The cry of despair struggling with the cry of faith.
The writer was' apparently an exile, still in the hands of his heathen captors. His extreme peril, the obloquy and scorn to which he was exposed as a professed worshipper of Jehovah, his imminent death, are touched on with a tenderness and a power which have made the language familiar to us in another application—as used by Christ in the agonies of the cross. It is the cry of despair struggling with the cry of faith.
I. THE CRY OF DESPAIR. That God had forsaken him.
1. Had forsaken him for a long time. (Psalms 22:1, Psalms 22:2.) It was not a temporary eclipse, but seemed a permanent desertion.
2. That this abandonment was somehow consistent with God's faithfulness. (Psalms 22:3.) There was no doubt it did not arise from caprice, but from holiness. That made the darkness very dark.
3. It arose from his personal unworthiness. (Psalms 22:4 - 6.) God had rescued his fathers; but he was a worm, and not a man, unworthy of deliverance, despised of men. "Fear not, thou worm Jacob."
4. A contrast to God's former care of him. (Psalms 22:9, Psalms 22:10.) Not easy to analyze the contents of such a consciousness. But in general, "It is the sense of the Divine mercy, care, and support gone!"
II. But there is in the background, FAITH STRUGGLING AGAINST THIS DESPAIR.
1. He still can say, "My God." Repeatedly (Psalms 22:1, Psalms 22:2). No unbelief could dissolve that tie.
2. Faith will not let go its hold upon his "holiness," however dark its aspect towards him now. (Psalms 22:3.) God cannot be far from a man who retains the sense of his holy faithfulness.
3. He is suffering in the righteous cause—for God's sake. (Psalms 22:6-8.) As Christ was. There is more than a gleam of hope for him here.
4. God had brought him into the world, and cared for him in helpless infancy. (Psalms 22:9, Psalms 22:10.) These are the grounds of persistent faith battling against the sense of desertion and despair; and they are all-sufficient for us in our darkest hours. "We can but trust; we cannot know."—S.