The Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, testifies in this psalm, as clearly and fully as any where in all the Old Testament, "the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow" (1 Pet. i. 11); of him, no doubt, David here speaks, and not of himself, or any other man. Much of it is expressly applied to Christ in the New Testament, all of it may be applied to him, and some of it must be understood of him only. The providences of God concerning David were so very extraordinary that we may suppose there were some wise and good men who then could not but look upon him as a figure of him that was to come. But the composition of his psalms especially, in which he found himself wonderfully carried out by the spirit of prophecy far beyond his own thought and intention, was (we may suppose) an abundant satisfaction to himself that he was not only a father of the Messiah, but a figure of him. In this psalm he speaks, I. Of the humiliation of Christ (ver. 1-21), where David, as a type of Christ, complains of the very calamitous condition he was in upon many accounts. 1. He complains, and mixes comforts with his complaints; he complains (ver. 1, 2), but comforts himself (ver. 3-5), complains again (ver. 6-8), but comforts himself again, ver. 9, 10. 2. He complains, and mixes prayers with his complaints; he complains of the power and rage of his enemies (ver. 12, 13, 16, 18), of his own bodily weakness and decay (ver. 14, 15, 17); but prays that God would not be far from him (ver. 11, 19), that he would save and deliver him, ver. 19-21. II. Of the exaltation of Christ, that his undertaking should be for the glory of God (ver. 22-25), for the salvation and joy of his people (ver. 26-29), and for the perpetuating of his own kingdom, ver. 30, 31. In singing this psalm we must keep our thoughts fixed upon Christ, and be so affected with his sufferings as to experience the fellowship of them, and so affected with his grace as to experience the power and influence of it.
Sorrowful Complaints.
To the chief musician upon Aijeleth Shahar. A psalm of David.