Psalms 22:8

Psa 22:8 He trusted on the LORD [that] he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

Ver. 8. He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him] Is this a prophecy of our Saviour’s sufferings, or a history rather? See Mat 27:43, {See Trapp on "Mat 27:43"}

Seeing he delighted in him] A most virulent irony, whereby they sought to cajole him of his confidence, and so to drive him into utter desperation and destruction.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_22:8

He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him.

Faith among mockers

David experienced cruel mockings. The flesh may not be cut, but the heart may be torn. But text tells of the Lord Jesus. David knew reproach but in small measure compared with Him. It is the common heritage of the godly. But--

I. Their trust in God is known. Hence we learn--

1. Our trust in God should be apparent, manifest, public. That in Christ which revealed it was His wonderful calmness. We ought distinctly to avow our trust, life man has a right to be a secret believer.

2. Our general conduct should reveal our faith. If I trust the Lord about my soul I must trust Him about my body, wife, children, and all my affairs.

3. This trust should come out most distinctly in times of trouble. For then it is our adversaries are most likely to notice it. In bereavements, business troubles. Let the possession of godliness tell its own tale, the spikenard its own fragrance.

II. The world does not understand this trust. Our Lords enemies restricted His trust to the point of His being delivered. But--

1. Our faith is not confined to merely receiving from God. We must not live and wait upon God merely with a cupboard love.

2. Nor to what men call deliverance. Our Lord trusted still, though the cup did not pass from Him. The blind world cannot understand this. They say, like their father, Doth Job serve God for nought? And--

3. Our faith is not tied to time. Christs enemies thought that if the Lord did not deliver Him then, His trust would be proved a folly. But it is not so. We may not be delivered from our distresses tonight, nor tomorrow, nor next month; it may be for years. We do not tie God down to conditions, but we trust Him all the same.

4. Nor will it judge at all by present circumstances. How wrongly the world judged of Christ when it judged of Him by His sorrows.

III. This true faith will, in all probability, be mocked at some time or other.

1. Some men scoff at faith itself. It is an honour to have ones name written up on such an Arch of Triumph as that of Heb_11:1-40. But many think it no honour at all. They hold faith to be a folly of weak minds.

2. Others, at the very idea of Divine interposition. Look, they say, he fancies that God will deliver him; as if the Creator had not something else to do besides looking after him, poor miserable that he is! They believe in laws, they say, irreversible, immutable laws, that grind in like the great cogs of a machine which, when once they are set in motion, tear everything to pieces that comes in their way.

3. And some mock at all kinds of faith in the Divine love. How the world rages against electing love! The heathen could not make out a certain brave saint because he called himself Theophorus, or God bearer; but he stuck to it that he was so, though they hated him all the more.

4. Some find amusement in the trials involved in the life of faith. Their cry, Let Him deliver him, implies that their victim was in serious difficulty, but that was only sport to them. Such mocking is a part of the covenanted heritage.

IV. The time shall come when our trust shall be abundantly justified.

1. It is no small thing to have the ungodly bearing witness. He trusted in God. It helps one to believe that he is really Gods child.

2. Another justification will come when God shall deliver His people. That day will come. Dives sees Lazarus in Abrahams bosom: what a sight for him. At the last great day ungodly men will witness for the saints. They will have to own, They did trust, for we mocked them for it. But whether men mock or praise, we trust in God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. (Psa 22:8). Trust in Jehovah! He will deliver him, he will save him, for he delights in him. The literal meaning of the first clause is, roll to (or on) Jehovah, which would be unintelligible but for the parallel expressions in Psa 37:5, roll thy way upon Jehovah, and in Pro 16:3, roll thy work upon Jehovah, where the idea is evidently that of a burden cast upon another by one who is unable to sustain it himself. This burden, in the first case, is his way, i.e. his course of life, his fortune, his destiny, and in the other case, his work, i.e. his business, his affairs, his interest. In evident allusion to these places, the apostle Peter says, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you (1Pe 5:7). By these three parallels light is thrown on the elliptical expression now before us, roll, i.e. thy burden or thy care upon Jehovah.—A further difficulty is occasioned by the form of the original, which, according to usage, must be either the infinitive construct or the second person of the imperative. But as these seem out of place in such a context, some arbitrarily explain it as an absolute infinitive, or a third person imperative, or change the form to that of a preterite. This last is the construction in the Septuagint version retained in the New Testament (Mat 27:43), and really included in the Hebrew, but by no means an exact representation of its form. Perhaps the best solution of the syntax is to make this clause a quotation, or derisive repetition of the sufferer's own words, as if they had said, "This is he who was so fond of repeating the precept, Trust in Jehovah! Let him now try its virtue in his own case. He in whom he has trusted, and exhorted others to trust also, will no doubt deliver him." The next two verbs are ironical futures, not imperatives, and should be so translated.—The last words of the verse are always applied elsewhere to God's complacency in man, and not to man's reciprocal delight in God. The Septuagint version, retained in the New Testament, if he will (have) him, or if he will (deliver) him, although not incorrect, is much inferior in strength to the original.—By appropriating these words, the spectators of our Lord's sufferings identified themselves with the wicked persecutors, by whom they are here supposed to be originally uttered.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hebrew, rolled upon God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

trusted on the Lord--literally, "rolled"--that is, his burden (Psa 37:5; Pro 16:3) on the Lord. This is the language of enemies sporting with his faith in the hour of his desertion.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

How severe a temptation this must have been to David every man may judge from his own experience. But by the remedy he used he afforded a proof of the sincerity of his confidence: for unless he had had God as the undoubted witness and approver of the sincerity of his heart, he would never have dared to come before him with this complaint. Whenever, therefore, men charge us with hypocrisy, let it be our endeavor that the inward sincerity of our hearts may answer for us before God. And whenever Satan attempts to dislodge faith from our minds, by biting detraction and cruel derision, let this be our sacred anchors — to call upon God to witness it, and that, beholding it, he may be pleased to show his righteousness in maintaining our right, since his holy name cannot be branded with viler blasphemy than to say that those who put their trust in him are puffed up with vain confidence, and that those who persuade themselves that God loves them deceive themselves with a groundless fancy. As the Son of God was assailed with the same weapon, it is certain that Satan will not be more sparing of true believers who are his members than of him. They ought, therefore, to defend themselves from this consideration - that although men may regard them as in a desperate condition, yet, if they commit to God both themselves and all their affairs, their prayers will not be in vain. By the verb, גל, gol, which is rendered to commit, the nature and efficacy of faith are very well expressed, which, reposing itself upon the providence of God, relieves our minds from the burdens of the cares and troubles with which they are agitated.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) He trusted.—So the LXX. (Comp. Mat_27:43.) So, too, Ewald among moderns. But generally the form gol (short for gôl) is taken as an imperative. Literally, roll thyself on God. (Comp. Psa_37:5; Pro_16:3, margin.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. ‘Roll it upon Jehovah! let him deliver him:

Let him rescue him, for he delighteth in him.’

Ironically they bid the sufferer ‘roll’ i.e. commit his cause to Jehovah. The verb is certainly imperative, as in Psa_37:5; Pro_16:3; though the Versions all give the perfect tense, and the words are quoted in that form in Mat_27:43. Usage makes it certain that the subject in the last clause is Jehovah, as in Psa_18:19.

There is a remarkable parallel to this passage in Wis_2:16 ff. The ungodly say of the righteous man: “He maketh his boast that God is his Father. Let us see if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him. For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.” The whole passage is worth comparing.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He trusted on the Lord, that he would deliver him,.... Not that they spoke in a deriding way of the object of his trust, for, as impious as they were, this they did not do; but of his trust in the Lord, which they looked upon to be a false one, as would appear by his not being delivered, as he trusted; but his confidence was a well grounded one, though jeered at by these men, and he was delivered in the Lord's own time and way from all his enemies, and out of all his troubles;

let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him; this is another ironical sarcastic flout, not at God, but at Christ, and at his profession of trust in God, his claim of interest in his favour, and of relation to him as being the Son of his love, in whom he was well pleased; he always was the delight of his Father; he expressed his well pleasedness in him at his baptism, and transfiguration on the mount; he took pleasure in him while he was suffering and dying in the room and stead of his people; and he delivered him, raised him from the dead, and brought him into a large place, because he delighted in him, Psa 18:19; These very words were said by the Jews concerning Christ, as he hung upon the cross, Mat 27:43.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him - Margin, “He rolled himself on the Lord.” The margin expresses the true sense of the Hebrew word. The idea is that of being under the pressure of a heavy burden, and of rolling it off, or casting it on another. Hence, the word is often used in the sense of committing to another; entrusting anything to another; confiding in another. Psa 37:5, “commit thy way unto the Lord;” Margin, as in Hebrew: “Roll thy way upon the Lord.” Pro 16:3, “commit thy works unto the Lord,” Margin, as in Hebrew: “Roll.” The language here is the taunting language of his enemies, and the meaning is that he had professed to commit himself to the Lord as if he were his friend; he had expressed confidence in God, and he believed that his cause was sate in His hand. This, too, was actually fulfilled in the ease of the Saviour. Mat 27:43, “he trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him.” It is one of the most remarkable instances of blindness and infatuation that has ever occurred in the world, that the Jews should have used this language in taunting the dying Redeemer, without even suspecting that they were fulfilling the prophecies, and demonstrating at the very time when they were reviling him that he was the true Messiah.

Let him deliver him - Let him come and save him. Since he professes to belong to God; since he claims that God loves him and regards him as his friend, let him come now and rescue one so dear to him. He is hopelessly abandoned by men. If God chooses to have one so abject, so despised, so forsaken, so helpless, let him come now and take him as his own. We will not rescue him; we will do nothing to save him, for we do not need him. If God wants him, let him come and save him. What blasphemy! What an exhibition of the dreadful depravity of the human heart was manifested in the crucifixion of the Redeemer!

Seeing he delighted in him - Margin, “if he delight in him.” The correct rendering is,” for he delighted in him.” That is, it was claimed by the sufferer that God delighted in him. If this is so, say they, let him come and rescue one so dear to himself. Let him show his friendship for this vagrant, this impostor, this despised and worthless man

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He trusted on the Lord; he rolled himself

upon the Lord; where they seem to scoff not only at the thing, but at the expression. Their sense is, He pretended that he did wholly lean, and rest himself, and cast his cares upon God, and quietly and confidently commit all his affairs to his providence, assuring himself of a happy issue from him.

That he would deliver him; or, without any supplement, let him deliver him, as it follows, though the Hebrew words be differing. And so the same thing is twice repeated, to show both the vehemency of their hatred, and their confidence of success against him. They thought his case desperate, and past all hope and remedy.

Seeing he delighted in him, as he useth to allege and boast, but how vainly the event now showeth.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 8. Saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. Here the taunt is cruelly aimed at the sufferer's faith in God, which is the most tender point in a good man's soul, the very apple of his eye. They must have learned the diabolical art from Satan himself, for they made rare proficiency in it. According to Mt 27:39-44, there were five forms of taunt hurled at the Lord Jesus; this special piece of mockery is probably mentioned in this psalm because it is the most bitter of the whole; it has a biting, sarcastic irony in it, which gives it a peculiar venom; it must have stung the Man of Sorrows to the quick. When we are tormented in the same manner, let us remember him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, and we shall be comforted. On reading these verses one is ready, with Trapp, to ask, Is this a prophecy or a history? for the description is so accurate. We must not lose sight of the truth which was unwittingly uttered by the Jewish scoffers. They themselves are witnesses that Jesus of Nazareth trusted in God: why then was he permitted to perish? Jehovah had aforetime delivered those who rolled their burdens upon him: why was this man deserted? Oh that they had understood the answer! Note further, that their ironical jest,

seeing he delighted in him, was true. The Lord did delight in his dear Son, and when he was found in fashion as a man, and became obedient unto death, he still was well pleased with him. Strange mixture! Jehovah delights in him, and yet bruises him; is well pleased, and yet slays him.

Ver. 8. Here are recorded some of those very words, by which the persecutors of our Lord expressed their mockery and scorn. How remarkable to find them in a Psalm written so many hundred years before! John Stevenson.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. He trusted on the Lord… let him deliver him—Rather, He rolled himself upon Jehovah. This passage was derisively applied to Christ while on the cross, as a test of his divine Sonship. Mat_27:43. The whole verse is, in the Hebrew, intensely and cruelly sarcastic, and the refinement of blasphemy: “He rolled himself upon Jehovah; he will cause him to escape; he will rescue him, for he took pleasure in him!” Matthew follows almost verbatim the Septuagint.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. This is a translation of the Septuagint Version rather than of the Hebrew text, which runs, Trust in the Lord (literally, Roll thy care upon the Lord): let him deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. St. Matthew has put it on record that this text was actually cited by the scribes and elders who witnessed the Crucifixion, and applied to our Lord in scorn. (Mat_27:43) They quoted apparently from the Septuagint, but with an inaccuracy common at the time, when books were scarce, and persons had to depend on their memory of what they had occasionally heard read.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

they will open Heb. יפטירו, they open, as (in Exod. 13:12, 13): “all that open (פטר) the womb,...and firstling (ופטר) of a donkey.” [Also] (in Prov. 17: 14): “like letting out (פוטר) water.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

All that see me laugh me to scorn: – This is true of Israel, for all who see them laugh them to scorn;

They shoot out with the lip: – and shoot out upon them with the lip words of mockery and insult;

They shake the head: – and they shake the head at them. They shoot out (יפטירי): i-e. they send out words with the lip. (This meaning may be illustrated) from “the shooting out (פוטר) of water” (Prov. 17:14). “Sending out” applies also to water, as “He sendeth forth springs” (Ps. 104:10); and it applies also to words, as “Thou sendest out thy mouth to evil” (ibid. 1. 19). cf. also the Targum of שלחו והאנשׁים (and the men were sent away) (Gen. 44:3), which is אתפטרו וגובריא.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.