The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 1 — Section 150

EXPOSITION. PSALM XXII. otherwise, and which he was directed to put on I"ecor<l. 'l'he close correspondence THERE is no pso.lm which hns raised so between the psalm and the incidents of the much controversy e.s this. Admitte<l to be Passion is striking, and is admitted on all Messianio by the early Hebrew commenta- hands, even by Hupfeld, e.nd it is a corre- tors, it is by some understood wholly of spondence brought a.bout by the enemies cf David; by others, applied to the Israelite the teaching of Christ, the Jews and the people, or to the pious po.rt of it; by others Romans. References indice.tive of the pro- oge.in, regarded ns e.n ideal representation phetic and Messianic cilaracter of the psalm of the· sufferings of the righteous me.n, e.nd are fuquent in tho New Testament. Noto the effects of them; e.nd by one or two especially tile following: Matt. :xxvii. 35, eccentric critics, exple.ined as referring to 46; Mark xv. 81:; John xiL 24; Heh. Hezekiah or Jeremfail. Age.inst the view ii. 12. thnt David means to <lescribe in the psalm his own dangers, sufferings, and deliveranco, 'fhe pso.lm is composed, mnnifestly, of it is reasonably urged thnt De.vid wus e.t two portions - the complaint nn<l prnycr no time in the ciroumste.nces here described of a sufferer (vers. 1-21 ), o.n,I e. song of -he wos never without e. helper (ver. 11); rejoicing after dclivernnco (vcrs. 22-31). never "despised of the people" (ver. 6); According to some critics, tho first of these never stripped of his clothes ( ver. 17) ; never two portions is nlso itself dividc<l into two in tho state of exhe.ustion, weakness, and parts-each consisting of two strophes (vers. emnoie.tiou thnt nra spoken of (vers. 14- 1-10 nnd vcrs. 12-21), which nro linkc<l 17); never pierce,\ either in his hcmds or together by a singfo ejaculatory verso (vcr. feet (ver. 16); never made n. gazing-stock 11). A further analysis di rides each of the (ver. 17); never insulted by ha.viug his three strophes of ten verses iuto two strophes go.rments po.rted e.mong his persecutors, or of five; but fhore is cortninly r:o sucll lots oe.st upon his vesture (vcr. 18). 'l'ho division in the second strophe of ten, since suppositions thnt the nation is mcnnt, or tho vers. 16 e.nd 17 arc most closely co:mectod pious po.rt of it, or o.u ideal righteous mnn, together. a.re negatived by tho impossibility of apply- The composition of tho psalm Ly Davi<l, ing to them the second porliou of the psalm though not universnlly 11dmittc<l, J,ns in its (vers. 22-31), nnd tho considcrntion that favour o. largo mnjority of tho critics. 'l'ho abstractions of the kind suggested belong imagery is D,1vitlicnl; the sudden transitian to tile lnkr nnd not the earlier phaso3 of 11t vor. 22 is D:i\·iuiral; tho whole psalm o. nation's poetry. The only explnnation "abounds in exprcs,ions which occur which remnins is that traditional in tho frequently, or exclusively, in psnlms Christian Church, that Dnvid, full of the gcnernlly n<lmittcd to h,1ro been composed Holy Ghost, wns moved lo speak in the by David" (' Speaker's Comm\lntnry '). Person of Chr;;at, nnd to describe, not his David's authorship is moreover distinctly own sufferings and perils and deliverance, e.sscrted in the title, o.nd confirmed by the but those of his great Anti type, the :r.Iessiail, "cnigmotic suporsoriplion," whid1 is 11, whi~h wcro rcvcakd to him in vision or Davidicnl fnnry. 152 TUE BOOK OF PSALMS. [rs. XXII. 1-31.