Steelman: the Christian reading at its strongest

The argument from the Psalm 22-23-24 sequence is not merely that three familiar psalms can be associated with Jesus after the fact. In its strongest form, it is a canonical argument: the Psalter, as received Scripture, places side by side a suffering righteous one, the Lord's shepherding through the darkness of death, and the entrance of the "King of glory," who is explicitly "the LORD, strong and mighty" (Psalm 24:8). Read in light of the passion narratives, this sequence appears to trace suffering, death, and triumphant vindication.

Psalm 22 is the strongest part of the case. Jesus quotes its opening line from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46). The evangelists also present several details of the crucifixion in language that closely resembles the psalm. Psalm 22:7-8 describes mockery: "All who see me mock me... He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him." Matthew 27:39-43 echoes this language in the taunts directed at Jesus. Psalm 22:18 says, "they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots," a detail explicitly cited in John 19:24 and reflected in the Synoptic passion accounts. Psalm 22:16, in many Christian translations, reads, "they have pierced my hands and feet," which naturally evokes crucifixion.

Christian interpreters therefore have good reason to see Psalm 22 as more than a vague lament. It is one of the Old Testament texts most deeply woven into the New Testament's presentation of Jesus' death. Scholars across confessional lines recognize that the passion narratives are shaped by the language of the Psalms, especially Psalms 22 and 69. This is not a marginal or eccentric observation.

The sequence then moves to Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." In Christian reading, the sufferer of Psalm 22 passes through death under the shepherding care of the Lord. The connection is strengthened by the New Testament's portrayal of Jesus as the shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11), and by the broader biblical association of Davidic kingship with shepherding.

Psalm 24 then presents the climactic scene. The gates are commanded to open:

"Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle."

Early Christian writers often read this as an ascension text: the victorious Christ, having conquered death, enters the heavenly sanctuary. On this reading, Psalm 22 gives the cross, Psalm 23 gives the passage through death, and Psalm 24 gives the enthronement of the risen Lord. Since the "King of glory" in Psalm 24 is not merely a human king but YHWH himself, the sequence is taken to foreshadow not only Jesus' suffering and vindication, but his divine identity.

That is the argument in its ablest form. It is reverent, canonical, and deeply rooted in the way the New Testament itself reads Israel's Scriptures.

What Psalm 22 actually gives the argument

Psalm 22 is genuinely powerful evidence for the Christian passion reading. It is not honest to dismiss it as a weak proof text. The opening cry is placed on Jesus' lips by Mark and Matthew. The mockery language is striking. The casting of lots for garments is very close. The psalm moves from abandonment to public praise and worldwide acknowledgment of the Lord, which fits the Christian claim that the cross is followed by vindication.

Still, several distinctions matter.

First, in its original literary setting Psalm 22 is a lament of a righteous sufferer, traditionally associated with David. It is not written as a straightforward narrative prediction in the way one might describe a future event in advance. The psalmist is surrounded by enemies, depicted through vivid animal imagery: bulls, lions, dogs, and wild oxen. Such language is poetic and hyperbolic, not a clinical description of an execution.

Second, the famous phrase "they have pierced my hands and feet" involves a real textual issue. The traditional Hebrew Masoretic Text is difficult and is often rendered something like "like a lion are my hands and feet," though that wording is grammatically awkward. The Greek Septuagint reads "they dug" or "they pierced" my hands and feet, and some Hebrew manuscript evidence may support a reading closer to "pierced." Many Christian scholars regard "pierced" as plausible, and many translations adopt it. But the matter is not as textually simple as popular apologetics sometimes suggests. It is not comparable to the settled rejection of the Comma Johanneum in 1 John 5:7; here the evidence is genuinely debated.

Third, Jesus' quotation of Psalm 22:1 may well evoke the whole psalm, as ancient citation often worked by quoting the opening line. That strengthens the Christian reading, because Psalm 22 does not end in despair. It moves toward deliverance and praise. But the quotation itself also preserves a real feature of the text: the sufferer cries to "my God." If Jesus is identified with the sufferer, the psalm portrays him as one who prays to God, depends on God, and is delivered by God. Classical Trinitarian theology can account for this through the incarnation and the Son's relation to the Father, but Psalm 22 by itself does not simply say, "The sufferer is YHWH." It says the sufferer calls upon YHWH.

Psalm 23: the valley of deep darkness

Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved texts in Scripture, but its role in this argument is less direct than Psalm 22's. The phrase traditionally translated "the valley of the shadow of death" can also mean "the valley of deep darkness." It certainly can include mortal danger, and Christian readers naturally hear it in relation to death. But the psalm does not narrate the speaker's death. It describes the Lord's protective presence in danger.

This does not make the Christian reading illegitimate. Canonically, it is meaningful that after the cry of abandonment in Psalm 22 comes a psalm of trust: "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." The sequence can be read devotionally and theologically as movement from anguish to guarded passage. But Psalm 23 is not, in itself, a prediction that the Messiah will spend time among the dead or pass through death before enthronement.

There is also a christological tension to handle carefully. In Psalm 23, YHWH is the shepherd. In John 10, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd." That is significant. It participates in a broader New Testament pattern in which roles and titles belonging to Israel's God are associated with Jesus. But Psalm 23 alone does not identify the speaker as the shepherd. The speaker is the one shepherded by YHWH. If the psalm is placed on Jesus' lips, it emphasizes his trust in God; if it is applied to Jesus as shepherd, it relies on later New Testament development.

Psalm 24 and the King of glory

Psalm 24 is the crucial text for the deity claim. The "King of glory" is explicitly identified as "the LORD," that is, YHWH. The psalm likely has a liturgical setting, perhaps connected with procession into the sanctuary, the ark, or the celebration of YHWH's kingship. Its immediate subject is not a human Davidic king entering Jerusalem, but YHWH, the divine warrior and creator: "The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof" (Psalm 24:1).

Christian application of Psalm 24 to Jesus' ascension is ancient and theologically rich. If the risen Jesus is the one entering the heavenly gates as "the King of glory," then the implication is indeed high christology: Jesus is being associated with YHWH's own royal entrance and victory. This is not a trivial claim. It coheres with New Testament texts that call Jesus "Lord," place him on the divine throne, associate him with creation and judgment, or apply Old Testament YHWH texts to him.

But the key word is "if." Psalm 24 itself does not name the Messiah, does not mention resurrection, and does not describe the ascension of Jesus. Unlike Psalm 22, it is not explicitly quoted in the New Testament passion narratives as fulfilled in Christ. The application of Psalm 24 to the ascension is therefore a canonical and theological reading, not a direct apostolic citation of the psalm as a messianic proof.

This distinction matters. Psalm 24 strongly establishes the identity of the "King of glory" as YHWH. It does not, by itself, establish that Jesus is the figure in view. To use it as evidence for Jesus' deity, one must first show from the New Testament that Jesus is being identified with YHWH's glory, throne, rule, and saving presence. Once that broader case is made, Psalm 24 becomes a powerful liturgical and theological lens. Without that broader case, Psalm 24 proves the kingship of YHWH, not directly the deity of Jesus.

Canonical sequence or retrospective pattern?

The canonical arrangement of Psalms 22-24 is suggestive: lament, shepherding through darkness, royal entrance. Modern scholars such as Brevard Childs and Gerald Wilson helped renew attention to the final shape of the Psalter, not merely the isolated origin of each psalm. It is reasonable for Christian interpreters to ask whether the placement of psalms contributes to theological meaning.

Yet caution is needed. The fact that three psalms stand next to each other does not automatically mean they form a predictive chronology. The Psalter is a curated book, but not every neighboring sequence is a coded narrative. Psalm 22 can be messianically reread because the New Testament itself ties it to the passion. Psalm 23 can be included because it naturally speaks of trust amid mortal danger. Psalm 24 can be included because it celebrates YHWH's victorious entrance. Together they form a compelling Christian pattern. But the pattern is stronger as theological figuration than as grammatical-historical prediction.

What the argument establishes, and what it does not

The argument establishes several important points.

  • Psalm 22 is a major passion text. The New Testament clearly presents Jesus' crucifixion through its language. The mockery, abandonment cry, and casting lots for garments are especially strong.
  • The sequence is theologically coherent. Moving from suffering, to trust through deathly darkness, to YHWH's royal triumph makes sense within Christian canonical reading.
  • Psalm 24 contributes to high christology if applied to Jesus. Since the "King of glory" is YHWH, identifying Jesus with that figure is a serious claim about divine identity, not merely honorific kingship.

But the argument does not establish everything sometimes claimed for it.

  • It does not prove that Psalms 22-24 were originally composed as a three-part prediction of crucifixion, death, and ascension. Psalm 22 is a lament, Psalm 23 a trust psalm, and Psalm 24 a liturgy of YHWH's kingship.
  • It does not make every detail of Psalm 22 a literal crucifixion forecast. The "pierced" reading is plausible but textually debated, and much of the psalm uses poetic imagery.
  • It does not independently prove the deity of Jesus. Psalm 24 proves that the King of glory is YHWH. The further claim that Jesus is this King depends on the broader New Testament witness, not on Psalm 24 alone.

So the strongest assessment is this: Psalm 22-23-24 is a profound Christian reading of the Psalter's final form, and Psalm 22 in particular is deeply embedded in the New Testament passion narrative. The sequence can support a high christological vision in which the crucified Jesus is vindicated and associated with the glory of YHWH. But as an argument for the deity of Jesus, it is cumulative rather than decisive. It works best not as a standalone proof text, but as part of a broader canonical case that must also reckon with the texts where Jesus prays to God, is raised by God, and is distinguished from God even while sharing in divine titles, functions, and glory.