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treateth of the passion; the latter, 22—31. celebrateth the resurrection of Jesus, with its effects. 1-2. He complaineth of being forsaking; 3—6. acknowledgeth the holiness of the Father, and pleadeth the former deliverances of the church; 6-8. describeth his humiliation, with the taunts and reproaches of the Jews; 9-11. expresseth his faith, and prayeth for help; 12-18. particularizeth his sufferings; 19-21. repeateth his supplications; 22-25. declareth his resolution to praise the Father for his deliverance, and exhorteth his church to do the same; 26-31. prophesieth the conversion of the Gentile world to the faith and worship of the true God.

1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

Christ, the beloved Son of the Father, when hanging on the cross, complained in these words, that he was deprived, for a time, of the divine presence and comforting influence, while he suffered for our sins. If the Master thus underwent the trial of a spiritual desertion, why doth the disciple think it strange, unless the light of heaven shine continually upon his tabernacle? Let us comfort ourselves, in such circumstances, with the thought, that we are thereby conformed to the image of our dying Lord, that Sun which set in a cloud, to arise without one.

2. O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

Even our Lord himself, as man, prayed, "that if it were possible, the cup might pass from him;" but God had ordained otherwise, for his own glory, and for man's salvation. "Day and night," in prosperity and adversity, living and dying, let us not be "silent," but cry for deliverance; always remembering to add, as Christ did, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." Nor let any man be impatient for the return of his prayers, since every petition preferred even by the Son of God himself was not granted.

3. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.* Whatever befalleth the members of the church, the head thereof here teacheth them to confess the justice and holiness of God, in all his proceedings; and to acknowledge, that whether he exalteth or humbleth his people, he is to be praised and glorified by them. 4. Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

"Trust" in God is the way to "deliverance;" and the former instances of the divine favour are so many arguments why we

Or, perhaps, as Bishop Lowth renders it, "That thou inhabitest

n the irradiations, the glory of Israel." See Merrick's Annotations on the Psalms, p. 43.

should hope for the same; but it may not always be vouchsafed, when we expect it. The patriarchs and Israelites of old were often saved from their enemies: the holy Jesus is left to languish and expire under the malice of his. God knows what is proper for him to do, and for us to suffer; we know neither. This consideration is an anchor for the afflicted soul, sure and steadfast.

5. They cried unto thee, and were delivered; they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

No argument is of more force with God, than that which is founded upon an appeal to his darling attribute of mercy, and to the manifestations of it formerly made to persons in distress; for which reason it is here repeated, and dwelt upon. They who would obtain grace to help in time of need, must "cry," as well as "trust." The "prayer of faith" is mighty with God, and (if we may use the expression) overcometh the Omnipotent.

6. But I am a worm, and no man: a reproach of men, and despised by the people.

He who spareth all other men, spared not his own Son; he spared not him, that he might spare them. The Redeemer of the world scrupleth not to compare himself, in his state of humiliation, to the lowest reptile which his own hand formed, a "worm," humble, silent, innocent, overlooked, oppressed, and trodden under foot. Let the sight of this reptile teach us humility.

7, 8. All they that see me, laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD, that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

This was literally fulfilled, when Messiah hung upon the cross, and the priests and elders used the very words that had been put into their mouths by the Spirit of prophecy so long before. Matt. xxvii. 41-43. "The chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him." O the wisdom and foreknowledge of God! The infatuation and blindness of man! The same are too often the sentiments of those, who live in times when the church and her righteous cause, with their advocates, are under the cloud of persecution, and seem to sink beneath the displeasure of the powers of the world. But such do not believe, or do not consider, that, in the Christian economy, death is followed by a resurrection, when it will appear, that God forsaketh not them that are his, but they are preserved for ever.

9, 10. But thou art he that took me out of the womb; thou didst make me hope, when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb : thou art my God from my mother's belly.

This was eminently the case of Christ, who was the Son of God in a sense, in which no other man ever was. But in him we are all children of God by adoption: we are all in the hands of a gracious providence from the womb; and into these hands must we commend ourselves, when about to depart hence. To whom else, then, should we have recourse for support and consolation, in the day of calamity and sorrow?

11. Be not far from me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

From the foregoing considerations, namely, from the holiness of God, ver. 3. from the salvation vouchsafed to the people of old time, ver. 4, 5. from the low estate to which Messiah was reduced, ver. 6, 7, 8. and from the watchful care of the Father over him, since his miraculous birth; ver. 9, 10. from all these considerations, he enforceth his petition for help, during his unparalleled sufferings, when "all forsook him and fled." Let us treasure up these things in our hearts, against the hour when "trouble shall be near, and there shall be none to help;" when all shall forsake us, but God, our conscience, and our prayers.

12, 13. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

From the 11th verse to the 19th the sufferings of the holy Jesus are described, in terms partly figurative, and partly literal. A lamb in the midst of wild "bulls and lions" is a very lively representation of his meekness and innocence, and of the noise and fury of his implacable enemies. "Bashan" was a fertile country, Numb. xxxii. 4. and the cattle there fed, were fat and "strong," Deut. xxxii. 14, Like them, the Jews, in that good land, “waxed fat and kicked," grew proud and rebelled; "forsook God that made them, and lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation." Let both communities and individuals, when blessed with peace, plenty, and prosperity in the world, take sometimes into consideration this flagrant instance of their being abused, with the final consequence

of such abuse.

14, 15. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, or, sundered; my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleareth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

For our sakes, Christ yielded himself, like "water," without resistance, to the violence of his enemies; suffering his "bones," in which consisteth the strength of the frame, to be distended and dis

located upon the cross; while, by reason of the fire from above, to the burning heat of which this paschal Lamb was exposed, his heart dissolved and melted away. The intenseness of his passion, drying up all the fluids, brought on a thirst, tormenting beyond expression; and, at last, laid him low in the grave. Never, blessed Lord, was love like unto thy love! Never was sorrow like unto thy sorrow! Thy spouse and body mystical, the church, is often, in a degree, conformed unto thee; and as thou wert, so is she in this world.

16. For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me; they pierced my hands and my feet.

Our Lord, who compared himself above, ver. 12. to a lamb in the midst of bulls and lions, here setteth himself forth again under the image of a hart, or hind, roused early in the morning of his mortal life, hunted and chased all the day, and in the evening pulled down to the ground, by those who "compassed" and " inclosed" him, thirsting and clamouring for his blood, crying, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him." And the next step was, the "piercing his hands and his feet," by nailing them to the cross. How often, O thou preserver of men, in thy church, thy ministers, and thy word, art thou thus compassed, and thus pierced?

17. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

The skin and flesh were distended, by the posture of the body on the cross, that the bones, as through a thin veil, became visible, and might be counted;"* and the holy Jesus, forsaken and stripped, naked and bleeding, was a spectacle to heaven and earth. Look unto him, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the world!

18. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my

vesture.

"The soldiers, when they had crucified JESUS, took his garment, and made four parts, to every soldier a part, and also his coat; now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith-They parted my garment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots." John xix. 23, 24.

"Qui macilenti sunt, sic habent ossa prominentia, ut facile omnia possint tactu secerni et numerari. David, quatenus hæc ei conveniunt, dicere hoc potuit de se fuga et molestiis emaciato. Sed Christus aptius ita loqui poterat, quod magis emaciatus esset, et corpore nudo atque in cruce distento, magis adparerent ossa." Le Clerc, cited by Bishop Lowth, in Merrick's Annotations.

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19. But be thou not far from me, O LORD; O my strength, haste

thee to help me.

The circumstances of the passion being thus related, Christ resumes the prayer with which the Psalm begins, and which is repeated, ver. 10, 11. The adversary had emptied his quiver, and spent all the venom of his malice; Messiah therefore pray. eth for a manifestation of the power and favour of heaven on his side in a joyful and glorious resurrection. And to a resurrection from the dead every man will find it necessary to look forward for comfort.

20, 21. Deliver my soul from the sword: my darling* from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth for thou hast heard me, or, and hear thou me from the horns of the unicorn.

The wrath of God was the "sword," which took vengeance on all men, in their representative; it was the " flaming sword," which kept man out of paradise; the sword, to which it was said, at the time of the passion-" Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered," Zech. xiii. 7. Matt. xxvi. 31. The ravening fury of the "dog," the "lion," and the "unicorn," or "oryx," a fierce and untameable creature of the stag kind, is made use of to describe the rage of the devil and his instruments, whether spiritual or corporeal. From all these Christ supplicates the Father for deliverance. How great need have we to supplicate for the same through him!

22. I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

The former part of the Psalm we have seen to be prophetical of the passion. The strain now changes to an epinikion, or hymn of triumph, in the mouth of the Redeemer, celebrating his victory and its happy consequences. This verse is cited by the Apostle, Heb. ii. 11. "Both he that sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren," &c. And accordingly, when the deliverance, so long wished, and so earnestly prayed for, was accomplished by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, he "declared the name of God," by his Apostles, to all his "brethren;" and caused the church to resound with incessant praises and hallelujahs; all which are here represented as

• Heb. 'n' my united one. "May it relate to any thing more than ? The human nature united with the Divinity in the person of Christ? Quære." Bishop Lowth, in Merrick's Annotations.

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