Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_600_e.lzh/3_615.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-30 | 7KB | 126 lines

\\INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 22\\

\*\\<<To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, a Psalm of David>>\\.
The only thing observable in the title of this psalm
is the sense of the words %Aijeleth Shahar%, left untranslated;
which, according to some of the Jewish {g} interpreters,
is the name of a musical instrument; to which
our version inclines; and a learned Jew {h} says, it is the
instrument which the mourning women used on account
of distress which was sudden, not known till it
came, as a man does not think of the morning till he
sees it. %Aijeleth% with him has the signification of
mourning, as %Eli% in \\#Joe 1:8\\; and %Shahar%, as in \\#Isa
47:11 Ho 10:15\\; so \^tyla\^ and \^tyyla\^ are used
in the Misnah {i} for a mourning woman; and with
others it is the beginning of a song to the tune of
which the psalm was set {k} but I rather think the
words express the subject matter of the psalm, and
that they may be rendered, concerning %Aijeleth Shahar%;
which signify, either according to the Chaldee paraphrase,
%the daily morning sacrifice%; or, as some Jewish
writers {l} observe, the %morning star%; or, according to
the Septuagint, %the morning help% {m}; or rather %the morning
hind%; or %hind of the morning%: but who should be
designed hereby is the question. The Jews would
have any rather than the Messiah; some say Esther {n},
who so seasonably and readily appeared for the Jews
in distress, and was the means of their deliverance;
but there is not one word in the psalm that agrees with
her; and there are some things which were manifestly
spoken of a man, and not a woman, \\#Ps 22:8,24\\; others
say David {o}, when he fled from Saul, or, as others,
from Absalom: but the disjointing the bones of this
person, the piercing his hands and feet, parting his
garments, and casting lots on his vesture, mentioned in
\\#Ps 22:14,16,18\\; were never fulfilled in him. Others {p}
would have the congregation of Israel in captivity intended;
but it is plain that a single person is spoken of
throughout; and he is manifestly distinguished from
others, from his brethren, from the congregation, from
the seed of Jacob and Israel, \\#Ps 22:22,23\\; and, indeed,
no other than the Messiah can be meant: and of this
there ought to be no doubt with Christians, when
\\#Ps 22:1\\ is compared with \\#Mt 27: 46\\; \\#Ps 22:8\\ with
\\#Mt 27:43\\; \\#Ps 22:18\\ with \\#Mt 27:38\\; \\#Ps 22:22\\
with \\#Heb 2:12\\; and the Jews themselves sometimes
say, that by %Aijeleth Shahar% is meant the Shechinah {q},
or the divine Majesty; and in what way soever these
words are rendered, they agree with Christ: he is the
antitype of %the daily morning sacrifice%, the Lamb of
God, who continually takes away the sin of the world;
and very fitly is he so called in the title of a psalm
which speaks so much of his sufferings and death,
which are a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of his
people; he is the bright and %morning star%, \\#Re 22:16\\;
the dayspring from on high, the sun of righteousness,
and light of the world: he had %morning help% in his very
infancy, when his life was sought for by Herod; and
had early and seasonable help and assistance in the acceptable
time, and in the day of salvation, and early
in the morning was he raised from the dead, and had
glory given him: but as the words are better rendered
%the morning hind%, this suits with Christ, who is frequently
compared to a roe or a young hart, \\#So 2:9,17
8:14\\; and he may be compared to a %hind%
for its lovingness to its mate and young, \\#Pr 5:19\\;
the love of Christ to his church and people being very
strong and affectionate, and passing knowledge; and
also for its loveliness and goodliness, \\#Ge 49:21\\;
Christ being exceeding amiable and lovely, and fairer
than the children of men; likewise for its gentleness
and harmlessness, Christ being meek and lowly, holy
and harmless; and for its antipathy to serpents, there
being an enmity between Christ, the seed of the woman,
and the serpent and his seed; for its being hunted
by dogs, as Christ was by Herod, by the Scribes and
Pharisees, by Judas, and the band of soldiers; see
\\#Ps 22:16\\; for its being fit for food, \\#De
14:5\\; and as it is said to be the fitter for being hunted,
Christ's flesh being meat indeed, and the more
suitable to faith, as being sacrificed for us; and for its
long life it is said to have, Christ, though once dead,
being alive again, and living for evermore; to which
may be added its great swiftness, expressive of the
readiness of Christ to comply with his father's proposals
and do his will; to come into this world in the
fulness of time, and set about the work he came to do;
to deliver up himself into the hands of his enemies,
and lay down his life for his people; and of his haste
to help them in distress, and visit them with his gracious
presence, and to appear a second time to them
unto salvation. He may be called the hind of %the
morning%, looking lovely and beautiful as the morning,
and swift and cheerful as the hind when it rises from
its rest, and runs its course; or because of his being
hunted in the morning of his infancy by Herod; or
because it was early in the morning the chief priests
consulted to take away his life; and as early also he
rose from the dead, when God made his feet like hinds
feet, and set him on his high places, \\#Ps 18:33\\.
The ancient Christian writers generally understood it
of Christ wholly. Justin Martyr {r} says, the whole
psalm is spoken of Christ; and Tertullian observes {s},
that it contains the whole passion, or all the sufferings
of Christ. The late Mons. Fourmont {t}, the elder, professor
of the Oriental languages in the university of
Paris, has a very singular notion, that this psalm was
written by Jeremiah, when he was drawn up from the
dungeon, and is a history of his life and sufferings, in
which he was a type of Christ.


{g} Jarchi, Kimchi, & Abendana in loc.
{h} Leo Mutinens. Shilte Hagibborim, fol. 5. 1.
{i} Misn. Celim, c. 15. 6. & 16. 7. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.
{k} Aben Ezra in loc.
{l} Vide Kimchium & Abendauam in loc.
{m} So Menachem in Jarchi, and others in Kimchi & Abendana
in loc.
{n} R. R. in Jarchi in loc.
{o} In Kimchi in loc.
{p} Kimchi & Ben Melech in loc.
{q} Zohar in Lev. fol. 5. 4. & Imre Binah in ib.
{r} Dialog cum Tryphone, p. 325.
{s} Adv. Judaeos, c. 10.
{t} In hunc Psalm. M. S. penes me, fol. 8. 9.