SERMON 136   PSALM 22

The Holy Scriptures, the TANAKH, is the English translation published by the

Jewish Publication Society of the Hebrew  Bible.  This translation was first

published in the year  5,748, commonly know as  1988.  We will read verse 

seventeen in the twenty second Psalm.  

    Dogs surround me;

    a pack of evil ones closes in on me,

    like lions [they maul]  my hands and feet.  Psalm 22:l7.

The last phrase  is translated showing two  different readings.  The one is:

    “like lions my hands and feet.”

     The alternate reading is:  “ they  maul my hands and feet.

The first reading does not make sense, but the second reading does make sense.

What is the difference in the Hebrew text?  The difference is in the last letter in

the word.  Is the word KAARI or is it KAARU.  Is the last letter in the word a Hebrew  yod 
or a vav?  The Masoretic Text  has  a  yod, but the  Septuagint was translated  from

the Hebrew text into Greek by Jewish scholars  working from between  280 B.C.E. and     

180 B.C.E.   At that time the Hebrew  text that they used must have had  a vav , 

because that is the way that they translated it.   So KAARU was the original word in the 

original text, most likely,  since it makes sense and that is the way the Jewish scholars  

translated the Septuagint.  Vav and yod are similar in appearance.  Vav has a longer 

verticle  line.   A scribe could easily have  made the verticle line shorter so that it  then 

looked like a  yod.  

    So then let us read that  verse again from the  Holy Scriptures, Tanakh, published by 

by The Jewish Publication Sociey.   Psalm 22:17:  
    Dogs surround me;

    a pack of ev il ones closes in on me,

    they maul my hands and feet.  Psalm 22:17.

    Now let us read the context beginning at Psalm 22:l5:

    My life ebbs away:

    all my bones are disjointed;

    my heart is like wax,

    melting within me;

    my vigor dries up like a shard;

    my tongue cleaves to my palate;

    You commit me to the dust of death.

    Dogs surround me;

    a pack of evil ones closes in on me,

    they maul my hands and feet.

    I take the count of all my bones

    while they look on and gloat.

    They divide my clothes among themselves,

     casting  lots for my garments.    Psalm 22:l5-l9.

This is a descriiption of a person being killed:  “My life ebbs away:”

“You commit me to the dust of death.”    Yes, it tells about a person being killed.

Notice the suffering:  “all my bones are disjointed;”  “I take the count of all my bones”

The suffering includes his bones becoming disjointed, being pulled apart so that he 

can count all his bones.  

    His suffering includes:  “my vigor dries up like a shard;  my tongue cleaves to my palate.”  Yes, his suffering includes drying up, his tongue sticking to his palate, great thirst.  

    His suffering includes:  “they maul my hands and my feet.”  

Most English translations  read, “they pierce my hands and  and my feet.”

Was the Psalmist David writing about himself/  David did not die from having his hands

and feet pierced or mauled.  David died in peace of old age.  No, David was not 

writing about himself in the twenty second Psalm.  Remember, David was a prophet of 

God.  He foretold the death of another person  who would suffer greatly having his 

bones  disjointed, suffering great thirst and  suffering pierced hands and feet.
Notice verse 8:  “All who see me mock me;

And in verse we read, “a  pack of evil ones closes in on me, . . .”

When His hands and feet are pierced, it is written:”They divide my clothes among 

themselves, casting lots for my garments.”

As we look at history who fulfilled this prophecy of David?  It was not David.

Was David prophesing  about Messiah in this Psalm, the  twenty second Psalm?

David prophesied about Messiah in the second Psalm and others.  If you read the 

history of the death of Jesus,  Y’shua, of Nazarth in Matthew chapter 27, you wll find

that Y’shua fulfilled in detail the prophecies of David in Psalm 22.  He suffered 

mocking  by evil men, his bone hung disjointed from the cross;,  He suffered great

thirst; they pierced His hands and His feet.  They  divided His clothes among them

and cast lots for His garments.  The suffering and death of Messiah were  foretold by

  King David of Israel  a thousand years  before it happened.