (Peter, speaking to crowds at Day of Pentectost) “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not forsaken to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses”
The Tola:
Psalm 22:6 “ I am a worm (tola),
Tola is in the O.T. 43 times, 6 of those times it’s translated as “worm”, the rest it’s translated as scarlet [thread, color].God wanted tôlā’ (scarlet) yarn to be used in the curtains of the tabernacle and the priestly garments.
(from medium.com) by R.T. Brown
When God says ‘use scarlet yarn,’ He’s not merely saying ‘use worm yarn’ or ‘use red yarn.’ He’s saying ‘use tôlā’ yarn’ or ‘use the red yarn you make from the tôlā’ aphid.’
the dye was produced from the female, which lives on the kermes oak tree (crimson is taken from the word “kermes”
This dye was also used in the rites of purification from leprosy (Leviticus 14:4-6) and was added to the sin offering of a red heifer (Numbers 19:6).
When the time comes for the female tôlā’ to bear her young, she goes through a remarkable process to give birth, protect her young, and sustain them until she dies. She sucks sap from the oak tree and uses this sap to create a hard shell over her body and to permanently glue/fasten herself to a tree.
This hard shell will protect her and the eggs she lays beneath her.
When the larvae hatch, they live protected under the mother’s fastened body and protective hard shell covering; The baby worms feed on the living body of the mother worm for three days.
Then mother worm then dies and her body excretes a crimson or scarlet dye that stains the wood to which she is attached and her baby worms. The worms remain crimson colored for their entire life.
This tree is hard to look at. Even though I know it's not blood on this tree, but dye from mother tola's, this is still how I picture the cross looking!
When the tola is crushed to make the dye, it has a sweet fragrance.
“and walk in love, even as the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:2
On day four, the hard shell covering turns into a patch that is no longer crimson but has turned into a flaky white substance, looking like a patch of wool on the tree or a glob of snowflakes.
Isaiah 1:18 "Though your sins are like scarlet (shani) , they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as scarlet (tola), they shall be like wool.
I never would have made the connection between the red tola and the how it turns white, in a million years - but Isaiah knew about it, and uses it as an illustration. Now we can understand it, too!!
The mother worm not only provides covering and protection from the environment, but also sustenance through herself, as her offspring feed off of her very body. As she gives up her life, she becomes the source of life for her offspring.
So it is with Jesus.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” — John 6:51
God embedded this process and story of a sacrificial mother worm into the very fabric (literally) of the tabernacle, temple, and priestly process. It’s hard not to see the symbolism here as we think about Jesus in Psalm 22.
Here is something I found that was a good explanation of what all of this means:
Jesus identifies the character of God as One who is faithful. Time and time again, He has delivered His people as they trusted Him — He is a Rescuer of men.
Yet confusingly, God is not rescuing this Man . It would seem out of character, as this Man is doing all of the right things. Jesus says, “…[Those men] cried and were rescued, but I am not a man.”
Indeed, He is not a man — He is a tôlā’.
The tôlā’ by its nature is self-sacrificial. It chooses to be permanently bound to the tree. It does not expect that it will cry out and be rescued, for this sacrificial death is the very purpose for its existence.
This refusal to be rescued was precisely what they mocked (Mt. 27:39–44,49). In a sense, they might have figured He was less than a man. After all, God rescues men. If God won’t rescue this man, he must be less than a man. Worthless.
Jesus identifying himself as a tôlā’ was used to refusing to be rescued
John 12: “shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.
He focused on His Father’s character, His faithfulness...Jesus, like Moses (Exo. 32:32) or Paul (Rom 9:1–3) makes a request to God” “Rescue them, not me.
If I can give myself for their sake, I will.”
This is the heart and the purpose of the tôlā’.
Side notes (time permitting)
I first learned about the tola in a series of talks by Ray Vander Laan, he is a minister for ? he went to Israel and went to Rabbi school, and he gave a talk at Focus on the Family a few years back, it’s about 4-5 hours worth of listening, but if you have time, it’s really interesting.
I have the link to where you can listen or download his lecture on my links tab or just go to this link : https://oneinjesus.info/2008/10/ray-vander-laans-follow-the-rabbi-lectures/
Scripture references to the 3rd day: from Christianitytoday.com - Rhyne Putman
On day three of creation, the land brings forth plants and fruit trees. That’s the first day of “fruit”: the first day of grasses, herbs and trees that bear fruit. From that point on, the rising to life of God’s life-giving “seed” on the third day becomes a pattern.
Isaac was redeemed from death on the 3rd day, God came down to Mt. Sinai on the 3rd day, Esther saved her people from death on the 3rd day, Hosea says God will restore them on the 3rd day, and of course, Jonah was spat out of the whale after being in it’s stomach for 3 days, as Jesus himself said he will be in the ground like Jonah was, for 3 days and nights.
(Leviticus 23 - Law of Moses) - I was wondering what was in the law of Moses that talked about the 3rd day:
Within the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Day of Firstfruits - took place 3 days after the passover.
14th: passover - (Jesus crucified - day of preparation for feast of unleavened bread)
15th: 1st day of the feast of unleavened bread and a high sabbath
16th: day of firstfruits : (3rd day after passover) - Day Jesus rose from the dead) -
(50 days later, was the last day of the feast of firstfruits - the Feast of Weeks, called Pentecost (meaning 50), day that the church began)
Jesus is our passover lamb that was offered, but unlike all those other lambs that were sacrificed and died, he came back from the dead. On what day? The 3rd day - after passover, the day of firstfruits! He is the firstfruit from the dead!
1 Cor. 15: 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. Paul calls him the “firstborn of the dead” in Colossians 1.
I hope this lesson has given you a better understanding of Psalm 22 and the tola! Thanks for reading! I also post these lessons on substack, if you are on there or want to subscribe for free when I post a new lesson. https://aimeewilliams.substack.com/
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