The Messiah in His Great Passion.
V. 12. Many bulls, numerous and dangerous enemies, have compassed Me; strong bulls of Bashan, the rich meadow country northeast of Gilead, have beset Me round, threatening Him from all sides. V. 13. They gaped upon Me with their mouths, stretching them wide open, in order to tear Him to pieces, as a ravening and a roaring lion. Both the Jews and the arch-enemy of Christ are here included in this description.
V. 14. I am poured out like water, His life is in the process of dissolution as the result of all these sufferings, and all My bones are out of joint, due to the torture of the cross; My heart is like wax, from the agony and terror of His soul; it is melted in the midst of My bowels.
V. 15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, all his vitality having left Him; and My tongue cleaveth to My jaws, in the agony of burning thirst from which He suffered on the cross; and Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death, laid there by God, in accordance with the eternal counsel concerning man’s salvation. Both the Jews and the heathen would have had no power over Christ if it had not been given them from above; the death of Christ took place by the will of God.
V. 16. For dogs have compassed Me, as the Messiah, in resuming His complaint, cries out; the assembly of the wicked have enclosed Me; they pierced My hands and My feet, digging through them with the nails which fastened Jesus to the cross. V. 17. I may tell all My bones, for He was so wasted away with suffering that every bone was to be seen; they look and stare upon Me, partly in indifference and partly in hatred. V. 18. They part My garments among them and cast lots upon My vesture, Luke 23, 34; John 19, 23. 24. Such were the indignities that were heaped upon the Lord.
Therefore He cries out once more: v. 19. But be not Thou far from Me, O Lord, remaining at a distance; O My Strength, haste Thee to help Me, speedily coming to His assistance. V. 20. Deliver My soul from the sword, from the murderous weapons, from the instruments of torture; My darling, His precious life, from the power of the dog, the low and mean tormentors.
V. 21. Save Me from the lion’s mouth, Satan himself being referred to here; for Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns, the wild oxen representing all His fierce enemies. The Messiah is so confident that God will hear Him that He states, Thou hast heard, Thou hast answered Me. All the forces of evil, the very powers of death, could not keep Him in subjection. It is the Christian’s great comfort that Christ suffered willingly, that He endured all the sufferings laid upon Him to the end, to the time when He knew that redemption had been gained, that all was finished.
A PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH’S GLORY. V. 22. I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, proclaiming it aloud; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. It is the delivered, the victorious Messiah who speaks in the last part of the psalm. The dawn of salvation has arisen upon the hind that was pursued. Christ, the Messiah, risen from the dead, is now enthroned at the right hand of God, while He is at the same time in the midst of His brethren, in the glorious Word of the Gospel. Those who believe in Him are the congregation of Jehovah, and their songs of praise rise in honor of His redemption.