Bibelkommentare

Ps 22:1-31.

The obscure words Aijeleth Shahar in this title have various explanations. Most interpreters agree in translating them by "hind of the morning." But great difference exists as to the meaning of these words. By some they are supposed (compare

Ps 9:1)

to be the name of the tune to which the words of the Psalm were set; by others, the name of a musical instrument. Perhaps the best view is to regard the phrase as enigmatically expressive of the subject--the sufferer being likened to a hind pursued by hunters in the early morning (literally, "the dawn of day")--or that, while hind suggests the idea of a meek, innocent sufferer, the addition of morning denotes relief obtained. The feelings of a pious sufferer in sorrow and deliverance are vividly portrayed. He earnestly pleads for divine aid on the ground of his relation to God, whose past goodness to His people encourages hope, and then on account of the imminent danger by which he is threatened. The language of complaint is turned to that of rejoicing in the assured prospect of relief from suffering and triumph over his enemies. The use of the words of the first clause of

Ps 22:1

by our Saviour on the cross, and the quotation of

Ps 22:18

by John

(Joh 19:24),

and of

Ps 22:22

by Paul

(Heb 2:12),

as fulfilled in His history, clearly intimate the prophetical and Messianic purport of the Psalm. The intensity of the grief, and the completeness and glory of the deliverance and triumph, alike appear to be unsuitable representations of the fortunes of any less personage. In a general and modified sense (see on

Ps 16:1),

the experience here detailed may be adapted to the case of all Christians suffering from spiritual foes, and delivered by divine aid, inasmuch as Christ in His human nature was their head and representative.

1. A summary of the complaint. Desertion by God, when overwhelmed by distress, is the climax of the sufferer's misery.

words of my roaring--shows that the complaint is expressed intelligently, though the term "roaring" is figurative, taken from the conduct of irrational creatures in pain.

2. The long distress is evinced by--

am not silent--literally, "not silence to me," either meaning, I continually cry; or, corresponding with "thou hearest not," or answerest not, it may mean, there is no rest or quiet to me.

3. Still he not only refrains from charging God foolishly, but evinces his confidence in God by appealing to Him.

thou art holy--or possessed of all the attributes which encourage trust, and the right object of the praises of the Church: hence the sufferer need not despair.

4, 5. Past experience of God's people is a ground of trust. The mention of "our fathers" does not destroy the applicability of the words as the language of our Saviour's human nature.

6. He who was despised and rejected of His own people, as a disgrace to the nation, might well use these words of deep abasement, which express not His real, but esteemed, value.

7, 8. For the Jews used one of the gestures

(Mt 27:39)

here mentioned, when taunting Him on the cross, and

(Mt 27:43)

reproached Him almost in the very, language of this passage.

shoot out--or, "open."

the lip--(Compare

Ps 35:21).

8. trusted on the Lord--literally, "rolled"--that is, his burden

(Ps 37:5; Pr 16:3)

on the Lord. This is the language of enemies sporting with his faith in the hour of his desertion.

9, 10. Though ironically spoken, the exhortation to trust was well founded on his previous experience of divine aid, the special illustration of which is drawn from the period of helpless infancy.

didst make me hope--literally, "made me secure."