Saturday, April 20, 2019

Psalm 22: The 5th Gospel

Psalm 22:
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
why art thou so far from helping me,
and from the words of my roaring?
...and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
vs1,15

"Lament characterizes the first 21 verses, while praise and thanksgiving describe the last 10 verses. Prayer accounts for this dramatic shift from lament to praise. It is the story of first being God-forsaken and then God-found and filled. It was applied immediately to David and ultimately to the Greater David, Messiah.
The New Testament contains 15 messianic quotations of or allusions to this psalm, leading some in the early church to label it “the fifth gospel”.


I.       The Psalmist’s Hopelessness (22:1-10).
A.  His Hopelessness and National History (22:1-5);
Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. vs.4
B.   His Hopelessness and Natal History (22:6-10).
But thou art he that took me out of the womb: vs.9
II.      The Psalmist’s Prayer (22:11-21).
A.  A No-Help Outlook (22:11-18);
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 bowels. vs.14
B.   A Divine-Help Outlook (22:19-21).
But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. vs.21
III.     The Psalmist’s Testimonies and Worship (22:22-31).
A.  An Individual Precipitation of Praise (22:22-25);
Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; vs.23
B.   A Corporate Perpetuation of Praise (22:26-31).
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. vs.27

My God! The first verse contains two remarkable sentences, which, although apparently contrary to each other, are yet ever entering into the minds of the godly together.
*When the Psalmist speaks of being forsaken and cast off by God, it seems to be the complaint of a man in despair;
*And yet, in calling God twice his own God, and depositing his groanings into his bosom, he makes a very distinct confession of his faith.
Inhabitest the praises of Israel vs.3- Thou dwellest in the sanctuary where the praises, thanksgivings, and sacrifices of thy people are continually offered.
 The words השחר אילת aiyeleth hashshachar are translated in the margin, "the hind of the morning;" but what was this?
Some think they find Christ in the title of this psalm, upon Aijeleth ShaharThe hind of the morning. Christ is as the swift hind upon the mountains of spices (Cant. 8:14 ), as the loving hind and the pleasant roe, to all believers (Prov. 5:19); he giveth goodly words like Naphtali, who is compared to a hind let loose, Gen. 49:21 . He is the hind of the morning, marked out by the counsels of God from eternity, to be run down by those dogs that compassed him, v. 16. But others think it denotes only the tune to which the psalm was set.
Aijeleth Shahar”: In the title is a unique phrase in the superscription and is probably best taken as a tune designation."
 
Be not far from me;
for trouble is near;
for there is none to help.
vs.11
BooksOfTheBible/MatthewHenry/AdamClarke/Calvin