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Psalm 22:15
My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
13They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.
14I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.
15My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
16For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.
17I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.
Notice
The potsherd and the stuck tongue make suffering bodily, while the final line faces the harder thought of God bringing the speaker toward death.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What does the comparison to a potsherd capture that the word tired would miss?
Write on thisWhat would you want to say to God about the words “You have brought me”?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
John 19:28After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty!”The tongue stuck to the roof of the mouth describes the bodily thirst that Jesus voices in John.
Proverbs 17:22A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.Both use drying as an image of depletion: the psalm describes strength dried up, and Proverbs describes a crushed spirit drying the bones.
John 19:30Death connects these passages: the psalm speaks of being brought into its dust, while John records Jesus giving up his spirit.
Psalm 69:3I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.Both prayers describe a dry mouth or throat, making bodily distress part of speech directed toward God.
Psalm 69:21They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.Thirst links the stuck tongue in Psalm 22 with the sufferer in Psalm 69 who receives vinegar to drink.
Lamentations 4:4The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, and no one breaks it for them.Both describe a tongue clinging to the roof of the mouth, an exact bodily detail of severe thirst.
Psalm 137:6Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you, if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.Both describe a tongue sticking to the roof of the mouth, though Psalm 137 makes it a consequence of forgetting Jerusalem.
Isaiah 53:12Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with …Both speak of a sufferer facing death; Isaiah also describes bearing sins and making intercession, themes absent from this verse.
Isaiah 52:14Just as many were astonished at you— his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—Both describe bodily suffering: Psalm 22 names depleted strength and a stuck tongue, while Isaiah describes a marred appearance.
Genesis 3:19You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”Dust marks human mortality in both passages: the psalm names the dust of death, and Genesis describes returning to dust.
Psalm 38:10My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.Failing strength is explicit in both psalms, with distress described through the body's loss of its usual capacities.
Matthew 27:50Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit.The psalm speaks from the nearness of death, while Matthew records Jesus crying aloud and yielding up his spirit.
Where this verse fits
Illness or diagnosis. chronic pain. death and what comes after.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
You do not have to make suffering sound less severe before speaking to God. Here, a failing body and the nearness of death remain part of prayer.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 22:15. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).