Hebrews 2:12 - Exposition

I will declare thy Name unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church (or, congregation ) will I sing praise unto thee . This first citation is from Psalms 22:22 , quoted, it would seem, from memory or from a text of the LXX . different from ours, διηγήσομαι being changed to ἀπαγγελῶ , but with no difference of meaning. The psalm is attributed by tradition to David, being entitled "a psalm of David." Delitzsch and Ebrard accept it as certainly his, concluding, from its position in the first book of the psalms (1-72), that it was included in the collection made by David himself (cf. 2 Chronicles 23:18 with Psalms 72:20 ). Others, as recently Perowne, think that the fact of the suffering and humiliation described, being beyond any experienced by David himself, points to some other unknown author. The conclusion, however, does not necessarily follow. David, writing " in Spirit," when under persecution by Saul, may be conceived as drawing a picture, with regard both to present humiliation and to expected triumph, beyond the facts of his own case, taking his own experience as typical of a higher fulfillment. And the minute details of the suffering described, answering so remarkably to the circumstances of the Crucifixion, certainly suggest the idea of a distinct prophetic vision. Still, there is no reason for concluding that the psalm was not, like other Messianic psalms, suggested by and founded on the writer's own circumstances and experience. Detitzsch says well, "The way of sorrows by which David mounted to his earthly throne was a type of that Via Dolorosa by which Jesus, the Son of David, passed before ascending to the right hand of the Father." There is no psalm of which the ultimate Messianic reference is to Christian believers more undoubted. The first words of it were uttered by Jesus himself from the cross ( Matthew 27:46 ); and for its fulfillment in him, recognized by the evangelists, see Matthew 27:39 , Matthew 27:43 ; John 19:23 , John 19:28 . The general purport of the psalm is as follows: A persecuted sufferer, under a feeling of being forsaken by God, pours out his complaint, and prays for succor; suddenly, at the end of John 19:21 , the tone of the psalm changes into one of confident anticipation of deliverance and triumph, when the psalmist shall praise the Lord in the congregation of his brethren, when all that fear the Lord shall join him in praise, when the "ends of the earth" shall turn to the Lord, and "all the families of the nations" shall worship with Israel. The close agreement of the latter part of the psalm with the Messianic anticipations of prophecy is obvious, and would in itself determine its Messianic import. The marked difference between this psalm and those previously quoted is that the typical psalmist appears hero as a human sufferer previously to his triumph, thus anticipating the similar view of the Messiah in prophecy, as notably in Isaiah lilt. And hence this psalm is suitably quoted here as a striking and early anticipation of a Messiah "perfected through sufferings," and associated in sympathy with human "brethren," the verse actually quoted, in which " he is not ashamed to call them brethren, " being sufficient to remind the readers of the whole of this aspect of Messianic prophecy.