Psalm 22 is extensively quoted by and lived out by Jesus while he is dying on the cross. Jesus specifically quotes some words from the Psalm, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. Some elements of Psalm 22 are fulfilled during his crucifixion, such as the Messiah’s garments being divided, and his executioners casting dice for a share of his clothing. There is one phrase that has always stood out to me when I have read this Psalm. I have only recently come to understand the powerful picture it paints of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

In verse 6, the Messiah declares, “I am a worm and not a man.” The word “worm” used in the Psalm has a surprising meaning.  It refers to a specific worm in the Near East, a “tola”.  The word “tola” is also the word for scarlet in Hebrew.  In Psalm 22, the victim says, “I am tola”.  In Exodus 26, the Lord commands the people of Israel to use scarlet (tola) threads in the curtains of the Tabernacle. This calls to mind to the Israelites the scarlet blood of the sacrifice that spiritually covers and purifies the Tent where the people and priest met with God. The dye to color the threads tola (scarlet) came from the tola (the scarlet worm). 

The whole lifecycle of the tola points to the redemption that Jesus won for us on the cross.  The scarlet dye that was used in the Tabernacle, the place where God meets with human beings, was extracted from the tola by crushing it.  When the worm is ready to give birth, the creature makes a cocoon for itself attached to a tree.  After the baby worms hatch. they feed on the mother, draining her of life before they escape from the cocoon.  In the final stage of the worm’s life cycle, it secretes a white waxy shell that falls to the ground like snow, leaving behind a scarlet stain on the tree. 

Do you see the parallels?  The tola had to be crushed to release its crimson dye, just as Jesus was crushed to make a way between God and us (Isaiah 53:5). The worm is attached to a tree, just as Jesus was nailed to the hard wood of the cross. For the worm’s children to be born, the worm gave its life, just as Jesus gives his life so we can be born again.  The worm excretes a white casing that falls to the ground like snow, just as our sin is washed in the scarlet blood of Jesus and made white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). The tree is stained with scarlet, just as the cross is stained with the blood of Jesus.

The first time I learned about the tola, the scarlet worm, I thought, “Wow, how cool is our God?” He has built the good news that Jesus’ death enables us to be made right with God into an unlikely part of His creation. God is calling us in so many ways. One of the ways is through His creation, in which he declares His glory and goodness every day, even painting pictures of the gospel for us in a lowly worm.