I Am A Worm And Not A Man - The One Year Book of Psalms

Psalm 22:1-10

For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be sung to the tune “Doe of the Dawn.”

1My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?

Why do you remain so distant?

Why do you ignore my cries for help?

2Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.

Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief.

3Yet you are holy.

The praises of Israel surround your throne.

4Our ancestors trusted in you,

and you rescued them.

5You heard their cries for help and saved them.

They put their trust in you and were never disappointed.

6But I am a worm and not a man.

I am scorned and despised by all!

7Everyone who sees me mocks me.

They sneer and shake their heads, saying,

8“Is this the one who relies on the LORD?

Then let the LORD save him!

If the LORD loves him so much,

let the LORD rescue him!”

9Yet you brought me safely from my mother’s womb

and led me to trust you when I was a nursing infant.

10I was thrust upon you at my birth.

You have been my God from the moment I was born.

Lancelot Andrewes, an Anglican clergyman who helped translate the King James Version of the Bible, once preached a sermon on the first part of verse 6, “But I am a worm and not a man.”

He said a fisherman knows that fish will never bite unless there is a worm on the hook. Similarly, Andrewes said that when Jesus came for our redemption, he hid “his godhead within the worm of his human nature. The great water serpent, the Devil, thinking to swallow the worm of his humanity, was caught upon the hook of his divinity. . . . By thinking to destroy Christ, he destroyed his own kingdom and lost his own power.”

Psalm 22 describes a man in deep depression, feeling forsaken by everyone, including God. The entire psalm is similar to the account of Jesus’ crucifixion, so it’s no wonder that Jesus quoted verse 1 from the cross. There, bearing the world’s sin, he felt utterly forsaken by his heavenly Father, who had called him his “beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). But, as Andrewes reminds us, the Father had not completely abandoned his Son. He was working out a greater, eternal purpose—the salvation of humanity.

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners’ gain;

Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain.

Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ‘Tis I deserve thy place;

Look on me with thy favor, and grant to me thy grace.

BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

Bible Networking

Compare how the sufferings of this character resemble those described in Isaiah 52:13–53:12 and with Matthew 27:41-46.

Notable Quotable

“Here is comfort to ‘deserted’ souls. Christ himself was deserted. You may be beloved of God and not feel it. Christ was.”

JOHN ROW