Psalm 22:20-21

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 22:11-21

In these verses we have Christ suffering and Christ praying, by which we are directed to look for crosses and to look up to God under them. I. Here is Christ suffering. David indeed was often in trouble, and beset with enemies; but many of the particulars here specified are such as were never true of David, and therefore must be appropriated to Christ in the depth of his humiliation. 1. He is here deserted by his friends: Trouble and distress are near, and there is none to help, none to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 22:20

Deliver my soul from the sword ,.... Wicked men, whose tongues were as a sharp sword, reproaching and blaspheming him, and bearing false witness against him; and crying out, "Crucify him, crucify him", Luke 23:21 ; see Psalm 17:12 ; or any instrument of violence, as the iron bar with which the legs of the malefactors crucified with him were broken, which he escaped; and the spear which pierced his side, after he had commended his soul or spirit into the hands of his Father; or a violent... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 22:21

Save me from the lion's mouth ,.... Either the devil, who is as a roaring lion, whom Christ overcame both in the garden and on the cross, and destroyed him and his works; or all his wicked enemies, especially the most powerful of them, who were in greatest authority, as the chief priests and elders; so rulers and civil magistrates, who are cruel and unmerciful, are compared to lions, Proverbs 28:15 ; for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns ; some read this as a prayer... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 22:20

Deliver my soul from the sword - Deliver נפשי naphshi , my life; save me alive, or raise me again. My darling - יחידתי yechidathi , my only one. The only human being that was ever produced since the creation, even by the power of God himself, without the agency of man. Adam the first was created out of the dust of the earth; that was his mother; God was the framer. Adam the second was produced in the womb of the virgin; that was his mother. But that which was conceived in her was... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 22:21

Save me from the lion's mouth - Probably our Lord here includes his Church with himself. The lion may then mean the Jews; the unicorns, רמים remim (probably the rhinoceros), the Gentiles. For the unicorn, see the note on Numbers 23:22 . There is no quadruped or land animal with one horn only, except the rhinoceros; but there is a marine animal, the narwhal or monodon, a species of whale, that has a very fine curled ivory horn, which projects from its snout. One in my own museum... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 22:1-31

The psalm is composed, manifestly, of two portions—the complaint and prayer of a sufferer ( Psalms 22:1-21 ), and a song of rejoicing after deliverance ( Psalms 22:22-31 ). According to some critics, the first of these two portions is also itself divided into two parts—each consisting of two strophes ( Psalms 22:1-10 and Psalms 22:12-21 ), which are linked together by a single ejaculatory verse ( Psalms 22:11 ). A further analysis divides each of the three strophes of ten verses... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 22:1-31

From darkness to light; or, the song of the early dawn. This is one of the most wonderful of all the psalms. It has gathered round it the study of expositors of most diverse types—from those who see in it scarcely aught but a description beforehand of the Messiah's suffering and glory, to those who see in it scarcely any Messianic reference at all, and who acknowledge only one sense in which even the term "Messianic" is to be tolerated, even in the fact that light gleams forth after the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 22:1-31

A struggle from the gloom of adversity to peace and joy. It was said among the heathen that a just man struggling with adversity was a sight worthy of the gods. Such a sight we have here. We see a truly just man struggling from the gloomiest depths of adversity upwards to the serene heights of peace and joy in God. Three stages may be marked. I. THE WAIL OF DESERTION . ( Psalms 22:1-10 .) Suffering is no "strange thing." It comes sooner or later to all. Always, and especially... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 22:11-21

Prayer in suffering. The persecuted exile continues to speak of his sufferings, but seems to rise up out of the despair of the first verse into the faith implied in prayer. Much of the suffering here described, if not productive, was at least typical , of the suffering of Christ. An argument is still going on in the sufferer's mind as to whether God had finally forsaken him or not. He has been trying in the first ten verses to argue down the feeling, but has not yet succeeded; and now... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 22:20

Deliver my soul from the sword. "The sword" symbolizes the authority of the Roman governor—that authority by which Christ was actually put to death. If he prayed, even on the cross, to be delivered from it, the prayer must have been offered with the reservations previously made in Gethsemane, "If it be possible" ( Matthew 26:39 ); "If thou be willing" ( Luke 22:42 ); "Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." The human will in Christ was in favour of the deliverance; the Divine... read more

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