Psalms 22:24

(Heb.: 22:25) This tristich is the evangel itself. The materia laudis is introduced by כּי. ענוּת (principal form ענוּת) bending, bowing down, affliction, from ענה, the proper word to denote the Passion. For in Isaiah, Isa 53:4, Isa 53:7, the Servant of God is also said to be מענּה and נענה, and Zechariah, Zac 9:9, also introduces Him as עני and נושׁע. The lxx, Vulgate, and Targum erroneously render it "cry." ענה does not mean to cry, but to answer, ἀμείβεσθαι; here, however, as the stem-word of ענות, it means to be bent. From the שׁקּץ (to regard as an abhorrence), which alternates with בּזה, we see that the sufferer felt the wrath of God, but this has changed into a love that sends help; God did not long keep His countenance hidden, He hearkened to him, for his prayer was well-pleasing to Him. שׁמע is not the verbal adjective, but, since we have the definite fact of the rescue before us, it is a pausal form for שׁמע, as in Psa 34:7, Psa 34:18; Jer 36:13.

The Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, testifies in this psalm, as clearly and fully as any where in all the Old Testament, "the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow" (Pe1 1:11); of him, no doubt, David here speaks, and not of himself, or any other man. Much of it is expressly applied to Christ in the New Testament, all of it may be applied to him, and some of it must be understood of him only. The providences of God concerning David were so very extraordinary that we may suppose there were some wise and good men who then could not but look upon him as a figure of him that was to come. But the composition of his psalms especially, in which he found himself wonderfully carried out by the spirit of prophecy far beyond his own thought and intention, was (we may suppose) an abundant satisfaction to himself that he was not only a father of the Messiah, but a figure of him. In this psalm he speaks, I. Of the humiliation of Christ (v. 1-21), where David, as a type of Christ, complains of the very calamitous condition he was in upon many accounts. 1. He complains, and mixes comforts with his complaints; he complains (Psa 22:1, Psa 22:2), but comforts himself (Psa 22:3-5), complains again (Psa 22:6-8), but comforts himself again, (Psa 22:9, Psa 22:10). 2. He complains, and mixes prayers with his complaints; he complains of the power and rage of his enemies (Psa 22:12, Psa 22:13, Psa 22:16, Psa 22:18), of his own bodily weakness and decay (Psa 22:14, Psa 22:15, Psa 22:17); but prays that God would not be far from him (Psa 22:11, Psa 22:19), that he would save and deliver him (Psa 22:19-21). II. Of the exaltation of Christ, that his undertaking should be for the glory of God (Psa 22:22-25), for the salvation and joy of his people (Psa 22:26-29), and for…

22:24 Unlike his response to the wicked (see 21:8-12), God cares about the needy and hears their prayers (51:17; 69:33; 102:17).