“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.” (Psalms 22:14)
There is controversy about this psalm. David wrote it, but in his lament over his own troubles did he prophetically write about Jesus’ sufferings? There are parts of the psalm that are quickly recognizably linking it to Jesus. The fact that Jesus uttered “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” meaning my God, my God why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Matthew 27:46) connect it to this psalm. Jesus purposefully pointed out that this psalm was about Him.
In David’s lament, his description of the suffering would have killed him. What David describes would have led to his death. Yet David lived to reign again in Jerusalem. So in his lament, God uses David to describe the sufferings of Jesus. Medical information today supports the fact that the sufferings of Jesus led to cardiac rupture, asphyxiation, and shock, none of which David suffered.
In our Scripture of study, we take a portion of David’s description to understand how Jesus felt. We take into account that these terrors are due to us, because of our sin, and not His. No human could have possibly lived the trauma Jesus went through. Jewish law commanded that scourging would be no more than 40 lashes. (Deuteronomy 25:3) The soldiers driven by demonic hatred for Jesus and unrestrained except that He live to be crucified, it is believed, flogged Jesus more than the 40 commanded by Jewish law.
“I am poured out like water.” Some have commented that this means that His strength had left Him and that He felt as lifeless and as weak as water. Water is very precious and to pour it out would be wasteful. But when we pour out water, we cast it out and allow it to be wasted because it is useless. Jesus, God incarnate, is holy, pure and worthy, more than anything earthly, is considered and likened to useless water and like used bathwater, which is poured out. This is closer in meaning to the original Hebrew which means, gushed out and expended, dissipated and squandered. Taking that into consideration, David is saying that he is considered as expendable as water that needs to be thrown out. Such was Jesus by the pharisees, by Pilate, by the soldiers and by the crowds that chose Barabas over Him and followed Him all the way to His crucified body on the cross cursing and mocking Him.
David also writes that all his bones are out of joint. We know for a fact that this didn’t happen to David. He may have felt like all his bones were out of joint. In his troubles, David felt weak and impotent to lift a finger to defend himself against the forces that were coming against him. But Jesus didn’t merely feel as if His bones were out of joint, they literally did as a result of the crucifixion. It is medically documented that crucifixion caused the joints to come out of their sockets adding to the inability to lift Himself up to enable breathing.
The last thing David writes in this verse has to do with his heart. He felt as if his heart had melted. This refers to a disheartening feeling caused by his troubles rendering him demoralized and despondent. Jesus felt the same, but even more so, eventually having what most medical reports say is a heart attack. The following is a medical report:
“The difficulty surrounding exhalation leads to a slow form of suffocation. Carbon dioxide builds up in the blood, resulting in a high level of carbonic acid in the blood. The body responds instinctively, triggering the desire to breathe. At the same time, the heart beats faster to circulate available oxygen. The decreased oxygen (due to the difficulty in exhaling) causes damage to the tissues and the capillaries begin leaking watery fluid from the blood into the tissues. This results in a build-up of fluid around the heart (pericardial effusion) and lungs (pleural effusion). The collapsing lungs, failing heart, dehydration, and the inability to get sufficient oxygen to the tissues essentially suffocate the victim. The decreased oxygen also damages the heart itself (myocardial infarction) which leads to cardiac arrest. In severe cases of cardiac stress, the heart can even burst, a process known as cardiac rupture. Jesus most likely died of a heart attack.”
What David so aptly wrote about how he was feeling, prophetically described what Jesus went through. This is what we deserve. This is the penalty for sin and more eternally. Jesus died in our stead so we could live righteously (1 Peter 2:24), so we could be free not only of the penalty for sin, but free of the bondage of sin and control of the devil. Jesus bought and paid for our freedom to be what God created us, His children glorifying Him on the earth and for eternity.
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