As we come to this psalm we can only stop and wonder. For if we had found it as a fragment with no date attached in some Egyptian papyrus pile we would instantly have assigned its first half as a description of the crucifixion of Jesus (see Meditation following the commentary on the Psalm). The coincidences, we would have said, are too marked, the details too certain, for us to do otherwise. And this would be further supported by the fact that the consequences of the prayer of the one described here is the establishment of the Kingly Rule of God over the ‘poor/meek' (Psalms 22:26; compare Matthew 5:3; Matthew 5:5) and over the nations (Psalms 22:28).
And yet we know that it was written hundreds of years before He was born. We can only therefore consider it in awe and reverence as we consider its background and its source, and recognise in it God's means of describing the sufferings of His Son long before the event, a description brought about through the experiences and ideas of the Psalmist.
The psalm is split into two major parts, parts which are in total contrast.
· Firstly we have the plaintive cry and pleas of one in great need and suffering (Psalms 22:1-22).
· These are then followed by words of praise for deliverance and a declaration of confidence in the coming future Kingly Rule promised by God (Psalms 22:23-31).
It is clear that we are to see the one as leading on to the other.
Various suggestions about its origin have been made. Some have seen in it the words of a man caught up in some dreadful and debilitating sickness, others as the words of a Davidic king being pursued and in despair, possibly even David himself, seemingly defeated and pressed in by the enemy, having lost hope, and also having lost the confidence of a majority of the people, with the leading men of the people having turned against him in scorn, and captivity and death staring him in the face. In the course of his nightmare he sees himself as a hunted animal, and visualises his final capture and the ignominious treatment that will be meted out to him. Possibly he visualises it in terms of some great chase during a hunt, when the hunted animal is subjected to a cruel death, and applying the idea to himself he cries out for deliverance.
Yet others see it as an ‘ideal' picture of the righteous sufferer, describing the multitude of ways that such might suffer in the world preparatory to the bringing in of God's righteous kingly rule. It may be compared in this way with Isaiah 53. And still others have seen it as the cry of the people of God in the awfulness of exile.
But as with Isaiah 53 it might be thought that any suggestion that takes away from it the idea of the awful sufferings of some particular individual must be wide of the mark, for the intensity of suffering is too real, and the despair too deep, for it to come from any other than personal experience.
Certainly the heading connects the psalm with the house of David. We might well therefore see it as initially true of David himself in the days of his persecution by Saul, or of one of his descendants in a time of great crisis and defeat. Its inclusion in worship would then show that it could be seen as continuing to apply to the house of David as it went through its traumas of history. At any time they could find themselves facing a similar experience, and could have the same hope. For YHWH was the deliverer of the weak and helpless in the face of the enemy.
And as such it can above all be interpreted Messianically, (as it is also at Qumran), as preparing for the day when great David's greater Son will endure precisely such contradiction of sinners against Himself, for it was later recognised that the Son of Man must emerge from suffering to receive his throne (Daniel 7:14), and that the Messiah would be cut off and would have nothing (Daniel 9:25). It clearly also links with the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53.
That Jesus applied the psalm to Himself is clear from His cry on the cross (Mark 15:34) which cites the first verse of the psalm, and John sees further fulfilment of it in terms of the distribution of Jesus' clothing (Psalms 22:18 with John 19:24), while the words of those who put him to scorn are paralleled by bystanders at the cross. That there are many parallels between the Psalm and Jesus' experience on the cross we will see as we consider the psalm in detail. For here we have God writing the story prior to the event.
That Israel and Judah would also apply it to their own sufferings could also be guaranteed, but that does not necessarily signify that that was its source. That was the purpose of Psalms, to be applied to many cases. The Psalm may well, however, have been the inspiration for the expressions of suffering in Isaiah and Jeremiah as they recognised that God's purposes would be achieved through suffering, especially in Isaiah's vision of a suffering exalted One (Isaiah 52:13-15).
Heading.
‘For the Chief Musician; set to Aijeleth hash-Shahar. A Psalm of David.'
This is yet another Psalm offered to the organiser of the sacred music, or the choirmaster, and dedicated to David. As such it was intended to aid the worship of Israel, something which must be borne in mind when seeking to interpret its significance. It was intended to have a message for its day.
The tune Aijeleth hash-Shahar means ‘hind of the dawn'. If it indicated a hind stirred at break of day by the horns of the huntsmen, having to endure the chase and to die under the teeth of the hunting dogs and the spears of the huntsmen, exhausted and in complete hopelessness, it would be very fitting. Perhaps that was in the mind of the composer and/or the writer. If the writer thought in such terms it would help to explain some of the vivid language that follows.
However, one thing that stands out about this Psalm is that in all the despair there is (unusually) no confession of guilt. The one who prays does so as one who has no awareness of sin. He cries for vindication, not for forgiveness. It is a fitting picture of Jesus Christ Who alone could genuinely have prayed like this (see Meditation that follows).