Worms, Jesus, and Scripture's Scarlet Thread of Redemption

A fun study based on a messianic psalm

I’ve been hitting theology pretty hard over the past several months, so I wanted to take a bit of a different approach this week to share something fun. The purpose of this week’s post is not necessarily to share anything new, but rather to draw attention to how detailed the Word of God truly is.

Psalm 22 has long been recognized as a messianic psalm, ultimately pointing to Jesus. This is evident from how many times this psalm is quoted or cited in the gospels concerning Jesus (Matt. 27:35, 39, 43, 46; Mk. 15:24, 29-31, 34; Lk. 23:34; John 19:24, 28).

When we read this psalm, we can easily see how it speaks of the Messiah:

• Jesus quotes v.1 while on the cross - “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

• Vv. 7-8 speak of people mocking and shaking their heads at Him

• V.15 speaks of His strength being dried up and His tongue sticking to the roof of His mouth due to thirst

• V.16 says, “they pierced my hands and my feet” [crucifixion didn’t even exist as a form of execution when this psalm was written]

• V.18 reveals that His clothes and garments were gambled away

Yet, in spite of all of these overt references to Jesus, which are all explicitly revealed in the gospels, I want to focus on Ps. 22:6 (CSB):

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people.

In the latter part of this verse we see echoes of Isaiah’s famous “Suffering Servant” passage - “He was despised and rejected by men…” (Is. 53:3), which is yet another very clear and well known messianic prophecy.

But I want to narrow it down even more and focus specifically on the first part of this verse - But I am a worm and not a man. What in the world are we to make of this? Is this saying that the Messiah - Jesus - is a worm?!?

What’s A Worm Got To Do With It?

The Hebrew word used in this verse that is translated as ‘worm’ in English is tôlā [pronounced toe-lah]. This word is interesting because it is often also translated as “red, crimson, scarlet” in other places where it’s found in the Old Testament. This is so because tôlā speaks to a very specific worm; a worm from which in ancient times red or crimson dye was created to dye clothing. Here’s what the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament has to say about tôlā:

(tôlāʿ), tôleʿâ, tôlaʿat. Worm, scarlet, crimson. All three forms of this word mean “worm, maggot, larva”; two of them tôlāʿ and tôlaʿat) also mean “scarlet, crimson….” In ancient times a brilliant scarlet or crimson dye was obtained from the female bodies of the kermes (Arabic qirmiz, whence our word “crimson”) insect, Coccus ilicis, which lives on the kermes oak, Quercus coccifera, native to the Middle East….¹

What I find interesting is that these worms, known today as kermes vermilio, were the source of “The most consequential red dye known to the ancient Mesopotamians,”² with this dye having the appearance “like the purest blood.”³ What’s even more interesting is how these worms behave. The female worms, from which the red dye is gathered, will fix themselves to a tree after mating.⁴ They lie there, attached to the tree as their eggs hatch inside them. Essentially, they die in order to provide a safe place for their offspring to be born and grow inside their bodies.

Now, you may already be catching on, but I’ll just lay it out very directly for all of us. The Holy Spirit, inspiring David to write Psalm 22, specifically had David use the word tôlā here in writing what is clearly a psalm that speaks prophetically of the coming Messiah. [By the way, Hebrew has another word, rimmah, that can be translated as “worm, maggot,” so tôlā was not the only option available here]. And this worm, this tôlā, just happens to be a creature that

• Affixes itself to a tree

• “Bleeds” a red dye “like the purest blood”

• Willingly dies on the tree so that its offspring can live

• Allows its offspring to be born and live in its own body in order to protect it

Do you see the picture? Jesus, as Messiah, didn’t just fulfill the other portions of Psalm 22 that are explicitly referenced in the gospels. He also, like the tôlā

• Willingly allowed Himself to be affixed to a tree

• Bled for us

• Died on the tree so that we might live

• Protects us in His own body - Scripture repeatedly speaks of Christians being “in Christ”

Conclusion

I don’t know about you, but when I see more glimpses of how intricately connected and interwoven the various parts of the Bible are, I get really excited. Every single “jot and tittle”⁵ in Scripture is there for a reason. Every detail has meaning, even if we don’t currently see it. This is why I love to read and study Scripture; there’s always something new to see, a new revelation to uncover, new connections between different books of the Bible to discover. This lets me know that the Scriptures truly are the inspired Word of God because there is no human that could have accomplished this.

One of the chief things I look for when reading the Bible is to look for what I often refer to as the “scarlet thread of redemption” that is woven throughout the entire Bible. From the Fall in Genesis, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and brought sin into the world, all the way through Revelation, part of the overarching metanarrative of Scripture is God’s plan to redeem His creation. This seemingly strange statement in Ps. 22:6 - But I am a worm and not a man - is yet another piece of that scarlet thread of redemption.

Thank You, Jesus, for becoming a tôlā for us. Thank You for going to that tree, shedding Your pure blood as an atoning sacrifice for us. Thank You for giving us life and keeping us safe and protected in You.

1. Ronald F. Youngblood, “2516 תלע,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 971-972.

2. Serap Ayaz Seyhan, Caglar Demirbag, and Emre Dölen, “Identification of the main dyestuffs obtained from Kermes (Kermes vermilio) in the Northwest of Turkey,” Ovidius University Annals of Chemistry 30, no. 1 (2019), 1.

3. Bernardo Jerosch Herold and João Paulo Cabral, “Observations on Portuguese Natural History by Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn (1531-1596), Including the Dyes Derived From Kermes Vermilio and Dracaena Draco,” Archives of Natural History 50, no. 1 (2023), 135.

4. Adrián Purkart, Tamara Nicáková, and Ján Čapka, “First Record of the Mediterranean Scale Insect Kermes Vermilio (Planchon, 1864) in Slovakia,” Entomofauna Carpathica 37, no. 2 (2025), 132.

5. “Jot” refers to the smallest letter (yod in Hebrew) and a “tittle” is a tiny horn or hook on a letter. This phrase is found in the KJV of Matt. 5:18, in which Jesus says, “one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”