But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
It is an urgent cry not to remain distant but to draw near and hurry to rescue one in agony and mortal struggle. Though spoken in David's own distress, it finds its full and final meaning in David's greater Son when the sins of the world were laid upon him. The psalm is above all a prophecy of the Lord in his humiliation, betrayal, condemnation and cruel death on the cross, literally fulfilled in the closing events recorded in the Gospels. In that hour Jesus in the flesh stood in the sinner's place bearing human guilt, truly feeling human weakness, distress and need for help. By passing through every human trial and conflict he became a fellow-sufferer, fellow-sympathizer and fellow-helper, whose trust in the Father is the same faith he gives to make and keep his followers righteous.
Plea for Present Help
The verse is an urgent plea for the Lord not to stay distant but to remain near and to hasten to help. It expresses great need and agony and intense desire for aid amid suffering and life-and-death struggle. It is the appeal of Christ in His humanity for help amid intense suffering, expressing what Jesus in the flesh passed through while standing in the sinner's place. That plea belongs to His inmost experience as He gave Himself to die, even to the experience of the lost, bearing the sins of the world.
To address the Lord as my strength pictures Him as the speaker's horn of power. The psalm has a Davidic setting and an ultimate application to Christ. David lived its experiences in measure, and some of its experiences were his own. Finally and antitypically it points to David's greater Son and to what He endured in agony and sacrifice when the sins of the world were laid upon Him.
Prophecy of Christ's Suffering
The psalm is preeminently prophetic of the Lord in His humiliation, first coming, and sufferings, presenting in detail His betrayal, condemnation, crucifixion, and cruel death as foreseen by God. It was literally fulfilled in the closing events recorded in the Gospels and must be read in connection with those events in order to be understood. It contributes to the prophetic picture of the Messiah's experiences foretold in detail by God.
It foretells the Messiah's life and work and ministry, His lowly life, His rejection by His people, the unjust treatment and injustice shown Him in His trial, His agony as He bore human sin upon His heart, His death with criminals and malefactors, His burial with the rich, and His very words upon the cross. The whole life of Jesus fulfills it, so that God's Word written beforehand and Christ's life lived afterward agree as two witnesses that the Father sent Him. That foretold suffering and tragedy of Christ's death on the cross helped Nicodemus recognize that the crucifixion was the sacrifice God had given for the world.
The psalm expresses the experience of Jesus Christ in human flesh, pointing finally to David's greater Son and to what He endured when the sins of the world were laid upon Him, though David also lived its experiences in measure. It is filled with the experience of Jesus standing in the sinner's place on earth, and its plea for God not to remain distant but to come quickly to His aid expresses what Jesus passed through for sinners, even the experience of the lost, as He gave Himself to die on the cross. It belongs to Christ's predicted prayers of agony, offered vicariously on behalf of humanity as He suffered and represented people in His offering, revealing the agony and intense desire for help He experienced in suffering.
It portrays Christ's life-and-death struggles and suffering and reveals something of His inmost experience, showing something of the suffering and struggle Jesus endured and how He came through it as a conqueror. In His humanity He appeals to God for nearness and help amid intense suffering, and His fear that God might be far from Him reflects the limits of His human understanding of His triumph, not distrust of God, for He leaves His case in God's hands. The psalm is also numbered among those setting forth the eternal reign of righteousness, whose promises could not have been fulfilled in their fullness without the Lord's resurrection.
Teaching for Believers Today
The psalm describes the experience of Jesus Christ, and together with other psalms it shows Christ in suffering calling upon the Lord for help, truly experiencing human weakness and distress and need for help. That setting forth of his experience gives instruction and comfort, for it shows the converse truth that in himself he met all human experiences, trials, and conflicts. He is therefore fellow-sufferer, fellow-sympathizer, and fellow-helper as well as a mighty Saviour all the journey through.
His experience must also become the experience of his followers, so that the faith of Jesus may be developed in them. His asking the Father to stay near and to hasten to help expresses his trust in the Father. His faith was the same means and power by which he remained righteous, and when people fully accept him through faith he gives them his faith, which makes and keeps them righteous.
His sufferings display God's eternal justice and holiness, the unchanging excellence and obligation of his law, and the terrible guilt of sin. They honor the divine law rather than purchase freedom to despise or disobey it. Belonging to David's prophecy of the lowly, suffering Messiah, the words concerning his suffering at Calvary were fulfilled literally, showing that God fulfills what he has said even when fulfillment seems unlikely by human reasoning.
It is an urgent cry not to remain distant but to draw near and hurry to rescue one in agony and mortal struggle. Though spoken in David's own distress, it finds its full and final meaning in David's greater Son when the sins of the world were laid upon him. The psalm is above all a prophecy of the Lord in his humiliation, betrayal, condemnation and cruel death on the cross, literally fulfilled in the closing events recorded in the Gospels. In that hour Jesus in the flesh stood in the sinner's place bearing human guilt, truly feeling human weakness, distress and need for help. By passing through every human trial and conflict he became a fellow-sufferer, fellow-sympathizer and fellow-helper, whose trust in the Father is the same faith he gives to make and keep his followers righteous.
Plea for Present Help
The verse is an urgent plea for the Lord not to stay distant but to remain near and to hasten to help. It expresses great need and agony and intense desire for aid amid suffering and life-and-death struggle. It is the appeal of Christ in His humanity for help amid intense suffering, expressing what Jesus in the flesh passed through while standing in the sinner's place. That plea belongs to His inmost experience as He gave Himself to die, even to the experience of the lost, bearing the sins of the world.
To address the Lord as my strength pictures Him as the speaker's horn of power. The psalm has a Davidic setting and an ultimate application to Christ. David lived its experiences in measure, and some of its experiences were his own. Finally and antitypically it points to David's greater Son and to what He endured in agony and sacrifice when the sins of the world were laid upon Him.
Prophecy of Christ's Suffering
The psalm is preeminently prophetic of the Lord in His humiliation, first coming, and sufferings, presenting in detail His betrayal, condemnation, crucifixion, and cruel death as foreseen by God. It was literally fulfilled in the closing events recorded in the Gospels and must be read in connection with those events in order to be understood. It contributes to the prophetic picture of the Messiah's experiences foretold in detail by God.
It foretells the Messiah's life and work and ministry, His lowly life, His rejection by His people, the unjust treatment and injustice shown Him in His trial, His agony as He bore human sin upon His heart, His death with criminals and malefactors, His burial with the rich, and His very words upon the cross. The whole life of Jesus fulfills it, so that God's Word written beforehand and Christ's life lived afterward agree as two witnesses that the Father sent Him. That foretold suffering and tragedy of Christ's death on the cross helped Nicodemus recognize that the crucifixion was the sacrifice God had given for the world.
The psalm expresses the experience of Jesus Christ in human flesh, pointing finally to David's greater Son and to what He endured when the sins of the world were laid upon Him, though David also lived its experiences in measure. It is filled with the experience of Jesus standing in the sinner's place on earth, and its plea for God not to remain distant but to come quickly to His aid expresses what Jesus passed through for sinners, even the experience of the lost, as He gave Himself to die on the cross. It belongs to Christ's predicted prayers of agony, offered vicariously on behalf of humanity as He suffered and represented people in His offering, revealing the agony and intense desire for help He experienced in suffering.
It portrays Christ's life-and-death struggles and suffering and reveals something of His inmost experience, showing something of the suffering and struggle Jesus endured and how He came through it as a conqueror. In His humanity He appeals to God for nearness and help amid intense suffering, and His fear that God might be far from Him reflects the limits of His human understanding of His triumph, not distrust of God, for He leaves His case in God's hands. The psalm is also numbered among those setting forth the eternal reign of righteousness, whose promises could not have been fulfilled in their fullness without the Lord's resurrection.
Teaching for Believers Today
The psalm describes the experience of Jesus Christ, and together with other psalms it shows Christ in suffering calling upon the Lord for help, truly experiencing human weakness and distress and need for help. That setting forth of his experience gives instruction and comfort, for it shows the converse truth that in himself he met all human experiences, trials, and conflicts. He is therefore fellow-sufferer, fellow-sympathizer, and fellow-helper as well as a mighty Saviour all the journey through.
His experience must also become the experience of his followers, so that the faith of Jesus may be developed in them. His asking the Father to stay near and to hasten to help expresses his trust in the Father. His faith was the same means and power by which he remained righteous, and when people fully accept him through faith he gives them his faith, which makes and keeps them righteous.
His sufferings display God's eternal justice and holiness, the unchanging excellence and obligation of his law, and the terrible guilt of sin. They honor the divine law rather than purchase freedom to despise or disobey it. Belonging to David's prophecy of the lowly, suffering Messiah, the words concerning his suffering at Calvary were fulfilled literally, showing that God fulfills what he has said even when fulfillment seems unlikely by human reasoning.