Psalms 22

Psalms 22:1-10

The Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, testifies in this psalm, as clearly and fully as any other life in all the Old Testament, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, 1 Pet. 1. 11. of him, no doubt, David here speaks, and not of himself, or of any other man. Missing complaints, and prayers, and comforts, he speaks, 1. Of the humiliation of Christ, vers. 1—21. 2. Of the exaltation of Christ, that his undertaking should be for the glory of God, vers. 22—25. For the salvation and joy of his people, vers. 26—29. And for the perpetuating of his own kingdom, vers. 30, 31. In singing this psalm, we ought to keep our thoughts fixed upon Christ, and be so effected with his sufferings, as to experience the fellowship of them, and so effected with his grace, as to experience the power and influence of it.

¶ To the chief musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A psalm of David. Or, the kind of the morning.

MY God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 1. My art thou so far from the world of my ‘roing’ 2. O my God, I cry in the day-time, ‘but thou hearest not; and in the night-season, and am not silent. 3. But thou art holy, O thou ’that inhabited the praises of Israel. 4. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou duld deliver them. 5. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 6. But I am a worm, and no man, ‘a reproach of men, and deplised of the people. 7. ‘All they that see me, laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip,’ they shake the head, saying, 8. ‘He ’s trusted on the LORD, that he would deliver him: ’let him deliver him, ‘seeing he delighted in him. 9. But ’thou art he that took me out of the womb; thou duld ‘make me hope, when I was upon my mother’s breasts. 10. I was call upon thee from the womb: ’thou art my God from my mother’s belly.

The title of this psalm is to the chief musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, which several understand of the musical instrument to which it was set; others, that it points to Christ, the object of it, as the morning loud, given up to the>tells of the hunters, but gloriously at last escaping from their snares. We have here.

1. A bitter complaint from a sense of God’s absence from his soul. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Withdrawn the sense of thy favour, and art so far from helping me, when under the bitterest agonies of soul, as well as tormenting pains in my body, and from the words of my roaring, when with an exceeding loud and bitter cry I bemoan my wretchedness, (for this fulfilled, Mat. xxvii. 4b.) In the day on the cross, and in the night, in the garden, inconstantly he cried, and yet the bitter cup might not pass from him, and herein God appeared as tho’ he heard him not. Now, (1.) If God for a time left his own son to conflict with such distress of soul, let not any

7 N Saint Pfam XXII.

faint of God, in a like cafe, think that a strange thing hath happened unto him. (2.) We may not case to use the language of faith, though oppressed with affliction, and depicted with fear: My God must we fill call him. (3.) As long as the soul can cry and complain to God, though as it were in dying groans, there is yet life and hope, and he will bring us from the gates of death. (4.) If the exercise be long, as well as generous, and God from not to hear or regard us, yet it becomes us with ceaseless importunity still day and night to cry, if so be there may be hope.

2. He encourages his trust in God, notwithstanding his miserable estate. (1.) From a sense of the business of God; Thus art help, who, in all the sufferings the Redeemer endured, designed to display his righteousness in the punishment of sin; for having become his people’s surety, it was just he should bear their turnover. O thou that inhabited the prairie of Israel, art the object of continual praise for the wondrous mercies manifested in redeeming grace. (2.) From the former experience of the saints of God: Our fathers trusted in thee, &c. As God, it may be said, Who is his father? As man, he was the seed of Abraham, David, &c. whose troubles were as great, as their deliverances were glorious, and who never sought God’s face in vain. Now, (1.) If God’s glory be exalted by our sufferings, it may well reconcile us to them. (2.) The experience of former ages thanks as a lesson and encouragement to us, to be followers of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

3. He laments the contempt and reproach call upon him: as a worm trodden down by every foot; so deplorable, as if he was no man; below the meander; derided and formed; treated as an impostor; executed as a villain and murderer; and, even on the accorded tree, mockery added to his shame and torture; whilst they who went by literally fulfilled this prophecy, wagging the head, and saying, He trusted in God, that he would deliver him: In him deliver him, giving he delighted in him. Now, (1.) The most honourable character in the sight of God, is usually that which man deploreth. (2.) They who will be followers of Christ, must be content to bear his reproach.

4. Notwithstanding he trusted in God, whose care from tendereth infancy he had experienced; by wondrous providence, though in a stable born, thou didst make me hope, or, keep me in safety; and, by a miraculous villain, secured him, when a babe at the breath, in Egypt from Herod’s cruelty, I was not upon thee from the days of my nativity, and I trust I shall find the same protection to the end of my life. Now, The mercies of our days of helpless infancy should never be forgotten; and he that brought us safely from the womb, we are bound to trust, will carry us comfortably to our grave.

5. Be not far from me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help. 12. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Basham have betet me round. 13. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. 14. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15. My strength is dried up like a pothnet: and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 16. For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. 17. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. 18. They part my garments among them, and call him upon my vesture. 19. But be not thou far from me, O LORD; O my strength, haste thee to help me. 20. Deliver my soul from the sword: my darling from the power of the dog. 21. Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

6. 11—21. Whithes shall the afflicted sufferer fly, but unto the God of his help and his salvation? We have here,

7. The sufferings of Christ described, and with such precision, that we cannot but be convinced, that Jesus is the Christ. Troubles like rolling waves, from perplexious friends and open enemies, approached him; near to help him; forsaken of all; and left alone to grapple with the united force of earth and hell. Fierce and strong as bulls of Basham, his enemies rushed upon him; eager as the blood-bound on his prey, they seized him; and, cruel as a ravening and roaring lion, fought to terrify his mind, whilst they broke him in pieces with their savage jaws. His humanity, weak as water; his joints, as if unloaded, his heart melted as wax, and his strength quite falling him. Compassed about by the assembly of the wicked, urgent to hadten his miserable end; naked to the accosted tree; hung up in ignominy and torture; his bones dislocated, and ready to bear through his skin; his enemies soothing their eyes with the inhuman spectacle; his tongue dry with thrift, which is inflicted with vinegar mingled with gall; his blood gushing out as water upon the earth; his soul melted as wax with a sense of

divine wrath, and death coming to put at last a period to his miseries, and bring him to the dust. Such things he endured for us men and our salvation. Had he not borne these torturing pains, we must have been eternally tormented: if his soul had not felt the wrath, ours must have been exposed to it: but for his thrift, we must have wanted a drop of water to cool a flaming tongue; and if his body had not for a while been laid in the dust, our bodies and souls must have for ever lain in the belly of hell. O blessed then, for ever blessed be God for Jesus Christ.

2. The minutest circumstances are observed, their devising his garments, and upflowing lots upon his vesture; and this we find the soldiers did, John 1st. 23. 24. He purred with his fountain vesture as a prey, that he might obtain for us spotless garments of everlasting righteousness.

3. His prayer for help: Be not thou far from me, O Lord. As man now suffering, God was his refuge: O my strength, by which the humanity can be alone supported, haste thee to help me; the greatness of my trials admits of no delay. Deliver my soul from the power, from the sense of divine wrath, and my darling, or my only one, or my solitary one, meaning himself, his precious life, from the power of the dog, the wicked Caiaphas, unjust Pilate, or treacherous Judas. Some me from the lion’s mouth, from Satan, that, like a ramping and roaring lion, threatened to devour him: for thou hast heard me, and therefore I can trust the same help shall be granted, from the horns of the unicorn; from my foes, that like unicorns rush at me, and between whose horns I am ready to perish. Now, (1.) Though God may seem to hide himself, yet he is not far from his people, and means only to excise their importunity in prayer, and to exercise their faith. (2.) Hath God delivered his darling Son from the lion’s mouth, and the unicorn’s horn; and shall he not deliver his darling people also? (3.) We can never be call to low, but there is still ground for trust and hope in God.

4. I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. 23. Yea that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Israel. 24. For he hath not despised, nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted: neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard. 25. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. 26. The mercy shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him; your heart shall live for ever. 27. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. 28. For the kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations. 29. All they that be far upon earth, shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust, shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. 30. A seed shall serve him, if it shall be accounted to the LORD for a generation. 31. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

5. 22—31. When Jesus, by the sufferings of death for a moment, formed to sink beneath his fons, in silent anguish his people sat disconsolate; but lo he comes to awaken up their praises, and from the dust to proclaim his finished redemption.

6. He opens the triumphant song himself: I will declare thy name, thy glory, grace, and faithfulness, among my brethren, the church of the redeemed, whom Christ is not ashamed to call brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee; in the hearts of his militant members on earth, or at the head of his glorified Sums in heaven.

7. He calls upon his people to join the thanksgiving. The spiritual seed of Jacob, and the true Israel of God, must praise and glorify him, for his mercy in the Redeemer, whose afflictions, far from despising or abhorring, he was well-deceased with, and accepted as the full satisfaction for his people’s sins; looked upon him with most delightful complacence, even in his agony, and heard and answered his cry in the salvation rescheduled to him in the resurrection-day, and to all his people for his sake: and herein the Saviour leads the way, My prayer shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows of praise to God, (See 9. 21.) or his engagements to his redeemed, whose character is given as those that fear God. Now, (1.) Praise is a solemn part of divine worship, and in it the whole congregation should gladly and devoutly join. (2.) The work of the Redeemer will be the matter of the satanic praise to memory.

8. In Christ are found rich toopters for the soul’s nourishment and comfort. The week, those who are lovely in their own eyes, and have learnt of the meek and humble Jesus, shall eat, feed upon the flesh of Christ, and all the saving benefits thence derived, and be satisfied, in the perfection of his facti-

fier, righteousness, and redemption. They shall pray for the Lord that he has been, who hungering and thirling after his righteousness, seek and find all fulness in him; your heart shall love for ever, the life of grace here, the life of glory hereafter. Nate, (1.) They who feed on Christ by faith, possess a life in him, which even death cannot all hope. (2.) If we would have comfort in Christ, we must be like him, meet and lowly in heart, and then we shall surely find rest unto our souls.

4. The extent of Christ’s kingdom shall be universal. By the power of Divine grace, the ends of the earth shall be called and converted to him, v. 27, and come and worship before him. The kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord, and he shall be the governor, to reign in his people’s hearts by love, and over his enemies with a rod of iron. High and low, quick and dead, v. 29. must submit to his government, and whilst they own that they cannot keep after their own souls, shall trust them safely in his hands, to keep them against the great resurrection day. Nate, (1.) However the cause of Christ in any age may be oppressed and brought low, it shall be finally triumphant. (2.) When we are going down into the dust, it is an unbreakable mercy to know whom we have believed, and to be comfortably satisfied concerning our eternal life in glory. For,

5. The kingdom of Christ shall be eternal, as well as universal. A seed shall serve him; in every age, to the end of time, there shall be a thorny remnant; or shall be assumed to the Lord for a generation, share his tenderest regards, and be kept by his paternal care. They shall come from age to age, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he finds done this; shall transmit to lastest potency the Redeemer’s work, and especially his righteousness, the perfection of it, the necessity of being found in it, and the security of those to whom it is imputed. Thus shall the memorial of him be kept up, till he shall come the second time from heaven, not as a suffering Messiah, but as the righteous Judge and eternal King, to reign in glory over the election of his grace, and to execute judgment on the neglectors and despisers of his great salvation!