Psalms 22 - Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Bible Comments
  • Psalms 22:1-9 open_in_new

    Psalms 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.

    Psalms 22:1. Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

    It seems as if the Saviour's 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.

    Psalms 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.

    Psalms 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.

    Psalms 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:

    Psalms 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.»

    Psalms 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.»

    Psalms 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.

    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 Psalms 22:1-9; and Matthew 27:33-44.

  • Psalms 22:1-26 open_in_new

    You will not need any comment on this Psalm if, while we read it, you see Christ on the cross, and you think that you hear him uttering these sacred words. This Psalm is dedicated» to the Chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, or, the hind of the morning,» for Jesus brings the morning with him whenever he comes.

    Psalms 22:1. MY God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

    It was not morning with Jesus when he uttered these words; it was midnight, but his midnight is our morning.

    Psalms 22:1. Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

    The prayer had come to be almost inarticulate, like the dying moan of a wounded beast in the forest.

    Psalms 22:2. O my God,

    This is the third time he has cried out, «My God,» note that.

    Psalms 22:2. I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

    The worst grief of a child of God is not to be heard in prayer. Think, then, what it must have been for the Well-beloved to have to say to his Father, «O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.»

    Psalms 22:3. But thou art holy,

    He would bring no charge against God even though he forsook him.

    Psalms 22:3-6. 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;

    Think that you hear your Lord saying this, and comparing himself to a little red worm, which when crushed seems to be nothing but just a mass of blood.

    Psalms 22:6-8. 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.

    What scorn! How it must have entered like vitriol into the veins of Christ, a strong corrosive of dreadful sarcasm without a drop of pity mixed with it!

    Psalms 22:9-11. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst 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. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

    God had taken care of Christ in his infancy; that miraculous birth of his was under the divine control; will not the Lord care for him now that he is even more weak and nearer to the gates of death than in the first morning of his infant weakness?

    Psalms 22:12. Many bulls have compassed me:

    There they stood, the strong legionaries of Rome, proud priests of Judea, and the princes of the people, all thirsting for his blood.

    Psalms 22:12-14. 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,

    Dissolved, separated, like drops of water poured out of a vessel.

    Psalms 22:14. And all my bones are out of joint my heart is like wax;

    «The very fountain of my strength is turned to weakness.»

    Psalms 22:14-15. 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.

    Fever had wrought upon him; the hanging in the midday sun, the excruciating pains in his hands and feet, the dragging weight of his body, the tearing of the nails, and the continually increasing agony of his wounds, had brought him into the very dust of death.

    Psalms 22:16. For dogs have compassed me:

    The many, the vulgar multitude, like a pack of hounds, crowded around the Saviour on the cross.

    Psalms 22:16. The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

    David could never say this of himself; no one else but our Lord Jesus Christ could talk after this wondrous fashion. Yet this Psalm was written hundreds of years before Christ came here among men; and the Jews treasured it up, little understanding that it described their Messiah and ours, and described him literally, too.

    Psalms 22:17. I may tell all my bones:

    Jesus could look down upon his own emaciated person as he hung there naked upon the cross.

    Psalms 22:17. They look and stare upon me.

    Their cruel inquisitive gazing galled his delicate sensitive nature.

    Psalms 22:18-21. 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 lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

    He had been heard in past years, and he pleads for similar acceptance now. He encourages his faith by a retrospect of God's preserving power in former dangers.

    Psalms 22:22. I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

    A gleam of sunlight now comes over the cross; the thick darkness is melting away, and the Saviour is triumphing even in his dying hour. He is passing away from the agonizing cry, «Why hast thou forsaken me?» to his last victorious utterance, «It is finished.» A wonderful change comes over the Saviour's expressions from this point.

    Psalms 22:23-24. 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.

    Here is the testimony of One who suffered more than all of us put together will ever suffer. He endured the hiding of God's face, and yet he lives to declare the faithfulness of God; he says that, when he cried unto his Father, he heard him.

    Psalms 22:25. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation:

    It is so here this evening; Christ is praising God in this congregation. As we read these words of his dying testimony, we too are encouraged to believe that the God who heard him will hear us and deliver us.

    Psalms 22:25-26. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.

    He is talking the matter over to himself, and comforting himself with the prospect of the results of his suffering. He sees the vast numbers of people who will be saved through his atoning sacrifice, he sees the meek ones coming to his feet, and he is happy. Because of the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame.

    Psalms 22:27. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

    He talks of the LORD, and he talks to the LORD: «Before thee.» He talks about God's glory, and about the salvation of the heathen, and about all nations worshipping the one true God.

    Psalms 22:28-30. For the kingdom is the LORD'S: 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;

    He himself was like a seed about to be put into the ground that he might bring forth fruit unto God, and he cheers his heart with the prospect.

    Psalms 22:30-31. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come,

    How he rolls it like a sweet morsel under his tongue! «They shall come.» Those great sinners, those far-off ones, «they shall come,»-

    Psalms 22:31. And shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

    Or, «It is finished.» There the Psalm endeth, and that was the Master's dying cry.

  • Psalms 22:1-27 open_in_new

    This Psalm is a sort of window, through which we can look into the heart of our crucified Saviour. We see all the external part of the crucifixion through the four windows of the Gospels; but this 22 nd Psalm brings us into the King's innermost chamber, and here we perceive the secret sufferings of his soul. You can very well conceive of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was on the cross, beginning to speak in the language of the first verse of this Psalm, and closing with the last words of the Psalm: «He hath done this,» which might properly be interpreted, «It is finished.» I have often read this Psalm with you, especially on the evenings of our great communion services. If we are spared, we will read it together many more times. It is a very wonderful Psalm; the Lord give us to understand it as we read it!!

    Psalms 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?

    That was the very climax of our Lord's grief upon the cross, that it was necessary that the Father himself should forsake him. The penalty of sin is that God must leave the man who has sin upon him even by imputation; and God left this wondrous Man, this perfect Man, in whom was no sin, but upon whom the sin of his people had been laid. He «his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,» and therefore the Father must forsake him; but it was a bitter experience for our Saviour that even his prayers should not be heard when they had become so hoarse as to resemble rather the roaring of a wounded beast than the articulate utterance of a man: «Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?»

    Psalms 22:2-3. 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.

    Notice that the Lord Jesus, in his greatest agony, does not impugn the justice of his Father's treatment, in his bitterest sufferings he still adores the holiness of God: «Thou art holy.» It was because God was holy that therefore his Son must suffer so, in order to save the unholy.

    Psalms 22:4-6. 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;

    There is a little red worm, which seems to be nothing but a mass of blood, and the Saviour compares himself in his agony to that tiny creature: «I am a worm, and no man;»

    Psalms 22:6-8. 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.

    What vinegar and gall that mockery poured into the Saviour's wounded heart! How these cruel words must have stung his sensitive spirit! It was necessary that God should leave him while he was bearing his people's sin, but how shameful it was that evil men should turn that stern necessity into a ground of accusation against him! Yet they did so; they taunted him with it: «He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.»

    Psalms 22:9-10. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

    Our Saviour remembers his own marvellous birth, which differed from ours in some respects; and he thinks of how the Father took care of him then. Did he not preserve him when Joseph and Mary fled into Egypt from the wrath of Herod? Was there not a singular power that controlled the movements of the wise men, and warned them to return to their own country another way, so that the infant Christ should not be discovered and destroyed? Jesus on the cross remembers that remarkable preservation; and I suggest to you who are getting old that you may draw comfort from the fact that when you were infants, and could not help yourselves, the Lord took care of you; and if you come to a second childhood, if you should live to be as helpless as when you were infants, the God who watched over you in the beginning will watch over you to the end. Remember how he has said, «Even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.»

    Psalms 22:11. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

    Peter, James, John, and all the disciples had fled. «There is none to help.» The women could weep, with pitying eye and sympathetic heart; but they could not help. «There is none to help.»

    Psalms 22:12. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

    There stood the chief priests and the rulers, and the Roman soldiery with their massive bulk and brute strength.

    Psalms 22:13. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

    There was nothing but cruelty and spite and fury all round the louder heart of that lonely Sufferer. Ah, me! was there ever sorrow like unto his sorrow?

    Psalms 22:14. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint:

    This was caused by the rough dashing of the cross into the ground when they lifted it up, and plunged it into its place.

    Psalms 22:14. My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

    It was a living death, a deadly life. Christ's very heart, which is the center of life, had become dissolved by pain and weakness and sorrow.

    Psalms 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.

    The terrible death-thirst was upon him, through the fever generated by his wounds.

    Psalms 22:16. For dogs have compassed me: this assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

    The common multitude, with ribald jest and execrable mockery, stood there taunting him. He was encircled by them, like a poor hunted stag surrounded by the hounds.

    Psalms 22:17. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

    They stood mocking at his nakedness, jesting at his emaciated form.

    Psalms 22:18-19. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. But be thou not far from me, O LORD:

    That is still the very center of our Saviour's suffering, so he turns his pleading in that direction. He does not ask that the dogs may be called off, nor that the bulls may be driven away; but his cry is, «Be not thou far from me, O Lord.»

    Psalms 22:19-21. 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 unicorns.

    He recollects former days wherein God had helped him, and he prays that the Lord will help him still, and bring him safely through this terrible trial, as indeed he did.

    Now the tone of the Psalm changes. A gleam of sunlight plays across the scene. The agony is over, the life is poured out, and now the Saviour begins to contemplate the result of his suffering. Think, dear brothers and sisters, how the Lord thought of you; he says,

    Psalms 22:22. I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

    The risen Christ is in the midst of us; he has come hither to tell us of his Father's love; he has told it to us by his death, and now he bids us praise the Lord, and himself leads our song. This is the reward of his passion, that he and his brethren should bless and praise the Lord for ever and ever.

    Psalms 22:23-24. He 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.

    Is not this delightful? Your Lord has gone through the black darkness, and has come out into the light, and when your turn comes to go through the darkness, you, too, shall come out into the light even as he did. Therefore, rejoice in his name. If the Head has conquered, the members shall conquer, too. You shall all share in your Saviour's joy, as you are partakers of his sufferings.

    Psalms 22:25-26. 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:

    He thought of you, poor, timid, trembling ones, you who are humbled before God under a sense of your sin. Because he died, because he accomplished your redemption, you «shall eat and be satisfied.»

    Psalms 22:26-27. 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.

    See what solace Christ derives from the spread of the faith, the conquest of the world by his death.

    Psalms 22:28-30. For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shalt 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.

    This is in accordance with Isaiah's prophecy: «When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.»

    Psalms 22:31. They shall come,

    The passion of Christ shall work for a certain deliverance for his people; what he has purchased, he shall surely have: «They shall come,»

    Psalms 22:31. And shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

    Or, «it is finished.» When our Lord had uttered these words, «he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.»

  • Psalms 22:1-28 open_in_new

    This Psalm is headed, «To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar,» or, as the margin renders it, «the hind of the morning,» «A Psalm of David,» It begins in the very depths of the Master's sorrow, when this great and bitter cry escaped his lips,

    Psalms 22:1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

    Every word is emphatic: «My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?» «All others may forsake me, and I need not be greatly troubled at their absence; but ‘why hast thou forsaken me?» «Why hast thou forsaken me?' I understand why thou dost smite me, for I am the Shepherd predestined to be smitten for the flock, but ‘why hast thou forsaken me?'» «Why hast thou forsaken me? thine only-begotten, thy well-beloved Son, ‘why hast thou forsaken me?'»

    Psalms 22:1. Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

    «Why have I no inflowings of thy love, no enjoyment of thy presence, no whispers from thy heart? I am left alone, left utterly, left on the cross, left in my direst need.» God's adapted children do not usually talk like this; such a lament as this has not often come even from the martyrs for the faith, for, as a rule, they have had God with them in their hour of deepest agony; but here was One, who was far greater than they, who yet had to endure suffering from which they were exempted; the only perfect One was forsaken by God. You know that if was because he stood in our stead that the Saviour had this preeminence in suffering and sorrow.

    Psalms 22:2. O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

    Think of what a weight that unanswered prayer was upon the soul of the Well-beloved. Have you ever felt such a burden as that? Then, you are not alone in that experience, for he who is infinitely better than you can ever be had to think over his day prayers and his night prayers which, for a while, were not answered.

    Psalms 22:3. But thou art holy, O thou, that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

    Follow the example of your Lord, poor troubled soul. Find no fault with thy God, even though he should forsake thee. Call him holy, even though he should leave thee; and when he seems not to hear thy prayers, yet do not thou forget his praises.

    Psalms 22:4-6. 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.

    Think of our Divine Lord thus taking the very lowest place, and becoming, as it were, something less than man, just that little crimson worm which has simply a life made up of blood. Christ likens himself to it as he says, «I am a worm, and no man.»

    Psalms 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.

    Oh! these were cruel and cutting words. Like a sharp razor, they cut to the very heart of our Divine Master as he heard his enemies exulting even over his faith, as though it had come to nothing, for now Jehovah himself had forsaken him, and left him to die alone upon the tree.

    Psalms 22:9-10. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst 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.

    Sometimes, we also may derive great comfort from this truth to which our Saviour here refers. When we could not help ourselves in the least degree, the Lord preserved us, so will he not again help us when we are at our worst? You who have reached your second childhood may reflect with gratitude and hope upon the way in which God took care of you in your first childhood. Then, you certainly were entirely dependent upon him, yet you fared well; and so you shall if each sense shall fail you, if the power of moving shall be taken away, and the power of sight, and the power of hearing, yet the Lord, who blessed you when you were just born, will still preserve you right to the end. You remember how the Lord puts this truth in Isaiah 46:4: «Even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.» Our Saviour, having comforted himself thus, falls to praying again:

    Psalms 22:11-12. 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.

    These were the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the strong Roman soldiers that compassed our Saviour when he was upon the cross.

    Psalms 22:13-14. 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.

    Can you not see your Saviour hanging on the accursed tree, every particle of him as it were loosened from its fellow by the fever raging in his whole being, and the anguish and deep depression of his spirit?

    Psalms 22:15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;

    Such was the intensity of his anguish that the fever within him turned his mouth into an oven, and his tongue was so dried up that it could scarcely stir.

    Psalms 22:15. And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

    As if his whole body were prepared to go back into its primary elements. He feels in himself the sentence pronounced upon the first Adam, «Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,»

    Psalms 22:16. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me:

    These were the common people, the rabble, the multitude that thronged around, barking at him like a pack of hungry hounds.

    Psalms 22:16. They pierced my hands and my feet.

    This little sentence shows that this Psalm must relate to the Lord Jesus. Truly did David see him in vision. It happened not to David to have his hands and feet pierced; but this was the portion of David's Master and Lord; he could indeed say, «They pierced my hands and my feet.»

    Psalms 22:17. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

    He is emaciated through his fasting and all the agony he has endured, and his bones seem to break through his skin by reason of the cruel scourging to which he had been subjected.

    Psalms 22:18-19. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength,

    That is, El, the name he gave to God in the first verse: «O my strong One,»

    Psalms 22:19-21. 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 unicorns.

    Did you notice that flash of light gleaming through the darkness, «Thou hast heard me?» Perhaps it was at that moment that the sun again shone forth; at any rate, it is clear that the lost light had returned to our suffering Lord, for the rest of this divine soliloquy is full of comfort and confidence.

    Psalms 22:22. I will declare thy name unto my brethren:

    His first thought, even in his agony on the cross, was about them; and he seemed to say, «When I have risen from the dead, I will tell them all about this time of trial; and through the ages to come, I will tell my people how thou didst help me, the greatest of all sufferers, and that thou wilt help them also. I was left for a time, and yet I was not finally left. I cried, ‘Lama sabachthani,' and yet I triumphed, even then, and so shall they. They shall do as I have done, confide and conquer.»

    Psalms 22:22. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

    And you know that he did so; he stood in the midst of his people, and told them what God had done; and, spiritually, he stands in our midst at this moment, and he leads our songs of praise unto Jehovah.

    Psalms 22:23-24. 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.

    What a change of note! If men could hear us speak when we are in the depths of sorrow, they might conclude that God had forsaken us; but when we get out again, how quickly we eat our words, and how soon we begin to tell the goodness of the Lord! Then we lift up the joyous strain, «O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.»

    Psalms 22:25. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.

    Christ still praises God in the great congregation. On my way to this evening's service, I called to see one of our dear brethren who is very ill, and I was much refreshed with a sweet thing that he said: «When we all get to heaven, we shall feel quite at home there, for you know, sir, we have worshipped in a great congregation for these many years.» And so we shall. There is something most exhilarating and refreshing in going with a multitude to keep holy day; the more, the merrier; but what shall be the joy in heaven, where the number of the redeemed cannot be counted, and all shall be continually praising God? This was one of the joys that was set before Christ, for which «he endured the cross, despising the shame.»

    Psalms 22:26. The meek shall eat and be satisfied:

    Even in the time of his great agony, our Lord was thinking of you hidden ones, you little ones, who think yourselves worth nothing. Christ says that he was finding bread for you, for he gives us his flesh to eat, that flesh which is meat indeed.

    Psalms 22:26. They shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.

    Because he died, all who trust in him shall live for ever. Oh! how sweetly does he die, with the thought of their eternal bliss upon his mind!

    Psalms 22:27. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

    He sees the result of his death; he beholds the fruit of his soul-travail; and his heart is glad within him.

    Psalms 22:28-31. For the kingdom is the Lord's: 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.

    The Psalm really ends with almost the last cry of our Lord upon the cross: «It is finished.» So the whole Psalm is a window through which we can see into the inmost heart of Christ when it was being rent upon the cross.

  • Psalms 22:1-29 open_in_new

    This Psalm so sweetly and so accurately pictures the inward griefs of our Divine Saviour that it might have been written after the crucifixion rather than so many hundreds of years before it. I call your attention to the fact that this Psalm is followed by the 23 rd, which begins, «The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want;» to remind you that you and I would never have had that sweet 23 rd Psalm to sing if our Divine Shepherd had not been made, with groans and tears, to weep out the 22 nd Psalm, which begins with our Saviour's saddest cry from the cross.

    Psalms 22:1. My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?

    Every word here is emphatic. Take the first two words «My God, my God.» These reveal our Saviour's claim upon God as his God. Why hast thou forsaken me? I can understand that others should leave me, but why hast thou done so?» Then lay the stress upon the last word: «'Why hast thou forsaken me, thine only-begotten Son, thine ever-obedient Son thy well-beloved Son?»

    Psalms 22:1-2. 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.

    See our Saviour hanging on the cross, hear him utter these sorrowful words, and remember that he had come up from Gethsemane, all crimson with the bloody sweat which had oozed from every pore as he had agonized in prayer; yet no deliverance had come to him, for God had left him to die in accordance with the covenant into which he had voluntarily entered.

    Psalms 22:3. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabit the praises of Israel.

    He will not bring any charge against God, even though he has left him; and, beloved, in your bitterest griefs; never lay any blame upon your God. Like Job, said, «Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.»

    Psalms 22:4-6. 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;-

    So low did Christ stoop, for our sake, that he became less than man. There is a little crimson worm, to which this passage alludes, which seems to be made altogether of blood; and Christ felt as if he were nothing but a mass of suffering, a poor trodden «worm, and no man;»

    Psalms 22:6-8. 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.

    It is very easy to read these words, or to hear them read, but it is not so easy to realize the sorrow they must have caused to Christ. He was dying, in unutterable agonies, yet his cruel enemies thrust out their tongues at him, hissed their bitter taunts, and made a jest even of his prayers. If you have ever been in great suffering and have then been ridiculed, you know something of the acute anguish that must have been felt by our Saviour when he was dying amidst mockery and scorn without a friend to help him.

    Psalms 22:9-11. But thou art he that took one out of the womb: thou didst 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. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

    Men recollect how God took care of them in the time of their infancy; and when they are brought very low, they look to him who guarded them in the times when they could not lift a finger to help themselves. The Saviour did so. He was peculiarly born of God, there was a specialty about his birth which entitled him to plead it when he was in his death throes.

    Psalms 22:12. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

    He was looking on the Scribes and Pharisees, and the strong Roman soldiery who made a ring round the cross.

    Psalms 22:15. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

    There was no look of pity, no token of sympathy; they were all eager for his death. The mighty men of the day and the religions men of the day were not content until they had slain the one and only Saviour of men.

    Psalms 22:14. I am poured out like water,-

    He feels as if he were being dissolved; there is such a sense of faintness upon him that every muscle, every ligature, seems to be turning to liquid, and he cries, «I am poured out like water,»

    Psalms 22:14. And all my bones are out of joint:

    The jarring of the cross when they dashed it into its place had dislocated our blessed Redeemer's bones. What must his pain have been!

    Psalms 22:14. My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

    Now the terrible death-faintness comes over him. «The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity;» but when his heart melts, how can he bear the strain any longer? Yet our Saviour speaks of himself again:

    Psalms 22:15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd;

    The wounds in his head, and hands, and feet and all the tortures of the crucifixion had brought a raging fever upon him, so that he was dried up like the burnt clay of which men make potsherds.

    Psalms 22:15. And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

    He felt as if every particle of his body was beginning to separate itself from the rest, and he was turning into dust again while yet alive. It is a fearful picture of pain, and they who understand what the effect of crucifixion is tell us that this is a very graphic, minute, and accurate descriptions of the agonies of one dying as our Saviour died.

    Psalms 22:16. For dogs have compassed me:

    There is the ribald crowd, the common multitude, howling at him, and eager for his blood.

    Psalms 22:16-17. 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 had stripped him, and this was no small part of the Saviour's grief and shame that he hung there a spectacle of scorn to ten thousand cruel eyes that looked and stared at him.

    Psalms 22:18. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

    Now he returns to prayer:

    Psalms 22:19-21. 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 lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

    He had been delivered before, and he expected deliverance again, and he had it; but he had to pass through the iron gates of death to get it, and to win the victory over death by his own death. Now there is a change in the Psalm. The Saviour's griefs are drawing to an end, and he begins to look at the result of his passion. He sees what is to follow from his crucifixion, and he talks thus to himself:

    Psalms 22:22. I will declare thy name unto my brethren:

    «I shall live again, I shall see Peter and James and John, and many more whom I have loved, and I will talk with them about my Father.»

    Psalms 22:22. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

    He knew that he would rise from the dead, and that he would praise God in the midst of his brethren.

    Psalms 22:23-24. 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.

    He is telling to himself, in the little quiet interval just before he breathed out his soul, what his testimony would be concerning God,-how he did hear him and help him at the last.

    Psalms 22:25-26. 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: they shall praise the LORD that seek him:

    He is still talking to himself about what would happen after his death and resurrection,-how gracious men would praise the Lord, and how he himself would live again to praise God among them. He so realizes the existence of those whom he has redeemed that he seems to talk to them as if they were actually present; he says:

    Psalms 22:26. Your heart shall live for ever.

    «I die, but by my death you shall live for ever.» He sees them, as it were gathered around his cross, and he congratulates himself upon the fact that he has bought eternal life for them.

    Psalms 22:27. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

    The conversion of the nations shall be the fruit of his death.

    Psalms 22:28. For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.

    See how he distributes crowns, and talks of thrones, just as he is about to die,-so sure is he that his soul shall not rest in hades, neither shall his holy body see corruption, but that he shall rise again, and be for ever «King of kings, and Lord of lords.»

    Psalms 22:29-31. 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,-

    I should have liked to hear those syllables fall from those dear lips of his. «They shall come,» he says to himself; «They shall come,»

    Psalms 22:31. And shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born,

    He sees the great host of the regenerate, the twice-born, who shall be saved through his death.

    Psalms 22:31. That he hath done this.

    It would be a very literal translation if I read these last words thus «It is finished.» Thus the Psalm ends, and so ended the great sacrifice of Christ upon the cross:

    «It is finished.» «'It is finish'd!'

    -Oh what pleasure Do these charming words afford!

    Heavenly blessings without measure

    Flow to us from Christ the Lord:

    ‘It is finish'd!'

    Saints the dying words record.»

  • Psalms 22:1-30 open_in_new

    This marvellous Psalm is a wonderful prophecy, which might seem as if it had been composed after the suffering of our Lord; yet it was written many hundreds of years before his incarnation and death. It is «a Psalm of David», and is dedicated «To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar,» or, as the margin renders it, «the hind of the morning.» We know who that hunted hind of the morning is; we seem to see him panting, his flanks white with foam, pressed by the dogs, almost torn to pieces by the cruel enemy. The Psalm begins with words that, in all their fullness, belong to nobody else but our Well-beloved.

    Psalms 22:1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

    Every word is emphatic; you may put the stress where you please, upon every single word. «My God, my God.» With two hands he takes hold on God, crying, «My God, my God,» «Eloi, Eloi, my Strong One, why hast Thou forsaken me? «Or read it, «Why hast thou forsaken me?» «Why hast thou forsaken me?» «Why hast thou forsaken me?» You get a different shade of meaning each time, but each meaning is true.

    Psalms 22:1. Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

    The Saviour's prayers had ceased to be articulate. They had become in his own judgment like the pained crying of a wounded beast. He calls them «my roaring.» Oh, what prayers were those of our Lord on the cross! Sometimes we too feel as if we could not pray; we can only sigh, and sob, and groan. Well, if it even came to roaring, we should have a fuller sympathy with Christ, for he could say, «Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?»

    Psalms 22:2-3. 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.

    Jesus will find no fault with God. Even if in his dire extremity God forsakes him, yet he will not utter even a whisper against him: «Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel»

    Psalms 22:4-6. 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:

    The allusion here is to a little red worm which, when it is crushed, seems to be all blood, and nothing else; and the Saviour compares himself to that little red worm, «and no man.»

    Psalms 22:6. A reproach of men, and despised of the people.

    They would not let him be numbered with them; they accounted him as an offcast and an outcast.

    Psalms 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.

    Will you try to picture the Saviour saying all these words as be hangs upon the cross? That is the best commentary upon the Psalm. Hanging there, nailed to the cruel wood, in terrible bodily and mental anguish deserted of God, he soliloquizes after this sad fashion. You will understand it all so well if you have him in your mind's eye as we are reading.

    Psalms 22:9-10. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst 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.

    We could not help ourselves then; at the moment of our birth, everything depended upon God; so it does in the moment of our death. It is well to remember those years of helpless infancy, when we could not feed ourselves. We were taken care of then, when we hung in absolute impotence upon our mother's breast, then surely, if a second childhood should come, if all our powers should fail us, and we should be once more as weak as we were at our birth, he that helped us in the beginning will help us in the end. Thus the Saviour comforted himself as he went on praying:

    Psalms 22:11. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

    Oh, the bitterness of that cry, «None to help»!» They have all gone. The disciples have all fled. Judas has betrayed me. Peter has denied me. There is none to help. Be not far from me.» There stand the Roman soldiers, and the high priest, and the Scribes and Pharisees; and Jesus says:

    Psalms 22:12-14. Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon we with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint:

    They were no doubt dislocated by the dreadful shaking and jarring that our Saviour must have suffered when they dashed the cross into the hole dug for it.

    Psalms 22:14. My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

    When the heart goes, everything goes, when the heart fails, and begins to melt, then it seems as if everything is loosening, and the man is in the anguish of death.

    Psalms 22:15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;

    Our Lord was parched with the fever brought on by the terrible anguish and strain upon the hands and feet, which are full of nerves and very tender. A slight wound of the thumb has brought on lockjaw, but what the wounds of the Saviour's delicate and sensitive body must have been we cannot possibly tell: «My tongue cleaveth to my jaws.»

    Psalms 22:16. And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

    He felt as if his very frame was all turning to the dust of which the body is made. So complete is the breaking of the whole manhood when a strong fever is upon one.

    Psalms 22:16. For dogs have compassed me:

    There was the ribald crowd; not this time the bulls of Bashan, the great ones, but the mob, the masses of the common people hooting at him: «Dogs have compassed me.»

    Psalms 22:16. The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they forced my hands and my feet.

    Can anybody else be speaking here but Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David, the King of the Jews? Now is this bind of the morning hunted till the dogs and the hunters have made a circle round him: «The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me.» Here is Christ's crucifixion beyond all doubt: «They pierced my hands and my feet.»

    Psalms 22:17. I may tell all my bones:

    He is so emaciated that, as he looks down upon his body, he says, «I may tell all my bones.»

    Psalms 22:17. They look and stare upon me.

    The delicate modesty of the Saviour is shocked. They have stripped him, and hung him up, and there they stand and gloat their cruel eyes upon his matchless body: «They look and stare upon me.»

    Psalms 22:18. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

    How accurate is this description even to the least detail! How wondrously was this poet-prophet inspired when he thus drew the portrait of the crucified Christ! «They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.»

    Psalms 22:19-21. 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 lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the home of the unicorns.

    So far, you see, the Psalm describes the sufferings of our Divine Redeemer and then it changes. The light of the sun has broken out from the midday darkness. God has smiled on him once more, and the Psalm changes its tone altogether as the Saviour congratulates himself upon the result of his passion. The Psalm ends with these memorable words, «It is finished.» Our version puts it, «He hath done this.» It might just as well be rendered, «It is finished,» for the sense is precisely the same; and when Jesus had said this, he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

  • Psalms 22:1-31 open_in_new

    Stand and look up at Christ upon the cross, and look upon these words, as his. He himself is the best exposition of this wondrous psalm.

    Psalms 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 roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

    Gethsemane! there is the key a prayer unanswered at that time: «If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.» It was not possible. He must drink it. «In the night season I am not silent.»

    Psalms 22:3. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

    No hard thoughts of God, even when he was forsaken. A forsaken Christ still clings to the Father, and ascribes perfect holiness to him.

    Psalms 22:4-6. 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.

    How low did Christ descend for our sakes not only low as man, but lower still! Never was godly man forsaken of God, and yet Jesus was; so he is lower than we are while he hangs upon the tree «a reproach of men, and despised of the people.»

    Psalms 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.

    Was not this just what they said at the cross? Ah, little did they know that he saved others; himself he could not save, because a matchless love held his hands there, as with diamond rivets.

    Psalms 22:9-10. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst 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.

    He remembers his wonderful birth. He was God's, indeed, from the very first.

    Psalms 22:11. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. They have all gone. Peter and all the rest have fled. There is none to help.

    And there stand the Scribes and Pharisees, and the great men of the nation.

    Psalms 22:12-14. Many bulls haw compasssed 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,

    All dissolved nothing could hold together quite spent and gone.

    Psalms 22:14. And all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax:

    He felt the inward sinking fever brought on him by the wounds he had upon the cress. «My heart is like wax.»

    Psalms 22:14-16. 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:

    There they are the cruel multitude thrusting out the tongue and hooting at him. «For dogs have compassed me.»

    Psalms 22:16. The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me:

    The hind of the morning is now surrounded by the dogs. He cannot escape.

    Psalms 22:16-17. They pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

    Horrible, to the tender, modest soul of Jesus, were those vile stares of the ribald multitude as they gazed upon him.

    Psalms 22:18-22. 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 lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

    The sun that was darkened, now shines again.

    The Saviour's griefs are o'er.

    A calm is spread over his mind. He is about to say, «It is finished!» and his heart is comforted. We leave that passage there.