CONTINUING WITH ALBERT BARNES COMMENTARY ON PSALM 22
25. My praise shall be of thee. That is, I will praise thee. I will call to remembrance thy goodness, and will unite with others in celebrating thy faithfulness and loving-kindness. In the great congregation. See Notes on ver. 22. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. In the presence of his worshippers. That is, he would keep the vows which in his afflictions he had made, that he would praise and serve God. These vows or promises were of the nature of a debt which he says he would remember to pay. Of the Redeemer, this need not be understood personally, but it means that as the result of his prayer having been heard, the worship of God would be celebrated by those who feared him. The solemn worship of the people of God—the praises which they offer to the Most High—may be regarded as worship paid by the Redeemer himself, for he does it in the persons and services of those whom he redeemed. All the praises which proceed from their hearts and lips are the fruit of his "vows," of his fidelity, and his prayers.
26. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. The word meek—anavim—means here rather afflicted, distressed, miserable. This is its usual meaning. It is employed sometimes in the sense of mild or meek (comp. Num. xii. 3); but, it here manifestly denotes the afflicted; the poor; the distressed. When it is said that they would "eat and be satisfied" the idea is that of prosperity or abundance; and the statement is, that, as the result of the Redeemer's work, blessings in abundance would he imparted to the poor and the distressed—those who had been destitute, forsaken, and friendless. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Those that worship God, or the pious, shall see abundant cause to praise God. They will not merely call upon him by earnest prayer, but they will render him thanks for his mercies. Your heart shall live for ever. The hearts of those that worship God. Their hearts would not faint or be discouraged. They would exult and rejoice continually. In other words, their joy and their praise would never die away.
27. All the ends of the world. All parts of the earth; all nations. The earth is frequently represented in the Scriptures as having limits or boundaries; as spread out; as having corners, etc. Comp. Isa. xi. 12; Jer. ix. 26; xxv. 23; xlix. 32; Rev.vii. 1. This language is in accordance with the prevailing modes of thinking, in the same way as we say, "the sun rises;" "the sun sets," etc. Shall remember. The nations are often represented as forgetting God; that is, they act as if they had once known him, and had then forgotten him. See Job viii. 13.; Ps. ix. 17; 1.22; Rom. i. 21. Here it is said that they would again call God to remembrance, it is, they would worship him as the true God. Turn away from their idol worship to the living God. And all kindreds of the nations. All the families. The numerous families upon the earth that constitute the great family of mankind. Shall worship before thee. Shall worship thy presence; that is, shall worship thee. The language is derived from the act of worshipping God in the tabernacle or the temple, before the visible symbol of his presence there, applicable to the Redeemer, this language is in accordance with what uniformly said of him and his work, that the world would be converted to the living and true God. Comp. on Ps. ii. 8.
28. For the kingdom is the Lord's. The dominion belongs of right to Jehovah, the true God. See Matt.13; Ps. xlvii. 7,8. And he is the governor among the nations. He is the rightful governor or ruler among the nations. This is an assertion of the absolute right of Jehovah to reign over the nations of the earth, and the expression of an assurance on the part of the Messiah that, as the consequence of his work, this empire of Jehovah over the nations would he actually establish, Comp. Notes on.Dan. vii. 13,14,27; and on 1 Cor. xv. 24-28.
29. All they that be fat upon the earth. The general meaning of this is, that all classes of persons will come and worship the true God;—not the poor and needy only, the afflicted, and the oppressed, but the rich and the prosperous. There are three classes mentioned as representing------
(1) the rich and prosperous; (2) they who bow down, to the dust, or the crushed and the oppressed; (3) those who are approaching the grave, and have no power to keep themselves alive. The first class comprises those who are mentioned here as being fat. This image is often used to denote prosperity: Jndg. iii. 29; Job xv. 27; Ps. xvii. 10; Ixxiii. 4 (Heb.); Deut. xxxi. 20; xxxii. 15. The meaning is, that the rich, the great, the prosperous would be among the multitudes who would be converted to the living God. Shall eat and worship. This expression is derived from the custom of offering sacrifices, and of feasting upon portions of the animal that was slain. In accordance with this, the blessings of salvation are often represented as a feast to which all are invited. See Notes on Isa. xxv. 6. Comp. Luke xiv. 16. All they that go down to the dust. All those descending to the dust. Those who are bowed down to the dust; who are crushed, broken, and oppressed;—the poor, the sad, the sorrowful. Salvation is for them, as well as for the rich and the great. Shall bow before him. Shall worship before the true God. And none can keep alive his own soul. Or rather, and he who cannot keep his soul (that is, himself) alive. So the Hebrew properly means, and this accords better with the connexion. The class here represented is composed of those who are ready to perish, who are about to die,—the aged—the infirm—the sick—the dying. These, thus helpless, feeble, and sad, shall also become interested in the great plan of salvation, and shall turn unto the Lord. These classes would represent all the dwellers on the earth; and the affirmation is equivalent to a statement that men of all classes would be converted, and would partake of the blessings of salvation.
30. A seed shall serve him. A people; a race. The word used here, is rendered seed-—zera—means properly a sowing; then, a planting, plantation; then, seed sown—of plants, trees, or grain; and then, a generation of men,—children, off-spring, posterity: Gen. iii. 15; xiii. i; xv. 5,13. Hence it means race, stock, or family. It is used here as denoting those who belong to the he family of God; his children. Comp. Isa. vi. 13; lxv. 9, 23. The eaning here is, that, as the result the work performed by the sufferer, any would be brought to serve God.
It. To wit, the seed mentioned; the people referred to. Shall be counted to the Lord for a generation. The word here rendered Lord not Jehovah, but Adonai,—a word which is often used as a name of God,—and should not be printed here small capitals. Prof. Alexander renders this, it seems to me improperly, "It shall be related of the lord to the next generation." So De Wette and Hengstenberg. But the common rendering appears to me furnish a better signification, and be more in accordance with the meaning of the original. According to this the idea is, that the seed—the people referred to—would be reckoned to the Lord as a generation of his own people, a race, a tribe, a family pertaining to him. They would be regarded as such by him; they would so estimated by mankind. They would not be a generation of aliens or strangers, but a generation of his people and friends. Comp. Ps. lxxxvii.
31. They shall come. That is, there were those who would thus come. Who these would be is not specified, the obvious sense is, that some would rise up to do this; that the succession of such men would be kept up in age to age, making known these great facts and truths to succeeding generations. The language would be applicable to a class of men called, from age to age, to proclaim these truths, and set apart to this work. It is a fair application of the verse to refer it to those who have been actually designated for such an office,— the ministers of religion appointed to keep up the memory of the great work of redemption in the world. Thus understood, the passage is a proper carrying out of the great truths stated in the psalm—that, in virtue of the sufferings of the Redeemer, God would be made known to men; that his worship would be kept up in the earth; that distant generations would serve him. And shall declare his righteousness. No language could better describe the actual office of the ministers of the Gospel as appointed to set forth the "righteousness" of God, to vindicate his government and laws, and to state the way in which men may be made righteous, or may be justified. Comp. Rom. i. 17; iii. 26. "Unto a people that shall be born." To future generations. That he hath done this. That God has done or accomplished what is stated in this psalm; that is, on the supposition that it refers to the Messiah, that he has caused an atonement to be made for mankind, or that redemption has been provided through the sufferings of the Messiah.
I have given what seems to me to be a fair exposition of this psalm, referring it wholly to the Messiah. No part of the interpretation, on this view of the psalm, seems to me to be forced or unnatural, and as thus interpreted it seems to me to have as fair and obvious an applicability to him as even the liii. chapter of Isaiah, or any other portion of the prophecies. The scene in the psalm is the cross, the Redeemer suffering for the sins of man. The main features of the psalm relate to the course of thoughts which then passed through the mind of the Redeemer; his sorrow at the idea of being abandoned by God; his confidence in God; the remembrance of his early hopes; his emotions at the taunts and revilings of his enemies; his conseionsness of prostrated strength; his feelings as the soldiers pierced his hands and his feet, and as they proceeded to divide his raiment; His prayer that his enemies might not be suffered to accomplish their design, or to defeat the work of redemption; his purpose to make God known to men; his assurance that the effect of his sufferings would be to bring the dwellers on the earth to serve God, and to make his name and his righteousness known to far distant times.
I regard the whole psalm, therefore, as applicable to the Messiah alone; and believing it to be inspired, I cannot but feel that we have here a most interesting and affecting account, given long before it occurred, of what actually passed through the mind of the Redeemer when on the cross,—an account more full than we have anywhere else in the Bible. Other statements pertain more particularly to the external events of the crucifixion; here we have a record in anticipation of what actually passed through Christ's own mind in those hours of unspeakable anguish when he made an atonement for the sins of the world.
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A WONDERFUL PSALM, AND A VERY FINE EXPOUNDING OF IT BY THE LATE ALBERT BARNES [1798 - 1870] IN HIS BIBLE COMMENTARY.
THE FATHER BEING PURE HOLY PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS, HAD TO STAND AWAY FOR A WHILE, WHILE HIS SON TOOK ALL THE SINS OF MANKIND UPON HIMSELF. JESUS BECAME SIN FOR US, THE SINLESS FOR THE SINNERS, THAT WE COULD BE MADE RIGHTEOUS, RECEIVE GRACE, THROUGH THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS ON THE CROSS; SO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
A BEAUTIFUL INSPIRING PSALM FOR THE PASSOVER AND FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD.
Keith Hunt
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