Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
It is a cry for rescue from deadly foes pictured as ravenous beasts, declaring that God heard and upheld the sufferer in the attack, after the pattern of psalms that move from great need to triumph and confidence in deliverance. It concerns David and reflects his experience in part, but it belongs in its full agony and sacrifice to David's greater Son. The psalm prophetically portrays Jesus Christ in the flesh in His humiliation, standing in the sinner's place to die on the cross, foretelling in detail His lowly life, rejection, betrayal, condemnation, crucifixion and burial, fulfilled literally at Calvary. The verse lays open His inner human struggle as He bore human infirmity and the sins of the world, pouring out His soul with strong crying and tears even unto death and trembling over the success of the plan of salvation, yet without sin or distrust of God. His sufferings display the eternal justice and holiness of God, the binding obligation of His law, and the hatefulness and guilt of sin, revealing Him as Fellow-sufferer, Sympathizer, Helper and mighty Saviour, whose conquering struggle His followers must also share in overcoming sin.
Words and Setting
The cry is for rescue from deadly enemies pictured as a lion's mouth and fierce unicorns, declaring that God heard the speaker when they attacked and upheld his cause. It fits the pattern of many psalms that begin by expressing great need and appeal for deliverance from danger and end in triumph and confidence that God hears.
It first concerns David and reflects his experience in part, but it is typical of the experience of David's greater Son. It belongs to a prophetic utterance through David about the sufferings and experience of Jesus Christ in the flesh, and some of its sufferings were experienced by David. They were fulfilled in their full agony and sacrifice in Christ when the sins of the world were laid upon Him, so verse 21 was fulfilled in Christ.
Prophecy of Christ's Sufferings
Psalm 22 prophetically depicts the experience of Jesus Christ in the flesh, preeminently in His humiliation, as He stood in the sinner's place on earth and gave Himself to die on the cross for sinners. It describes the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ and expresses an experience He passed through for the sake of sinners. The psalm clearly foretells His betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion, and it must be read in connection with those closing events in the Gospels and cannot be understood unless it is seen as referring to Christ. Read alongside those events it shows that His sufferings from His life to the cross were foretold and fulfilled literally in every detail at Calvary despite seeming human impossibilities.
It foretells the Messiah's lowly life and ministry, His rejection by His people, the injustice of His trial, His death with criminals, His burial with the rich, His anguish in bearing human sin, and His very words on the cross, and Jesus fulfilled all of it so that His whole life testifies to its truth. It predicts also the prayers of agony He offered on humanity's behalf as He suffered for and represented people. The verse belongs to that prophetic witness to His life and suffering.
The verse expresses His inner experience of suffering and struggle with the enemy as He seeks deliverance. It shows His human heart and human feelings trembling over the consummation, efficiency, and success of the plan of salvation, coming to where human limitations shut from Him the knowledge of His triumph so that all He could do was leave His case in God's hand and suffer the very agony of the lost. In this He questioned not God but whether He Himself was sufficient for the work, and in all such temptation and doubt there was no sin and no distrust of God.
The verse reveals His feelings when He took human infirmities and diseases and took upon Himself the sins of humanity and passed through what the sinner must pass through. It shows Him pouring out His soul with strong crying and tears even unto death, not to purchase by agony and prayer what He desired, but because His desires were so great they led Him to cry and weep. The psalm helped show that Jews and Gentiles together would bring about the terrible tragedy of His sacrifice and death as Messiah. Its latter part sets forth the eternal reign of righteousness, promises that could not have been fulfilled in their full sense without the Lord's resurrection.
Doctrine Comfort and Example
The sufferings portrayed in the psalm display the eternal justice and holiness of God. They display the unchangeable excellence and binding obligation of His law. They display the hatefulness and guilt of sin. By suffering, Christ thus honored the divine law, and that honoring did not purchase for redeemed sinners any liberty to despise or disobey it.
The verse sets forth the experience of Jesus Christ and gives precious and timely instruction and comfort. It shows that He met in Himself all human experiences, trials, and conflicts. It thereby reveals Him as Fellow-sufferer, Fellow-sympathizer, and Fellow-helper, as well as mighty Saviour all the journey through.
His experience there must also become the experience of His followers, so that the faith of Jesus may be developed in them. His followers in this world pass through the same kind of struggle in overcoming sin, pouring out the soul with strong crying and tears even unto death, not to purchase by agony and prayer what is desired, but because desires so great lead to crying and weeping. The psalm is a plea for deliverance from deadly danger joined with acknowledgment that God has heard the sufferer, and in the setting of Christ's temptations it shows something of the anguish and struggle He endured, yet He came through as a conqueror.
It is a cry for rescue from deadly foes pictured as ravenous beasts, declaring that God heard and upheld the sufferer in the attack, after the pattern of psalms that move from great need to triumph and confidence in deliverance. It concerns David and reflects his experience in part, but it belongs in its full agony and sacrifice to David's greater Son. The psalm prophetically portrays Jesus Christ in the flesh in His humiliation, standing in the sinner's place to die on the cross, foretelling in detail His lowly life, rejection, betrayal, condemnation, crucifixion and burial, fulfilled literally at Calvary. The verse lays open His inner human struggle as He bore human infirmity and the sins of the world, pouring out His soul with strong crying and tears even unto death and trembling over the success of the plan of salvation, yet without sin or distrust of God. His sufferings display the eternal justice and holiness of God, the binding obligation of His law, and the hatefulness and guilt of sin, revealing Him as Fellow-sufferer, Sympathizer, Helper and mighty Saviour, whose conquering struggle His followers must also share in overcoming sin.
Words and Setting
The cry is for rescue from deadly enemies pictured as a lion's mouth and fierce unicorns, declaring that God heard the speaker when they attacked and upheld his cause. It fits the pattern of many psalms that begin by expressing great need and appeal for deliverance from danger and end in triumph and confidence that God hears.
It first concerns David and reflects his experience in part, but it is typical of the experience of David's greater Son. It belongs to a prophetic utterance through David about the sufferings and experience of Jesus Christ in the flesh, and some of its sufferings were experienced by David. They were fulfilled in their full agony and sacrifice in Christ when the sins of the world were laid upon Him, so verse 21 was fulfilled in Christ.
Prophecy of Christ's Sufferings
Psalm 22 prophetically depicts the experience of Jesus Christ in the flesh, preeminently in His humiliation, as He stood in the sinner's place on earth and gave Himself to die on the cross for sinners. It describes the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ and expresses an experience He passed through for the sake of sinners. The psalm clearly foretells His betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion, and it must be read in connection with those closing events in the Gospels and cannot be understood unless it is seen as referring to Christ. Read alongside those events it shows that His sufferings from His life to the cross were foretold and fulfilled literally in every detail at Calvary despite seeming human impossibilities.
It foretells the Messiah's lowly life and ministry, His rejection by His people, the injustice of His trial, His death with criminals, His burial with the rich, His anguish in bearing human sin, and His very words on the cross, and Jesus fulfilled all of it so that His whole life testifies to its truth. It predicts also the prayers of agony He offered on humanity's behalf as He suffered for and represented people. The verse belongs to that prophetic witness to His life and suffering.
The verse expresses His inner experience of suffering and struggle with the enemy as He seeks deliverance. It shows His human heart and human feelings trembling over the consummation, efficiency, and success of the plan of salvation, coming to where human limitations shut from Him the knowledge of His triumph so that all He could do was leave His case in God's hand and suffer the very agony of the lost. In this He questioned not God but whether He Himself was sufficient for the work, and in all such temptation and doubt there was no sin and no distrust of God.
The verse reveals His feelings when He took human infirmities and diseases and took upon Himself the sins of humanity and passed through what the sinner must pass through. It shows Him pouring out His soul with strong crying and tears even unto death, not to purchase by agony and prayer what He desired, but because His desires were so great they led Him to cry and weep. The psalm helped show that Jews and Gentiles together would bring about the terrible tragedy of His sacrifice and death as Messiah. Its latter part sets forth the eternal reign of righteousness, promises that could not have been fulfilled in their full sense without the Lord's resurrection.
Doctrine Comfort and Example
The sufferings portrayed in the psalm display the eternal justice and holiness of God. They display the unchangeable excellence and binding obligation of His law. They display the hatefulness and guilt of sin. By suffering, Christ thus honored the divine law, and that honoring did not purchase for redeemed sinners any liberty to despise or disobey it.
The verse sets forth the experience of Jesus Christ and gives precious and timely instruction and comfort. It shows that He met in Himself all human experiences, trials, and conflicts. It thereby reveals Him as Fellow-sufferer, Fellow-sympathizer, and Fellow-helper, as well as mighty Saviour all the journey through.
His experience there must also become the experience of His followers, so that the faith of Jesus may be developed in them. His followers in this world pass through the same kind of struggle in overcoming sin, pouring out the soul with strong crying and tears even unto death, not to purchase by agony and prayer what is desired, but because desires so great lead to crying and weeping. The psalm is a plea for deliverance from deadly danger joined with acknowledgment that God has heard the sufferer, and in the setting of Christ's temptations it shows something of the anguish and struggle He endured, yet He came through as a conqueror.