1 To the chief musician, upon the hind of the dawn; a Psalm of David.
2 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? far off from my deliverance, the words of my roaring?
3 My God, I call by day, and thou answerest not, and by night, and there is no silence for me.
4 And thou art holy, inhabiting the praises of Israel.
5 In thee our fathers trusted; they trusted, and thou dost deliver them;
6 Unto thee they cried and they were delivered; in thee they trusted and they were not ashamed.
7 But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised of the people.
8 All those who see me mock me, they open wide with the lip, they shake the head.
9 Commit [thyself] unto Jehovah; let him deliver him; he will deliver him because he hath delighted in him.
10 For thou [art] he that didst bring me forth from the womb, causing me to trust upon the breasts of my mother.
11 Upon thee was I cast from the womb; from the belly of my mother thou [art] my God.
12 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is no helper.
13 Many bulls have surrounded me; strong ones of Bastian have encompassed me.
14 They opened their mouth upon me, [like] a lion tearing in pieces and roaring.
15 I have been poured out like water, and all my bones have been separated; my heart has become like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
16 My strength has been dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue is cleaving to my jaws.; and in the dust of death thou settest me.
17 For dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of evil-doers have encompassed me, piercing my hands and my feet.
18 I number all my bones; they behold, they look upon me.
19 They divide my garments amongst themselves and upon my vestment they cast lots.
20 But thou, O Jehovah, be not far off; O my strength, make haste to my help.
21 Deliver my soul from the sword, mine only one from the power of the dog.
22 Save me from the mouth of the lion, and from the horns of the buffaloes thou hast answered me.
23 I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
24 Ye who fear Jehovah, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
25 For he hath not despised nor hath he abhorred the affliction of the poor, and he hath not hidden his face from him, and when he cried for help unto him, he heard.
26 Of thee [is] my praise in the great congregation; I will perform my vows before those who fear him.
27 The humble eat and are satisfied; they praise Jehovah, who seek him; your heart shall live for ever.
28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and shall turn unto Jehovah, and all tribes of Gentiles shall bow down before thee.
29 For the kingdom is Jehovah’s; and he ruleth among the Gentiles.
30 All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and shall bow down; before him shall bend all those who go down to the dust, and he [who] hath not kept alive his soul.
31 A seed shall serve him; it shall be declared by the Lord to the generation;
32 They shall come and shall tell his righteousness to a people that shall be born, that he hath done [it].
Notes on Psalm 22
In this psalm we hear Messiah bemoan His going down into the depth of suffering where none can follow, the shame and butt of man, the forsaken of God on behalf of guilty man, and very especially for the most guilty of all, that said they saw, but rejected Him Who shone in fulness of light and love even for the blind that felt their need and cried to Him. Here it is not the “day of trouble” merely, but of God’s abandoning His elect and beloved Servant that He might abandon none who repent and believe, and that He might proclaim pardon to the vilest in His name. It is Christ made sin; and then from the middle of the resulting grace triumphant, as unmingled as the judgment which had befallen Him without mitigation, as described in the previous verses. It is therefore most fittingly His own voice exclusively that is heard, first in His lonely anguish, then in the joy that imparts the fruits of His deliverance in an ever-widening circle: “to my brethren,” and “in the midst of the congregation” (22); next “in the great congregation” (25); then “all the ends of the earth” and all tribes of the Gentiles share the blessing and praise; and this abidingly. How striking the contrast with the result of Psalm 21! Both are perfectly in season. The title is peculiar, “To the chief musician, upon the hind of the dawn, a psalm of David.”
Here is the transition (ver. 21). At this point when He is transfixed, the Lord is conscious of being heard. He bows His head in death, His blood is shed. So it must be in atonement. Without this there would be no adequate offering for sin; but He Who so died can commend His soul to His Father, and say, It is finished. The verses that succeed express the deep joy of a deliverance out of such a death, commensurate with a death so unfathomable, which He first sings in the midst of those who share His rejection, and pursues with enlarging circles of blessing into the kingdom, though the fellowship then will not be so profound as that which is immediately consequent on His death and resurrection. Compare John 20:17-23; 26-29; and 21:1-14.
Such is this wondrous psalm; the sufferings that pertain to Christ, and the glories after these. No voice is heard throughout but Christ’s; none could be with His atoning cries to God, though we may join in praising God and the Lamb, and are well assured that the truth that He was alone in those sorrows is the guarantee of that efficacious work, whereby all our evil is annulled and we stand in His acceptance as believers in Him, Who contrasts Himself with those before Him that cried and were heard. And how different all since, who if they fear have only to praise! Nothing but grace flows out of His atonement.