Psalm 22 begins with the anguished cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In its original setting David gives voice to the suffering of a righteous worshiper who feels abandoned amid hostility, yet continues to address God in faith. The psalm itself does not state that the sufferer's distress is caused by bearing the sins of others.

Second Corinthians 5:21 explains the saving significance of Christ's suffering: the sinless Christ was made to be sin for us so that in Him believers might become the righteousness of God. Christians therefore understand Jesus' appropriation of Psalm 22 on the cross within the larger New Testament teaching about His substitutionary death. The connection between Psalm 22:1 and Christ is direct because Jesus quotes the verse, while the explanation that His forsakenness relates to bearing others' sins comes from the broader theology of passages such as 2 Corinthians 5:21 rather than from Psalm 22 alone.