Psalms Chapter 22

From The Open Bible Project

For the Chief Musician; set to "The Doe of the Morning." A Psalm by David.

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 groaning?

• (a) Here appears that horrible conflict, which he sustained between faith and desperation.

(b) Being tormented with extreme anguish.

22:2 My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don't answer; in the night season, and am not silent.

22:3 But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel.

• (c) He means the place of praising, even the tabernacle or else it is so called, because he gave the people continuous opportunity to praise him.

22:4 Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them.

22:5 They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not disappointed.

22:6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.

• (d) And seeming most miserable of all creatures, which referred to Christ, and in this appears the unspeakable love of God for man, that he would thus abase his son for our sakes.

22:7 All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,

22:8 "He trusts in Yahweh; let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him."

22:9 But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust at my mother's breasts.

• (e) Even from my birth you have given me opportunity to trust in you.

22:10 I was thrown on you from my mother's womb. You are my God since my mother bore me.

• (f) For unless God’s providence preserves the infants, they would perish a thousand times in the mother’s womb.

22:11 Don't be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is none to help.

22:12 Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

• (g) He means that his enemies were so fat, proud and cruel that they were more like beasts than men.

22:13 They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.

22:14 I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.

• (h) Before he spoke of the cruelty of his enemies, and now he declares the inward grief of the mind, so that Christ was tormented both in soul and body.

22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.

• (i) You permitted me to be without all hope of life.

22:16 For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. [11] They have pierced my hands and feet. [See Psalms Footnotes 11]

• (k) Thus David complained as though he were nailed by his enemies in both hands and feet, but this was accomplished in Christ.

22:17 I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.

22:18 They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.

22:19 But don't be far off, Yahweh. You are my help: hurry to help me.

22:20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.

• (l) My life that is solitary, left alone and forsaken by all, (Psalms 35:17,25:16)

22:21 Save me from the lion's mouth! Yes, from the horns of the wild oxen, you have answered me.

• (m) Christ is delivered with a more mighty deliverance by overcoming death, than if he had not tasted death at all.

22:22 I will declare your name to my brothers. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.

22:23 You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him! Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!

• (n) He promises to exhort the Church that they by his example might praise the Lord.

22:24 For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard.

• (o) The poor afflicted are comforted by this example of David, or Christ.

22:25 Of you comes my praise in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him.

• (p) Which were sacrifices of thanksgiving which they offered by God’s commandment, when they were delivered out of any great danger.

22:26 The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.

• (q) He alludes still to the sacrifice.

22:27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you.

22:28 For the kingdom is Yahweh's. He is the ruler over the nations.

22:29 All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can't keep his soul alive.

• (r) Though the poor are first named as in (Psalms 22:26) yet the wealthy are not separated from the grace of Christ’s kingdom.

(s) In whom there is no hope that he will recover life: so neither poor nor rich, quick nor dead will be rejected from his kingdom.

22:30 Posterity shall serve him. Future generations shall be told about the Lord.

• (t) Meaning, the prosperity which the Lord keeps as a seed to the Church to continue his praise among men.

22:31 They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, for he has done it.

• (u) That is, God has fulfilled his promise.