Search Tools
New Defender's Study Bible Notes
22:14 it is melted. The awful sufferings of crucifixion involved the gravitational dismantling of the bone joints, the collapse of the heart cavity, and finally a gushing of both blood and water (John 19:34) when the soldier’s spear pierced His side.
22:15 my tongue cleaveth. Indescribable thirst was induced in the midday sun (John 19:28).
22:16 dogs have compassed me. It is possible that the reference to “dogs” was a euphemism for a crowd of sodomites (Deuteronomy 23:17-18).
22:16 pierced my hands. The piercing of His hands and feet is a clear reference to the nails which affixed Him to the cross (note also John 20:25-28; Zechariah 12:10; 13:6; John 19:37; Revelation 1:7).
22:18 cast lots upon my vesture. The unusual action of gambling for His vesture is prophesied here and is one of the very few events recorded in all four gospels (Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24).
22:20 my darling. In the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, “darling” is monogenes, used in John 3:16 and elsewhere to identify Jesus as God’s “only begotten” Son.
22:21 thou hast heard me. At the very climax and completion of His sufferings, as He was about to be impaled on the mighty horns of the unicorns and swallowed by the ravening lion, the Father finally heard His cry, and delivered Him.
22:22 midst of the congregation. At this point in the psalm the theme suddenly changes from suffering to praise. The debt for sin has been fully paid, and our sin-bearer becomes our great praise-leader. His congregation at the foot of the cross was very small—His mother, John, and the other women. One day His praise would be in the midst of not just “two or three...gathered together in my name” (Matthew 18:20), but of “the great congregation” (Psalm 22:25), “the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23).
22:22 praise. It is strikingly significant that this first mention of the verb “praise” (Hebrew hallal) in the book of Israel’s praises, as the Book of Psalms was called, is at Psalm 22:22. This surely seems more than coincidence, for twenty-two is the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The chapter and verse structure in the Book of Psalms, unlike the rest of the Bible, was there from the beginning. Thus, the very purpose of human language is to praise our Creator and Savior, and the great occasion of praise is His victory over sin and death on the cross.