To put everything in the proper perspective, please first visit: Did Isaiah 53 really prophesies about the crucifixion of Jesus? to see all of the Old Testament's verses that clearly confirmed Islam's Divine Claims about Jesus never got crucified.
Having said that, let us now look at Psalm 22 and 88:
Psalm 22 (Young's Literal Translation)
1 To the Overseer, on `The Hind of the Morning.' -- A
Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast
Thou forsaken me? Far from my
salvation, The words of my roaring?
2 My God, I call by day, and Thou answerest not, And
by night, and there is no silence to me.
3 And Thou [art] holy, Sitting -- the Praise of Israel.
4 In Thee did our fathers trust -- they trusted, And Thou dost
deliver them.
5 Unto Thee they cried, and were
delivered, In Thee they trusted, and
were not ashamed.
6 And I [am] a worm, and no man, A reproach of man, and despised
of the people.
7 All beholding me do mock at me, They make free with the lip -- shake the
head,
8 `Roll unto Jehovah, He doth deliver him, He doth deliver him, for he
delighted in him.'
9 For thou [art] He bringing me forth from the womb, Causing me to trust, On
the breasts of my mother.
10 On Thee I have been cast from the womb, From the belly
of my mother Thou [art] my God.
11 Be not far from me, For adversity is near, for
there is no helper.
12 Many bulls have surrounded me, Mighty ones of
13 They have opened against me their mouth, A lion
tearing and roaring.
14 As waters I have been poured out, And separated
themselves have all my bones, My heart hath been like wax, It is melted in the
midst of my bowels.
15 Dried up as an earthen vessel is my power, And my
tongue is cleaving to my jaws.
16 And to the dust of death (some translations don't
have "death" in the verse. See below for proofs) thou appointest me, For surrounded me have dogs, A company of evil doers have
compassed me, Piercing my hands and my
feet.
17 I count all my bones -- they look expectingly, They look upon me,
18 They apportion my garments to themselves, And for my clothing they cause a
lot to fall.
19 And Thou, O Jehovah, be not far off, O my strength, to help me haste.
20 Deliver from the sword my soul, From the paw of a dog mine only one.
21 Save me from the mouth of a lion: -- And -- from the horns of the high
places Thou hast answered me!
22 I declare Thy name to my brethren, In the midst of
the assembly I praise Thee.
23 Ye who fear Jehovah, praise ye Him, All the seed of
Jacob, honour ye Him, And be afraid of Him, all ye
seed of
24 For He hath not despised, nor abominated, The
affliction of the afflicted, Nor hath He
hidden His face from him, And in his crying unto Him He heareth.
25 Of Thee my praise [is] in the great assembly. My vows I complete before His
fearers.
26 The humble do eat and are satisfied, Praise Jehovah do
those seeking Him, Your heart doth live for ever.
27 Remember and return unto Jehovah, Do all ends of the earth, And before Thee bow themselves, Do all families of the
nations,
28 For to Jehovah [is] the kingdom, And He is ruling among nations.
29 And the fat ones of earth have eaten, And they bow
themselves, Before Him bow do all going down to dust, And he [who] hath not
revived his soul.
30 A seed doth serve Him, It is declared of the Lord to the generation.
31 They come and declare His righteousness, To a
people that is borne, that He hath made!
There are few important points to notice
here:
1-
In the red-colored verses above, we see claims that, on the surface,
seem to support the Christians' claims about Jesus Christ got crucified and
died on the cross. However, this prayer of King David, peace be upon him,
proves otherwise, since it was the Prayer of David, and David didn't die on any
cross nor was he crucified! So these words, if they
were to prove anything, they would prove
that the Servant will not be crucified because David, who prayed
those exact words for himself, never suffered through this experience, and never got killed from his enemies.
(See also point #4 below)
|
(a)- |
Also, the words in
Psalm 22:1 are very common in these types of prayers. Any
desperate person who is enduring a heavy burden of punishment or suffering
would naturally say or be inclined to say such words. |
|
(b)- |
If Jesus was indeed the Creator of the Universe, then why would he utter such stupid and blasphemous words upon himself?? These words, while they're words of desperation, nonetheless remain to be words of BLASPHEMY! Please visit: Jesus Blasphemed in the Bible. So if anything, these words take away from the perfection of GOD Almighty, going along with the trinitarians' blasphemies and lies about Jesus being our GOD. |
2- The highlighted parts above - along with the ample other Old Testament verses that talked about GOD Almighty "lifting" and "raising" the Messiah from death - clearly state that GOD Almighty would deliver and did deliver and save him from the evil, pain and suffering.
3- As to the lie in Psalm 22:16, when one looks at the Arabic and few other English translations, he will clearly see that "death" isn't part of the original text. In Arabic for instance, it says إِلَى تُرَابِ الأَرْضِ تَضَعُنِي. which translates as to the soil of the earth you put me (i.e., physically wrestled down by the "dogs" who pierced his hands and feet). But even if we take the word "death" as the real translation, this still doesn't mean actual death for the following reasons:
|
(a)- |
As I mentioned above, if the words in the verse were to
prove anything, they would prove that the
Servant will not be crucified because David, who prayed those
exact words for himself, never suffered through this experience and never got
killed from his enemies. |
|
(b)- |
Assuming that the text is referring to the coming Messiah,
the text of the Psalm 22:16 verse doesn't explicitly
say that the Messiah will actually die. It says that he will be laid on
the soil of the ground with "dogs" piercing his hands and feet. |
|
(c)- |
The text doesn't give any indication that Christ will
actually die. |
|
(d)- |
No where in the entire OT was the resurrection ever
prophesied! |
|
(e)- |
The text of the verse seems to clearly be talking about
Christ being physically brought/wrestled down by the
"dogs". |
|
(f)- |
The original text seems to be speaking of poetical, metaphoric and symbolic style. Examples: i- Christ is a
"worm" and "not a man" in Psalm 22:6. We can not use this text to support the lies of the crucifixion and the resurrection, especially when there are ample OT verses that clearly state that the crucifixion never happened! |
4- And even if we were to assume that Psalm 22 did indeed prophecy about the crucifixion of the Messiah (no resurrection mentioned here nor throughout the entire Old Testament, and the corrupt New Testament lied about it (1), [2]), then still given the fact that GOD Almighty in the Old and New Testaments did abrogate and nullify His Divine Promises and Predictions that He even took Personal OATHS on many times, and given the fact that there are ample other verses in the Old Testament that clearly predict the saving of the Messiah from crucifixion or death (see the link above), then we have no reason not to believe that GOD Almighty could not and would not have saved Jesus Christ from crucifixion.
Psalm 88 (Young's Literal Translation)
1 A Song, a Psalm, by sons of Korah,
to the Overseer, `Concerning the Sickness of Afflictions.' -- An instruction,
by Heman the Ezrahite. O
Jehovah, God of my salvation, Daily I have cried, nightly before Thee,
2 My prayer cometh in before Thee, Incline Thine ear
to my loud cry,
3 For my soul hath been full of evils, And my life hath come to Sheol.
4 I have been reckoned with those going down [to] the pit,
I have been as a man without strength.
5 Among the dead -- free, As pierced ones
lying in the grave, Whom Thou hast not remembered any more, Yea, they by
Thy hand have been cut off.
6 Thou hast put me in the lowest pit, In dark
places, in depths.
7 Upon me hath Thy fury lain, And [with] all Thy
breakers Thou hast afflicted. Selah.
8 Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me, Thou hast made me an abomination
to them, Shut up -- I go not forth.
9 Mine eye hath grieved because of affliction, I
called Thee, O Jehovah, all the day, I have spread out
unto Thee my hands.
10 To the dead dost Thou do wonders? Do Rephaim rise?
do they thank Thee? Selah.
11 Is Thy kindness recounted in the grave? Thy
faithfulness in destruction?
12 Are Thy wonders known in the darkness? And Thy
righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 And I, unto Thee, O Jehovah, I have cried, And in
the morning doth my prayer come before Thee.
14 Why, O Jehovah, castest Thou off my soul? Thou hidest Thy face from me.
15 I [am] afflicted, and expiring from youth, I have borne Thy terrors -- I
pine away.
16 Over me hath Thy wrath passed, Thy terrors have cut me off,
17 They have surrounded me as waters all the day, They have gone round
against me together,
18 Thou hast put far from me lover and friend, Mine acquaintance [is] the
place of darkness!
Comments on this chapter:
Nothing of substance to be noticed here. This song was no more than a prayer from King David, peace be upon him, to GOD Almighty during his bad times. The words are very common and there is nothing unique about them. They don't contain prophecies in them, nor do they represent any prophecy. Christians are fond on twisting and perverting this chapter to support the crucifixion and resurrection lies, which are refuted by the bible itself. See my notes above.
Conclusion:
Psalm 22 by itself appears, on the surface, to be an impressive prophecy about Christ's crucifixion, but when one reads it in the context of the other Old Testament verses, then one would clearly see that Psalm 22 is no more than a Prayer and not a Prophecy nor a confirmation about any crucifixion of Christ. Let's put it this way: It doesn't explicitly say that Christ will ever die! Let alone be buried and then resurrect again on the third day! The way I read it is that Christ, or the Servant, will be attacked by some human-dogs, and that he is absolutely helpless and weak. He is no more than a worthless "worm," and that without the help of GOD Almighty, he won't be able to prevail. This is how I read the text. I did not see any crucifixion or resurrection, especially that the man (David) who spoke them to GOD Almighty for himself and his own aid remained alive and was never crucified, and never did he get killed by his enemies. King David died a natural death. Not only that, but like I said, there are ample OT verses that say Christ will never get crucified. Please visit Did Isaiah 53 really prophesies about the crucifixion of Jesus?
Rebuttals, and exposing the lies of the Answering Islam team section.
Contradictions and
History of Corruption in the Bible.
"Allah" was GOD
Almighty's Original Name in the Bible according to the Hebrew and Aramaic sources.
Famous Theologians and
Historians believe that Paul was not truthful.
Contradictions in 2 Timothy 3:16.
Christian Scholars refuting
the status of the NT as an inspired scripture.
Why do Muslims believe
in Jesus' personal quotes only as closest to the Truth in the Bible.
"Son of GOD" conflict between the
Bible and the Noble Quran.
Books mentioned in the Bible that are not part of
the "Today's Bible"
More on "Who were
the real authors of the Bible?" This is a great article
that exposes the man made narration/corruption in the Bible. We read in
the Books of Moses about Moses' own burial. Did Moses himself write it
when he was already dead? If not then who did? And how can we
prove that the person was appointed by GOD Almighty to write it as a Divine
Revelation (since it now exists in the Bible)? And what makes us be so
sure that it is indeed a Divine Revelation?
Man's history of corrupting the Old Testament.