Psalm 22 in Handel’s Messiah

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The full text of Handel’s Messiah can be found in this Interactive Edition. It includes a brief introduction to each part, as well as the biblical texts of Messiah and a link to a performance of that part on YouTube.

Handel’s Messiah sings what Jesus asserted in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” Charles Jennens composed the libretti for Handel’s oratorio, and he mainly used the Old Testament, interpreting it in accordance with the New Testament’s claims that all was fulfilled in Christ. In this short article, we will consider the treatment of Psalm 22 in Part 2 of Handel’s Messiah, numbers 22–31.

Our main question is this: Does Jennens get it right? That is, did David, author of Psalm 22, intend his words to be interpreted the way Jennens reads them?

To answer this question, we will first summarize the biblical texts Jennens employs in this section, then consider what David intended in Psalm 22, to set up consideration of the success of Jennens’ interpretation.

The Biblical Texts in Part Two, Numbers 22–31

Jennens opens this section with number 22 singing John 1:29, before numbers 23–26 turn to Isaiah 53:3–6. Jennens then introduces Psalm 22:7–8 in numbers 27–28 before giving numbers 29–31 to Psalm 69:20, Lamentations 1:12, and Isaiah 53:8 respectively.

From this we can see that the main Scriptural engagement is between Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, with a dash of Psalm 69 and Lamentations 1, the opening identification of Jesus as the Lamb of God in John 1:29 establishing the framework in which all these texts are presented. How does this comport with what David sang in Psalm 22?

What David Intended in Psalm 22

The Lord Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 from the cross in Matthew 27:46, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But in Psalm 22, David speaks those words about his own experience. We can say similar things about Psalm 22:7–8, which Matthew also engages (Matt. 27:39–43): David seems to be speaking of himself and his own experience in Psalm 22, prompting us to ask how we get from David’s words about himself to fulfillment in Christ?

I am convinced that David consciously intended to speak of himself as a type of the one to come, so that he knew he was prefiguring and foreshadowing what would be fulfilled in the experience of the seed God promised him in 2 Samuel 7 as he spoke of his own travails in Psalm 22. What would lead David to such conclusions? I have argued elsewhere that David understood the historical correspondence and escalation between his own experience and that of Joseph and Moses, and that in conjunction with what God said to him through Nathan in 2 Samuel 7, he was led to these conclusions by the prophetic inspiration of the Holy Spirit (see also Acts 2:30–31).[1]

1. See further James M. Hamilton Jr., Typology—Understanding the Bible’s Promise-Shaped Patterns: How Old Testament Expectations Are Fulfilled in Christ (Zondervan, 2022); along with James M. Hamilton Jr., “Was Joseph a Type of the Messiah? Tracing the Typological Identification between Joseph, David, and Jesus,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 12 (2008): 52–77; and James M. Hamilton Jr., “David’s Biblical Theology and Typology in the Psalms: Authorial Intent and Patterns of the Seed of Promise,” in The Psalms: Exploring Theological Themes, ed. David M. Howard and Andrew J. Schmutzer (Bellingham: Lexham, 2023), 63–78.

David understood that he was in the line of descent of the promised seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), he saw the similarities between his own suffering-then-exaltation and that of Moses and Joseph, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he expected a similar pattern in the life of the one God promised to raise up from his line. Thus, if he spoke of himself but knew that he was typifying the one to come, then his intention was to describe his own experience while simultaneously pointing beyond himself to his seed.










What about the juxtaposition of Psalm 22 with Isaiah 53?

The Success of Jennens’ Interpretation

Charles Jennens likely joined Isaiah 53 and Psalms 22 and 69 because of the way Isaiah picks up key terms used by David in those psalms. Isaiah draws the word “despised” (Isa. 53:3) from Psalm 22:6, and he takes the term “pierced” (Isa. 53:5) from Psalm 69:26. The points of contact between Isaiah 11 an Isaiah 53 also establish that the servant in Isaiah 53 is the future king in Isaiah 11. By juxtaposing these texts, Jennens shows that David’s forward-looking typological self-descriptions in Psalms 22 and 69 are to be joined to Isaiah’s promise-shaped typological prophecy of the suffering of the future servant-king in Isaiah 53. This indeed is the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and with Lamentations mourning the destruction of the temple, the one who came as the fulfillment of the temple would naturally fulfill the sorrow sung there (Lam. 1:12; cf. John 1:14; 2:19–22).[2] 

2. For the idea that the flow of thought in the Psalter contributes to these developing ideas, see James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms Volume I: Psalms 1–72, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham: Lexham Academic, 2021); James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms Volume II: Psalms 73–150, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham: Lexham Academic, 2021); James M. Hamilton Jr. and Matthew Damico, Reading the Psalms as Scripture (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2024); and David C. Mitchell, The Message of the Psalter: An Eschatological Programme in the Book of Psalms, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997).

Conclusion

Charles Jennens correctly understood what the human authors of the Old Testament intended to communication, and in the selection and juxtaposition of key texts from Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, he joined passages that were themselves already in conversation with one another. With the music of Handel, that conversation sprang to song in celebration of the long-awaited Savior, the one who came to fulfill all things, for whose return we wait with eager expectation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author

  • Jim Hamilton

    Dr. Jim Hamilton is Professor of Biblical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Senior Pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. In addition to being part of the popular BibleTalk podcast team, he has written numerous books, including God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology and What Is Biblical Theology? A Guide to the Bible’s Story, Symbolism, and Patterns. His most recent books include a two-volume commentary on Psalms and a book on Typology.

Picture of Jim Hamilton

Jim Hamilton

Dr. Jim Hamilton is Professor of Biblical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Senior Pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. In addition to being part of the popular BibleTalk podcast team, he has written numerous books, including God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology and What Is Biblical Theology? A Guide to the Bible’s Story, Symbolism, and Patterns. His most recent books include a two-volume commentary on Psalms and a book on Typology.