Psalm 22:1 ¶ «To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.» My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? 2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. 5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. 9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. 10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.
As this Psalm is quoted from the Cross by the Lord Jesus Christ
the prophetic import of it will receive more of a focus. But, first, as we’ve
been doing, let’s look at David’s immediate context. Clearly it is a time of
distress for David. We can see times when David might think of himself in a
desperate situation when King Saul was pursuing him.
This is a prayer of desperation and of some doubt as to whether or
not David will be spared even death in his situation. His appeal to God starts
as David acknowledging that he belonged to God from the womb itself.
Prophetically, Jesus directed us to this Psalm about Him from the
Cross at Calvary.
Mark 15:34 And at the ninth
hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which
is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
David says he is a worm and no man, despised of men. This reflects
how despised David feels at the moment. Bildad, Job’s friend, speaks of man’s
lowly condition in this way.
Job 26:1 ¶ Then answered
Bildad the Shuhite, and said, 2 Dominion
and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places. 3 Is there any number of his armies? and upon
whom doth not his light arise? 4 How
then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a
woman? 5 Behold even to the moon, and it
shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. 6 How much less man, that is a worm? and the son
of man, which is a worm?
David is crying out in this lamentation about his pathetic state
but also making a plea for help as we will see in the next part of the Psalm.
Prophetically, this is an incredibly important Psalm which Christ
directed us to from the Cross itself as reported in both Matthew 27:46 and Mark
15:34.
Matthew 27:46 And about the
ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
This alerts us to consider Christ in every verse of this Psalm and
how it was fulfilled in His first appearance on earth, particularly in His
crucifixion and resurrection.
For us, personally, we can see ourselves in a seemingly hopeless
situation, much attacked and burdened by trouble pleading with God that we
belong to Him and that we are dependent upon Him and that our enemies are
gloating in that we don’t seem to have any help from Him. In this case we are
much like David.
Psalm 22:11 ¶ Be not far
from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. 12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls
of Bashan have beset me round. 13 They
gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring
lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and
all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst
of my bowels. 15 My strength is dried up
like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me
into the dust of death. 16 For dogs have
compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my
hands and my feet. 17 I may tell all my
bones: they look and stare upon me. 18
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. 19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my
strength, haste thee to help me. 20
Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for
thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
David’s plea continues asking that God be near and crying that
there is no one to help him on this earth but God. These bulls of Bashan can
be contrasted to another reference which helps in defining the phrase as
symbolic.
Amos 4:1 ¶ Hear this word,
ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor,
which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
Notice David’s complaint and declaration in Psalm 2 regarding
those who opposed him.
Psalm 2:1 ¶ Why do the
heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and
the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed,
saying,
Bashan is in Manasseh’s territory.
Deuteronomy 3:13 And the
rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half
tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called
the land of giants.
Without twisting the text into knots and running off to look for
something outside of the Bible bulls of Bashan, many bulls can be
symbolic for the strength and number of the forces opposed to David or for the
spiritual entities with which he must contend.
Dogs can represent Gentiles, the heathens with which David must
contend. Notice in Matthew 15 how Jesus sarcastically uses the typology of dogs
with Gentiles as that must have been the commonly believed notion among the
Jews.
Matthew 15:21 ¶ Then Jesus
went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of
the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son
of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23 But he answered her not a word. And his
disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after
us. 24 But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying,
Lord, help me. 26 But he answered and
said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the
dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. 28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O
woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter
was made whole from that very hour.
Manasseh had helped David in 1Chronicles 12 by the way. He
finishes here with a plea for help from God. Verse 20 and 21 have two words that
we should take note of darling and unicorns.
Darling is again mentioned in;
Psalm 35:17 Lord, how long
wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the
lions.
The Hebrew word doesn’t help us as it refers to an only one, a
beloved one, or even a child, but the Bible defines the darling here as
the soul. Notice the placement of the words in the verse.
What is the soul? As the Bible is not a textbook but God’s
revelation of His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself it doesn’t define
for us clearly many things we would like it to. So we have to piece together
the evidence of many things we want to know from the text.
The first thing about the soul we have to understand is that Adam
became a living soul when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
This applies only to Adam, the first person.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and man became a living soul.
It would be a twisted logic to then say that babies are not alive
until they are breathing air because they are not created fully formed human
adults all at once like Adam. Adam didn’t come about as a result of human
conception with a mother and a father.
All souls are created by God.
Isaiah 42:5 ¶ Thus saith
God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that
spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath
unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
Isaiah 57:16 For I will not
contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail
before me, and the souls which I have made.
Job 12:10 In whose hand is
the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
Clearly the soul is the life force that leaves when the body dies.
Genesis 35:18 And it came
to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name
Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.
The soul suffers torment in Hell.
Matthew 10:28 And fear not
them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
But, what is important is that the soul is the seat of
self-identity and will, passions and desires by which you are judged if you do
not have Christ. See here regarding God’s soul.
Psalm 11:5 The LORD trieth
the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
David’s essential humanity is being threatened, who he is, and
what he is about, and he pleads for God’s protection.
Unicorns is a word that the Catholic Church and medieval mythology have
corrupted. I think it’s important to divert a little bit to open up the Bible
for understanding.
Many skeptics have made hay over the word,”
unicorn.” A review of over 200 lexicons from the Early Modern English Database
reveals that a unicorn was understood to be an animal with one horn.[1]
Sounds understandable. The technical name for the Indian Rhinoceros is Rhinoceros Unicornis. Marco Polo, the famed Venetian traveler of the Medieval Period
of Western European history, referred to the Javan Rhinoceros as a unicorn
among other one-horned animals.[2]
The ancient Greeks referred to unicorns, not in their mythologies, but in
their natural histories, and although Ctesias made the earliest mention of
unicorns in his book, Indika it was
obvious he was just going on legend and had not seen them with his own eyes. He
described a wild ass colored white, red, and black. Such a fanciful description
was carried on by Aristotle and Strabo, and it was not until Pliny the Elder in
his On the Nature of Animals that he
describes something realistic, an Indian ox, a monoceros, which in all
likelihood was the Indian Rhino.
It is generally understood by the existence of them in the Lascaux cave
paintings in France that the Rhinoceros once had a much larger range of living
than it does today, the mythological horse with a horn being a totally separate
concept from the reality spoken of in Job and here, evidenced in later Greek
writings, or found in nature and cave paintings.
The Rhinoceros is a wild animal, a wild beast, God tells Job. He’s not
going to pull your plow, plant your fields, or submit to your will. Go ahead,
and try to harness him up, if you think you can.
This brings to mind a point that must be made about the Bible and its
discussion of animals. Much is made by the creationist minded and the
fundamentalist about the phrase, “after their kind,” in Genesis 1:21,25; 6:20;
& 7:14. The word, “kind,” contrary to what is said often, does not refer to
an individual species, whichever of the many definitions of species you use[3],
whether it be a local, isolated group of finches or something like the,
“breed,” of Animal Husbandry’s dog breeding. (Although there are significant
differences between breed and species they are also not from the same
disciplines so the issue is basically one about definition of terms that refer
to similar but not identical things.)
One of the things Charles Darwin
was against was the popularly preached by clerics and many pre-Darwin
biologists view that every species of animal that existed in his day was said
to have come down from an original ancestor just like them in a doctrine
called, “the immutability of species.” If there are a hundred species of a type
of bird today then those species would have existed back to Noah’s Ark, goes
the idea. This is, of course, absurd as mankind created many breeds of dogs in
the last two hundred years alone. If you regarded a breed and a species as
having similar meanings but under different types of scientific disciplines,
Zoology versus Animal Husbandry, then you can imagine speciation, the process
where different breeds or species of dogs, cats, horses, or birds came about
taking place rather quickly in history.
But the word, “kind,” doesn’t mean
species at all. It is more like a general type of creature. Many species of
cats came from the first cat creatures on Noah’s Ark. The problem with
evolution is that the cat never became a dog, the pea never became a
chrysanthemum, and an ape-like creature never became a man. There is no
evidence of such a thing occurring without twisting the evidence into knots and
the whole popularly understood concept of evolution in that regard, called
macroevolution, is a fairy tale for atheists and in complete opposition to the
Bible and reality.
Modern taxonomic classifications of living things are purely man-made and
are totally subjective to what man chooses to include as a characteristic of
the creature being named. God classifies animals differently based on
characteristics that would be understood by men without microscopes. For
instance, fowls fly, so the bat is a fowl in Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy
14:18 and the Hebrew could not eat fowl with certain characteristics. The words
reptile and mammal were classifications created by man for his own convenience
and study. The Bible speaks of, “beasts of the field,” domestic animals, and,
“beasts of the forest,” wild animals. It speaks about animals in the way of
their usefulness generally to agricultural man or military man, not their
peculiarities to the curious, modern man. Trying to force man’s definitions of
everything from beasts to sin on the Bible’s definitions is futile and
arrogant. When you argue allowing your opponent to control the definitions of
words you are surrendering all leverage to them. Finally, a whale is a large
creature that swims in the sea and therefore can be called a great fish,
because fish are creatures that swim in the sea. Compare Jonah 1:17 and Matthew
12:40. The order, Cetacea, for whales, is not a concern of the Bible. A whale
simply signifies a Leviathan, a large creature which, like all creatures, came
first from the sea and then from the earth. (Genesis 1:20-24) Human taxonomic
classifications are different language for a different purpose.
Don’t read your own definitions, preferences, or opinions any more than
your own personal fears, hatreds, or bigotry back into the Bible.
Prophetically, this passage like the one before it carries
staggering implications for Christ on the Cross at Calvary.
For verse 12 commentators have insisted that this is a reference
to the religious elite and the politically powerful who stand against Christ
and made the orders that put Him on the Cross.
In verse 14 we are reminded of the process of His crucifixion.
John 19:32 Then came the
soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified
with him. 33 But when they came to
Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: 34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced
his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
Look at possible cross-references for verse 16;
Luke 24:40 And when he had
thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. [The
implication here is that crucifixion required hands and feet to be nailed to
the cross.]
Zechariah 12:10 And I will
pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit
of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and
shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he
cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced
him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Dogs, as scavengers not beloved pets, don’t get a very good reputation
in the Bible.
Exodus 22:31 And ye shall
be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in
the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.
1Kings 14:11 Him that dieth
of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field
shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD hath spoken it.
2Kings 9:10 And the dogs
shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury
her. And he opened the door, and fled.
Some commentators here liken the prophecy of Christ again as
referring to the religious and political elite that cheer on His crucifixion.
Verses 17 and 18 speak of Christ’s condition hanging naked on the
Cross. Notice this passage;
Matthew 27:35 And they
crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them,
and upon my vesture did they cast lots.
Mark 15:24 And when they
had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every
man should take.
Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus,
Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his
raiment, and cast lots.
John 19:23 Then the
soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four
parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without
seam, woven from the top throughout. 24
They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots
for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith,
They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These
things therefore the soldiers did.
The Holy Spirit here is speaking of Christ in His humanity with a
human soul in grave danger at the hands of wicked men. The phrase from the
horns of the unicorns is very interesting as the Holy Spirit underscores
the power of this huge animal linking it to our powerful God. I suspect it may
have been an idiom of the early Jews of those days that is lost to us.
For us personally, this passage of Psalms 22 suggests a time when
we are surrounded by enemies who seem to be victorious and gloating in their
apparent victory. We can lose our job or be in danger of it. We can lose our
status in some organization or even members of our own family can seem to be
trying to harm us and enjoying the pain we endure. But, the most blatant
interpretation can be when we suffer these things for our devotion to Christ
and our following of God’s commands and rejection of sin. The partisans of the
enemy will often turn and rend you, enjoying every second of your pain and
anguish, even if it be only emotional.
Psalm 22:22 ¶ I will
declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I
praise thee. 23 Ye that fear the LORD,
praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the
seed of Israel. 24 For he hath not
despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his
face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. 25 My praise shall be of thee in the
great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they
shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. 27 All the ends of the world shall remember and
turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before
thee. 28 For the kingdom is the
LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations. 29 All they that be fat upon earth shall
eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and
none can keep alive his own soul. 30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted
to the Lord for a generation. 31 They
shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be
born, that he hath done this.
Here, David starts with an evangelistic promise, that he will
declare God to his people and praise God in the midst of the congregation. This
is a commitment for David, a man after God’s own heart. Then, we have the
declaration that those that fear the Lord should praise Him speaking to all of
Israel.
Verse 24 underscores God’s compassion for the sick and those
tormented by physical handicap. God does not prevent them from appealing to
Him. He hears them.
David promises in verse 25 that he will praise God in the great
congregation which must mean the whole of Israel. See here other references
in Psalms that may give light to this phrase and I think it may refer to temple
worship.
Psalm 22:22 ¶ I will
declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I
praise thee.
Psalm 35:18 I will give
thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people.
Psalm 40:9 I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O
LORD, thou knowest. 10 I have not hid
thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy
salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great
congregation.
Psalm 111:1 ¶ Praise ye the
LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright,
and in the congregation.
Psalm 56:12 Thy vows are
upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.
Psalm 65:1 ¶ «To the chief
Musician, A Psalm and Song of David.» Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion:
and unto thee shall the vow be performed.…13 ¶
I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,…16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I
will declare what he hath done for my soul.
Psalm 116:14 I will pay my
vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people. 15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the
death of his saints. 16 O LORD, truly I
am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast
loosed my bonds. 17 I will offer to thee
the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. 18 I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the
presence of all his people, 19 In the
courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the
LORD.
Psalm 118:19 ¶ Open to me
the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:
By the structure of verse 26 it appears to me that David is saying
that the meek, in this case those who seek the Lord and as a consequence
praise Him, but that they not only will be filled and satisfied but that their
heart shall live for ever. There is a lot to unpack in this verse.
Notice how meek is used in the following verse;
Numbers 12:3 (Now the man
Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
Now why is an Egyptian prince who murders a man and also then
leads a couple of million people on a forty year long journey through a
wilderness called meek?
We know meek is used of the poor.
Isaiah 29:19 The meek also
shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in
the Holy One of Israel.
But in reference to Moses and to Christ it must be said to be
subordinate to God the Father. Christ, in His humanity showed us that He was
not above obeying the Father’s will as our example.
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls.
So, meekness for those who seek and praise God reflects their
submission to Him.
The mention of heart as in your heart shall live forever
is significant. We think of the heart figuratively as from where our
emotions come although we know the heart is affected by emotions but doesn’t
create them. Still, we do not make rational decisions without emotion being
involved. Our reason is dependent upon both the mind and the heart. Our ability
to choose is profoundly affected by it. And so, our thoughts can be considered
to be products of not only the mind but the heart as well.
Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Notice some other statements about our spiritual heart, the one
you can’t see, like our minds.
Genesis 17:17 Then Abraham
fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born
unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years
old, bear?
1Samuel 2:35 And I will
raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine
heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk
before mine anointed for ever.
The error of Modernism is to read the heart and mind as two completely
different things because they are, well, different words referring to different
organs, one of which we know does not generate thoughts in its physical self.
This is proof the Holy Spirit is talking about heart as it is used in common
speech as in when we say someone is, “following their heart.”
your heart shall live for ever from David’s
perspective suggests a temporal long, time as in the preservation of the lives
of those that seek God or can even be thought of as eternity. Neither John Gill
nor Matthew Henry sought to give this phrase a meaning in context. They
forwarded it to a prophecy of Christians and Christ.
In verses 27 and 28 it is clear that David is making a prophetic
statement but for someone who would have no idea of people in South America or
distant Asia it is also clear that he is referring to the world he knows, the
world of northeastern Africa and the Near East. Keep in mind that when ancient
Greek and Roman writers talked about the world or the earth they were referring
to the Mediterranean World and certainly no further afield than the western
kingdoms of India.
29 All they that be
fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall
bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. 30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted
to the Lord for a generation. 31 They
shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be
born, that he hath done this.
In the latter part of this chapter from David’s context is
reflected his assurance of God, the great leveler of all social classes, will
prevail. He will have those who will serve him, most notably in this context,
Israel, understood then to be His firstborn.
Exodus 4:22 And thou shalt
say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
Prophetically speaking this is still in the context of Christ’s
crucifixion, resurrection, and the eventual faith of Christianity.
Christ declared God to the Jews Himself and to the Gentiles mostly
through His Apostles in so many verses there is no need to post them here if
you have read the Gospels. Verse 26 shows us that those that seek the Lord will
live forever. This is a promise of eternal life.
John 10:28 And I give unto
them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand.
The meek will seek God, eat, and be satisfied. Notice this verse;
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Verse 27 and 28 appear to belong to the millennial reign of
Christ. And this does seem to be, for us in prophecy, a reference to the entire
world as we know it, as the Holy Spirit knows it, the whole earth.
Revelation 11:15 And the
seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ;
and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Psalm 2:8 Ask of me, and I
shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of
the earth for thy possession.
Psalm 72:8 He shall have
dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
Psalm 72:11 Yea, all kings
shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
Psalm 86:9 All nations whom
thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify
thy name.
Psalm 98:3 He hath
remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of
the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Isaiah 45:22 Look unto me,
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none
else.
Isaiah 49:6 And he said, It
is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of
Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a
light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the
earth…12 Behold, these shall come from
far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land
of Sinim. (This is understood to be a reference to China. We get the word
Sinology which internet sources note was coined in 1838 from the Latin and
Greek words for China which may have been their derivations of the Qin or Ch’in
dynasty, founded much later than this writing in the 200s BC but from the
Southwestern Chinese state of Qin or Ch’in, founded at about a hundred years
after David’s kingdom but a hundred years or so before Isaiah’s writings. This
is a clear revealing that there must have been trade or contact with western China
in Isaiah’s time, which was in the 700s BC around the time of the founding of
the city of Rome.)
29 All they that be
fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall
bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
The fat is a reference to those who have plenty because all
through history until recently having proof of your having plenty to eat showed
your wealth and status.
Psalm 92:14 They shall
still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
Those that go down to the dust are the poor and the ‘wretched of
the earth’ to use the name of Fanon’s book on revolution from the early 1960s.
Psalm 113:7 He raiseth up
the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill;
Both poor and rich shall bow to God and neither of them can keep
themselves alive.
Isaiah 45:23 I have sworn
by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not
return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Romans 14:11 For it is
written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every
tongue shall confess to God.
They cannot escape death on their own.
Ecclesiastes 8:8 There is
no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he
power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall
wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
30 A seed shall serve him;
it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. 31 They shall come, and shall declare his
righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
I think this is a clear prophetic reference to those who will be born
again in Christ. He generates their new birth and they come from Him
spiritually.
John 1:12 But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name: 13 Which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.
1Peter 1:23 Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth for ever.
This also speaks of the work of evangelism that Christians do when
they declare, as an evangelist, Christ as the Saviour of the world and the
creator of all things by which they are also sustained.
Here, Timothy is told by Paul to do the work of an evangelist.
2Timothy 4:5 But watch thou
in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full
proof of thy ministry.
Here the Word is said to have made all things.
John 1:1 ¶ In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the
beginning with God. 3 All things were
made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Here the Word was made flesh, given skin and bones.
John 1:14 And the Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Here Christ sustains and holds all things together and keeps them
in play.
Colossians 1:17 And he is
before all things, and by him all things consist.
For the modern Christian in a country where they are tolerated somewhat
or a country where their existence is not tolerated at all this is an affirmation
of their faith in Christ and a recognition of the horror they are facing. I
think we can see here the Christian in places in the communist and the Muslim
world whose fate on earth hangs on a thread pleading for deliverance but
acknowledging the Lordship of Christ and His enduring work through all the
generations. I can envision one of these persecuted ones praying this Psalm as
a prayer for help, for justice, and as a revelation of Christ in whom they have
all their confidence.
[1] (44) “Lexicons of Early Modern English,”
(Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2015), http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/search/results.cfm, (accessed
1.13.2015).
[2] Henry Yule, ed. & transl. The Book of Ser Marco Polo (London: John
Murray Publishers, 1903), 285. https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo002polo#page/n9/mode/2up (accessed
1.13.2015).
[3] John S. Wilkins, “A List of 26 Species
“Concepts”, Science Blogs: Evolving
Thoughts, http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts/2006/10/01/a-list-of-26-species-concepts/ (accessed
1.14.2015).
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