Psalms 22 - Introduction

XXII.

The fact that Jesus uttered from His cross the words of bitter woe that begin this poem, have given and must ever give it a special interest and importance. It was natural that Christian sentiment should fasten lovingly on it, and almost claim it, not only as a record of suffering typical of our Lord’s suffering, but as actually in every detail prophetic of Him. But the signs of a true Messianic character of prophecy are to be looked for in moral likeness, not in accidental resemblances of situation, or coincidences of language, and in this sense Psalms 22 must ever be considered Messianic.

Nothing in David’s recorded life bears out the title. The identification of the sufferer with Jeremiah, though much more probable, is excluded by the joyous and hopeful tone of the conclusion of the poem. But is it an individual sufferer at all, and not rather suffering Israel whose profound misery in the first part, and whose happy restoration in the second, the poet depicts?

If such an interpretation suits the description of the suffering servant of Jehovah in Isa. Iii., 53, as many critics think (comp. Isaiah 49:3), it suggests itself for this psalm which has so many points of analogy with that passage (see Notes). The herds of wild beasts that surround the sufferer are more appropriate as a figure of hostile tribes than of personal enemies, and the vivid picture of suffering in Psalms 22:14 are not less applicable to the material condition of an oppressed nation than the description in Isaiah 1:5 is to the moral condition. (Comp. Isaiah 52:14.) Such a view certainly suits the conclusion of the psalm better than any other. The individual sufferer at all events there disappears, and his fortunes merge in those of the nation (notice the change to the plural in Psalms 22:26; Psalms 22:29), and the brilliant prospect of a time when the tale of God’s righteousness shall be handed down from generation to generation is that of the prophet who has mourned his country’s woes rather than his own, and has seen in faith the prayers of Israel heard, and the promises made to her amply performed.

Still, the strong personal tone in the opening of the poem suggests that this prophet was himself closely identified with the sufferings he depicts, and shared them not only in sympathy but in reality, and the great consensus of opinion looks for the author among the sufferers in the exile, and probably among the Levites. (See Note, Psalms 22:26.) The rhythm is irregular, suited to such a dirge.

Upon Aijeleth Shahar. — More correctly, upon Ayyeleth ha-shachar, i.e., upon the hind of the morning, a phrase which at once suggests either an instrument so named, or a particular tune to which the psalm was to be sung, as we might say, “to the tune of ‘As pants the hart.’ ” The latter is the view to which all the best commentators have now unanimously come. It is not worth while even to notice other conjectures.