“Why art Thou … They look and stare … All My bones are out of joint…” Psalm 22 KJV
“Far from my deliverance … They look, they stare at me… All my bones are out of joint…” Psalm 22 NASB
Paul teaches us in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that man is a tripartite being, comprised of spirit, soul, and body. The ancient Gnostics taught that the material was inherently evil; modern thought is that we are only material and not spirit and soul. But Scripture maintains that we have a spirit that is God-conscious, a soul that is self-conscious, and a body that is material and physical.
As we progress through Psalm 22, we can mark the sufferings of the Lord Jesus in all these three spheres. As a real man, He was possessed of spirit, soul, and body. The Psalm opens with His suffering due to the forsaking, the interruption of the enjoyment of fellowship with God. He suffered in His spirit. The inspired writer is likely emphasizing that these were the most intense and greatest of His sorrows by placing it at the very beginning of the Psalm.
But then there was the verbal abuse, shame, and indignity which He sustained at the hands of men. These would be included in the expressions from verse 6 to 13. They laughed at His sufferings; they taunted Him with reminders of His perfect dependence and faithfulness to God. The shaking of the head was perhaps a mockery of His suffering; the shooting out of the lip a mark of disdain for His person. His sensitive soul suffered from the abuse and ridicule of men.
But He suffered physically as well. “All My bones are out of joint.” And My strength is dried up … My tongue cleaves to My jaws … I
may tell all My bones …” (vv 14-17). His suffering physically was not only real, but it was experienced in a body that was sensitive to every aspect of physical suffering.
While we frequently admit that we cannot fathom what the Lord Jesus suffered when bearing our sins and enduring the judgment of God, it is equally true that we cannot know the depth of His sorrow and suffering in His soul and body. His was a sensitivity to the evil done to Him which we cannot measure.
The Lord Jesus was never hardened by sin or to sin. The verbal barbs were felt by a tender heart; the physical suffering was endured in a perfect body. Men derive “comfort” in their suffering by thoughts of vengeance and retaliation; by heaping upon their tormentors their own verbal scorn and abuse. But “when He suffered, He threatened not” (1 Pet 2:23). Every aspect of His suffering, in every aspect of His being, is beyond any experience which any of His believers have known.
Consider:
I made the statement that the Lord Jesus, as a real man, possessed spirit, soul, and body. Prove this by statements in John 11-13 which speak of His spirit, soul, and body.