Psalms 22

1 To (the) overcomer, for the morrowtide hind, the psalm of David. God, my God, behold thou on me, why hast thou forsaken me? the words of my trespasses be far from mine health. (To the overcomer, for the labourer in the morning, the song of David. God, my God, look thou upon me, why hast thou abandoned me? why is thy help so far from me, yea, from answering my plea?)

2 My God, I shall cry by day, and thou shalt not hear; and by night, and not to unwisdom to me. (My God, I cry to thee all day long, but thou answerest me not; and I cry to thee all night, without any ceasing.)

3 Forsooth thou, the praising of Israel, dwellest in holiness;

4 our fathers hoped in thee; they hoped, and thou deliveredest them. (our forefathers put their trust in thee; they trusted thee, and thou deliveredest them.)

5 They cried to thee, and they were made safe; they hoped in thee, and they were not shamed. (They cried to thee, and they were saved; they trusted thee, and they were not put to shame, or were not disappointed.)

6 But I am a worm, and not a man; the shame of men, and the outcasting of the people. (But I am a worm, and not a man; despised, and an outcast among the people.)

7 All men seeing me scorned me; they spake with lips, and wagged the head, and said,

8 He hoped in the Lord, deliver he him; make he him safe, for he will him. (He hoped in the Lord, that he would rescue him; so let him save him, if he delighteth in him.)

9 For thou it art that drewest me out of the womb, that art mine hope from the teats of my mother; (For thou art he who drew me out of the womb, thou who art my hope from my mother's breast;)

10 into thee I am cast forth from the womb. From the womb of my mother thou art my God; (and I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's womb;)

11 depart thou not from me. For tribulation is next; for none there is that helpeth. (go thou not away from me. For trouble is near; and there is no one to help me.)

12 Many calves (en)compassed me; fat bulls besieged me. (Many calves surrounded me; the strong bulls of Bashan besieged me.)

13 They opened their mouth on me; as a lion ravishing and roaring. (They opened their mouths upon me; like a roaring and ravaging lion.)

14 I am poured out as water; and all my bones be scattered. Mine heart is made, as wax floating abroad; in the midst of my womb. (I am poured out like water; and all my bones be out of joint. My heart hath turned to wax; and it melteth within me.)

15 My virtue dried as a tilestone, and my tongue cleaved to my cheeks; and thou hast brought forth me into the dust of death. (My strength dried up like a tilestone, and my tongue cleaved to my cheeks; and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death.)

16 For many dogs (en)compassed me; the council of wicked men besieged me. They delved mine hands and my feet; (For many dogs surrounded me; yea, a band of wicked men besieged me. They pierced my hands and my feet;)

17 they numbered all my bones. Soothly they looked (at), and beheld me; (and they counted up all my bones. Yea, they beheld me;)

18 they parted my clothes to themselves, and they sent lot on my cloth. (then they parted my clothes among themselves, and they cast lots for my cloak.)

19 But thou, Lord, delay not thine help from me; behold thou to my defence. (But thou, Lord, do not delay thy help for me; hasten thou to my defence.)

20 God, deliver thou my life from sword; and deliver thou mine one alone from the hand, or power, of the dog. (God, deliver thou my life from the sword; yea, rescue thou my very life from the power of these dogs.)

21 Make thou me safe from the mouth of a lion; and my meekness from the horns of unicorns. (Save thou me from the lion's mouth; yea, my poor body from the horns of these bulls.)

22 I shall tell thy name to my brethren; I shall praise thee in the midst of the church. (I shall tell out thy name to my brothers, or my kinsmen; and I shall praise thee in the midst of the congregation.)

23 Ye that dread the Lord, praise him; all the seed of Jacob, glorify him. All the seed of Israel, dread him; (Ye who fear the Lord, praise him; all of Jacob's children, glorify him. All of Israel's descendants, fear him;/Ye who revere the Lord, praise him; all of Jacob's children, glorify him. All of Israel's descendants, revere him;)

24 for he forsook not, neither despised the prayer of a poor man. Neither he turned away his face from me; and when I cried to him, he heard me. (for he forsook not, nor despised the prayer of the poor man. Nor hath he turned his face away from him; but when he cried to him, he answered him.)

25 My praising is with thee in a great church; I shall yield my vows in the sight of men dreading him. (My praises shall be for thee before the great congregation; I shall pay my vows before those who fear thee/before those who revere thee.)

26 Poor men shall eat, and shall be [ful]filled, and they shall praise the Lord, that seek him; the hearts of them shall live into the world of world. (The poor shall eat, and shall be satisfied; and they who seek the Lord shall praise him, and their hearts shall live forever and ever.)

27 All the ends of earth shall bethink; and shall be converted to the Lord. And all the families of heathen men, shall worship in his sight. (All the ends of the earth shall remember the Lord; and shall turn to him. And all the families of the heathen, shall worship before him.)

28 For the realm is the Lord's; and he shall be Lord of heathen men. (For the Lord is the King; and he is the Lord of the heathen, yea, of all the nations.)

29 All the fat men of earth ate and worshipped; all men, that go down into earth, shall fall down in his sight. And my soul shall live to him; (All the proud people of the earth shall eat at his feasts, and they shall worship him; all those, who go down into the earth, yea, who go down into the grave, shall bow down before him. And my soul shall live for him;)

30 and my seed shall serve him. A generation to coming shall be told to the Lord; (and my children, or my descendants, shall serve him. The generations to come shall be told about the Lord;)

31 and heavens shall tell his rightfulness to the people that shall be born, whom the Lord made. (they shall tell of his righteousness to the people yet to be born, yea, what the Lord hath done/that the Lord hath done this.)

Psalms 22 Commentary

Chapter 22

Complaints of discouragement. (1-10) With prayer for deliverance. (11-21) Praises for mercies and redemption. (22-31)

Verses 1-10 The Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, testifies in this psalm, clearly and fully, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. We have a sorrowful complaint of God's withdrawings. This may be applied to any child of God, pressed down, overwhelmed with grief and terror. Spiritual desertions are the saints' sorest afflictions; but even their complaint of these burdens is a sign of spiritual life, and spiritual senses exercised. To cry our, My God, why am I sick? why am I poor? savours of discontent and worldliness. But, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" is the language of a heart binding up its happiness in God's favour. This must be applied to Christ. In the first words of this complaint, he poured out his soul before God when he was upon the cross, ( Matthew 27:46 ) . Being truly man, Christ felt a natural unwillingness to pass through such great sorrows, yet his zeal and love prevailed. Christ declared the holiness of God, his heavenly Father, in his sharpest sufferings; nay, declared them to be a proof of it, for which he would be continually praised by his Israel, more than for all other deliverances they received. Never any that hoped in thee, were made ashamed of their hope; never any that sought thee, sought thee in vain. Here is a complaint of the contempt and reproach of men. The Saviour here spoke of the abject state to which he was reduced. The history of Christ's sufferings, and of his birth, explains this prophecy.

Verses 11-21 In these verses we have Christ suffering, and Christ praying; by which we are directed to look for crosses, and to look up to God under them. The very manner of Christ's death is described, though not in use among the Jews. They pierced his hands and his feet, which were nailed to the accursed tree, and his whole body was left so to hang as to suffer the most severe pain and torture. His natural force failed, being wasted by the fire of Divine wrath preying upon his spirits. Who then can stand before God's anger? or who knows the power of it? The life of the sinner was forfeited, and the life of the Sacrifice must be the ransom for it. Our Lord Jesus was stripped, when he was crucified, that he might clothe us with the robe of his righteousness. Thus it was written, therefore thus it behoved Christ to suffer. Let all this confirm our faith in him as the true Messiah, and excite our love to him as the best of friends, who loved us, and suffered all this for us. Christ in his agony prayed, prayed earnestly, prayed that the cup might pass from him. 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 have spiritual delights. He prays to be delivered from the Divine wrath. He that has delivered, doth deliver, and will do so. We should think upon the sufferings and resurrection of Christ, till we feel in our souls the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings.

Verses 22-31 The Saviour now speaks as risen from the dead. The first words of the complaint were used by Christ himself upon the cross; the first words of the triumph are expressly applied to him, ( Hebrews 2:12 ) . All our praises must refer to the work of redemption. The suffering of the Redeemer was graciously accepted as a full satisfaction for sin. Though it was offered for sinful men, the Father did not despise or abhor it for our sakes. This ought to be the matter of our thanksgiving. All humble, gracious souls should have a full satisfaction and happiness in him. Those that hunger and thirst after righteousness in Christ, shall not labour for that which satisfies not. Those that are much in praying, will be much in thanksgiving. Those that turn to God, will make conscience of worshipping before him. Let every tongue confess that he is Lord. High and low, rich and poor, bond and free, meet in Christ. Seeing we cannot keep alive our own souls, it is our wisdom, by obedient faith, to commit our souls to Christ, who is able to save and keep them alive for ever. A seed shall serve him. God will have a church in the world to the end of time. They shall be accounted to him for a generation; he will be the same to them that he was to those who went before them. His righteousness, and not any of their own, they shall declare to be the foundation of all their hopes, and the fountain of all their joys. Redemption by Christ is the Lord's own doing. Here we see the free love and compassion of God the Father, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, for us wretched sinners, as the source of all grace and consolation; the example we are to follow, the treatment as Christians we are to expect, and the conduct under it we are to adopt. Every lesson may here be learned that can profit the humbled soul. Let those who go about to establish their own righteousness inquire, why the beloved Son of God should thus suffer, if their own doings could atone for sin? Let the ungodly professor consider whether the Saviour thus honoured the Divine law, to purchase him the privilege of despising it. Let the careless take warning to flee from the wrath to come, and the trembling rest their hopes upon this merciful Redeemer. Let the tempted and distressed believer cheerfully expect a happy end of every trial.

Chapter Summary

To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, a Psalm of David. The only thing observable in the title of this psalm is the sense of the words "Aijeleth Shahar," left untranslated; which, according to some of the Jewish {g} interpreters, is the name of a musical instrument; to which our version inclines; and a learned Jew {h} says, it is the instrument which the mourning women used on account of distress which was sudden, not known till it came, as a man does not think of the morning till he sees it. "Aijeleth" with him has the signification of mourning, as "Eli" in Joel 1:8; and "Shahar," as in Isaiah 47:11; so tyla and tyyla are used in the Misnah {i} for a mourning woman; and with others it is the beginning of a song to the tune of which the psalm was set {k} but I rather think the words express the subject matter of the psalm, and that they may be rendered, concerning "Aijeleth Shahar"; which signify, either according to the Chaldee paraphrase, "the daily morning sacrifice"; or, as some Jewish writers {l} observe, the "morning star"; or, according to the Septuagint, "the morning help" {m}; or rather "the morning hind"; or "hind of the morning": but who should be designed hereby is the question. The Jews would have any rather than the Messiah; some say Esther {n}, who so seasonably and readily appeared for the Jews in distress, and was the means of their deliverance; but there is not one word in the psalm that agrees with her; and there are some things which were manifestly spoken of a man, and not a woman, Psalm 22:8; others say David {o}, when he fled from Saul, or, as others, from Absalom: but the disjointing the bones of this person, the piercing his hands and feet, parting his garments, and casting lots on his vesture, mentioned in Psalm 22:14; were never fulfilled in him. Others {p} would have the congregation of Israel in captivity intended; but it is plain that a single person is spoken of throughout; and he is manifestly distinguished from others, from his brethren, from the congregation, from the seed of Jacob and Israel, Psalm 22:22; and, indeed, no other than the Messiah can be meant: and of this there ought to be no doubt with Christians, when Psalm 22:1 is compared with Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22:8 with Matthew 27:43; Psalm 22:18 with Matthew 27:35; Psalm 22:22 with Hebrews 2:12; and the Jews themselves sometimes say, that by "Aijeleth Shahar" is meant the Shechinah {q}, or the divine Majesty; and in what way soever these words are rendered, they agree with Christ: he is the antitype of "the daily morning sacrifice," the Lamb of God, who continually takes away the sin of the world; and very fitly is he so called in the title of a psalm which speaks so much of his sufferings and death, which are a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of his people; he is "the bright and morning star," Revelation 22:16; the dayspring from on high, the sun of righteousness, and light of the world: he had "morning help" in his very infancy, when his life was sought for by Herod; and had early and seasonable help and assistance in the acceptable time, and in the day of salvation, and early in the morning was he raised from the dead, and had glory given him: but as the words are better rendered "the morning hind," this suits with Christ, who is frequently compared to a roe or a young hart, Song of Solomon 2:9; and he may be compared to a "hind" for its lovingness to its mate and young, Proverbs 5:19; the love of Christ to his church and people being very strong and affectionate, and passing knowledge; and also for its loveliness and goodliness, Genesis 49:21; Christ being exceeding amiable and lovely, and fairer than the children of men; likewise for its gentleness and harmlessness, Christ being meek and lowly, holy and harmless; and for its antipathy to serpents, there being an enmity between Christ, the seed of the woman, and the serpent and his seed; for its being hunted by dogs, as Christ was by Herod, by the Scribes and Pharisees, by Judas, and the band of soldiers; see Psalm 22:16; for its being fit for food, Deuteronomy 14:5; and as it is said to be the fitter for being hunted, Christ's flesh being meat indeed, and the more suitable to faith, as being sacrificed for us; and for its long life it is said to have, Christ, though once dead, being alive again, and living for evermore; to which may be added its great swiftness, expressive of the readiness of Christ to comply with his Father's proposals and do his will; to come into this world in the fulness of time, and set about the work he came to do; to deliver up himself into the hands of his enemies, and lay down his life for his people; and of his haste to help them in distress, and visit them with his gracious presence, and to appear a second time to them unto salvation. He may be called the hind of "the morning," looking lovely and beautiful as the morning, and swift and cheerful as the hind when it rises from its rest, and runs its course; or because of his being hunted in the morning of his infancy by Herod; or because it was early in the morning the chief priests consulted to take away his life; and as early also he rose from the dead, when God made his feet like hinds feet, and set him on his high places, Psalm 18:33. The ancient Christian writers generally understood it of Christ wholly. Justin Martyr {r} says, the whole psalm is spoken of Christ; and Tertullian observes {s}, that it contains the whole passion, or all the sufferings of Christ. The late Mons. Fourmont {t}, the elder, professor of the Oriental languages in the university of Paris, has a very singular notion, that this psalm was written by Jeremiah, when he was drawn up from the dungeon, and is a history of his life and sufferings, in which he was a type of Christ.

{g} Jarchi, Kimchi, & Abendana in loc. {h} Leo Mutinens. Shilte Hagibborim, fol. 5. 1. {i} Misn. Celim, c. 15. 6. & 16. 7. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. {k} Aben Ezra in loc. {l} Vide Kimchium & Abendauam in loc. {m} So Menachem in Jarchi, and others in Kimchi & Abendana in loc. {n} R. R. in Jarchi in loc. {o} In Kimchi in loc. {p} Kimchi & Ben Melech in loc. {q} Zohar in Lev. fol. 5. 4. & Imre Binah in ib. {r} Dialog cum Tryphone, p. 325. {s} Adv. Judaeos, c. 10. {t} In hunc Psalm. M. S. penes me, fol. 8. 9.