Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 22:1
To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my roaring?
1. The expostulation of astonishment and perplexity, not a demand for explanation. Faith and despair are wrestling in the Psalmist’s mind. Faith can still claim God as ‘my God,’ and does not cease its prayers; despair thinks itself forsaken. So Zion in her exile said, “Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me” (Isa 49:14). Cp. Psa 13:1, Psa 88:14. God is El, and so in Psa 22:10. Cp. Psa 63:1, and note on Psa 5:4.
Christ upon the Cross used the Aramaic version of these words, for Aramaic was His mother tongue. Eli (Mat 27:46) is the Hebrew word, retained in the present text of the Targum: Eloi (Mar 15:34) the Aramaic. The best MSS. have Eloi in Matt. also.
Why art thou so far &c.] The alternative rendering in R.V. marg., far from my help are the words of my roaring, follows the construction adopted by the LXX, Vulg., and Jer. But it is harsh, even if my help (or my salvation) is taken to mean God Himself (Psa 35:3); and the rendering in the text appears to give the sense correctly. Cp. Psa 10:1; and Psa 22:11; Psa 22:19.
my roaring ] The groaning of the sufferer in his distress is compared to the lion’s roar. Cp. Psa 32:3; Psa 38:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 10. The pleading cry of the forsaken and persecuted servant of God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My God, my God – These are the very words uttered by the Saviour when on the cross Mat 27:46; and he evidently used them as best adapted of all the words that could have been chosen to express the extremity of his sorrow. The fact that he employed them may be referred to as some evidence that the psalm was designed to refer to him; though it must be admitted that this circumstance is no conclusive proof of such a design, since he might have used words having originally another reference, as best fitted to express his own sufferings. The language is abrupt, and is uttered without any previous intimation of what would produce or cause it. It comes from the midst of suffering – from one enduring intense agony – as if a new form of sorrow suddenly came upon him which he was unable to endure. That new form of suffering was the feeling that now he was forsaken by the last friend of the wretched – God himself. We may suppose that he had patiently borne all the other forms of trial, but the moment the thought strikes him that he is forsaken of God, he cries out in the bitterness of his soul, under the pressure of anguish which is no longer to be borne. All other forms of suffering he could bear. All others he had borne. But this crushes him; overpowers him; is beyond all that the soul can sustain – for the soul may bear all else but this. It is to be observed, however, that the sufferer himself still has confidence in God. He addresses him as his God, though he seems to have forsaken him: My God; My God.
Why hast thou forsaken me? – Why hast thou abandoned me, or left me to myself, to suffer unaided and alone? As applicable to the Saviour, this refers to those dreadful moments on the cross when, forsaken by people, he seemed also to be forsaken by God Himself. God did not interpose to rescue him, but left him to bear those dreadful agonies alone. He bore the burden of the worlds atonement by himself. He was overwhelmed with grief, and crushed with pain, for the sins of the world, as well as the agonies of the cross, had come upon him. But there was evidently more than this; what more we are unable fully to understand! There was a higher sense in which he was forsaken of God, for no mere physical sufferings, no pains of dying even on the cross, would have extorted this cry. If he had enjoyed the light of his Fathers countenance; if these had been merely physical sufferings; if there was nothing else than what is apparent to our view in the record of those sufferings, we cannot suppose that this cry would have been heard even on the cross.
There is evidently some sense in which it was true that the dying Saviour was given up to darkness – to mental trouble, to despair, as if He who is the last hope of the suffering and the dying – the Father of mercies – had withdrawn from him; as if he were personally; a sinner; as if he were himself guilty or blameworthy on account of the sins for which he was making an expiation. In some sense he experienced what the sinner will himself experience when, for his own sins, he will be at last forsaken of God, and abandoned to despair. Every word in this wonderful exclamation may be supposed to be emphatic. Why. What is the cause? How is it to be accounted for? What end is to be answered by it? Hast thou. Thou, my Father; thou, the comforter of those in trouble; thou, to whom the suffering and the dying may look when all else fails. Forsaken. Left me to suffer alone; withdrawn the light of thy countenance – the comfort of thy presence – the joy of thy manifested favor. Me. Thy well-beloved Son; me. whom thou hast sent into the world to accomplish thine own work in redeeming man; me, against whom no sin can be charged, whose life has been perfectly pure and holy; why, now, in the extremity of these sufferings, hast thou forsaken me, and added to the agony of the cross the deeper agony of being abandoned by the God whom I love, the Father who loved me before the foundation of the world, Joh 17:24. There is a reason why God should forsake the wicked; but why should he forsake his own pure and holy Son in the agonies of death?
Why art thou so far from helping me? – Margin, from my salvation. So the Hebrew. The idea is that of one who stood so far off that he could not hear the cry, or that he could not reach out the hand to deliver. Compare Psa 10:1.
And from the words of my roaring – The word used here properly denotes the roaring of a lion, Job 4:10; Isa 5:29; Zec 11:3; and then the outcry or the groaning of a person in great pain, Job 3:24; Psa 32:3. It refers here to a loud cry for help or deliverance, and is descriptive of the intense suffering of the Redeemer on the cross. Compare Mat 27:50; Luk 23:46.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 22:1-31
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?
The prophetic image of the Prince of sufferers
Who is the sufferer whose wail is the very voice of desolation and despair, and who yet dares to believe that the tale of his sorrow will be a gospel for the world? The usual answers are given. The title ascribes the authorship to David, and is accepted by Delitzsch and others. Hengstenberg and his followers see in the picture the ideal righteous man. Others think of Hezekiah or Jeremiah, with whose prophecies and history there are many points of connection. The most recent critics find here the personalised genius of Israel, or more precisely, the followers of Nehemiah, including the large-hearted Psalmist. (Cheyne, Orig. of Psalt., 264.) On any theory of authorship the startling correspondence of the details of the Psalmists sufferings with those of the Crucifixion has to be accounted for. How startling that correspondence is, both in the number and minuteness of its points, need not be insisted on. The recognition of these points in the Psalm as prophecies is one thing, the determination of their relation to the Psalmists own experience is quite another. It is taken for granted in many quarters that every such detail in prophecy must describe the writers own circumstances, and the supposition that they may transcend these is said to be psychologically impossible. But it is somewhat hazardous for those who have not been subjects of prophetic inspiration to lay down canons of what is possible and impossible in it, and there are examples enough to prove that the relation of the prophets speech to their consciousness and circumstances was singularly complex, and not to be unravelled by any such obiter dicta as to psychological possibilities. They were recipients of messages, and did not always understand what the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify. Theories which neglect that aspect of the case do not front all the facts. Certainty as to the authorship of this Psalm is probably unattainable. How far its words fitted the condition of the singer must therefore remain unsettled. But that these minute and numerous correspondences are more than coincidences it seems perverse to deny. The present writer, for one, sees shining through the shadowy personality of the Psalmist the figure of the Prince of sufferers, and believes that whether the formers plaints applied in all their particulars to him, or whether there is in them a certain element of hyperbole which becomes simple fact in Jesuss sufferings, the Psalm is a prophecy of Him and them. In the former case the Psalmists experience, in the latter case his utterances, were divinely shaped so as to prefigure the sacred sorrows of the Man of Sorrows. To a reader who shares in this understanding of the Psalm it must be holy ground, to be trodden reverently and with thoughts adoringly fixed on Jesus. Cold analysis is out of place. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Summary of contents
The exclamation from the Cross–My God, etc., led us to consider the Lord Jesus as our Surety, standing at His Fathers judgment seat, and, conscious of innocence, inquiring what new charge was laid against Him to cause this new and most severe affliction, the hiding of His Fathers countenance. We concluded that one reason why our Lord so earnestly cried to His Father was that He might ascribe to Him the glory of His deliverance, being unwilling to appropriate it to Himself by any exertion of His own power. And we found that the whole verse comprised three inquiries, to which we conceived these to be appropriate answers–First, Why hast Thou forsaken Me? Because Thou art bearing the sins of the world. Second, Why art Thou so far from helping Me? That the victory may be altogether Thine own. And third, Why art Thou so far from the words of My roaring? That Thou mayest learn all the required obedience by the things which Thou art suffering. We perceived that our Lord, in continuing His supplications, complained to His Father, but would not complain against Him; and that He fully acquitted Him of unkindness or injustice, by subjoining this filial and beautiful acknowledgment, But Thou continuest holy. In the fulness of His sorrow our Lord next contrasted His own experience with that of the Fathers, whose prayers were heard, and whose expectations were not confounded. He denominated Himself a worm, allied by His human nature to the meanest part of the creation–a crimson-coloured worm, covered with the imputed guilt of men, and He regarded Himself as no man; neither what man is by sin, nor what man was intended to be by his Creator. Our Lords life in the flesh, we saw, might be illustrated by the heathen doctrine of metempsychosis; for He brought the recollections of the world of glory into this state of being; and therefore human life must have appeared, to His eyes, infinitely more mean, wretched, and loathsome than we can possibly conceive. We were next led to contemplate the enumerated mental sufferings of our much-tried Lord–the reproaches with which He was assailed, the mockery by which He was insulted, and the taunts which wounded His spirit to the quick. In the 9th and 10th verses we considered that pathetic and touching appeal which our dying Redeemer made to the heart of His Father, arguing from the helplessness of His infancy to the helplessness of His manhood; and casting the latter upon that paternal care which had provided for the former. We perceived how earnestly our Lord followed up this appeal with renewed entreaty for His Fathers presence, expressing this great and only desire of His heart in these words, Be not far from Me. The corporeal sufferings of the Man of Sorrows were next brought to our notice. The assault and encompassing of His enemies on every side was the first particularised; where also we considered the assaults of Satanic hosts upon the spirit of our Lord. Consequent on this assault succeeded universal faintness over His frame, complete languor and an extreme exhaustion, with intense and burning thirst. The piercing of our Lords sacred body, in His hands and feet, was then considered, and the lingering death by crucifixion was described. Extended on the Cross, the emaciated state of the Saviours worn-out frame was exposed to view, and all His bones might be told. In this condition He was subjected to the insulting gaze of the multitude. The soldiers also seized every article of His clothing; they parted His garments among them, and cast lots upon His vesture. Urged by these various and sore afflictions, and desiring with intense anxiety to enjoy again before He died the light and peace of His Fathers presence, our blessed Saviour, in the next three verses, prayed with the most vehement importunity for a speedy and immediate answer. And whilst He was yet praying His Father granted His petition. Light dawned upon His soul. Darkness was dispelled from the face of nature, and from the heart of the Redeemer. And, as though issuing from a kind of spiritual death, and enjoying a spiritual resurrection, our Divine Surety exclaimed, Thou hast heard Me. Importunity prevailed with God. The whole tone of feeling and sentiment in the Psalm becomes changed from this verse. Gratitude and thanksgiving occupy all the remaining portion. The Saviour, as it were, from the Cross, invited the members of His Church to join His eucharistic song He prospectively beheld the conversion of the world and the establishment of His own glorious kingdom. And the Psalm represents the Saviour as solacing His dying spirit, in the midst of His enemies, with the assurance of a holy and numerous seed, who should be counted to Him for a posterity. He heard, as it were, from His Cross, the song of the redeemed. (John Stevenson.)
The great Sufferer and His relief
This Psalm sets forth the last extremity of human suffering, yet without any confession of sin, and closes with the sure hope of deliverance. We consider it an idealised description of the great Sufferer.
I. The complaint (Psa 22:1-10). The cry with which the Psalm opens is not an utterance of impatience or despair, but of grief and entreaty. It is the question of faith as well as of anguish. The second line suggests the great chasm between His outcry and the help He implores. God stands afar off, i.e. withholds His help. In the olden times the fathers trusted, and were not put to shame; why is the present case made an exception? It is such, for instead of being helped He is left to be reproached and despised; all the spectators join in derision. But faith turns the mock, cry of foes into an argument for deliverance.
II. The prayer against violence (Psa 22:11-21). Having shown that He was justified in expecting Divine aid, He now shows that the necessity for it exists, It was no time for God to be far off, when distress was so near and there was no other helper. The figures that follow are taken from pastoral life.
III. The expression of thanks and hope (Psa 22:22-31). The Sufferers certainty of deliverance is shown by His intention to give thanks for it. This will be done, not in private, but before the whole nation The experience here recorded, alike of sorrows and of joy, far transcends anything which we have reason to think that David passed through. (Talbot W. Chambers, D. D.)
A picture of suffering sainthood
I. The prayer of such sufferer. In Him who was the Man of Sorrows it finds its chief fulfilment.
1. The sufferings; they are–
(i) Spiritual, through feeling of Gods desertion of Him (Mat 27:46). In regard to Christ, it was not a fact that God had deserted Him, but He felt as if it were so. And of Gods disregard of His prayer (Psa 22:2).
(ii) Social, for the Sufferer was the victim of social contempt (Psa 22:6), and cruelty: they pierced, etc. (Psa 22:16), and He tells of the physical effect of all this (Psa 22:14; Psa 22:17).
2. The supplications; in which note–
(i) The character in which God is addressed–holy (Psa 22:3). The God of His fathers (Psa 22:4), and of His earliest life (Psa 22:9).
(ii) The object for which He is addressed,–that God would come to Him (Psa 22:11; Psa 22:19), and that God would deliver Him (Psa 22:20).
(iii) The earnestness with which He is addressed (Psa 22:1-2).
II. The relief given. See this set forth in Psa 22:22 onwards. Its results were–
1. The celebration of the Divine goodness (Psa 22:22; Psa 22:24).
2. The conversion of the world to the true God (Psa 22:27). This shall be through
(i) men remembering and turning unto the Lord. And
(ii) because the kingdom is, etc. (Psa 22:28). And
(iii) it shall be complete, including all nations, classes, and conditions.
3. The celebration of His religion to the end of time (Psa 22:30-31). Not only is there a time to come when the whole generation shall be converted, but all the generations following shall celebrate His praise. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The withdrawal of Gods sustaining presence from the Divine Son
So far, in this Psalm, we have had described to us the mental sufferings of Christ on the Cross; His physical sufferings and His final triumph are set forth in the portion of the Psalm yet to be explained. His mental sufferings were caused by the withdrawal of His Fathers sustaining presence, and the reproaches of His enemies. The two united pressed His spirit with a weight of woe such as none besides have ever experienced sustained by His Father, as He had always hitherto been, He no doubt could have endured the reproaches of men without complaint; but when His Father withdraws His sustaining presence there bursts from His riven heart the agonised cry, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Why has the Father Almighty forsaken His only begotten Son? For our sakes. For no sin of His Son, but for our sins the Father forsook Him. It was as our surety and substitute that Messiah felt in His soul the wrath of God against sin. He had taken the sinners place, to endure the wrath of God due to the sinners sin; and the Father Almighty could not spare His Son and save the sinner. One or the other must die; and God so loved the world that He gave His Son. He forsook His Son that He might not forsake us. Again, the Father Almighty forsook His Son that the Sons victory over death and hell might be altogether His own victory–His own as man, sustained by simple faith in God. It was the Fathers purpose to discomfit Satan by the very same nature over which he had triumphed in Eden. Accordingly a holy human nature sustained by faith in God, was the Saviours only protection and defence in the final conflict. God the Father has left Him, God the Spirit has left Him, and He has also renounced all reliance on His own God-like power to aid Him, so that He stands before His enemies having, as His only weapon of defence, what Adam had in Eden, a holy human nature to be sustained by simple trust in God. A holy human nature, sustained by faith alone, was the weapon with which the first Adam should have conquered Satan; a holy human nature, sustained by faith alone, was the weapon with which the second Adam did conquer Satan. He used no other weapon to gain Him the victory on Calvary, than that which Adam had in Eden. He withstood the onset made upon His holy will and nature, only because His faith in God was steadfast unto the end. And God left Him to Himself, to prove to Satan and the world that a pure heart, sustained by an unwavering faith, is a match, and more than a match, for every assault that can be made upon it. What a thought is this for the soul to rest upon. (David Caldwell, A. M.)
Christ forsaken of His Father
I. How are we to interpret these awful words?
1. Not the cry of a mere martyr.
2. Not wrung from Him by agony of body, but by anguish of soul.
II. Why this cry of anguish?
1. His disciples had forsaken Him, but it was not for that. God had forsaken Him. Christ was hanging there as our Surety and Substitute.
2. No other way of explaining this cry. This does explain it. Conflicting attributes in the Godhead to be harmonised before man could be accepted and forgiven. God found a way to reconcile them in the work and suffering of Christ.
III. Learn from this cry–
1. The true nature of Christs death–a ransom, an atonement.
2. The evil of sin, and how God abhors it.
3. The greatness of Gods love, and how we may obtain His mercy. (W. Pakenham Walsh, D. D.)
The saint forsaken in what sense
Sometimes God takes away from a Christian His comforting presence, but never His sustaining presence. You know the difference between sunshine and daylight. We have often daylight but little sunlight. A Christian has Gods daylight in his soul when he may not have sunlight; that is, he has enough to light him, but not enough to cheer and comfort him. Never was Jesus so forsaken as when He cried, My God, My God, etc., and yet was He never so strengthened by Gods sustaining presence, for angels were at His service to minister to Him if He needed their ministry. (J. Cumming.)
Forsaken of God, but not finally
Did you ever read that Christ did finally forsake a man in whose heart and soul He still did leave His goods, furniture, and spiritual household stuff? A man sometimes goes from home, and sometimes he does not quite leave his home. There is much difference between these two. If a man leave his home and come no more, then he carries away all his goods; and when you see them carried away you say, This man will come no more. But though a man ride a great journey, yet he may come again; and you say, Surely he will come again. Why? Because still his goods, wife, and children are in his house; so, though Christ be long absent, yet if His household stuff abide in the heart–if there be the same desires after Him and delight in Him, you may say, Surely He will come again. When did Christ ever forsake a man in whose heart He left this spiritual furniture? (S. Bridge.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM XXII
Under great affliction and distress, the psalmist prays unto
God, 1-3;
appeals to God’s wonted kinkiness in behalf of his people, 4, 5;
relates the insults that he received, 6-8;
mentions the goodness of God to him in his youth, as a reason
why he should expect help now, 9-11;
details his sufferings, and the indignities offered to him,
12-18,
prays with the confidence of being heard and delivered, 19-24;
praises God. and foretells the conversion of the nations to the
true religion, 25-31.
NOTES ON PSALM XXII
The title of this Psalm, To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David, has given rise to many conjectures. The words aiyeleth hashshachar are translated in the margin, “the hind of the morning;” but what was this? Was it the name of a musical instrument? or of a tune? or of a band of music? Calmet argues for the last, and translates “A Psalm of David, addressed to the Musicmaster who presides over the Band called the Morning Hind.” This is more likely than any of the other conjectures I have seen. But aiyeleth hashshachar may be the name of the Psalm itself, for it was customary among the Asiatics to give names to their poetic compositions which often bore no relation to the subject itself. Mr. Harmer and others have collected a few instances from D’Herbelot’s Bibliotheque Orientale. I could add many more from MSS. in my own collection:-thus Saady calls a famous miscellaneous work of his Gulisstan, “The Country of Roses,” or, “The Rose Garden:” and yet there is nothing relative to such a country, nor concerning roses nor rose gardens, in the book. Another is called Negaristan, “The Gallery of Pictures; ” yet no picture gallery is mentioned. Another Beharistan, “The Spring Season; ” Bostan, “The Garden;” Anvar Soheely, “The Light of Canopus;” Bahar Danush, “The Garden of Knowledge; ” Tuhfit Almumeneen, “The Gift of the Faithful,” a treatise on medicine; Kemeea Isadut, “The Alchymy of Life; ” Mukhzeen al Asrar, “The Magazine of Secrets;” Sulselet al Zahab, “The Golden Chain; ” Zuhfit al Abrar, “The Rosary of the Pious:” Merat al Asrar, “The Mirror of Secrets; ” Durj ul Durar, “The most precious Jewels;” Deru Majlis, “The Jewel of the Assembly;” Al Bordah, “The Variegated Garment;” a poem written by Al Basiree, in praise of the Mohammedan religion, in gratitude for a cure which he believed he received from the prophet who appeared to him in a dream. The poem is written in one hundred and sixty-two couplets, each of which ends with [Arabic] mim, the first letter in the name of Mohammed.
Scarcely one of the above titles, and their number might be easily trebled, bears any relation to the subject of the work to which it is prefixed, no more than Aijeleth Shahar bears to the matter contained in the twenty-second Psalm. Such titles are of very little importance in themselves; and of no farther use to us than as they serve to distinguish the different books, poems, or Psalms, to which they are prefixed. To me, many seem to have spent their time uselessly in the investigation of such subjects. 2Sa 1:18.
On the subject of the Psalm itself, there is considerable diversity of opinion:
1. Some referring it all to David;
2. Others referring it all to Christ; and,
3. Some, because of the application of several verses of it to our Lord in his sufferings, take a middle way, and apply it primarily to David, and in a secondary or accommodated sense, to Christ.
Of this opinion was Theodore of Mopsuestia. who gave a very rational account of his own plan of interpretation; for which he was condemned by the second council of Constantinople or fifth OEcumenic council. Grotius and others have nearly copied his plan; and I think, with a little correction, it is the only safe one. That several parts of it relate to David, primarily, there is very little reason to doubt; that several passages may be applied by way of accommodation to our Lord, though originally belonging to and expressing the state of David, may be piously believed; and that it contains portions which are direct prophecies of our Lord’s passion, death, and victory, appears too evident to be safely denied. On this plan I propose to treat it in the following paraphrase; keeping it as near to the Gospel standard as I can. Dr. Delaney supposes the Psalm to have been written by David when he was at Mahanaim, the very place where God appeared to Jacob in his distress. See Ge 32:2. And on this supposition the third, fourth, and fifth verses may be easily and strikingly illustrated: Our fathers trusted in thee; why may not I? Thou didst deliver THEM; why may not I expect deliverance also? THEY cried unto thee, trusted in thee, and were not confounded; I cry until thee, trust in thee; and why should I be confounded? For thou art the same God, thou changest not; and with thee there is no respect of persons. Thus David encouraged himself in the Lord; and these considerations helped to sustain him in his painful exercises and heavy distresses.
Verse 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?] Show me the cause why thou hast abandoned me to my enemies; and why thou seemest to disregard my prayers and cries? For a full illustration of this passage, I beg the reader to refer to Clarke’s note on “Mt 27:46“.
The words of my roaring?] shaagathi, The Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, AEthiopic, and Arabic, with the Anglo-Saxon, make use of terms which may be thus translated: “My sins (or foolishness) are the cause why deliverance is so far from me.” It appears that these versions have read shegagathi, “my sin of ignorance,” instead of shaagathi, “my roaring:” but no MS. extant supports this reading.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My God; whom, notwithstanding thy forsaking me, I heartily love, and in whom I trust; who art my Friend and Father, though now thou frownest upon me.
My God; the repetition notes the depth of his distress, which made him cry so earnestly, and the strugglings of his faith with his fears and sorrows.
Why hast thou forsaken me, i.e. left me in the hands of malicious men, withdrawn the light of thy countenance, and the supports and comforts of thy Spirit from me, and filled me with the terrors of thy wrath, so that I am ready to sink under my burden? This was in part verified in David, but much more fully in Christ, who applies these words to himself, Mat 27:46.
From the words of my roaring, i.e. from regarding, or pitying, or answering my strong prayers, and lamentable outcries, forced from me by my intolerable distresses and miseries.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. A summary of the complaint.Desertion by God, when overwhelmed by distress, is the climax of thesufferer’s misery.
words of my roaringshowsthat the complaint is expressed intelligently, though the term”roaring” is figurative, taken from the conduct ofirrational creatures in pain.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My God, my God,…. God is the God of Christ as he is man; he prepared a body for him, an human nature; anointed it with the oil of gladness; supported it under all its sorrows and sufferings, and at last exalted it at his own right hand:, and Christ behaved towards him as his covenant God; prayed to him, believed in him, loved him, and was obedient to him as such; and here expresses his faith of interest in him, when he hid his face from him, on account of which he expostulates with him thus, “why hast thou forsaken me?” which is to be understood, not as if the hypostatical or personal union of the divine and human natures were dissolved, or that the one was now separated from the other: for the fulness of the Godhead still dwelt bodily in him; nor that he ceased to be the object of the Father’s love; for so he was in the midst of all his sufferings, yea, his Father loved him because he laid down his life for the sheep; nor that the principle of joy and comfort was lost in him, only the act and sense of it; he was now deprived of the gracious presence of God, of the manifestations of his love to his human soul, and had a sense of divine wrath, not for his own sins, but for the sins of his people, and was for a while destitute of help and comfort; all which were necessary in order to make satisfaction for sin: for as he had the sins of his people imputed to him, he must bear the whole punishment of them, which is twofold the punishment of loss and the punishment of sense; the former lies in a deprivation of the divine presence, and the latter in a sense of divine wrath, and both Christ sustained as the surety of his people. This expostulation is made not as ignorant of the reason of it; he knew that as he was wounded and bruised for the sins of his people, he was deserted on the same account; nor as impatient, for he was a mirror of patience in all his sufferings; and much less as in despair; for, in these very words, he strongly expresses and repeats his faith of interest in God; see Ps 22:8; and also Isa 50:6. But this is done to set forth the greatness and bitterness of his sufferings; that not only men hid their faces from him, and the sun in the firmament withdrew its light and heat from him, but, what was most grievous of all, his God departed from him. From hence it appears that he was truly man, had an human soul, and endured sorrows and sufferings in it; and this may be of use to his members, to expect the hidings of God’s face, though on another account; and to teach them to wait patiently for him, and to trust in the Lord, and stay themselves upon their God, even while they walk in darkness and see no light;
[why art thou so] far from helping me? or from my salvation; from saving and delivering him out of his sorrows and sufferings? not that he despaired of help; he firmly believed he should have it, and accordingly had it: but he expostulates about the deferring of it. He adds,
[and from] the words of my roaring? which expresses the vehemency of his spirit in crying to God, the exceeding greatness of his sorrows, and his excruciating pains and sufferings: this is what the apostle means by his “strong crying and tears”, Heb 5:7; or “the words of my roaring [are] far from my salvation”; there is a great space or interval between the one and the other, as Gussetius u observes.
u Comment. Ebr. p. 788.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 22:2-3) In the first division, Psa 22:2, the disconsolate cry of anguish, beginning here in Psa 22:2 with the lamentation over prolonged desertion by God, struggles through to an incipient, trustfully inclined prayer. The question beginning with (instead of before the guttural, and perhaps to make the exclamation more piercing, vid., on Psa 6:5; Psa 10:1) is not an expression of impatience and despair, but of alienation and yearning. The sufferer feels himself rejected of God; the feeling of divine wrath has completely enshrouded him; and still he knows himself to be joined to God in fear and love; his present condition belies the real nature of his relationship to God; and it is just this contradiction that urges him to the plaintive question, which comes up from the lowest depths: Why hast Thou forsaken me? But in spite of this feeling of desertion by God, the bond of love is not torn asunder; the sufferer calls God ( my God), and urged on by the longing desire that God again would grant him to feel this love, he calls Him, . That complaining question: why hast Thou forsaken me? is not without example even elsewhere in Psa 88:15, cf. Isa 49:14. The forsakenness of the Crucified One, however, is unique; and may not be judged by the standard of David or of any other sufferers who thus complain when passing through trial. That which is common to all is here, as there, this, viz., that behind the wrath that is felt, is hidden the love of God, which faith holds fast; and that he who thus complains even on account of it, is, considered in itself, not a subject of wrath, because in the midst of the feeling of wrath he keeps up his communion with God. The Crucified One is to His latest breath the Holy One of God; and the reconciliation for which He now offers himself is God’s own eternal purpose of mercy, which is now being realised in the fulness of times. But inasmuch as He places himself under the judgment of God with the sin of His people and of the whole human race, He cannot be spared from experiencing God’s wrath against sinful humanity as though He were himself guilty. And out of the infinite depth of this experience of wrath, which in His case rests on no mere appearance, but the sternest reality,
(Note: Eusebius observes on Psa 22:2 of this Psalm, , and: , .)
comes the cry of His complaint which penetrates the wrath and reaches to God’s love, , which the evangelists, omitting the additional
(Note: Vid., Jerome’s Ep. ad Pammachium de optimo genere interpretandi , where he cries out to his critics, sticklers for tradition, Reddant rationem, cur septuaginta translatores interposuerunt “respice in me!” )
of the lxx, render: , , . He does not say , but , which is the Targum word for the former. He says it in Aramaic, not in order that all may understand it-for such a consideration was far from His mind at such a time-but because the Aramaic was His mother tongue, for the same reason that He called God doG dellac in prayer. His desertion by God, as Psa 22:2 says, consists in God’s help and His cry for help being far asunder. , prop. of the roar of the lion (Aq. ), is the loud cry extorted by the greatest agony, Psa 38:9; in this instance, however, as shows, it is not an inarticulate cry, but a cry bearing aloft to God the words of prayer. is not to be taken as an apposition of the subject of : far from my help, (from) the words of my crying (Riehm); for would then also, on its part, in connection with the non-repetition of the , be in apposition to . But to this it is not adapted on account of its heterogeneousness; hence Hitzig seeks to get over the difficulty by the conjecture (“from my cry, from the words of my groaning”). Nor can it be explained, with Olshausen and Hupfeld, by adopting Aben-Ezra’s interpretation, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me, far from my help? are the words of my crying.” This violates the structure of the verse, the rhythm, and the custom of the language, and gives to the Psalm a flat and unlyrical commencement. Thus, therefore, in the primary form, as in Psa 119:155, according to Ges. 146, 4, will by the predicate to and placed before it: far from my salvation, i.e., far from my being rescued, are the words of my cry; there is a great gulf between the two, inasmuch as God does not answer him though he cries unceasingly.
In Psa 22:3 the reverential name of God takes the place of the name that expresses His might; it is likewise vocative and accordingly marked with Rebia magnum . It is not an accusative of the object after Psa 18:4 (Hitzig), in which case the construction would be continued with . That it is, however, God to whom he calls is implied both by the direct address , and by , since he from whom one expects an answer is most manifestly the person addressed. His uninterrupted crying remains unanswered, and unappeased. The clause is parallel to , and therefore does not mean: without allowing me any repose (Jer 14:17; Lam 3:49), but: without any rest being granted to me, without my complaint being appeased or stilled. From the sixth to the ninth hour the earth was shrouded in darkness. About the ninth hour Jesus cried, after a long and more silent struggle, , . The , Mat 27:46, and also the of Hebr. Psa 5:7, which does not refer exclusively to the scene in Gethsemane, calls to mind the of Psa 22:2. When His passion reached its climax, days and nights of the like wrestling had preceded it, and what then becomes audible was only an outburst of the second David’s conflict of prayer, which grows hotter as it draws near to the final issue.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Sorrowful Complaints. | |
To the chief musician upon Aijeleth Shahar. A psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? 2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. 5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. 9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. 10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.
Some think they find Christ in the title of this psalm, upon Aijeleth Shahar—The hind of the morning. Christ is as the swift hind upon the mountains of spices (Cant. viii. 14), as the loving hind and the pleasant roe, to all believers (Prov. v. 19); he giveth goodly words like Naphtali, who is compared to a hind let loose, Gen. xlix. 21. He is the hind of the morning, marked out by the counsels of God from eternity, to be run down by those dogs that compassed him, v. 16. But others think it denotes only the tune to which the psalm was set. In these verses we have,
I. A sad complaint of God’s withdrawings, Psa 22:1; Psa 22:2.
1. This may be applied to David, or any other child of God, in the want of the tokens of his favour, pressed with the burden of his displeasure, roaring under it, as one overwhelmed with grief and terror, crying earnestly for relief, and, in this case, apprehending himself forsaken of God, unhelped, unheard, yet calling him, again and again, “My God,” and continuing to cry day and night to him and earnestly desiring his gracious returns. Note, (1.) Spiritual desertions are the saints’ sorest afflictions; when their evidences are clouded, divine consolations suspended, their communion with God interrupted, and the terrors of God set in array against them, how sad are their spirits, and how sapless all their comforts! (2.) Even their complaint of these burdens is a good sign of spiritual life and spiritual senses exercised. To cry out, “My God, why am I sick? Why am I poor?” would give cause to suspect discontent and worldliness. But, Why has though forsaken me? is the language of a heart binding up its happiness in God’s favour. (3.) When we are lamenting God’s withdrawings, yet still we must call him our God, and continue to call upon him as ours. When we want the faith of assurance we must live by a faith of adherence. “However it be, yet God is good, and he is mine; though he slay me, yet I trust in him; though he do not answer me immediately, I will continue praying and waiting; though he be silent, I will not be silent.”
2. But is must be applied to Christ: for, in the first words of this complaint, he poured out his soul before God when he was upon the cross (Matt. xxvii. 46); probably he proceeded to the following words, and, some think, repeated the whole psalm, if not aloud (because they cavilled at the first words), yet to himself. Note, (1.) Christ, in his sufferings, cried earnestly to his Father for his favour and presence with him. He cried in the day-time, upon the cross, and in the night-season, when he was in agony in the garden. He offered up strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him, and with some fear too, Heb. v. 7. (2.) Yet God forsook him, was far from helping him, and did not hear him, and it was this that he complained of more than all his sufferings. God delivered him into the hands of his enemies; it was by his determinate counsel that he was crucified and slain, and he did not give in sensible comforts. But, Christ having made himself sin for us, in conformity thereunto the Father laid him under the present impressions of his wrath and displeasure against sin. It pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief, Isa. liii. 10. But even then he kept fast hold of his relation to his Father as his God, by whom he was now employed, whom he was now serving, and with whom he should shortly be glorified.
II. Encouragement taken, in reference hereunto, v. 3-5. Though God did not hear him, did not help him, yet, 1. He will think well of God: “But thou art holy, not unjust, untrue, nor unkind, in any of thy dispensations. Though thou dost not immediately come in to the relief of thy afflicted people, yet though lovest them, art true to thy covenant with them, and dost not countenance the iniquity of their persecutors, Hab. i. 13. And, as thou art infinitely pure and upright thyself, so thou delightest in the services of thy upright people: Thou inhabitest the praises of Israel; thou art pleased to manifest thy glory, and grace, and special presence with thy people, in the sanctuary, where they attend thee with their praises. There thou art always ready to receive their homage, and of the tabernacle of meeting thou hast said, This is my rest for ever.” This bespeaks God’s wonderful condescension to his faithful worshippers–(that, though he is attended with the praises of angels, yet he is pleased to inhabit the praises of Israel), and it may comfort us in all our complaints–that, though God seem, for a while, to turn a deaf ear to them, yet he is so well pleased with his people’s praises that he will, in due time, give them cause to change their note: Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him. Our Lord Jesus, in his sufferings, had an eye to the holiness of God, to preserve and advance the honour of that, and of his grace in inhabiting the praises of Israel notwithstanding the iniquities of their holy things. 2. He will take comfort from the experiences which the saints in former ages had of the benefit of faith and prayer (Psa 22:4; Psa 22:5): “Our fathers trusted in thee, cried unto thee, and thou didst deliver them; therefore thou wilt, in due time, deliver me, for never any that hoped in thee were made ashamed of their hope, never any that sought thee sought thee in vain. And thou art still the same in thyself and the same to thy people that ever thou wast. They were our fathers, and thy people are beloved for the fathers’ sake,” Rom. xi. 28. The entail of the covenant is designed for the support of the seed of the faithful. He that was our fathers’ God must be ours, and will therefore be ours. Our Lord Jesus, in his sufferings, supported himself with this–that all the fathers who were types of him in his sufferings, Noah, Joseph, David, Jonah, and others, were in due time delivered and were types of his exaltation too; therefore he knew that he also should not be confounded, Isa. l. 7.
III. The complaint renewed of another grievance, and that is the contempt and reproach of men. This complaint is by no means so bitter as that before of God’s withdrawings; but, as that touches a gracious soul, so this a generous soul, in a very tender part, v. 6-8. Our fathers were honoured, the patriarchs in their day, first or last, appeared great in the eye of the world, Abraham, Moses, David; but Christ is a worm, and no man. It was great condescension that he became man, a step downwards, which is, and will be, the wonder of angels; yet, as if it were too much, too great, to be a man, he becomes a worm, and no man. He was Adam–a mean man, and Enosh–a man of sorrows, but lo Ish–not a considerable man: for he took upon him the form of a servant, and his visage was marred more than any man’s, Isa. lii. 14. Man, at the best, is a worm; but he became a worm, and no man. If he had not made himself a worm, he could not have been trampled upon as he was. The word signifies such a worm as was used in dyeing scarlet or purple, whence some make it an allusion to his bloody sufferings. See what abuses were put upon him. 1. He was reproached as a bad man, as a blasphemer, a sabbath-breaker, a wine-bibber, a false prophet, an enemy to Csar, a confederate with the prince of the devils. 2. He was despised of the people as a mean contemptible man, not worth taking notice of, his country in no repute, his relations poor mechanics, his followers none of the rulers, or the Pharisees, but the mob. 3. He was ridiculed as a foolish man, and one that not only deceived others, but himself too. Those that saw him hanging on the cross laughed him to scorn. So far were they from pitying him, or concerning themselves for him, that they added to his afflictions, with all the gestures and expressions of insolence upbraiding him with his fall. They make mouths at him, make merry over him, and make a jest of his sufferings: They shoot out the lip, they shake their head, saying, This was he that said he trusted God would deliver him; now let him deliver him. David was sometimes taunted for his confidence in God; but in the sufferings of Christ this was literally and exactly fulfilled. Those very gestures were used by those that reviled him (Matt. xxvii. 39); they wagged their heads, nay, and so far did their malice make them forget themselves that they used the very words (v. 43), He trusted in God; let him deliver him. Our Lord Jesus, having undertaken to satisfy for the dishonour we had done to God by our sins, did it by submitting to the lowest possible instance of ignominy and disgrace.
IV. Encouragement taken as to this also (Psa 22:9; Psa 22:10): Men despise me, but thou art he that took me out of the womb. David and other good men have often, for direction to us, encouraged themselves with this, that God was not only the God of their fathers, as before (v. 4), but the God of their infancy, who began by times to take care of them, as soon as they had a being, and therefore, they hope, will never cast them off. He that did so well for us in that helpless useless state will not leave us when he has reared us and nursed us up into some capacity of serving him. See the early instances of God’s providential care for us, 1. In the birth: He took us also out of the womb, else we had died there, or been stifled in the birth. Every man’s particular time begins with this pregnant proof of God’s providence, as time, in general, began with the creation, that pregnant proof of his being. 2. At the breast: “Then didst thou make me hope;” that is, “thou didst that for me, in providing sustenance for me and protecting me from the dangers to which I was exposed, which encourages me to hope in thee all my days.” The blessings of the breasts, as they crown the blessings of the womb, so they are earnests of the blessings of our whole lives; surely he that fed us then will never starve us, Job iii. 12. 3. In our early dedication to him: I was cast upon thee from the womb, which perhaps refers to his circumcision on the eighth day; he was then by his parents committed and given up to God as his God in covenant; for circumcision was a seal of the covenant; and this encouraged him to trust in God. Those have reason to think themselves safe who were so soon, so solemnly, gathered under the wings of the divine majesty. 4. In the experience we have had of God’s goodness to us all along ever since, drawn out in a constant uninterrupted series of preservations and supplies: Thou art my God, providing me and watching over me for good, from my mother’s belly, that is, from my coming into the world unto this day. And if, as soon as we became capable of exercising reason, we put our confidence in God and committed ourselves and our way to him, we need not doubt but he will always remember the kindness of our youth and the love of our espousals, Jer. ii. 2. This is applicable to our Lord Jesus, over whose incarnation and birth the divine Providence watched with a peculiar care, when he was born in a stable, laid in a manger, and immediately exposed to the malice of Herod, and forced to flee into Egypt. When he was a child God loved him and called him thence (Hos. xi. 1), and the remembrance of this comforted him in his sufferings. Men reproached him, and discouraged his confidence in God; but God had honoured him and encouraged his confidence in him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 22
THE PASSION PSALM
This is known as the suffering, despair, and deliverance Psalm, prophetic of the despond, despair, and substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah, by the cruel form of crucifixion on a Roman cross.
Psalms 22, 23, 24 are said to form a trilogy, setting forth the coming Messiah as a caring Shepherd in three ways:
1)Psalms 22 presents Him as the Good Shepherd, who gives His life in holy innocence for His sheep, Joh 10:11.
2)Psalms 23 presents Him as the Great Shepherd brought forth from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant, continually caring for His sheep, Heb 13:20; Joh 10:28-29; Rom 8:11.
3)Psalms 24 presents Him as the Chief Shepherd head over all, yet coming as King of Kings and of glory to reward all His sheep, 2Co 5:10; 1Pe 5:4.
A Canvass of Death by Crucifixion
Like an artist the psalmist painted a poetic picture of death by crucifixion as follows:
a)V. 14 … the bones (of the hands, shoulders, and hips) are out of joint, pulled from their sockets, as death approaches.
b)V. 14 … adds that he is “poured out like water,” profuse perspiration ran down his body.
c)V. 14 … further adds that his heart was like wax, melted in the midst of His body, oozing out blood, seepage from a broken heart.
d)V. 15 … indicated His strength was dried up … dying with thirst.
e)V. 16 … describes taunting of the wicked as they pierced his hands and feet through with nails.
f)V. 17 … describes also how He was stripped nigh naked to debase Him as immodest.
The three cries of “my God,” verses 1, 2 indicate His trust in God, tho forsaken of the Father, to die in holiness, the just for the unjust, on a cruel Roman cross, to bring men to God, 2Co 5:21; 1Pe 2:24; 1Pe 3:18. The manner of this cruel execution by the Romans, for the Jews, is described Mat 27:6-8; Mat 27:12-13; Mat 27:35; Mat 27:39; Mat 27:43-46. The definitive fulfillment of the method of suffering and death of the Messiah of this Psalm evidences its inspiration.
Verses 1-31:
Derision, Abuse, Rejection, Crucifixion of Messiah
Verses 1, 2 set forth a triune (three time repeated) cry of the despairing Messiah, “my God! my God!” a more forlorn or despairing cry was never uttered than this one uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ, of which these verses are definitively prophetic, Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34. “Why hast thou forsaken or abandoned me,” He asked. And why had He withdrawn so far away from Him, He despaired? Isa 52:14; Gen 4:4; Heb 10:18. Why had the mighty God turned a deaf ear to His roaring, crying like a wounded beast, the parent of which will furiously rush to the rescue of the wounded? He asked. Yet, He trusted in Him, as “my God,” keeper of His covenants with Israel and all men, Heb 5:8-9; expecting to be delivered, as He was of the Father, out of death, hell and the grave, Psa 138:8; Heb 2:9-15; Rom 8:11; Heb 5:7.
Verse 2 relates that when He cried in the daytime God did not heed, tho He had recognized Him, as His well pleasing Son at His baptism, Mat 3:17; and sent angels to minister to Him after His temptation on the mount, Mat 4:11; He was caused of the Father to be transfigured, before Peter, James, and John, Mat 17:1-5. The multitude had cried, “hosanna” to Him at His final march into Jerusalem. But now He was forlorn and forsaken by His own, even by His own Father, alone to die for all, 2Co 5:21. His fellowship with the Father was severed, that man’s broken fellowship with God might be restored. In the night He had often communed with the Father before and been heard always in dark hours, but not this time, Luk 6:12-13; Joh 11:41-42.
Verse 3 relates that the Son did attribute holiness to the Father even in His hour of desolation, despond, and despair of agony for our sins on the cross, Eze 18:4; Rom 6:23. “You are holy,” He said, as also related Isa 6:1-3; Isa 57:15. The Father is declared by the Son to inhabit the praises of Israel, to be manifest through them, as He was through the Shekinah glory, enthroned above the cherubims, Exo 15:11; Psa 90:1.
Verse 4 relates that “our fathers,” fathers of the covenant of Israel, had trusted in this living God and He had delivered, liberated, protected, and preserved them. The Son claimed Him as “my God, my God!” v. 1, 2, yet trusting in Him to deliver Him from that He was to face. From Pharaoh’s oppression and bondage Israel had cried; Her cry was heard of the Lord, and He did respond to deliver and lead them securely to the promised land, Exo 3:7-11; Exo 12:26-27; Psa 109:25; Mat 27:39-44.
Verse 5 adds that when they cried to the lord they were delivered from oppression; Because they trusted in the Lord God and were not confounded, disappointed, or put to shame, Psa 145:18-19; 1Pe 2:6.
Verse 6 laments “but I am a worm (like a worm in physical distress), and no man” in contrast with former servants of God who trusted in Him and “were not confounded,” disappointed or brought to helpless shame. When one is brought to worm-like “nothingness,” let him remember God’s encouraging words, Isa 41:14; Heb 13:5; Php_4:19; Rom 8:28. He added that he was “a reproach (object of reproach) of men, and despised of the masses,” lower than the beasts who dash to help the despairing cry of their own wounded. Such prophetically spoke of the attitude of Jew and Gentile toward our Lord in the passion hours of His last week on earth among men, Isa 53:3-7; Mat 27:39. As “they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads,” Psa 109:25.
Verse 7 relates that those who saw Him “laughed Him to scorn,” shooting out, or “shooting off” the lips, pouring forth insults, “they shake the head,” to say contemptuously, there exists no hope for this sufferer, as they sneered and walked on, Isa 57:4; Job 16:4; Psa 44:14; 1Pe 2:23.
Verse 8 foretells that these revilers would say, “He trusted on, rolled Himself on, the Lord that He would deliver Him. Let Him deliver Him, seeing, or if, He delights in Him,” or will have anything to do with Him, will claim Him as His Son, Isa 42:1; Mat 3:17. For definitive fulfillment in Jesus, the Messiah, see Mat 27:43. He was the one in whom “the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily,” who tasted death for every man, Col 2:9; Heb 2:9.
Further Prophetic Allusion to Our Lord’s Suffering
Verses 9, 10 declare that His God had taken Him out of and away from His mother’s womb, caused Him to hope while He was upon His mother’s breast, was cast upon God from the womb, (time of birth). He cried, “Thou art my God, from my Mother’s belly.” He casts Himself upon the care of His Father, as Israel had from Egypt’s bondage, even as a child from the womb (Heb Gochi) is dependent upon its mother’s nourishment, clothing and protection.
Verses 11-13 relate His despairing cry to God for help, for Him to come near to help him, because of His trouble, and there was none (not a one) to help in this dreadful hour, Psa 10:1; Psa 142:4. He added that many strong bulls of Bashan beset Him on every side, even well fed, ferocious bulls of the lush green hills and valleys of Gilead, Psa 68:30; Deu 32:14; Eze 39:18; Amo 4:1.
Verse 13 further describes His enemies as “gaping upon” or opening their mouths as an hungry, ravening, starving lion, to destroy Him at once, Amo 3:4. Such alluded to the mouths of pious Pharisees, Sadducees, priest, elders, and the Sanhedrin in Israel who brought false accusations against our Lord, even hiring false witnesses against Him to destroy Him, Psa 35:21; Job 16:10; La 2:16; 3:46; Eze 22:27-28; 1Pe 5:8; Mat 26:59-60; Mar 14:56-57; Mat 28:12-15.
Verses 14, 15 lament that his troubles from within, his very soul, is poured out like water, weakened, helpless, a symbol of utter helplessness, 1Sa 7:6; I1Sa 14:14. The phrase “my bones are out of joint” pulled from the socket, is a description of loss of muscular tonality to hold up the weight of the body on the cross. When muscle tone or tautness was gone bones slipped out of their joints, causing further pain, as blood flow was closed off from limbs of the body. That his heart was melted like wax in his belly indicates the burning, sinking pain Jesus suffered in His heart and soul as He “bore our sins in His body on the tree;” 1Pe 2:24; 1Pe 3:18. See also Jos 7:5; Psa 68:2. He added that his strength had dried up like a potsherd, when its water was, exposed to the burning sun. He thirsted in His soul with His tongue cleaving to the roof of His mouth, Joh 19:28. He witnessed that God had brought Him to the dust of death, Pro 17:22; 2Co 5:20.
Verses 16, 17 further describe, as fulfilled, the passion of the Messiah in bringing redemption to all men. He describes the assembly of the wicked as savage, flesh-tearing wild dogs that surrounded their weakened prey, to finish the kill and devour it, Rev 22:15; Rev 22:20. He disclosed that “they pierced my hands and my feet.” The only method of death utilizing such was the crucifixion, never approved by the Jews, but the primary form of capital punishment under Roman Law, reserved for the worst of criminals, Zec 12:10; Luk 23:33.
Verse 18 adds that “they part my garments among them and cast lots for my vesture,” as fulfilled in the death of our Lord, Mat 27:35; Mar 15:21; Luk 23:31; Joh 19:23-24. The outer garment had four parts and was divided among the four executioners of our Lord, as a part of their booty, Num 15:38. The vesture or inner tunic (Gk. cheton) was woven, could not be well divided, so they cast lots for it.
Verses 1921 are a direct cry for the Lord to draw nigh, from afar, and make haste to help His own Son, by His might. He asked that God deliver His soul (life) from the sword, His only darling one, my only soul, from the power of the wild dog, the Jewish rabble, filthy and rabble as the unclean carrion-eating dog, Isa 56:10-11; Php_3:2. He further asks the Lord to save or deliver Him from the lion’s mouth, from the king of the beasts of the underworld, even Satan himself, 2Ti 4:17; 1Pe 5:8. He adds that He had been heard of the Lord “from the horns of the unicorn,” a fierce beast of the wild, ox family of the middle east. He had said, “thou hearest me always,” but in His death for man’s sins He had to die alone, unanswered by the Father, till He called Him from the grave, 2Co 5:21; Joh 11:42; Deu 33:17.
Verse 22 turns from the crucifixion of the Messiah to the after resurrection prophecy, fulfilled in the command of our risen Lord, “go to my brethren,” and that of the angel, “go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen,” Joh 20:17; Mat 28:7. For He was to declare “His name,” power, and authority to His brethren, assembly, congregation, the church, the new “elect” worship and service body that He had instituted, Heb 2:12; Heb 3:1-6; 1Ti 3:15.
Verse 23 exhorts “ye (you all) who fear the Lord, praise Him all ye seed of Jacob, glorify Him.” It is written that “the testimony of Jesus is, (exists as) the spirit (dynamics) of prophecy,” Rev 19:10. All who fear or reverence the Lord are called to glorify the risen Redeemer, even all those of the seed of Jacob, even of Israel, Rev 5:10-13; Rev 15:4.
Verse 24 declares that the resurrected one had not despised, taken lightly, abhorred, or ignored the affliction of the afflicted. Neither did He hide His face, or turn away His face from the cry of the weak and the infirm. Such was manifest in the life of our Lord through His miracle ministry, feeding the hungry, healing the incurably ill, casting demons out of the mentally deranged, and raising the dead, Joh 3:2; Joh 20:30-31.
Verses 25, 26 recount the resolve of the risen Redeemer in His declared purpose to praise His Father, whom He had called “my God, my God, O my God,” v. 1, 2. He was to praise Him, His “father,” in the great congregation, not of natural Israel, but of the church congregation which He had built, declared to be “greater than” the one that Moses built, Deu 16:11; Deu 12:18; Heb 3:1-6; 1Ti 3:15. He purposed to pay His vows before them who feared His Father, in His resurrection appearances, as foretold, and certified, Mat 26:31-32; Mat 28:16-20. It is added that the meek (not the arrogant) should eat and be satisfied. Such was fulfilled as our Lord offered Himself as the bread of life, to satisfy the hunger and receiving soul with eternal life; They who sought Him found Him, were satisfied in soul, and praised Him from their hearts for eternal life which He gave, Joh 6:27; Joh 6:31-37; Joh 6:51; Joh 6:58. Those who ate in vow feasts in Israel were not so blessed as these, Lev 7:11.
Verse 27 adds that “all the ends of the earth shall be caused to remember and turn to the Lord,” from all parts of the earth, and the kindreds of the nations should come to worship before Him, as alluded to in the Abrahamic promise, Gen 12:3; Gen 28:14. By the prodigal’s return, Luk 15:17; and by those saved after our Lord’s victorious resurrection, as recounted Acts ch.2. This will ultimately be fulfilled during the millennial, at the second advent of our Lord; Rev 20:14.
Verse 28 declares that the “kingdom is (exists as) the Lord’s’ and he is (exists as) the governor among the nations,” as witnessed, Isa 9:6-7; Luk 1:31-33; 1Co 15:24-28. He shall one day be recognized as “King of kings,” and “Lord of lords,” Rev 19:11-16.
Verse 29 declares that “all they that be (exist as) fat on the earth shall come to eat and worship, bow down before Him,” be subject to Him, Psa 45:12; Psa 72:10-11; Rom 14:11-12; Php_2:6-11. All who go down to the dust (to the grave) shall bow down before him one day, in either the first or second resurrection, Isa 26:19; Php_2:6-11. It is concluded that none can keep alive his own soul, for life comes from the living God, not from ones own power, Act 17:28.
Verse 30 prophesies that “a seed shall serve him,” and it shall “be accounted to the Lord for a generation,” Isa 53:10. Through Christ the believers, “called from among the gentiles as a people for His name’s sake,” Act 15:13-15, committed to service to Him, in the church, is that seed of the new covenant, with whom He is identified in this age, in the midst of the church, Mat 28:20; Eph 3:21; Rev 1:12-13; Rev 1:20.
Verse 31 concludes that they “this new covenant seed fellowship,” shall serve Him, witness for Him, as His new chosen and commissioned people, Joh 15:16; Joh 15:26-27; Act 1:8. They were “a people that were to be born,” to come forth, to “declare His righteousness,” that He had done this … He had brought redemption, finished the work He had been sent to do, Joh 17:4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. My God! The first verse contains two remarkable sentences, which, although apparently contrary to each other, are yet ever entering into the minds of the godly together. When the Psalmist speaks of being forsaken and cast off by God, it seems to be the complaint of a man in despair; for can a man have a single spark of faith remaining in him, when he believes that there is no longer any succor for him in God? And yet, in calling God twice his own God, and depositing his groanings into his bosom, he makes a very distinct confession of his faith. With this inward conflict the godly must necessarily be exercised whenever God withdraws from them the tokens of his favor, so that, in whatever direction they turn their eyes, they see nothing but the darkness of night. I say, that the people of God, in wrestling with themselves, on the one hand discover the weakness of the flesh, and on the other give evidence of their faith. With respect to the reprobate, as they cherish in their hearts their distrust of God, their perplexity of mind overwhelms them, and thus totally incapacitates them for aspiring after the grace of God by faith. That David sustained the assaults of temptation, without being overwhelmed, or swallowed up by it, may be easily gathered from his words. He was greatly oppressed with sorrow, but notwithstanding this, he breaks forth into the language of assurance, My God! my God! which he could not have done without vigorously resisting the contrary apprehension (499) that God had forsaken him. There is not one of the godly who does not daily experience in himself the same thing. According to the judgment of the flesh, he thinks he is cast off and forsaken by God, while yet he apprehends by faith the grace of God, which is hidden from the eye of sense and reason; and thus it comes to pass, that contrary affections are mingled and interwoven in the prayers of the faithful. Carnal sense and reason cannot but conceive of God as being either favorable or hostile, according to the present condition of things which is presented to their view. When, therefore, he suffers us to lie long in sorrow, and as it were to pine away under it, we must necessarily feel, according to the apprehension of the flesh, as if he had quite forgotten us. When such a perplexing thought takes entire possession of the mind of man, it overwhelms him in profound unbelief, and he neither seeks, nor any longer expects, to find a remedy. But if faith come to his aid against such a temptation, the same person who, judging from the outward appearance of things, regarded God as incensed against him, or as having abandoned him, beholds in the mirror of the promises the grace of God which is hidden and distant. Between these two contrary affections the faithful are agitated, and, as it were, fluctuate, when Satan, on the one hand, by exhibiting to their view the signs of the wrath of God, urges them on to despair, and endeavors entirely to overthrow their faith; while faith, on the other hand, by calling them back to the promises, teaches them to wait patiently and to trust in God, until he again show them his fatherly countenance.
We see then the source from which proceeded this exclamation, My God! my God! and from which also proceeded the complaint which follows immediately after, Why hast thou forsaken me? Whilst the vehemence of grief, and the infirmity of the flesh, forced from the Psalmist these words, I am forsaken of God; faith, lest he should when so severely tried sink into despair, put into his mouth a correction of this language, so that he boldly called God, of whom he thought he was forsaken, his God. Yea, we see that he has given the first place to faith. Before he allows himself to utter his complaint, in order to give faith the chief place, he first declares that he still claimed God as his own God, and betook himself to him for refuge. And as the affections of the flesh, when once they break forth, are not easily restrained, but rather carry us beyond the bounds of reason, it is surely well to repress them at the very commencement. David, therefore, observed the best possible order in giving his faith the precedency – in expressing it before giving vent to his sorrow, and in qualifying, by devout prayer, the complaint which he afterwards makes with respect to the greatness of his calamities. Had he spoken simply and precisely in these terms, Lord, why forsakest thou me? he would have seemed, by a complaint so bitter, to murmur against God; and besides, his mind would have been in great danger of being embittered with discontent through the greatness of his grief. But, by here raising up against murmuring and discontent the rampart of faith, he keeps all his thoughts and feelings under restraint, that they may not break beyond due bounds. Nor is the repetition superfluous when he twice calls God his God; and, a little after, he even repeats the same words the third time. When God, as if he had cast off all care about us, passes over our miseries and groanings as if he saw them not, the conflict with this species of temptation is arduous and painful, and therefore David the more strenuously exerts himself in seeking the confirmation of his faith. Faith does not gain the victory at the first encounter, but after receiving many blows, and after being exercised with many tossings, she at length comes forth victorious. I do not say that David was so courageous and valiant a champion as that his faith did not waver. The faithful may put forth all their efforts to subdue their carnal affections, that they may subject and devote themselves wholly to God; but still there is always some infirmity remaining in them. From this proceeded that halting of holy Jacob, of which Moses makes mention in Gen 32:24; for although in wrestling with God he prevailed, yet he ever after bore the mark of his sinful defect. By such examples God encourages his servants to perseverance, lest, from a consciousness of their own infirmity, they should sink into despair. The means therefore which we ought to adopt, whenever our flesh becomes tumultuous, and, like an impetuous tempest, hurries us into impatience, is to strive against it, and to endeavor to restrain its impetuosity. In doing this we will, it is true, be agitated and sorely tried, but our faith will, nevertheless, continue safe, and be preserved from shipwreck. Farther, we may gather from the very form of the complaint which David here makes, that he did not without cause redouble the words by which his faith might be sustained. He does not simply say that he was forsaken by God, but he adds, that God was far from his help, in as-much as when he saw him in the greatest danger, he gave him no token to encourage him in the hope of obtaining deliverance. Since God has the ability to succor us, if, when he sees us exposed as a prey to our enemies, he nevertheless sits still as if he cared not about us, who would not say that he has drawn back his hand that he may not deliver us? Again, by the expression, the words of my roaring, the Psalmist intimates that he was distressed and tormented in the highest degree. He certainly was not a man of so little courage as, on account of some slight or ordinary affliction, to howl in this manner like a brute beast. (500) We must therefore come to the conclusion, that the distress was very great which could extort such roaring from a man who was distinguished for meekness, and for the undaunted courage with which he endured calamities.
As our Savior Jesus Christ, when hanging on the cross, and when ready to yield up his soul into the hands of God his Father, made use of these very words, (Mat 27:46,) we must consider how these two things can agree, that Christ was the only begotten Son of God, and that yet he was so penetrated with grief, seized with so great mental trouble, as to cry out that God his Father had forsaken him. The apparent contradiction between these two statements has constrained many interpreters to have recourse to evasions for fear of charging Christ with blame in this matter. (501) Accordingly, they have said that Christ made this complaint rather according to the opinion of the common people, who witnessed his sufferings, than from any feeling which he had of being deserted by his father. But they have not considered that they greatly lessen the benefit of our redemption, in imagining that Christ was altogether exempted from the terrors which the judgment of God strikes into sinners. It was a groundless fear to be afraid of making Christ subject to so great sorrow, lest they should diminish his glory. As Peter, in Act 2:24, clearly testifies that “it was not possible that he should be holden of the pains of death,” it follows that he was not altogether exempted from them. And as he became our representative, and took upon him our sins, it was certainly necessary that he should appear before the judgment-seat of God as a sinner. From this proceeded the terror and dread which constrained him to pray for deliverance from death; not that it was so grievous to him merely to depart from this life; but because there was before his eyes the curse of God, to which all who are sinners are exposed. Now, if during his first conflict “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood,” and he needed an angel to comfort him, (Luk 22:43,) it is not wonderful if, in his last sufferings on the cross, he uttered a complaint which indicated the deepest sorrow. By the way, it should be marked, that Christ, although subject to human passions and affections, never fell into sin through the weakness of the flesh; for the perfection of his nature preserved him from all excess. He could therefore overcome all the temptations with which Satan assailed him, without receiving any wound in the conflict which might afterwards constrain him to halt. In short, there is no doubt that Christ, in uttering this exclamation upon the cross, manifestly showed, that although David here bewails his own distresses, this psalm was composed under the influence of the Spirit of prophecy concerning David’s King and Lord.
(499) “ Ce qu il ne pouvoit faire si non en resistant vivement a la apprehension contraire.” — Fr.
(500) “ Et de faict, il n’estoit point de si petit courage, que pour quelque real leger il hurlast ainsi comme une beste brute.” — Fr. “The original word [for roaring ] properly denotes the roaring of a lion, and is often applied to the deep groaning of men in sickness. See among other places, Psa 32:3.” — Bishop Mant.
(501) “ Pour crainte de charger Christ de ce blasme.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE MESSIANIC PRAYER
It anticipated His coming troubles.
The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the Name of the God of Jacob defend thee;
Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion (Psa 20:1-2).
It took into account His self-offering.
Remember all Thy offerings, and accept Thy burnt-sacrifice; Selah.
Grant Thee according to Thine own heart, and fulfil all Thy counsel (Psa 20:3-4).
It trusted His unfailing Word.
We will rejoice in Thy salvation, and in the Name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions.
Now know I that the Lord saveth His anointed: He will hear Him from His holy Heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God.
They are brought down and fallen; but we are risen, and stand upright.
Save, Lord: let the King hear us when we call (Psa 20:5-9).
THE MESSIAHS PROGRESS
His path is one of pleasure.
The king shall joy in Thy strength, O Lord; and in Thy salvation how greatly shall He rejoice!
Thou hast given him his hearts desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.
For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness; Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head (Psa 21:1-3).
His petitions are all granted.
He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.
His glory is great in Thy salvation: honour and majesty hast Thou laid upon Him.
For Thou hast made Him most blessed for ever: Thou hast made Him exceeding glad with Thy countenance.
For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the most High He shall not be moved (Psa 21:4-7).
His enemies are all vanquished.
Thine hand shall find out all Thine enemies: Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee.
Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of Thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
Their fruit shalt Thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
For they intended evil against Thee: they imagined a. mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
Therefore shalt Thou make them turn their back, when Thou shalt make ready Thine arrows upon Thy strings against the face of them.
Be thou exalted, Lord, in Thine own strength: so will we sing and praise Thy power (Psa 21:8-13).
THE MESSIAHS PASSION
The passion of fear.
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? why art Thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
Our fathers trusted in Thee: they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them.
They cried unto Thee, and were delivered: they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded.
But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him: let Him deliver him, seeing he delighted in Him.
But Thou art He that took me out of the womb: Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers breasts.
I was cast upon Thee from the womb: Thou art my God from my mothers belly.
Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
But be not Thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste Thee to help me.
Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lions mouth: for Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns (Psa 22:1-21).
His passion of praise.
I will declare Thy Name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.
Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and fear Him, all ye the seed of Israel.
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.
My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation:
I will pay my vows before them that fear Him (Psa 22:22-25).
His passion of expectation.
The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek Him: your heart shall live for ever.
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.
For the Kingdom is the Lords: and He is the governor among the nations.
All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this (Psa 22:26-31).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
The subject of this psalm is the deliverance of a righteous sufferer from his enemies, and the effect of this deliverance on others. It is so framed as to be applied without violence to any case belonging to the class described, yet so that it was fully verified only in Christ, the Head and Representative of the class in question. The immediate speaker in the psalm is an ideal person, the righteous servant of Jehovah, but his words may, to a certain extent, be appropriated by any suffering believer and by the whole suffering Church, as they have been in all ages.Alexander.
FORSAKEN
(Psa. 22:1-2.)
I. Forsaken and Suffering. Why hast Thou forsaken me? Why art Thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Suffering is one of the mysteries of our complicated human life. None are exempt. The voice of anguish rises towards heaven in a ceaseless wail. As there are ecstasies of joy when the soul is exalted into a state of inexpressible rapture, so there are corresponding depressions when the soul is plunged into a gulf of darkness and despair. The bitterest element in all suffering is the sense of desertion, when the lonely victim is drifting helplessly before the black, pelting storm, without a hand to help, a voice to cheer, or a light to guide! Who can fathom the feelings of the solitary sufferer of Golgotha indicated in that thrilling and mysterious cryMy God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me! It was not the why of impatience or despair, not the sinful questioning of one whose heart rebels against his chastening, but rather the cry of a lost child who cannot understand why his father has left him, and who longs to see his fathers face again. What these words were in the lips of the Holy One of God, heart of man may not conceive. For a moment in that last agony the Perfect Man was alone with the sin of the world.Perowne.
II. Forsaken but not prayerless. O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not, and in the night season and am not silent (Psa. 22:2). It is as if he said, I cannot understand this darkness. It is not that I have forgotten Thee. Day and night I cry, to me there is no silence.Perowne. Prayer is the great resource of the troubled soul; and though deliverance does not come immediately, prayer is not abandoned. The more continuous the misery the more intense and vocal the prayer. Though the door refuse to open for weeks and months, the earnest suppliant knows he is before the right door, that there is no other to which he can go, and that erelong it must open. The greatest pain to the troubled soul is not to be sure of the hearing of his prayers. Whoever does not give up God, even when his trouble of body and pain of soul has advanced to the highest point, soon has the experience that God has not forsaken him.Lange. The solitude is not so oppressive whose silence is broken by the voice of prayer. Delay increases the souls importunity, and importunity will succeed (Luk. 11:8).
III. Forsaken but trusting. Dense as may be the darkness and acute as may be the anguish, the sufferer does not lose his hold on God. It is still, My God, my God. The great test and triumph of faith is witnessed in the continuance of confidence, not only in one who is absent, but in one whom we are conscious has deserted us.
1. This trust was encouraged by contemplating the holiness of the Divine character. But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel (Psa. 22:3). Throned above the myriad praises of the congregation which thank fully celebrate the many acts of Divine deliverance and redemption. The holiness of God is but another aspect of His faithfulness and mercy. The more vivid and extensive our conception of sin, the more exalted and impressive will be our view of the Divine holiness. The Redeemer of the world drew His mightiest consolation from a recollection of the holiness of God, when, in His hour of darkness and sorrow, He was brought into close and lonely contact with the enormity of human sin. While the holiness of God is in the highest degree acknowledged and adored, the afflicted speaker in this verse seems to marvel how the holy God could forsake him, and be silent to his cries. The argument is, Thou art holy, oh! why is it Thou dost disregard Thy holy One in His hour of sharpest anguish? We may not question the holiness of God, but we may argue from it, and use it as a plea in our petitions.Spurgeon. The expression, Thou art holy, is a corroding element which must by and by entirely consume the other, Thou hast forsaken me.Hengstenberg.
2. This trust was encouraged by recollecting the experience of Gods people in times of trouble. Our fathers trusted in Thee, &c. (Psa. 22:4-5). Thrice they trusted, and only once they cried. It was not that God could not deliver those who trusted in Him: He had done it for those of old time. He who could deliver the sinful when they cried to Him in faith, could much more deliver the Sinless One who came to Him in innocence. A genuine trust is always succeeded by a signal deliverance. Man is often disappointed and confounded when trusting to human policy and power; but never when trusting in God.
LESSONS:
1. The lowest level of suffering is reached when the soul is consciously forsaken of God.
2. Prayer is the most suitable exercise of the soul in the most trying moments.
3. When the soul can do nothing else it can trust in God.
THE LONELINESS OF SUFFERING
(Psa. 22:6-18.)
I. Oppresses the soul with a sense of personal unworthiness (Psa. 22:6-8).
1. This unworthiness is humbly acknowledged. I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men and despised of the people (Psa. 22:6). The first step in a downward career is to sink in the estimation of others; the next and more fatal one is to sink in our own estimation. Pungent and continued suffering depresses the mind, and fills it with gloomy and but half-comprehended thoughts, and the sufferer is tempted to depreciate himself and all his doings. Man is compared to a worm in Job. 25:6 on account of the nothingness of his existence. The worm in the passage before us, as in Isa. 41:13, serves to designate nothingness within nothingness. The reproach and the contempt are brought under our notice, not so much in themselves, as in reference to the ground on which they restthe deep misery of the sufferer, whose condition is such that it is reckoned by all men as altogether desperate.Hengstenberg.
2. This sense of unworthiness renders the soul more keenly sensitive to insult and scorn. All they that see me laugh me to scorn, &c. (Psa. 22:7-8). It is painful to endure the scornful ridicule of our enemies when we are in health and vigour, and able to repel and answer it. But when all our powers are prostrate by affliction, and we are too helpless to reply, the torture is overwhelming. Still more cruel and unbearable is it when the sufferers God is maligned (Psa. 22:8). This is the most lacerating kind of contempt. Because he loves God more than himself, he would rather encounter floods of derision himself, than that one drop should fall on the name of his God. The shaking of the head and the opened mouth denote mocking delight.Tholuck. Oh! how inexpressibly keen must have been the sufferings of the Sinless One as He listened to the revilings of those who gloated over His crucifixion! How often is it that man despises what God holds in highest esteem! If we would be true followers of Christ we must be content to bear His reproach.
II. Throws the mind back upon the thought of the Divine Care from the earliest period of life (Psa. 22:9-10). He who protected and sustained us in the helplessness and perils of infancy, will not leave us to perish in the darkest and loneliest extremity. Too little do we think of the goodness of God which brought us into being, provided for every want, brightened the happy period of youth, and led us to trust Him in every emergency of life. Comfort may be found in the hour of trial by reflecting on the past mercies of God. The more conscious we become of our own impotency, the more tenaciously do we cling to the Divine arm and the more highly do we prize the smallest acts of kindness and sympathy. I began to rail against Providence, wrote the imprisoned Armand Charratt with the blood he had pricked from his arm, when a messenger of mercy came to me in the form of an escaped canary-bird down a chimney of the Bastille. I kept the canary-bird, and for three years I was no longer solitary. God begins His care over us from the earliest hour. We are dandled upon the knee of mercy and cherished in the lap of goodness; our cradle is canopied by Divine love, and our first totterings are guided by His care. He who was our God when we left our mother, will be with us till we return to mother-earth, and will keep us from perishing in the belly of hell Faith finds weapons everywhere.Spurgeon.
III. Is embittered by the violence and cruelty of relentless enemies.
1. They are violent. Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion (Psa. 22:12-13). The lonely sufferer is terrified by the fierce opposition of his enemies, who, like strong and ravenous beasts, threaten him with horrible mutilation and destruction. The wild, ferocious outbreaks of the wicked are ever a source of distress to the holy soul. One of the bitterest elements in the sufferings of the worlds Redeemer was, that He had to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself. The sorrows of the good are met with the taunting, malicious revelry of the wicked.
2. They are cruel. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet (Psa. 22:16). The enemies are still compared to savage animals, but the figure is somewhat different: dogs not only as fierce, but as unclean. We must remember that these dogs are the savage wild dogs of the East (1Ki. 14:11; Psa. 59:6; Psa. 59:14-15).Perowne. Jews and heathens enclosed the solitary Sufferer of Calvary, as dogs in their madness and fury close in upon the hunted stag. They pierced His hands with nails, that our souls might not be pierced with judgments. Sin is the most terrific instrument of cruelty.
IV. Intensifies the sense of utter helplessness and agony (Psa. 22:11; Psa. 22:14-15; Psa. 22:17-18). It is impossible to find words that will depict more graphically a condition of complete exhaustion, distress, and despair, than those contained in these verses. The lonely sufferer, after referring to the cruelty of his tormentors, passes on to speak of the effects of their savage treatment upon himself. He felt absolutely friendless and alone:There is none to help. As poured-out water dissolves on the ground, so his strength is dissolved: he is utterly spent. I am poured out like water. His bones, the support of the physical frame, are sundered and displaced, involving unutterable agony. All my bones are out of joint. I may tell all my bones, they look and stare upon me. His courage fails him; the brave heart can hold up no longer, but sinks in despair. My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. The sap of life is dried up like the moisture out of a burnt-out potsherd: his misery and fevered pain exhausted his endurance and strength, as a vessel of clay is dried and burnt within a furnace. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. In consequence of excessive thirst and anguish, his tongue is sealed to his jaws; and he feels as one who has already entered the grave. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. As a last act of indignity, as though he were already dead, his very clothes are stripped from him and raffled as plunder among his unpitying enemies. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture (Psa. 22:18). How all these particulars were fulfilled in the sufferings of the Son of God, is narrated in the gospels with touching simplicity and realistic power. The heaviest stroke in all suffering is that which we must bear alone. No loneliness is more oppressive, more distressing, more insupportable than the loneliness of suffering.
Learn:
1. The weakness and vanity of man.
2. The terrible consequences of sin.
3. The only source of help in extremity is Divine.
A PATHETIC CRY FOR HELP
(Psa. 22:19-21.)
I. That God is the unfailing source of help in time of trouble. Be not Thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste Thee to help me (Psa. 22:19). Trouble is a blessing when it drives us nearer to God. The fainting victim turns away from his fierce persecutors and from his own sufferings, and fixes his eyes on God. All earthly help has its limits, but Divine help never fails. If God be distant, the darkness deepens and the sorrow too. But when the strength of Israel hastens to the rescue, the light of hope breaks in and the anguish is assuaged. From the lowest depths God hears the piteous cry of the helpless. Prayer is the weapon with which the bars of the gates of heaven are burst open.
II. That deliverance is implored from imminent peril (Psa. 22:20-21).
1. From threatened death. Deliver my soul from the sword: my darlingmy only one. From the parallelism = my soul, my life. The life is so called, either because man has but one life, or because it is the most precious of all things.Perowne. This life was exposed to destruction by the sword; for the sword is an individualising designation of whatever is an instrument of death. The Lord can blunt the point of the sharpest weapon; and, at the last moment, restore the stricken one who cries to Him.
2. From the ferocity of the most pitiless tormentors. Save mefrom the power of the dogfrom the lions mouthfrom the horns of the unicorns. Luther observesThe rage of the furious devil is so great, that the prophet does not consider it enough to have represented it by a sharp sword, but introduces further, for the same purpose, the tearings of raging, furious dogs, the mouth of the greedy and hungry lion, which stands already open, and is ready to devour, and the dreadfully fierce wrath of the raging, terrible unicorn. The word unicorn is from a Hebrew verb which signifies to elevate, and refers to an animal having a high horn in its nose or front, an untameable beast, which may be slain, but cannot be taken alive. It is spoken of in Scripture in respect to its strength in Numbers 22, its untameable ferocity Job. 39:9, its height of horn Psa. 92:11.Bythner. The fury of the most violent and dreaded enemy is under the control of the sufferers God. He who holds the winds in His fists, whose whisper stills the angriest storm, whose look smites the most formidable hosts with paralysis, can dissipate, like foam before the breeze, the violent anger of our persecuting adversaries.
III. That the cry for help is emboldened by the recollection of past deliverances. For Thou hast heard me (Psa. 22:21). None are so poor in blessings, but there are some periods in their past history in which they were specially impressed with the saving interposition of heaven, in answer to prayer. The soul in its deepest distress falls back upon such a well-tested experience, and gathers confidence. From this point we observe a marked change in the condition of the sufferer. From a state of abject wretchedness and despair, he rises into the apparently sudden enjoyment of a radiant hope, and calm, restful assurance. Faith, however feeble its grasp, if persevering, is certain to triumph. The past is an inspiration for the present, and a guide for the future.
A SONG OF DELIVERANCE
(Psa. 22:22-31.)
At this point we detect a marked change in the tone and spirit of the psalm. Light breaks in upon the forlorn sufferer. Despair gives place to hope; and the prospect of speedy and certain deliverance animates the soul with gratitude and joy.
Observe:
I. That this deliverance was celebrated by grateful praise.
1. The theme of praise is the Name of the Great Deliverer. I will declare THY NAME unto my brethren. The Name of Jehovah is inclusive of all the Divine perfections; but that perfection which is more immediately exercised in effecting for us a great deliverance will naturally be most prominent in our song. The deliverance of the worlds Redeemer from His unutterable sufferings, and the consequent deliverance of humanity from the power of sin, called into play all the energies and perfections of the Divine Nature. The Divine Name, therefore, in all its depth and expanse of meaning, is the subject of highest adoration. To declare the name of the Lord is to make known what He has done.
2. The praise is offered publicly. Unto my brethrenin the midst of the congregationin the great congregationbefore them that fear Him (Psa. 22:22; Psa. 22:25). Instead of the anxious cry, which, in contrast with the praises of Israel, previously sounded from the month of the innocent and horribly tortured victim, the song of praise of the delivered, is in future to resound in the assembly of his brothers, and the whole congregation is to hear, to their own edification, the declaration of the great and wonderful things that God has done to this one who was so afflicted and utterly lost. The sufferings of the righteous are according to the Divine purpose not only to be of advantage to the present congregation but likewise to the heathen throughout the entire world.Lange.
3. The praise is general. All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him (Psa. 22:23). All the true worshippers of Jehovah are called upon to praise Him. True praise is characterised by profound reverence. Ye that fear the Lord. Humble awe of God is so necessary a preparation for praising Him that none are fit to sing to His honour but such as reverence His word. Holy fear should always keep the key of the singing pew. Where Jesus leads the tune none but holy lips may dare to sing.Spurgeon. True praise is ac companied with substantial thank offerings, I will pay my vows before them that fear Him (Psa. 22:25). The faithful promiser, who, when in trouble had vowed to offer certain sacrifices, was accustomed, after deliverance, to invite the widow, the orphan, and the poor to participate with him in the sacrificial meal (Deu. 12:18; Deu. 16:11) The grateful heart will praise God with a full-handed generosity, and delights to share its bounty and joy with others. The salvation of one adds to the happiness of many (Luk. 15:10).
4. The praise recognises the special character of the deliverance (Psa. 22:24) God esteems what others despise. The abject sufferer who sinks below the notice and help of man is never beyond the reach and sympathy of God. The recollection of the horrors from which we have been snatched, will give a colouring to the expression of our gratitude. The affliction of the afflicted, The same word is used with Messianic reference Isa. 53:4; Isa. 53:7; Zec. 9:9. When he cried He heard. What a contrast to Psa. 22:1-2! Very remarkable is this confident acknowledgment of Gods goodness in hearing prayer.Perowne.
5. The praise will bring satisfaction to the most needy. The meek shall eat and be satisfied, &c (Psa. 22:26). The gratitude of the delivered sufferer and the joy it occasions to others, are represented under the figure of a feast in which the poorest participate. The grateful and extended proclamation of the merciful works of God, especially as exhibited in the salvation of the human race, will supply the spiritual banquet for which millions crave, and for lack of which they perish.
II. That this deliverance will be the means of conferring blessing on all mankind.
1. All nations will acknowledge the supremacy of Jehovah. All the ends of the world shall remember, &c. (Psa. 22:27-28). The heathen may have forgotten God, but they are not forgotten by Him: they may have ignored the Divine rule, but they cannot destroy itHe is the governor among the nations. The heathen who share in the great salvation wrought out by the suffering Messiah will gladly submit to His lordship. It is well to mark the order of conversion as here set forth:They shall rememberthis is reflection, like the prodigal who came unto himself: and turn unto Jehovahthis is repentance, like Manasseh who left his idols; and shall worshipthis is holy service as Paul adored the Christ whom once he abhorred.Spurgeon.
2. All ranks of men shall find happiness in the worship of Jehovah (Psa. 22:29). Here the image of the banquet is resumed, the feast is provided for all, irrespective of national or personal distinctions. All they that be fat upon the earththe rich and mighty; all they that go down to the dustthose who are so miserably starved and poor that they are ready to perish, and cannot keep alive their own soulall shall sit down together at the same divinely-furnished banquet. Here all guests are poor, and God is rich for all. The Gospel shall win the homage of all nations and all classes of men.
III. That this deliverance will vindicate the Divine Righteousness to future ages (Psa. 22:30-31). His Righteousness not only as manifested in the deliverance of His righteous servant, but as manifested in all His great work of salvation, both in the suffering and in the exaltation of Christ, and also in providing the feast for all who will partake thereof. This hope of the conversion of other nations to the faith of Gods elect, was in an especial manner characteristic of the period of the return from the Babylonish captivity. The prophecies of Zechariah are full of it, and so are many of the Psalms which probably date from that period.Perowne. The divine conduct in the great work of Redemption will be continually celebrated. Posterity will perpetuate the worship of Jehovah; each succeeding generation will preserve and disseminate the knowledge committed to it by the generation preceding. The seed of the righteous is indestructible and ever fruitful. The true Church of God can never perish. It is said that the Baobab-treethe largest known tree in the worldthough stripped of its bark outside and hollowed to a large cavity within its trunk, has the singular power of exuding from its substance a perfectly new bark, which lines both the inner and outer surfaces of the tree. So is it with the Church of God. Though pierced and peeled and wounded by the gleaming axes of malicious enemies, it still lives and grows in irresistible productiveness, affording shelter to millions, and stretching its life-giving and healing foliage over all nations.
LESSONS:
1. Deliverance from peril should be gratefully acknowledged.
2. The world it most indebted to those who have suffered most for its benefit.
3. The influence of a good work never dies.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 22
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
The Voice of a Forsaken SuffererLoudly Lamenting his Lot, Minutely Describing his Pain and Shame, without Reproaching God or Accusing Himselfis Suddenly Silenced (in Death); and then as Suddenly is Heard in a Strain of Triumph, in which Other Voices join, all Celebrating the Praises of Jehovah as Sovereign Lord.
ANALYSIS
This psalm naturally falls into two parts: the first part, spoken by One Voice, consisting of six decastich stanzas, One of them Broken Short; and the second part, spoken by Other Voices, consisting of four tristich stanzas, each of these including an Appropriate Refrain.
PART I.Stanza I, Psa. 22:1-5, a Sufferer, Loudly Complaining of being Forsaken by God, is yet careful to Acknowledge Jehovahs Delivering Faithfulness to his People in the Past. Stanza II., Psa. 22:6-10, He owns himself Disesteemed Abroad and at Home, and Openly Derided by Spiteful Enemies; yet Claims that he has been Divinely Sustained from his Birth. Stanza III., Psa. 22:11-14, He asks God to be Near Him in his Distress, caused by Enemies acting like Wild Beasts (Bulls and Lions), and by his Own Deplorable Bodily Condition. Stanza IV., Psa. 22:15-18, Suffering from Thirst and in Prospect of Death, his enemies like Fierce Dogs gather round and ill-treat him; His Person being exposed to his Own and to the Vulgar Eye, and His Garments being Distributed. Stanza V., Psa. 22:19-21, He Renews his Petitions for Help, Rescue and Salvation . . . Stanza VI., Psa. 22:22-25, Strains of Triumph break forth from the Same Voice, in Praise of Jehovahs Name, before a Large Assembly.
PART II.Stanza VII., Psa. 22:26, Humble Seekers of Jehovah Felicitated. Stanza VIII., Psa. 22:27-28, Distant Nations render homage to earths king. Stanza IX., Psa. 22:29-30, Both the Vigorous and those who are raised from Imminent Death, Alike Worship. Stanza X., Psa. 22:30-31, Perpetuation of Testimony to Jehovahs Deeds.
(Lm.) PsalmBy David.
( Part I. Spoken by One Voice.)
1
My GOD my GOD! why hast thou failed[198] me?
[198] Cp. Job. 19:14 and Psa. 27:10.
Far from my salvation are the words of my loud lamentation.
2
My God! I keep cryingby day and thou dost not answer me
and by night and there is no respite for me.
3
But thou O Jehovah the Holy One,
enthroned upon the praises of Israel:[199]
[199] The songs of praise, which resound in Israel as monuments of His saving deeds, are like Cherubs wings, upon which His presence in Israel hoversDel.
4
In thee trusted our fathers,
they trustedand thou didst deliver them:
5
Unto thee made they outcryand escaped,
in thee they trustedand were not put to shame.
6
But I am a wormand No-one,
a reproach of mankindand despised of a people:
7
All that see me deride me,
they open with the lipthey shake the head saying:
8
Roll thy cause on Jehovahlet him deliver him!
let him rescue himsince he hath found pleasure in him!
9
Yea thou are he that caused me to be born,[200]
[200] Ml. severed me from the womb. So it shd. be (w. Syr.); cp. Psa. 71:6Gn. M.T.: drew me forth.
my trust on the breasts of my mother:
10
Upon thee was I cast from birth,
from the lap[201] of my mother my GOD wast thou
[201] Ml: womb.
11
Be not far from mefor there is distress,
be nearfor there is no one to help:
12
There have surrounded me many bulls,
mighty ones of Bashan have encircled me:
13
They have opened against me their mouth,
a lion rending and roaring.
14
Like water am I poured out,
and parted from each other are all my bones:
My heart hath become like wax,
it is melted in the midst of my body.[202]
[202] Ml.: mine inwards.
15
Dried as a potsherd is my palate,[203]
[203] So Gt.Gn.
and my tongue is made to clave to my gums;
and in the dust of death will they[204] lay me.
[204] Br. reads 3rd pers. plu.
16
For there have surrounded me dogs,
a pack of maltreaters[205] have closed in about me;
[205] So Maclaren. A crew of miscreantsDel.
they have bored through[206] my hands and my feet.
[206] They dig intoBr. They have digged into (so Sep., Vul., Syr.)Dr.
17
I may count all my bones,
they look about[207]they gaze[208] upon me.
[207] For the difference between nabat and raah, see 1Sa. 17:42.
[208] Feast their eyesDel.
18
They part my garments among them,
and for my garments they cast lots.
19
But thou Jehovah! be not far off,
oh my help! to aid me make haste!
20
Rescue from the sword my soul,
from the power of the dog my solitary self:
21
Save me from the mouth of the lion,
yea from the horns of wild oxen mine afflicted one.[209]
[209] That is: my poor soul. M.T.: thou hast answered me. (The psalmist, by a sudden impulse of faith, pictures his deliverance as accomplishedDr.) The difference consists of one letter and of a change of vocalisation.
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*[210]
[210] These asterisks are to suggest an abruptly broken and unfinished stanza.
22
I will tell of thy name unto my brethren,
in the midst of an assembly will I praise thee:
23
Ye that revere Jehovah praise him,
all ye seed of Jacob glorify him,
and stand in awe of him all ye seed of Israel:
24
Because he hath not detested to answer the humbled one,
neither hath he hid his face from him;
but when he cried for help unto him he heard.
25
From thee will come my praise in a large assembly,
my vows will I perform before thee.
(Part II. Spoken by Other Voices.)
26
Humble ones will eat and be satisfied,
they will praise Jehovah who are seekers after him:
May your heart live evermore![211]
[211] Owing to the change of person this can only be the words of those who seek Yahweh, addressed to the afflictedBr.
27
All the ends of the earth will remember and return to Jehovah,
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him:
28
Surely to Jehovah belongeth the kingdomand one to rule over the nations.
29
Yea to him[212] will bow down all the vigorous of the earth,
[212] So Gt.Gn. Merely a different grouping of the letters.
before him will kneel all who were descending to dust:
30
Yea mine own soul[213] to him doth livemy[214] seed shall serve him.
[213] Pathetic circumlocution for personal pronoun. See Dr. quoted Intro., Chap. III., Soul.
[214] So it shd. be (w. Sep. and Vul.)Gn.
31
It shall be told of my Sovereign to a generation to come.[215]
[215] So it shd. be (w. Sep. and Vul.). Cp. Psa. 48:13, Psa. 102:18Gn.
that they may declare his righteousness to a people to be born:
That he hath done it! That he hath done it![216]
[216] For this repetition (to fill the line) cp. Psa. 150:6.
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 22
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why do You refuse to help me or even to listen to my groans?
2 Day and night I keep on weeping, crying for Your help, but there is no reply
3, 4 For You are holy.
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The praises of our fathers surrounded Your throne; they trusted You and You delivered them.
5 You heard their cries for help and saved them; they were never disappointed when they sought Your aid.
6 But I am a worm, not a man, scorned and despised by my own people and by all mankind.
7 Everyone who sees me mocks and sneers and shrugs;
8 Is this the one who rolled his burden on the Lord? they laugh. Is this the one who claims the Lord delights in him? Well believe it when we see God rescue him!
9, 10, 11 Lord, how You have helped me before![217] You took me safely from my mothers womb and brought me through the years of infancy. I have depended upon You since birth; You have always been my God. Dont leave me now, for trouble is near and no one else can possibly help.
[217] Implied.
12 I am surrounded by fearful enemies, strong as the giant bulls of Bashan.
13 They come at me with open jaws, like roaring lions attacking their prey.
14 My strength has drained away like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart melts like wax;
15 My strength has dried up like sun-baked clay; my tongue sticks to my mouth, for You have laid me in the dust of death.
16 The enemy, this gang of evil men, circles me like a pack of dogs; they have pierced my hands and feet.
17 I can count every bone in my body. See these men of evil gloat and stare;
18 They divide my clothes among themselves by a toss of the dice.
19 O Lord, dont stay away. O God my Strength, hurry to my aid.
20 Rescue me from death; spare my precious life from all these evil men.[218]
[218] Literally, Deliver my soul from the sword, my only one from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from these lions jaws and from the horns of these wild oxen; yes, God will answer me and rescue me.
22 I will praise You to all my brothers; I will stand up before the congregation and testify of the wonderful things You have done.
23 Praise the Lord, each one of you who fears Him, I will say. Each of you[219] must fear and reverence His name. Let all Israel sing His praises,
[219] Literally, all you sons of Jacob.
24 For He has not despised my cries of deep despair; He has not turned and walked away. When I cried to Him, He heard and came.
25 Yes, I will stand and praise You[220] before all the people. I will publicly fulfill my vows in the presence of all who reverence Your name.
[220] Literally, praise from you.
26 The poor[221] shall eat and be satisfied; all who seek the Lord shall find Him and shall praise His name. Their hearts shall rejoice with everlasting joy.
[221] Literally, the afflicted.
27 The whole earth shall see it and return to the Lord; the people of every nation shall worship Him.
28 For the Lord is King and rules the nations.
29 Both proud and humble together, all who are mortal-born to dieshall worship Him.
30 Our children too shall serve Him, for they shall hear from us about the wonders of the Lord;
31 Generations yet unborn shall hear of all the miracles He did for us.
EXPOSITION
The Mysterious Forsaken Sufferer of this psalm appears to be AN INDIVIDUAL: seeing that, in the course of his loud lamentation, he distinctly alludes to his mouth, palate, tongue, gums, heart, bones, and clothing; looks back to his childhood and forward to his death.
HIS SITUATION is indicated with circumstantial minuteness, He is exposed to public view; for he refers to all who see him. He is fixed to one spot; for his enemies gather round him. He has been deprived of his clothing; for he can count his own bones, shrinks from the vulgar gaze as men look for and behold him, and sees his garments distributed to others. He has, moreover, been subjected to at least one form of bodily violence; for his enemies have bored through his hands and his feet. And finally, inasmuch as such as would see him, both look for and gaze upon him, it may not unnaturally be surmised that either he has companions in suffering from whom visitors to the spot would desire to distinguish him, or else darkness has gathered, making it difficult to descry him.
He is either absolutely FRIENDLESS, or his friends are so few and feeble that they do not count, being powerless to help him: hence his repeated cries for Divine pity and succor. Nevertheless, strange to say, he has brethren somewhere in the background, numbering a large assembly; but these come not into view until his sufferings are ended.
His ENEMIES are many. MANKIND in general reproach him: his own people despise him: beholders deride him with scornful gestures and taunting words. The gathered throng of his foes appears large and threatening, formidable and fierce: he compares them to bulls, wild and giganticeach as a lion rending and roaring; and either the same or others he likens to dogs, fierce, foul and mean, united into a pack large enough to close in about him. Moreover, the sword of authority appears in their midst. His life is threatened on every hand.
Meanwhile his SUFFERINGS are intense and prolonged. His body is so distended that his bones are dislocated; his mouth is parched with thirst, his strength flows away like water, his physical courage fails like melting wax. His mind, sensitive to the shame of his exposure and to the cruel taunts of his enemies, struggles bravely to maintain its confidence in God: the deepest distress of all being that HE seems to be far away, and to be slow to rescue,incessant crying to Him day and night bringing no answer.
The PRIMARY CAUSE of suffering is implied rather than expressed. Reverently keeping to what is actually before us, in our search for what is implied,the answer appears to be at once simple and sufficient. The mental anguish so strongly indicated is due to the Divine permission that he, the Sufferer, should thus fall into the hands of his enemies; and that his God should be so long in coming to his rescue. The Sufferer feels himself to be forsaken, or, rather, that his God has failed himTHAT is in evidence. His enemies have got him into their powerTHAT too is in evidence. Psa. 22:11 suggests a connection between the two; and Psa. 22:19-21 confirm it. The Divine forsaking consists in leaving him thus to fall into his enemies hands. The converse, prayed for, shows this. These verses (Psa. 22:11; Psa. 22:19-21) say, in effect: Return, come near; and rescue me from the sword, from the dog, from the lion, from the wild-ox; thereby implying that it was Gods withdrawing land holding aloof, that delivered him into the power of these his enemies. The Divine withdrawing, the Divine holding aloof,THIS was the Divine failure. So much is in evidence. And this is sufficient. We have no need, no right, to seek for more. It is sufficient. Are we to say, it is not sufficiently mysterious? As surely as we do say this, we show how completely we fail to enter into the position of the Sufferer. It is painfully mysterious to him, to be at all allowed to fall into his enemies hands. The fathers had trusted, and always been delivered: HE has trusted, and NOT been delivered: herein lies the mysteryherein the chief painthe agonycontinuedoh! so long!
The SUDDEN CLOSE of the suffering is very remarkable. It is that in any case: whether, strictly adhering to the M.T., we get the break in the form and by the force of a single word, in a new strain, at the end of line 6 in stanza V (lit., thou hast answered me); or whether, by a slight modification of the M.T., helped out by the Sep., we become aware of the change, not by a single word, but by the dramatic force of a sudden breaking off of the one stanza and the commencement of another in a new key. In either case, the fact remains, that all at once the strain of sorrow ceases; and, when it ceases, it ceases altogether: there is absolutely no recurrence of pain, no trace further of a single sob. It cannot be doubted that it is the same voice which thus suddenly breaks out in praise; for the metre is the same, the direct address to Jehovah is the same, andallowing for the change of tonethe theme is the same: the lament has been, He hath not heard; the joy now is, He hath heard. Moreover, as if to make this point clear, the very terms of the announcement which the late Sufferer now makes to his brethren, bear upon them vivid reminiscences of the shame and pain through which he has passed: by man he had been detested, and deeply humbled. God had hid his face, and he the Sufferer had cried for help. Now all is changed; and by every sign of continuity of speech we are warranted to rest in the conclusion, that it is the same voice that tells us the joyful news.
A mystery at present hangs over the assembly in or from which the triumph shall be sounded forth; but no ambiguity rests on the language then and there to be employed. According to a classification with which we have become familiar in our study of Hebrew Poetry, we can detect Gentile worshippers in the phraseYe that revere Jehovah, and the parallel phrases seed of Jacob, seed of Israel are too plain in their application to the Hebrew nation to leave room for a moments doubt. So that we are here met with the rousing prospect that the Delivered Sufferer will announce his deliverance as a fact of deep interest to the world at large as thus represented. It looks, indeed, as though, to his own nation, the announcement would be more profoundly moving than even to the Gentile world; seeing that, while Gentile worshippers are simply called upon to praise Jehovah for this his interposition in behalf of the Sufferer, the seed of Jacob are called upon not only to glorify him, but to stand in awe of his holy majesty, for this story of his doings.
As the sixth stanza completes the first part of the psalm, and to all appearance other voices now carry on the psalm to its conclusion, the present seems a convenient point at which to raise the broad question of FULFILMENT: Who is this Mysterious Sufferer?
We took care to remark, at the beginning of our exposition, that the Sufferer appears to be an INDIVIDUAL; and no doubt this impression ought to be left undisturbed until something more likely can be suggested; until it can be shown that, though he so appears, yet this is but the allegorical dress in which the prediction is adorned; and that the seeming individual is, after all, a larger or a smaller group of individualsa nation or a remnant of a nation. Now it may be frankly allowed, that there is no prima-facie impossibility in this. Nevertheless, every psalm, every representation in the psalms, must be considered on its own merits. This sufferer cannot be the nation, because he is distinguished from the nationdespised of a people. But may he not be a Suffering Remnant of the nation? At first sight, this appears possible; but then what sort of remnant would this be? If not a sinless remnant, at all events it is one that here makes no confession of sin. Besides, if it is a remnant that suffers, it must also be a remnant that is delivered, and declare Jehovahs name in an assembly: all of which goes to show how unnatural it is to see in this individual a number of individuals. A remnant may indeed be delivered from further suffering; but to represent a remnant as declaring Jehovahs name in an assembly is so incongruous as to suggest how much more simple and natural it is to adhere to literal individuality throughout this part of the psalm.
It is notorious that Christians see in this psalm a wonderfully vivid and realistic picture of the Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. In order to account for this, it is not necessary to hazard the opinion that anyone could have said before the event: This sufferer in the psalm is evidently undergoing the horrors of crucifixion. All that is necessary is to take the psalm as it is written, and the story of the crucifixion of Jesus as it is told in the four Gospels, to lay them side by side, and then to look first on the one picture and then on the other. Detail by detail, the striking similarity comes into view. There arethe outcry on the cross from the opening of the psalm, the mocking of the by-standers in the very. words that follow later on in the psalm, and the source of which those mockers must surely have forgotten; the parching thirst; the outstretched body; the cruel gaze of the assembled throng; the wounded hands and feet; the parted garments. As Dr. Briggs well says: It seems to the Christian that the psalmist indeed gives a more vivid description of the sufferings of Christ on the cross than the authors of the Gospels. Myriads of readers can attest that this is no exaggeration. It may be added, that there are less obvious harmonies, which, when perceived, deepen the impression of fulfillment. That suddenly interrupted stanza (like a broken column in a cemetery) eloquently suggests the hushing of the voice of Jesus in death. The sudden resumption of speech in tones of triumph: it may not even yet have been fulfilled in its full and ultimate intent for the assemblythat large assembly may not yet have been gathered; and yet, for all that, the Resurrection of Jesus, together with his renewed intercourse with his disciples; his promise, on parting, to return; the gradual formation of his assembly, his ecclesia; his own undying love for the seed of Israel:all these serve to give a sense of spaciousness for complete and more than complete fulfillment, which leaves nothing to be desired.
It is little to confess, that we can only with the greatest difficulty begin to imagine, how an alphabet of thought for conceiving such a psalm as this, could have been communicated to any psalmists mind. That the suffering prophets of old were types of the coming suffering Messiah, we can well believe; that every phase of suffering here portrayed may have been already experienced in rudimentary forms, a little by one sufferer and a little by another, and then passed into a common stock of conceptions made ready for the actual writer of this part of the psalm, is also not impossible. Those conceptions may even have been vivified and intensified by an actual experience which converted the writer into a not unworthy type of the Suffering One; and yet after all have amounted to nothing more than a dim outline of the Reality. From this point of view, we can well believe that David wrote the earlier part of this psalm; if, at least, we admit with Delitzsch that David descends with his complaints to a depth that lies beyond the depth of his suffering, and rises with his hopes to a height which lies beyond the height of the reward of his suffering, so that the hyperbolical element is thereby changed into the prophetical. The ultimate product remains, in this Divinely illumined fore-sketch, offering a Spectacle of Jesus of Nazareth, suffering on the Cross, as a proof of Divine Foresight and Divine Skill,which nothing that we can conceive can ever surpass for satisfying the judgment and moving the soul.
In advancing to Part II. of this psalm, attention is called to the circumstance that careful regard to expert critical judgment on a few nice points, some obvious difficulties have been removed and the whole presented with a striking measure of symmetry and brightness. Of difficulties, may be mentioned this: That however suitable it may appear that the humble should now eat and be satisfied (Psa. 22:26), it is by no means so acceptable to be told (Psa. 22:29) that the already fat shall eat as well as worship. This incongruity is at once removed, simply by a different grouping of letters, as advised by Ginsburg. Then if we render vigorous instead of fat as suggested by O.G. we get a fine strong line, forming a good contrast with that which follows it:
Yea to him will bow down all the vigorous of the earth,
Before him will kneel all who were descending to dust.
Not who go down, with A.V. and R.V.; but, as the participle may just as well be rendered, who were going down or descending; which makes all the difference, since their progress downwards to the dust is suddenly arrested. These emendations prepare the way for another. For how is any helpful sense discovered by the next clause thrown in by the A.V.; And none can keep alive his own soul? Whether left just so, or even slightly altered by the R.V.: Even he that cannot keep his soul alive, it sounds quite as much like a burlesque as any advance of thought in the main line of the psalm: inasmuch as it seems to say, They may worship, but still they have to die all the same. Whereas, by accepting a hint from the Septuagint; and another from Psa. 22:26, which is crowned by a quotation; and yet another which Dr. Ginsburg had already given us, My seed;we obtain a splendid refrain to this little stanza also.
Yea, my own soul to him doth livemy seed shall serve him. Why! it is both literally and metaphorically, life from the dead! Thus, in getting rid of difficulties, a second quotation, serving as a refrain, appears, and puts us on scent for a third (Psa. 22:28) and a fourth (Psa. 22:31). For we have only to bear in mind that the Hebrew has no quotation marks, and is reluctant even to employ the word saying; and then to reflect that when men bow down they are apt to have words of worship on their lips, to become satisfied that Psa. 22:28 is composed of quoted words; and a magnificent refrain it makes for the families of the nations unto the ends of the earth to utter. In like manner, when generation after generation tells and declares something to posterity of which it is glad, it can generally find words, however simple, in which to express it; and so, once more, we hear herald voices exclaiming in honour of earths King:
He hath done it! He hath done it!
Those who, with a view to the thorough understanding of Part II. of this psalm, have thus minutely observed its peculiar structurein contrast with all that had gone before,will be prepared for our acquiescing in the judgment of Thirtle (O.T.P.), that the chief pant of the present conclusion of the psalm was penned by Hezekiah. Recalling the almost certain fact, that the bitterest ingredient in Hezekiahs cup was the reflection that by his death his race would be extinguished, and the Royal Line of David would be buried with him, we feel that a new and thrilling interest invests the joyful exclamation which now crowns the last stanza but one of the psalm,
Yea my own soul to him doth livemy seed shall serve him. This from the man who just before was rapidly descending to dust; whose own soul, instead of living, was on the point of dying; and who had no seed to succeed him!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Rotherham does a beautiful job of relating this psalm to the crucifixion without at first mentioning the crucifixionnotice the several minute circumstances. List the details of the crucifixion here either stated or implied;do this to get the impact of fulfilled prophecy.
2.
What is the primary cause of the suffering?
3.
Why refer to the one suffering as mysterious?
4.
List the characteristics of the enemies of the mysterious sufferer as they also describe the enemies at the cross.
5.
There is a sudden break in thought in this psalmWhere is it? What does it mean? Discuss.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) My God, my God.Heb., Eli, Eli, lama azavtan, where the Targum paraphrases sabbacthani, the form used by our Saviour on the cross. (See Notes, N. T. Comm., Mat. 27:46; Mar. 15:34.) The LXX. and Vulgate insert look upon me. (Comp. English Prayer Book version.) For the despairing tone comp. Psa. 80:14. It suits the whole of pious Israel in her times of trouble even better than any individual.
The second part of the verse is obscure from its lyric conciseness, but the Authorised Version has given the meaning, though sacrificing the rhythm
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,
Far from my aid, from the words of my groaning?
i.e., far from listening to the words that escape me only in groans.
Roaring.A word used generally of a lion (Isa. 5:29; comp. Jdg. 14:5); but also of a man (Psa. 38:9). Hitzigs conjecture, from my cry, instead of from my help, is very plausible, since it makes the parallelism complete and involves a very slight change. The LXX. and Vulg. have the words of my offences.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me The quotation of these words by Matthew (Mat 27:46) and Mark (Mar 15:34) decides their application to Christ. The words mark the deepest soul suffering of Christ upon the cross, as “I thirst” expressed the point of his bodily agony. The “why” is not the cry of despair, impatience, or a rebellious heart, but of mystery. Into that mystery, as it applies to Christ, we may not curiously inquire. It was not, however, that the “Only Begotten of the Father” was enduring the wrath of God. He was still the “beloved Son, in whom the Father was well pleased,” and still he confidingly calls him “ my God.” Yet he trod “the wine press alone,” (Isa 63:3,) and suffered “the just for the unjust.”
Forsaken The word simply has the negative signification of to leave, to withdraw from, as Psa 71:11; Isa 54:7, but describes the point of the Saviour’s mysterious complaint, and the depth of his vicarious sufferings. In Mat 27:46 the Saviour uses the Aramaic form, , ( sabachthani,) given in the Chaldee, , ( shebahktanee,) conformably to the dialect of the Palestine Jews, instead of the Hebrew , ( ‘azabhtanee.)
Far from helping me Hebrew, Far from my salvation. By the law of parallelism this is exegetical of forsaken, in the previous line.
Roaring Better, outcry, or loud complaint.
The Cross.
‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Why are you so far from helping Me, and from the words of My loud groaning?’
These words were cited by Jesus on the cross. But we cannot see it as merely signifying that Jesus was taking comfort from the Psalm. It was rather because (if we may say it reverently) He had come to a new understanding of what the Psalmist was describing. From the torment of His soul as He bore on Himself the sins of the world He was aware of a sense of total desolation and torment, a sense of total isolation from His Father, and it came out in this cry. He felt that in His cry He had to pierce through the darkness, because He felt ‘God forsaken’. As has been well said, ‘God forsaken by God, who can understand it?’
He was not, of course, forsaken. He could still speak to MY God. And the very fact of His praying was a recognition of the fact that God was within hearing, even though appearing to be terribly far away. It rather therefore expressed the agony that He was facing, and the burden that He was bearing. It was the only prayer that Jesus ever made that He did not address to God as ‘Father’. Even in the agony of the Garden He had prayed ‘Abba, Father’. But now in the darkness of His soul, tormented by the sin of the world, He came as a suppliant to God, rather than as a Son to the Father. And for Him there was a genuine and very real sense of separation. In these moments He knew the awful intensity of the work that He had come to do, and the price that He had come to pay. He was taking on Himself all the agony deserved by mankind.
A Cry Of Despair From The Heart, From One Who Yet Hopes In God ( Psa 22:1-10 ).
Psa 22:1
‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring (groaning)?’
God is here spoken of as El, (Eli, Eli – my God, my God – in the Aramaic Eloi or Eli).
In context it should be recognised that this is not a total cry of despair, for hope is shortly expressed in God. But it is certainly an indication of the deep distress of the speaker. The dual ‘my God, my God’ is both an expression of faith (‘my’) and an indication of urgency (compare Isa 49:14). The writer cannot understand why he should be undergoing such torment of spirit, and why the miseries of life should have been so thrust on him. It would fit well with David’s worst periods in his flight from Saul as he felt himself being constantly hunted down by one whom he was aware was slightly mad, and who sought his life with the intensity of a madman.
What is worse the writer feels that his sufferings have gone on for far too long. God is still far from helping him, and he feels that his roaring like an animal in pain has apparently been in vain (compare Psa 32:3; Psa 38:8). None would know better than David the roaring in anguish of the lion as it was slain by the shepherd with no one to deliver it.
That Jesus applied it to Himself in the depths of His sufferings on the cross is not surprising. It would bring some comfort in the midst of His dreadful anguish and misery, as He faced alone the consequences of sin as they were laid upon Him, and the darkness of His struggles with the Enemy, to know that what He faced had already been foreshadowed in these words.
Psa 22:2
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer,
And in the night season, and am not silent.’
The psalmist was experiencing his suffering and rejection day and night. He cried constantly to God, but he was seemingly not being heard. Daily his prayer would reach up to God, nightly he was in such despair that he could not sleep and utilised the time for more prayer. He could not be silent for his spirit was heavy in him.
This would certainly have been the experience of David, and it was so of many since. When a Christian is in despair as to why his prayers are seemingly not being answered he can take comfort from the thought that others have gone that way before, only to come out triumphant.
We may see here the daylight hours on the cross followed by the darkness that covered the whole earth when Jesus was being crucified. We cannot doubt that His cry to His God and Father was constant. It also reflects the darkness of Gethsemane when He could not be silent.
Psa 22:3-5
‘But you are holy,
O you who are enthroned on the praises of Israel.
‘Our fathers trusted in you,
They trusted, and you delivered them.
‘They cried to you, and were delivered,
They trusted in you, and were not put to shame.’
The psalmist now calls on God in terms of what He is and in the light of his memories of Israel’s past. He knows that God is holy, set apart and distinct, right in all He does. He does not doubt, therefore, that what God allows must be good and that He will do what is right in this circumstance too. And this reminds him of how Israel had suffered in the past, but had in the end in their darkness always enjoyed God’s deliverance.
‘But you are holy.’ He gives pause for thought. He recognises that God is set apart and unknowable. There is no searching of His understanding. His ways are not our ways and therefore we must hesitate before we speak. ‘God is in Heaven and you are on the earth, therefore let your words be few’ (Ecc 5:1). He must not prejudge God, and he can be sure that what this holy God does is right and that He will in the end save His people. Compare Hab 1:12.
‘O you who are enthroned on the praises of Israel..’ For he knows too that He ‘is enthroned on the praises of Israel’. He is Israel’s God, and their covenant Lord and King, and they worship Him constantly and truly. He is sure therefore that He Who thus receives their worship and homage will not fail them.
‘‘Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them. They cried to you, and were delivered, they trusted in you, and were not put to shame.’ His confidence is boosted by his knowledge of God’s mercies in the past. Here we have an indication that his troubles are not just personal. There are the whole people to consider. But their fathers had trusted in God, indeed had trusted threefold, (‘they trusted — they trusted — they trusted’) and God had never failed them. When they cried to Him at times when they were almost in despair that there could be any hope, they did not end up shamefaced, for in the end He always responded by delivering them. He could not fail to respond to threefold faith.
Therefore is he now confident that God will respond in this situation too, however bad it may seem. Certainly even as he fled from Saul David could see the despair of Israel. The Philistines were pressing in on them, demanding, in many parts, heavy tribute, and Saul was fighting against them a losing battle. Things looked bleak indeed.
And Jesus too on the cross, meditating on these words, knew better than any how good God had been to His people. Indeed was that not why He was there?
Psa 22:6
‘But I am a worm, and no man,
A reproach of men, and despised of the people.
Yet the psalmist wants God to know the depths of the humiliation that he feels, and that he does not see himself sufficient to deliver Israel. He feels like a worm, writhing in the dust, treated with contempt, kicked and despised. He feels that he is not a man at all, but the lowest of the low, constantly under the reproach of men. And anyway they do not want him. They despise him.
Even a man like David would have known such moments of darkness and despair when all seemed lost and he felt like lying down in the dust and dying (compare Elijah’s cry in 1Ki 19:10; 1Ki 19:14). And this was the man after God’s own heart. But it is when man is at his lowest that God steps in to deliver.
And such was the treatment meted out to Jesus on the cross as He was treated as less than a human being, and as those who should have worshipped Him mocked instead and constantly reproached Him. He was treated as a worm.
The parallels with Isaiah are significant. There too YHWH’s servant was called a worm (Isa 41:14). There too the favoured of God was as one despised by men (Isa 49:7; Isa 50:6; Isa 53:3). There too they shrank from him because he was scarcely human (Isa 52:14; Isa 53:2-3).
Psa 22:7-8
‘All those who see me laugh me to scorn,
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
‘Commit it to YHWH (literally ‘roll it on YHWH’), let him deliver him,
Let him rescue him, seeing he delights in him.’
The psalmist is aware of what people are saying about him. He feels deeply their scorn and their insults, and their despising of the faith that he had constantly asserted before them. In the good days he had declared his confidence in YHWH. Now they threw it back in his face. Their thought was, ‘Did not his present position show that they had been in the right and not him?’ So they laughed at him, mocking him. They made faces at him; they shook their heads in amused reproach (see Psa 35:21; Job 16:4; Job 16:10; Lam 2:15). Where was his favoured position now? They committed him mockingly to YHWH. Let him roll his problem on YHWH. If YHWH really did really favour him, let Him now demonstrate it. But they were confident that He would not.
‘Seeing He delights in him.’ Previously his faith had made them feel uncomfortable. Now they retaliate with sarcasm. Did God really delight in him? Well they could see for themselves how true that was.
So might David well have felt with almost the whole of Israel against him, his popularity dissipated, and his rivals glad to see him gone. There is nothing like success for winning enemies, especially among rivals. And even more deeply would Jesus have felt it on the cross. He had come purposing only good, and they had rejected Him and treated Him as though He were evil, even mocking His Father’s purposes. These very things were done to Him and these very words were spoken against Him by His enemies round the cross (Mat 27:39; Mat 27:43). They did not realise that they were fulfilling prophecy and condemning themselves. ‘Laugh me to scorn.’ The verb in LXX is also used in Luk 23:35 of the rulers jeering at Jesus.
Psa 22:9-10
‘But you are he who took me out of the womb,
You made me trust when I was on my mother’s breasts.
I was cast on you from the womb,
You are my God since my mother bore me.’
But the psalmist is very much aware of God’s hand on his life and that, in spite of present circumstance, he did trust in God in the way that his reproachers doubted, and that he did believe that God would deliver him. It was God Who had brought him to birth, it was God Who from earliest days had nurtured his faith (compare Psa 71:5-6), it was God on Whom he had constantly relied (compare Psa 55:22), for often he had had no one else to turn to, and it was to God that he had constantly looked from when he was very young. Their reproaches were therefore false.
So would David have felt as he looked back over his life, for his heart had been right from earliest days, which is why he was God’s chosen (1Sa 16:7; 1Sa 16:12). He would remember too how he had been cast on God when the lion and the bear had come against his flock (1Sa 17:34), and how God had delivered Goliath into his hands even while he was but a youth (1Sa 17:42-50).
And of no one was this more true than of Jesus, Who was miraculously born at the express will of His Father (Luk 1:35), and Who had looked to Him and learned from Him from His earliest days (Luk 2:40).
Psalms 22
Historical Background – Note that the Old Testament passages of Jesus’ crucifixion found in Psalms 22 were prophesied hundreds of years before the Romans invented this method of punishment.
Structure Psa 22:1-21 b describe much of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Psa 22:21 c-26 declare His wonderful resurrection. Psa 22:27-31 tells of the glorious fulfillment of the kingdom of God as a result of His victory over death, hell and the grave.
Psa 22:1 (To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.) My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
Psa 22:1 Psa 22:1 “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Comments – Jesus uttered this cry on the Cross (Mat 27:46, Mar 15:34). Jesus must have wanted to quote more of this Psalm, but He probably had no breath left for it. However, this first sentence summarized and implies the rest of this Psalm.
Mat 27:46, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Mar 15:34, “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
The phrase “My God, my God” shows the certainty that Jesus is in a relationship with and knows God. The double phrase is for emphasis.
Psa 22:2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
Psa 22:2 Psa 22:3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
Psa 22:3 “Behold, I am the Lord, Thy God; is anything too hard for Me? I am the light of the world, and the greatest darkness shall never be able to quench that light. I shall be to thee a cloud to preserve by day and a pillar of fire to protect by night. Both in the sunshine and in the darkness, I shall be near thee. Thou shalt delight in Me in thy joys; and in the place of difficulty My love for thee shall be as inescapably real as a blazing pillar of fire. Yea, all I was to Israel, and more, I shall be to thee. For have I not promised to give thee the desires of thine heart, and the heathen for thine inheritance.
“Let no fear hinder. For he that wavereth receiveth not. But keep thine heart single and every alien thought thou shalt rebuke in My Name, for it is of the enemy. For he knoweth full well that he has no defense against pure faith. Only if he can succeed to plant some seed of doubt can he hold back the blessing of heaven among the people of God and nullify the witness to the lost. So hold fast thy profession of faith, for there is a great recompense of reward. (Or we may say, the inheritance of faith is a most rewarding recompense.)
“So praise Me continually, for praise worketh faith, and God inhabiteth the praise of His people . If ever I seem to be far from thee, praise! If ever darkness seemeth to press about thee, this know, – thou hast neglected to praise Me. Love Me; pour out thy adoration and worship. Be sure of this: love never faileth. Loving Me never fails to bring Me to thy side. He seeth Me most clearly who lovest Me most dearly.” [24]
[24] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 107.
Psa 22:3 Illustrations –
1Ki 8:11 2Ch 5:13, “It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD;”
Psa 22:4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
Psa 22:5 Psa 22:6 Psa 22:7 Psa 22:7 Mat 27:39-40, “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads , And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”
Mar 15:29-30, “And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads , and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, 30 Save thyself, and come down from the cross.”
Psa 22:8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
Psa 22:8 Mat 27:41-43, “Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save . If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him : for he said, I am the Son of God.”
Mar 15:31-32, “Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save . Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.”
Luk 23:35-37, “And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself , if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.”
Psa 22:9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
Psa 22:10 Psa 22:10 Psa 22:10 Comments – In her book A Divine Revelation of Heaven Mary K. Baxter writes, “An angel of the Lord said to me, ‘From the time of conception, a baby is an eternal soul’” [25]
[25] Mary K. Baxter, A Divine Revelation of Heaven (New Kensington, Pennsylvania: Whitaker House, 1998), 117.
Psa 22:10 Scripture References – Note similar verses:
Isa 44:2, “Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.”
Isa 44:24, “Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;”
Isa 49:1, “Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.”
Psa 22:11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
Psa 22:12 Psa 22:12 Psa 22:12 Comments – The phrase “bulls of Bashan” occurs only once in the Old Testament. We can picture a land where there was an open range, without the barbed wire fences that we are familiar with today. We can imagine some breeds of cattle with an aggressive temperament. Such bulls amongst a herd of heifers would be very aggressive against anyone coming near the area. In contrast, some breeds of cattle are very mild in temperament. The psalmist may be comparing the aggressive bulls of Bashan to the aggressive actions of those who crucified Jesus Christ.
John Gill says the bulls of Bashan represented all of the leaders who led in the crucifixion: the Jewish Sanhedrin, the priests, etc., as well as Herod and Pilate. [26]
[26] John Gill, Psalms, in John Gill’s Expositor, in OnLine Bible, v. 2.0 [CD-ROM] (Nederland: Online Bible Foundation, 1992-2005), notes on Psalms 22:12.
Psa 22:13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
Psa 22:14 Psa 22:14 Psa 22:14 Comments – The Shroud of Turin, which is believed to be the actual burial cloth of the Lord Jesus Christ, reveals a man who has been crucified. The image of a man that has somehow been burned into this cloth shows a swollen belly. This is the result of the effects of death by crucifixion as described in Psa 22:14. [27]
[27] Grant R. Jeffery, “The Mysterious Shroud of Turin,” [on-line]; accessed 1 September 2009; available from http://www.grantjeffrey.com/article/shroud.htm; Internet.
Psa 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
Psa 22:16 Psa 22:16 Isa 56:11, “Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.”
Php 3:2, “Beware of dogs , beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.”
Rev 22:15, “For without are dogs , and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”
Psa 22:16 “they pierced my hands and my feet” – Comments – Here is a reference to the nailing of Jesus to the Cross (Joh 20:25-27).
Joh 20:25-27, “The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.”
The Shroud of Turin, which is believed to be the actual burial cloth of the Lord Jesus Christ, reveals a man who has been crucified. His hands were pierced where the hand joins the wrist. This is logical, since a nail in the middle of the palm lacks any bone to support the weight of a man, and the nail would quickly tear through the hand under the body’s weight. If the nail was placed near to the wrist, a group of bones would be able to adequately support the body weight. [28]
[28] Grant R. Jeffery, “The Mysterious Shroud of Turin,” [on-line]; accessed 1 September 2009; available from http://www.grantjeffrey.com/article/shroud.htm; Internet.
Psa 22:17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
Psa 22:18 Psa 22:18 Mat 27:35, “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.”
Joh 19:24, “They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.”
Mar 15:24, “And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.”
Luk 23:34, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
Psa 22:21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
Psa 22:21 Psa 22:21 Comments – Two of the most powerful and dangerous animals in the land of Palestine would be the lion and the wild ox.
Psa 22:22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
Psa 22:22
The Messiah in His Great Passion.
To the chief musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, that is, “Of the hind of the dawn,” a psalm of David. The words “Of the hind of the dawn” refer either to the melody or chant according to which this psalm was to be rendered, or they summarize the contents. As the hind is the emblem of the hunted soul panting for deliverance, so the dawn pictures the deliverance which follows the dark night of misery and wretchedness. In the humiliation of His great Passion, Christ was like the hind; in the exaltation following His overthrow of the enemies of mankind the rich beauty of the eternal morning dawned over Him.
v. 1. My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? v. 2. O My God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. v. 3. But Thou art holy, v. 4. Our fathers trusted in Thee; they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them, v. 5. They cried unto Thee and were delivered, v. 6. But I am a worm and no man, v. 7. All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn, v. 8. He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him, v. 9. But Thou art He that took Me out of the womb, v. 10. I was cast upon Thee from the womb, v. 11. Be not far from Me, for trouble is near, v. 12. Many bulls, v. 13. They gaped upon Me with their mouths, v. 14. I am poured out like water, v. 15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, v. 16. For dogs have compassed Me, v. 17. I may tell all My bones, v. 18. They part My garments among them and cast lots upon My vesture, v. 19. But be not Thou far from Me, O Lord, v. 20. Deliver My soul from the sword, v. 21. Save Me from the lion’s mouth, EXPOSITION
THERE is no psalm which has raised so much controversy as this. Admitted to be Messianic by the early Hebrew commentators, it is by some understood wholly of David; by others, applied to the Israelite people, or to the pious part of it; by others again, regarded as an ideal representation of the sufferings of the righteous man, and the effects of them; and by one or two eccentric critics, explained as referring to Hezekiah or Jeremiah. Against the view that David means to describe in the psalm his own dangers, sufferings, and deliverance, it is reasonably urged that David was at no time in the circumstances here describedhe was never without a helper (Psa 22:11); never “despised of the people” (Psa 22:6); never stripped of his clothes (Psa 22:17); never in the state of exhaustion, weakness, and emaciation that are spoken of (Psa 22:14-17); never pierced either in his hands or feet (Psa 22:16); never made a gazing-stock (Psa 22:17); never insulted by having his garments parted among his persecutors, or lots east upon his vesture (Psa 22:18). The suppositions that the nation is meant, or the pious part of it, or an ideal righteous man, are negatived by the impossibility of applying to them the second portion of the psalm (Psa 22:22-31), and the consideration that abstractions of the kind suggested belong to the later and not the earlier phases of a nation’s poetry. The only explanation which remains is that traditional in the Christiau Church, that David, full of the Holy Ghost, was moved to speak in the Person of Christ, and to describe, not his own sufferings and perils and deliverance, but those of his great Antitype, the Messiah, which were revealed to him in vision or otherwise, and which he was directed to put on record. The close correspondence between the psalm and the incidents of the Passion is striking, and is admitted on all hands, even by Hupfeld, and it is a correspondence brought about by the enemies of the teaching of Christ, the Jews and the Romans. References indicative of the prophetic and Messianic character of the psalm are frequent in the New Testament. Note especially the following: Mat 27:35, Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34; Joh 19:24; Heb 2:12.
The psalm is composed, manifestly, of two portionsthe complaint and prayer of a sufferer (Psa 22:1-21), and a song of rejoicing after deliverance (Psa 22:22-31). According to some critics, the first of these two portions is also itself divided into two partseach consisting of two strophes (Psa 22:1-10 and Psa 22:12-21), which are linked together by a single ejaculatory verse (Psa 22:11). A further analysis divides each of the three strophes of ten verses into two strophes of five; but there is certainly no ,such division in the second strophe of ten, since Psa 22:16-17 are most closely connected together.
The composition of the psalm by David, though not universally admitted, has in its favour a large majority of the critics. The imagery is Davidical; the sudden transition at Psa 22:22 is Davidical; the whole psalm “abounds in expressions which occur frequently, or exclusively, in psalms generally admitted to have been composed by David” (‘Speaker’s Commentary’). David’s authorship is moreover distinctly asserted in the title, and confirmed by the “enigmatic superscription,” which is a Davidical fancy.
Psa 22:1
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Not a cry of despair, but a cry of loving faith, “My God, my GodWhy hast thou for a time withdrawn thyself?” It is remarkable that our Lord’s quotation of this passage does not follow exactly either the Hebrew or the Chaldee paraphrasethe Hebrew having ‘azabthani for sabacthani, and the Chaldee paraphrase metul ma for lama. May we not conclude that it is the thought, and not its verbal expression by the sacred writers, that is inspired? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? It is very doubtful whether our translators have done right in supplying the words which they have added. The natural translation of the Hebrew would be, Far from my salvation are the words of my roaring. And this rendering yields a sufficiently good sense, viz. “Far from effecting my salvation (or deliverance) are the words of my roaring;” i.e. of my loud complaint. Our Lord’s “strong crying and tears” in the garden (Heb 5:7) did not produce his deliverance.
Psa 22:2
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; rather, thou answerest not; i.e. thou dost not interpose to deliver me. And in the night season, and am not silent.
Psa 22:3
But thou art holy. Still God is holy; the Sufferer casts no reproach upon him, but “commits himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1Pe 2:23). O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. God is seen enthroned in his sanctuary, where the praises and prayers of Israel are ever being offered up to him. If he hears them, he will assuredly, in his own good time, hear the Sufferer.
Psa 22:4
Our fathers trusted in thee. It sustains the Sufferer to think how many before him have cried to God, and trusted in him, and for a while been seemingly not heard, and yet at length manifestly heard and saved. They trusted in thee, and thou didst (ultimately) deliver them.
Psa 22:5
They cried unto thee, and were delivered. If they were delivered because they cried, the Sufferer who cries “day and night” (vex. 2) can scarcely remain unheard for ever. They trusted in thee, and were not confounded; or, were not put to shame ( , LXX.).
Psa 22:6
But I am a worm, and no man (comp. Job 25:6; Isa 41:14). The worm is a symbol of extreme weakness and helplessnessit is naturally despised, derided, trodden upon. A reproach of men, and despised of the people (Comp. Isa 49:7; Isa 53:3; and for the fulfilment, see Mat 27:39). How deeply Christ was “despised of the people” appeared most evidently when they expressed their desire that, instead of him, a murderer should be granted to them (Act 3:14).
Psa 22:7
All they that see me laugh me to scorn; , LXX. (comp. Luk 23:35, “The people stood beholding;and the rulers also with them derided him ()”). They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying.
Psa 22:8
He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. This is a translation of the Septuagint Version rather than of the Hebrew text, which runs, Trust in the Lord (literally, Roll [thy care] upon the Lord): let him deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. St. Matthew has put it on record that this text was actually cited by the scribes and elders who witnessed the Crucifixion, and applied to our Lord in scorn (Mat 27:43). They quoted apparently from the Septuagint, but with an inaccuracy common at the time, when books were scarce, and persons had to depend on their memory of what they had occasionally heard read.
Psa 22:9
But thou art he that took me out of the womb (comp. Job 10:8-11). God’s creatures have always a claim upon him from the very fact that they are his creatures. Every sufferer may appeal to God as his Maker, and therefore bound to be his Helper and Preserver. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. Thou gavest me the serene joy and trust of infancythat happy time to which man looks back with such deep satisfaction. Every joy, every satisfaction, came from thee.
Psa 22:10
I was cast upon thee from the womb. In a certain sense this is true of all; but of the Holy Child it was most true (Luk 2:40, Luk 2:49, Luk 2:52). He was “cast” on God the Father’s care in an especial way. Thou art my God from my mother’s belly. The Child Jesus was brought near to God from his birth (Luk 1:35; Luk 2:21, Luk 2:22). From the first dawn of consciousness God was his God (Luk 2:40, Luk 2:49).
Psa 22:11
Be not far from me. The considerations dwelt upon in Psa 22:3-5, and again in veto. 9, 10, have removed the sense of desertion expressed in vex. 1; and the Sufferer can now confidently call on God to help him. “Be not far from me,” he says, for trouble is near. The time is come when aid is most urgently required. For there is none to help; literally, not a helper. David himself had never been in such straits. He had always had friends and followers. Under Saul’s persecution he had a friend in Jonathan; he was supported by his father and his.brethren (1Sa 22:1); in a short time he found himself at the head of four hundred (1Sa 22:2), and then of six hundred men (1Sa 25:13). In Absalom’s rebellion there remained faithful to him the priestly tribe (2Sa 15:24) and the Gibborim (2Sa 15:18), and others to the number of some thousands (2Sa 18:4). But he whom David prefigured, his Antitype, was desexed, was alone”All the disciples forsook him and fled” (Mat 26:56)he was truly one that “had no helper.”
Psa 22:12
Many bulls have compassed me. The Sufferer represents the adversaries who crowd around him under the figure of “bulls”fierce animals in all parts of the world, and in Palestine particularly’ wild and ferocious. “Bulls,, and buffaloes are very numerous, says Canon Tristram, “in Southern Judaea; they are in the habit of gathering in a circle around any novel or unaccustomed object, and may be easily instigated into charging with their horns”. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. Bashan, the richest pasture-g”round of Palestine, produces the largest and strongest animals (Eze 39:18). Hence “the kine of Bashan” became an expression for powerful oppressors (Amo 4:1).
Psa 22:13
They gaped upon me with their mouths. One metaphor is superseded by another. Fierce and threatening as bulls, the adversaries are ravenous as lions. They “gape with their mouths,” eager to devour, ready to spring on the prey and crush it in their monstrous jaws. As a ravening and a roaring lion. The tumult and noise made by those who demanded our Lord’s death are noted by the evangelist, (Mat 27:23, Mat 27:24).
Psa 22:14
I am poured out like water (comp. Psa 58:7; 2Sa 14:14). The exact meaning is uncertain; but extreme’ weakness and exhaustion, something like utter prostration, seems to be indicated. And all my bones are out of joint. The strain of the body suspended on the cross would all but dislocate the joints of the arms, and would be felt in every bone of the body. My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. The proximate cause of death in crucifixion is often failure of the heart’s action, the supply of venous b]cod not being sufficient to stimulate it. Hence palpitation, faintness, and final syncope.
Psa 22:15
My strength is dried up like a potsherd. All strength dies out under the action of the many acute pains which rack the whole frame, and as little remains as there remains of moisture in a potsherd. And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. An extreme and agonizing thirst sets inthe secretions generally failand the saliva especially is suppressed, so that the mouth feels parched and dry. Hence the cry of suffering which was at last wrung from our Lord, when, just before the end, he exclaimed, “I thirst” (Joh 19:28). And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. “The dust of death” is a periphrasis for death itself, which is so closely associated in our thoughts with the dust of the tomb (see below, Psa 22:29; and comp. Psa 30:10; Psa 104:29; and Job 10:9; Job 34:35; Ecc 3:20; Ecc 12:7, etc.).
Psa 22:16
For dogs have compassed me. “Dogs” now encompass the Sufferer, perhaps the subordinate agents in the crueltiesthe rude Roman soldiery, who laid rough hands on the adorable Person (Mat 27:27-35). Oriental dogs are savage and of unclean habits, whence the term “dog” in the East has always been, and still is, a term of reproach. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me; or, a band of wicked ones have shut me in. The “band” of Roman soldiers (Mar 15:16) seems foreshadowed. They pierced my hands and my feet. There are no sufficient critical grounds for relinquishing (with Hengstenberg) this interpretation. It has the support of the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Vulgate Versions, and is maintained by Ewald, Reinke, Bohl, Moll, Kay, the writer in the ‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ and our Revisers. Whether the true reading be kaaru () or kaari (), the sense will be the same, kaari being the apocopated participle of the verb, whereof kaaru is the 3rd pers. plu. indic.
Psa 22:17
I may tell all my bones. Our Lord’s active life and simple habits would give him a spare frame, while the strain of crucifixion would accentuate and bring into relief every point of his anatomy. He might thus, if so minded, “tell all his bones.” They look and stare upon me (comp. Luk 23:35, “And the people stood beholding”).
Psa 22:18
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. It has been well observed that “the act here described is not applicable either to David or to any personage whose history is recorded in the Bible, save to Jesus”. Two evangelists (Mat 27:35; Joh 19:24) note the fulfilment of the prophecy in the conduct of the soldiers at the crucifixion of Christ. The circumstance is reserved for the final touch in the picture, since it marked that all was over; the Victim was on the point of expiring; he would never need his clothes again.
Psa 22:19
But be not thou far from me, O Lord (comp. Psa 22:11). The special trouble for which he had invoked God’s aid having been minutely described, the Sufferer reverts to his prayer, which he first repeats, and then strengthens and enforces by requesting that the aid may be given speedily, O my strength, haste thee to help me. Eyaluth, the abstract term used for “strength,” seems to mean “source, or substance, of all strength.”
Psa 22:20
Deliver my soul from the sword. “The sword” symbolizes the authority of the Roman governorthat authority by which Christ was actually put to death. If he prayed, even on the cross, to be delivered from it, the prayer must have been offered with the reservations previously made in Gethsemane, “If it be possible” (Mat 26:39); “If thou be willing” (Luk 22:42); “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” The human will in Christ was in favour of the deliverance; the Divine will, the same in Christ as in his Father, was against it. My darlingliterally, my only onefrom the power of the dog. By “my darling” there is no doubt that the soul is intended, both here and in Psa 35:17. It seems to be so called as the most precious thing that each man possesses (see Mat 16:26). “The dog” is used, not of an individual, but of the class, and is best explained, like the “dogs” in Psa 35:16, of the executioners.
Psa 22:21
Save me from the lion’s mouth (comp. Psa 22:13). Either the chief persecutors, viewed as a class, or Satan, their instigator, would seem to be intended. For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns; rather, even from the horns of the win oxen hast thou heard me. The conviction suddenly comes to the Sufferer that he is heard. Still, the adversaries are round about himthe “dogs,” the “lions,” and the “strong bulls of Bashan,” now showing as ferocious wild cattle, menacing him with their horns. But all the Sufferer’s feelings are changed. The despondent mood has passed away. He is not forsaken. He has One to help. In one way or another he knows himselffeels himselfdelivered; and he passes from despair and agony into a condition of perfect peace, and even exultation. He passes, in fact, from death to life, from humiliation to glory; and at once he proceeds to show forth his thankfulness by a burst of praise. The last strophe of the psalm (Psa 22:22-31) is the jubilant song of the Redeemer, now that his mediatorial work is done, and his life of suffering “finished” (Joh 19:30).
Psa 22:22
I will declare thy Name unto my brethren. The thought of the brethren is uppermost. As, when the body was removed, loving messages were at once sent to the disciples (Mat 28:10; Joh 20:17), so, with the soul of the Redeemer in the intermediate state, the “brethren” are the first care. God’s Name, and all that he has donethe acceptance of the sacrifice, the effectuation of man’s salvationshall be made known to them (see Heb 2:9-12). In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. He will join with them in praising and adoring his Father, so soon as circumstances allow (compare the Eucharist at Emmaus, Luk 24:30).
Psa 22:23
Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. “All Israel:” all the people of God are called upon to join in the praise which the Sea will henceforth offer to the Father through eternity. The praise of God is to be joined with the fear of God, according to the universal teaching of Scripture.
Psa 22:24
For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. The Father might seem by his passivity to disregard his Son’s affliction; but it was not really so. Every pang was marked, every suffering sympathized with. And the reward received from the Father was proportionate (see Isa 53:12, “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death;” and Php 2:8-11, “He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”). Neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. There was no real turning away, no real forsaking. Every cry was heard, and the cries were answered at the fitting moment.
Psa 22:25
My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. The phraseology is that of the Mosaic dispensation, with which alone David was acquainted. But the fulfilment is in those services of praise where, whenever Christ’s disciples are gathered together, there is he in the midst of them. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. “Vows,” in the strict sense of the word, are scarcely meant; rather “devotions” generally.
Psa 22:26
The meek shall eat and be satisfied. In the Eucharistic feasts of Christ’s kingdom it is “the meek” especially who shall eat, and be satisfied, feeling that they have all their souls long fora full banquet, of the very crumbs of which they are not worthy. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. The service shall be emphatically one of praise. Your heart shall live for ever. The result shall be life for evermore; for the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, worthily received, preserve men’s bodies and souls to everlasting life.
Psa 22:27
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. The Gentiles from every quarter shall come into the new kingdom, remembering him whom they had so long forgotten, Jehovah, the true God. And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. Pleonastic. A repetition of the idea contained in the preceding clause. (For the fulfilment, the history of missions must be consulted.)
Psa 22:28
For the kingdom is the Lord’s (comp. Psa 96:10; Psa 97:1). Christ has taken the kingdom, and even now rules on the earthnot yet wholly over willing subjects, but over a Church that is ever expanding more and more, and tending to become universal. And he is the Governor among the nations. Not the Governor of one nation only, but of all.
Psa 22:29
All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship. The Christian feast is not for the poor and needy only, like Jewish sacrificial feasts, but for the “fat ones” of the earth as wellthe rich and prosperous. As Hengstenberg observes, “This great spiritual feast is not unworthy of the presence even of those who live in the greatest abundance: it contains a costly viand, which all their plenty cannot givea viand for which even the satisfied are hungry; and, on the other hand, the most needy and most miserable are not excluded”. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him; i.e. all mortal men what-soeverall that are on their way to the tombshall bow before Christ, either willingly as his worshippers, or unwillingly as his conquered enemies, made to lick the dust at his feet. And none can keep alive his own soul. Life is Christ’s gift; the soul cannot be kept alive except through him, by his quickening Spirit (Joh 6:53, Joh 6:63).
Psa 22:30
A seed shall serve him. The Church is founded on a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So long as the world endures, Christ shall always have worshippersa “seed” which will “serve” him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. If we accept this rendering, we must understand that the seed of the first set of worshippers shall be the Lord’s people for one generation, the seed of the next for another, and so on. But it is suggested that the true meaning is, “This shall be told of the Lord to generation after generation” (so Hengstenberg, Kay, Alexander, and our Revisers).
Psa 22:31
They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. One generation after another shall come, and shall report God’s righteousness, as shown forth in Christ, each to its successora people yet to be borntelling them that God “has done this;” i.e. effected all that is here sketched out, and so accomplished the work of redemption.
HOMILETICS
Psa 22:4
A pedigree of faith and piety.
“Our fathers trusted,” etc. The Bible takes great account of pedigree. Yet not on those grounds in which men commonly gloryrank, title, wealth, fame; but in the line of faith and piety. These words contain
I. A THANKFUL REMEMBRANCE. It is no small honour and blessing to spring from a godly stock. Those who have not this happiness in family lineage may yet claim it by adoption. A true Christian has all past generations of God’s people as spiritual ancestors (Gal 3:29; Rom 4:16, Rom 4:17).
II. A HOLY EXAMPLE, powerfully moving to faith, prayer, and holiness (Heb 6:12; Heb 12:1; 2Ti 1:3-5). Noblesse oblige.
III. A HUMBLE CLAIM ON GOD‘S FAITHFULNESS. Because:
1. The trust and prayers of God’s people in past generations were not for themselves only, but for their children (Gen 17:18, Gen 17:20). Ancestral prayers are a rich inheritance.
2. God’s promises have regard to the children of his people (Psa 103:17, Psa 103:18; Act 2:39; Act 3:25).
IV. AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO FAITH. The experience of those who have gone before us, the consenting testimony of so many generations, and so innumerable a multitude of believers, to the truth of the Bible, the power of prayer, the reality of God’s grace, the fulfilment of his promises, is no small or feeble aid to our faith (Psa 34:4-8; Heb 11:32-40).
CONCLUSION.
1. We inherit the past. The wise thoughts, immortal words, noble deeds, holy lives, fervent prayers, toils, and sufferings of those who have gone before us, are a great treasure and trust, of which we shall have to give account.
2. We are making the future. What pattern, work, prayer, memory, that they will “not willingly lot die,” are we handing down to our successors?
Psa 22:28
God’s supreme dominion over all nations.
“The kingdom is the Lord’s,” etc. The second clause of this verse defines the meaning of the first. God‘s supreme dominion, in right and in fact, is over all nations. He reigns and he rules. There is a wide view of God’s kingdom, as embracing the universe (Psa 103:19; Psa 93:1; Psa 97:1). There is also a spiritual view, in which the kingdom consists of individuals, ruled not by force, but by truth, love, and the Spirit of God (Luk 17:21; Joh 18:36). Nations have no place here. None the less, God’s government of nations is a sublime fact and undoubted truth, holding a prominent place in Scripture. “All authority in heaven and earth” (Mat 28:18) must include this. The nations are promised as Christ’s inheritance (Psa 2:8), and are to be blessed in him (Gal 3:8).
I. GOD GOVERNS THE NATIONS BY HIS ALL–CONTROLLING, WISE, JUST, AND MERCIFUL PROVIDENCE. This is one main lesson of the whole of Old Testament historyspecially enforced in Jer 18:7-10; Jer 1:1-19.!0; Gen 15:16, etc.; Deu 9:4. The ordered succession of empires, in Nebuchadnezzar’s and Daniel’s visions, emphatically enforces the same truth (Act 17:26). The history of our own nation is a marvellous example, only second to that of Israel.
II. THE AUTHORITY OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENT RESTS ON DIVINE AUTHORITY. (Rom 8:1-6.) No human being can claim authority over another human being; no majority, any more than a single despot, over a minority or a single citizen, but by Divine ordinance. This is not merely revealed in Scripture, but imprinted and inwoven in human nature.
III. NATIONS, AS MUCH AS INDIVIDUALS, ARE SOUND BY GOD‘S LAW. Human laws lack sanction when they contradict justice; they may he enforced, but cannot be reverenced. Government which outrages mercy, virtue, truth, purity, equity, denies the very end of its existence, and forfeits allegiance. On this ground of natural right, the American colonies revolted. “Natural right” is but another name for God’s justice.
IV. NATIONAL LIFE AND CHARACTER, which are very far wider than government or state action, are within the province of Divine government; either conform to or disobey God’s Law and revealed will. Private, family, social, morality; religion, trade and industry in every branch; amusement and society; education; literature; art,are all favouring or hindering the formation of a “righteous nation” (Isa 26:2; Psa 144:15). (This touches the great question of state religion. Are the aims and means of the Church and of the state the same? It is possible to have an established Church, yet an irreligious nation; or many Churches, all free, yet a religious nation.)
V. THESE WORDS ARE PROPHETIC OF WHAT SHALL YET BE. (Psa 72:8, Psa 72:11, Psa 72:17; Rev 11:15.) Christ holds the sceptre of providence as well as of grace (Eph 1:22); and “he must reign” (1Co 15:25).
CONCLUSION. Practical lessons.
1. The character of a nation depends on the character of its individual citizens. A truly Christian nation would be one the bulk of whose citizens are personally real Christians. Its laws, institutions, and policy would then be moulded by principles learned from God’s Word.
2. Public duty, political, municipal, etc; far from being inconsistent with the Christian calling (as some teach), is, when rightly performed, religiouspart of the service we owe to God.
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE
Psa 22:1-31
From darkness to light; or, the song of the early dawn.
This is one of the most wonderful of all the psalms. It has gathered round it the study of expositors of most diverse typesfrom those who see in it scarcely aught but a description beforehand of the Messiah’s suffering and glory, to those who see in it scarcely any Messianic reference at all, and who acknowledge only one sense in which even the term “Messianic” is to be tolerated, even in the fact that light gleams forth after the darkness. Both these extreme views should be avoided, and we venture to ask for the careful and candid attention of the reader, as we move along a specific path in the elucidation of this psalm. The title of the psalm is significant; literally, it reads, “To the chief musician [or, ‘precentor’] upon Aijeleth Shahar [or, ‘the hind of the morning,’ margin]. A Psalm of David” We accent the heading, here and elsewhere “a Psalm of David,” unless adequate reason to the contrary can be shown. But what can be the meaning of the expression,” the hind of the morning”? A reference to Furst’s Lexicon will be found helpful. The phrase is a figurative one, and signifies, “the first light of the morning.” In this psalm we see the light of early morn breaking forth after the deepest darkness of the blackest night. Hence the title given above to this homily. But then the question comesWhose is the darkness, and whose is the light? We replyPrimarily, the writer’s, whoever he may have been, whether David or any other Old Testament saint. For the psalm is not written in the third person, as is the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. There is no room here for the question, “Of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?” In Isa 53:1-12. the reference is to another; in this psalm the wail is declared to be the writer’s own. Yet we have to take note of the fact that in the New Testament there are some seven or eight references to this psalm in which its words and phrases are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. There are other phrases in the psalm which were literally true of our Lord, but yet are not quoted in the New Testament. We do not wonder at Bishop Perowne’s remark. “Unnatural as I cannot help thinking that interpretation is which assumes that the psalmist himself never felt the sorrows which he describes I hold that to be a far worse error which sees here no foreshadowing of Christ at all. Indeed, the coincidence between the sufferings of the psalmist and the sufferings of Christ is so remarkable, that it is very surprising that any one should deny or question the relation between the type and the antitype.” To a like effect are the devout and thoughtful words of Orelli, “What the psalmist complains of in mere figurative, though highly coloured terms, befell the Son of God in veritable fact. Herein we see the objective connection, established of set purpose by God’s providence, which so framed even the phrasing of the pious prayer, that without knowledge of the suppliant it became prophecy, and again so controlled even what was outward and seemingly accidental in the history of Jesus, that the old prophetic oracles appear incorporated in it.” There is no reason to think, on the one hand, that the writer was a mere machine, nor yet, on the other, that he fully knew the far-reaching significance of the words he used. And this leads us to a remark which we make once for all, that there are two senses in which psalms may be Messianicdirect and indirect.
1. Direct. In these the reference is exclusively to the Messiah; every phrase is true of him, and of him alone, and cannot be so translated as not to apply to him, nor so that it can, as a whole, apply to any one else. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and also the second and hundred and tenth psalms are illustrations of this.
2. Indirect. In these the first meaning is historical, and applies to the writer himself; hut many phrases therein have a second and far-reaching intent; of these the fullest application is to him who was David’s Son and yet David’s Lord. The psalm before us is an illustration of this indirect Messianic structure; and this not only, perhaps not so much, because in the first writing of the words the Spirit of God pointed forward to Christ, as because our Lord himself, having taken a human nature, and shared human experiences, found himself the partaker of like sorrows with the Old Testament saints, plunged into like horrible darkness, which found expression in the very same words, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Mr. Spurgeon, indeed, admits some possible application to David himself, but says that believers will scarcely care to think of his sufferings; they will rather fasten their gaze on those of their Lord. That is true, in a very touching sense. At the same time, we shall lose much of the comfort the psalm is adapted to afford, if we do not look very distinctly at the sufferings of David, in order to see, with equal distinctness, how completely our Lord shared his “brethren’s” sorrows, darkness, and groans, when he took up their burdens and made them his own. Let us therefore deal with this psalm in a twofold outlinefirst, as it applies to the writer; and then as it it taken up by the Lord Jesus, and made his own (with such exceptions as that named in the first footnote below).
I. ISRAEL‘S KING PASSES THROUGH DEEPEST DARKNESS TO THE LIGHT. Here let us answer by anticipation a remark with which we have frequently met, to the effect that we cannot fasten on any incident in the career of David which would lead to such extreme anguish as that indicated here. Who that has any knowledge of the horrors to which sensitive souls are liable, could raise any difficulty over this? Far more depends on subjective condition than on outward incident. Why, the saints of God now do pass through times of indescribable anguish, of which no outward incident affords even a glimmer of explanation. “The heart knoweth its own bitterness.” Let the outer occasion have been whatsoever it may, here at any rate is:
1. A saint in terrible darkness. In the midst of his woe, he remembers his transgressions, and it may have been, as is so often the case, that the writer attributes his anguish to his numberless transgressions (verse 1, LXX.). The details of his intensity of sorrow are manifold.
(1) Prayer rises from his heart day and night without relief (verse 2).
(2) He is despised (verses 6-8). His enemies laugh and mock.
(3) His foes, wild, fierce, ravenous, plot his ruin (verses 12, 13).
(4) His strength is spent with sorrow (verse 15).
(5) There are eager anticipations of his speedily being removed out of the way (verse 18).
(6) And, worst of all, it seems as if God, his own God, whom he had trusted from childhood (verses 9,10), had now forsaken him, and given him up to his foes. How many suffering saints may find solace in this psalm, as they see how God’s people have suffered before them? Surely few could have a heavier weight of woe than the writer of this plaintive wail.
2. The woe is freely told to God There may be the stinging memory of bygone sin piercing the soul, still the psalmist cleaves to his God.
(1) The heart still craves for God; even in the dark; yea, the more because of the darkness.
(2) Hence the abandonment is not actual. However dense the gloom may be, when the soul can cry, “My God,” we may be sure the cry is not unreciprocated.
(3) Such a cry will surely be heard. Past deliverances assure us of this. Yea, even ere the wail in the dark is over, the light begins to dawn. “One Sunday morning,” said Mr. Spurgeon, in an address at Mildmay Hall, June 26, 1890, reported in the Christian of July 4, “I preached from the text, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ I could not tell why I should be made to preach it. I felt while preaching as if I were myself forsaken. On the sabbath evening, there came into the vestry a man of about sixty, whose eyes were bright with a strange lustre. He took my hand, and held it, and cried. He said to me, ‘Nobody ever preached my experience before. I have now been for years left, deserted, in a horrible gloom of great darkness; but this morning I learned that I was not the only man in the darkness, and I believe I shall get out!’ I said, ‘ Yes; I have got out; but now I know why I was put in.’ That man was brought back from the depths of despair, and restored to joy and peace. There was a child of God, dying in darkness. He said to the minister who spoke with him, ‘Oh, sir, though I have trusted Christ for years, I have lost him now. What can become of. a man who dies feeling that God has deserted him?’ The minister replied, ‘ What did become of that Man who died saying,” My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Is he not on the highest throne of glory even now? ‘The man’s mind changed in a moment, and he began to say, ‘ Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit;’ and he died in peace.“
3. The light dawns at last. The “everlasting covenant” does not fail; it has been “ordered in all things,” and remains sure and steadfast; and oftentimes, even while the saint is on his knees, he will scarce have ended his groaning ‘ere his sigh is turned to a song (cf. Psa 27:12-14). Hence the last ten verses of the psalm are as joyous as the others are sad. “The darkest hour is before the dawn,” and the brightness of morning shall chase away the gloom of night. So it is here.
(1) The saint who takes his groans to God alone, shall yet sing his praises in the assemblies of the saints. Having told the rest to his God, he will “give others the sunshine.”
(2) The rehearsal of this story shall be the joy of other hearts in day to come (verses 25-27).
(3) The outcome of all will be that God will vindicate his own honour, and that the generation yet unborn will praise him and declare his righteousness.
II. WORDS OF A SUFFERING SAINT ARE APPROPRIATED BY A SUFFERING SAVIOUR. The Lord Jesus Christ, in all things “made like unto his brethren,” takes up words from this psalm into his own lips. If we were dealing only with the Messianic aspect of the psalm, we should open it up in the following order:
(1) The Saviour’s suffering.
(2) The Saviour’s inquiry: “Why?”
(3) The Saviour’s joy.
Since, however, we are seeking to expound the psalm in both its aspects, we rather indicate four lines of thought, the pursuing of which will throw light on the wonder of the appropriation of the words of a suffering saint by a suffering Saviour; while some look at the fierce cry with which this psalm beans as intended to set forth the woes of the coming Messiah, that cry seems to us far more touching when we find that our dear Redeemer uses the words of an ancient sufferer as his own! Observe:
1. There is no depth of sorrow through which the saint can pass, but Jesus understands it all. How many causes of woe are enumerated here! But in all points Jesus felt the same. The writer endured
(1) the cutting remarks of many;
(2) weakness;
(3) reproach and scorn;
(4) the plotting of foes;
(5) the treachery of friends; and, worst of all,
(6) the sense of separation form God.
Every one of these forms of hardship and ill pressed sorely on Jesus; and though we may meditate continuously and with ever-deepening wonder on each of them, yet all the rest fade away into insignificance compared with the anguish that arose from the hiding of the Father’s face. Every trouble can be borne when the Father is seen to smile; but when his face is hidden in a total eclipse, what darkness can be so dreadful as that? There was, as it were, a hiding of the face from him (Isa 53:3). Let those saints of God who have to pass through seasons of prolonged mental anguish remember that, however severe the conflict may be, the Saviour has passed through one still more terrible than theirs.
2. If even the saint asks “why?” even so did the Saviour. The “why?” however, applies only to the opening wordsto the hiding of God’s face. There may be mystery therein, even when (as in the case of every saint) there are transgressions to be bemoaned. But our Saviour has an unfathomable woe, “yet without sin.“ The “why?” then, imperatively requires an answer. In the tire, at the faggot, and at the stake, martyrs have sung for joy. Why is it that at the moment of direst need the sinless Sufferer should have felt aught so dreadful as abandonment by God? Not that the abandonment was real. The Father never loved the Son more than when he hung bleeding on the cross. But our Saviour endured the sense of it. Why was this? He did not deserve it. But he had laden himself with our burden. “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.” Nor do we know that we can put the pith and essence of the atonement in fewer words than these:
(1) sin separates from God;
(2) Jesus bore our sin; therefore
(3) Jesus endured the sense of separation.
We can understand that, coming as Man into the midst of a sinful race, all the suffering which a holy nature must endure in conflict with sinful men would be his. But the sense of desertion by God while doing his Father’s will can only be accounted for by the amazing fact that “he sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins.”
3. In passing through his manifold experience of sorrow, the Saviour learned to suffer with the saint, and was being made perfect as the Captain of salvation. (Heb 2:10; Heb 5:2, Heb 5:7, Heb 5:8, Heb 5:9.) Our Saviour was
(1) to lead many sons unto glory;
(2) to be One who could sympathize, soothe, and succour in every case of woe (Heb 2:18);
(3) to be One who by his sympathetic power could inspire his hosts; and
(4) to teach them that, as they were destined to follow him in his heavenly glory, they must not be surprised if they have first to follow him in the pathway of woe. “The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord.” Objection: “But how can the sympathy of Jesus with me be perfect? He was without sin, and I am not. So the parallel fails.” Good people who urge this objection forget that it is the presence of sin in each of us which makes our sympathy with each other so imperfect. Because Jesus was without sin, he can draw the line exactly between defects that are due to infirmity and such as are traceable to sin. The second he forgives; the first be pities. Is not this the very perfection of sympathy?
III. THE WORDS OF THE SAINT EMERGING FROM HIS GLOOM ARE APPROPRIATE TO THE SAVIOUR IN HIS EXALTATION AND TRIUMPH. With the Saviour, as with the psalmist, the darkest night was the prelude to the brightness of day. The brightness which marks the last ten verses of the psalm is a declaration that the kingdom of David shall be established for ever and ever, and that, though David may have to pass through fire and flood, his kingdom shall abide through age after age; and thus we find the phraseology of these verses applied to the after-career of David’s Son and David’s Lord in Heb 2:11,Heb 2:12. Whence five points invite attention. The Holy Ghost, inditing the psalmist’s words so that they forecast the issue of Messiah’s sufferings as well as his own, shows us our Saviour
(1) emerging from the conflict;
(2) joining with his people in songs of rejoicing;
(3) declaring the Father’s Name to his “brethren;”
(4) gathering home the severed tribes of mankind;
(5) bringing in the victorious kingdom (verses 21-31).
It is not, it is not for nought that the Messiah endured all his woe (Isa 53:11; Heb 12:1, Heb 12:2; Php 2:11). It behoved him to suffer, and then “to enter into his glory.” And as with the Master, so with the servant. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” He hath said, “Where I am, there shall also my servant be.” Following him in sharing his cross, we shall follow him in sharing his crown.C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH
Psa 22:1-31
A struggle from the gloom of adversity to peace and joy.
It was said among the heathen that a just man struggling with adversity was a sight worthy of the gods. Such a sight we have here. We see a truly just man struggling from the gloomiest depths of adversity upwards to the serene heights of peace and joy in God. Three stages may be marked.
I. THE WAIL OF DESERTION. (Psa 22:1-10.) Suffering is no “strange thing.” It comes sooner or later to all. Always, and especially in its severer forms, it is a mystery. We cry, “Why?” “Why am I thus?” “Why all this from God to me?” God’s servants who have been most afflicted have most felt this mystery. So it was with Abraham, when” the horror of great darkness fell upon him” (Gen 15:12). So it was with Jacob, in that night of long and awful wrestling with the angel (Gen 32:24). So it was with Moses and the prophets (Isa 40:27). So it was with the psalmist here. His sufferings were intensified by the sense of desertion (Psa 22:1, Psa 22:2). He cried to God, but there was no answer. He continued day and night in prayer, and yet there was no response. And yet he will not give up his trust in God. He tries to calm himself by remembrance of God’s holiness and love, and by the thought of God’s gracious dealings with his people. But, alas! this only aggravated his pare. The contrast was sharp and terrible. “Our fathers trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them. But 1 am a worm, and no man.” It seemed to him that the desertion, which he felt so keenly, was equally apparent to others. But instead of pity, there was scorn; instead of sympathy, there was reproach. Lowered in the estimation of others, he was lowered also in his own. All this seemed irreconcilable with a right relation to God. He cannot understand, but no more can he reproach. The bond of love is strained, but it is not ruptured. Like Job, he is ready to say, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” How thankful should we be for such revelations! They not only teach us patience, but they help us in the time of our trial to draw nearer in loving concord with Jesus and his saints.
II. THE PRAYER OF TRUST. There is a time to speak. Speech helps to unburden the heart. But the psalmist does not cry for help till he has reached a calmer mood, and so far encouraged himself by recollection of God’s love and kindness in his life from the first (verses 9, 10). He looks to the past, that he may be braced to look at the present. Then, in sight of all the distresses and perils that surrounded him, he cries mightily to God (verses 11-18). His faith is sorely tried, but it does not fail. Even with things waxing worse and worse, with enemies many and fierce, with strength well-nigh worn out, with death staring him in the face (verse 18), he renews his pathetic cry, “Be not far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me’ (verses 19-21).
III. THE SONG OF VICTORY. The capacity of the soul is wonderful. It can sink very low, and it can rise very high. It has been said of prayer
“What changes one short hour And we see this here. Fear is turned to praise (verses 22-24). Loneliness gives place to the joys of “the great congregation” (verses 25, 26). Individual sufferings are forgotten in the glad vision of the triumphs of Messiah, and the glory and blessedness of his kingdom (verses 27-31). Who is there who loves the Lord, whose heart does not rejoice in foretaste and foresight of these good times, and with renewed ardour pray, “Thy kingdom come “?W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 22:1-10
The cry of despair struggling with the cry of faith.
The writer was’ apparently an exile, still in the hands of his heathen captors. His extreme peril, the obloquy and scorn to which he was exposed as a professed worshipper of Jehovah, his imminent death, are touched on with a tenderness and a power which have made the language familiar to us in another applicationas used by Christ in the agonies of the cross. It is the cry of despair struggling with the cry of faith.
I. THE CRY OF DESPAIR. That God had forsaken him.
1. Had forsaken him for a long time. (Psa 22:1, Psa 22:2.) It was not a temporary eclipse, but seemed a permanent desertion.
2. That this abandonment was somehow consistent with God‘s faithfulness. (Psa 22:3.) There was no doubt it did not arise from caprice, but from holiness. That made the darkness very dark.
3. It arose from his personal unworthiness. (Psa 22:4 – 6.) God had rescued his fathers; but he was a worm, and not a man, unworthy of deliverance, despised of men. “Fear not, thou worm Jacob.”
4. A contrast to God‘s former care of him. (Psa 22:9, Psa 22:10.) Not easy to analyze the contents of such a consciousness. But in general, “It is the sense of the Divine mercy, care, and support gone!”
II. But there is in the background, FAITH STRUGGLING AGAINST THIS DESPAIR.
1. He still can say, “My God.” Repeatedly (Psa 22:1, Psa 22:2). No unbelief could dissolve that tie.
2. Faith will not let go its hold upon his “holiness,” however dark its aspect towards him now. (Psa 22:3.) God cannot be far from a man who retains the sense of his holy faithfulness.
3. He is suffering in the righteous causefor God‘s sake. (Psa 22:6-8.) As Christ was. There is more than a gleam of hope for him here.
4. God had brought him into the world, and cared for him in helpless infancy. (Psa 22:9, Psa 22:10.) These are the grounds of persistent faith battling against the sense of desertion and despair; and they are all-sufficient for us in our darkest hours. “We can but trust; we cannot know.”S.
Psa 22:11-21
Prayer in suffering.
The persecuted exile continues to speak of his sufferings, but seems to rise up out of the despair of the first verse into the faith implied in prayer. Much of the suffering here described, if not productive, was at least typical, of the suffering of Christ. An argument is still going on in the sufferer’s mind as to whether God had finally forsaken him or not. He has been trying in the first ten verses to argue down the feeling, but has not yet succeeded; and now he breaks out into prayer, driven by the urgency of the crisis into which he has come.
I. THE ARGUMENT OF THE PRAYER. The general argument is stated in the eleventh verse. Trouble was near, and there was none to help; it had come to the last extremity with him, and not to help now would be completely and finally to forsake. The particulars of the argument are:
1. The strength and fury of his persecutors. (Psa 22:12, Psa 22:13, Psa 22:16.) They are compared to hulls and lions, the most formidable beasts a man can encounter. Further on his enemies are compared to wild dogs, that have enclosed and surrounded him. So that there is no escape except by the hand of God.
2. He has lost all strength of body and courage of heart. (Psa 22:14-17.) He sees no human means of escaping death. Severe trials from man and the Divine desertion (Psa 22:15) have “laid him in the dust of death.”
3. The last act of indignity, previous to his death, has been accomplished. (Psa 22:18.) They strip him, and cast lots for his garments. So that this is a cry for deliverance, uttered in the very jaws of death itself. Of course, the psalm was written after the experiences it describes.
II. THE PRAYER ITSELF. It Was begun at the eleventh verse, and now again breaks forth with full power (Psa 22:19-21).
1. He cries to the Infinite Strength to make haste to help him. This looks back to the second verse, where he complains, “Thou answerest me not;” and, if help is to come, it must come at once, for he is in the very article of death.
2. He is alone and unfriended among ruthless enemies. “My darling,” equivalent to “my lovely person” (Psa 22:20). Utterly and solely dependent on God, as we shall be in dying.
3. The cry ends with an expression of assured confidence (Psa 22:21, “Thou hast answered me.”) “Thou hast heard me.” At last he sees deliverance at hand, and knows that his prayer has been heard, and he has been delivered from death.S.
Psa 22:22-31
Consequences of deliverance.
In this last part the sufferer depicts the happy consequences of his deliverance, which he anticipates in faith, and, lifted up in spirit above the present, beholds, as if it were already present.
I. THE PSALMIST‘S DELIVERANCE SHALL BE A CAUSE OF REJOICING TO ALL ISRAEL. (Psa 22:22-26.)
1. He will inspire the whole congregation with the tidings. We cannot and ought not to keep to ourselves the great fact of our salvation. “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee,” etc.
2. The good tidings were that God had answered the cry of one who was in the very jaws of death. (Psa 22:24.) And if he had heard one, the unavoidable conclusion was that he would hear all who cried to him. The psalmist’s experience showed that God’s mercy was universal; that was the suppressed premiss of this argument.
II. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD‘S REDEEMING GRACE SHALL EXTEND TO HEATHEN NATIONS. (Psa 22:27, Psa 22:28.) This is to be rejoiced in.
1. Because the he then have greater need of it than the Church. The Church (Israel) have already some knowledge of it; but the heathen are sunk in deeper sins and sorrows, and have no knowledge of God’s redeeming grace.
2. It is God‘s will that the heathen should know and receive his grace. He saves one man or one nation, in order that they should make his work known to other men and other nations. He is to be made known as “the Governor among the nations.”
III. ALL CLASSES, WHETHER HAPPY OR MISERABLE, SHALL WELCOME THIS KNOWLEDGE. (Psa 22:29.)
1. The great spiritual feast will be enjoyed by those who live in outward abundance. Because here is food for which even the satisfied are still hungry, which their plenty cannot supply. All guests are poor here, and God is rich for all.
2. It is a fountain of life to those ready to sink in death. They shall bow before and worship him.
IV. THE PRESENT AGE SENDS FORWARD THE GLAD TIDINGS TO POSTERITY. (Psa 22:30, Psa 22:31.) See how God’s work, beginning with a single individual, propagates itself by its effects upon the mind, spreading, first among those nearest to him; then, through them, to those remote, among the rich and poor, the living and the dying; and on through the ages with ever-increasing power and influence.S.
Psalms 22.
David complaineth in great discouragement: he prayeth in great distress: he praiseth God.
To the chief musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.
Title. Aiieleth hashachar Dr. Delaney supposes this and the 25th Psalm to have been written by David when he was at Mahanaim, the place where God appeared to Israel in his distress, Genesis 32. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th verses receive no small illustration and beauty, if supposed to be occasioned by the recollection of the former manifestation of divine Providence on this very spot; the ideas which arose successively in the Psalmist’s mind being the following: God had made good his promises to Israel;promises given in this very place:at a time when Israel was in grievous distress; and the worship of Israel still continued to be holy:Why, then, should not David hope that he would make good his promises likewise to him; even though to all appearance he was on the brink of destruction? The Jews themselves, in Midrash, apply this Psalm, as descriptive of the sufferings of the Messiah; and our Lord, in making use of the first words of it upon the cross, (when, as some think, he repeated the whole,) not only laid claim to the character of the Messiah, but likewise tacitly insinuated, that his sufferings, instead of shocking their faith, should convince them, that he only could be the Messiah predicted by the prophet, because the indignities that he had foretold, notwithstanding they were so extraordinary, and told with so much minuteness, were all accomplished in him. Certainly some passages in this psalm were more literally fulfilled in our Saviour than they were in David. We shall therefore consider it more particularly as referring to Christ. It is intitled Aiieleth hashachar; which is commonly rendered, The hind of the morning. “Many nice observations have been made on the titles of the psalms, but attended with the greatest uncertainty. Later eastern customs, respecting the titles of books and poems, may perhaps render these matters a little more determinate; but great precision and positiveness must not be expected. D’Herbelot, in his Bibliotheque Orientale, informs us, that a Persian metaphysical and mystical poem, was called the rose bush: a collection of moral essays, the garden of anemonies: another eastern book, the lion of the forest: That Scherfeddin ab Baussiri called a poem of his, written in praise of his Arabian prophet, (who, he affirmed, had cured him in his sleep of a paralytic disorder,) the habit of a dervise: and because he is there celebrated for having given sight to a blind person, the poem is also intitled by the author, the bright star. Other titles mentioned by him are as odd. The ancient Jewish taste may reasonably be supposed to have been of the same kind. Agreeable to which is the explanation which some learned men have given of David’s commanding the Bow to be taught the children of Israel, 2Sa 1:18 which they apprehend did not relate to the use of that weapon in war, but to the hymn which he composed on occasion of the death of Saul and Jonathan; in which he mentioned the bow of Jonathan, and from whence he intitled that elegy, as they think, the bow. The present psalm might in like manner be called the hind of the morning; the 56th, the dove dumb in distant places; the 66th, the lily of the testimony; the 80th, the lilies of the testimony, in the plural; and the 45th simply the lilies. It is sufficiently evident, I should think, that these terms do not denote certain musical instruments: for if they did, why do the more common names of the timbrel, the harp, the psaltery, and the trumpet, with which psalms were sung, (Psa 81:2-3.) never appear in those titles?Do they signify certain tunes? It ought not, however, to be imagined that these tunes are so called from their bearing some resemblance to the noises made by the things mentioned in the titles; for lilies are silent, if this supposition should otherwise have been allowed with respect to the hind of the morning, Nor doth the 56th psalm speak of the mourning of the dove, but of its dumbness. If they signify tunes at all, they must signify, I should imagine, the tunes to which such songs or hymns were sung, as were distinguished by these names; and so the inquiry will terminate in this point: whether the psalms to which these titles were affixed were called by these names; or whether they were some other psalms or songs, to the tune of which these were to be sung. And as we do not find the bow referred to, nor the same name twice made use of, so far as our lights reach, it should seem most probable that these are the names of those very psalms to which they are prefixed. The 42nd psalm, it may be thought, might very well have been entitled the hind of the morning; because, as the hart panted after the water-brooks, so panted the soul of the Psalmist after God. But the present psalm, it is certain, might equally well be distinguished by this title; dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me; words which allude to the eastern manner of hunting, namely, by assembling great numbers of people and inclosing the creatures that they hunt; and as the Psalmist did, in the 42nd psalm, rather choose to compare himself to a hart than a hind, the present much better answers this title, in which he speaks of his hunted soul in the feminine gender: Psa 22:20. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling (which in the original is feminine) from the power of the dog. No one who reflects on the circumstances of David at the time to which the 56th psalm refers, and considers the oriental taste, will wonder to see that psalm intitled the dove dumb in distant places; nor are lilies more improper to be made the title of other psalms, with suitable distinctions, than a garden of anemonies to be the name of a collection of moral discourses.” See Observations, p. 318. Fenwick thinks that the title of this psalm should be rendered, the strength of the morning; and that it relates to Christ, as being the bright morning-star, or, day-spring from on high, as he is called, Luk 1:78. Him, the dew of whose birth is of the womb of the morning: The title therefore, says he, leads us to observe and contemplate in this psalm, the depth of that love and condescension which made the Son of God humble himself in the way here described, and even to the death of the cross, though he be the bright morning-star, and the day-spring from on high.
Psa 22:1. My God, my God, &c. It is observable, that Sabachthani, produced by the Evangelists, is not a Hebrew word; and hence it is most likely that our Saviour used that dialect which was most commonly understood by the Jews in his time; and which, it is probable, was a mixed dialect, composed of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac. Agreeably to this supposition, it is further observed, that eloi, eloi, as St. Mark expresses our Saviour’s words, were more nearly Chaldee. The Hebrew, as it now stands, according to our manner of reading, is aeli, aeli, lamah aezabtani. Our Saviour was not ignorant of the reason why he was afflicted; Why hast thou forsaken me? He knew that all the rigours and pains which he endured upon the cross were only because the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and God laid on him the iniquity of us all; Isa 53:5-6. The words imply then that he himself had done nothing to merit the evils which he suffered. This is the meaning of the question here, as also of that in Psa 2:1. The latter part of the verse refers to Christ’s prayer in the garden. See Luk 22:44.
Psalms 22
To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David
1My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
2O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou nearest not;
And in the night season, and am not silent.
3But thou art holy,
O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4Our fathers trusted in thee:
They trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5They cried unto thee, and were delivered:
They trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
6But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7All they that see me laugh me to scorn:
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him:
Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
9But thou art he that took me out of the womb:
Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers breasts.
10I was cast upon thee from the womb:
Thou art my God from my mothers belly.
11Be not far from me; for trouble is near;
For there is none to help.
12Many bulls have compassed me:
Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13They gaped upon me with their mouths,
As a ravening and a roaring lion.
14I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint: 15My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; 16For dogs have compassed me:
The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me; 17I may tell all my bones:
They look and stare upon me.
18They part my garments among them,
And cast lots upon my vesture.
19But be not thou far from me, O Lord:
O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20Deliver my soul from the sword;
My darling from the power of the dog.
21Save me from the lions mouth:
For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22I will declare thy name unto my brethren:
In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23Ye that fear the Lord, praise him;
All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; 24For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Neither hath he hid his face from him; 25My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation:
I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26The meek shall eat and be satisfied:
They shall praise the Lord that seek him: 27All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord:
And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28For the kingdom is the Lords:
And he is the governor among the nations.
29All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship:
All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: 30A seed shall serve him;
It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness
Unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition. With respect to the Title, vid. Introduction.The Psalm begins with calling upon God, which manifests itself directly as an anxious cry of one severely troubled and presents itself as an anxious inquiry for the reason of his being forsaken by God (Psa 22:1), in which condition the sufferer finds himself externally, though internally he is closely united to God; for his loud and persevering cry for deliverance has not yet had a hearing (Psa 22:2). This, however, is contrary to the nature of God (Psa 22:3), and the experience of the fathers (Psa 22:4-5). The misery of the sufferer who is now almost crushed, is the more painful and inconceivable, that together with his sad condition, his trust in God, which is well known to the people, is made the object of bitter scorn (Psa 22:6-8). Though scorned, he recognizes and asserts his communion with God as proved to him from his birth (Psa 22:9-10). On this very account he again lifts up the cry of prayer for deliverance from nearer and greater peril of death (Psa 22:11), which he now describes at first according to its external fearfulness (Psa 22:12-13), and then according to its effects upon his person (Psa 22:14-15), and finally according to its speedy accomplishment already explained by his enemies (Psa 22:16-18). The prayer itself is then uttered according to its essential subject (Psa 22:19-21), and closes in a form which includes the assurance of its being heard. The consequence of this will be the praise of God in the congregation of the brethren by the mouth of the delivered one, (Psa 22:22-24), who will fulfil the vows now uttered (Psa 22:25), from which again salvation will arise forever for those who fear God and share therein (Psa 22:26). The latter will consist likewise of converted heathen (Psa 22:27), in whom God will vindicate His sovereignty (Psa 22:28), all of whom however He feeds, because they serve Him (Psa 22:29), and thereby preserves from generation to generation the seed of the servants of God (Psa 22:30), and causes it to grow into a people of God, in which is proclaimed what He has done for them (Psa 22:31). Thus a close and compact train of thought is given, which rises from the straits of personal affliction not only to the heights of assurance of faith in a sure deliverance by God, but advances to the sublime vision of sure salvation in God, for those out of all nations, who are converted to God. In this vision there is so little evidence of a later composition, that rather the Judaistic particularism is later, whilst the prophecies of the blessing of all nations in the seed of Abraham belonged already to the patriarchal period. Just so with the language of the Psalm. Delitzsch has shown not a few correspondences with Davidic Psalms 8 Bhl reminds us of the fact that in yomm, Psa 22:2, we have an ancient Hebrew accusative ending afterwards lost, which is according to Oppert (Journ. Asiat., 1857) frequent in the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions, as well as the accusative ending in th used already in the Pentateuch which is seen in the two hapaxlegom., , Psa 22:19, and , Psa 22:24. A historical reference to the conduct of the pious as opposed to the rebels in the Maccabean times (Olsh.) or to that of the Jewish people in exile in their affliction by the heathen (Isaki, Kimchi, De Wette, Ewald),9 can no more be proved than the composition by the prophet Jeremiah in the days of his ill-treatment and subsequent deliverance (Jer 37:11 sq.) shortly before the destruction of Judah, whence the prospect of a new generation, and the entirely different tone of the Psalm in the former and latter halves is to be explained (Hitzig); or indeed its composition by the king Hezekiah in the time of his distress and deliverance from Sennacherib (Jahn). The structure of the strophes, verses, and lines, likewise, in part very dissimilar in length and rythm, leads not to the time of the transition from the concise into the loose style, or to a writer of less poetic talent and skill, but argues rather against the supposition of mere literary labor, or of a free poetical conception or composition, especially if we estimate the fact, that all is treated individually and in personal terms, and is referred to actual events and experiences.
Its Messianic Character.If now we ask to what person, and to whose circumstances, sentiments, and character, the words here spoken are entirely appropriate, the answer can only be, to king David for the most part, yet almost still more to Jesus which is Christ. This is so generally recognized that it is unnecessary to adduce the particular features which fully justify it. The more difficult question, however, is this, whether these are only analogies, which have naturally occasioned a comparison of the fate and words of Jesus with the present description, and rendered their application to Him possible, without doing violence to the text (Mat 27:35; Mat 27:43; Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34; Joh 19:23 sq.; Heb 2:11 sq.) He who merely grants this, will soon be convinced that he cannot stop here. For the relation between the Biblical David and Davids son consists not in mere particular resemblances, but in a thorough-going relationship, and is founded not in accidental criticisms, or in connections of ones own choosing, which are then spun out further in scholastic forms; but in the government of God in history. In this connection the Psalm must at least be regarded as typical; and indeed we are not allowed to think either of the personification of the people of Israel by an unknown poet (De Wette, Olsh.), or to insert between Christ and David the ideal person of the righteous (Hengst.), for the references are entirely concrete and individual.10 But even this definition does not suffice. The question still remains to be answered, whether the Psalm is to be regarded as merely typical, or typical-prophetical, or merely prophetical, that is directly and immediately Messianic. In the first case David speaks not at all of the Messiah, but of himself and his own adventuresof the effects and consequences connected with them; and the typical reference of these words would be only subsequently in the congregation. This supposition is opposed by the circumstance, that in the life of David, whilst the time of the persecution by Saul might afford the historical foundation for such expressions (Calv., Venem., Thol., et al.), yet no circumstances known to us, not even 1Sa 23:25 sq. (von Hofmann), in themselves justify such complaints and such hopes as those here expressed. Moreover, the supposition of a poetical summary of his experience by the much tried king in the evening of his life, finds its refutation in the individual characteristics of the Psalm already repeatedly mentioned. The pure historical interpretation (Paulus, Eckermann, De Wette, Hupfeld, Hitzig, and in part Hofmann) which at most makes it a mere type, which according to Kurtz, was discovered only after its fulfilment by the writers of the New Testament, is entirely unsatisfactory. So likewise the merely prophetical or direct Messianic interpretation of the ancient synagogue, which regards the Hind of the morning directly as the name of the Shekinah, and as a symbol of the approaching redemption, so likewise the orthodoxy of the ancient church, which referred each and all literally and properly to Christ alone, excluding David.11 For that ancient interpretation that it is the Messiah Himself who speaks, is inconsistent with the character of the Psalm, which is throughout of the Old Testament and lyrical, and there is not a syllable to show that any other person is to be regarded as speaking in the place of the Psalmist. And the new phase of this interpretation, that the author has transported himself into the person of Christ, speaking from Him in the first person (J. D. Mich., Knapp, Clauss, et al.) is in part merely the inversion of the formula of this stand-point, partly a half-way attempt to reconcile the historical and Messianic interpretations. For a mere external union of both interpretations whereby some portions are referred to David, others to the Messiah, according as the individual features of the description suit the one or the other (Rudinger, Venema, Dathe) would not satisfy us any more than the acceptance of a double sense, a historical and a Messianic (Stier). The first mentioned attempt, namely, destroys the unity of the text and its references, but the last mentioned supposition destroys the unity of its meaning. It is necessary therefore to define the typical Messianic interpretation (Melancthon, Calvin, Grot., Cleric, Umbreit, Thol., Keil) more accurately as typical prophetical. Then there is not wrought into the text by the Holy Spirit a Messianic sense unknown to the Psalmist himself, in a form of words which has found its real fulfilment in the history of Jesus; but David in the Spirit, that is speaking as a prophet has regarded himself as a type of the Messiah and prophesies even on this account, because he speaks as such. But then the composition cannot fall into as early a period of Davids life as the time of the persecution by Saul, to which with a corresponding fundamental idea, even, Delitzsch and Bhl still refer. With much greater probability we might think of the time of the flight from Absalom to the wilderness (Rudinger), and the danger of losing throne and life connected therewith. I prefer, however, the circumstances to which Psalms 18 refer, with its conclusion which has a Messianic character. The prophetic character of this Psalm is expressly brought out in Joh 19:24, together with the prophetical character of the Psalmist. Mat 27:35. The typical character of the Psalm is moreover confirmed by the fact that Jesus on the cross speaks partly from the circumstances described in this Psalm (Joh 19:28; Joh 19:30), partly prays, lamenting in the words which begin this Psalm (Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34); yet not in words of exactly the same sound, but in the Aramaic dialect, accordingly not as a quotation, moreover not merely as applied to Himself, but as language entirely appropriated. Only on the ground of this actual appropriation could ver 22 of this Psalm be treated in Heb 2:11, as the words of Christ Himself. It is easy to understand, how Luther in interpreting this Psalm, remained three days and nights shut up on bread and salt, entirely inaccessible.12
Str. I. Psa 22:1. My God, etc.The Sept. has read l la = my God upon me, namely look. Then afterwards there came into the text of this Greek translation, which is followed by the Vulgate, the marginal gloss as the first word. However, the citations of the New Testament and the other ancient translations show, that the reading of the Hebrew text is the correct one. The repetition shows the depths of the anxiety (1Ki 18:37; 2Ki 4:19; Jer 4:10) and the urgency of the inquiry, which is not to be regarded as an inquiry of impatience and of the flesh near to despair (Hupf.). nor indeed as an exact inquiry for the reasons, demanding information and account (Hengst.). Nor does it show that in the height of suffering the speaker has lost the recollection, why he thus suffers (Bhl), but it is an anxious inquiry of the soul, lamenting (Calvin) and troubled, which suffers more under the inconsistency, that a man who is internally dependent upon God can appear as externally separate from God and given up by Him, than by earthly and temporal affliction. There is no contradiction of Psa 16:10, here; for the abandonment is not asserted as an abiding fact, but is expressed as an experience of a momentary condition. Only in this sense could Jesus appropriate these words in the pain of His death upon the cross. That He alone has reason and right to them (Berl. Bib., Stier) is an exaggerated assertion. Luther correctly says: All the sayings of this Psalm are not said to every one since all have not the same gifts and all have not the same sufferings. Respecting lamh as Oxytone vid. Hupf. on Psa 10:1.Far from my help (are the) words of my cry!That fact is expressed from which the preceding anxious question arose, and which is in contradiction to the previous history of Israel as the following verses show, namely, that the prayers of the pious man have not found a hearing. The enallage numeri is no more against this explanation, than the circumstance, that in Psa 22:11; Psa 22:19, and frequently elsewhere, mention is made of Gods being afar off. If we abandon this construction already followed by the ancient translations [A. V. likewise], then this construction offers itself as the most correct, which regards the words far from my help, as in apposition to the preceding forsaken, accordingly as part of the lamentation and question, whereupon it would then be stated with the independent clause words of my cry, that all that precedes constitutes the contents of the lamentation (Aben Ezra, Olshausen, Hupfeld). But such a statement in the form of narration has little agreement with the tone of the Psalm in other respects. Most recent interpreters after Isaki, Calv., Ruding., Cleric., supply the preposition min (=from) and regard the latter half of this line as in apposition to the former half. It is most natural then to regard both lines of the verse as a connected lamentation. For in interpreting the second line of the verse as an independent clause; far from my help, from the words of my lamentation, namely, art Thou (or more clearly putting that which is supplied at the beginning: Thou art, etc.), could hardly be missing. Should we, however, suppose an independent continuation of the inquiry (Kimchi, Rosenm., Bhl), then we ought to expect the repetition of the interrogative particle. The supposition of a new question: Art Thou perhaps afar off? (Venema), is still less suitable to the context. But against this entire construction, not to mention its modifications are the following principal reasons: 1). That in accepting it the most natural and almost unavoidable connection of words would lead to taking the expression the words of my cry, merely as an explanatory apposition to the words which immediately precede: my help which would give an entirely incorrect thought. 2). In order to avoid this interpretation, it is not sufficient merely to supply the preposition from, but either far from or and from must be required, especially in Hebrew where it is still more indispensable. Isaki indeed adds this, but it is not in the text. 3). Finally the thought, that God Himself is no longer reached by the words of him who cries out to Him in prayer, so great is His distance from Him, is entirely unbiblical, and cannot be explained over again by the thought of his prayers failing to be heard, which is the very thought that our explanation finds here. Hitzig on this account would change the reading here, because he accepts the continued influence of the preposition min, but very properly denies, that such unlike ideas as help and words could be regarded as being in the same line without a repetition of the min. He puts as the original reading = from my cry, which has been changed by a copyist, who had in mind Psa 20:5; Psa 21:1; Psa 21:5, into =from my help. Such an error in copying is possible, yet it is unnecessary here. This explanation likewise is in contradiction with the text: with the words (Stier) which would demand to which Kimchi adds the explanatory clause although Thou hearest. The mention of words, indicates that the cry was not inarticulate and is the more necessary, as the cry is designated with the Hebrew expression for the roaring of a lion (Psa 22:13; Isa 5:29; Job 4:10), which when used of human lamentation expresses the strength and violence of its utterance (Job 3:24; Psa 32:3; Psa 38:9). The translation of the Sept. and Vulgate, transgressions may be referred to an interchange of two letters ( with ) in the Hebrew word. The translation of the Syr., folly is connected with its false interpretation of the entire clause, since it finds in the foolish words of the sufferer the reason of the refusal of Divine help.
Psa 22:2. My God, I cry for whole days and Thou dost not answer, and through the night, and calmness I (have) not.Hitzig finds in loha an accusative of the object, my God I call. Of those who accept the usual interpretation of it as a vocative, some (Olsh., Hupf., Bhl,) regard it as the subject of the cry of prayer, but the majority as the direct invocation of God Himself which commences anew the sigh of prayer. To limit it to one day and one night of suffering, (Bade) is the more unnatural, since Heb 5:7, shows that not even the crying of Jesus is to be limited to that mentioned in Mat 27:46.13 The calmness is, according to the constant use of this Hebrew word, the silence of resignation in contrast with murmuring and complaining. Since the sufferer has thus far received neither help nor answer, this silence is not yet allotted to him. The explanation of it as: hushing up, quieting, stilling (Stier, Hupf., Delitzsch), has no sufficient warrant in language or in fact; still less the interpretation: rest through the cessation of sufferings (De Wette, Kster). The Chald. has correctly: silence. The Vulgate incorrectly after the Sept.: and not to my folly. The Syr. and Arab. are entirely different: and thou wilt not lay hold of me.
Str. II. Psa 22:3. Enthroned above the praises.The translation Inhabitant of the praises (De Wette) [A. V. Thou that inhabitest,] is likewise possible according to the language. Then God the Holy One would be designated as the subject of the praises. The Sept. and Vulg. interpret it in a similar way, though they regard Him rather as the object of the praises, and their translation differs in other respects, thus: But Thou dwellest in the sanctuary, Thou praise of Israel. Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Flamin, et al. depending on the Hebrew text, translate: Enthroned as the praise (Aquil. ), that is, as He who is praised in Israels songs of praise. The translation The enthroned of the songs of praise (Hengst.) [that is, upon the songs of praise] is related to the preceding, but explained otherwise, that is tehilloth is regarded not as a metonymy, not as in opposition to yscheb, but as a genitive. The Syriac has the correct translation. This expression is parallel to and founded on the well-known predicate of God: throned above or upon the cherubim especially in Psa 80:1; Psa 99:1, in the present form. But we must not conclude either from this or from the circumstance that the songs of praise (Psalms 78, Exo 15:11; Isa 63:7,) usually resounded in the sanctuary (Isa 64:11), that we must here retain the reference to the temple, where Israels songs of praise ascended as the clouds of incense, and likewise formed a throne for God (Aben Ezra, Calv., Ruding, Gesen., Hupf., et al.). The following verses demand rather an interpretation broader and independent of the temple service. Moreover the cherubim, as is well known, are not confined to the temple. Still less, is the explanation incola laudentium Israelitarum, justified by this enlargement of the idea.
Str. III. Psa 22:6. Worm, as an indication of the most extreme degradation and helplessness with the secondary idea of contempt, so likewise Job 25:5, sq.; Isa 41:13, in which respect David compares himself, 1Sa 25:15, with a dead dog and a flea. With the following words [and no man] correspond the expression Isa 53:3, ceasing from men [A. V. rejected of men]; we must likewise compare Isa 49:7; Isa 52:14, with reference to the servant of Jehovah.
Psa 22:7. Opening wide the mouth is regarded as a sign of hostile contempt, as a gesture of insulting, sneering scorn (Psa 35:21; Job 16:10), here expressed as bursting open and gaping by means of the lips. This is weakened by the Sept. and Vulg. into a speaking with the lips, by Jerome inexactly restored, as letting the lips hang. The shaking of the head (Psa 44:14; Psa 109:25; 2Ki 19:21; Job 16:4; Lam 2:15), designates the situation of the sufferer as helpless (Mat 27:39), and is as a gesture of denial an expression of ironical pity, as likewise the shaking of the hand (Zep 2:15), is a gesture of scorn. It is unnecessary to suppose a consent to the sufferings, which is glad to injure, and to find here a nodding of the head as an expression of assent. (Gesen., Baihinger, Thol., De Wette).
Psa 22:8. Roll upon Jehovah, [A. V. He trusted on the Lord.]Similar words follow the gestures of scorn. But it has nothing to do with religious scorn (De Wette), but with scoffing at the sufferer, who is regarded as irredeemably lost and as forsaken by God. His assurance that God is well pleased with him is regarded by his opponents as idle pretense and despicable boasting, for which they may scoff at him, on this very account that he is abandoned by God. It is not necessary to suppose a saying of the sufferer which is called out to him in irony (Hengst). The Sept. and the Syr. have taken the first word as a finite verb, the former in the signification: he has hoped, the latter: he has trusted [so A. V.]. Jerome likewise translates, confugit ad. The verb is then taken as reflexive=roll one-self, that is yield one-self, give one-self over to or trust on some one. The perfect, which Stier et al. regard as necessary on account of Mat 27:42 sq., is then either so regarded that is taken as infin. constr. and this for the infin. absol., which then might be put instead of the finite verb (De Wette after more ancient interps.); or the reading is taken at once as (Ewald), J. D. Mich. (Orient. Bibl. 11:208) even from =ltatus est. But the parallel passages Psa 37:5; Pro 16:3, decide that the reading of the text must be regarded as the imperative without its object (Psa 55:22). This is ironical counsel, (Cleric.) from which there is a sudden change to the third person (Hupfeld) with a malicious side glance (Delitzseh), whilst at the same time with these words the back is turned to the sufferer (Bhl). It is thus not necessary to think of the infin. absol. used for the imperative (Hitzig).The subject of the last clause of this verse is not the sufferer (The Rabbins, Rosenm., Baihing., Tholuck) but God (Calvin and moat interps.); for the Hebrew expression occurs only of the dealings of God with man and not conversely. In Psa 91:14, cited by Rosenm. in favor of his view, a different word is used. The scorn is still further sharpened (Geier) by the conjunction because [A. V. seeing]. In Mat 27:43, if is used, it is true, but not as a citation. To translate by if in this passage likewise with the Syr., is not justified by the remarks of Hitzig at least, that the speakers neither knew that He would save the sufferer, nor indeed that He had pleasure in him. The words are scoffing it is true, yet such that they judge themselves, because they pervert and distort the earnestness of the fact, that there has been between God and this sufferer at all times a relation of love, which showed itself on the one part as protection and help in life, on the other part as resignation and trust. Hence the connection with the following verse by the affirmative . This is not in contradiction with the fact that at the close of Psa 22:15 God Himself is addressed as the one who lays the sufferer in the dust of death. God is not thereby placed alongside of the enemies, but this feature serves very particularly to make noticeable the typical character of this Psalm. It belongs to the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah that notwithstanding his innocence, his sufferings are represented as belonging to his calling and not as merely caused by his enemies but likewise as brought about by God.
Str. IV. Psa 22:9. [Perowne: Faith turns the mockery of his enemies into an argument of deliverance. They mock my trust in Theeyea I do trust in Thee; for Thou art He, etc.C. A. B.].Made me careless on the breast of my mother.I have chosen this expression because the hiphil of can mean make to lie securely as well as to make trustful, and there is no reason to accept exclusively the former (Venema, Rosenm., De Wette, Gesen., Hupf.), which would render prominent the secure and comfortable condition of the suckling under the protection of God on the mothers breast; or the latter (Chald. and most interpreters), which emphasizes the early time of the trust wrought by God in the suckling. A trust to the mothers breast (Hitzig), however, is not said nor meant, but on the mothers breast to God, and it is psychologically the less assailable, as Jewish mothers were accustomed to suckle their children until their third year. Too much, however, is sought in the expressions, if it is found noteworthy, that the sufferer speaks only of his mother and at the same time hints at the beginning of his life as in poverty (Delitzsch14) or if an allusion is found to the taking up of the regenerate in the bosom of the Father as a sign of recognition and adoption (Gen 16:2; Gen 50:23; Job 3:12), with reference to the thought, that God treats him as a Father (Cleric., J. H. Mich., Hengst.).
Str. V. Psa 22:12. Bashan designates, in the narrower geographical sense, originally the northern part of the land on the other side of the Jordan, the basaltic table land between Hermon and Jarmuk, which contains only pasture land; in the wider original political sense (Deu 3:13; Jos 12:4), which then had become geographical (Hupf.), at the same time the northern Gilead even to the Jabbok (the present Agln) with mountains of many peaks (Psa 68:16), embracing dense oak forests (Isa 2:13 Eze 27:6; Zec 11:2) and fat pastures (Mic 5:14; Jer 5:19). Comp. Burckhardt, Reisen in Syrien, p. 396 sq., 419.The rams and bulls of Bashan serve at times as figures of the people of Israel and especially of its distinguished men (Deu 32:14; Eze 39:18; Amo 4:1; comp. Psa 6:1), who have become luxurious, proud and godless by their prosperity. Moreover, the bulls, and especially the buffalos (instead of which Luther, after the Sept., Vulg., et al., incorrectly puts unicorns), are likewise partly figures of the full feeling of power (Num 23:22; Psa 29:6; Isa 34:7) and victorious strength (Deu 33:17; Job 39:12), partly figures of rage and ill nature (Robinson, Bib. Researches, II. 412 [Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 146.C. A. B.]), and hence a designation of mighty enemies, with the prophetical secondary idea of ungodly enemies of Jehovah (Hupfeld). In Psa 22:21, their horns are particularly mentioned as fearful weapons, whilst their gaping is, in Psa 22:13, the sign of their voracity. This forms the transition to the comparison with lions, introduced by an apposition merely (comp. the examples by Kimchi), which roar when they behold their prey before falling upon it (Psa 104:21; Amo 3:4).
[Str. VI. Psa 22:14. I am poured out like water.Barnes: The sufferer now turns from his enemies, and describes the effect of all these outward persecutions and trials on himself. The meaning in this expression is, that all his strength was gone. It is remarkable that we have a similar expression, which is not easily accounted for, when we say of ourselves that we are as weak as water. An expression similar to this occurs in Jos 7:5 : The hearts of the people melted, and became as water, Lam 2:19; Psa 58:7.My bones are out of joint.Perowne: Have separated themselves, as of a man stretched upon the rack.Wax.The heart, which melts away under the consuming power of his distress, is compared to wax. So the mountains at the appearing of God, Psa 97:5, and the ungodly before the Divine presence, Psa 68:2.
Psa 22:15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd.Barnes: The meaning here is, that his strength was not vigorous like a green tree that was growing and that was full of sap, but it was like a brittle piece of earthenware, so dry and fragile that it could be easily crumbled to pieces.And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.Barnes: The meaning here is, that his mouth was dry, and he could not speak. His tongue adhered to the roof of his mouth so that he could not use itanother description of the effects of intense thirst. Comp. Joh 19:28.And Thou layest me in the dust of death (A. V., Thou hast brought me).Hupfeld, Ewald, Perowne and Alexander: Thou wilt bring me or lay me. Moll and Delitzsch and Hitzig: Thou stretchest me, or Thou layest me to bed in. Perowne: Death must be the end, and it is Thy doing, Thou slayest me. So does the soul turn from seeing only the instruments of Gods punishments to God who employs these instruments. Even in the extremity of its forsakenness it still sees God above all. We are reminded of Peters words, Him, being delivered according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and with wicked hands have crucified and slain.C. A. B.]
Str. VII. Psa 22:16. [For dogs have compassed me.Barnes: Men who resemble dogs; harsh, snarling, fierce, ferocious.The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me.Barnes: That is, they have surrounded me; they have come around me on all sides so that I might not escape. So they surrounded the Redeemer in the garden of Gethsemane when they arrested Him and bound Him; so they surrounded Him when on His trial before the Sanhedrin and before Pilate; and so they surrounded Him on the cross.C. A. B.].Piercing through my hands and my feet.This does not refer directly to the experience of Jesus upon the cross (Reinke with many of the more ancient interpreters). Moreover the remark of Gesenius, that the body of enemies is indeed pierced through, but not their hands and feet, does not suit. For the expression refers primarily and directly to the dogs (Bhl), which have been just mentioned as figurative of the band of the wicked which surround the sufferer, as they in other passages likewise are symbols of fierceness and impudence with the subordinate idea of impurity, which, however, does not lead to external heathen enemies (De Wette). These are here regarded by some (Symmach., Theodoret) as at once the pack of hounds of the hunter. In the Orient the dogs, which are half wild, and usually rove about in troops, are especially wicked and dangerous. They not only devour corpses (2Ki 9:35; Jer 15:3), but likewise attack travellers. In Persia even the sick and aged were set out to be devoured by dogs (Strabo).15 It is characteristic that they are accustomed at first to gnaw off the flesh of the hands and feet and head (dmann vermischte Samml. V. 23, sq.). If now the much disputed word is regarded after Pococke (not miscell. after Maimonidis porta Mosis) as an abbreviated plural of the participle of , related to (vid. more in detail Stier, Reinke, Bhl), which even Winer, De Wette, Gesen. (in Lehrgeb. p. 526) grant as possible, it is not necessary to change the reading itself in order to gain this sense which agrees entirely with the context, whose typical prophetical meaning is the less to be overlooked as the servant of Jehovah is said to be pierced in Isa 53:5 likewise,16 yes Jehovah in him (Zec 12:10), and it is easy for the original simple meaning of the word, dig, bore, as in the Arabic and Greek, to pass over into the special meaning, or if it is here to be entirely vindicated, it corresponds likewise with the nearest historical connection (to the teeth and claws of the dogs) as the prophetical reference. It is therefore unnecessary to suppose a boring fast (or indeed to make spell-bound, which the Midrash even regards as with magical characters), whereby David would be given in the hands of his enemies weaponless and without power of escape (Delitzsch), which sense others (at last Ewald, at first Aquila in the second edition of his translation, and then Symmach. and Jerome) find in the signification, bind, fetter, which is given to the word and which can be proved in the Arabic and Syriac. In the first edition Aquila had: they soiled, or likewise, they marred, that is, by bloody wounds. But the signification of digging and boring through has been found in the word not only by the Vulgate and Pesch., but likewise by the Septuagint before Christ. The ancient translations, however, all have a finite verb. Possibly they have merely resolved the Hebrew participle, which though accepted by many, by Rosenm., Hengst., Hupf., et al., after the example of Verbrugge (Observ Phil., 1730), is yet hotly contested, for it is at the farthest merely necessary to change the vowel points of the present text, which in the ancient MSS. indeed are altogether missing, and instead of read , in order to set aside the objections to our interpretation which are most worthy of consideration. But they have perhaps really had the reading before them, which still occurs in two unsuspected Codd. and is no more to be derived from Christian influence (Hupf.), than the received reading from Jewish (Calmet). On the other hand the form is found only in a late Cod., as a marginal gloss only afterwards added. Of especial importance is the remark of the little Masora, that in the two passages (Psa 22:16; Isa 38:13) in which this form occurs, is in two different meanings. In the passage in Isaiah, however, the meaning as the lion is undoubted. The view, which in recent times has become the most prevailing, that this translation is to be applied to our passage likewise, has accordingly, no ancient authority for it, neither Christian, nor Jewish. For the Chald. originates not only from a relatively later period (Jahn, Einleitung I.), but inserts the word biting as explanatory and as a paraphrase. Thereby the verb which is lacking in the translation as the lion, is gained, and the entire inappropriateness of the comparison, when the verb inclose is taken from the preceding clause or supplied, is to some extent lost sight of. For it is well known that it is the habit of the lion to cast himself upon his prey with a spring, and with one blow to dash it down or pull it to the ground, but not to encompass its hands and feet, which does not take place with the tail even, with which it is said to make a circle (Kimchi). And it is very evident that the appeal to the fact that at times hands and feet mean the whole body or the person (Gesen., Hupf.) does not explain anything, but only puts the difficulty in stronger light. But even the interpolation of the Chald. is partly entirely arbitrary and unjustified, partly more adapted to conceal for the moment than to really set aside the objectionableness and inappropriateness of the comparison. Since the definite article is used, the inappropriateness of the comparison in the translation, the band of the wicked enclosed me, as the lion, at my hands and at my feet, is just as striking as the fact which is especially emphasized (Luther, Calv. et al., likewise De Wette and Olsh.), that it is just as vain as it is an unjustifiable attempt to wish to do away with the objection by putting the point of comparison merely in the rage (Hengst.), or in the unsparing and fierce haste (Hitzig) of the lion-like enemies, and to find by an explanation which displaces the words, the meaning that the sufferer is so entirely surrounded by the crowd of his enemies, who are fierce as the lion and strong, or is so clasped on his hands and feet (Kster), that he can neither defend himself with his hands nor flee away with his feet (many since Aben Ezra, likewise Hengst. and Hupf., which last prefer the acceptance of a double accusative to the repetition of the verb). The same objections apply to the other verbs which have been supplied: to crush (Saadia), and: they threaten (Gesen.). But that the enemies are not described as like the lion at the hands and feet (Hengst., previous interpretation, but since taken back), is just as evident as the impossibility of taking the disputed word as an accusative (Paul. in his Clavis), which would suddenly compare the sufferer, who was lying as a worm in the dust, to a lion beset round about with dogs. From the inflexible feeling of the untenableness of all these interpretations arises likewise the proposal to close the clause with lion, but to regard hands and feet as objects of count (Mendelssohn), an interpretation which can be explained only as a desperate expedient. If now the lion is indeed called (Num 24:9; Isa 38:13; Eze 22:25; Amo 5:19), yet the reasons, as has been shown, which have been given by many interpreters for finding it in this disputed word are still less convincing, especially as in this Psalm the lion is mentioned twice (Psa 22:13; Psa 22:21) under the only name which is used elsewhere in the Psalms, .
Psa 22:17. I can tell all my bones.[Perowne: Before all my bones are out of joint. Hence it would seem that the body was racked by some violent torture; not merely emaciated by starvation and suffering. And thus in his utter misery he is a gazing-stock to them that hate him; they look upon me, i.e., with malicious satisfaction at my sufferings, vid., Isa 52:14; Isa 53:2-3.C. A. B.] In ancient psalters the counting of the members is treated as an act of the enemies in accordance with the Sept. and Vulgate.
Psa 22:18. They part my garments.His death seems so much the more unavoidable, that his garments are treated as belonging to one already dead, as possessions without an owner (v. Hofmann). The outer garments consisting of many pieces were divided, the under garment which was the immediate covering of the body was divided by lot. So Joh 19:23 sq. This language is not of mere design (Rosenm., Jahn) but of fact, to which the entire description leads (Hengst.). If we cannot point to anything of the kind in the life of David, that does not alter the fact or justify us in explaining the clothing in the sense of property (Hupf.). The prophetical element comes out with the more prominence from the type.
Str. VIII. Psa 22:19. My strength.God is designated by the nomen. abstr. of as the essence and source of the strength of life (Psa 38:4). The Sept. and Vulgate (the Syr. likewise) with a different division of the members of the verse, translate. Thou wilt not remove Thy help from me.
Psa 22:20. From the sword. from the power of the dog.It does not follow from the remarks upon Psa 22:16 that we must translate, paw of the dog. This would correspond only with the figures which immediately precede and follow (Delitzsch) and is not opposed by the fact that this paw (Lev 11:27) is called . For in 1Sa 17:37, is used of lions and bears. But since this last word is used elsewhere in the general meaning of power (Geier), yes, since the hand of the flame (Isa 47:14) and the hands of the sword (Job 5:20) are spoken of, as Isa 1:20, the mouth of the sword; this general interpretation is to be preferred, the more as in the first member of the verse the sword is likewise not figurative, as Luk 2:15, of heart-piercing woe (Sachs), but yet likewise not literal, but is to be taken in the general sense as indicating violent death, as Job 27:14; Jer 43:11.
My solitary one.The soul as life is, according to some interpreters, designated as the only one (Exo 20:2; Exo 20:12; Jdg 11:34; Psa 35:17), that is, as that which is not present as double, and therefore is irreparable (Gesen., Hitzig, Delitzsch, et al.), yet without the secondary idea of valuable, dear, and beloved, which is improperly brought in, in the strongest way in the English Bible [my darling, both here and in Psa 35:17.C. A. B.] Others (Jerome, Luther, Calvin, Geier, Stier, Hupfeld [Alexander]) prefer the idea of solitary, forsaken, with reference to Psa 25:16; Psa 68:6; comp. Psa 142:4; Joh 16:23.17
Psa 22:21. Save me from the jaws of the lion.Some, without sufficient reason, find in the singular, of the lion, a reference to the devil, the arch enemy who stands behind all the assaults upon the servants and children of God (Theodoret, Stier).And from the horns of the bufflo, (yes) Thou answerest me.The Sept., Syr., Arab., do not regard the closing word as a verb, but as a noun = my lowliness. But already the Chald. and Jerome refer the word as a verb to his being heard. The form of the preterite and its position at the close make the transition to the following section; and include the assurance that the prayer will be heard (Geier), yet not necessarily in the deliverance which had already taken place, or had often been experienced at previous times (Kimchi), especially as the verb has the fundamental meaning of answering. Since now in Psa 20:6 a similar construction designates Gods answer from heaven, the prevailing interpretation of the closing clause of this verse: Hear me against the horns of the buffalo, or save me from the horns of the buffalo by hearing me, with the supposition of a pregnant construction, as Isa 38:17; Jer 15:2; Psa 30:4; Psa 68:19; Psa 118:5, appears the more objectionable, the more difficult it would be in this very connection of the words in question, and the less properly the fact that the preterite in connection with the imperative can be taken in an optative sense is to be vindicated here, where the preterite stands at the close of a clause of urgent supplication, whilst the following clause expresses thankfulness and vows on the basis of the hearing of the prayer, and then describes the grand consequences resulting therefrom. But it does not follow from this that the is either to be taken as adversative, or the clause must be regarded as relative, so that the experience of previous help from great dangers, figuratively represented by the horns of the buffalo, served as motive of the prayer (Kimchi, Hupfeld). The supposition of a sudden break in the construction is much easier (Stier, Hengst.), by which would be expressed the contrast to the lamentation, Psa 22:2, and the turn of thought which is now made, which is to be marked by a dash and an inserted yes, since it is not advisable, contrary to the received text, to wish to take the word as the grammatical antecedent (Venema) of the following verse, although it certainly is presupposed by it (Hupfeld) [Perowne: Before it had been, Thou answerest not,now at the most critical moment Faith asserts her victory, Thou hast answered. See the same sudden transition, the same quick assurance that prayer has been heard, Psa 6:9; Psa 20:7; Psa 26:12; Psa 28:6; Psa 31:22. The vows and thanksgiving which follow are a consequence of this assurance.C. A. B.]
Str. IX. Psa 22:22-23. [Perowne: So or therefore will I tell. (Obs. the form with paragog. as marking a consequence from what precedes) My brethren = the congregation = ye that fear Jehovah; Psa 22:23, i.e., the whole nation of Israel, as follows. In Psa 22:23 the singer calls upon the Church ( = ) to praise God. In Psa 22:24 he gives the reason for this exhortation; the experience, viz., of Gods mercy, and truth, and condescension, chiefly to himself, though not to the exclusion of others. For God is not like the proud ones of the earth. He does not despise the afflicted.C. A. B.]
Str. X. Psa 22:24. The affliction of the afflicted.This nomen. abstr., owing to a false derivation, is rendered by the Sept., Vulg., Peschit, Chald., as prayer, or cry, and by Jerome as modestia. [Perowne: The same word is used with Messianic reference, Isa 53:4; Isa 53:7; Zec 9:9.He hath not hid (comp. Psa 10:1; Psa 13:1). When he cried He heard. What a contrast between Psa 22:1-2! Very remarkable is this confident acknowledgment of Gods goodness in hearing prayer.C. A. B.]
Str. XI. Psa 22:25. From Theo (comes) my praise in the great congregation.The song of praise has as its subject the deliverance by God, and on this account takes its departure, or its origin from God, who naturally, at the same time, remains as the object of the praise (Psa 22:22). [So Perowne: From Thee, not (as A. V.) of Thee, as if God were the object only of his praise. It is God Himself who has put this great subject of praise into his heart; and into his mouth. The will and the power to praise as well as the deliverance comes from Him. Comp. Psa 118:23, where the construction is precisely the same from Jehovah is this.C. A. B.]My vows will I pay.It follows from the following verse, they shall eat, that the reference is to bringing, after the deliverance, the thank-offering, which was vowed during the trouble (Lev 7:16). This was partaken of as a sacrificial meal with the legal assistance of the Levites (Lev. 12:18; 14:26) and in company with invited friends (Pro 7:14, Josephus Jewish War, Psa 6:9; Psa 6:3), after that the sprinkling of the blood and the presentation of the fat pieces had taken place at the altar. Since now in reference to the tithes, Deu 14:29; Deu 26:12, and at the harvest feast, Deu 16:11, an invitation of widows, orphans, and the poor, to participate in the meal, was prescribed, the reference to the wretched can so much the less appear strange in connection with the typical prophetical character of the Psalm; since even in sacrificial meals the participation of others than those legally invited was not excluded (Deu 33:19; 1Sa 9:13; 1Sa 9:22). From the earliest times, therefore, most Christian interpreters have referred this passage to the Lords Supper, often directly and exclusively, which is indeed improper. Others have gone to the contrary extreme (Cleric., Venema, Rosenm., v. Hofmann, Hupf.), partly by denying and partly by effacing the reference to the Shelamim offering, and have taken the eating, and becoming satisfied as merely a usual formula of prosperity and refreshment, and interpreted the thank-offering in the spiritual sense = songs of thanksgiving. Others suppose a merely spiritual participation under the figure of a meal (Umbreit, Tholuck, Hengst., Bhl, Bade). This much may be said, however, that the sensuous partaking and the material advantages were not the chief things in the sacrificial meals themselves, and that all offerings in the meaning of the law should be fulfilled with a disposition corresponding to them; that on this account the expression of thanks should excite a pious joy, and nourish and strengthen the spiritual life; and that in consequence of this even the song of thanksgiving itself can be designated as a sacrifice (Heb 13:15), and many expressions in the Old Testament, as in this Psalm, so likewise in Psa 50:14; Psa 50:23; Psa 61:5; Psa 61:8; Psa 69:30-32, and frequently are in a transition state from the narrower to the wider meaning, and from the proper to the figurative sense, as then the vow likewise not only refers to sacrifice (Psa 54:7; Psa 116:14) but likewise to the confession of Jehovah as deliverer (Jon 2:10). Moreover, independent of the reference to sacrifice, the general preservation and strengthening of the life against hostile attacks are designated as a feeding by Jehovah (Psa 23:5), and this, again applied to the spiritual life, regarded as eating the word of God (Jer 15:16; comp. Eze 3:1-3), and referred to the refreshment and satisfaction of men in the kingdom of God, is described as a meal prepared by God (Isa 25:6 sq.)
Psa 22:26. The afflicted shall eat.The afflicted are not those who are poor in this worlds goods in a general sense, but the pious who are oppressed in the world. These are now called aniyim, now anavim. In the former word the external affliction is more prominent, in the latter the internal affliction. The servant of Jehovah belongs among these sufferers first of all (Isa 53:4; Isa 53:7; Zec 9:9).
Str. XII. Psa 22:27. Shall remember and turn unto Jehovah.An important passage to characterize the heathen in their relation to God, whom they have forgotten (Psa 9:17), but to whom they will turn again, because Jehovah will vindicate His royal right to all nations (Gen 18:25; Psa 96:10; Psa 99:1; Zec 14:9), when the proclamation of the Divine deliverance by Him who suffered as no other one suffered, comes to them. The conversion of the nations by that preaching will be thus the realization of the kingdom of God. (Delitzsch). The promises to the patriarchs (Gen 12:3; Gen 28:14; comp. Psa 18:18; Psa 22:18; Psa 26:4) form the foundation of this view. Here likewise the prophetical moment in the type is very manifest, and even in its expressions the discourse assumes the character of prophecy. The connection with the previous clause is so exceedingly loose that v. Hofmann denies the connection of thought that has been given, and finds merely the reference to this thought, what He is, a God who has heard the prayer, namely, the Ruler of the world to whom the worship of all nations is due. But Hupfeld, besides, leaves room for doubt, whether this conclusion belonged originally to this Psalm, because such an effect of the deliverance of the poet, and its proclamation upon the minds of the heathen, would have been too much to expect, and too fantastic. The ancient interpreters have, on this account, referred all to Christ, only they do not do justice to the intermediate members of the thought. Some interpreters (Hengstenberg, Reinke), have sought to restore the close connection of the clauses, which is missing, by translating consider = take to heart, instead of remember or think of. This is just as unsatisfactory as unnecessary, like the proposal to take the verbs as jussive (Bhl) as directly connected with the preceding wish. Psa 22:19 even is sufficient to show the connection.
Psa 22:29. They ate, and all the fat ones of the earth shall prostrate themselves, and before his face all those shall bend the knee who have fallen in the dust, and whosoever cannot keep his soul alive.The preterite in close connection with the following imperfects (futures) states the participation in the meal as presupposed and as the foundation of their worship and homage of God and the preservation of their own lives, but puts the whole in the time of the reception of the heathen into the communion of the people of God, which is surely to be expected.In this relation the external position in life and characteristics make no difference. It is for those who in the fat of the earth abound in worldly prosperity and for those who have fallen down in the dust. It is an unfounded assertion, that the last expression must mean the dust of the grave and that therefore either a contrast is expressed of the living and dead, over whom the rule of God extends, in like manner as in Php 2:10 (Muscul., Stier, v. Hofmann, Hupf.), or only a designation of the human race in general as mortals (Flamin., Cleric.). For if it is generally granted that the expression, sitting or dwelling in the dust, is a symbol of filth and thence of lowliness, sorrow, affliction, it cannot be doubted that those who have descended from the height of prosperity into such lowliness may be contrasted as those who have fallen in the dust, namely of the earth, with those who are above in the fat of the earth, especially as constantly elsewhere it is made perceptible, as in Psa 22:15, that the reference is to the dust of death or of going down into the pit, death, Sheol (Psa 28:1; Psa 30:3; Psa 88:4; Job 8:9; Job 33:24). Only we must not take the contrast too narrowly, as is usually done, as that of the rich and poor, or of the strong in life and the frail, with which at times the entirely misleading reference is mixed, that the latter by affliction and destitution have been almost bowed down to the grave (Rosenm., De Wette). In the third clause of the verse, moreover, the reference is not to the danger of perishing from hunger, but the definite thought steps forth from the veil of the figure, that it has to do with the preservation of life for every one in the most comprehensive sense. With this interpretation the clause is not a repetition of the previous clause with a change in the turn of expression (most interpreters). No more is it necessary, in order to get an independent thought, to change the divisions of the verse and attach this clause to the following verse as antecedent (Hupf.) in the sense: If one has not remained alive himself, his seed will, etc. But this would give at least a clear idea and could find a support in the text. On the other hand the interpretation which follows is untenable according to its sense and does not correspond with the words. Thus, it is said, there is only one class of persons spoken of in the entire passage, men of distinction as the representatives of the entire people and the thought is expressed, If these have eaten and worshipped and bowed themselves before God, because they were about to die, their seed will, etc., Sept., Syr., Theodotion, Symmach., translate after another punctuation: and my soul lives for him.
Psa 22:30. The seed will serve Him: It will be told of the Lord to the (coming) generation.Others (finally Delitzsch) translate: A seed, which will serve Him, will be counted to the Lord for a generation [similarly A. V. A seed shall serve Him: it shall be accounted, etc.] But not to mention the destruction of the parallelism the subject of which is further carried out in the next verse, it is likewise doubtful whether this Hebrew word can have the meaning of count in the Piel. Besides Psa 22:22 is in favor of our interpretation. The before adonai is then as frequently=in reference to. The Sept., has: my seed, and in the second member to which it attaches the first word of the following verse: The coming generation will be announced to the Lord.
Psa 22:31. His righteousness.The righteousness of God which is to be declared from generation to generation is not His virtue in general, still less His goodness (Rosenm.), but likewise not merely the righteousness shown in the deliverance of the pious (De Wette, Hengst.), but with reference to His entire conduct and government, in His keeping afar off from the pious for awhile, especially in His participation in their peril of death (Psa 22:15), which was hard to be understood of His righteousness. The reference is not at all to the righteousness purchased by the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ and acceptable before God.That He has accomplished it.The closing word is not absolute (=that He has acted, that is, shown Himself glorious, done well), but pregnant looking back upon the entirety of that which has now been carried out and accomplished according to the decree, as at the close of the narrative of the creation, Gen 2:3. It is scarcely to be doubted, that the last cry of the dying Jesus on the cross, looks back to this passage. The reference back to the righteousness mentioned in the preceding member of the verse is too narrow (Hitzig, that He has exercised it), or the explanation: the miracles which He has done (Chald.). It is inadmissible to regard the as a relative with reference to the people considered as the object which He has made (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Jerome). These with the exception of Jerome have added as the closing word: the Lord. So likewise Aquil. and Theodotion. The Vulgate has cli between annuntiabunt and justitiam which may have wandered from Psalms 1. (Vulgate 49) to this place. The righteousness of God has come out as an external act of His Omnipotence=Goodness in the work of redemption; and this doctrine is not a philosophical wisdom of the schools, but a transmitted declaration, that the Lord has accomplished an act. (Umbreit).
[Perowne: Unnatural as I cannot help thinking, that interpretation is, which assumes that the Psalmist himself never felt the sorrows which he describes, nor the thankfulness which he utters, but only puts himself into the place of the Messiah who was to come,I hold that to be a far worse error which sees here no foreshadowing of Christ at all. Indeed, the coincidence between the sufferings of the Psalmist and the sufferings of Christ is so remarkable, that it is very surprising that any one should deny or question the relation between the type and antitype.18C. A. B.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The pious sometimes experience calamities of such a fearful character, that the impression may arise, that the sufferer has been given up by God and left to his enemies. Then more painful than the oppression of suffering and more terrible than the peril of death, is the painful feeling of the contradiction on the one side between the sufferers worth and his lot, particularly his devotion to God, and his being forsaken by God, on the other side between the holy nature of God and His actions. On this account it seems more mysterious and perplexing, the more persevering and fervent the prayer proves to be, though unheard, and the less the present actions of God agree with His usual dealings with His people, which they have experienced and praised at all times. For although He is the same God, yet He has heard and delivered the fathers who have hoped and cried to Him; but He turns away from and forsakes this one who likewise hopes and cries. It is truly a hard thing which greatly provokes one to despair and cursing, that God treats one differently from another without his being guilty; for he who is perplexed with such a trouble as this, feels such unutterable misery in his conscience. (Luther).
2. Yet in the truly pious, the anxious question of solicitude for the solution of this inconsistency, and the lament over the incongruity which has become perceptible, may struggle forth from the sighing of the oppressed heart, and take the form of a description of the greatness of its sufferings, but the lamentation does not become a complaint and the trouble does not end in despair, but faith in the holy government of God presses forth through all the anxiety and grief and protects the sufferer, who has been cast down and almost crushed, from sinking in the abyss of despair and ruin; whilst it drives him to cling to Jehovah as his God and Helper, and thereby carries him over the chasm, which seems to open externally between him and his God, and internally threatens to become a difference of experience not to be denied. Thou art the Holy One, etc., is a corrosive power which must more and more entirely consume the Thou hast forsaken me. (Hengst.)
3. Yet before, the Divine deliverance, which cannot fail and yet seems to fail, really comes, the suffering increases even to the peril of death and the trouble grows under the trials of faith and patience. These trials become the most dangerous and take the form of temptations when the righteous man, who has often prayed for his people and constantly labored for their good, is not illtreated by foreign enemies, but is cast forth as an outcast by his own people, and when there is added to shame and scorn the heart-rending mockery of the martyrs trust in God. This trust he has shown from his youth and has experienced in its blessings from childhood, though now it is most sorely attacked whether as a foolish delusion or an idle pretence, whilst at the same time his cherished conviction has always been that he as righteous, is chosen of Jehovah, an object of His good pleasure and of the especial care of God.
4. The remembrance of the peace and carelessness, and security of earliest youth and reflection upon the power and goodness of God wonderfully exhibited in the birth and care of man, even as a suckling, are especially touching comforting and cheering amid the afflictions, cares and struggles of an advanced life. This miracle has become common by its frequency, but if unthankfulness did not close our eyes with blindness, every birth world fill us with astonishment, and so likewise every preservation of a child in his tender youth, who at his very first entrance into the world is awaited with a hundredfold death (Calvin). Experience likewise teaches us that we think of this tender, joyous, lovely work of God, and under the hard bites of the Divine wrath and the rod of God, have a refuge and refresh ourselves with the sweet and delightful milk of the womb, of the motherly heart and all those most tender mercies which have been shown to the age of childhood. In order that, as it is commanded us to remember the good days when it fares badly with us, so likewise we may not forget the great grace and benefits of God which He has shown to us from our youth, when we are anxious and in need, and that when we suffer as men, we may likewise think of what we have received of God as children (Luther).
5. When the hand of God is found to be the power working in the very depths of the sufferings which we have had to bear and which have finally laid us in the dust of death, the bitterness of the experience of suffering is thereby intensified on the one side, yet the believing hope in a final hearing and deliverance is essentially strengthened on the other. Yet it is very hard to hold fast to both at the same time and in their true relation in the soul, especially when a proper and strong feeling of innocence is roused, and yet the prospect of deliverance has as well as disappeared; and when the soul still holds fast to God, and cries out to him in the distance, yet the troubled look perceives only the nearness of its enemies, but does not see God drawing near to help. As often as this darkness takes possession of the souls of believers some unbelief is always intermingled, which does not let it arise at once into the light of the new life. But in Christ in a wonderful manner both of these were united, the terror of Gods curse and the patience of faith, thus calming all emotions so that they rested under the sovereignty of God (Calvin).
6. As the prayer precedes the deliverance, so it is followed by thanksgiving; and the vow of thanksgiving is already connected with the prayer in the certainty of the hearing of the prayer. Instead of the anxious cry, which in contrast with the praises of Israel, previously sounded from the mouth of the innocent and horribly tortured victim, the song of praise of the delivered, is in future to resound in the assembly of his brothers, and the whole congregation is to hear, to their own edification, the declaration of the great and wonderful things that God has done to this one who was so afflicted and utterly lost. God makes it exceeding agreeable so that all the godly must love and praise Him, that His eyes alone see and are turned upon the troubled and poor, and the more despised and forsaken a man is, the nearer and more gracious God is to him (Luther).
7. The congregation is not merely to hear in devout and loving sympathy, what God has done to one of its members and to learn the word of the glad tidings of his deliverance by joining in his thanksgiving and praise. Its members externally and internally afflicted, like the delivered sufferer, who has previously called them his brethren (Heb 2:11 sq.), are to have their hearts refreshed by the festival which has been prepared by him and at which they are to be his guests, which according to his wish is to endure forever. The sufferings of a servant of God like this, as well as his deliverance, transcend in their blessed effects his own person, and the circle of his immediate relatives; both have an importance and agency in the history of redemption, at first for Israel and then likewise for the heathen, since it has to do not merely with carnal relationship, but with spiritual resemblance and relation with the spread of the kingdom of God in the world, with the preservation and increase of the congregation of the Lord from all nations.
8. The heathen are, it is true, people who have forgotten God, but they have not been forgotten by God. Non igitur sic erant oblil ist gentes Deum, ut ejus nec commemorat recordarentur (Augustine, de trin. 14, 13). With their need of redemption is associated their capability of redemption, but the word of the completed redemption and the invitation to participate in its blessings comes to both according to the purpose of God and in His time (1Ti 2:4-6). And this invitation, which is unlimited by the external relations of men and is to be published to all, will be successful. Those who share in the festival meal offered to them, will recognize the royal right of God to all nations, and will personally, as men converted to Him, fulfil the homage and worship which is due to Him.
9. All this, however, will not be limited to a single generation, but will fulfil itself from generation to generation. There will always be a seed to serve the Lord, and transmit to children and childrens children, even to the invisible distance, the declaration of the fact that the Lord has accomplished it and what He has accomplished. Thus there is opened for the sufferer on the border of the grave not only a prospect of personal deliverance, but likewise a view of the connection of his sufferings, and their effect and end, with the everlasting refreshment of his fellow believers, and with the conversion of the heathen; and this is finally enlarged to the contemplation and the expression of the assurance that these gracious and saving effects will extend over the entire world and exhibit themselves powerfully through all time. The particularism of the Old Testament is thus done away with within itself, and the prophetical element breaks forth from the historical form of David as undeniably typical. Compare Exegetical and Critical.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The greatest trouble in all sufferings is trouble of soul; nothing helps against this but prayer and trust in God.Even the true children of God may be pained by the feeling that they are forsaken of God, when answer to prayer has long been delayed, especially in peril of death, yet this feeling is only transient.Whoever does not give up God, even when his trouble of body and pain of soul has advanced to the highest point, soon has the experience that God has not forsaken him.God may, it is true, delay His help, yet it does not fail, but it always comes at the right time.When the help ardently implored tarries even the soul of the righteous has a feeling that God is afar off, yet he is not internally estranged from God, but seeks Him still more ardently.In times of trouble perseverance in faith is very much strengthened: 1) by looking at the holiness of God; 2) by remembering the Divine care always exercised, partly over the fathers, partly over his own person; 3) by the prospect of the Divine blessings which go forth from these sufferings for others likewise.He who before his deliverance not only cries but prays will after his deliverance not only be glad but thankful.What hast thou promised and vowed to God in trouble? and how hast thou kept it?The sufferings of the righteous are according to the Divine purpose not only to be of advantage to the present congregation but likewise to the heathen throughout the entire world.God will spread abroad His kingdom through the whole world, and vindicate His royal prerogative over all nations. Who is His righteous servant, by whom He accomplishes such things?However great the apostasy from God may be in the world, yet a righteous seed remains to Him, preserved through all generations, to do homage to Him and serve Him.The promise of redemption, which has been purchased by the sufferings and triumph of the righteous servant of God, is likewise for the heathen, who not only need it, but are capable of receiving it.The declaration of what the Lord has accomplished, is the very best thanks for His benefits and the most efficient means to bring about the recognition of His glory and the extension of His name and His kingdom.
Starke: The greatest pain to the troubled soul is not to be sure of the hearing of his prayers.The ungodly even are often obliged against their will to give the best advice in trouble; for in trouble what is better than to have a Lord to whom we can lament, and who can deliver us.No shame can more dispirit the soul of a believer than to have his piety mocked, and Gods gracious looking upon him denied.God is our God from our mothers womb. O! that He would remain our God even till our last breath.When we pray for deliverance from trouble we must bring before God a heart which despairs entirely of our own and of all other human help.Be not afraid of the dust of death; Jesus has prepared it as a couch for you.As often as you put on or take off your clothes, remember the fall of man and likewise the nakedness of Christ; they will bring you to a knowledge of sin, and keep you from all extravagance in dress.That is a strength of faith, in the midst of the weakness of death to call the Lord his strength, expect, surely hope, and obtain strength from Him.The chief reason for praising God in time and eternity is for believers, that the Lord has provided redemption through Jesus, has carried it out, accepted it, and caused it to obtain their salvation.That which Jesus gained by His bitter sufferings, He gives to His believers to enjoy.Those who seek God find Him in Christ, the Redeemer of the world, in such a consoling manner, that they can praise Him during their life and rejoice in Him forever.The limits of the Church and the kingdom of Jesus have no end, but are to extend as far as the world; let us diligently pray, Thy kingdom come.Great riches and honor do not help to salvation; there must be other riches, other food to satisfy the soul, and all the rich who would be saved must first become poor in spirit.The poor and despised members of the kingdom of Christ are not always to live in trouble; the time is coming when their afflictions will be exchanged for enduring happiness.Although the world is full of evil, yet there is a holy seed in it, which serves God.The chief subject of evangelical doctrine is the making known of the righteousness purchased for us, and appropriated by us; how then can true Christians do otherwise than seek to extend further and further the knowledge of this important truth which they have learned.
Calvin: Whilst violence of pain and weakness of flesh will extort the cry: Why hast Thou forsaken me? faith adds thereto, his God, in order that he may not succumb, thus at the same time improving the invocation of God, who is said to have forsaken him; yes, faith hastens before, so that he already takes refuge in his God before he allows himself to utter the lamentation.Satan can aim no more deadly shot against our souls, than when he robs us of hope by converting Gods promises into mockery.Osiander: If we are not always delivered in the way in which we desire it, yet we ought to know with certainty that we are no less truly heard, and a mighty help will soon ensue.However ungodly and unthankful the world may be, yet we ought not to despair of the Church of God; for God always reserves some who accept the doctrine and do not lack diligence in transmitting it to their posterity.Renschel: The trouble and dear death of the Lord, are the ground of the salvation which is prepared for the pious.Selnekker: When trouble comes upon us which seems to be something, the devil strives to induce us not to pray and whispers dangerous and ungodly thoughts. These words alone stand against him: He has not despised, etc. [Psa 22:24].Menzel: Christ reminds us by the name of brethren: 1) of His love and faithfulness towards us all; 2) of the glory in which He sets us and to which He brings us; 3) of our duty towards Him.Herberger: Sin must be a very great burden, because it could be atoned for in no other way than by the severe sufferings of Christ.Whoever hears of the sufferings of Christ should repent.Baihinger: That is the end of Gods way, that He conducts all the nights of sorrow to a blessed end, and that He is praised on account of His benefits.The pious sufferer vows to celebrate his deliverance by proclaiming the name of Jehovah.Tholuck: These are the trials of faith, with which the wicked enemy intensifies the other trials of the body and the soul, when a pious man is given up to the furnace of suffering.A soul that loves God more than self, would rather take upon itself the floods of shame, than have merely a drop of it fall on the name of his God.If men are friendly only to that which is high, God is most gracious to that which is low.Prayer is the weapon with which the bars of the gates of heaven are burst open.Stiller: The Gospel is the heavenly food, which brings comfort and refreshment; the guests at this heavenly meal are all nations upon the whole earth.Taube: The first born among many brethren is the Holy One of Israel and its King; that begets in His people trust without presumption. The Holy One of Israel is our brother; that begets humility without despair.Diedrich: To the same extent as my soul has a share in Christ will it have the experience of this way through the cross to the crown.The righteous man here in this world is cruelly teanted about like a poor hind; but in Gods eye he is yet so lovely that He finally sends the dawn of deliverance.
[Matt. Henry: Spiritual desertions are the saints sorest afflictions.When we are lamenting Gods withdrawings yet still we must call Him our God, and continue to call upon Him as ours.When we want the faith of assurance, we must live by the faith of adherence.The entail of the covenant is designed for the support of the seed of the faithful; He that was our fathers God must be ours, and therefore will be ours.He was Adam., a mean man, and Enosh, a man of sorrow; but lo Ish, not a considerable man; for He took upon Him the form of a servant, and His visage was marred more than any mans.The blessings of the breasts, as they crown the blessings of the womb, so they are earnests of the blessings of our whole lives.When we cannot rejoice in God as our song, yet let us stay ourselves upon Him as our strength, and take the comfort of spiritual supports when we cannot come at spiritual delights.Seeing we cannot keep alive our own souls, it is our wisdom by an obedient faith to commit our souls to Jesus Christ, who is able to save them, and keep them alive forever.Barnes (Psa 22:8): It is one of the most remarkable instances of blindness and infatuation that has ever occurred in the world, that the Jews should have used this language in taunting the dying Redeemer, without even suspecting that they were fulfilling the prophecies, and demonstrating, at the very time when they were reviling Him, that He was the true Messiah.Spurgeon: For plaintive expressions uprising from unutterable depths of woe we may say of this Psalm, there is none like it. It is the photograph of our Lords saddest hours, the record of His dying words, the lachrymatory of His last tears, the memorial o His expiring joys. David and his afflictions may be here in a very modified sense, but, as the star is concealed by the light of the sun, he who sees Jesus will probably neither see nor care to see David.No daylight is too glaring, and no midnight too dark, to pray in; and no delay or apparent denial, however grievous, should tempt us to forbear from importunate pleading.If prayers be unanswered, it is not because God is unfaithful, but for some other good and weighty reason. We may not question the holiness of God, but we may argue from it, and use it as a plea in our petitions.Let us wonder when we see Jesus using the same pleas as ourselves, and immersed in griefs far deeper than our own.Strange mixture! Jehovah delights in Him, and yet bruises Him; is well pleased, and yet slays Him.Behold the humiliation of the Son of God! The Lord of glory stoops to the dust of death. Amid the mouldering relics of mortality Jesus condescends to lodge!Never was a man so afflicted as our Saviour in body and soul, from friends and foes, by heaven and hell, in life and death; He was the foremost in the ranks of the afflicted, but all these afflictions were sent in love, and not because His Father despised and abhorred Him. Tis true that justice demanded that Christ should bear the burden which as a substitute He undertook to carry, but Jehovah always loved Him, and in love laid that load upon Him with a view to His ultimate glory and to the accomplishment of the dearest wish of His heart. Under all His woes our Lord was honorable in the Fathers sight, the matchless jewel of Jehovahs heart.There is relief and comfort in bowing before God when our case is at its worst; even amid the dust of death prayer kindles the lamp of hope.C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[8][Delitzsch: The call of prayer (Psa 22:11; Psa 22:19; Psa 35:22; Psa 38:21, used Psa 71:12), the name of the soul (Psa 22:20; Psa 35:17), the designation of quiet and resignation by (Psa 22:2; Psa 39:2; Psa 72:1; comp. Psa 65:1) are to us, who do not limit the genuine Davidic Psalms with Hitzig to Psalms 3-19 as Davidic peculiarities. In other respects, likewise, there are not lacking similarities with other ancient Davidic Psalms (comp. Psa 22:29 with Psa 28:1, going down to the dust, to the pit, then in later Psalms, as Psa 143:7, in Isaiah and Ezek.) especially those of the time of Saul, as Psalms 69 (comp. Psa 22:26 with Psa 69:32) and Psalms 59 (comp. Psa 22:16 with Psa 59:14).C. A. B.]
[9][Perowne: The older Jewish interpreters felt the difficulty, and thought that the sorrows of Israel in exile were the subject of the singers complaint.Without adopting this view to the full extent, it is so far worthy of consideration that it points to what is probably the correct view, viz., that the Psalm was composed by one of the exiles during the Babylonish captiviy. And though the feelings and expressions are clearly individual, not national, yet they are the feelings and expressions of one who suffers not merely as an individual, but so to speak in a representative character.C. A. B.]
[10][Alexander follows Hengstenberg thus: The subject of this Psalm is the deliverance of a righteous sufferer from his enemies, and the effect of this deliverance on others. It is so framed as to be applied without violence to any case belonging to the class described, yet so that it was fully verified only in Christ, the Head and representative of the class in question. The immediate speaker in the Psalm is an ideal person, the righteous servant of Jehovah, but his words may, to a certain extent, be appropriated by any suffering believer, and by the whole suffering church, as they have been in all ages.C. A. B.]
[11][Wordsworth: The Hind represents innocence persecuted by those who are compared in the Psalm to huntsmen, with their dogs chasing it to death, see Psa 22:16. And the Hind is called the Hind of the morning. Such was Christ at His Passion. He was hunted as a hind; He was the Dayspring from on high; He was lovely and pure as the morning; and early in the morning, while it was yet dark, His savage hunters thirsted for His death (Mat 26:57; Mat 27:1). Christ, the innocent and spotless Hind, is contrasted in the Psalm with the bulls of Bashan, and the ravening and roaring lion (Psa 22:12-13).The concurrent opinion of all ancient expositors may be summed up in the words of St. Augustine here: Dicuntur hc in persond Crucifixi; or, as Theodoret expresses it, our Lord Christ speaks in this Psalm as Man, suffering Man, in the name of all human nature; and the Church has declared her judgment in this sense, by appointing this Psalm to be used on Good Friday.C. A. B.]
[12][Wordsworth thus sums up the Messianic references of the Psalm. Our Lord adopted the first words of this Psalm, when He was on the cross: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34); and St. Jerome justly says, Ex hoc animadvertimus, totum Psalmum a Domino in cruse posito decantari. And the Holy Spirit, speaking by two Apostles and Evangelists, St. Matthew (Mat 27:35), and St John (Joh 19:23), applies it to Christ. St. Matthew says, they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, (i.e. in this Psalm Psa 22:18), or, as St. John has it, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. And St. John says. (Joh 19:28), Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled (i.e. the Scripture in Psa 22:15), saith I thirst. The language of those who persecuted Christ to death, is accurately described in the Psalm. All they that see me laugh me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying, He trusted in the Lord; let Him deliver Him (Psa 22:7-8). Compare the narrative of the Evangelists. They that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads (Mat 27:39). It is remarkable that the very words here used in the Septuagint, , and , are adopted in the Gospels (Mat 27:39; Mar 15:29; Luk 23:35.). They mocked Him, and said, He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him (Mat 27:41; Mat 27:43). And the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes Psa 22:22 of this Psalm, and regards it as spoken by Christ: He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto Thee (Heb 2:12).C. A. B.]
[13][Delitzsch: When the passion reached its highest point it had already been, preceded by days and nights of such wrestling, and what now was loud, was only the breaking forth of that struggle of prayer which in the second David constantly became more and more violent as he approached the catastrophe.C. A. B.]
[14][Delitzsch: According to Biblical ideas there is in the newly-born child, yes in the unborn child, alive only in the mothers womb, already a consciousness growing up out of the uttermost depths of unconsciousness (Bib. Psychol. p. 215). Thus when he says in prayer, that he was thrown upon Jehovah from the lap, that is, with all his needs and cares solely and alone referred to Him (Psa 55:22; comp. Psa 71:6) that from the womb Jehovah was his God, there is more contained in this than the pure objective sense, that he grew up in such relation to God. Never in the Old Testament is there any mention of a human father, that is, a genitor of the Messiah, but always only of His mother or she that brings Him forth. The words of the one praying here likewise say, that the beginning of his life, with respect to external circumstances was in poverty, which likewise agrees with the Old Testament and New Testament ideal of Christ, Barnes agrees with Delitzsch, and is probably correct, thus: The idea is, that from his earliest years he had been led to trust in God; and he now pleads this fact as a reason why He should interpose to save him. Applied to the Redeemer as a man, it means that in His earliest childhood He had trusted in God; His first breathings were those of piety; His first aspirations were for the Divine favor; His first love was the love of God: and again, He had been as it were, thrown early in life upon the protecting care of God. In some peculiar sense He had been more unprotected and defenceless than is common at that period of life, and He owed His preservation then entirely to God. This, too, may have passed through the mind of the Redeemer on the cross. In these sad and desolate moments He may have recalled the scenes of His early lifethe events which had occurred to Him in His early years; the poverty of His mother, the manger, the persecution by Herod, the flight into Egypt, the return, the safety which He then enjoyed from persecution in a distant part of the land of Palestine, in the obscure and unknown village of Nazareth.C. A. B.]
[15][Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. Psalms 79 : Every Oriental city and village abounds with troops of hungry and half-savage dogs, which own allegiance rather to the place than to persons, and which wander about the streets and fields, howling dismally at night, and devouring even the dead bodies of men when they can reach them. Their habit is most exactly described by the Psalmist. At evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied (Psa 59:14-15). In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood (1Ki 21:19). The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat (Psa 22:23-24.). Thus cruel, fierce and filthy persons are frequently compared to dogs (Psa 22:10; Php 3:2; Rev 22:15.The common dog of the towns is the same breed as that of the shepherd, often in India called the Pariah dog, and probably the nearest in appearance to the wild original, not unlike the jackal, with short, sharp-pointed ears, sharp snout, generally a tawny coat and tail, scarcely bushy.C. A. B.]
[16][A. V., not so true to the original, has rendered , wounded.C. A. B.]
[17][Perowne adopts the former rendering: My only one. The life is so called either because man has but one life, or because it is the most precious of all things. Comp. Homers and Platos (). So Wordsworth, though with many forced allusions: It is a memorable fact, that the masculine yachid occurs three times in one chapter of the historical books of the Old Testament, and in no other part of them; and that chapter is Genesis 22, which relates the sacrifice of Isaac, the only begotten son, whom his father loved, the type of Christ crucified. See Gen 22:2; Gen 22:12; Gen 22:16. It is also a remarkable circumstance that the feminine word yachidah, which is the word used here, occurs only once in the historical books of the Old Testamet; and that passage is the history of the sacrifice of Jephthabs daughter (Jdg 11:34), on which it has been already observed that she was in several most interesting and beautiful respects a type of the pure human soul of Christ, offering itself a willing sacrifice on the cross. In the Psalms this word is used in another place which foretells the Passion of Christ, Psa 35:17. My darling is explained by the parallelism in both these places as meaning my soul, which is mine as being that which I possess, and which I willingly lay down, as Christ says: No man taketh my life (or soul, ) from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again (Joh 10:17-18). And that soul might well be called yechidah; that is, an only child, and a daughter, on account of its dearness to God (vid. Joh 1:14; Joh 1:18; Joh 3:16; Joh 3:18; 1Jn 4:9). The feminine gender bespeaks intensity of tender feeling and dearness.C. A. B.]
[18][Barnes: The scene in the Psalm is the cross, the Redeemer suffering for the sins of men. The main features of the Psalm relate to the course of thoughts which there passed through the mind of the Redeemer; His sorrow at the idea of being abandoned by God; His confidence in God; the remembrance of His early hopes; His emotions at the taunts and revilings of His enemies; His consciousness of prostrated strength; His feelings as the soldiers pierced His hands and His feet, and as they proceeded to divide His raiment; His prayer that His enemies might not be suffered to accomplish their design, or to defeat the work of redemption; His purpose to make God known to men; His assurance that the effect of His sufferings would be to bring the dwellers in the earth to serve God, and to make His name and His righteousness known to far distant times. I regard the whole Psalm, therefore, as applicable to the Messiah alone: and believing it to be inspired I cannot but feel that we have here a most interesting and affecting account, given long before it occurred, of what actually passed through the mind of the Redeemer when on the cross.C. A. B.]
DISCOURSE: 526 Psa 22:1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
THE prophecies relating to our Lord have not only declared what works he should do, and what sufferings he should endure, but even the very words that should be uttered both by his enemies and himself. Whatever reference the words of the text might have to David, there can be no doubt but that they principally relate to the Lord Jesus; and in him they received their accomplishment: when he had hung about six hours upon the cross, we are told, he cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli! Eli! lama sabacthani? that is to say, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me [Note: Mat 27:46.]? Perhaps he cried with a loud voice in order to shew, that his natural strength was by no means exhausted; and that his dissolution, which immediately followed, was voluntary: but he discovered also by that the intenseness of his sufferings, and fulfilled in the minutest manner the prediction before us. Waving all illustration of the text as applicable to David, we shall endeavour to elucidate it as accomplished in his great antitype, and shall consider,
I.
The occasion of our Lords complaint
Jesus, in the hour of his extremity, was forsaken of his heavenly Father But though there was good reason for it, it was a just ground of complaint II.
The complaint itself
Let us not suppose that there was the smallest mixture of impatience in it It expressed the fullest confidence in God, and exhibited the brightest pattern to all his tempted people We may improve the subject by considering,
III.
The lessons we may learn from it
There is not any part of doctrine or experience which will not receive light from this subject. But we shall content ourselves with observing from it,
1.
The greatness of Christs love
[Truly the love of Christ has heights and depths that can never be explored. He knew from eternity all that he should endure, yet freely offered himself for us, nor ever drew back from his engagements: Having loved his own, he loved them to the end. But never shall we form any just conceptions of his love, till we behold that glory which he left for our sakes, and see, in the agonies of the damned, the miseries he endured. But when the veil shall be taken from our eyes, how marvellous will his love appear! and with what acclamations will heaven resound!]
2.
The duty of those who are under the hidings of his face
[Our enjoyment of Christs presence is variable, and often intermitted: but let us not on that account be discouraged. Let us pray, and that too with strong crying and tears; yea, let us expostulate with him, and ask, like Job, Wherefore dost thou contend with me [Note: Job 10:2.]? But though we say, The Lord hath forsaken me, let us never add, like the Church of old, my Lord hath forgotten me. If he hide himself, it is but for a little moment, that he may gather us with everlasting mercies [Note: Isa 54:7-8.]. Therefore let us say with Job, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.]
3.
The misery of those who are not interested in his atonement
[We see what bitter lamentation sin occasioned in him, who bore the iniquities of others, even though he knew that his sufferings would quickly end. What wailing then and gnashing of teeth will they experience, who shall perish under their own personal guilt, when they shall be shut up as monuments of Gods wrath to all eternity [Note: Luk 23:31.]! Would to God that careless sinners would lay this to heart, while yet a remedy remains, and before they be finally separated from their God by an impassable gulf!]
CONTENTS
Here is indeed a gospel Psalm, full of Jesus, and of Jesus only, from beginning to end. it consists of two parts: Of the sufferings of Christ, and then of the glory that should follow: his cries, agonies, discouragements, desertions, death; his glory, and the blessedness of his salvation.
To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth, Shahar. A Psalm of David.
Is not Christ discoverable in the very title of this Psalm? For who is the Hind of the Morning but Jesus? Aijeleth Shahar means Hind of the Morning, and so is rendered in the margin of our old Bibles. Sweet thought! Jesus was so from the everlasting morning, when set up from everlasting. And when in time, was he not hunted and slaughtered by the dogs spoken of in this Psalm? See Son 8:14 .
Who that reads these words set down in the church under the spirit of prophecy, at least a thousand years before the coming of Christ, and then hears them uttered by Jesus on the cross; who that duly attends to these things, but must feel his soul overpowered in the contemplation, and be constrained to exclaim with the astonished apostle, My Lord, and my God! Yes, precious Jesus! We need not here inquire of whom spake the prophet this, – of himself or of some other man? Act 8:34 . But what do the words themselves imply? Is this the voice of complaint? Yes: Jesus as the sinner’s surety, cries out under the pressure of divine wrath against sin. Not that God had exacted more than our sins deserved, but that the heavy displeasure, and the desertion which accompanied it, bore hard upon his holy spotless soul. Yet, let the reader not forget to remark, in the same moment, that Jesus never lost sight of his relationship; for he kept it in view, in his cry, in reiterating the tender title, My God, my God! Reader, if Jesus felt the momentary desertion so oppressive, think what horrors must form the state of those who are deserted forever. And if Jesus thus passed through the dark valley of desertion, let not any of his followers complain, if at any time they are made conformable to his likeness. Rom 8:29 .
The Future of the Christian Church
Psa 22:27
What is to be the future of the Church of Christ on earth? Is the kingdom of God advancing and still to advance? Often it seems to the faithful that they are in presence of a standstill, or even of a retrogression. They are tried, strained, surprised at the slow victories of faith. It seems as if the Gospel were slighted, put aside, failing of its full effect Sometimes they have days of glorious triumph, but often the heart sinks before the continued and present power of evil. It is no wonder that this should be so, for the demands and expectations are greater than before, and the difficulties are not less. The work grows heavier, and it does not always seem to grow clearer and more hopeful. So we perplex ourselves. We say, Is the power of Christians at home as great as it used to be? Is that power increasing or diminishing in the vast realms of heathendom? Are we bringing in converts in numbers proportionate to the growth in population? It is not easy for us to judge the truth of things around us, and if we can read the future it can only be by the light of revelation. ‘What are your prospects?’ was the question put to an intrepid missionary. He answered, and he could never have bettered the reply, ‘They are as bright as the promises of God’.
I. There are three theories of the future of Christianity which have been held by Christians.
1. There are those who say that we are never to look for a glorious future to the Church on earth. There is to be no such thing as a universal spread of the Gospel. The Church is not to wax, but wane. The kingdom of heaven has nothing to do with the world but to condemn it.
2. There is another view of which one hears very little in these days, though it was the doctrine of the early Church, and though it may ground itself much more securely on the words of the New Testament both in the Gospels and in the Epistles. It is that the power of good and the power of evil will alike increase. ‘Let both grow together until the harvest,’ is the word of our Lord. St. Augustine taught that, however the leaven of the Gospel may spread, the power of evil and the malignity of evil will advance. It is all contained in one dread word seldom spoken now the word antichrist. In that dark time the daily sacrifice would be taken away, words which were interpreted to mean the forcible cessation of all religious worship. St. Augustine doubted whether baptism would be administered during that period. Further, taking the words of our Lord, that the abomination that maketh desolate should be set up in the holy place, it was foretold that some terrible form of blasphemy with rites of devil-worship would be substituted for the service of Christ in the churches. The power seemingly victorious would work miracles, overwhelming the imagination with signs that might deceive the very elect. The spirit of antichrist has never been quite dormant in the world. The Emperor Julian was taken as in a degree typical of the antichrist who was to come. In the French Revolution there were many of the works of antichrist, and we may freely admit that there are powers existing, and not so very far away, which might yet find the work of antichrist congenial. So then, in the view of the early Church, the kingdom of Christ would grow steadily; the kingdom of Satan would also grow steadily. The two hostile powers would come into conflict in a battle in which the Church would seem to tremble and waver. Then Christ Himself would appear and consume the antichrist by the breath of His mouth, and destroy him by the brightness of His coming.
3. There is, thirdly, the theory of hope, the theory that in manifold ways, some apparent and some hidden, the kingdom of God keeps coming, and will come. There is the faith that the armies of the aliens, in spite of all we see, are being beaten back, and that in the end evil will gradually die out of the living world and be merged in the good. Not that the solemn warnings of Scripture and the stern facts of life are ignored. The words of our Lord, so plain, so unmistakable, are not to be forgotten. ‘The enemy that soweth them is the devil.’ Our fight is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, with Satanic hosts on which no impression is made by what is called civilization, or social reform, or intellectual enlightenment. But the promises look to the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom, to the flowing of all nations to the mountain of the Lord’s House, to the day when they shall not hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain, when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
II. The promise is notable for its use of the word ‘Remember’. ‘All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord.’ I wish you to linger upon that. One great subject of philosophers in these days is the subliminal consciousness, the vast store of ideas and impressions in the mind which are sleeping but not dead, which may spring to life at a touch or a call, which may even energize for themselves when we are ignorant of their action. What is lying dormant in the heart of heathendom? The ends of the world shall remember. It is in memory that all conversion begins. ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare!’ said the prodigal, as he remembered his father’s house. Will the nations one day remember the house of their Father? They tell us that there lingers in the races, however sunken and degraded, the memory of a golden time when God and man were friends. Max Mller tells us that the theory of a primitive revelation is found both among the lowest and among the most highly civilized races. It is a constant saying among African tribes that formerly heaven was nearer to earth than it is now, that the highest God, the Creator Himself, formerly gave lessons of wisdom to human beings, but that afterwards He withdrew Himself from them, and dwells now far from them in heaven. The Hindus say the same. They look back, as in the hymn of the sage Vasishtha: ‘Where are those friendships of us two? Let us seek the harmony which we enjoyed of old. I have gone, O self-sustaining Varuna, to thy vast and spacious house with a thousand gates. He who was thy friend, intimate, thine own and beloved, has committed offences against thee.’
What they remember is the existence of one God.
Monotheism is the natural religion, and remains in the quiet background, however obscure or overlaid. This is the authentic saying of a Kaffir when the Gospel was first preached: ‘We had this word, the name of God, long before the missionaries came; we had God long ago, for a man when dying would utter his last words saying, “I am going home, I am going up on high.” For there is a word in a song which says:
Guide me, O Hawk!
That I go heavenward,
To seek the one-hearted man,
Away from the double-hearted men
Who deal with blessing and cursing.’
Then there is the endless sense of sin, of ignorance, of the need of sacrifice. I have no time to adduce examples, but who can be blind to the unbroken witness of the human race, to the immeasurable and mysterious power of sacrifice, and to the truth that the gulf that has opened between God and His erring creatures can only be closed by sacrifice? How wonderful are the stories of Codrus offering himself to die for his people, of Decius volunteering for his army, of the Chinese Emperor Thang devoting himself as a victim for his famine-stricken subjects! ‘Let this be my substitute, this my expiation,’ is the word spoken over the sin-offering. Nay, the secret of the Cross was almost divined before it was uttered.
III. ‘All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn to the Lord.’ Mark that where Jesus is not preached as Lord, there are no Christian missions. We believe in the Church outside the Churches, in the spreading of the Christian spirit in many places where the name of Christ is denied. But it has been well said that in what may be called extramural Christianity, the Christianity of men like Carlyle and Huxley, there is no zeal even for the application of Christian principles to the heathen races. There are noble exceptions, but the record of Carlyle is among the blackest in this respect. Nor has there been a sustained and energetic propaganda of Christianity among those who take away God manifest in the flesh, and leave us a human example; those who take away a living Saviour and leave us an entombed body; who take away the power of God in human life, and leave us a law, a hero, and a Cross. This Christianity which leaves us a human Christ is a Christianity which is local and temporal. The true Christianity is as universal as the love of God. Christianity is not the climbing of men to heaven by a tower of Babel, but the descent of the new Jerusalem out of heaven from God.
W. Robertson Nicoll, The Lamp of Sacrifice, p. 279.
References. XXII. 27. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1047. XXII. 28. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, A Year’s Plain Sermons, p. 151. XXII. 29. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii. No. 1500. XXII. International Critical Commentary, vol. i. p. 188.
XVI
THE MESSIANIC PSALMS AND OTHERS
We commence this chapter by giving a classified list of the Messianic Psalms, as follows:
The Royal Psalms are:
Psa 110 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 72 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 89 ;
The Passion Psalms are:
Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 ;
The Psalms of the Ideal Man are Psa 8 ; Psa 16 ; Psa 40 ;
The Missionary Psalms are:
Psa 47 ; Psa 65 ; Psa 68 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 100 ; Psa 117 .
The predictions before David of the coming Messiah are, (1) the seed of the woman; (2) the seed of Abraham; (3) the seed of Judah; (4) the seed of David.
The prophecies of history concerning the Messiah are, (1) a prophet like unto Moses; (2) a priest after the order of Melchizedek; (3) a sacrifice which embraces all the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament; (4) direct references to him as King, as in 2Sa 7:8 ff.
The messianic offices as taught in the psalms are four, viz: (1) The Messiah is presented as Prophet, or Teacher (Psa 40:8 ); (2) as Sacrifice, or an Offering for sin (Psa 40:6 ff.; Heb 10:5 ff.) ; (3) he is presented as Priest (Psa 110:4 ); (4) he is presented as King (Psa 45 ).
The psalms most clearly presenting the Messiah in his various phases and functions are as follows: (1) as the ideal man, or Second Adam (8); (2) as Prophet (Psa 40 ); (3) as Sacrifice (Psa 22 ) ; (4) as King (Psa 45 ) ; (5) as Priest (Psa 110 ) ; (6) in his universal reign (Psa 72 ).
It will be noted that other psalms teach these facts also, but these most clearly set forth the offices as they relate to the Messiah.
The Messiah as a sacrifice is presented in general in Psa 40:6 . His sufferings as such are given in a specific and general way in Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 . The events of his sufferings in particular are described, beginning with the betrayal of Judas, as follows:
1. Judas betrayed him (Mat 26:14 ) in fulfilment of Psa 41:9 .
2. At the Supper (Mat 26:24 ) Christ said, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him,” referring to Psa 22 .
3. They sang after the Supper in fulfilment of Psa 22:22 .
4. Piercing his hands and feet, Psa 22:16 .
5. They cast lots for his vesture in fulfilment of Psa 22:18 .
6. Just before the ninth hour the chief priests reviled him (Mat 27:43 ) in fulfilment of Psa 22:8 .
7. At the ninth hour (Mat 27:46 ) he quoted Psa 22:1 .
8. Near his death (Joh 19:28 ) he said, in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 , “I thirst.”
9. At that time they gave him vinegar (Mat 27:48 ) in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 .
10. When he was found dead they did not break his bones (Joh 19:36 ) in fulfilment of Psa 34:20 .
11. He is represented as dead, buried, and raised in Psa 16:10 .
12. His suffering as a substitute is described in Psa 69:9 .
13. The result of his crucifixion to them who crucified him is given in Psa 69:22-23 . Compare Rom 11:9-10 .
The Penitential Psalms are Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 . The occasion of Psa 6 was the grief and penitence of David over Absalom; of Psa 32 was the blessedness of forgiveness after his sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah; Psa 38 , David’s reference to his sin with Bathsheba; Psa 51 , David’s penitence and prayer for forgiveness for this sin; Psa 102 , the penitence of the children of Israel on the eve of their return from captivity; Psalm 130, a general penitential psalm; Psa 143 , David’s penitence and prayer when pursued by Absalom.
The Pilgrim Psalms are Psalms 120-134. This section of the psalter is called the “Little Psalter.” These Psalms were collected in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, in troublous times. The author of the central psalm of this collection is Solomon, and he wrote it when he built his Temple. The Davidic Psalms in this collection are Psa 120 ; Psa 122 ; Psa 124 ; Psa 131 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 133 . The others were written during the building of the second Temple. They are called in the Septuagint “Songs of the Steps.”
There are four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents,” viz:
1. The first theory is that the “Songs of the Steps” means the songs of the fifteen steps from the court of the women to the court of Israel, there being a song for each step.
2. The second theory is that advanced by Luther, which says that they were songs of a higher choir, elevated above, or in an elevated voice.
3. The third theory is that the thought in these psalms advances by degrees.
4. The fourth theory is that they are Pilgrim Psalms, or the songs that they sang while going up to the great feasts.
Certain scriptures give the true idea of these titles, viz: Exo 23:14-17 ; Exo 34:23-24 ; 1Sa 1:3 ; 1Ki 12:27-28 : Psa 122:1-4 ; and the proof of their singing as they went is found in Psa_42:4; 100; and Isa 30:29 . They went, singing these psalms, to the Feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Psa 121 was sung when just in sight of Jerusalem and Psa 122 was sung at the gate. Psa 128 is the description of a good man’s home and a parallel to this psalm in modern literature is Burns’s “Cotter’s Saturday Night.” The pious home makes the nation great.
Psa 133 is a psalm of fellowship. It is one of the finest expressions of the blessings that issue when God’s people dwell together in unity. The reference here is to the anointing of Aaron as high priest and the fragrance of the anointing oil which was used in these anointings. The dew of Hermon represents the blessing of God upon his people when they dwell together in such unity.
Now let us look at the Alphabetical Psalms. An alphabetical psalm is one in which the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used alphabetically to commence each division. In Psalms 111-112, each clause so begins; in Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 145 ; each verse so begins; in Psa 37 each stanza of two verses so begins; in 119 each stanza of eight verses so begins, and each of the eight lines begins with the same letter. In Psa 25 ; 34 37 the order is not so strict; in Psa 9 and Psa 10 there are some traces of this alphabetical order.
David originated these alphabetical psalms and the most complete specimen is Psa 119 , which is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 .
A certain group of psalms is called the Hallelujah Psalms. They are so called because the word “Hallelujah” is used at the beginning, or at the ending, and sometimes at both the beginning and the ending. The Hallelujah Psalms are Psalm 111-113; 115-117; 146-150. Psa 117 is a doxology; and Psalms 146-150 were used as anthems. Psa 148 calls on all creation to praise God. Francis of Assisi wrote a hymn based on this psalm in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister. Psa 150 calls for all varieties of instruments. Psalms 113-118 are called the Egyptian Hallel. They were used at the Passover (Psalm 113-114), before the Supper and Psalm 115-118 were sung after the Supper. According to this, Jesus and his disciples sang Psalms 115-118 at the last Passover Supper. These psalms were sung also at the Feasts of Pentecost, Tabernacles, Dedication, and New Moon.
The name of God is delayed long in Psa 114 . Addison said, “That the surprise might be complete.” Then there are some special characteristics of Psa 115 , viz: (1) It was written against idols. Cf. Isa 44:9-20 ; (2) It is antiphonal, the congregation singing Psa 115:1-8 , the choir Psa 115:9-12 , the priests Psa 115:13-15 and the congregation again Psa 115:16-18 . The theme of Psa 116 is love, based on gratitude for a great deliverance, expressed in service. It is appropriate to read at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and Psa 116:15 is especially appropriate for funeral services.
On some special historical occasions certain psalms were sung. Psa 46 was sung by the army of Gustavus Adolphus before the decisive battle of Leipzig, on September 17, 1631.Psa 68 was sung by Cromwell’s army on the occasion of the battle of Dunbar in Scotland.
Certain passages in the Psalms show that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices. For instance, Psa 118:27 ; Psa 141:2 seem to teach very clearly that they approved the Mosaic sacrifice. But other passages show that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important and foresaw the abolition of the animal sacrifices. Such passages are Psa 50:7-15 ; Psa 4:5 ; Psa 27:6 ; Psa 40:6 ; Psa 51:16-17 . These scriptures show conclusively that the writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the Royal Psalms?
2. What are the Passion Psalms?
3. What are the Psalms of the Ideal Man?
4. What are the Missionary Psalms?
5. What are the predictions before David of the coming Messiah?
6. What are the prophecies of history concerning the Messiah?
7. Give a regular order of thought concerning the messianic offices as taught in the psalms.
8. Which psalms most clearly present the Messiah as (1) the ideal man, or Second Adam, (2) which as Prophet, or Teacher, (3) which as the Sacrifice, (4) which as King, (5) which as Priest, (6) which his universal reign?
9. Concerning the suffering Messiah, or the Messiah as a sacrifice, state the words or facts, verified in the New Testament as fulfilment of prophecy in the psalms. Let the order of the citations follow the order of facts in Christ’s life.
10. Name the Penitential Psalms and show their occasion.
11. What are the Pilgrim Psalms?
12. What is this section of the Psalter called?
13. When and under what conditions were these psalms collected?
14. Who is the author of the central psalm of this collection?
15. What Davidic Psalms are in this collection?
16. When were the others written?
17. What are they called in the Septuagint?
18. What four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents”?
19. What scriptures give the true idea of these titles?
20. Give proof of their singing as they went.
21. To what feasts did they go singing these Psalms?
22. What was the special use made of Psa 121 and Psa 122 ?
23. Which of these psalms is the description of a good man’s home and what parallel in modern literature?
24. Expound Psa 133 .
25. What is an alphabetical psalm, and what are the several kinds?
26. Who originated these Alphabetical Psalms?
27. What are the most complete specimen?
28. Of what is it an expansion?
29. Why is a certain group of psalms called the Hallelujah Psalms?
30. What are the Hallelujah Psalms?
31. Which of the Hallelujah Psalms was a doxology?
32. Which of these were used as anthems?
33. Which psalm calls on all creation to praise God?
34. Who wrote a hymn based on Psa 148 in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister?
35. Which of these psalms calls for all varieties of instruments?
36. What is the Egyptian Hallel?
37. What is their special use and how were they sung?
38. Then what hymns did Jesus and his disciples sing?
39. At what other feasts was this sung?
40. Why was the name of God delayed so long in Psa 114 ?
41. What are the characteristics of Psa 115 ?
42. What is the theme and special use of Psa 116 ?
43. State some special historical occasions on which certain psalms were sung. Give the psalm for each occasion.
44. Cite passages in the psalms showing that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices.
45. Cite other passages showing that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Psa 22:1 To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my roaring?
Upon Aijeleth Shahar ] On, The morning hart or stag; such a one as the huntsman severs out in the morning from the rest, to hunt for that day. It showeth, saith one, David’s and Christ’s early and incessant persecution and hunting (by those dogs, Psa 22:16 ) till they came to their kingdoms. David had his share of sharp afflictions, doubtless, when he penned this psalm: witness that graphic description of his greatest grief in all parts and powers of body and soul, Psa 22:14-16 , &c. But his mind and thoughts were by God’s Holy Spirit carried out to Christ’s most dolorous and inexpressible sufferings; to the which all his were but as flea bitings, as the slivers or chips of Christ’s cross; and this was no small mitigation of his misery. When the Jews offered our Saviour gall and vinegar he tasted it, but would not drink. The rest he left for his people, and they must pledge him, filling up that which is behind of his sufferings, Col 1:24 , though for a different end, as for exercise, example, trial, witness of truth, &c.
Ver. 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? David had prayed, “O forsake me not utterly,” Psa 119:8 . In part and for a time be knew God might forsake him, to his thinking at least. But what saith Austin? Non deserit Deus etiamsi descrere videatur; non deserit etiamsi deserat, God forsaketh not his, though he seem sometimes to do so; he leaveth them sometimes, but forsaketh them never; as in an eclipse, the earth lacks the light of the sun, but not the influence thereof. David could at the same time call God his God thrice over, which are words of faith, and do plainly evince that this desertion under which he groaned was neither absolute nor real, but only that he was in a great distress and perplexity; so that he did believe, and yet not believe (Plato, though a heathen, could say that a man may do so). See the like 2Jn 1:22Jn 1:22Jn 1:22Jn 1:2 :4 ; see the note there. Our Saviour, in his deepest distress on the cross, when coping and conflicting with the wrath of his heavenly Father, who (beside the wrath of men and rage of devils in that three hours’ darkness especially) fought against him with his own bare hand, he suffered more than can be imagined, took up this pathetic exclamation, and, as some think, repeated this whole psalm. Then it was that he felt in soul and body the horror of God’s displeasure against sin, for which he had undertaken. Then it was that the Deity (though never separated from his humanity, no, not in death, when soul and body were sundered for a season) did , as a Father speaketh, suspend for a time the influence of its power, and lie hidden, as it were, neque vires suas exserebat, not putting forth its force, as formerly. Hilary hath a good note upon this part of Christ’s passion: Habes conquerentem relictum se esse, &c., Here thou hast him complaining as forsaken of God; this showeth him to have been a man: but withal thou hast him promising paradise to the penitent thief; this speaketh him God.
Why art thou so far from, &c. In this psalm we hear Messiah bemoan His going down into the depth of suffering where none can follow, the shame and butt of man, the forsaken of God on behalf of guilty man, and very especially for the most guilty of all, that said they saw, but rejected Him Who shone in fulness of light and love even for the blind that felt their need and cried to Him. Here it is not the “day of trouble” merely, but of God’s abandoning His elect and beloved Servant that He might abandon none who repent and believe, and that He might proclaim pardon to the vilest in His name. It is Christ made sin; and then from the middle of 21 the resulting grace triumphant, as unmingled as the judgment which had befallen Him without mitigation, as described in the previous verses. It is therefore most fittingly His own voice exclusively that is heard, first in His lonely anguish, then in the joy that imparts the fruits of His deliverance in an ever-widening circle: “to my brethren,” and “in the midst of the congregation” (22); next “in the great congregation” (25); then “all the ends of the earth” and all tribes of the Gentiles share the blessing and praise; and this abidingly. How striking the contrast with the result of Psa 21 ! Both are perfectly in season. The title is peculiar, “To the chief musician, upon the hind of the dawn, a psalm of David.”
Here is the transition (ver. 21). At this point when He is transfixed, the Lord is conscious of being heard. He bows His head in death, His blood is shed. So it must be in atonement. Without this there would be no adequate offering for sin; but He Who so died can commend His soul to His Father, and say, It is finished. The verses that succeed express the deep joy of a deliverance out of such a death, commensurate with a death so unfathomable, which He first sings in the midst of those who share His rejection, and pursues with enlarging circles of blessing into the kingdom, though the fellowship then will not be so profound as that which is immediately consequent on His death and resurrection. Compare Joh 20:17-23 , Joh 20:26-29 ; and Joh 21:1-14 .
Such is this wondrous psalm; the suffering’s that pertain to Christ, and the glories after these. No voice is heard throughout but Christ’s; none could be with His atoning cries to God, though we may join in praising God and the Lamb, and are we assured that the truth that He was alone in those sorrows is the guarantee of that efficacious work, whereby all our evil is annulled and we stand in His acceptance as believers in Him Who contrasts Himself with those before Him that cried and were heard. And how different all since, who if they fear have only to praise! Nothing but grace flows out of His atonement.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 22:1-5
1My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
2O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
3Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
4In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.
5To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.
Psa 22:1 There are repeated vocative type statements.
1. My God, my God, Psa 22:1 (the doubling is for intensity)
2. O my God, Psa 22:2 (Eloh, BDB 43)
3. O Lord, Psa 22:19 a (YHWH, BDB 217)
4. O You my help, Psa 22:19 b
The psalmist is calling on God in direct address with intensity and passion. They know each other!
Just a note about Jesus quoting the first part of this psalm from the cross, by that He meant (or an inspired gospel writer) for future readers to read the whole psalm. Quoting the first line was a way to denote a context on a Scripture scroll.
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV, NJBforsaken
TEV, JPSOAabandoned
This verb (BDB 736 I, KB 806, Qal perfect) means to leave or reject by abandoning. The perfect denotes the idea of a settled rejection. In several places the OT uses the term of YHWH rejecting His covenant people and promises (cf. Psa 119:8; Isa 54:7; Jer 7:12; Eze 8:12), but thank God for Gen 28:15 and the second line of Isa 54:7.
Notice the very personal aspect of this rejection or abandonment (i.e., me, cf. Mat 27:46). The psalmist felt alone and betrayed by YHWH. He did not understand why. It was not because of any perceived sin (i.e., omission or commission).
The second line has no verbal. NKJV, NRSV, REB, JPSOA all add Why are you. . ., making it a question. The psalmist is groaning (BDB 980, cf. Job 3:24; Psa 32:3). The Hebrew word can refer to the roar of a lion (cf. Job 4:10), but here to a human groan of psychological and physical pain and confusion, which fits this context best. The psalmist could not understand why the covenant God had rejected a faithful covenant person (cf. Psa 22:2).
This terrible sense of alienation, loneliness, and spiritual confession is the result of the Fall (cf. Genesis 3). Mankind, made in YHWH’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-27; Gen 3:8), has been damaged. The estrangement is terrible. In this case the sense of YHWH’s silence is accentuated because the psalmist knew Him. The psalmist could not understand the silence from God and the vicious attack of others! But there was a purpose (i.e., the gospel, cf. Mar 10:45; 2Co 5:21)!
Psa 22:2 The psalmist’s persistent prayer goes unheard by God or at least He does not apparently respond (cf. Psa 42:3; Psa 88:1-2).
The second line of Psa 22:2 is difficult to translate. Literally there is no silence for me. This could mean
1. he prays all night (NKJV, REB)
2. God remains silent
3. he finds no rest (LXX, TEV, JPSOA)
If this reflects Jesus’ future experience, then the last night in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest fits best (cf. Mat 26:36-46; Mar 14:32-42).
Psa 22:3-5 The psalmist describes God as
1. holy (cf. Psa 99:9)
2. enthroned upon the praises of Israel (i.e., YHWH dwells between the wings of the Cherubim above the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies)
3. trusted in by the Patriarchs
a. they prayed, He delivered
b. they trusted and were not disappointed (i.e., there is historical precedent to trust in YHWH)
Title. A Psalm. See App-65.
of David = relating to or concerning David’s Son and David’s Lord (Mat 22:41-45). “The root and the offspring of David” (Rev 22:16). David “being a prophet and knowing . . . spake of”. These three Psalms (Psalm 22, Psalm 23, Psalm 24) relate to the sufferings and the glory of “the Man Christ Jesus.” Psalm 22 = The Good Shepherd on Earth, in Death (Joh 10:11). Psalm 23 = The Great Shepherd, in Heaven, by Resurrection (Heb 13:20). Psalm 24 = The Chief Shepherd, coming in His Glory to earth and Zion, again (1Pe 5:4. Rev 19). See the Structure (p. 721). Psalm 22 is Christ as the sin offering; Psalm 40, as the burnt offering; Psalm 69, as the trespass offering.
My GOD, my GOD. Hebrew my El (App-4. IV). God as Almighty in relation to the creature; not Jehovah (App-4.), in covenant relation with His servant. Quoted in Mat 27:46. Mar 15:34. The Psalm is Christ’s prayer and plea on the Cross. It begins with “My God, my God” (Mat 27:46. Mar 15:34), and it ends with “It is finished”. See note on Psa 22:31, and compare Joh 19:30. If the Lord uttered the whole of this Psalm on the cross, the dying malefactor must have “heard”, and believed (Rom 10:17). Compare Luk 23:32, Luk 23:40-42. The “kingdom” had been referred to by Christ in Psa 22:22-30. See note on “roaring”, below. The Figure of speech Epizeuxis (App-6) is used for solemn emphasis.
roaring = lamentation. Hebrew. sha’ag = spoken of a lion, and of thunder.
[Note:Some versions of the Companion Bible text have the comment below, but the originally published book I have does not.]
It is believed by some scholars (including this humble student) that our Lord actually quoted all, or, most of this Psalm while hanging on the Cross. Compare Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34.
Psa 22:1-31
Psa 22:1-31 is one of those prophetic psalms which stands out probably among all of the Messianic psalms. This psalm is again a psalm of David, and it is a very graphic description of death by crucifixion. Now, at the time that David wrote this, stoning was the method of capital punishment. Actually, it was almost 1000 years later that crucifixion was introduced by the Romans as a form of capital punishment. So that David would describe death by crucifixion is sort of a miracle in itself, and yet, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he wrote graphically of the death of Jesus Christ. The very first phrase of this psalm was quoted by Jesus on the cross. As Jesus cried out,
My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? ( Psa 22:1 )
In that cry of Jesus from the cross, we understand more completely the agony in the garden, as He was seeking to, if possible, escape the cross. For in the garden we read that He was praying, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, Thy will be done” ( Mat 26:39 ). And that thrice repeated prayer in the garden, sweating as it were great drops of blood to the ground. The agony of Christ in the garden is explained of the cry of Christ on the cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” But He was forsaken of God for a moment. And the reason for His being forsaken is given to us in this psalm in verse Psa 22:3 . But He was forsaken by God for a moment in order that you would not have to be forsaken by God eternally. He was forsaken by God when God placed upon Him the iniquities of us all. He bore the penalty of our sin.
You see, sin always results in separation from God. God said to Adam, “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die” ( Gen 2:17 ). Talking about spiritual death, where man’s spirit is separated from God. Now when the Bible talks about death, as a general rule, it is talking about spiritual death which is the separation of a man’s soul and spirit from God. We talk about death when a man’s soul and spirit are separated from his body, but you may be walking around, all of your body motor functions working, and seem to be very much alive, but God looks at you and says, “Hey, you’re dead.” Your soul and spirit are separated from God; your spirit is dead. “You,” Paul said, “hath He made alive who were dead in your trespasses and sins” ( Eph 2:1 ).
So here we see when Jesus took upon Himself all of our sin, because sin does separate from God, as Isaiah the prophet said in chapter 59, “God’s hand is not short that He cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that He cannot hear, but your sins have separated you from God.” Always the result or the effect of sin. So when God laid on Him the iniquities of us all. The cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
So Jesus identifies this psalm. Maybe He was trying to give a hint to the disciples, “Go back home and read the psalm, you’ll know what’s going on. Read the whole thing, you’ll understand what is happening.” The rabbis would often in those days just give you the first verse of a psalm and expect you to go home and do your homework, read the whole thing. Maybe Jesus was following one of their methods, just giving them the first verse of the psalm, knowing that then they would then go search out the whole psalm.
My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, and thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent ( Psa 22:1-2 ).
Remember that darkness covered the land, and so crying in the day, crying in the night, the darkness. But the reason why the separation, forsaken:
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel ( Psa 22:3 ).
The holy God could not be in fellowship with sin. It is impossible that a holy God be one with sin. And the word fellowship means a oneness, a community, a commonness. When God placed upon Jesus the sins of us all, it brought that separation. “For Thou art holy,” the reason for His being forsaken.
Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and you delivered them. They cried, and they were delivered: they trusted, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man; I am a reproach of men, and despised of the people ( Psa 22:4-6 ).
This, of course, was prophesied in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, how He would be despised and rejected of men. “A reproach of men, I am despised of the people.”
All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake their head, saying, He trusted in the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him ( Psa 22:7-8 ).
Remember the high priest and all when Jesus was hanging on the cross, they said, “Ha ha! He trusted in the Lord to deliver Him. Now let Him come down if He is truly the Messiah, and we will worship Him.” All of these things.
But thou art he that took me out the womb: you did make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly ( Psa 22:9-10 ).
Now, again, where does consciousness, or where does life begin? If there is indeed something within the plants of some form of primitive understanding, or maybe it is highly sophisticated, more highly than we are. Who knows? They have found that there is quite a consciousness of the child in the fetal state. That from the tenth week or so, about the twelfth week the child begins to have very normal functions, sleeping, the awake times. If the mother yells, it might wake up the child. Runs down the stairs. And at that point it begins to recognize the mother’s voice, and that is why the child is always more comfortable with the mother than even with the grandmother when it is first born. Because it is used to the mother’s voice; it has been hearing it for sixth months. After the third month the child begins to hear the mother’s voice. “Thou art my God from my mother’s belly.” And so it speaks really of an awareness, a consciousness. “You did make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breast.”
Be not far from me; for my trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: the strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion ( Psa 22:11-13 ).
Now, again, descriptive of the cross:
I am poured out like water ( Psa 22:14 ),
Remember when they thrust the spear in His side, there came forth blood and water.
all my bones are out of joint ( Psa 22:14 ):
One of the things that takes place during crucifixion, as a person is hanging there, and usually held there by the spikes, your muscles after awhile begin to fatigue and give way. And when your muscles give way, your body begins to drop and actually the joints, because the muscles have fatigued, the joints begin… your body begins to fall out of joint, actually, from the hanging there. And this description of all my bones are out of joint, of course, the excruciating pain of the joints loosening, often killed the prisoner.
my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue ( Psa 22:14-15 )
That thirst, that horrible thirst that you receive when you are hanging there, and through the sweat your body liquids are dissipated. Then you get that horrible thirst, the dry mouth, the cotton taste.
my tongue cleaves to my jaws; for thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet ( Psa 22:15-16 ).
Now, the Jehovah Witnesses seek to teach us that Jesus was crucified on a pole, that the cross is actually the pagan Tou symbol, and so the church is actually worshipping a pagan symbol. They tell this to all of their poor deceived people. And they then quote from a sixteenth century book and show them the pictures of this sixteenth century book written by a monk in which he describes the struttural, the pole, and the many methods of crucifixion of the Roman government. And he shows the picture of this man who is crucified on a pole, his hands above his head, one spike through his hands, and then, of course, the one spike through his feet. And they say that the church, in picturing Christ on a t-shaped cross, actually the pagan symbol Tou, and the whole church is following Babylonian paganism and so forth; the whole church is Babylon. We are the only ones that tell you the truth. And they deceive the people. It is interesting that in the New Testament it speaks about the nails, plural, in His hands. The nails, plural, in His hands.
“They pierced My hands and My feet.” What the Jehovah Witnesses didn’t tell the people is that this same sixteenth century author and the book that they take the picture from, and they quote him, supposedly translating the Latin that is there, they don’t tell the people that they have mistranslated the Latin that is there, and on two pages further on the book, he has the t-shaped cross. And he says this no doubt is the kind of the cross that Jesus was crucified on, because it refers to their nailing the nails through His hands and His feet. And they don’t tell the people that they have deceived them. They have taken one page of the book, mistranslated the Latin from it, and a couple of pages later, the same author in the same book shows the type the cross that we usually think of when we think of the cross, and says “This no doubt is the shape of the cross that Jesus was crucified on.” But that’s what I say, they are… I feel sorry for the people that are deceived. It is the leaders in New York that are going to have to really answer to God for the deception of these poor people around the United States, keeping them in deception and darkness. My heart goes out to them.
I may tell all my bones: for they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture ( Psa 22:17-18 ).
Now you remember when Jesus was crucified, they tore His garment, divided it into four, but with the coat they said, “Oh this coat is nice. It been woven all the way from the top to the bottom without any seam. Let’s not tear it; let’s cast lots to see whose this will be.” So here it was prophesied. Now Schoenfield, who is called a scholar by many of those men who like to pat each other on the back and tell each other how brilliant they are, declared that the whole Passover, crucifixion of Jesus was a gigantic plot that Jesus set up. And that the disciples had spiked the vinegar that they finally put to His lips, to put Him in a swoon so that they would think that He was dead. And that after they had buried Him, of course, the disciples came and whisked Him away. And it was just all a big plot, and Jesus set the whole thing up. He deliberately angered them. He deliberately set the whole thing up so that He actually plotted the whole crucifixion and everything else. And it was just a big, gigantic plot of Jesus. Well, it was very ingenious of Jesus to somehow get the soldiers to go along with the plot and not to tear His robe, but to cast lots for it. That was very clever of Him indeed. And even to get the high priest to go along and say, “Oh, He saved others, Himself He cannot save. If He is the Son of God, then let Him come down. He said He delights in Him, okay, if God wants Him then let Him save Him.” Schoenfield just turns out to be a liar like so many others and his book of fraud. And it turns out that Schoenfield’s book is the fraud, not Jesus. As is always the case.
But in one sense, of course, it was a plot, and Jesus was a part of the plot. It was a plot that was hatched by God before the foundations of the earth. For Christ was crucified before the foundations of the earth. “You, according to God’s predetermined council and foreknowledge, with your wicked hands have crucified and slain” ( Act 2:23 ). You see, when Peter talks about the cross, he talks about prophecy, the foreknowledge of God. Yes, it was a plot. God plotted it a long time ago, and Jesus carried it out. But it is your salvation and it is my salvation.
But be not far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn ( Psa 22:19-21 ).
Now on the altars they had on each corner of an altar a horn, a single horn going up as the horn of a unicorn. And when they were really desperate and really wanting to cry out unto God, they go unto the altar and they’d grab hold of the horns of this unicorn. You remember when Joab, the general of David was… after David, when he was dying he said to Solomon, “Now Joab has spilt so much blood, now take care of him. Don’t let his old gray head go down to the grave in peace.” And so when Solomon was doing the cleanup for David, after David’s death, he ordered them to bring Joab, because of all of the innocent blood that he had shed, in order that he might give his life. And Joab ran into the altar and he grabbed hold of the horns of the altar. And the guy came back and said, “He is holding on to the horns of the altar.” Well, when they were really desperate they would run in and grab hold of the horns of the altar, and there they would pray and intercede unto God. And so here it speaks of that kind of intercession from the horns of the unicorn.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee. Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. 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 ( Psa 22:22-24 ).
God heard Jesus when He cried.
My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: and shall praise the LORD. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD ( Psa 22:25-27 ):
Now the salvation that went out to the Gentiles is predicted.
with all the families of the nations they’ll worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations. And all they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him ( Psa 22:27-29 ):
So the intimation of the resurrection. “Even those that have gone down into the dust of the earth, shall bow before Him.” In Philippians we read, “God has given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,” every knee shall bow, “and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father.” So God has given to Him the kingdom. The kingdom is the Lord’s. He is the governor.
and all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: none can keep his own soul alive. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the LORD for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this ( Psa 22:29-31 ).
And so the gospel has come to us, of the glorious work of Jesus Christ in His death for our sins. The fulfillment of Psa 22:1-31 . “
Psa 22:1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
What a dolorous cry! How terrible it must have been to have heard that cry, but how much more terrible to have uttered it! For the dear Son of God, the Well-beloved, with whom the Father is always pleased, to be forsaken of his God, was indeed grief unfathomable.
Psa 22:1. Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
It seems as if the Saviours voice, and almost his mind, had failed him, for he calls his prayer roaring likening himself to a wounded beast. When any of you cannot pray, or think you cannot, remember these words of your Lord. If he, the ever-blessed Son of God, speaks of his own prayer as a roaring, what must ours be! You know that Isaiah spoke of his own prayer as being like the chattering of a crane or a swallow, or the mourning of a dove, as if there were no articulate utterance about it; but to the ear and eye of God, there is music in a sigh, and beauty in a tear. As our Lord had to pray like this, do not wonder if we, sometimes, should feel that God has forsaken us. If there were such dark clouds for Christ there may well be some for us also.
Psa 22:2. O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
If we remember Gethsemane, and think how Jesus prayed there, even to an agony and a bloody sweat, shall we wonder if, sometime, our prayers seem to be put on one side, and we do not immediately receive answers of peace to them? Yet, you see, our Lord kept on crying to God both day and night.
Psa 22:3. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
Settle it in your hearts that, whatever God does, he is holy. Never harbour a thought against his, never imagine that he is hard, or unjust, or unfaithful.
That cannot be, so, if the worst comes to the worst, never let your faith have any question upon this point.
Psa 22:4-5. Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
Look back, and see how God helped our ancestors. Recall how, in the past ages, the Lord always was the Deliverer of all those that trusted in him. Was a righteous man ever finally forsaken of God? Since the world began, has not the Lord, sooner or later, appeared to deliver his children? It is wonderful to hear our Divine Master pleading in this fashion; but most wonderful of all is that next verse:
Psa 22:6. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
There is a little red worm which seems to be nothing else but blood when it is crushed, it seems all gone except a blood-stain; and the Saviour, in the deep humiliation of his spirit, compares himself to that little red worm. How true it is that he made himself of no reputation for our sakes! He emptied himself of all his glory; and if there be any glory natural to manhood, he emptied himself even of that. Not only the glories of his Godhead, but the honours of his manhood he laid aside that it might be seen that, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor.
Psa 22:7-8. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
Or, as the passage is quoted in Matthew, Let him deliver him now, if he will have him.
Psa 22:9. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers breasts.
This is a very wonderful thing. I do not think we remember as we ought that, for years after our birth, we could do nothing to help ourselves, yet we were taken care of even then. He who has passed safely through his infancy need not be afraid that God will not help him through the rest of his life, and if we should live so long that we to a second infancy, the God who carried us through the first will carry us through the second. He has already done so much for us that we are bound to trust him for all the future. Now let us see, as I reminded you just now, how this passage is referred to in the Gospel according to Matthew.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psa 22:1-9; and Mat 27:33-44.
Psa 22:1-2
THE GREAT OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY OF THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST
From Halley’s Bible Handbook, we have the following:
“This sounds like a cry of anguish from David, but though written a thousand years before Jesus, it is so vivid a description of the crucifixion of Jesus that one would think of the writer as being personally present at the Cross. Jesus’ dying words (Psa 22:1), the sneers of his enemies (Psa 22:7-8), the piercing of his hands and feet (Psa 22:16), and the casting of lots for his garments (Psa 22:18) are some of the events here described. None of these statements are applicable to David, or to any other known event or person in the history of mankind, except the crucifixion of the Son of God.”
There are four different ways of interpreting this psalm: (1) as a description of the sorrows and sufferings of David the king of Israel; (2) as a description of the sorrows and sufferings of some unknown righteous person of antiquity, possibly; Jeremiah, (3) as a description of the nation of Israel during their captivity or at some other period of crisis; and (4) as a predictive prophecy of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, written by King David, of course, but having little or no reference whatever to that monarch.
To this writer, the fourth option here is the only viable one. The specific things here foretold could not possibly refer to anyone else except the Messiah.
Those who in their unbelief continue to deny any such thing as predictive prophecy are, in this psalm, up against the absolute, unanswerable refutation of their false view. The accurate and extensive details of the crucifixion appearing here are so complete and convincing that their denial is possible only for some person who has been blinded by the god of this world.
The words of Peter (Act 2:30 f) are applicable here: “David, being a prophet … he foresaw and spoke of … the Christ.” This basic truth is reiterated again and again in the inspired New Testament.
There are no less than nine New Testament references which tie the meaning of this psalm irrevocably to the prophecy of our Lord’s crucifixion.
“Jesus quoted the first line of this psalm on the Cross (Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34).
Those who crucified him divided his garments among themselves and cast lots for his vesture (Psa 22:18) (Mar 15:24; Luk 23:34; Joh 19:24).
The very words of Jesus’ enemies were foretold in Psa 22:8 (Mat 27:43).
The thirst of Jesus was prophesied in Psa 22:15 (Mat 27:48).
The piercing of Jesus’ hands and feet was foretold (Psa 22:16) (Joh 20:25).
The praising of God in the midst of the assembly (Psa 22:22) is quoted in Heb 2:12.
Thus, the New Testament finds the prophecy of Jesus’ crucifixion no less than nine times mentioned in this psalm; and we can only wonder about those alleged Christian “scholars” who cannot find any reference whatever to Our Lord in this psalm.
With the inspired testimony of the New Testament so plainly stated, we can have no doubt whatever of the accuracy of our interpretation. It is not “ours,” in any private sense; it is the testimony of the blessed Holy Spirit.
There is nothing new about this conviction on the part of this writer. As Leupold said, “This interpretation is the oldest of the four methods mentioned above, and the predominant one in the Christian Church from the earliest times; and to a very large extent it still is.”
The great weakness of other interpretation is that, (1) the things foretold here, as far as men know, never happened to any other being who ever lived except the Lord Jesus Christ. (2) Furthermore, the worldwide blessings that are mentioned in the second section as coming subsequently from the death of the Sufferer in the first part of the psalm, cannot possibly be attributed to anyone other than Christ.
(3) There is another important reason why Christ alone is depicted here. The words here are free of any consciousness whatever of sin; there is no hint of confessing wrongs; there is no call for vengeance against enemies, only unfaltering trust and faith in God. This is utterly unlike David or any other human being who ever lived. The spiritual state of the Sufferer indicates no human being whatever, but the Lord Jesus Christ.
To refuse the obvious interpretation of the psalm as a predictive prophecy of the crucifixion of Christ leaves one in the utmost darkness and total ignorance regarding any reasonable meaning of the passage. Addis, for example, who could not find the Lord anywhere in the psalm, wrote only one fifth of a page regarding this magnificent psalm!
Structurally, the psalm falls into two portions: The sufferings of the Christ (Psa 22:1-21), and the glory that would be revealed afterward (Psa 22:22-31). We are indebted to Gaebelein for this outline, which he based upon Peter’s statement in 1Pe 1:11.
Psa 22:1-2
“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou answerest not;
And in the night season, and am not silent.”
Jesus’ quoting the first line of this Psalm during his agony upon the Cross has led to many opinions. It has been supposed that Christ here merely quoted these words from the psalm to call attention to the whole bundle of prophecies in it which were being fulfilled literally at that very time. It is also believed by many that God Himself did indeed, for a little while, withdraw his presence from Christ in order to make it possible for Christ to die. There is much in the sacred Scriptures to commend this view.
Christ is spoken of in Heb 2:9 as the One, who by the grace of God did indeed, “Taste of death for every man.” Isaiah tells us that, “God laid upon him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6). Paul mentioned that God Himself “Set forth the Christ to be a propitiation” (Rom 3:25), or an atonement, for the sins of all men. “Christ died for our sins” (1Co 15:3); and “Him (Christ) who knew no sin, God made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2Co 5:21).
The ultimate consequence of sin is separation from God; and, in Christ’s becoming a substitute for sinful men upon the cross, he not only tasted of death, but also tasted the terrible consequences of sin in that soul-torturing experience of separation from the Creator. It is our understanding of Christ’s plaintive cry, “My God, why hast thou forsaken me,” that Jesus did indeed, momentarily, taste the awful agony of separation from the Father. “For a moment in that last agony, the Perfect Man was alone with the sins of the whole world.”
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 22:1. This psalm as a whole is a prophecy of Christ. The proof for that statement is in the chapter itself. Christ quoted the first clause verbatim when he was on the cross, and other verses in the chapter plainly identify it to have been written with Christ and his times in view. (Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34.) Christ realized that the sustaining strength of God had been taken from him for the time.
Psa 22:2. The form of speech indicates that David was writing about his own personal troubles. It is true that he was having just the experiences of which he complained. He might not have realized that in describing those experiences he was giving a prophetic picture of those to be shared by his most illustrious son in the centuries to come. His ignorance of that would not affect the truth of the prophecies since he wrote by inspiration. In fact, it was taught by Jesus and the apostles that many of the writers of the Old Testament did not know “what it was all about” when they penned their documents. (Mat 13:17; 1Pe 1:10-11; 2Pe 1:20-21.)
Whatever may have been the local conditions creating this psalm, it has become so perfectly and properly associated with the one Son of God that it is almost impossible to read it in any other way. This and the two following psalms constitute a triptych of tablets on which are written the story of the Christ in His work as Saviour, Shepherd, and Sovereign.
As to this first, seeing that in the supreme mystery of the Passion Jesus quoted the first words, we are justified in reading it in the light of that Cross. It has two great movements. The first admits us, so far as that can be, to the lonely suffering of the One on the altar of sacrifice (verses Psa 22:1-21). The second brings us into the presence of the joy of the Victor, as through the travail He saw the triumph (verses Psa 22:22-31). In reverently reading the first, we must understand that all the desolation was the experience of One who had entered into the sinner’s place. In rejoicingly reading the second, we must recognize that the height of joy is the ability to proclaim an evangel to those in need. And this is enough to write. For the rest, let the Spirit, who is the one Interpreter of the Christ of God, speak to our hear? and let us in amazement worship and obey.
the Cry of the Forsaken
Psa 22:1-15
The Hebrew inscription of this exquisite ode is, The hind of the morning. The hind is the emblem of loveliness; see Son 2:7; Son 2:9. The cruel persecutors are designated as bulls, lions, and dogs. Perhaps the allusion to the morning refers to the daybreak of resurrection-hope.
Of course our blessed Lord is in every syllable. Indeed, the psalm reads more as history than as prophecy. The divine Sufferer seems to have recited it to Himself when on the Cross; for it begins with My God, my God, etc., and ends, according to some, with a word in the Hebrew, meaning It is finished. The psalm is indeed a photograph of Calvary, a memorial of the heartbreak of Jesus.
Sometimes to the soul in agony God seems not to hear; but through those hours of darkness the Easter day is hastening to break in resplendent glory. He will not suffer His holy one to see corruption, Psa 16:10.
It has been pointed out often that our blessed Lord is referred to in the New Testament as the Shepherd under three different aspects. In John 10 He says, I am the good Shepherd. In Hebrews 13 He is called the great Shepherd as brought again from the dead and in 1 Peter 5, looking on to His second coming when the under shepherds will give an account to Him, He is spoken of as the chief Shepherd. Some one long ago suggested that in Psalm 22 we have the Good Shepherd-giving His life for the sheep; in Psalm 23, the Chief Shepherd in resurrection life guiding His people through the wilderness of this world, and in Psalm 24, the Great Shepherd coming again in power and glory to bring in everlasting blessing. In the early part of the book of Leviticus we have five different offerings. Four of these involved the sacrifice of life; the other one did not. The one in which there was no sacrifice of life is called the meal or the meat offering, the word meat being used there for food, the food offering. We have seen already that in Psalm 16 we have the blessed Lord Jesus presented as the meal offering, and this speaks of the perfection of His life. Every act of that holy life of His went up to God as something in which He could delight. The other offerings are the burnt offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. Psalm 40 is the Psalm of the burnt offering, Psalm 85 is that of the peace offering, Psalm 69 that of the trespass offering, and Psalm 22 is the Psalm of the sin offering.
In the sin offering we have the Lord Jesus Christ made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The New Testament does not tell us a great deal of what went on in the heart and mind of our blessed Lord when He was undergoing the awful judgment of God against sin, but we have something that guides us and helps us to understand in the fact that just as the three hours of darkness were coming to an end the Lord Jesus cried in the agony of His soul, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Mat 27:46). That immediately carries our minds back to this 22d Psalm. It tells us that it is a Messianic Psalm; and when we turn to consider it, we find that it gives us the thoughts of the heart of our blessed Lord during those hours of darkness when He was taking our place, when He was made sin for us.
This Psalm begins with what someone has called Immanuels orphaned cry, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And in the Hebrew text it ends with His cry of triumph, It is finished! You will not find this in our authorized version but will find the words, They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this. You will observe that the word this is in italics which means that there is nothing in the original text answering to it. It is supplied by the editor. In the Hebrew the neuter and the masculine pronouns are exactly the same, and this is in the middle voice so that actually it could be translated, They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that it is finished. So it begins with the cry that speaks of Him as the great sin offering, and it ends with the cry that tells that His work is finished.
The Psalm divides into two parts, the first twenty-one verses stand together, and then from verses 22 to 31 we have the second division. In the first twenty-one verses the holy Sufferer is alone-
Alone He bare the cross,
Alone its grief sustained.
There is no one associated with Him. There are enemies reproaching Him, but He is alone as He bears our sins before God. But in the last part, from verse 22 on, He has brethren who are associated with Him, and so in verse 22 we enter into His resurrection life, the work of the Cross all in the past.
Think of Him hanging there. And may I again remind you that before He entered into these experiences He had already been three hours upon the Cross. The Lord Jesus was nailed to the Cross at about 9 oclock in the morning. He was taken down a little after 3 oclock in the afternoon. From 9 oclock until noon He was suffering at the hands of man, the sun was shining down upon the scene, and man was visiting upon Him every fiendish agony that a wicked heart, energized by Satan, could devise. But in those three hours you do not find the blessed Lord uttering one word that indicated the least self-pity, that would even suggest that He has any concern for Himself. In those three hours He prays; He speaks but always has others in view; He looks down at the foot of the Cross and sees His blessed mother, Mary, and John standing near, and He says to John, Behold thy mother, and to Mary, Behold thy son. And John led her away from the scene of the Saviours dying agony. Then He looks at the multitude all about Him, their mouths filled with blasphemy and their minds with hatred, and looks heavenward and cries, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Luk 23:34). He opens the door of a city of refuge for them that they may enter in as having slain a man without knowing what they were doing, so that there may be forgiveness. Then He turns to the thief hanging by His side, who has recognized in that thorn-crowned man Israels true Messiah and who owned his own sin and cried, Lord remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom (Luk 23:42). And the Saviour said, as it were, You wont have to wait until I come into My kingdom-today shalt thou be with Me in paradise. And he was, for that day ended at 6 oclock at night, at sunset, but before 6 oclock the Saviour had died and the thief had died and the two were together in paradise.
At high noon the sun is blotted out from the heaven: darkness spreads over all the scene, darkness so dense that one cannot see another-and that was a picture, a symbol of the deeper darkness that had wrapped the soul of the Son of God. Now God began to deal with Him about our sins. Remember, it was not the physical suffering of Jesus that put away sin; it was what He endured in His innermost Being. Isaiah says, When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin (Isa 53:10). What He suffered from the hands of man could not atone for sin, but what He suffered from the hands of God during those three hours of dark- ness settled the sin question. All that our sins deserved fell on the sacred Son of God, and He was absolutely silent, like a lamb dumb before her shearers, until just as the three hours were coming to an end, it seemed as though His great heart burst with the agony of it all; and then came the cry with which this Psalm begins, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Do you know the answer to that question? Well, I am the answer to it and so are you. Why was He forsaken? In order that I might not be forsaken. In order that you might not be forsaken. It was because He was bearing our sins, taking our place, because He was made sin for us.
Listen to His cry now, and understand, these are the thoughts of His heart. He is looking up to God in those hours of darkness, and He says, Why art Thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. But there is no complaint, He accepts it all from God and says, But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. And it was because of the holiness of God that He could not interfere to spare His own Son. When He was taking the sinners place, judgment had to fall on Him.
Listen to Him again as He addresses God, He looked back over all the history of the chosen people and said, Our fathers trusted in Thee: they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee, and were delivered: they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. Here He, the holy One, is in contrast to every good man in all past ages. It was never known that God forsook a righteous man. There He is on that Cross, the absolutely righteous One, dying, forsaken of God. Oh, He says, I have gone down lower than any man ever went before, lam a worm, and no man. The word He used for worm is the word tola, and the tola of the orient is a little worm something like the cochineal of Mexico which feeds on a certain kind of cactus. The people beat these plants until the cochineal fall into a basin and then they crush those little insects and the blood is that brilliant crimson dye that makes those bright Mexican garments. In Palestine and Syria they use the tola in the same way and it makes the beautiful permanent scarlet dye of the orient. It was very expensive and was worn only by the great and the rich and the noble. It is referred to again and again in Scripture. Solomon is said to have clothed the maidens of Israel in scarlet. Daniel was to be clothed in scarlet by Belshazzar. And that word scarlet is literally the splendor of a worm. They shall be clothed in the splendor of a worm. Now the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am a worm; I am the tola, and He had to be crushed in death that you and I might be clothed in glory. The glorious garments of our salvation are the garments that have been procured as a result of His death and His suffering. What a wicked thing to refuse the garment of salvation, to think of spurning it and turning away from it when Christ had to go through so much in order to prepare it for us.
Imagine the effrontery of the man who went into the marriage-feast without having a wedding garment when the king had provided one for him. He spurned the kings bounty. When the king exclaimed, Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? (Mat 22:12) he was speechless. If you are unsaved, what will you say when you stand before God in the day of doom and He says, Friend, what are you doing here without the garment of salvation that was purchased for you by the death of My Son? Why do you not have that garment of salvation? Why are you not dressed in that robe of righteousness? What can you say when it was offered you so freely, when you might have had it? I think the most awful thought that will ever come to a lost soul in the pit of woe is this, Jesus died; yet I am in hell. He died to purchase salvation for me, and fool that I am I spurned it and I am lost forever. Can you imagine anything worse than that? Think of the grace of our Lord Jesus, who though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich (2Co 8:9). He became the tola, crushed in death that we might be robed in glory.
And then as He hangs on the Cross He can hear the muttering of the crowd in the dark, and He says, All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him. But Thou art He that took Me out of the womb: Thou didst make Me hope when I was upon My mothers breasts. I was cast upon Thee from the womb; Thou art My God from the body of My mothers belly. Do you see what is involved in this remarkable scripture? Even as that little Babe came into the world He had full consciousness of His relationship to the Father. But He was both God and Man in one Person. And now He cries, Be not far from Me; for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Then He sees the leaders in Israel gathered against Him and says, Many bulls have compassed Me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset Me round. They gaped upon Me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. See the bulls of Bashan. They were clean beasts that could be offered in sacrifice and are used here to signify the great and mighty leaders in Israel who should have been His friends, but they are there arrayed against Him.
And now note the description of Him hanging upon the Cross, I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. As He hangs there upon the Cross it seems as though every joint will be torn asunder. My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. Think of His thirst as He hung there during all the morning of that hot spring day. He cries, My tongue cleaveth to My jaws; and Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death. And then He looks at the Gentiles round about joining with the Jews, and He says, For dogs have compassed Me. Dogs are the unclean Gentiles. The assembly of the wicked have inclosed Me: they pierced My hands and My feet. What a perfect description! And it was written a thousand years before Jesus died, and it is all fulfilled as He hangs upon that Cross for you and for me.
He who was so pure, He who was so perfectly holy, He whose mind never had an evil or an unclean thought, hung there before that assembled crowd practically naked, put to shame before them all, and He says, I may tell all My bones: they look and stare upon Me. At the foot of the Cross the soldiers, calloused, hard, indifferent, parted His garments. They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture. They gamble for His clothes as the Son of God hangs naked on the Cross, put to shame for sinners.
But He looks to the Father, as Satan now comes against Him, But be not Thou far from Me, O Lord: O My strength, haste Thee to help Me. Deliver My soul from the sword; My darling (my only one)-it is His own soul He is speaking of here-from the power of the dog-the dog of the pit is Satan. Save me from the lions mouth. It is the lion of hell, Satan waiting and saying, Now in a moment I will have His soul; I will have Him where I want Him, and He will never come out of death again. Save Me from the lions mouth. Then the next moment all the suffering is over; the darkness is gone. In the New Testament we hear Him say, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit (Luk 23:46).
Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorns. There is no such thing as a unicorn. Our translators put that word in because they did not understand the exact meaning, but every Hebrew scholar now knows that it is the aurochs, a wild ox with great branching horns, as sharp almost as needles at the ends. The executioners used to lay hold of poor, wretched, condemned victims, bind them by the feet and the shoulders upon those sharp horns and then set the wild ox loose in the desert to run about until the man died. That is the picture that is used here. Crucifixion was like putting one upon the horns of the wild ox. Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorns.
The suffering is over now, the darkness disappears. He commits His spirit to the Father, and then we pass into the next verse, and He who was alone is no longer alone. He who bore the Cross alone now has company. Who are His companions? those who owe everything for eternity to the work He did upon that Cross. This is Jesus in resurrection now. I will declare Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is translated, In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee. Here is the blessed Lord brought up from death and now He takes His place in the midst of the company of the redeemed and leads out their hearts in praise. Here is the Chief Musician.
Join the singing that He leadeth,
Now to God your voices raise,
Every path that we have trodden
Is a triumph of His grace.
He is going to lead the singing forever. He will lead out our hearts in praise to God for all eternity.
Then the Spirit of Christ, speaking through the Psalmist, turns to Israel, Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and fear Him, all ye the seed of Israel. For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted one. It is the singular there. While God as Judge had to turn away His face yet God as Father never forsook Jesus. He was never dearer to the heart of the Father than at the time that the Judge could not interfere.
Suppose such a case as a young man very much loved of his father committing some grievous crime and brought into court, and when he comes into the court room, sitting on the judges bench is his own father. The evidence is brought in, the young man is proven guilty, and that judge has to pronounce sentence on him.
The son says, Father, Father, you are surely not going to do that to me!
Young man, in this room I am dealing with you, not as your father but as your judge.
And yet his fathers heart may be breaking over the plight in which his son is found. And so God as Judge had to deal with His Son about our sins at the very moment that God as Father was yearning over Jesus, and how gladly He received Him when He came forth in triumph from the tomb! And so He says, My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation: I will pay My vows before them that fear Him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. Because of the great banquet that love has spread those lowly enough to come as confessed sinners may be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek Him: your heart shall live for ever. And see the wide extent of the benefits of His work, All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. This has not been fulfilled yet, but it will be when the Lord shall come in power and great glory. For the kingdom is the Lords: and He is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him: even Him who did not keep alive His own soul. That is Dr. Youngs striking translation. The whole world bowing down before that blessed Man who did not keep alive His own soul but went into death for us.
But in the meantime while waiting for the full day of the King, A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that it is finished.
It is finished, yes indeed,
Finished every jot.
Sinner, this is all you need,
Tell me, is it not?
It is the Good Shepherd now. Have you trusted the Good Shepherd? Well, where is He now? He is not on the Cross any more. God has raised Him from the dead and taken Him to highest glory, and He is there as the Great Shepherd guiding His people through the world, providing for their need.
Psa 22:1
(with Mat 27:46)
I. What an argument of fleshly reasoning might be wrought out of the fact that through all history nothing is commoner than for the soul of man to be intensely suffering and praying agonizingly without relief, without answer, all day and all night lifting anxious eyes to the heavens, and God and heaven in apparent indifference! Think of your observing silence towards a son or a daughter when overwhelmed with distress, and of your maintaining silence, not through one midnight, but years of midnights. And yet the lesson comes down from heaven to us, “Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.” We are compelled to answer, “O Heaven, do to us as we would desire to do to you if we were up there and you were down here.”
II. The cry of the race is the cry of Jesus, and the cry of Jesus is the cry of the race. It is the cry of the best men. Only in the best of the best does the soul sufficiently recover itself to become at all aware of its situation. A few tender men in each generation, men of pure desire and loftiest aspiration, attain to the Divine distress. In the Lord Jesus the Divine-human distress reached its height, and in Him we see that the distress is a condition of the Divine-human victory.
III. If in extremity the cry of Christ was as if unheeded, shall we despair when left to suffer on and pray on without deliverance for an answer? What did Christ say? “Into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” There is the example for us. I give myself up to Him that begat me. What then? The last breath of the material form. What then? Resurrection in a higher form: humanity through its wildest, blackest night, fresh from the hands of God, in the new morning of immortal hope.
IV. As soon as any member of our race perceives that the world-form of his nature is his humiliation, and the soul within him begins to suffer, because God is so far from his consciousness-these are the best evidences that we can have that his soul is advancing in regeneration and being rapidly prepared for uniting with God. God’s nearness makes him feel that the world-form of his nature is too dark, too painful, a house for him to inherit. He is on the eve therefore of exchanging houses, his earthly house for the new house which is from heaven.
J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope, p. 92.
I. There are feelings and instincts in human nature the very antiquity of which is a proof of their universal reality. Foremost among such instincts is the aching sense of severance between man and the Infinite Being outside and above himself. Long before the Hebrew Psalmist, Indians, and Egyptians, and savage races beyond the pale of even primitive civilisation had been, with varying accents, uttering the same lament; and Greek tragedians, and Roman Stoics, and mediaeval monks and mystics, and all the voices of modern poets and philosophers have been echoing incessantly, with however strange a dissonance, the eternal cry of humanity, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”
II. It is upon this universal sense of severance that the spiritual life of Christianity depends. You may never have dreamed of saying to yourself, “My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God;” but you are athirst for finite objects, with a thirst which upon analysis will turn out to be infinite, both in quality and kind, and which therefore nothing short of an infinite object can ever satisfy. (1) Take, for instance, your desire for communion with the natural world. You desire infinite possession of, and infinite communion with, the grandeur, and the beauty, and the wonder of the world; and failing, you feel bitterly that it is your prison, and not your home. (2) It is the same with your human relations. Man will not be satisfied with family, or friendship, or acquaintance. Fresh vistas of humanity are ever opening before him, and each new friend becomes a new point of departure for the extension of his influence to a wider circle still. His motive may vary, but the instinct remains the same, and is simply the instinct to wider, deeper, more intense communion with his fellow-men. And yet, as before, its very unrest is but the measure of its failure. We are more severed from humanity than ever we were from external nature, and if the world is our prison, our fellow-men are our gaolers. (3) And so in our loneliness we look within and try to find refuge in an ideal world, but only to find schism and severance in the recesses of our inmost being. We are farther off from our ideals than even from nature and mankind.
III. All this is a fact, and a fact as universal as human experience; and Christianity, beyond other creeds, has faced and interpreted the fact. Nature, and society, and the thoughts of our hearts were created by a Person, and created for Himself; and our feelings of separation from the world and its inhabitants, and even from the inner vision of our own ideal self, are but symptoms of alienation from the Person in whom they exist.
IV. Because God is a Person, He cannot be contented with the abstract allegiance of one part of our nature. He claims our being in its wholeness, and says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.” This command is, on the face of it, a paradox. But obey, give God your love, and the paradox will pass into a truism, for you will find that you possess Him in whom all things lovely have their being.
J. R. Illingworth, Sermons Preached in a College Chapel, p. 77.
References: Psa 22:1.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 106; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 149; T. Birkett Dover, A Lent Manual, p. 128. Psa 22:7.-Ibid., p. 145; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 105. Psa 22:8.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1767. Psa 22:9, Psa 22:10.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Christmas to Epiphany, p. 139. Psa 22:11.-H. P. Liddon, Old Testament Outlines, p. 104. Psa 22:13.-J. Baines, Sermons, p. 60. Psa 22:14.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 103. Psa 22:15.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 378. Psa 22:20.-H. J. Wilmot Buxton, The Children’s Bread, p. 26. Psa 22:22, Psa 22:23.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 799.
Psa 22:26
I. In general this verse teaches that there is one thing even in this fleeting world which is immortal. Man wears on his forehead the crown of his regnant majesty, for his nature is undying. A soul’s state can be changed, but its nature is unalterable.
II. It is helpful to learn here that the text draws a distinction between life and mere existence. We are informed that these hearts of ours may have one of two moral states. Whichever of these is possessed as a permanent character decides destiny. The heart that seeks God enters immediately into the nearness of God’s presence, where there is fulness of joy. The heart that wilfully refuses to seek God is forced into the darkness of utter banishment from God for the unending future. To the first of these conditions the Scriptures have given the name of life, to the second death.
III. The text evidences its authority by language peremptory and plain. There are three fixed laws of human nature which, fairly working together, render it absolutely certain that our affections will survive the shock of death and reassert themselves hereafter. (1) One is the law of habit. (2) Another is that of exercise. (3) A third is the law of association.
IV. The text teaches that human immortality is quite independent of all accidents and surroundings. Human affections will exist for ever in the line of their “seeking.” Whatever your heart is, it will never die.
V. Our text fixes all its force by an immediate application of the doctrine to such as are meek enough to receive it. If your heart is to live for ever, then (1) much consideration ought to be given to your aims in this life, for they are fashioning the heart that is immortal. (2) Our companionships should be chosen with a view to the far future which is coming. (3) Some care should be had concerning the processes of education by which our affections are trained. (4) If our hearts are to live for ever, it is time some hearts were changed by the Spirit of Divine grace.
C. S. Robinson, Sermons on Neglected Texts, p. 21.
References: Psa 22:26.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1312; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 134. Psa 22:27.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1047. Psa 22:29.-Ibid., vol. xxii., No. 1300. Psalm 22-A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 141; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, pp. 373, 380, 387, 394; E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 62; J. G. Murphy, The Book of Daniel, p. 42; I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 389.
Psalm 22
The Sufferings of Christ and the Glory That Follows
1. The suffering (Psa 22:1-21)
2. The glory (Psa 22:22-31)
Psa 22:1-21. In many respects this Psalm is the most remarkable in the entire book and one of the sublimest prophecies in the whole Bible. The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow are here wonderfully foretold. The inscription mentions A yeleth Shahar, which means the hind of the morning. Jewish tradition identifies this hind with the early morning light, when the day dawns and the rays of the rising sun appear like the horns of the hind. The eminent Hebraist Professor Delitzsch, makes the following remark: Even the Jewish synagogue, so far as it recognizes a suffering Messiah, hears His voice here, and takes the hind of the morning as a name of the Shechinah, and makes it a symbol of coming redemption. And the Targum recalls the lamb of the morning sacrifice, which was offered as soon as the watchman on the pinnacle of the temple cried out, The first rays of the morning burst forth. All this is very suggestive. The inscription also tells us that the Psalm was written by David. We know, however, of no circumstances in his life to which it can possibly be referred. In none of the persecutions by Saul was he ever reduced to such straits as those here described (Perowne). Davids personal experience is all out of question. He speaks as a prophet, such as he was (Act 2:30) and the Spirit of God useth him to give one of the completest pictures of Christ, His suffering and glory, which to David must have been a mystery, so that with other prophets, he searched and enquired as to its meaning. (See 1Pe 1:10-12). Our Lord in uttering the solemn word with which this Psalm begins in the darkness which enshrouded the cross gives us the conclusive evidence that it is He of whom the Psalm speaks. The Spirit of God equally so in Heb 2:11-12 shows that it is Christ. And the glory-side of this gem of prophecy proves fully that none other than the Christ of God is meant.
The precious, blessed, unfathomable work of the sin-bearer on the Cross and its far reaching results in blessing and glory is here unfolded to our faith, as well as for our joy and comfort. The heart of the atonement occupies the foreground, not the physical sufferings, but the suffering He endured from the side of God, when He made Him who knew no sin, sin for us. My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?–But Thou art holy! That is the answer to the Why? And when the blessed One was thus forsaken, and faced as the substitute of sinners the holy, sin-hating God, He finished the work, the work which enables God to be just and the justifier of all who believe in Jesus. It is finished! was His triumphant shout, expressed in the Greek by one work–tetelestai. And our Psalm ends with a similar word–He hath done–the Hebrew word ohsa expresseth the same thought-it is finished.
Still more astonishing are the details of His physical sufferings, which were all so minutely fulfilled on Calvary. Here we find foretold the piercing of hands and feet, the excessive thirst He suffered, the terrible agony by hanging suspended, every bone out of joint; the laughter and hooting of his enemies, the very expressions they used surrounding the cross are given here, and the dividing of the garments and casting lots over them and other details are prophetically revealed. And to this must be added another fact. Crucifixion was an unknown method of death in Jewish law. Among ancient nations the Roman penal code alone seems to contain exclusively this cruel penalty; Rome evidently invented it. Yet here this unknown death penalty is described in a perfect manner. What an evidence of divine inspiration!
And the critics, how they have tried to explain away this great prophecy! And they are still trying to explain it away. Some apply it to Hezekiah; others say it may describe the sufferings of Jeremiah; still others say it is the Jewish nation. And some try to make it out as being only coincident that the Hebrews had such a piece of literature and that one of their own, Jesus of Nazareth, made such an experience. Surely these infidels are fools, for only a fool can adopt and believe such a method of reasoning against these conclusive evidences of revelation.
Psa 22:22-31. The deliverance of the sufferer comes in with the twenty-first verse. Thrice He calls for help. Haste Thee to help Me–Deliver my soul from the Sword–Save me from the Lions Mouth. Then we hear of the answer: Thou hast answered Me from the horns of the wild-oxen. He was surrounded by the dogs (Gentiles) and the assembly of the wicked (Jews) as mentioned in verse 16, but now God has answered Him. The sufferings are ended and the glory begins. The horns of the wild-oxen denote power; the power of God answered Him and raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. We therefore behold Him at once as the risen One with a great declaration. I will declare Thy name unto my brethren. And thus He spake after His passion and resurrection, Go and tell my brethren that I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. This brings out the first great result of His finished work. It is the Church, His body, brought into this definite and blessed relationship with Himself. In the midst of the congregation (the Church) He sings praises. He is in the midst. For both, He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee (Heb 2:11-12). And then the circle widens. Israel too will praise Him, all the seed of Jacob will glorify Him. The ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord. All the kindreds of the nations will worship Him. He will receive the kingdom and the glory. Thus this Psalm, which begins with suffering, ends with glory, a glory yet to come for Israel and the nations of the earth.
Aijeleth Shahar
Or, Ay-ys-leth Shachar, “hind of the morning,” a title, not a musical instrument.
My God, My God
Psalms 22, 23, , 24. form a trilogy. In Psalms 22, the good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep Joh 10:11, in Psalms 23 the great Shepherd, “brought again from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” Heb 13:20 tenderly cares for the sheep; in Psalms 24, the chief Shepherd appears as King of glory to own and reward the sheep 1Pe 5:4.
my God: Psa 31:14-16, Psa 43:1-5, Mat 27:46, Mar 15:34, Luk 24:44
why hast: Psa 26:9, Psa 37:28, Psa 71:11, 1Sa 12:22, Heb 13:5
far: Psa 22:11, Psa 16:1
helping: Heb. my salvation, Isa 46:13
words: Psa 32:3, Psa 32:4, Psa 38:8, Job 3:24, Isa 59:11, Luk 22:44, Heb 5:7
Reciprocal: Lev 1:15 – wring off his head Lev 2:6 – General Lev 5:11 – no oil 2Ch 6:40 – my God Neh 6:14 – My God Job 21:4 – is my complaint Psa 10:1 – standest Psa 13:1 – wilt thou hide Psa 22:16 – dogs Psa 25:2 – O Psa 38:21 – O my God Psa 42:6 – my God Psa 42:9 – Why hast Psa 69:18 – Draw Psa 83:13 – O my Psa 116:4 – called Psa 143:10 – for thou art Son 3:2 – I sought Son 5:6 – I sought Isa 49:14 – The Lord Hab 1:2 – and thou wilt not save Mat 20:18 – and the Mat 26:24 – Son of man goeth Mat 26:36 – while Mat 26:42 – the second Mat 26:54 – General Mar 4:38 – carest Mar 9:12 – he must Mar 14:21 – goeth Mar 14:32 – while Mar 14:49 – but Luk 9:22 – General Luk 18:31 – and Luk 22:22 – truly Luk 24:26 – General Luk 24:46 – General Act 3:18 – all Act 26:23 – Christ 1Co 15:3 – according 2Co 4:9 – but 1Pe 1:11 – the sufferings
Psalms 22
Proper Psalm for Good Friday (Morning).
Psalms 22, 23 = Day 4 (Evening).
The concord of divine righteousness and grace through the work of a Unique Sufferer.
To the chief musician, concerning the Hind of the Dawn; a psalm of David.
{Verse 1, In both places “El”, elsewhere translated “Mighty.”}
The twenty-second psalm is in some respects the most remarkable in the whole book of Psalms. The absorption of the psalmist into the person of Him whom he represents is so complete that from hence arise the difficulties of interpreters,with whom the mere human element has darkened all the glory of the divine. Let the meaning of the first six verses of the psalm be really grasped, there is but One to whom it can refer: David himself is as entirely out of the question as any other. If it be the essence of atonement that is here before us, is it David or any other, save the Christ of God who could make atonement for my sins? Here to look round for any partial anticipation or suggestive circumstances is entirely out of place: the fact here is unique in human history. If the psalm be David’s, David is lifted entirely off his feet here, is taken out of all his surroundings, by the power of that Spirit who, he tells us, spake by him, and whose word was on his tongue. And this is an instructive warning, that the Spirit of God is not bound by the limits of the human instrument He is pleased to use. The New Testament applies the psalm thus in the most positive and exclusive way to the Lord Himself; and His adoption of the opening words, with the way in which these are connected in Scripture, and the connection of the psalm itself here with the surrounding psalms, all these unite to fix the interpretation in such a way as that none shall be able to take from it its rightful meaning, except as wresting it manifestly. It is a keystone in the divine foundation upon which the whole structure of truth is built; and God has taken care to have an immovable foundation.
It shows us, as already said, the very essence of atonement, the concord of divine righteousness and grace in the work of the Cross,which it is the very glory of the gospel to proclaim, but which is the result of unique suffering. The foundation of peace is laid in the lowest depths of darkness, that it may support a structure reaching to heaven itself, and giving access to God in confidence and joy of faith. May we enter into all the fullness of what is here opened to us!
The title of this psalm is noteworthy. Aijeleth Shahar, which our common version leaves untranslated, means the “hind of the dawn,” a very peculiar expression, of which, apart from its context here, one might well doubt the significance. It refers, however, as Delitzsch remarks, according to traditional definition to “the early light preceding the dawn of the morning; whose first rays are likened to the horns of a hind.” He adds that “there is a determination of the time to this effect, found both in the Jerusalem and in the Babylonian Talmud, ‘from the hind of the morning’s dawn till the east is lighted up.'” Nor is the application which is so simple to us as Christians, strange to Jewish exposition. As Delitzsch says again, “Even the synagogue, so far as it recognizes a suffering Messiah, hears Him speak here; and takes the ‘hind of the morning’ as a name of the Shechina (Israel’s glory-cloud), and as a symbol of the dawning redemption.” “And the Targum recalls the lamb of the morning sacrifice, which was offered as soon as the watchman on the pinnacle of the temple cried out, The first rays of the morning burst forth.'”
Certain it is that this psalm points to the true meeting-place of the darkness and the dawn; and the added figure of the hind, while not directly speaking of sacrifice, suggests naturally the suffering of one chased by the hunters, the picture of meek innocence exposed to the fury of such persecutors as the psalm images by dogs and lions. And yet in a mystery which invites our reverent inquiry, that which is thus connected with the darkness, is no less identified with the uprise of the blessed day. How many tender and wonderful associations are there here for us! And to whom alone do they lead us as the subject of contemplation in this most precious scripture, indited by the Holy Ghost?
1. There are twenty-one verses in the first part of the psalm, which gives us the atoning work itself: a number surely significant, especially when we compare it with the thirty-six verses of the trespass-offering psalm, the sixty-ninth. The trespass-offering, as we have seen when looking at it, is the governmental offering, as the idea of restitution in it shows, and that according to a precise estimate of the injury made; and thirty-six -the number of the books of the Old Testament, or “law,” -gives us, as 3 x 12 (the divine and governmental numbers), “God in government.” The present psalm speaks of the sin-offering, in which the divine nature is in question, not the divine government; and 21 is naturally 3 x 7, the emphatic expression of a divine and perfect work.
It does not follow from this, however, that the subdivision of these twenty-one verses will correspond with this; and, in fact, it does not. There is much else to be expressed, as we shall find; and the minor divisions here are five in number, the verses standing respectively to these as 3.5.3.7.3; the threes guiding us to the divine aspect of what is here, as we might suppose. Every feature is perfect, we may be sure. If we are not able to discern it, let us not charge God with what is due to our shortsightedness, and nothing else.
This first division of the psalm is best characterized by one word which at the same time reveals the depth into which the Lord has descended for us, and along with this His glory who could descend there, charged with the fulfillment of all the divine counsels, with the revelation in that utter darkness of all the glory of God; standing where no foot but His could stand, and laying there the foundations of new creation, never to be disturbed; giving the creature steadfast happiness and God His rest. “Alone” He did this: in human weakness, yet in divine strength, “alone” in a place where no foot had trodden before, which none will tread again. To Him only could there be such desolation; the very height of His essential majesty made but part of the infinite horror, which no soul beside could have room for but His own. Let us bow our heads -let us challenge the deepest reverence of our hearts -while we gaze but at the outside of that into which we can never enter, even within but its outer margin; which it is the glory of His work to have made it impossible for us ever to enter.
(a) In the first three verses the meaning of what follows is declared to us: the nature of the suffering as distinguishing it from all other; the cause of it. The Sufferer Himself puts and answers the question, Why is this? And it is strange, indeed, how little has been understood of what is so clearly put before us. Yet not to understand it is to miss the full meaning of atonement itself. The cry here the Lord made His own, as all know, in the hour of His agony upon the Cross, a time exceptional wholly in its character, and not to be confounded with any other in His earthly history. Nowhere else was He the sin-bearer. Not thus in that blessed life of His, which such a shadow would have changed how sorrowfully for us, did He stand in our place, our Substitute, but “bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” (1Pe 2:14.) Surely, one would imagine, this for Christians scarcely could need statement, much less emphasis; and yet it does need. For what does it mean or imply, this bearing of sin? Joy, peace, communion, the light of God’s countenance? Or darkness, agony, the awful horror of being “made a curse”? Could these things go on together? Or are they so near akin that one could be confounded with the other?
Here, then, from lips that could not possibly mistake, and in the hour of His greatest need, when rejected, scorned, abused, crucified by man, He needed all the enjoyment of that favor of God, in the sense of which He had walked continually; -here, in the presence of those who in the malice of their hearts were saying, “There is no salvation for Him with God”: here, beyond their uttermost thoughts, as if to justify all that they had done against Him, is His own testimony that God had forsaken Him! Yet He had said beforetime to His enemies, And He that sent Me is with Me; the Father hath not left Me alone: for I do always the things that please Him.” (Joh 8:29.) Now was the time which He had seemed to have before Him then: they had with bold and insulting hands “lifted up the Son of Man” (ver. 28); they had, as it were, with their judgment pronounced upon Him, offered Him up to God for His ratification of their deed. “Let Him deliver Him,” they said, “if He will have Him”: and the heavens had darkened, not (as, after all, they had dreaded) in anger against them, but, as His own voice now interpreted it for them, in sign that God had forsaken Him!
Yet the voice asked, “Why?” Did He expect, then, some answer from that God who had forsaken Him? But answer had not come: they at least heard none. Still the awful burden hung upon the tree. He had saved others: yes, they knew that! Nevertheless now the hands hung powerless. He could not save Himself. Yet why could not He who had saved others save Himself? Had they not some interest in that unanswered question of His?
They might have turned back to this twenty-second psalm, and found the answer: He had left the key in the lock, where they (and we) might find it. But it is true that God had forsaken Him: the Mighty One; His Mighty One; and power there was not on His side. Plenty of power against Him, and the battle was not to be gained by might at all. Yet it was the crisis of the conflict which had been going on incessantly, ever since man fell away from God. Here was the battle of battles, the sum of all battles, -the strife between good and evil in its fiercest. And here, too, was once more the good apparently prostrate, defeated, heaven uttering no sound, blood flowing again like Abel’s (if so much better than Abel’s), which had cried so long unavenged.
But here triumph is defeat: the rule of the battle, “they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Goodness is to conquer by submission and without encouragement; -conquer, not with extraneous aid, but by itself as goodness simply; trusting in a God who gives no sign.
Power can do nothing here for another reason, and a deeper one. Power can create a world or a universe; it cannot cancel sin, cannot act as if God were indifferent to sin, cannot take up the sinner and justify him, or bless him while unjustified. Power in God cannot act, nor love act, as if these were His sole attributes, or could act alone. If God act, He must act with all that He is; nay, if He justify, here it is for righteousness to pronounce: it is its place to do so; questions of righteousness can only be settled by righteousness, and it is written, “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to Jehovah.” (Pro 17:15.)
But thus the cry goes up, even from the lips of a Job, -a wail which has no answer: “How shall man be just with God?” (Job 9:2) Here One, standing in the place of men, cries with like result. In this awful place heaven is sealed to Him: there is no answer, nor escape from the full exaction of penalty. This is in effect Job’s question, though taken up by Another, who, if there be escape, will surely find it. The conflict is real; the agony is intense: to find no way but that the cup must be drunk forces from Him the sweat as it were of great drops of blood, and an angel has to come from heaven to strengthen Him. But to strengthen Him for what? Only to go forward from the “day” in which still He could cry “Abba, Father!” into the awful “night” beyond. Even in the garden already, as to the drinking of the cup, He cried and was not heard; and the cross also, as we know, had its “daytime” as well as its “night,” when the darkness fell upon it. And there no angel comes! No habitant of heaven comes into the “void” of that “raging deep,” where out of darkness light is to be made to shine, but as yet is no ray of it.
There is no answer from God: who else, then, can give it? Listen! It is His own voice amid the still unrelieved darkness, -His voice giving answer to Himself, and proclaiming God in that desolation where He is not, and justifying Him in that awful abandonment which is the supreme agony of His soul.
“But Thou art holy!”
This, then, is the answer “why”: it is not something apart from this; it is not what remains true, spite of there being none. It is the answer itself; the solution of the mystery; that which gives intelligence as to what is here, and alone gives any proper intelligence. It is because of the holiness of God that Christ is in that darkness of which the “darkness over all the land” is but the external sign. It is because “He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look at iniquity” (Hab 1:13); and because upon Him who is here the true Sin-offering has been laid the iniquity of us all. Thus, and thus alone, it is that He “dwelleth amid the praises of Israel”: these two things together more clearly reveal the deeper reality here than the blood on the mercy-seat on the day of atonement did for Israel bow the tent of meeting could remain among them in the midst of their uncleanness (Lev 16:16). Yet here is what corresponds, as is plain, with this.
How blessed to think of this lone Sufferer in the outside place contemplating the worship of glowing hearts with which God should encircle Himself forever! Here was Job’s question answered for faith forever: man blessed, God glorified for evermore. How plain that only One could fulfill the meaning of this psalm; as only One could stand in the place which is indicated by it.
(b) But the nature of this place is further to be made plain, and put in contrast with any other, that any; of even the comparatively righteous among men, had ever occupied. “Our fathers trusted in Thee,” the Voice goes on: “they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them.” There was no similarity in this forsaking of God to the experience of any in times before this. “They cried unto Thee and were delivered; they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded.” Yet it had been no strange thing for faith to have its martyrs. If being forsaken of God simply meant the being given up to death at the will of their enemies, there was an abundant record of such martyrs, those “of whom the world was not worthy.” To reduce the cross of Christ to this is simply to take out of it that which constitutes true atonement. If this were being made sin,” then not a martyr that ever died but was made sin -or a sin-offering -also. For it is not here a question of the dignity of the Sufferer, but of the place in which He suffered, and this the psalm itself affirms to be perfectly and utterly exceptional. Just this being forsaken of God was for Him the unspeakable difference.
Exceptional it was not for man to suffer and die. Every form of death that one can imagine, perhaps, man has undergone. “But I,” says this unique Sufferer, “am a worm, and not a man”: gone down to a depth far below that of any man whatever. The word (tolaath) applies especially to the coccus from which the scarlet dye of the tabernacle was obtained, of course by its death: in that way, how significant of the One before us! But only as suffering under the judgment of sin could this be true of Him: indeed the word is used (Isa 1:18) for the color of sin, and that of a heinous kind; and thus the application is still clearer: “He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Co 5:21.)
No act of man could make Him sin for man, -no suffering from men could make atonement with God: that was what was wrought by what passed between. God and His burdened soul within that curtained chamber, never to be penetrated by any foot but His, and from which no cry emerges but that one pregnant one, the meaning of which is here revealed as far as may be for the satisfaction of our conscience and the adoring worship of our hearts. What man wrought could only naturally bring judgment upon man. What He wrought with God, and God through Him, brings out from the smitten Rock the river of divine, omnipotent grace.
The “reproach of men” pursued Him into this place which He had taken for men, “despised” even “of the people” (Israel) to whom specially He had been sent. Yea, He was the common mockery of all who saw Him. The gospels distinctly note this wagging of the head on the part of those passing by, and the very words of the psalm used by the chief priests with the scribes and elders in their derision of Him. Outwardly it would seem as if it were the government of God that furnished them with this reproach: in fact it was their hardness and unconsciousness of their own desert, as well as of the holiness and mercy of God, which blinded them to the meaning of the scriptures they were so manifestly fulfilling.
(c) Three verses now show us the inmost heart of the Sufferer, and bring us back to the anguish above all others that He is experiencing. From His birth as Man, God has been His sufficiency and strength. Continuously He has been dependent upon Him. Now in the time of His sore distress, it is for Him that His soul craves. Perfect dependence upon the All-sufficient God: this is the perfection of manhood, and the absolute guarantee of an unstained and spotless life. What leads astray but our own wisdom? What is sin but the working of our own wills? If dependence upon Him were complete, for care, for guidance, for all good, what room would there be for evil or for error? Clearly it would be impossible. Faith, then, is the great work, of necessity; working by love which is implied in confidence such as this. And here was One in whom faith and love were in full possession everywhere, to whom God was all, and who, not having Him, had nothing. Yet in the hour of His distress He cried, and got no answer.
{Verse 10, Eli, “my Mighty One.”}
(d) We have now, in seven verses, the completeness of His suffering at the hands of man. As to it all, though we may go over it and give, as it were, the items, who can estimate the reality for Him who had not His like in capacity for sorrow, as for apprehension of all that can exist in the human heart? Yet this, after all, was not even part of the peculiar agony which really characterizes the psalm of atonement. Nothing here enters into the cry with which it begins: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
We are called first to realize the strength of the adversaries. They are bulls, with their horned front and reckless rush; strong beasts fed up on the fat pastures of Bashan, -men whom “fullness of bread” had filled with pride and insolence. That Caiaphas, the Sadducee, the unconscious prophet, inspired consciously only with the instinct of self-preservation, yet with eyes as dull to eternity as keen to present things, was a type of many more like this. How these would eye this Man of another sphere and another law, so unintelligible to such as they were! And if He were this to them, how terrible indeed would they be to Him, so fallen as they were and debased, that from being men they had become mere beasts of pasture!
But the figure changes, and we have instead of the bull the lion. The bull will crush what is in its way or toss out of it; but the lion devours. It is the picture of strength, but along with this of ferocity and rapaciousness, -“like a lion tearing and roaring.” His enemies pursue him with a wrath that will be satisfied with nothing less than His destruction. There is a specific hatred toward Him, the opposition of those, not blind, but who “have both seen and hated both Himself and His Father.”
And He who meets all this, in what condition is He to endure it? He is come from the agony of the garden; He is facing the worse agony of the Cross. Their “hour” is that of the “power of darkness,” and of the forsaking of God. What strength can there be to oppose, when the Father’s hand itself is giving Him the cup? His “heart is melted like wax” in the sacrificial fire of wrath against sin.
Thus His strength fails, His tongue cleaves to His jaws: He is as one already in the dust of death, but in fact alive to realize it, and that it is the hand of God. God, and not man, has placed Him where He is.
Then there is the exercise resulting from the floods of iniquity permitted to assail Him. How perfectly man was revealed in the presence of the Cross! “dogs,” heartless, shameless, unclean and offal-feeding, hunting in packs like “the assembly of evil-doers” here: gathered by the spectacle of distress unequaled, for which they had no pity, and from which there was no escape: hands and feet pierced, nailed with insufferable agony to the tree of shame!
{Verse 17, I do not find it easy to characterize this verse according to number, while yet I believe the divine sense of what is here is truly expressed by it. It unites closely with the next verse, while yet distinct. Compare the notes.}
Exposed -every bone to be counted -to such eyes as these, that gaze and stare and blench not: not ashamed in the presence of their Judge and Maker. Parting among them the garments they have stripped from Him, and casting the lot -in Israel sacred to Jehovah (Pro 16:33) -to decide the ownership of that seamless priestly robe which marks Him as what He is, “the Mediator between God and men,” upon whom all the blessing of man depends. But this is, of course, to make the Gospels interpret the psalm, or at least give fullness to the interpretation. Does it not, however, answer well to that final number which stands opposite the verse, -this complete stripping of Christ, in the very insanity of passion and unbelief, of all that shows Him to be and to be qualified to be -man’s tender and compassionate Saviour?
The meaning of the priestly robes has been elsewhere looked at. (Exo 28:1-43 notes.) But on the day of atonement it was not in the garments of glory and beauty, but in the simple white linen robe of unstained purity, that the high-priest entered the holiest of all. So Christ, in the power of His own perfection, (tested and brought out in the awful place to which He stooped for man) entered the heavens, never to be closed henceforth for us. Was it not, in fact, then, a sign of the most solemn character, men divesting Christ of His raiment, holding Him up thus stripped to the scorn of men? And what more suited to the deed than as it were taking the lot which belonged to God -the sign of His sovereignty even in what man calls “accident” -to dishonor and degrade with it Him for whom God had decreed the highest honor?
Thus the story of the human side of the Cross ends. Man has told himself fully out in it. What more, alas, could be said of him?
(e) Thus all has been gone through before God, and it is seen, indeed, how the high-priest enters the holiest in the white seamless robe of perfect righteousness. The time is come for hearing that hitherto unheard prayer; and He is “heard,” as it is expressed in the epistle to the Hebrews, “for His piety.” (Heb 5:7.) He has gone into the place of utmost probation under the burden and penalty of sin not his own, resigning Himself into the hands of God to suffer according to His will what none beside Himself could suffer. We are permitted to hear now His final appeal to God, and to rejoice in His announcement of the answer, which was made upon the Cross and recorded for us in the gospel of John, where (as in Matthew and Mark the cry of abandonment shows the Lord’s entrance into the darkness), the words “It is finished” show His emergence from it. Righteousness now claims His deliverance from the place, where God has been glorified by unfailing obedience on the part of Him who went into it for others, and for the glory of God Himself. “God has been glorified in Him; and if God be glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will straightway glorify Him.” (Joh 13:32.)
After the words that speak of the exhaustion of the special “cup,” He has indeed to die: for death is part of that which is upon man, which it is given Him by submission to it to lift off. This also is necessary, therefore, for atonement to be complete. But, for His soul, what is death, when He can once more cry, “Father,” and commit His spirit in peace to Him? -when He can Himself now take power into His hands again, even in dismissing it?*
{*The expression in Matthew is really “He dismissed (apheke) His spirit” (Mat 27:50). See for the comparative place in atonement of death and wrath-bearing, and the way the New Testament speaks of these, the notes on the sin-offering, Lev 4:1-35 (vol. 1, p. 289-291).}
Once more, then, in this psalm, the appeal is made: “But Thou, Jehovah, be not far from Me!” After all that man has done or can do, and without making light of this, (though it be for man himself that this is so unutterably grave), still Where is God? is the question of questions. To this, therefore, He returns, pleading that God, His strength shall appear in His behalf Power He refused for Himself to save Him from this place; “by might can none prevail” when in it. But the victory reached, power at last comes to be necessarily and fully on the Victor’s side. “Rescue my soul from the sword; my only one from the power of the dog.” This is the deliverance in full, for it involves all else, though it be the outward enemies that are contemplated. “My soul,” as we see by its use elsewhere (Num 23:10), is the equivalent in Hebrew of “myself,” and “my only one” answers to it in the parallel, though some would give it as “my solitary one,” and see in it another reference to what is indeed the controlling thought in all this first part of the psalm. Outcast, however is the Speaker to be no longer: He has been tried to the utmost; He has committed Himself and all that with which He is identified into the hands of God; the decision is to be from Him; all power is with Him: now from the very horns of the aurochs He is answered.
2. The first part of the psalm is ended: the work is completed, and accepted by God as complete. Blessed be God, He who was alone in the sorrow is not alone in the joy that springs from it: He will never be alone again. The corn of wheat for this has fallen into the ground and died. We are now to see the fruit of it: God’s grace is to flow out in widening circles, and the knowledge of the Lord to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. In what follows there seem to be three parts: in the first, the Lord is in the midst of the congregation,which at first that of a remnant, widens into the nation of Israel, revived and converted to God; in the second, the “great congregation” gathers in from the whole world. In both there utters itself the voice that cried once in forsaken sorrow and was not heard; while the joy that fills all hearts, and the praise that goes up to God on every side spring out of the blessed fact that at last He was heard. The work of the Spirit to maintain the truth, and a generation for the Lord as the fruit of it, is given in the third part.
(a) In the time of His bitterest distress we have learned how the Lord’s heart still could turn to the thought of Jehovah dwelling amid the praises of His people, and we remember that the day of atonement, which is so linked with this precious psalm, emphasizes the same thing. It is no wonder, therefore, that now, immediately His prayer is heard, He is found declaring Jehovah’s Name among His brethren, and praising in the midst of the congregation. The apostle John it is who gives us the beginning of this in the message entrusted to Mary Magdalene and His after appearance among the gathered disciples. Suited it is that a woman should be the first to have made to her the glorious announcement of His resurrection and its results: “Go and tell my brethren that I ascend unto my Father and unto your Father, and to my God and your God.”
Here is relationship established and the Divine Name declared; declared in relationship, the name of Father, with just that necessary distinction preserved between Himself and His people, -“my Father and your Father,” not “our Father,” which reminds us of His infinite glory who has been pleased to take us into such kinship with Himself, while it intimates also that it is through Him that this place is given to us. Here is the value of His work told out, and in terms which embrace all the people of God, although saints of the present period are the “first-born ones” (Heb 12:23) in this relationship. Blessed it is to know that the greatest blessings are also the widest: just like fresh air and sunlight which, from God’s side at least, are free to all. And so the apostle argues that “both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” (Heb 2:11.) How sweet and wonderful to be of the number of those of whom, because of their origin, He is “not ashamed”!
The “assembly” here, as being an assembly of this character, has had no fulfillment, except in Christian times. In Judaism there was no gathering of such a nature: the children of God were scattered abroad by the necessity of a legal system which could give no nearness to God in that it could purge no conscience, give no abiding-place to the worshiper before God. Under the new covenant, however, Israel will be an assembly of this character, an assembly of righteous ones in which the ungodly shall no more stand; and to Israel now the psalm goes on. Those who have but “feared” Jehovah hitherto are now to praise Him, all Jacob’s seed to glorify Him, all Israel’s seed to reverence Him. For the way of the Lord is being prepared after Isaiah’s manner, -the mountains leveled, the valleys filled. The lowly are to find wondrous exaltation; and the very grace of God is to make Him feared. Blessed, indeed, is the self-abasement produced by the knowledge of the marvelous salvation of the Cross. And so it must be: he who treats this grace lightly can but lightly know it.
For this is, indeed, the subject-matter of this song of praise. It is the song of those who have learned the mystery of this strangely afflicted One, and have found in His afflictions the judgment of sin before a holy God; yet have found, too, in the answer of God to Him the way discovered by which the righteousness of God is declared, and His love at the same time made known. Christ risen was, in fact, this answer; and the gospel now to go forth to the ends of the earth. Christ risen and exalted is now the Revealer of God in His full glory, -all the “glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
(b) Israel brought thus to God, her fruit has the seed in itself for the nations of the earth. The grace shown to her is “life from the dead” to these. Thus the glorious Voice is heard in a wider sphere. The “great congregation” of millennial nations becomes the sphere in which Christ fulfills His “vows” of glorifying Jehovah. Yet we cannot but notice that there are lacking apparently the fullness and intimacy of that first declaration of Jehovah’s Name which takes place within the smaller circle. Nor is it difficult to account for this. Israel will be entirely a congregation of the righteous, as we have so often been assured; but we have been equally assured that such will not be the condition of the nations beyond. With many here there will be still but a forced semblance of worship, -obedience rendered because it dare not be withheld; sin will be restrained, and yet not banished; and the final outbreak,when Satan is let loose, will be a terrible one.
Hence not yet can there be an unchecked flow of blessing, such as eternity has in store for all the redeemed. And the words here seem to indicate a certain lack of response, as a whole, which acts necessarily as a restraint upon the communications of His love: “I will make good my vows before them that fear Him.”
Yet there is abundant blessing for those who do respond, while its limitation to a certain character -always, of course, true is yet here insisted on with an emphasis which is obvious. “The humble shall eat and be full; they shall praise Jehovah that fear Him.” The reference is, doubtless, as Delitzsch observes, to the peace-offering which accompanied vows; and here Messiah’s vows furnish forth, indeed, a royal banquet upon which, in communion, the humble feed to fullest satisfaction. “Your heart shall live for aye,” becomes thus the assurance of the Entertainer to the guests, -an assurance full of blessing.
And this is the voice of recall to man, so long a wanderer: “all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Jehovah: and all the families of the nations shall worship before Thee.” And so shall come the universal kingdom, the creature in the creature-place with God, -just to keep which is perfect blessing.
For this the pride and self-satisfaction of man may well come down: “the fat upon the earth have eaten and worship.” What are they, apart from Him, but “those going down to the dust”? and on account of which He went Himself to the grave: He “who did not preserve alive His own soul.”* This joy and worship of men under condemnation, and who owe their all to His blessed work, is indeed a recompense of love like His, -“the fruit of the travail of His soul.”
{*An interpretation which Pridham says “is due, I believe, originally to Mr. Boys.”}
(c) The closing part here shows the provision God has made for the perpetual preservation of this upon the earth. Alas, be the work all that it really is, and its fruit ever so necessary and glorious for men, yet except there be a corresponding work of the Spirit, and in sovereign power, there will be no effect. But God has purposed to glorify His Son, and that He should be the Firstborn among many brethren. The announcement of this suitably ends the psalm of atonement. “A seed shall serve Him: it shall be counted to the Lord for a generation.” Literally, “the generation”: that, I suppose, which is indeed such: a people begotten of God, although the full expression of that thought waits for the New Testament. But they are reckoned as His: He owns them such; and with them it lies to maintain the testimony of the grace they have experienced: “they shall come and shall declare His righteousness to a people that shall be born, because He has done this.”
This again comes very near the language of the New Testament. The apostle Paul it is that has taught us that a central truth of the gospel is “the righteousness of God.” It is this which the sinner dreads, which the gospel reveals to be for him through the work of the Cross. The righteousness of God as against sin that Cross proclaims (Rom 3:25-26); and equally as against a world that knows not the Father, by His being taken out of it, to be seen by them no more. (Joh 16:10.) But this involves the answer of the psalm before us, and the acceptance of that work to fulfill which He hung upon the tree. And thus Divine righteousness it is that has a gospel for us. (Rom 1:16-17.) Justification can be by righteousness alone, and the justification of the ungodly only by penalty in fact endured. (Rom 3:21-24.) Then, Christ dying for the ungodly, the acceptance of the sinner on the ground of this is really righteousness: “He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Co 5:21.)
Thus the psalm of atonement, though it comes too early for God to speak fully out, touches in its closing strain the very keynote of the gospel.
Psa 22:1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In these words Christ, when hanging on the cross, complained, that he was deprived, for a time, of the loving presence and comforting influence of his heavenly Father: and St. Matthew and St. Mark give us the very expressions which he used, Eli, Eli; or, as St. Mark has it, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. It is perhaps worthy of notice here, that sabachthani is not a Hebrew word; the Hebrew word being , gnazabtani; and from hence it appears most likely that our Saviour used that dialect which was most commonly understood by the Jews in his time; and which, it is probable, was a mixed dialect, composed of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac. Agreeably to this supposition, it may be further observed, that Eloi, Eloi, as St. Mark expresses our Saviours words, were more nearly Chaldee. Christ, it must be well observed, was not ignorant of the reason why he was afflicted. He knew that all the rigours and pains which he endured on the cross were only because the chastisement of our peace was upon him: and God laid on him the iniquity of us all, Isa 53:5-6. The words then imply, that he had done nothing to merit the evils which he suffered. This is the meaning of the question here, Why hast thou forsaken me? as also of that in Psa 2:1, Why do the heathen rage? &c. The repetition of the words, my God, my God, denotes the depth of his distress, which made him cry so earnestly. From the words of my roaring From regarding, pitying, or answering my fervent prayers and strong cries, forced from me by my miseries. This latter clause seems to refer to Christs prayer in the garden.
Psa 22:1. My God, my God. The LXX, . The Chaldaic is like the English. The Hebrew forms the superlative degree by repetition. Example: The heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee. The Lord called Abraham, Abraham; and again at the bush, Moses, Moses. When the Saviour became our covert, and received the storm of anger against a guilty world, his suffering humanity offered up strong cries and tears to God in these sublime words, Why hast thou forsaken me? Why hast thou left me to suffer alone? To taste the bitterness of death, to bear the grief, to carry the sorrows, and take away the sins of the world! The weight was so great, the sorrows so heavy that he sunk into the arms of death. Yet literally, he was not forsaken; the sun shines behind the darkest cloud. The Father always heard him, and received his spirit; yea, exalted him above every name as the just reward of his obedience.
Psa 22:9-10. Thou art he that took me out of the womb. The Messiah applies these words to himself, in Isa 49:1. The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. He only was born of a virgin, and born the Holy One of Israel. But let all parents especially dedicate their infants to the Lord: else the gentiles would shame us by dedicating their offspring to their idols.
Psa 22:14. All my bones are out of joint. Hebrews separated. The method of crucifixion was to lay the cross on the ground, and nail the hands and feet of the victim to the wood. Then, on elevation, the jirk into the hole would very much distend the joints, and expose the bones of the thorax or breast. David himself was never in this situation. No group of executioners ever parted his raiment, or cast lots for his vesture; nor did they ever offer him the stupifying potion of vinegar and gall.
Psa 22:16. They pierced my hands and my feet. The LXX, : they digged my hands and my feet. The masoretic rabbins, to weaken the force of this text, have thrown the word kaaru, they pierced, into the margin, and introduced into the text the word keari, as a lion. The variation is but of a single letter, the yod being substituted for the vau. But if this were correct, how does it weaken the text? How does this little artifice agree with dogs in the words before? Must the lion wait for his meal, and come to finish what the dogs had begun? Does a lion aim at a mans hands and feet; say rather, at the head, the arm, or the shoulder. Above all, how came the seventy learned Jews to be ignorant of such a reading. In fact it is the weakness of enmity, similar to their assertions that Isaiahs prophecy, he was wounded for our transgressions, refers to king Josiah who was killed in battle. The elder rabbins, like the LXX, and several of the Hebrew MSS. all support the true reading of the text.
Psa 22:21. The horns of the unicorns, irresistible in fight, as described in Num 23:22.
Psa 22:27. All the ends of the world shall remember. David having described the sufferings of Christ, spake this of the glory that should follow. The nation that will not serve him shall be destroyed. The kingdom, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the Most High.
REFLECTIONS.
In the day and night of great trouble we must utter the sorrows of the heart to that ear which is always open, and display our griefs to that eye which always sees. The Saviour, who met the sorrows of Gethsemane, is here a pattern to his saints.
While David, a type of Christ, was uttering the anguish of his heart from the persecution of Saul, a flood of light broke in upon his soul with regard to the sufferings of the Saviour, and so powerfully that, in some sort, he forgot himself to speak of his Lord alone. He spake in one of the most luminous prophecies that a mortal tongue ever uttered. He saw the heart- rending tragedy of the bleeding Prince of peace. He saw beyond the dark cloud, the Redeemer rising from the tomb, delivered from the strong bulls of Bashan and from the horns of the unicorn, to his Fathers throne. He saw his Lord, trampled upon and crushed as a worm by the rulers, rising with morning beams to the full lustre of celestial day, and reigning as the prince and Lord of heaven and earth. Thus the suffering church must ever keep before her eyes the glory of an immortal hope.
We see in this tragic psalm, the curtains of futurity uplifted, and the Redeemer exposed in single combat against a nation of foes. We behold the horrifying scenes which melted all the prophets hearts, and bathed their eyes in tears. But which being now accomplished, the events are so many facts which become the strong pillars of support to the church. This assurance, the sure word of prophecy, is the sweet cup handed down to the church after the bitter cup of anguish and sympathetic grief. So many circumstances of the Redeemers passion, circumstances which no hyperbole of speech can apply to David, demonstrate him to be the true Messiah. He sees the travail of his soul, in a world of gentile converts, and is satisfied. In him the tears of Zion are crystalized to gems of heavenly joy.
XXII. This Ps. (p. 372) consists of two parts. In Psa 22:1-21 a godly man in deep and manifold distress complains that the God of his fathers, the God who has been with him from the beginning, has deserted him (see p. 372). Psa 22:22-31 is a liturgical addition: it expresses the pious Israelites gratitude for Israels glory, which is to be acknowledged even by the heathen. No attempt is made to bridge the gulf between the despair of Psa 22:1-21 and the confidence of the added verses, which depict Israels prosperity as already come.
Psa 22:3. The LXX read, Thou dwellest in the holy place, O thou that art Israels praise, i.e. the theme of his praise.
Psa 22:16. MT has, They dug into my hands and feet, or according to another reading, As a lion [they compassed] my hands and my feet. Neither men nor lions would make a special attack on hands or feet. It is impossible to give any satisfactory explanation.
Psa 22:18. The garments and the vesture are two parallel words for the same thing, so that the interpretation in Joh 19:24 is untenable.
Psa 22:21. thou hast answered me: read, Help me. The parallelism requires some such verb.
PSALM 22
Christ, as the holy Victim, suffering the forsaking of God when making atonement on the Cross.
The psalm has a pre-eminent place in the Book of Psalms, inasmuch as it presents the righteous ground on which every blessing, described in all other psalms, can be made good to the redeemed.
(v. 1-2) The first two verses present the great theme of the psalm – the atoning sufferings of Christ. In the course of the psalm other sufferings pass before us, but only to lead up to this, the deepest of all sufferings, the forsaking of God.
Here then in the opening verses we lose sight of men, and the sufferings they inflicted upon Christ as the holy Martyr, and are permitted to learn His sufferings at the hand of God as the spotless Victim, when made an offering for sin. In the Gospels we have the outward history of this great work: here we are permitted to learn the feelings and thoughts of Christ when accomplishing the work.
Thus there comes before us One who is absolutely forsaken by God. In His distress there is no help for Him in God. The words of His groaning call forth no response from God. His cry receives no answer from God. The night season brings Him no rest from God (JND). Nevertheless, the One who is thus forsaken is the only absolutely righteous One on earth. Furthermore, this righteous One, though forsaken, maintains unshaken confidence in God. He can still say, My God, and in the consciousness of His own perfection can ask, Why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
(v. 3) That God should forsake a perfectly righteous man in his distress is entirely contrary to the ways of God with men. Yet we are assured there can be no unrighteousness with God. Thus we learn from the lips of Christ Himself that on this solemn and unique occasion, God was perfectly righteous in forsaking the absolutely righteous One; for the Lord can say, But thou art holy. Thus the One who is forsaken by God is the One who entirely vindicates God. These words, however, do more than assure us of the holiness of God in forsaking Christ on the cross. They tell us of the deep necessity for Christ to be forsaken when bearing sins, if God’s holiness is to be met, and man to be blessed.
Thus in this great psalm the cross is before us not as setting forth the wickedness of man that calls for judgment; but as setting forth the atoning work of Christ which maintains the glory of God, secures the blessing of the believer, and lays the basis for the fulfillment of all God’s counsel.
In His perfect life of obedience Christ glorified God by setting forth perfect goodness. In His death He glorified God by being made sin and bearing the judgment due to sin, and thus for ever declaring that God is a holy God who abhors sin, and cannot pass over sin.
Moreover, by bearing sins and the judgment due to sin, and being made sin and enduring the penalty of sin, Christ secures the eternal blessing of the believer.
Further, by the atoning work the righteous basis is laid for the fulfillment of all God’s counsel. God has counselled to dwell in the midst of a praising people. Here the praise of Israel is more in view, yet the same work that will enable God to dwell amidst a praising people throughout millennial days, will enable God to dwell with men, and to own them as His people, even as they will own Him as their God, in the new heaven and earth, throughout eternal ages (Rev 21:1-3).
(vv. 4-5) The unparalleled case of a righteous man being forsaken is made more manifest by contrasting the ways of God with all others who have put their trust in God. All history proved that the fathers who trusted in God were delivered. Righteous men may have indeed suffered martyrdom, but never before had a righteous man been forsaken by God.
(vv. 6-7) In contrast to the fathers, here is One who is treated as being less than a man. He is left to endure the fullness of man’s contempt expressed in a sevenfold form. (1) He is esteemed as less than a man – a worm; (2) as of no value – no man; (3) He is held in contempt – a reproach of men; (4) He is despised by the Jew – the despised of the people; (5) He is an object of man’s sneering ridicule – they laugh Him to scorn; (6) He is an object of insult – they shoot out the lip at Him; (7) He is the object of mockery – they shake the head saying, He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
(vv. 9-11) Nevertheless, the One whom men despised, and God forsook, was the only absolutely righteous Man: One who from the moment of His coming into this world was marked by perfect confidence in God, for He could say, Thou didst make me trust, upon my mother’s breasts (JND). Moreover He was perfectly dependent, for He could add, I was cast upon thee from the womb, and perfect in His subjection, for He says, Thou art my God. And yet the only One whose confidence in God, dependence upon God, and subjection to God, was absolutely perfect from the beginning to the end of His life on earth, is found in deepest trouble with none to help.
(vv. 12-15) The verses that follow present the trial as still from God, though viewed more especially as coming through the instrumentality of man. In verses 12 to 15 the deadly hatred of the Jewish nation is in view. In verses 16-20, the Gentile opposition to Christ is seen. Finally in the first part of verse 21, it is the power of the devil the Lord has to meet.
Like a bull using its great strength when blinded with passion, so the leaders of the Jewish nation, blind to reason and indifferent to right, with unrestrained violence and rage, used their position of power in deadly opposition to the Lord. As a roaring lion, bent upon the destruction of its prey, so they were determined upon the death of Christ.
Nor is the Lord spared any physical suffering, for in this terrible position the Lord has to taste every form of trial. The utter prostration, and straining of every member of the body, and the thirst, all pass before us.
Yet, in all this trial, the Lord looks beyond man, who is the immediate occasion of these sufferings, and sees the hand of God. He can say, Thou hast laid me in the dust of death (JND). It is not simply the wickedness of man that is before His holy soul, but rather the holiness of God, who is using man to carry out His will.
(vv. 16-18) In verses 16-20 the Gentile opposition to Christ passes before us. Like dogs, acting without heart or conscience, they deliver to death One whom they own to be innocent. Having pierced His hands and His feet, with brutal callousness that knows neither shame nor feeling, they stare upon Him, and gamble for His clothes.
(vv. 19-21 A) Twice in the course of the psalm the holy Sufferer has appealed to God not to be far off from Him in His sufferings (v. 1 and v. 11); now for the third time He turns from His persecutors and His sufferings, and looks beyond men to God, and can say, But thou, Jehovah, be not far from me (JND). Thus it becomes plain that if the opposition of men is brought before us, it is not so much to show the fearful evil of men that, in other psalms, calls for judgment, but rather to show that even in the suffering caused by men the Lord was without help from God. Thus the utter abandonment of the cross, in view of atonement, is brought before us. Nevertheless, in the forsaking the trust of Christ in God remains unshaken. While the sufferings inflicted by man are felt with all the perfect sensibilities of Christ, yet they are taken as coming from God (v. 15). Thus God alone is the One to whom the Sufferer looks for help and deliverance.
A threefold deliverance is sought; first from the sword of judgment, then from the power of man, and lastly from the power of Satan – the lion’s mouth. Nevertheless, the judgment must be borne before deliverance can come. The word of the Lord by the prophet must first be fulfilled, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts (Zec 13:7).
(v. 21 B) Thus every form of suffering has been endured – the enmity of the Jews, the shameless opposition of the Gentiles, the malice of Satan, and above all the forsaking of God when making atonement. Then when all is over, when the great work of atonement is accomplished, and the extreme point of suffering is reached, set forth by the horns of the buffaloes, the cry of the Sufferer is heard, and the answer comes. Christ can say, Thou hast heard me. The resurrection was the proof to man that Christ was heard, and the work accepted. Nevertheless, Christ Himself was conscious of being heard and accepted directly the atoning work was completed. Therefore at once, we learn from the Gospels, the language of perfect communion was used by the Lord. No longer does He say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? but, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit (Luk 23:46).
At once we pass on to resurrection ground, and in this, the second half of the psalm, we have the blessed results of Christ’s work on the cross. The sufferings of Christ on the cross have a twofold character. He suffered as the patient Martyr at the hands of men; He suffered as the spotless Victim under the hand of God. The martyr sufferings call down the judgment of a holy God who cannot be indifferent to the insults heaped upon Christ; hence the psalms that present His martyr sufferings, such as Psalm 69, speak also of judgment upon His enemies. His sufferings as the holy Victim open the way for blessing to man. Thus in this psalm we have a river of grace flowing from the cross and widening as it flows.
(vv. 22-24) This blessing is connected with the declaration of the name of God. We know that this is the Father’s name, that reveals the Father’s heart and all the blessings counselled in His heart. This name is declared by Christ in resurrection to the few disciples that He had gathered round Himself on earth, of whom He speaks for the first time as His brethren, in the message which said, Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God (Joh 20:17).
A little later, when the disciples were assembled behind closed doors, the Lord appears in the midst of the congregation, and fills the disciples’ hearts with gladness – He leads the praise. Nor is the blessing confined to the few assembled with the Lord in their midst. It is for all the godly in Israel who fear the Lord. They are to know that God has accepted the great sacrifice. 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. We may feebly appreciate the great atoning sacrifice, but our blessing depends not upon the measure of our appreciation but on God’s perfect appreciation of, and infinite satisfaction with, the work of Christ.
(vv. 25-26) The river of grace widens still further, for now we pass on to the great congregation. This is all Israel regathered and restored for millennial blessing. Christ will lead their praise, and fulfill every promise that had been made. Then indeed the meek will eat and be satisfied, the Lord will be praised, and no more will there be broken and empty hearts, but hearts that shall live for ever in the fullness of joy.
(vv. 27-29) Furthermore, the blessing widens to embrace the ends of the earth, and all the kindred of the nations. They will remember what Christ has accomplished on the cross, and they will turn to the Lord and worship. The One who was rejected by men will rule among the nations. The blessing will reach every class, the prosperous – the fat upon the earth; those who are in extreme need – ready to go down to the dust; and the poor who lack means to keep alive the soul.
(vv. 30-31) Finally the blessing will flow on through millennial days to coming generations. His righteousness – manifested in the atoning sacrifice, the exaltation of Christ, and in providing a feast of blessing – will be told to a people that shall be born. And the whole great company of the redeemed will delight to own that.
He hath done it. This vast river of blessing that was seen as a small stream amongst a few disciples on the resurrection day, that has flowed on through the ages, and will yet flow through millennial days widening in its course to embrace all the ends of the earth, and extending to generations yet unborn, has its pure sources in the atoning sufferings of Christ – He hath done it.
The answer to the cry My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? uttered in darkness on the cross, will come from the midst of a vast host of praising people, brought into everlasting blessing, as they look back to the cross and say, He hath done it.
22:1 [To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.] My {a} God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my {b} roaring?
(a) Here appears that horrible conflict, which he sustained between faith and desperation.
(b) Being tormented with extreme anguish.
Psalms 22
The mood of this psalm contrasts dramatically with that of Psalms 21. In this one, David felt forsaken by God, and the threats of his enemies lay heavily on his heart. He evidently felt death might be close. He described his condition as facing execution. Nevertheless the Lord answered his prayer for help.
"No Christian can read this without being vividly confronted with the crucifixion. It is not only a matter of prophecy minutely fulfilled, but of the sufferer’s humility-there is no plea for vengeance-and his vision of a world-wide ingathering of the Gentiles." [Note: Kidner, p. 105.]
The righteous sufferer motif that is so prominent in this individual lament psalm finds its fulfillment in the Messiah (cf. Psalms 69; et al.). [Note: Chisholm, "A Theology . . .," pp. 289-90.]
1. Frustration and faith 22:1-10
David felt forsaken by God and ridiculed by his enemies, yet his confidence was in the Lord’s continuing care.
David’s frustration and God’s faithfulness to his forefathers 22:1-5
Again David felt frustrated by God’s lack of response to his cries (cf. Psa 13:1-4). God would not answer David regardless of when he prayed. The Lord Jesus quoted David’s words as He hung on the cross (Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34).
"There are two ways in which we may understand Jesus’ use of these words, either as fuller sense (sensus plenior) or typology. . . . Franz Delitzsch well illustrates what we mean by fuller sense in his comment on Psalms 22 : ’. . . David descends, with his complaint, into a depth that lies beyond the depth of his affliction, and rises, with his hopes, to a height that lies far beyond the height of the reward of his affliction’ [Note: Delitzsch, 1:307.] The fuller meaning can be understood in the comprehensive sense as well. That is, the suffering on this occasion was insufficient to qualify for these gigantic terms of the text, so we understand David as summing up the suffering of his entire life. . . . In comparison to the fuller sense, the typological interpretation sees Jesus as the type of sufferer in Psalms 22, and the psalmist becomes the model. James Mays’s interpretation of this psalm belongs in this category, although he prefers to see Jesus as setting himself in its paradigm: ’He joins the multitudinous company of the afflicted and becomes one with them in their suffering.’ [Note: James L. Mays, "Prayer and Christology: Psalms 22 as Perspective on the Passion," Theology Today 42 (1985):323.] When the fuller sense method is applied, it recognizes that a future fulfillment is built into the language and meaning of the text, whereas typology looks back to a person or event as representative of a future event or person. It may or may not be a prophetic element built into the text." [Note: Bullock, p. 44.]
Psa 22:1-31
WHO is the sufferer whose wail is the very voice of desolation and despair, and who yet dares to believe that the tale of his sorrow will be a gospel for the world? The usual answers are given. The title ascribes the authorship to David, and is accepted by Delitzsch and others. Hengstenberg and his followers see in the picture the ideal righteous man. Others think of Hezekiah, or Jeremiah, with whose prophecies and history there are many points of connection. The most recent critics find here “the personalised Genius of Israel, or more precisely the followers of Nehemiah, including the large-hearted psalmist” (Cheyne, “Orig. of Psalt.,” 264). On any theory of authorship, the startling correspondence of the details of the psalmists sufferings with those of the Crucifixion has to be accounted for. How startling that correspondence is, both in the number and minuteness of its points, need not be insisted on. Not only does our Lord quote the first verse on the cross, and so show that the psalm was in his heart then, but the gestures and words of mockery were verbally reproduced, as Luke significantly indicates by using the LXXs word for “laugh to scorn” (Psa 22:7). Christs thirst is regarded by John as the fulfilment of “scripture,” which can scarcely be other than Psa 22:15. The physical effects of crucifixion are described in the ghastly picture of Psa 22:14-15. Whatever difficulty exists in determining the true reading and meaning of the allusion to “my hands and my feet,” some violence or indignity to them is intended. The peculiar detail of dividing the raiment was more than fulfilled, since the apparently parallel and synonymous clauses were resolved into two distinct acts. The recognition of these points in the psalm as prophecies is one thing; the determination of their relation to the psalmists own experience is quite another. It is taken for granted in many quarters that every such detail in prophecy must describe the writers own circumstances, and the supposition that they may transcend these is said to be “psychologically impossible.” But it is somewhat hazardous for those who have not been subjects of prophetic inspiration to lay down canons of what is possible and impossible in it, and there are examples enough to prove that the relation of the prophets speech to their consciousness and circumstances was singularly complex, and not to be unravelled by any such obiter dicta as to psychological possibilities. They were recipients of messages, and did not always understand what the “Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.” Theories which neglect that aspect of the case do not front all the facts. Certainty as to the authorship of this psalm is probably unattainable. How far its words fitted the condition of the singer must therefore remain unsettled. But that these minute and numerous correspondences are more than coincidences, it seems perverse to deny. The present writer, for one, sees shining through the shadowy personality of the psalmist the figure of the Prince of Sufferers, and believes that whether the formers plaints applied in all their particulars to him, or whether there is in them a certain “element of hyperbole” which becomes simple fact in Jesus sufferings, the psalm is a prophecy of Him and them. In the former case the psalmists experience, in the latter case his utterances, were divinely shaped so as to prefigure the sacred sorrows of the Man of Sorrows.
To a reader who shares in this understanding of the psalm, it must be holy ground, to be trodden reverently and with thoughts adoringly fixed on Jesus. Cold analysis is out of place. And yet there is a distinct order even in the groans, and a manifest contrast in the two halves of the psalm (Psa 22:1-21 and Psa 22:22-31). “Thou answerest not” is the keynote of the former; “Thou hast answered me,” of the latter. The one paints the sufferings, the other the glory that should follow. Both point to Jesus: the former by the desolation which it breathes; the latter by the world wide consequences of these solitary sufferings which it foresees.
Surely opposites were never more startlingly blended in one gush of feeling than in that plaint of mingled faith and despair, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” which by its thus addressing God clings fast to Him, and by its wondering question discloses the dreary consciousness of separation from Him. The evidence to the psalmist that he was forsaken was the apparent rejection of his prayers for deliverance; and if David be the speaker, we may suppose that the pathetic fate of his predecessor hovered before his thoughts: “I am sore distressed. God is departed from me and answereth me no more. But, while lower degrees of this conflict of trust and despair belong to all deep religious life, and are experienced by saintly sufferers in all ages, the voice that rang through the darkness on Calvary was the cry of Him who experienced its force in supreme measure and in altogether unique manner. None but He can ask that question “Why?” with conscience void of offence. None but He have known the mortal agony of utter separation from God. None but He have clung to God with absolute trust even in the horror of great darkness. In Christs consciousness of being forsaken by God lie elements peculiar to it alone, for the separating agent was the gathered sins of the whole world, laid on Him and accepted by Him in the perfection of His loving identification of Himself with men. Unless in that dread hour He was bearing a worlds sin, there is no worthy explanation of His cry, and many a silent martyr has faced death for Him with more courage derived from Him than He manifested on His cross.”
After the introductory strophe of two verses, there come seven strophes, of which three contain 3 verses each (Psa 22:3-11) followed by two of 2 verses each (Psa 22:12-15) and these again by two with 3 verses each. Can a soul agitated as this singers was regulate its sobs thus? Yes, if it is a singers, and still more if it is a saints. The fetters make the limbs move less violently, and there is soothing in the ordered expression of disordered emotion. The form is artistic, not artificial; and objections to the reality of the feelings on the ground of the regularity of the form ignore the witness of the masterpieces of literature in all tongues.
The desolation rising from unanswered prayer drives to the contemplation of Gods holiness and past responses to trusting men, which are in one aspect an aggravation and in another an alleviation. The psalmist partly answers his own question “Why?” and preaches to Himself that the reason cannot be in Jehovah, whose character and former deeds bind Him to answer trust by help. Gods holiness is primarily His separation from, by elevation above, the creature, both in regard of His freedom from limitations and of His perfect purity. If He is thus “holy,” He will not break His promise, nor change His ways with those who trust. It takes some energy of faith to believe that a silent and apparently deaf God is “holy,” and the effect of the belief may either be to crush or to lift the spirit. Its first result with this psalmist seems to have been to crush, as the next strophe shows, but the more blessed consequence is won before the end. Here it is partly a plea urged with God, as is that beautiful bold image of God enthroned “on the praises of Israel.” These praises are evoked by former acts of grace answering prayers, and of them is built a yet nobler throne than the outstretched wings of the Cherubim. The daring metaphor penetrates deeply into Gods delight in mens praise, and the power of Israels voice to exalt Him in the world. How could a God thus throned cease to give mercies like those which were perpetually commemorated thereby? The same half-wistful, half-confident retrospect is continued in the remaining verses of this strophe (Psa 22:4-5), which look back to the “grey fathers” experience. Mark the plaintive reiteration of trust and “deliver,” the two inseparables, as the days of old attested, which had now become so sadly parted. Not more certainly the flow of water in a pipe answers the application of thirsty lips to its opening than did Gods rescuing act respond to the fathers trust. And now!-
The use of “Our” in reference to the fathers has been laid hold of as favouring the hypothesis that the speaker is the personified nation; but no individual member of a nation would speak of the common ancestors as “My fathers.” That would mean his own family progenitors, whereas the psalmist means the Patriarchs and the earlier generations. No argument for the national theory, then, can be drawn from the phrase. Can the reference to Jesus be carried into this strophe? Assuredly it may, and it shows us how truly He associated Himself with His nation, and fed His faith by the records of the past. “He also is a son of Abraham.”
Such remembrances make the contrast of present sufferings and of a far-off God more bitter; and so a fresh wave of agony rolls over the psalmists soul. He feels himself crushed and as incapable of resistance as a worm bruised in all its soft length by an armed heel. The very semblance of manhood has faded. One can scarcely fail to recall “his visage was so marred more than any man,” {Isa 52:14} and the designation of Jehovahs servant Israel as “thou worm.” {Isa 41:14} The taunts that wounded the psalmist so sorely have long since fallen dumb and the wounds are all healed; but the immortal words in which he wails the pain of misapprehension and rejection are engraved forever on the heart of the world. No suffering is more acute than that of a sensitive soul, brimming with love and eager ness to help, and met with scorn, rejection and ferocious mockery of its sacredest emotions. No man has ever felt that pang with the intensity with which Jesus felt it, for none has ever brought such wealth of longing love to be thrown back on itself, nor been so devoid of the callousness with which selfishness is shielded. His pure nature was tender as an infants hand, and felt the keen edge of the spear as none but He can have done. They are His sorrows that are painted here, so vividly and truly that the evangelist Luke takes the very word of the LXX version of the psalm to describe the rulers mockery. {Luk 23:35} “They draw open the lips,” grinning with delight or contempt; “they nod the head” in mockery and assent to the suffering inflicted; and then the savage hate bursts into irony which defiles the sacredest emotions and comes near to blaspheming God in ridiculing trust in Him. The mockers thought it exquisite sarcasm to bid Jesus roll His troubles on Jehovah, and to bid God deliver Him since He delighted in Him. How little they knew that they were thereby proclaiming Him as the Christ of prophecy, and were giving the unimpeachable testimony of enemies to His life of devout trust and His consciousness of Divine favour! “Roll (it) on God,” sneered they; and the answer was, “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.” “Let Him deliver Him, since He delighteth in Him,” they impiously cried, and they knew not that Gods delight in Him was the very reason why He did not deliver Him. Because He was His Son in whom He was well pleased, “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.” The mockery of opponents brings into clear light the deepest secrets of that cross.
Another wave of feeling follows in the next strophe (Psa 22:9-11). Backwards and forwards, from trust to complaint and from complaint to trust, rolls the troubled sea of thought, each mood evoking its opposite. Now reproach makes the psalmist tighten his grasp on God, and plead former help as a reason for present hearing. Faith turns taunts into prayers. This strophe begins with a “Yea,” and, on the relationship with God which the enemies had ridiculed and which his heart knows to be true, pleads that God would not remain, as Psa 22:1 had wailed that He was, far off from His help. It goes back to the beginning of life, and in the mystery of birth and the dependence of infancy, finds arguments with God. They are the personal application of the wide truth that God by His making us men gives us a claim on Him, that He has bound Himself by giving life to give what is needful for its development and well-being. He will not stultify Himself by making a man and then leaving him to struggle alone, as birds do with their young, as soon as they can fly. He is “a faithful Creator.” May we venture to find special reference here to the mystery of the Incarnation? It is noticeable that “my mother” is emphatically mentioned, while there is no reference to a father. No doubt the cast of the thought accounts for that, but still the special agency of Divine power in the birth of Jesus gives special force to His prayer for Divine help in the life so peculiarly the result of the Divine band. But while the plea had singular force on Christs lips, it is valid for all men.
The closing verse of this strophe takes the complaint of Psa 22:1 and turns it into prayer. Faith does not rest with plaintively crying “Why art Thou so far?” but pleads “Be not far”; and makes the nearness of trouble and the absence of all other help its twofold pleas. So much the psalmist has already won by his communing with God. Now he can face environing sorrows and solitary defencelessness, and feel them to be reasons for Gods coming, not tokens of His distance.
We now come to two strophes of two verses each (Psa 22:12-15), of which the former describes the encircling foes and the latter the psalmists failure of vital power. The metaphor of raging wild animals recurs in later verses, and is common to many psalms. Bashan was a land of pastures over which herds of half wild cattle roamed. They “have surrounded me” is a picturesque touch, drawn direct from life, as anyone knows who has ever found himself in the midst of such a herd. The gaping mouth is rather characteristic of the lion than of the bull. The open jaws emit the fierce roar which precedes the fatal spring and the “ravening” on its prey. The next short strophe passes from enemies around to paint inward feebleness. All vital force has melted away; the very bones are dislocated, raging thirst has supervened. These are capable of being construed as simply strong metaphors, parallels to which may be found in other psalms; but it must not be left unnoticed that they are accurate transcripts of the physical effects of crucifixion. That torture killed by exhaustion, it stretched the body as on a rack, it was attended with agonies of thirst. It requires considerable courage to brush aside such coincidences as accidental, in obedience to a theory of interpretation. But the picture is not completed when the bodily sufferings are set forth. A mysterious attribution of them all to God closes the strophe. “Thou hast brought me to the dust of death.” Then, it is Gods hand that has laid all these on him. No doubt this may be, and probably was in the psalmists thought, only a devout recognition of Providence working through calamities; but the words receive full force only by being regarded as parallel with those of Isa 53:10, “He hath put Him to grief.” In like manner the apostolic preaching regards Christs murderers as Gods instruments.
The next strophe returns to the three-verse arrangement, and blends the contents of the two preceding, dealing both with the assailing enemies and the enfeebled sufferer. The former metaphor of wild animals encircling him is repeated with variations. A baser order of foes than bulls and lions, namely, a troop of cowardly curs, are snarling and snapping round him. The contemptuous figure is explained in Psa 22:16 b, as meaning a mob of evildoers, and is then resumed in the next clause, which has been the subject of so much dispute. It seems plain that the Masoretic text is corrupt. “Like a lion, my hands and my feet” can only be made into sense by violent methods. The difference between the letters which yield “like a lion “and those which give “they pierced” is only in the length of the upright stroke of the final one. LXX Vulg. Syr. translate they dug or pierced, and other ancient versions attest that they read the word as a verb. The spelling of the word is anomalous, if we take it to mean dig, but the irregularity is not without parallels, and may be smoothed away either by assuming an unusual form of a common verb or a rare root cognate with the more common one. The word would then mean “they dug” rather than pierced, but the shade of difference in meaning is not so great as to forbid the later rendering. In any case “it is the best attested reading. It is to be understood of the gaping wounds which are inflicted on the sufferers hands and feet, and which stare at him like holes” (Baethgen, “Hand Comment.,” p. 65). “Behold my hands and my feet,” said the risen Lord, and that calm word is sufficient proof that both bore the prints of nails. The words might be written over this psalm. Strange and sad that so many should look on it and not see Him!
The picture of bodily sufferings has one more touch in “I can count all my bones.” Emaciation would produce that effect. But so would crucifixion which extended the frame and threw the bones of the thorax into prominence. Then the sufferer turns his eyes once more to his enemies, and describes the stony gaze, protracted and unfeeling, with which they feed upon his agonies. Crucifixion was a slow process, and we recall the long hours in which the crowd sated their hatred through their eyes.
It is extremely unlikely that the psalmists garments were literally parted among his foes, and the usual explanation of the singular details in Psa 22:18 is that they are either a metaphor drawn from plundering the slain in battle or a proverbial expression. What reference the words had to the original speaker of them must, in our ignorance of his circumstances, remain uncertain. But they at all events depict his death as so sure that his enemies regard his dress as their perquisite. Surely this is a distinct instance of Divine guidance moulding a psalmists words so as to fill them with a deeper meaning than the speaker knew. He who so shaped them saw the soldiers dividing the rest of the garments and gambling for the seamless cloak; and He was “the Spirit of Christ which was in” the singer.
The next strophe closes the first part with petition which, in the last words, becomes thanksgiving, and realises the answer so fervently besought. The initial complaint of Gods distance is again turned into prayer, and the former metaphors of wild beasts are gathered into one long cry for deliverance from the dangerous weapons of each, the dogs paw, the lions mouth, the wild oxens horns. The psalmist speaks of his “soul” or life as “my only one,” referring not to his isolation, but to his life as that which, once lost, could never be regained. He has but one life, therefore he clings to it, and cannot but believe that it is precious in Gods eyes. And then, all at once, up shoots a clear light of joy, and he knows that he has not been speaking to a deaf or remote God, but that his cry is answered. He had been brought to the dust of death, but even thence he is heard and brought out with no soil of it upon him. Such suddenness and completeness of deliverance from such extremity of peril may, indeed, have been experienced by many, but receives its fullest meaning in its Messianic application. “From the horns of the wild oxen,” says he, as if the phrase were still dependent, like the preceding ones, on the prayer, “deliver me.” But, as he thus cries, the conviction that he is heard floods his soul, and he ends, not with a cry for help, but with that one rapturous word, “Thou hast answered me.” It is like a parting burst of sunshine at the end of a day of tempest. A man already transfixed by a buffalos horns has little hope of escape, but even thence God delivers. The psalmist did not know, but the Christian reader should not forget that the Prince of sufferers was yet more wondrously delivered from death by passing through death, and that by His victory all who cleave to Him are, in like manner, saved from the horns even while these gore them, and are then victors over death when they fall beneath its dart.
The consequences of the psalmists deliverance are described in the last part (Psa 22:22-31) in language so wide that it is hard to suppose that any man could think his personal experiences so important and far-reaching. The whole congregation of Israel are to share in his thanksgiving and to learn more of Gods name through him (Psa 22:22-26). Nor does that bound his anticipations, for they traverse the whole world and embrace all lands and ages, and contemplate that the story of his sufferings and triumph will prove a true gospel, bringing every country and generation to remember and turn to Jehovah. The exuberant language becomes but one mouth. Such consequences, so widespread and age long, can follow from the story of but one life. If the sorrows of the preceding part can only be a description of the passion, the glories of the second can only be a vision of the universal and eternal kingdom of Christ. It is a gospel before the Gospels and an Apocalypse before Revelations.
In the first strophe (Psa 22:22-26) the delivered singer vows to make Gods name known to His brethren. The epistle to the Hebrews quotes the vow as not only expressive of our Lords true manhood, but as specifying its purpose. Jesus became man that men might learn to know God; and the knowledge of His name streams most brightly from the cross. The death and resurrection, the sufferings and glory of Christ open deeper regions in the character of God than even His gracious life disclosed. Rising from the dead and exalted to the throne, He has “a new song” in His immortal lips, and more to teach concerning God than He had before.
The psalm calls Israel to praise with the singer, and tells the ground of their joyful songs (Psa 22:23-24). Here the absence of any reference to the relation which the New Testament reveals between these sufferings and that praise is to be noted as an instance of the gradual development of prophecy. “We are not yet on the level of Isa 53:1-12.” (Kirkpatrick, “Psalms,” 152). The close of this part speaks of a sacrifice of which “the humble shall eat and be satisfied”-“I will pay my vows”-i.e. the thank offerings vowed when in trouble. The custom of feasting on the “sacrifices for peace offering for thanksgiving” {Lev 7:15} is here referred to, but the ceremonial garb covers spiritual truth. The condition of partaking in this feast is humility, that poverty of spirit which knows itself to be hungry and unable to find food for itself. The consequence of partaking is satisfaction-a deep truth reaching far beyond the ceremonial emblem. A further result is that “your heart shall live forever”-an unmeaning hyperbole, but in one application of the words. We penetrate to the core of the psalm in this part, when we read it in the light of Christs words, “My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed,” and when we connect it with the central act of Christian worship, the Lords Supper.
The universal and perpetual diffusion of the kingdom and knowledge of God is the theme of the closing strain (Psa 22:27-31). That diffusion is not definitely stated as the issue of the sufferings or deliverance, but the very fact that such a universal knowledge comes into view here requires that it should be so regarded, else the unity of the psalm is shattered. While, therefore, the ground alleged in Psa 22:28 for this universal recognition of God is only His universal dominion we must suppose that the history of the singer as told to the world is the great fact which brings home to men the truth of Gods government over and care for them. True, men know God apart from revelation and from the gospel, but He is to them a forgotten God, and the great influence which helps them to “remember and turn to Jehovah” is the message of the Cross and the Throne of Jesus.
The psalm had just laid down the condition of partaking in the sacrificial meal as being lowliness, and (Psa 22:29) it prophecies that the “fat” shall also share in it. That can only be, if they become “humble.” Great and small, lofty and low must take the same place and accept the food of their souls as a meal of charity. The following words are very difficult, as the text stands. There would appear to be a contrast intended between the obese self-complacency; of the prosperous and proud, and the pauper-like misery of “those who are going down to the dust” and who “cannot keep their soul alive,” that is, who are in such penury and wretchedness that they are all but dead. There is a place for ragged outcasts at the table side by side with the “fat on earth.” Others take the words as referring to those already dead, and see here a hint that the dim regions of Sheol receive beams of the great light and some share in the great feast. The thought is beautiful, but too remote from anything else in the Old Testament to be adopted here. Various attempts at conjectural emendations and redivision of clauses have been made in order to lighten the difficulties of the verse. However attractive some of these are, the existing reading yields a not unworthy sense, and is best adhered to.
As universality in extent, so perpetuity in duration is anticipated for the story of the psalmists deliverance and for the praise to God thence accruing. “A seed shall serve Him.” That is one generation of obedient worshippers. “It shall be told of Jehovah unto the [next] generation.” That is, a second, who shall receive from their progenitors, the seed that serves, the blessed story. “They shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born.” That is, a third, which in its turn receives the good news from parents lips. And what is the word which thus maintains itself living amid dying generations, and blesses each, and impels each to bequeath it as their best treasure to their successors? “That He hath done.” Done what? With eloquent silence the psalm omits to specify. What was it that was meant by that word on the cross which, with like reticence, forbore to tell of what it spoke? “He hath done.” “It is finished.” No one word can express all that was accomplished in that sacrifice. Eternity will not fully supply the missing word, for the consequences of that finished work go on unfolding forever, and are forever unfinished, because forever increasing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Spent in thy presence has availed to make!”
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
My heart is like wax;
It is melted in the midst of my bowels.
And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
And fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
But when he cried unto him, he heard.
Your heart shall live forever.
And none can keep alive his own soul.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
OUR LORDS COMPLAINT ON THE CROSS
[We are not to suppose that the godhead actually separated itself from his manhood; but that the sensible manifestation of the divine presence was withheld from him. This was necessary in various points of view. A banishment from the divine presence was part of the punishment due to sin; and therefore it must be inflicted on him who had become the surety and substitute of sinners. Occasional suspensions, also, of the tokens of Gods love are the means whereby God perfects the work of faith in his peoples hearts: and it behoved Jesus to be made like unto us in all things: though he was a son, yet he must learn the nature and the difficulty of obedience (yea, and be made perfect too) through sufferings [Note: Heb 2:10; Heb 2:17-18; Heb 5:7-9.]. Nor could he properly sympathize with us, which, as our great High-Priest, he ought to do, unless he himself should endure the very temptations, which we, in our measure, are called to sustain [Note: Heb 4:15.].]
[Never had he endured any thing like this before: when he said, Now is my soul troubled, it is exceeding sorrowful even unto death, a voice was uttered from heaven, Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: when he agonized in the garden, an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him: but now that he was more fiercely than ever assaulted by all the powers of darkness, his heavenly Father also seemed to conspire with them, and withdrew the only consolation that remained for his support. What a dreadful aggravation of his sufferings must this have been! To cry, and even roar for help, and find God far from helping him! to have him, in whose bosom he had lain from all eternity, hide his face from him! How could he but complain? Surely in proportion as he loved his heavenly Father, he could not but bewail the hidings of his face.]
Lest however we should form a wrong conception of our Lords conduct, let us consider,
[When our Lord first undertook to stand in the place of sinners, he said, I delight to do thy will, O God. When the cup of Gods wrath was put into his hand, he still acquiesced; and, though his human nature shrunk back for a while from the conflict, he committed himself to God, saying, Not my will, but thine be done. Nor was the complaint uttered on the cross any other than what every good man, under the hidings of Gods face, both may and ought to utter [Note: Psa 77:1-3; Psa 88:9-10; Psa 88:14.].]
[Not for one moment does Jesus doubt his relation to his heavenly Father, as we alas! are too apt to do in seasons of deep affliction. His repetition of that endearing name, My God! my God! shews how steadfastly he maintained his faith and confidence; and teaches us, that, when we are walking in darkness and have no light, we should trust in the Lord, and stay ourselves upon our God.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary