Psalms 22:5 Meaning and Explanation
“They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The psalmist's appeal reaches beyond private feeling. He remembers a people who called upon God in danger and found that their confidence was not empty. That memory matters because verse 5 stands immediately before the speaker describes himself as despised and scorned. It gives language for hope without hiding the sharp contrast between ancestral deliverance and his present suffering.
Psalm 22:5 recalls ancestors who cried to God, were delivered, trusted him, and escaped disgrace. The verse strengthens a suffering prayer through the remembered evidence that God receives the cries of his people.
The Context of Psalms 22:5
Verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 22 contain the speaker's urgent cry, marked by a sense of distance and continuing prayer. Verse 3 affirms God's holiness. Verses 4 and 5 then remember Israel's fathers: they trusted, cried, were delivered, and were not confounded. Beginning in verse 6, the psalmist speaks of being reproached, mocked, and surrounded by enemies. The mockers even repeat the theme of trust in verse 8. Later the psalm moves through desperate petition into praise, and verse 24 affirms that God heard the afflicted. Verse 5 is the completion of the opening remembrance of God's saving dealings with Israel.
What Does Psalms 22:5 Mean?
The verse names two responses from the fathers: "They cried unto thee" and "they trusted in thee." Crying is the language of need openly brought to God. Trust is the confidence that turns toward him rather than away from him. God is addressed directly as "thee," keeping the remembrance within prayer. "Were delivered" states that God answered with rescue. "Were not confounded" describes the outcome of their trust. In this setting, confounding concerns shame, disappointment, and being put to disgrace before those who would see confidence in God fail. The psalmist remembers a history in which reliance upon God did not end in ruinous humiliation.
Verse 5 intensifies verse 4 through its repeated sequence. The fathers trusted; God delivered them. They cried; God delivered them. Their trust was not left exposed as foolish confidence. The next verses make the memory especially poignant. The speaker calls himself a reproach, and hostile observers ridicule his confidence that the LORD will deliver him. The psalm therefore gives no shallow formula that eliminates suffering as soon as trust is expressed. It lets the remembered testimony of deliverance stand beside a righteous sufferer's prolonged anguish. That tension becomes part of the prayer itself, pressing the appeal toward the God who has acted faithfully before.
The conclusion of the psalm answers the direction of this hope. The afflicted one praises God in the great congregation, and the psalm declares that God has not despised the affliction of the afflicted. The New Testament's use of Psalm 22 around Jesus' crucifixion makes the psalm a significant witness to his suffering. Those uses do not erase the original prayer's language of distress. They show that the path of the faithful sufferer reaches its fullest expression in Christ. Verse 5 helps us hear his cry within Israel's own story of deliverance, where the God addressed by the sufferer remains the God who hears and saves.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 22:5
“I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”
- Psalm 34:4
“He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.”
- Psalm 22:8
“For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.”
- Psalm 22:24
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
- Romans 10:13
Where Psalms 22:5 Echoes in Scripture
Romans 10:13 says that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Paul uses this line while speaking of the availability of the Lord's salvation to all who call in faith. Psalm 22:5 gives an earlier biblical pattern for that appeal: God's people cry to him and find deliverance. The psalm's language also retains the reality of suffering, which keeps calling upon the Lord from becoming a careless promise of immediate ease.
How to Apply Psalms 22:5 Today
We may bring specific needs to God with the plainness of a cry. Prayer can include fear, grief, physical weakness, or the pressure of public shame. This verse also encourages shared remembrance. A congregation can tell of God's help with humility, giving those in distress a truthful witness that God hears. Trust grows through such remembrance and through continued turning toward God when outcomes remain unfinished. Where we have placed confidence in God, we can ask him to preserve us from shame and to give us courage to keep calling upon him with honest hearts.
Reflection & Prayer
Where do we need to cry to God openly rather than carrying the burden in isolation? Consider one need that can be named in prayer today. Suggested prayer: "God of our fathers, hear our cry. Steady our trust, deliver us according to your wisdom, and keep our hope from being put to shame."