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.