To the chief musician on Ayeleth shahar, a psalm of David
22:Title Ayeleth shahar probably indicated the tune to be used when singing this song. It means “Doe of the Morning”.⚜
22
📚My God, my God,why have you forsaken me 📖?
Why are you so far
from helping me,
and from the words
of my groaning?
22:1 Like Ps 16 this is a very wonderful and profound psalm. Here we have a prophetic picture of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross (vs 1-21), and after His resurrection (vs 22-31). There are quotations from, or references to, this psalm in Matt 27:39, 43, 46; John 19:23-24 and Heb 2:12. Christ’s crucifixion is described in v 16, His thirst in v 15 (John 19:28). The whole psalm may have been in the thoughts of the Lord Jesus when He hung on the cross. \fp David here is speaking as a prophet by the Spirit of God. There is no event in his history that corresponds to the experience described in this psalm, though some of the language would have been suitable to describe various trials through which he went.⚜
2 📚O my God, I cry out
in the daytime,
but you do not hear;
and in the night season,
and am not silent.
22:2 Jesus once said that God the Father always heard Him, and it was surely true (John 11:41-42). On the cross Jesus cried to Him and the Father remained silent and withdrawn for the first time. For Jesus was enduring the punishment that sinners deserve. Still the suffering Saviour calls the Father “my” God. There is no break in His love and loyalty, no drawing back from the Father’s will.⚜
3 📚But you are holy,
you who inhabit
the praises of Israel 📖.
22:3 He did not accuse God of injustice. He held to the immovable rock of the truth about God – God can commit no wrong, either in what He does, or in what He permits. And God is enthroned, still in charge of events even in that blackest of hours.⚜
4 📚Our fathers trusted
in you;
they trusted, and you delivered
them.
5 📚They cried out to you,
and were delivered.
They trusted in you,
and were not put to shame.
22:4-5 The whole history of the nation Israel gives evidence of the truth of these words.⚜
6 📚But I am a worm,
and no man;
a reproach of men,
and despised by the people.
22:6 Here the Lord Jesus in complete self-abasement says He is less than those forefathers whose prayers God heard, less than any man. The great “I am” declares “I am a worm” – someone to be crushed under foot by scornful men. Hardly anything is weaker, uglier, less regarded by men than a worm. See how men regarded Him – Isa 53:3; Mark 10:33-34. Did not Jesus say He was a worm because He was a substitute for sinners and identified Himself with the least, worst, and weakest of all? because He was in the sinner’s place enduring God’s wrath against sin? because He was made sin for us (2 Cor 5:21)?⚜
7 📚All those who see me
laugh me to scorn.
They shoot out the lip;
they shake the head, saying,
8 📚“He trusted in the LORD
that he would
deliver him!
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him!”
9 📚But you are the one
who took me out of
the womb.
You caused me to hope
when I was on my
mother’s breasts.
10 📚I was cast on you from birth.
You are my God
from my mother’s womb.
22:9-10 In a special way God looked after the birth of His Son into the world. From His earliest memories as a human being on earth the Lord Jesus was conscious of His trust in God as His Father.⚜
11 📚Be not far from me,
for trouble is near;
for there is no one
to help.
22:11 Now in His time of supreme danger He calls on the God in whom He has always trusted. For He is utterly alone wrestling with all the forces of evil and darkness.⚜
12 📚Many bulls have
surrounded me.
Strong bulls of Bashan
have encircled me.
13 📚They opened wide their
mouths at me,
like a ravenous
and 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.
22:14 This indicates a feeling of complete inner sickness and weakness, and outer agony. His body was suspended from the nails in His hands, the muscles and ligaments stretched more and more, the bones slipping from their sockets.⚜
15 📚My strength is dried up 📖 like
a broken piece of pottery,
and my tongue cleaves
to my jaws.
And you have brought me
to the dust of death.
16 📚For dogs have surrounded me;
the assembly of the wicked
have encircled me.
They pierced my hands
and my feet.
22:16 He was pierced at the crucifixion, iron spikes being driven through His hands and feet into the wood of the cross.⚜
17 📚I can count all my bones;
they look and stare at me.
18 📚They divide my garments
among them,
and cast lots for my clothing.
22:12-18 Here Christ’s experiences on the cross, His very thoughts are given to us. His enemies surrounding Him seemed like fat, raging bulls (v 12), roaring lions (v 13), and fierce wild dogs (v 16). He is in the hands of brutal torturers who have no compassion whatever for Him.⚜
22:17-18 John 19:23-24. Jesus was publicly stripped and became a spectacle to the hostile crowd. Stripping indicates utter defeat and humiliation. In ancient times conquerors sometimes stripped their defeated enemies and led them away naked in chains. So it seemed at the cross that Christ’s enemies had completely triumphed over Him.⚜
19 📚But you, O LORD,
be not far from me.
O my strength, come quickly
to help me.
20 📚Deliver my soul from
the sword 📖,
my precious life from
the power of the dog.
21 📚Save me from the lion’s 📖
mouth;
for you have heard me
from the horns of
the wild oxen 📖.
22 📚I will declare your name
to my brethren.
In the midst of the congregation
I will praise you.
22:22 With this verse there is a sudden change. He knows His prayers have been answered. He has fought the good fight of faith and won. (For assurance of faith see also Ps 6:9; 28:6; 31:22.) He immediately thinks of those for whom He is dying and calls them brothers. Believers would hardly dare to call the Lord from heaven their brother, but He calls them so. This verse is quoted in Heb 2:12. It indicates His confidence that God would raise Him from the dead. In fact the remainder of this psalm speaks of events that took place only after the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. “Name” signifies character and attributes. On “declare” see John 17:26.⚜
23 📚You who fear the LORD,
praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob,
glorify him!
And fear him, all you offspring of Israel!
22:23 The fear of God is a very important theme in the Bible, a very necessary attitude for men (notes at 34:11-14; Gen 20:11; Prov 1:7). Jesus Himself was heard because He feared God (Heb 5:7). Here He commands this reverence to others. In the individual, and in the congregation it is the most basic and essential thing if the praise of God is to be heartfelt and genuine. Jesus lived His whole life and died on the cross for the glory of God. Here He commands us to glorify God. He never tells us to do what He would not do Himself. He Himself was the perfect example of all that He taught.⚜
24 📚For he has not despised nor
abhorred the afflictions
of the afflicted one,
nor has he hidden
his face from him;
but when he cried out to him,
he listened.
22:24 A great cause for praising and glorifying God! God, far from despising the sufferings of His Son, accepted them as the punishment due to the sins of believers and then released Him from them. The hiding of God’s face was only temporary. He heard Jesus when He cried out of the depths.⚜
25 📚My praise will be of you
in the great congregation.
I will pay my vows before
those who fear him.
22:25 The Lord Jesus, though not present bodily in a congregation on earth, is present through His Spirit in the meetings of believers (Matt 18:20). His praise mingles with theirs and rises to the throne of God. In the great congregation in heaven (Heb 12:22-24) His praises will be heard. What vows did Christ make? The new covenant God made with men is full of promises of good things. Jesus is the meditator of this covenant. Also He was a servant of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers (Rom 15:8). As the Son of God and Saviour of men all such promises are His promises and He will infallibly fulfill them.⚜
26 📚The meek will eat
and be satisfied 📖.
Those who seek the LORD
will praise him;
your heart will live forever.
27 📚All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn
to the LORD,
and all the families of
the nations will worship
before you.
22:27 This is the result of the work accomplished by the Lord Jesus on the cross – Ps 2:8; 86:9; Matt 28:19; Rev 7:9-10.⚜
28 📚For the kingdom is the LORD’s,
and he is the ruler
over the nations.
22:28 See Ps 47:2, 7, 8; Matt 28:18. What God has determined to do He has the power and authority to do, and He will do it.⚜
29 📚All those who are prosperous
on earth will eat
and worship;
all those who go down
to the dust will
bow before him,
and no one can keep
his own soul alive.
22:29 In the Lord Jesus there is food enough for all, and even the rich and powerful may partake if they humble themselves. Eventually every knee will bow to Him – Isa 45:22-24; 49:7; Phil 2:10.⚜
30 📚A posterity will serve him;
it will be counted to the Lord
as a generation.
22:30 We who believe and serve Him now are proof of the truth of this prophecy. And His worship and praise shall never end.⚜
31 📚They will come and declare
his righteousness to a people
who will be born,
that he has done this.
22:31 The great themes of God’s people throughout all generations will be God’s righteousness, His way of making men righteous, and the finished work of Christ on the cross. In this psalm we see that Christ was forsaken by God that believers might never be forsaken. He was laid in the dust of death that we might be raised from the dust and never die. He was in the lion’s mouth that we might be eternally delivered. But if we reject Him then a forsaken condition, death, and the lion’s mouth will be our eternal portion.⚜