Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? — The word rendered “soul” is the same word as that rendered “life” in John 12:25. (Comp. especially Matthew 16:25-26.) It is the seat of the natural feelings and emotions, and, as the fatal hour approaches, our Lord is in that region of His human life troubled. There is a real shrinking from the darkness of the death which is at hand. The conflict exists but for a moment, but in all its fearfulness is real, and then the cup of the world’s woe is seized and drunk to its bitter dregs. Men have sometimes wondered that St. John passes over the agony of the garden of Gethsemane, but the agony of Gethsemane is here, and the very words of Matthew 26:39 are echoed. Men have wondered, too, that in the life of the Son of man a struggle such as this could have had even a moment’s place. Not a few, indeed, would at any cost read the words otherwise. But they cannot be read otherwise, either on the written page or in the hearts of men. That troubled soul asked, “What shall I say?” Blessed reality! In that struggle humanity struggled, and in that victory humanity won.
Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. — It is uncertain whether the first words of this sentence are a prayer, or whether they should be read as a question. In the latter case the meaning would be, “What shall I say? Shall I say, Father save Me from this hour? But no: for this cause came I unto this hour. I cannot shrink back or seek to be delivered from it.” As a prayer the meaning would be — “Father, save Me from this hour; but for this cause, that I may be saved from it, came I unto this hour. The moment of agony is the moment of victory.”
The real difficulty of the verse lies in the words “for this cause,” for which a meaning must be sought in the context. No interpretation of them is free from objection, but that which seems to have, upon the whole most probability, understands them as referring to the words which follow, and reads the clause, “Father, glorify Thy name,” as part of this verse. The sense of the whole passage would therefore be, “Father, save Me from this hour; but Thy will, not Mine, be done; for this cause came I unto this hour, that Thy name be glorified; Father, glorify Thy name.” (Comp. Note on Luke 12:49-50.)