The first verse declares the great burthen of this Psalm- Messiah's great burthen-even one to which the assembly of the wicked would have been as nothing; but that He should feel Himself separated from God! His God! Therein was the deep burthen-insufferable to all save Him. Yet worse, infinitely worse, to Him as a trial, than to anyone else. Is He not therefore precious to His people, yea, even as to God? For it is God in them who loves and delights therein. For herein His people have a common mystery with Christ, to feel as God, yet about themselves as men, yea, as the very people interested and needing—He for their sakes, they as in themselves, see such language as verses 14, 15; and that this was the deep trial, see verses 11 and 19, comparing verse 1. The evidence as to the Jewish personality of our Lord, as suffering, is remarkable in verses 4, 5, adding verse 6. Observe too the distinction of the Person in Christ from the liable and suffering soul, i.e., human nature, yet union with all, so as Man prays for Himself, by virtue of the Spirit in Him, so yet otherwise because it was the power of the sin resting on Him by the Spirit. Christ prays for y'khidhathi (my only one); that this is Christ, we have absolute certainty, not only from verse 1, but also verse 22. Christ praying that He might be “saved from," etc., and “heard in that he feared "; so in us of necessity. Observe also " 0 my strength " is the same word, inserting vav (u) as the title, and “the morning" means dusk, or dark ushering in of morning on, or concerning the Beloved. This whole Psalm is concerning Jews, and as relates to Jews (save verse 18) and that which He was amongst them, rejected by them.
Then further it is Christ as heard, Christ as Man who speaks, “For he hath not” etc. (v. 24), and as a Jew. Then we have His first ministry in the congregation—that I apply to the saints gathered out among Jews, the Gentile saints being added thereto. “Ye that fear the Lord, praise him," we know from John 20:77And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. (John 20:7), the Lord's application of this. Then all the congregation, as under Solomon, compared with David, the kahal ray (the great congregation) is His Solomon state. The rest of the Psalm follows this. I am not so ascertained of verses 30, 31, as to their application. I see that it rests on the resurrection glory of Christ as delivered, and delivering as Man. I should incline to think it the elect Remnant; if not, it would be the latter-day Jews, witnesses of His acts, witnessing who He was, and how He had delivered them, for He bore, as a Jew, their iniquities. And this was what was to be explained, for it was the strength of the dark morning that was wanting. I am not sure verses 30 and 31 apply to the same thing; verse 30 seems clearly the Remnant out of the Jewish people, " to Adon," not " Jehovah "-the Hebrew confirms the supposition. I am inclined to think verse 30, “the congregation," and verse 31, " the great congregation," or the first Remnant of it who are witnesses to Christ's righteousness all through; compare Rom. 3:25, 2625Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:25‑26).
This Psalm exhibits the blessed Lord in the trouble when it must be borne, and His view of it, and His ways toward them—its real character is known here. It takes up this very question of trusting Jehovah—and the seed of Jacob, not the name of the God of Jacob, is now in question. It shows what entering into this trouble cost, because sin was the occasion of it. As the generation of unbelievers was not to pass away, so the Remnant shall be counted for a generation, and their posterity shall receive their character and instruction from them.
The Lord enters on it as a Jew—He was such, but there was nothing that a righteous Jew might expect. He was alone here in saying “My, etc.," and so He had anticipated, but then He was saying, “My Father is with me." Scorn, enmity, perfect depression (He was crucified in weakness, see verse 14) and Jehovah's face hidden from Him, these marked His state really there but faithful, saying “Thou art holy."
Y'khidhathi (my only one) translated “darling" in verse 20, we have noticed elsewhere.
22. Note, if we remark what the force of this verse is, we shall see what the character of our praise, in worship especially, ought to be; for what, since Christ leads it, must His sense be of the nature and completeness of this deliverance before God, and His new position?
Note, Christ does not declare God's name as known to the great congregation, nor call them brethren—it is the same God He praises, no doubt—nor does He say “in the midst of the congregation." In truth, His praise of Him “in the great congregation " etc. sets His rather alone, though as publishing His name, leading them to praise Him. So also He pays His vows “before those that fear "God. It is evidently more Jewish for the deliverances than the revelation of the Name, founded on verse 24, which refers to the act but not to the Name which He revealed when delivered. See Psa. 145, and then John 17, where Psa. 22 is fully brought out.
Verse 22 gives thus in Jewish sort “Thy name," but as Christians we have more. This was on resurrection, “My God and your God." But then He had more for His disciples which He had been afresh, or as a new thing, revealing to them all His life—the Father; now this was fully declared in John 17. Not only did He own Jehovah as His God and walk accordingly, but being One, the Father was seen in Him. This is quite a new thing by virtue of the divine union of the Persons, and yet He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Therefore He says too: “My Father and your Father." This was not merely Jewish, see John 4, where this begins to be opened out. Therefore this time is not mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews, nor introduced in force—but God, being of all the children, as such, by faith. But then this address to them in the name of brethren introduces them into the place of children as in John 1, " to them gave he authority to become the sons of God," because He was to praise for redemption in the midst of the congregation. The difference of the relationship to the Jews of Christ in the flesh, being concealed and smothered, is the root of the error of Irvingism. It is the devil's abuse of His relationship in the flesh to them, as of His mother linked with them on earth, though holy. This rejected One “Who is my mother?” is of His Father (heavenly), and so the children, and not knowing the earth save as subject, and therefore if knowing Christ after the flesh, knowing Him no more, and therefore kaine ktisis (a new creation). All their good and special knowledge is just what Christ has set aside, and they even held that unholily and it is evil; just as in Galatians, the Jewish ceremonies to a Gentile, united to Christ in resurrection, was the same thing as going back again to his own idols quod niita - have their natural headships, not God's family and the like. Verse 22 however, being in resurrection necessarily involves sonship, for He therein was declared Son of God with power, and it is only after resurrection He says " Go tell my brethren " but thence it is addressed to be the means of calling Kol-Israel (the whole of Israel) that they that feared should praise.
24. The reason.
The Church is always lost in Christ in these cases, as in Isaiah 50 elsewhere.
25. Praise in all Israel.
27. Gathering of Gentiles thereon.
28. The Kingdom.
29. Imbecility of Man.
30 (Heb. 31). Kol-Israel (the whole of Israel) was a Remnant, a seed of God, see Isa. 65; their posterity will have it from them.
I see another difference between this Psalm and Psa. 69. In the latter it is looking as a Man for something from man—Man is not presented as fully proved, but as being so. He looks for someone to have compassion, for comforters, and finds none. In Psa. 22 He does not—they are only bulls of Bashan and dogs—they part His garments and cast lots for His vesture, and He looks only to God, and finds the wondrous forsaking of wrath.