Psalms 22:12

_MANY BULLS HAVE COMPASSED ME: STRONG BULLS OF BASHAN HAVE BESET ME ROUND._ Many bulls - implying the strength and violence of His enemies, while he was as the gentle and weak 'hind' (title). STRONG BULLS OF BASHAN - a hilly region (afterward Batanea), east of Gilead, and north of Jordan, abounding in rich pasture, whence its cattle were famed. The word meant richness of soil. Their fat condition made them the more wanton; and the liberty which they enjoyed, of ranging on hills and in forests, gave them an untameable wildness....

12._Strong bulls have encompassed me. _The Psalmist now complains of the cruelty and barbarous rage of his enemies; and he compares them first to bulls, secondly to lions, and thirdly to dogs. When the anger of bulls is kindled, we know how fierce and terrible they are. The lion, also, is a cruel beast, and dreadful to mankind. And the eager and fierce boldness with which dogs, when once they are irritated, rush upon a man to do him injury, is well known. In short, David’s enemies were so blood-thirsty and cruel, that they more resembled wild beasts than men. He calls them not simply _bulls, _but _strong bulls. _Instead of rendering the original word רבים, _rabbim, strong, _as we have done, some would render it _many: _with which I cannot agree. David, it is true, was assailed by great hosts of enemies; but it appears, from the second clause of the verse, that what is here described is t...

11-21 In these verses we have Christ suffering, and Christ praying; by which we are directed to look for crosses, and to look up to God under them. The very manner of Christ's death is described, though not in use among the Jews. They pierced his hands and his feet, which were nailed to the accursed tree, and his whole body was left so to hang as to suffer the most severe pain and torture. His natural force failed, being wasted by the fire of Divine wrath preying upon his spirits. Who then can stand before God's anger? or who knows the power of it? The life of the sinner was forfeited, and the life of the Sacrifice must be the ransom for it. Our Lord Jesus was stripped, when he was crucified, that he might clothe us with the robe of his righteousness. Thus it was written, therefore thus it behoved Christ to suffer. Let all this confirm our faith in him as the true Messiah, and excite ou...

Verse Psalms 22:12. _MANY BULLS HAVE COMPASSED ME_] The _bull_ is the emblem of brutal strength, that gores and tramples down all before it. Such was Absalom, Ahithophel, and others, who rose up in rebellion against David; and such were the Jewish rulers who conspired against Christ. _STRONG_ BULLS _OF BASHAN_] Bashan was a district beyond Jordan, very fertile, where they were accustomed to fatten cattle, which became, in consequence of the excellent pasture, the largest, as well as the fattest, in the country. See _Calmet_. All in whose hands were the chief power and influence became David's enemies; for Absalom had stolen away the hearts of all Israel. Against Christ, the chiefs both of Jews and Gentiles were united....

MANY BULLS HAVE COMPASSED ME - Men with the fierceness and fury of bulls. Compare Isaiah 51:20; Psalms 68:30. STRONG BULLS OF BASHAN - The country of Bashan embraced the territory which was on the east of the Jordan, north of Gilead, which was given to the half tribe of Manasseh: compare Genesis 14:5 with Joshua 12:4. It was distinguished as pasture land for its richness. Its trees and its breed of cattle are frequently referred to in the Scriptures. Thus in Deuteronomy 32:14,

EXPOSITION THERE is no psalm which has raised so much controversy as this. Admitted to be Messianic by the early Hebrew commentators, it is by some understood wholly of David; by others, applied to the Israelite people, or to the pious part of it; by others again, regarded as an ideal representation of the sufferings of the righteous man, and the effects of them; and by one or two eccentric critics, explained as referring to Hezekiah or Jeremiah. Against the view that David means to describe in the psalm his own dangers, sufferings, and deliverance, it is reasonably urged that David was at no time in the circumstances here described—he was never without a helper (Psalms 22:11); never "despised of the people" (Psalms 22:6); never stripped of his clothes ...

MANY BULLS HAVE COMPASSED ME,.... By whom are meant the chief priests, elders, Scribes, and Pharisees, among the Jews, and Herod and Pontius Pilate among the Gentiles, comparable to bulls for their fierceness, rage, and fury against Christ, Psalms 2:1; and for their pushing at him with their horns of power and authority, and for their trampling him under their feet, his person and offices; these compassed him about at his apprehension, arraignment, trial, and condemnation; and there were many of them to one child, Jesus: STRONG [BULLS] OF BASHAN HAVE BESET ME ROUND; Bashan was a very fruitful country, in which cattle of various sorts, and bulls among the rest, were fed and fattened; see Deuteronomy 32:14; bulls are noted for their strength in other writers a. Hence great men, who abou

You will not need any comment on this Psalm if, while we read it, you see Christ on the cross, and you think that you hear him uttering these sacred words. This Psalm is dedicated» to the Chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, or, the hind of the morning,» for Jesus brings the morning with him whenever he comes. Psalms 22:1. _MY God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?_ It was not morning with Jesus when he uttered these words; it was midnight, but his midnight is our morning. Psalms 22:1. _Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?_ The prayer had come to be almost inarticulate, like the dying moan of a wounded beast in the forest. Psalms 22:2

Psalms 22 The Sufferings of Christ and the Glory That Follows _ 1. The suffering (Psalms 22:1)_ 2. The glory (Psalms 22:22) Psalms 22:1. In many respects this Psalm is the most remarkable in the entire book and one of the sublimest prophecies in the whole Bible. The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow are here wonderfully foretold. The inscription mentions A yeleth Shahar, which means “the hind of the morning.” Jewish tradition identifies this hind with the early morning light, when the day dawns and the rays of the rising sun appear like the horns of the hind. The eminent Hebraist Professor Deli

XXII. This Ps. (p. 372) consists of two parts. In Psalms 22:1 a godly man in deep and manifold distress complains that the God of his fathers, the God who has been with him from the beginning, has deserted him (see p. 372). Psalms 22:22 is a liturgical addition: it expresses the pious Israelite's gratitude for Israel's glory, which is to be acknowledged even by the heathen. No attempt is made to bridge the gulf between the despair of Psalms 22:1 and the confidence of the added verses, which depict Israel's prosperity as already come. PSALMS 22:3. The LXX read, Thou dwellest in the holy place, O thou that art Israel's praise,