Matthew Henry Commentary Psalms 22:1-10

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [Why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou answerest not; And in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: They trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: They trusted in thee, and were not put to shame. But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, [saying], Commit [thyself] unto Jehovah; Let him deliver him: Let him rescue him, seeing he delighteth in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb; Thou didst make me trust [when I was] upon my mother`s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb; Thou art my God since my mother bare me." — Psalms 22:1-10 (ASV)

The Spirit of Christ, who was in the prophets, testifies clearly and fully in this psalm to the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow. We find here a sorrowful complaint of God's withdrawals. This may be applied to any child of God who is pressed down and overwhelmed with grief and terror. Spiritual desertions are the saints' most severe afflictions; but even their complaint about these burdens is a sign of spiritual life and of spiritual senses being exercised.

To cry out, "My God, why am I sick? why am I poor?" suggests discontent and worldliness. But Why hast thou forsaken me? is the language of a heart binding up its happiness in God's favor. This must be applied to Christ. In the first words of this complaint, he poured out his soul before God when he was on the cross (Matthew 27:46). Being truly man, Christ felt a natural unwillingness to pass through such great sorrows, yet his zeal and love prevailed.

Christ declared the holiness of God, his heavenly Father, in his sharpest sufferings; indeed, he declared them to be a proof of it, for which he would be continually praised by his Israel, more than for all other deliverances they received. No one who hoped in You was ever made ashamed of their hope; no one who sought You ever sought You in vain. Here is a complaint about the contempt and reproach of men.

The Savior here spoke of the abject state to which he was reduced. The history of Christ's sufferings, and of his birth, explains this prophecy.