The Messiah’s Vicarious Suffering
V. 8. I am become a stranger unto My brethren, the members of His own nation regarding Him with aversion in His great Passion, and an alien unto My mother’s children, His very relatives being among those who refused to accept Him as the promised Savior, John 1, 11; 7, 5.
V. 9. For the zeal of Thine house, not only the outward building of the Temple, John 2, 17, but especially for the spiritual temple of Jehovah, for His holy Church, hath eaten Me up, consuming Him with anxiety; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon Me, whatever objections were raised by the enemies to take away the honor of God, struck Him, the Messiah, with full force.
V. 10. When I wept, in every bitter experience of His ministry, and chastened My soul with fasting, keeping under restraint, aloof from all wickedness, that was to My reproach; no matter what His behavior, some critic arose to condemn Him, Matt. 11, 19.
V. 11. I made sackcloth also My garment, as one in deep mourning, abstaining from even the appearance of evil; and I became a proverb to them, His name and acts being bandied about jestingly.
V. 12. They that sit in the gate, the nobles, the leaders of the people, speak against Me; and I was the song of drunkards, of drinkers of strong drink, the rabble of the taverns and streets joining in making mockery of Him, not only during His ministry, but especially when He hung on the cross. The Messiah now returns to the situation as pictured in the beginning of the psalm.
V. 13. But as for Me, placing His own person in extreme opposition to that of His mocking enemies, My prayer is unto Thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time; He knew that the Father is well pleased with Him in spite of the degradation of His sufferings. O God, in the multitude of Thy mercy hear Me, answering Him favorably, in the truth of Thy salvation, since it was the will of God that not a single soul of the great host of sinners should be lost, but that salvation should be gained for all men.
V. 14. Deliver Me out of the mire, the swamp of the evils which had been laid upon Him, and let Me not sink; let Me be delivered from them that hate Me, and out of the deep waters, the floods of His misery and anguish which threatened to engulf Him.
V. 15. Let not the water-flood overflow Me, neither let the deep, the abyss of death, swallow Me up, and let not the pit, the cistern, or well, shut her mouth upon Me, the picture being that of a receptacle for rain-water in the steppe, whose opening was shut with a large stone.