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 coin... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CROSS. ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Why are you so far from helping Me, and from the words of My loud groaning?' These words were cited by Jesus on the cross. But we cannot see it as merely signifying that Jesus was taking comfort from the Psalm. It was rather because (if we may... [ Continue Reading ]
A CRY OF DESPAIR FROM THE HEART, FROM ONE WHO YET HOPES IN GOD (PSALMS 22:1). Psalms 22:1 ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring (groaning)?' God is here spoken of as El, (Eli, Eli - my God, my God - in the Aramaic Eloi or... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Oh My God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer, and in the night season, and am not silent.' For the first time in His life Jesus had become aware of what to us is commonplace, the sense of separation from the Father. He had become aware of what it meant to pray knowing that there seemed to... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But You are holy, O You Who inhabits the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You. They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered. They trusted in You, and were not put to shame.' At no stage did Jesus lose confidence in the Father as the Deliverer of Israel. Even... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But I am a worm, and no man. A reproach of men, and despised of the people.' He recognised that He had taken the position of the lowest of the low. He had become a worm, not a man, helpless and there to be kicked, and trodden on, and crushed under the heel. He was taking on Himself the reproaches... [ Continue Reading ]
‘All they who see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “Commit Yourself to YHWH. Let Him deliver Him. Let Him rescue Him, seeing He delights in Him.” Those who gathered round His cross were full of mocking They all laughed Him to scorn. He had claimed to be the... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But You are He who took me out of the womb. You made me trust when I was on my mother's breasts. I was cast on you from the womb. You are my God since my mother bore me.' Yet in it all He could not forget that it was God Who had brought Him forth from the womb. God had taught Him to trust even as... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.' So in His extremity He cried that God would not be too far from Him. For He was aware of what He must face, and that there was no one else to whom He could go for help. Chronologically this comes before Psalms 22:1. And for a... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SUFFERER'S PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE AND PROVIDES A DESCRIPTION OF HIS PREDICAMENT (PSALMS 22:11). That we are to see some of these descriptions as figurative comes out in Psalms 22:21 where the psalmist sums all up by describing it as being saved from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wi... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gape at Me with their mouth, like a ravening and a roaring lion.' He knew what had brought Him there. During His last days He had been crowded in as though by a herd of bulls which had threatened and surrounded Him, as... [ Continue Reading ]
‘I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted within me.' The inevitable effects of crucifixion were having their effect. His body was being weakened as the blood poured from His many wounds like water, and as His body was twisted and stretched b... [ Continue Reading ]
‘My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws, and You have brought me into the dust of death.' His body had been toughened by His manner of life, but now all His strength had flowed out of Him. On top of the other pain, the hot sun had dried Him out, as the sweat had p... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For dogs have surrounded Me. A company of evildoers have enclosed Me. They pierced my hands and my feet.' But His trials continued. Having obtained that they wanted, His opponents were now gathered round Him like a pack of snarling dogs, and He felt enclosed by the soldiers of Rome who had driven... [ Continue Reading ]
‘I may count all my bones. They look and stare at me.' His hours on the cross, by distorting His whole body as a consequence of the unnatural strain exerted on it, resulted in His bones thrusting themselves up under His skin, so that every bone could be counted, and meanwhile the spectators stared... [ Continue Reading ]
‘They part my garments among them, and for My robe they cast lots. Meanwhile as He hung there, the soldiers gambled heartlessly at His feet, dividing up His clothing, and casting lots for His seamless robe. As far as they were concerned He was as good as dead, and His clothes were their perquisites... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But do not be far off, Oh YHWH. Oh You Who are my succour, hurry to my aid.' As the long hours passed, and the battles with evil and sin continued, He cried that God might not be far off but might hurry to help Him. The hours of darkness seemed so long, the battle with the forces of evil so powerf... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Deliver my soul from the sword, My darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, yes, from the horns of the wild-oxen You have answered me.' A victim of the sword of Rome, and the dogs of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, He cries to be delivered from them both, as though from the mouth... [ Continue Reading ]
HE COMES OUT OF HIS SITUATION IN TRIUMPH BECAUSE OF THE KINGLY RULE OF GOD (PSALMS 22:22). The Psalmist now rejoiced in the deliverance of the one about whom he has been speaking. For the result is to be that all the ends of the earth will seek YHWH and His Kingly Rule will be established over the... [ Continue Reading ]
‘You who fear YHWH, praise Him. All you, the seed of Jacob, glorify Him. And stand in awe of Him, all you the seed of Israel.' And in fulfilment of His promise He calls on all who fear YHWH to praise Him, and all ‘the seed of Jacob/Israel' (representing God's true people) to glorify Him and stand i... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has He hid His face from Him. But when He cried to Him, He heard.' And the reason why they are to praise God is because He has not despised or turned away from the deep afflictions of the Afflicted One. Rather when He had cr... [ Continue Reading ]
‘From You comes My praise in the great assembly, I will pay my vows before those who fear Him.' Indeed it is from Him, as a result of His working, that Jesus can praise Him among His people. For Jesus has offered Himself up as an acceptable freewill offering (Hebrews 10:1) so that He might dispense... [ Continue Reading ]
‘The meek will eat and be satisfied. They will praise YHWH who seek after Him. Let your heart live for ever. And the result is that the poor and humble will partake of Him and be satisfied (John 6:35). They will eat and be filled. And those who seek after YHWH will praise Him. In the words of Jesus... [ Continue Reading ]
‘All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to YHWH. And all the families of the nations will worship before You.' And not only will the poor and needy praise Him, but among the nations to the ends of the earth many will acknowledge His Name. They will remember what the Afflicted One has endu... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For the Kingly Rules is YHWH's, and He is the ruler over the nations.' For they will recognise that the Kingly Rule over all things is YHWH's and that it is He Who rules over the nations. Thus will they ‘enter under the Kingly Rule of God' at His behest.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘All the fat ones of the earth will eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive.' In His presence all are equal. Both those who prosper and those who can hardly keep themselves alive and are near death (in other words men of every k... [ Continue Reading ]
‘A seed will serve Him. It will be told of the Lord unto the next generation. They will come and will declare His righteousness, to a people who will be born, that he has done it.' And a seed will serve Him, the holy seed of Isaiah 6:13, those who have been refined and have responded to Him and loo... [ Continue Reading ]