Psalm 22
We cannot look at this psalm without connecting it to the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. In both the Gospel of Matthew and Mark, we read Jesus' quotation of the opening words of this psalm: "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'-- which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' "1 It is generally believed that Jesus quoted the whole psalm to Himself.
There are, as we will see, at least three prophecies in the first part of this psalm which were literally fulfilled during the crucifixion. The verses 7 and 8 read: "All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: 'He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him,' " correspond to Matthew's account: "Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, 'You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!' In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 'He saved others,' they said, 'but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ' 'I am the Son of God.' ' "2 The piercing of the hands and feet, mentioned in vs. 16, was literally fulfilled in the crucifixion, and what we read in vs. 18: "They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing," is mentioned by John, who specifically mentions the fulfillment of the prophecy: "When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 'Let's not tear it,' they said to one another. 'Let's decide by lot who will get it.' This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, 'They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.' So this is what the soldiers did."3
We know nothing about the circumstances under which David wrote this psalm. It is obvious, however, that the text of his poem far surpasses anything that David could ever have experienced personally. This psalm is one of the clearest illustrations of what Peter says about the Old Testament prophets and their writing. We read in his first epistle: "Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow."4
For David, the cry "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is the expression of a feeling of being forsaken, not the stating of an objective fact. This depressive exclamation indicates that David has lost contact with the reality of God's omnipresence, at least temporarily. He knew the words God had addressed to Joshua: "I will never leave you nor forsake you."5 If he felt that God had forsaken him because of a sin he had committed, he would have known why he felt that way. But his heartrending cry indicates that he is not conscious of any sin at this point.
Some commentators try to draw lessons from the subscript "The Doe of the Morning," but that seems to be futile to us. Most likely the intent is to indicate that the psalm should be song to an existing tune, as was suggested in the subscript of Psalm Nine. The Adam Clarke's Commentary has a lengthy paragraph on this subject, from which we copy the following: "The title of this Psalm, To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David, has given rise to many conjectures. The words 'Ayelet ha-Shachar are translated in the margin, 'the hind of the morning;' but what was this? Was it the name of a musical instrument! or of a tune? or of a band of music! Calmet argues for the last, and translates 'A Psalm of David, addressed to the Musicmaster who presides over the Band called the Morning Hind.' This is more likely than any of the other conjectures I have seen. But aiyeleth hashshachar may be the name of the Psalm itself, for it was customary among the Asiatic to give names to their poetic compositions which often bore no relation to the subject itself. Mr. Harmer and others have collected a few instances from D'Herbelot's Bibliotheque Orientale. I could add many more from MSS. in my own collection:-- thus, Saady calls a famous miscellaneous work of his Gulisstan, 'The Country of Roses,' or, 'The Rose Garden:' and yet there is nothing relative to such a country, nor concerning roses nor rose gardens, in the book … Such titles are of very little importance in themselves, and of no further use to us than as they serve to distinguish the different books, poems, or Psalms, to which they are prefixed. To me, many seem to have spent their time uselessly in the investigation of such subjects."
As we mentioned, there is no indication of any particular event in David's life to which the psalm is related. The Holy Spirit wants us, evidently, to concentrate specifically on the suffering of Christ, when reading this psalm. Spurgeon says: "He who sees Jesus will probably neither see, nor care to see David."6 That which, for David, was the expression, maybe to a point of exaggeration, of a difficult situation, was the ultimate reality for our Lord Jesus Christ.
The whole crucifixion takes place between verses 1 and 21. Where the NIV translates verse 21: "save me from the horns of the wild oxen," The KJV renders it with: "for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns." Both the NIV and RSV omit the clause that implies God's answer. The Hebrew word `anah has a rather wide connotation. Strong's Definition defines it: "to eye or (generally) to heed, i.e. pay attention; by implication, to respond; ... to begin to speak; specifically to sing, shout, testify, announce." Spurgeon sees in the Hebrew text the equivalent of the New Testament "It is finished!"7
Behind the opening words of this psalm stands the depth of man's fall into sin. But God has never forsaken man. When Adam sinned, we read: "But the LORD God called to the man, 'Where are you?' "8 because man had forsaken God.
The physical and psychological condition of Jesus, hanging on the cross, undoubtedly, contributed to His feeling of being forsaken by God; but Jesus also knew, on a legal basis, that He was cursed because He was hanged on a cross. The Apostle Paul quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, where we read: "If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance."9 In his epistle to the Galatians he writes: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.' "10 On the basis of the Word of God, Jesus knew for sure that He had been forsaken by God. His was not merely a subjective feeling, as in David's case, but an objective fact. This makes the "why" of the question so heartrending. The question does not suggest that what God does makes sense, but it accentuates the fact that sin makes no sense. What Adam did was senseless, and the full weight of this folly bears down upon our Lord Jesus as He dies, carrying the sin of the world.
The cry: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" contains a double paradox. If God really forsook Jesus, why is the possessive pronoun "my" used here? "My God" supposes communion.
The second paradox is seen when Jesus uses the written Word of God's revelation to give expression to the fact that God had forsaken Him. This paradox is typical for the essence of man's sin. When Adam sinned he did not cease to be the bearer of God's image. He did not become a devil in whom nothing redeemable remained. He became a man torn in himself, in whom a separation took place between his spirit, his soul, and his body. This being torn inwardly is at the core of the experience of sin. When Jesus died, the unity between His spirit and His soul was broken, and thus the awareness of God's presence disappeared. We ought to be able to understand this condition because we have grown up and we live under it. On the other hand, we do not understand it at all, exactly because we have grown accustomed to it on earth. We are unable to understand how a sinless soul must have felt to be smirched by sin, let alone what it meant to bear the full weight of all the sin in the world. Jesus' suffering is unfathomable for us. We can only be dumbfounded by it. Even the beautiful chorus with which Bach's St. Matthew's Passion opens does not even get close enough to it. God's abhorrence of sin is as great as His eternal love.
The crucifixion itself demonstrates the depth of sin. Human beings took a man who had been become one bloody mess because of the flogging, and without a trace of pity they drove nails through His wrists and feet, and they hung Him. Others stood by and mocked. What was done to the bearer of God's image was inhuman. My God, my God, why have you forsaken us!
Jesus also used the written Word of God to give expression to this descent into hell, because He was, at this point, probably incapable of formulating His own thoughts and feelings. Burning with fever, He hung in the burning sun suffering unbearable pain; but also He felt incapable of trusting His own human insight. Even in this depth, especially in this depth, He threw Himself completely upon the Word of God. The Spirit Himself interceded for Him with groans that words could not express.11 He always does this for people who are unable to pray themselves.
Ten centuries before this crucifixion, the Holy Spirit gave expression to the depth of the suffering that would come to the Son of God! Jesus knew the Scriptures, and He knew what awaited Him. These Scriptures became, in the deepest of all needs, the key to salvation. We owe our salvation to the fact that Jesus quoted, specifically, these words. The whole drama is played out between the phrase "you do not answer," in vs. 2 and "You have answered Me," (NKJ), in vs. 21. The NIV's rendering "save me from the horns of the wild oxen" does not bring out this dramatic change of tone. Evidently, the Hebrew leaves a lot of liberty at this point for various translations. Most of the modern translations follow the lead of the NIV. The Hebrew word `anah is defined by Strong's as "to eye or (generally) to heed, i.e. pay attention; by implication, to respond." In the translation of the Word Biblical Commentary the rendering "You have answered Me" is maintained. But the Commentary admits that "the overall sense of the Masorite Text is unclear." Jesus must have realized that in quoting this psalm He had received the answer. Actually, He had given it Himself.
Because of the presence of sin, God gave no answer, just as He gave no answer to King Saul, and as Jesus Himself would not answer Pilate and Herod. Here it is because of the presence of sin, but without the presence of personal guilt.
David says: "Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel." The little word "yet" forms the bridge between the present situation and the eternal reality. David appeals to history and to the character of God. God is the Holy One, but the visible facts seem to contradict God's holiness. The prophet Habakkuk wrestled with this same problem. He said to God: "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?"12 How can God, who is too holy to tolerate sin, allow sin to play a part in His plan? So here: God is holy, and the crucifixion is the most abominable demonstration of degradation one can imagine. Sin is that which deviates from God's character, that which goes against the essence of God's character. God's holiness is the sum of all God's eternal and perfect attributes, and the crucifixion of the Lord of glory is the depth of horror, of cruelty, and of moral decay. Realizing this paradox, we know that it is only natural that one would cry out: "why?" How can sin exist next to the absolute holiness of God?
Yet, the question is an illogical one, however logical it may sound, because the cross is, at the same time, the victory over sin, and the solution of the problem of sin. The decisive factor is the love of Him who gave Himself willingly to take upon Himself the sin of others. But because of the intensity of His suffering, because He was so close to it when He went through it, He was, for a moment, unable to see the perspective. Because He was in the midst of this suffering, He could not see the answer, for otherwise He would have known that He Himself was the answer.
David says some beautiful things about Israel's relationship to God. Israel's history can be looked at from two different angles. On the one hand there is the thread of disobedience, rebellion, and hardening of heart; on the other hand, there are the facts of the exodus, the miracles of the journey through the desert, and the conquest of Canaan. God is enthroned as the Holy One; He is the praise of Israel, but He also "came to that which was His own, but his own did not receive Him."13 The crucifixion was the ultimate demonstration of this rejection. Yet, in spite of the dark pages in Israel's history, we can say that it is the history of salvation. God revealed His glory to them, and the sacrifices and praise of Israel went up to Him as a pleasing odor. The RSV renders this verse with: "Yet thou art holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel." The throne of God rests upon Israel's praise. David says the same in another psalm: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise."14 Israel's praise may not always have sounded clear and pure, but God identifies His eternal omnipotence with their feeble efforts. He places His throne upon their poor performances.
It is true that there was a lot of unbelief in Israel, yet, the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, and the sun obeyed Joshua's command to stand still.15 Frail human beings called to God and He answered them. The faith of one man avails more than can be undone by the unbelief of many. The tiny kingdom of the Netherlands owes its independence to the faith of William of Orange I, and of a handful of Reformed Christians. He who puts his trust in the Lord will not be put to shame. This trust is at the basis of the cry: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
The verses 1-5 are a complaint and a rearward look. Past history is an important factor in the building up of our faith. The verses 6-21 depict and analyze the conditions of the crucifixion, of which David sees himself as the subject. When David says: "But I am a worm and not a man," he does not deny his humanity, but he states that what happens to him is incongruent with the dignity of man. Jesus was treated as the least of all animals. If there were truth in the theory of evolution, we could find some interesting applications here. Man who has reached the highest stage of development is treated as an animal on the lowest echelon. There is a clear analogy between these verses and Isaiah's prophecy: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not."16 He appeared like the most despicable of outcasts, as the lowest of the lower, and, yet, He was the Lord of glory, whose face is like the sun shining in all its brilliance.17 Nobody recognized Him as such. His shame was not His, but ours. Pilate said: "Behold the Man!"18 after the soldiers had scourged Him and played their games with Him. Those moments of sadistic pleasure, during which those people enjoyed in toying with their Lord, were, probably, a more severe condemnation of the lunacy of the world in which we live than even the crucifixion itself. This deep hatred and disdain of one human being for another, this complete loss of vision for all proportions in human relationships is the ultimate rebellion against God. What will those sadists have to answer at the Day of Judgment? The victims were so vulnerable. The guards in the Nazi concentration camps forced the Jewish prisoners to call themselves "stinking Jews." This brought some of them to the point that they began to believe that this is what they were. This kind of sadistic psychology is demonic and perverse. It brings man to the point of forgetting who he is, and where he goes. A human being who is born in sin has already problems to know his own identity and destination. It is easy to believe that one has no intrinsic worth. Torture itself is not the goal; the devil's foremost aim is to destroy the image of God in us. The devil achieved nothing of this kind in subjecting Jesus to this treatment. He prayed the Father to forgive His executioners, and to the murderer who asked for pardon, He opened the gates of paradise.19 In all of this Jesus remained "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being."20
The mockery of those who came to witness the crucifixion is foretold in verses 7 and 8. Matthew gives the clearest account as to how this prophecy was fulfilled literally. "In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 'He saved others,' they said, 'but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ' 'I am the Son of God.' ' "21 This quotation may have prompted Jesus to start quoting the whole psalm to Himself; we know it culminated in the anguished cry of His soul of verse 1: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" If this is true, Jesus quoted the psalm backwards, or in fragmentary form, jumping from one verse to another.
Ever since man fell into sin, he has had the animal urge to fall upon to fall upon that which is defenseless. Under the influence of the Gospel this tendency has weakened somewhat. There have been movements of non-violent resistance. Mahatma Gandhi learned the principle from Jesus Christ, although he never became his disciple. Jesus has set an example for all. The terrible depravity in the mockery of the priests and scribes is in the fact that they mocked Jesus in His relationship with God. Of all people to do so! Their deeds show how corrupted Israel had become.
The humanity of Christ could not have been better described than with the words of vs. 9: "Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast." This is a reference to Mary's conception by the Holy Spirit. It was the work of God that Jesus came into this world out of His mother's womb. The Word of God became flesh and blood, of the same flesh and blood as we are. He learned trust at His mother's breast. It is at the breast of a mother that every human being receives the first lesson in faith. The warmth of this life giving nursing remains with each of us the rest of our lives. A person who misses this experience grows up maimed emotionally. Jesus learned this trust the same way we all do. After this He was circumcised and dedicated to the Lord. This is expressed in the verse: "From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God." Jesus falls back upon these facts during His crucifixion. The incident when Simeon had taken Him in his arms22 was not seen as His being torn away from the intimate relationship with His mother, but as a fulfillment of this relationship. God was His God because He was a man.
This incident flashes back to Jesus as He is treated as less than human: a worm, not a man. Every human being is born into a hostile world. Mother love and the cherishing effect this has upon us makes the shock of birth and of having to live more bearable. During the crucifixion, however, hostility reached its peak. All the hatred, cruelty, animosity, and brute force of the powers of darkness, which the average person gets by the teaspoon, was poured out upon our Lord en masse. Jesus Himself said to His enemies: "This is your hour-- when darkness reigns."23 Jesus falls into the hands of demons and men, and there is nobody to help. The strong bulls of Bashan are symbols of brutish strength. Bulls that want to crush Him encircle the Lamb of God. In every century we find men who willingly let themselves be used by Satan to inflict pain on others. Every war brings this characteristic out in some people. The roaring of the lions, mentioned in vs. 13, indicates that Satan is present here.
Verses 14 and 15 describe the physical effect this encirclement has upon our Lord: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death." He feels completely exhausted. The pouring out of water was an image of death for the Israelites. The woman from Tekoa said to David: "Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die."24 Jesus feels life being drained out of Him. His reserves of energy are dried up. Crucifixion does, in fact, bring the bones out of joint in a very painful way. The weight of the body pulls the arms out of the shoulder sockets. All emotions lose their meaning. The heart feels like wax. Like a stranded traveler in a desert, the body becomes completely dehydrated for lack of fluid. Jesus had refused to drink at His crucifixion because the wine, mixed with gall, would have had a narcotic effect upon Him.25 Jesus' ministry as the Messiah began with the great hunger as a result of His forty-day fast, and it ends with His great thirst at the cross.
But this physical suffering was only part of the whole complex of pain. Hardest to bear was the spiritual and emotional aspect, as described in verses 1-3 and 7-13.
The phrase "the dust of death" in vs. 15 makes us think of God's evaluation of Adam after he broke fellowship with God and sinned: "you [will] return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."26 Before that moment we read: "man became a living soul."27 The phrase in this psalm, therefore, may be considered as a reference to the curse upon sin.
Verses 16-18 give us a view of what went on around the cross. This time the crucified One does not look down upon His own people who reviled Him, as in verses 6-8, or at the demons that taunt Him, as in verses 12 and 13, but at the pagan Roman soldiers, who are here called "dogs." The soldiers who crucified Jesus were a rough bunch of cruel sadists. This is obvious from their mockery of Jesus after they had scourged Him. Our text says that they gloated over the suffering of the Lord during His crucifixion. It was especially for those people that Jesus prayed: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."28 These people knew nothing of God's revelation. They had no idea that Jesus was the Lord of glory. They despised the Jews they had subjected brutally. This disdain they felt for the Jews was, undoubtedly, a factor in their sadistic amusement, but it does not excuse their behavior. They identify Jesus with the Jewish nation, not realizing that His people had rejected Him. For a brief moment they had found a common base with the Jews in their reveling about Christ's suffering. They could have known, however, that their sadistic pleasure was sinful. They must have suppressed the voice of their conscience. We could make allowance for them in that they followed orders when they scourged and crucified Jesus. But the fact that they take pleasure in what they do condemns them. They did not know what they did, and why they did it. The fact that a man does things without knowing why he does them debases him. That is why the Holy Spirit calls them "evil men."
We find in these verses two prophecies about the crucifixion: "They have pierced my hands and my feet," and "They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." Execution by crucifixion was unknown in Israel. A person who was condemned to die was killed by stoning to death. David may have known about this cruel punishment through outside influences. From New Unger's Bible Dictionary we take the following paragraph: "This form of punishment was in use among the Egyptians <Gen. 40:19>, the Carthaginians, the Persians <Esther 7:10>, the Assyrians, Scythians, Indians, Germans, and from earliest times among the Greeks and Romans." The two Bible references given in this quotation are of dubious value, however, since the punishment referred to there may have been simple hanging or impaling. In what century crucifixion became a mode of execution is unknown. There is no reason why David would see himself as being crucified. He must have been aware that the Holy Spirit prompted him to describe a condition that went far beyond his own experience. In the Roman Empire only slaves were executed by crucifixion. Roman citizens could never be crucified. The combination of scourging, followed by crucifixion, is the most horrible cruelty ever invented by men to be inflicted upon a fellow human being. Jesus died the most horrible death one can imagine.
Pain is nature's warning mechanism for our body, to notify us of danger, or of something has gone wrong in the system. God built this alarm system into our bodies to protect us. The devil has managed to detach the alarm system from the whole of our bodily functions, and to use it as a goal in itself. The hour of the Lord's crucifixion was indeed the hour of darkness.
The dividing of Jesus' garments proves that Jesus was robbed of the most fundamental protection and dignity that we have as human beings. He hung on the cross naked. In the sinful world in which we live, public nakedness is the ultimate shame. A good deal of the mockery that was heaped upon Jesus must have been concentrated on this facet of His suffering. We can understand why artists do not portray the Lord's crucifixion in this realistic way; but realizing what the actual condition of Jesus' body was when He suffered and died does bring home to us the horror of it. The Flemish poet Guido Gezelle wrote: "All rights denied, naked Christ died." Naked He came from His mother's womb, naked He left this world.
Each of the Synoptic Gospels mention briefly the dividing of Jesus' garments by casting lots, but only the Gospel of John adds in some detail that this was done in fulfillment of a prophecy. "When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 'Let's not tear it,' they said to one another. 'Let's decide by lot who will get it.' This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, 'They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.' So this is what the soldiers did."29 The four soldiers tore up Jesus' clothing in four parts and cast lots about his undergarment.
It is not clear where this incident would have fitted in David's life. It could be that David used those words by way of metaphor to indicate that people considered him to be as good as dead. A person's clothing is usually not given away while the person is still alive. But, obviously, David's words here encompass more than he may have experienced personally.
In this condition of being as good as dead, David cries anew to the Lord. For the third time he uses the word "far." In vs. 1: "so far from the words of my groaning;" in vs. 11: "Do not be far from me," and in vs. 19: "But you, O LORD, be not far off." He also calls God "my Strength." In the light of the incongruity of the whole situation, this cry is an act of faith. We may call this the ultimate confession of faith. A man who is at the point of death and who calls God "my Strength" has learned the last lesson there is to learn. Paul came to this conclusion when he said to the church in Corinth: "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead."30 And also, when he says: "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great Revelation, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."31 The deepest lesson a human being who has to die can learn is that "Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death."32
The NIV uses the term "my precious life" in vs. 20. Some older translations say "my darling," which is the rendering of the Hebrew yachiyd, which Strongs Definitions describes as; "sole; by implication, beloved; also lonely; (feminine) the life (as not to be replaced)" The RSV says in a footnote that the literal meaning of the word is "my only one." A possible translation would be "my irreplaceable life," "my unique one," or "my lonely soul." Nobody was ever as lonely as Jesus when He prayed in Gethsemane. He pleaded with His disciples to provide fellowship, but in His deepest depression no one stood beside Him; they were all fast asleep, and when He was arrested they all fled; one even denied knowing Him. Now, in this psalm, the deepest fellowship with the Father is denied Him. This happened, to quote the "Heidelberg Catechism," "that we would never again be forsaken by God." His utter loneliness assures to us our everlasting, uninterrupted fellowship with God. The sword that would pierce His mother's heart, pierced His first. A sword can kill the body, but it can do even greater damage to the soul.
"The power of the dogs" is, undoubtedly, an image of the Roman Empire and its power. Jesus knew that Pilate had power over Him, because it had been given to him from above,33 but this fact did not make the falling into their hand less traumatic. The glory and glitter of the Roman Empire is here represented under the image of a pack of wild animals, of dogs that feast on offal. "Power ... given from above" can be interpreted in two ways: We can see it as if God authorized Pilate to act, or as if Satan gave that power to him. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, we read: "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me.' "34 Jesus never denied the validity of the devil's statement. As a result of this refusal, Jesus becomes the prey of the dogs at this moment. But not long after this hour, He could declare: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."35 This authority encompassed also the power of the Roman Empire. In the verses 20 and 21 we find all three opponents in a row: the dogs, the lions, and the oxen; that is the Romans, the devil, and the Jews. What an alliance!
As we have seen, Spurgeon believes that the phrase: "thou hast heard me," which the NIV renders with "save me from...," can be translated with "It is finished," the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek tetelestai, which we find in the Gospel of John.36 Jesus Himself was the answer to His prayer. God gave Him the grace to persevere till the end. The answer was not in the being delivered from suffering, but in the holding on till the end. The devil tempted Jesus with the suggestion that He would come down from the cross.37 If Christ had done that, He would have saved neither Himself, nor anybody else. Deliverance consisted in the fact that He emptied the cup to the last drop. The Father answered Jesus in the same way, as He would answer the Apostle Paul later: "My grace is sufficient for you."38 His perseverance would ultimately lead to His resurrection from the dead. Superficially considered, it seemed as if no answer was given; in reality God gave the greatest answer that could be given to sin. From that moment on purification for sins was provided for.39
The second part of the psalm differs as much from the first as light differs from darkness. Up to vs. 21 the subject is suffering; beginning with vs. 22, it is resurrection. Death has been conquered, and the psalmist testifies to this fact.
The resurrection itself is never mentioned, but the poet leaves an empty space between the verses 21 and 22, which has a deep impact upon the reader. Not only has this silence a dramatic effect, but it leaves a space open for a personal experience of the reader. God does not use clichés, He does not answer everyone in the same way, but all God's answers are based upon the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. When God speaks to us, He addresses us personally, and in a way we can understand, a way which fits the circumstances in which we live. We all commit more or less the same kinds of sins, and we all receive the same kind of pardon, but no two testimonies of salvation are the same.
In the epistle to the Hebrew, the author quotes vs. 22 to prove the humanity of Jesus. "He [Jesus] says, 'I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.' "40 The point the writer to the Hebrews wants to make is that "both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family."41 The words that provide the proof are "my brothers," and "the congregation." It was by means of Jesus' suffering, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension that the Holy Spirit could come down upon men, and that the church was born. Because of what happened to Jesus Christ, men have been pardoned for their sins and given eternal life through regeneration. Those are the people whom David addresses prophetically as "my brothers."
Because Jesus left His divine glory behind and came to this demon-filled earth, sharing our hunger, shame, and misery, and became victorious in those circumstances, we now become partakers of His divine nature. This process of glorification is expressed in a unique way in Jesus' prayer for His disciples in the Gospel of John. He said: "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world," and "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."42 Jesus' revelation of the Name of the Father, and the praise of the congregation is the immediate result of the resurrection. This reveals the essence of the congregation; it is the fellowship of men where Jesus reveals the Name, that is the character of the Father, through the Holy Spirit, and where the Son glorifies the Father. The psalm opened with the question: "Why?" God's profound answer to this question is the birth of the church. This is what Jesus meant when He said to Peter: "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."43
When David wrote these words, he probably meant that he wanted to tell others how God had saved him. This is also a prophetic statement: every time the church gathers for worship, Jesus declares the facts of salvation: what God did for Him in His life, His suffering and death, and in His resurrection. His personal testimony becomes the basic facts of the preaching of the Gospel. That is why those facts are recorded in the Bible in several places, lest we should forget. Look at the contrast between "the brothers" and "the dogs," "the lions," and "the oxen" in the preceding verses!
In the following verse, vs. 23 the Lord turns to us and says: "You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!" It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who takes up the hymn of praise, and invites us to follow Him. The fear of the Lord is the respect we have for Him because we understand who He is. The greatest problem most people have is that they "are ignorant of God," as Paul expresses it in his First Corinthian epistle.44 People think they can live their own lives without causing any serious damage to themselves and their souls. But the man who knows God is overwhelmed by a sense of His awesome holiness, and he will not think lightly of the consequences of his sins. Our Lord urges people who are realists to glorify and praise God. Praise is rare in the life of most people. We have to learn to praise Him; praise takes practice. Jesus sets the example so that we would follow Him in His praise of God; He invites us to do it together with Him. The Holy Spirit teaches us praise in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is important to note that the phrases the "descendants of Jacob" and the "descendants of Israel" are put next to each other as poetical parallels. It refers to the transformation from Jacob into Israel, from the man who was a deceiver to the one who triumphed because he confessed his sin and received pardon from God. There are two sets of parallels in these verses: "You who fear the LORD," with "you descendants of Jacob," and "honor him," and "revere him," with "all you descendants of Israel."
The subject of the hymn of praise is what God did for Christ and what He does for us. "For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help." The Bible always connects the praise of God with certain facts. There is always a reason given for praise. There are no "Hallelujahs" that stand on their own. There is a tendency in modern worship to shout Hallelujah just in order to create a certain atmosphere. This is never done in the Bible. Our praise is founded on the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. This fact is the great answer God gives to all our "whys?" God ultimately answers all our questions. Our "why?" is the result of the existence of sin in this world. The question will melt away when our sins are forgiven and we are born again. The better we learn to know God, the fewer the questions. Men despise men, but God honors us. Resurrection always implies rehabilitation. That is why we honor God, not as despicable, downtrodden creatures, but as bearers of His image, as His sons or daughters.
Vs. 25 says: "From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly." This could be read in various ways. We could understand that David sees God as the source of his praise. He does not work himself up to a state of mind of praise, but the ecstasy of his joy wells up from God Himself. We could also read it, as the KJV does: "My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation," which could mean that David experiences that God praises him. The context rather suggests the former. God does not only inspire our praise, He adds to our sacrifice of praise that rises up to Him as a fragrant odor. The fulfilling of the vows could be a reference of this kind of sacrifice, but it could also mean that David promises to accomplish a certain task that God has given him. Praise is not only given with the lips but also with deeds of obedience. That this kind of obedience is not merely a personal matter is indicated by the fact that David fulfills his vows before the great assembly, before those who fear God. The Hebrew word for "I will pay" is `ashaleem, which is a form of shalam. Strong's Definition of this word is: "to be safe (in mind, body or estate); figuratively, to be (causatively, make) completed; by implication, to be friendly; by extension, to reciprocate (in various applications)." The KJV translates this: "make amends, … end, finish, full, give again, make good, repay, … (make) prosperous, recompense, render, requite, make restitution, restore, reward." The fulfilling of a vow in the Old Testament context was something that involved expense. The sacrifice had to be paid for, and the promise had to be carried out. David does not merely speak about a personal commitment, since the fulfillment of the vow takes place in the presence of the congregation. Our service to the Lord is carried out in the context of the fellowship of the saints.
In drawing a line from his personal commitment to a larger audience, David indicates the results of his promise to the Lord. The NIV renders vs. 26 with: "The poor will eat and be satisfied." Other translations are: "The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied" (NAS), or "The meek shall eat and be satisfied" (KJV). The Hebrew word `anav is derived from `anayv, which means depressed … in mind … or circumstances." (Strongs Definitions). The resurrection of Christ has results in the social, as well as in the spiritual realms. Both those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, as the physically undernourished, will be satisfied. The seeking of God will always result in the satisfaction of our deepest needs, because He allows Himself to be found by those who seek with all their hearts. Thomas found it so in spite of his apparent skepticism, in Jesus his Lord and his God.45 Every person who seeks after God will receive much more than he anticipates. We are all "Surprised by Joy."46
The phrase "May your hearts live forever!" seems out of context. Maybe the paraphrase of TLB: "Their hearts shall rejoice with everlasting joy," is preferable here. The context seems to suggest, however, that the intent is eternal life, and not a continuous encouragement only. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead has been the source of eternal life for millions of people all over the world. It is because of the resurrection that "all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD."
Is it not marvelous that David, as king of Israel, had this worldwide vision three thousand years before the Gospel was preached to the ends of the earth? The Bible guarantees that there will be "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb."47 This is another answer to the question "Why" of verse 1.
After the fall, the devil refused to surrender his authority over the earth which God had initially entrusted to him. But, in spite of his insurrection, he never became completely independent from God. God always kept the final right over His creation, and He will always have the last word. The great rebellion had not changed anything in this respect. The Kingdom still belongs rightfully to God, not only the kingdom of Israel, but all power in Heaven and on earth. The Father gave this authority to the Son, so that the Son would restore God's rule over everything that had fallen away from Him. This is the unspoken theme of this psalm. That is why our Lord had to suffer, die, and be raised from the dead. That is the final, the greatest answer to the "why" of this psalm.
Man will justify God in the end. This is brought out several times in the book of Revelation, where the whole of creation recognizes God's right to the throne of the universe.48
Vs. 29 is one of those verses in the Hebrew Bible that are hard to translate. The Interlinear Hebrew Bible says literally: "shall eat and worship All [Macro error: Can't compile this script because of a syntax error.]
fat upon earth. Before him shall bow they that go down to the dust, and his own soul none can keep alive." The Amplified Bible renders this: "All the mighty ones upon earth shall eat [in thanksgiving] and worship; all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who cannot keep himself alive." Some other samples of translation are: "All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him-- those who cannot keep themselves alive" (NIV). "Yea, to him shall all the proud of the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and he who cannot keep himself alive (RSV). "Both proud and humble together, all who are mortal-- born to die-- shall worship him" (TLB). "All they that be fat 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" (KJV). The combination of eating and worship in the same phrase does not sound logical. The intent seems to be that those people who stood up in pride before God shall be brought down to their knees. We are not told whether they shall do this willingly, or whether they will be forced, against their will, to bow. It could be that, when confronted with the facts, and realizing that he cannot keep himself alive without God, that these people finally surrender.
The psalm ends with a view of the distant future. Posterity, future generations, and the unborn appear in David's field of vision. In other words, what David has to say has historical significance; it determines world history till the end of time. Again, it is clear that David's words transcend mere personal experiences. "He [God] has done it." What "it" stands for is not explained. The same hiatus as between the verses 21 and 22 is left open here. "It" is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is, as yet, kept a secret here, but it is the main theme of the whole psalm. God has surrendered His beloved Son into death in order to raise Him up from the dead and to clothe Him with all honor and glory. It is this resurrection which is the great answer to the "why" question of this psalm. The first result of this answer is the birth of the church in which God is glorified. The second part of the answer is our own rehabilitation; the third part is the evangelization of the world, and the final part is the coming of the Kingdom of God, in which God will be all in all.