221 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? 2 My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer;
in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But you are holy,
you who inhabit the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers trusted in you.
They trusted, and you delivered them. 5 They cried to you, and were delivered.
They trusted in you, and were not disappointed. 6 But I am a worm, and no man;
a reproach of men, and despised by the people. 7 All those who see me mock me.
They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying, 8 “He trusts in Yahweh;
let him deliver him.
Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.” 9 But you brought me out of the womb.
You made me trust at my mother’s breasts. 10 I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb.
You are my God since my mother bore me.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 22:1-10
Commentary on Psalm 22:1-10
(Read Psalm 22:1-10)
The Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, testifies in this psalm, clearly and fully, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. We have a sorrowful complaint of God's withdrawings. This may be applied to any child of God, pressed down, overwhelmed with grief and terror. Spiritual desertions are the saints' sorest afflictions; but even their complaint of these burdens is a sign of spiritual life, and spiritual senses exercised. To cry our, My God, why am I sick? why am I poor? savours of discontent and worldliness. But, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" is the language of a heart binding up its happiness in God's favour. This must be applied to Christ. In the first words of this complaint, he poured out his soul before God when he was upon the cross, Matthew 27:46. Being truly man, Christ felt a natural unwillingness to pass through such great sorrows, yet his zeal and love prevailed. Christ declared the holiness of God, his heavenly Father, in his sharpest sufferings; nay, declared them to be a proof of it, for which he would be continually praised by his Israel, more than for all other deliverances they received. Never any that hoped in thee, were made ashamed of their hope; never any that sought thee, sought thee in vain. Here is a complaint of the contempt and reproach of men. The Saviour here spoke of the abject state to which he was reduced. The history of Christ's sufferings, and of his birth, explains this prophecy.