David complains in great discouragement, 1-8. He prays in great distress, 9-22. He praises God, 23-31.
1 [To the Chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar. A Psalm of David.]
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?/
Why are you so far from helping me/
and from the words of my roaring?
2 O my God, I cry in the day-time, but you do not hear,/
and in the night season, and I am not silent.
3 But you are holy,/
O you who inhabit the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in you./
They trusted, and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you and were delivered./
They trusted in you and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worm and no man,/
a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
7 All those who see me deride me./
They shoot out the lip and shake the head, saying,
8 "He trusted in the LORD that he would deliver him./
Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him."
9 But you are he who brought me forth into life./
You made me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
10 I was cast upon you from my birth./
You are my God from the time I was born.
11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near./
For there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls have surrounded me./
Strong bulls of Bashan have compassed me.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths/
like a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,/
and all my bones are out of joint./
My heart is like wax./
It is melted in the midst of my body.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,/
and my tongue cleaves to my jaws./
And you have brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me./
The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me./
They pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may number all my bones./
They look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them/
and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But do not be far from me, O LORD./
O my strength, hasten to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword,/
my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion's mouth,/
for you have heard me from the horns of the wild oxen.
22 I will declare your name to my brothers./
In the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him./
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him./
And fear him, all you offspring of Israel.
24 For he has not despised nor abhorred/
the affliction of the afflicted,/
neither has he hid his face from him./
But when he cried to him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of you in the great congregation./
I will pay my vows before those who fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied./
They shall praise the LORD who seek him./
Your heart shall live forever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD,/
and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before you.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD'S,/
and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All those who are fat upon earth shall eat and worship./
All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him./
And no one can keep his own soul alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him./
It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come and declare his righteousness/
to a people who shall be born,/
that he has done this.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Psalms, Chapter 22[➚]
John Calvin's Chapter Summary:
David complains in this psalm, that he is reduced to such circumstances of distress that he is like a man in despair. But after having recounted the calamities with which he was so severely afflicted, he emerges from the abyss of temptations, and gathering courage, comforts himself with the assurance of deliverance. At the same time, he sets before us, in his own person, a type of Christ, who he knew by the Spirit of prophecy behoved to be abased in marvellous and unusual ways previous to his exaltation by the Father. Thus the psalm, in the two parts of which it consists, explains that prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 53:8), "He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation?"
[v.1] - Quoted in Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34.
[v.8] - Quoted in Matthew 27:43.
[v.15] - "and my tongue cleaves to my jaws" - LXX: "and my tongue is glued to my throat."
[v.18] - Quoted in Matthew 27:35; John 19:24.
[v.22] - Quoted in Hebrews 2:12.