The explanation for those who say Psalm 22 is a prophecy of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is that the Bible is not gospel truth. For instance I here mention just some elements in a local,* very rich mythological, far less literal mindset of the time:

  • The writers of the stories of the crucifixion were Jewish. They knew this passage.
  • Crucifixion was a common occurence and an analogy for ultimate suffering.
  • There are messianic myths of suffering in the cultures from Greece to China, some of them uncannily similar to that of Yeshua, and they are obviously not about Yeshua.
  • The culture was rich with human sacrifice and other extreme violence took place in the ongoing mayhem of sectarian rationalizations preceding 1000 BCE.

Remember both David and the writers of the New Testament were suffused with these kinds of stories and ensuing events. They were infused with these kinds of stories as infants, children, teenagers, and young adults in formation of their mental maturity. Their minds simply did not work like our minds, so we ought to be careful to project the way we would think onto him. Anyway, it is clear to me that believers are bending Psalm 22 to their own beliefs.

* I mean here that the mindset of David’s time, 1000 BCE was more blatantly mythological, but only because they had generally not yet axiomatized or subsumed/embodied the mythology. In contemporary civilized reality, myth has grown to such proportions that is has perceptually become as solid as the earth. It allows for the illusion of a far more organized and definitive abstract reality. Myth has become metaphysical, or subjective, making constructed civilized thinking seem objective or representative. It frames the very sophisticated mechanically rational cognition of common meaning making, and learning and maturity development. Yes, we seem to be more rational, but it is absolutely fake, essentially because of the way the fantastically established, axiomatic concept “reality” arranges it.