Psalm 22 begins with the cry Jesus prayed on the Cross: “O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me?” It is the prayer of a just man in agony, mocked, pierced and stripped of his garments, yet it ends in praise and in the conversion of “all the ends of the earth.” In the Douay-Rheims and other older Catholic Bibles it is numbered Psalm 21. Below is the full Catholic text, what the psalm means, how the Church uses it, and a prayer.
Psalm 22 in the Douay-Rheims Bible
Unto the end, for the morning protection, a psalm for David.
O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins.
O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear: and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me.
But thou dwellest in the holy place, the praise of Israel.
In thee have our fathers hoped: they have hoped, and thou hast delivered them.
They cried to thee, and they were saved: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
But I am a worm, and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.
All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn: they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the head.
He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him: let him save him, seeing he delighteth in him.
For thou art he that hast drawn me out of the womb: my hope from the breasts of my mother.
I was cast upon thee from the womb. From my mother’s womb thou art my God,
Depart not from me. For tribulation is very near: for there is none to help me.
Many calves have surrounded me: fat bulls have besieged me.
They have opened their mouths against me, as a lion ravening and roaring.
I am poured out like water; and all my bones are scattered. My heart is become like wax melting in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue hath cleaved to my jaws: and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death.
For many dogs have encompassed me: the council of the malignant hath besieged me. They have dug my hands and feet.
They have numbered all my bones. And they have looked and stared upon me.
They parted my garments amongst them; and upon my vesture they cast lots.
But thou, O Lord, remove not thy help to a distance from me; look towards my defence.
Deliver, O God, my soul from the sword: my only one from the hand of the dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth; and my lowness from the horns of the unicorns.
I will declare thy name to my brethren: in the midst of the church will I praise thee.
Ye that fear the Lord, praise him: all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him.
Let all the seed of Israel fear him: because he hath not slighted nor despised the supplication of the poor man. Neither hath he turned away his face from me: and when I cried to him he heard me.
With thee is my praise in a great church: I will pay my vows in the sight of them that fear him.
The poor shall eat and shall be filled: and they shall praise the Lord that seek him: their hearts shall live for ever and ever.
All the ends of the earth shall remember, and shall be converted to the Lord: And all the kindreds of the Gentiles shall adore in his sight.
For the kingdom is the Lord’s; and he shall have dominion over the nations.
All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and have adored: all they that go down to the earth shall fall before him.
And to him my soul shall live: and my seed shall serve him.
There shall be declared to the Lord a generation to come: and the heavens shall shew forth his justice to a people that shall be born, which the Lord hath made.
Psalm 22 or Psalm 21?
The Douay-Rheims Bible follows the numbering of the Latin Vulgate and the Greek Septuagint, while most modern Bibles follow the Hebrew. So the Douay’s Psalm 21 is Psalm 22 in the New American Bible and other modern translations. In Latin the psalm begins Deus, Deus meus, respice in me: quare me dereliquisti?. See how many psalms are there?
Jesus prays Psalm 22 on the Cross
At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out the opening words of this psalm:
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying: Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
The Evangelists saw other verses fulfilled in the Passion: the mocking crowd, the pierced hands and feet, and the soldiers dividing his clothes:
The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified him, took his garments, (and they made four parts, to every soldier a part,) and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
They said then one to another: Let us not cut it, but let us cast lots for it, whose it shall be; that the scripture might be fulfilled, saying: They have parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they have cast lots. And the soldiers indeed did these things.
By praying the first line, Jesus made the whole psalm his own, including its ending, which moves from abandonment to trust and from death to the praise of God among all nations.
What the psalm means
- A real cry of anguish: the psalm gives words to anyone who feels abandoned by God, and shows that such a cry can itself be a prayer.
- Trust in the darkness: even in suffering the psalmist remembers that “in thee have our fathers hoped… and thou hast delivered them.”
- The Passion foretold: “They have dug my hands and feet. They have numbered all my bones… upon my vesture they cast lots.”
- From suffering to praise: “I will declare thy name to my brethren: in the midst of the church will I praise thee” (quoted in Hebrews 2:12).
- A mission to the world: “All the ends of the earth shall remember, and shall be converted to the Lord.”
How the Church uses Psalm 22
- On Palm Sunday, every year, as the responsorial psalm: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” See Palm Sunday.
- On Good Friday and in Holy Week, when the Church meditates on the Passion. See Good Friday.
- In times of desolation, as a prayer of trust when God seems far away.
A prayer with Psalm 22
Written for this page:
Lord Jesus, on the Cross you prayed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
When I feel abandoned, let me pray with you and trust as you trusted.
By your wounds, heal me; by your death, give me life;
and let me one day praise you in the great assembly of your saints. Amen.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Jesus say “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
He was praying the first line of Psalm 22, which begins in anguish and ends in trust and praise. The Church has always read it as a sign of his real suffering and of his confidence in the Father.
What does Psalm 22 prophesy?
Christians see in it the Passion of Christ: the mocking, the pierced hands and feet, and the casting of lots for his garments (John 19:24).
Is Psalm 22 a psalm of despair?
No. It begins in anguish but ends in praise and hope for all nations.
More psalms and prayers
- Prayer Before a Crucifix (En Ego)
- Psalm 69 (Save me, O God)
- Psalm 2 (You are my Son)
- Psalm 13 (How long, O Lord?)
- Psalm 31 (Into your hands I commend my spirit)
- Psalm 23
- Psalm 51 (Miserere)
- Palm Sunday
- Good Friday
- How many psalms are there?
Texts and sources
- Scripture: Psalm 21 (22); Matthew 27:46; John 19:23–24, Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner), public domain.
- The prayer was written for this page.