Psalms 22

Question 2. What is the right manner of a Christian's growth? Response 1. The right manner of growth, is to grow less in one's own eyes (Psalm 22:6): I am a worm and no man. The sight of corruption and ignorance makes a Christian grow into a dislike of himself, he does vanish in…

First [illegible]. That God does deliver his children out of troubles (Psalm 22:4): Our Fathers trusted in you, they trusted, and you delivered them. 2 Timothy 4:17: And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, namely, from Nero.

God's people esteem others better than themselves; they shrink into nothing in their own thoughts (Philippians 2:3). David cries out, I am a worm, and no man (Psalm 22:6) — though a saint, though a king, yet a worm. When Moses's face shone, he covered it with a veil: God's peopl…

There can be no submission to God's will till there be an acknowledging of God's hand. (2.) Patient submission to God's will lies in our justifying of God (Psalm 22:2): O my God I cry to you, yet you hear not, you turn a deaf ear to me in my affliction; but you are holy (Psalm 2…

Indeed, whatever causes torment or anguish is in Scripture called a sword, and piercing with a sword is used to express the most exquisite sufferings, as in Luke 2:35: 'A sword shall pierce through your soul also' — spoken to the blessed mother of Christ, of that anguish with wh…

And thus, while you may be speaking blindfolded as it were, casting anchor in the dark, yet speaking his very heart, he may own you and fall upon your neck and kiss you. And if yet after continual praying thus you still find no comfort, no answer from him, but he seems rather to…

For as Paul says, being in the form of God and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and took on him form of a servant: and humbled himself and became obedient to death, even to the death of the cross (Philippians 2:6-7). Indeed so far forth…

[illegible], Though I be nothing. David cries out, I am a worm and no man (Psalm 22:6). Though a saint, though a king, yet a worm: Saint Austin, Lord, I am not worthy of Thy love: Bishop Hooper, Lord, I am hell, but Thou art heaven.

What, shall I fear lest that one be not sufficient for us both? it is not a short cloak that cannot cover two: it will cover both you and me largely being both a large and eternal justice. Augustine on Psalm 22: He prays for our faults, and has made our faults his faults, that h…

First, though no answer comes, yet you are still resolved to wait — you dare not say as that profane wretch did, 2 Kings 6:33: 'This evil is of the Lord; why should I wait for him any longer?' Second, you can still justify God and lay the reason and cause of his silence upon you…

He speaks this specially to such as were continually exposed to persecution to death for Christ in those primitive times; which therefore, verse 12, he terms the fiery trial, and verse 17, forewarns them of a time of judgment was begun, and going on upon the house of God, such a…

It is a determined thing, if we look, 1. To the certainty of the event; our Lord Jesus Christ must have a seed, to wit, believers in Him; that is concluded on, and promised to Him. 2. If we look to the seed that He shall have; they are particularly determined upon, to wit, how m…

But the coals of the furnace cast upon reprobates are dipped in the curse of God; so that in a small affliction, even in the miscarrying of a basket of bread, and the loss of one poor ox, there is a great law-curse, and intolerable vengeance (Deuteronomy 27:26; Deuteronomy 28:17…

So (Psalm 72:12) All nations [illegible] shall serve him — it is meant of Christ, and in the letter cannot be true, if many refuse him to be their King (Psalm 2:9; Psalm 2:3; Luke 19:14; Psalm 110:1). So is it said (Psalm 22:27) All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn…

And when the wrath of God for sin came thus in upon him, his faith was put to it to trust and wait on him for his justification, to take off all those sins together with his wrath from off him, and to acknowledge himself satisfied and him acquitted. Therefore in Psalm 22 (which…

As in like manner the scope of the evangelists is to set forth the story of them (for that is necessary to be known also). And thus did that evangelical prophet Isaiah chiefly set forth the intent of Christ's sufferings for justification, Isaiah 53, throughout the chapter, as Da…

Again, when Christ came to take upon him our nature, the words he spoke are recorded: 'Behold I come to do your will; a body have you fitted me' (Hebrews 10, out of Psalm 40). Likewise when he hung upon the cross, his words to God are recorded, Psalm 22:1: 'My God, my God, why h…

And besides, should we die for our sins ourselves, our death would not free us from the punishment, for we are not able to overcome death, but should forever sink under it: if there had been a law that could have given us life, then we might have lived by it, but there is no suc…

A man may better spend two hours in hearing, than half an hour in praying, if the heart be employed in it as it ought to be, in the sight of God, and an earnest desire after him: the prayers in Scripture are all supplications or doxologies, there is no excursion into doctrines a…

Again: Depart not from me, for tribulation is at hand, and there is none to help. Etc. [reconstructed: (John 17)] (Luke 4:32) (Psalm 22:6, 15) This is therefore a great commendation of the Galatians, that they were not offended with this infirmity and temptation of Paul, but rec…

Think on this: hence we learn thankfulness to God, because our callings, gifts, and the execution of our callings, is wholly of God: and this Paul signifies, when he says that our separation to our offices, and callings, was from our first conception. Hence we learn to depend on…

Thus Cain hated his brother, by reason of the grace of God: because his deeds were good (1 John 3:12). A great part of the sufferings of Christ, stood in this, that he was mocked for his confidence in God (Psalm 22:8; Matthew 27:43). The children of Bethel mock Elisha: first, fo…

2. If you be Christ's, then commend your soul, and life, and all that you have, into the hands of Christ. This was the practice of David (Psalm 22), of Christ upon the cross, of Paul (2 Timothy 1:12). And this practice is the only way to obtain safety and protection.

These in his mystical body are glorious in the sight of God (as the death of his Saints is;) yet not meritorious. Secondly, those in his natural body, were prophesied of before in particular (Psalm 22:16): They pierced my hands and my feet. These in his mystical body only in gen…

But the Prophet meant nothing less: for he goes on still to set forth the grace of God, which should be manifested at the coming of Christ. Using the very same similitude with that in Psalm 22:26, where David describes the kingdom of Christ, saying; that the poor as well as the…

For his strokes must of necessity have that efficacy in them, as to bring down all loftiness, and to humble us to the very gates of hell, that so being in a manner stripped of all comfort, we may lie gasping after it, and yet in the meantime apprehend nothing but dread and horro…

And by this consideration David cheers up his spirits in his extreme distresses: It is you, O Lord, says he, that has drawn me out of my mother's womb: you gave me hope while I sucked my mother's breasts. I was cast upon you even from the womb: you are my God from my mother's be…

Which are born of me from the womb.] This similitude, by which God compares himself to a mother that bears her child in her womb, is very fitting for his purpose. Now he speaks of the time past, in which he began to give to his people testimonies of his grace: unless any had rat…

For the governor, (or whoever was employed by Caesar for the purpose,) while he executes the commission entrusted to him, is, unknown to himself, God's herald, to call Mary to the place which God had appointed. And certainly Luke's whole narrative may well lead believers to ackn…

to be "a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people," (Psalm 22:6) and at length to undergo the accursed death of the cross.

When Matthew says that thus was fulfilled the prediction of David, they part my garments among them, and cast the lot upon my vesture, (Psalm 22:18,) we must understand his meaning to be, that what David complained of, as having been done to himself metaphorically and figurative…

This certainly was more cruel than all the other tortures, that they upbraided, and reviled, and tormented him as one that had been cast off and forsaken by God, (Isaiah 53:4.) And, therefore, David, as the representative of Christ, complains chiefly of this among the distresses…

For both show many things of the afflictions as well of Christ as of those that believe in [reconstructed: him], and also of the glory that follows the same. So David, (Psalm 22) when he speaks of Christ in this sort: I am a [reconstructed: worm] and no man, does he else declare…

Avenging justice then spent all its force upon him, on account of our guilt that was laid upon him; he was not spared at all; but God spent the arrows of his vengeance upon him, which made him sweat blood, and cry out upon the cross, and probably rent his vitals, broke his heart…

And if we consider the nature of that obscure life we lived in tho womb; how small an accident (had it been permitted by Providence) had extinguished our life, like a Bird in the shell? We cannot therefore but admire the tender care of Providence over us, and say with the Psalmi…

Secondly, it may refer to the birth: for, there must be an opening of those doors and that by an Almighty power, for production as well as for conception. And therefore David (Psalm 22:9) ascribes it to the Lord, Lord you are he who took me out of my mother's womb. It was not th…

2. The commendation is explained, or illustrated by a similitude: the thing she explains, and which she understood by ointments, is his Name; the similitude whereby it is illustrated is ointment poured forth. Christ's Name is himself, or the knowledge of himself, or every thing…

But though he did not sweat blood, yet such was the suffering of his soul, that probably it rent his vitals; as seems probable by this that when his side was pierced, there came forth blood and water. And so here was a kind of literal fulfillment of that in Psalm 22.14. "I am po…

Your Lord Jesus sweated and panted before he got up that mount; he was at 'Father, save me' with it. It was he who said in Psalm 22:14: 'I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint' — Christ was as if they had broken him on the wheel — 'my heart is like wax, it is…

That which would break an angry man's heart, will not break a meek man's sleep. It is promised (Psalm 22:26) that the meek shall eat and be satisfied. He has whatever sweetness is to be had in his common comforts, while the angry man either cannot eat, his stomach is too full, a…

Thirdly, it is worth the enduring a great deal of affliction, to have communion with them; because it is in their communion, in which the solemn worship of God is set up; now it is worth the enduring of a great deal, to be where that is. In Judah is God known, and his name is gr…

The way to Zion is through the valley of Baca, Psalm 84:6 Many are the troubles of the righteous, says David, Psalm 34:19 According to that of the Apostles, Acts 14:22 Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God. Psalm 22. is a prophetical Psalm of Christs suf…

The terms of this covenant are at large set forth in Isaiah 53, summed up in Psalm 40:7-8, and Hebrews 10:8-10. Hence the Father became his God — which is a covenant expression, Psalm 89:26, Hebrews 1:5, Psalm 22:1, Psalm 40:8, Psalm 45:7. So was he by his Father designed to thi…

They sought to know what manner of time it should come to pass, namely in a time of great distress, and bad estate of the people, as all the Prophets testify, and particularly that place (Genesis 49:10) gives an express character of the time, though there be some diversity of ex…

It is not said that his children always see and hear him sensibly, but yet when they do not, he is beholding them, and hearing them graciously, and will show himself to them, and answer them seasonably. (Psalm 22:2) I cry in the daytime, and you do not hear, etc. Yet will he not…

And therefore it is verily a fault, that God is no more praised. In our addresses to him (Psalm 22:3) it's said, O you that inhabit the praises of Israel; the meaning is, dwells in Israel, where he is praised of them, because it is the great work they are about. Surely our assem…

In infancy we are not in a capacity to know the God of our mercies, and look after him; yet he looked after us then, when we could not perform one act of love and kindness to him. The Psalmist takes notice of this; (Psalm 22:9-10) You are he who took me out of the womb; you made…

O stand upon Mount Gerizim blessing. The Fear of God is an Immortal▪ Seed springing up into Glory, Psalm 22:23. Ye that fear the Lord praise him.

If we be tried and nurtured with correction of the cross, so was he: insomuch that although he was the Son of God, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered (Hebrews 5:8). If we be abased, so was he: insomuch that whereas it was no robbery in him to be equal with G…

But now our duty to God, and love to him, should make us seek him in his ordinances by way of communion. And in this sense seeking God is often spoken of in Scripture (Psalm 22:26): They shall praise the Lord that seek him; that is, that wait upon him, and maintain communion wit…