Psalm 22:20

Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:11-21 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 our love to him as the best of friends, who loved us, and suffered all this for us. Christ in his agony prayed, prayed earnestly, prayed that the cup might pass from him. When we cannot rejoice in God as our song, yet let us stay ourselves upon him as our strength; and take the comfort of spiritual supports, when we cannot have spiritual delights. He prays to be delivered from the Divine wrath. He that has delivered, doth deliver, and will do so. We should think upon the sufferings and resurrection of Christ, till we feel in our souls the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Deliver my soul from the sword - The word soul here means life, and denotes a living person. It is equivalent to "deliver me." "The sword" is used to denote an instrument of death, or anything that pierces like a sword. Compare 2 Samuel 11:24-25. As applied to the Saviour here, it may mean those extreme mental sufferings that were like the piercing of a sword.

My darling - Margin, "my only one." Prof. Alexander, "my lonely one." DeWette, my life. The Hebrew word - יחיד yâchı̂yd - means "one alone, only," as of an only child; then one alone, as forsaken, solitary, wretched, Psalm 25:16; Psalm 68:6; then it means one only, the only one, in the sense of "most dear, darling." Here, according to Gesenius (Lexicon), it is used poetically for life, as being something most dear, or as denoting all that we have, and, therefore, most precious. Compare Job 2:4. This is the most probable interpretation here, as it would thus correspond with the expression in the first part of the verse, "deliver my soul."

From the power of the dog - Margin, as in Hebrew, from the hand. The enemy is represented, as in Psalm 22:16, as a "dog" (see the notes on that verse); and then that enemy is spoken of as inflicting death by his hand. There is a little incongruity in speaking of a "dog" as having hands, but the image before the mind is that of the enemy with the character of a dog, and thus there is no impropriety in using in reference to him the language which is commonly applied to a man.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. my soul—or self (compare Ps 3:2; 16:10).

my darling—literally, "my only one," or, "solitary one," as desolate and afflicted (Ps 25:16; 35:17).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

From the sword, i.e. from the rage and violence of mine enemies, as the next clause explains it, and as the sword is oft taken in Scripture. See Jeremiah 25:16,27,29 Eze 38:21.

My darling, Heb. my one, or only one, to wit, his soul, as he now said; which he so calls, either because it was very dear to him; or rather, because it was left alone, and destitute of friends and helpers; for so this word is used, Psalm 25:16 35:17.

From the power, Heb. the hand; which is oft put for power, and in that sense is ascribed to a flame, Isaiah 47:14, and to evil, Habakkuk 2:9.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Deliver my soul from the sword,.... Wicked men, whose tongues were as a sharp sword, reproaching and blaspheming him, and bearing false witness against him; and crying out, "Crucify him, crucify him", Luke 23:21; see Psalm 17:12; or any instrument of violence, as the iron bar with which the legs of the malefactors crucified with him were broken, which he escaped; and the spear which pierced his side, after he had commended his soul or spirit into the hands of his Father; or a violent death; for though his death had the appearance of one, he was taken in a violent manner, and condemned to be put to death, and was crucified, yet his life was not taken away by men; he laid it down, and gave up his breath himself;

my darling from the power of the dog, or "my only one" (i); meaning his life or soul, as before; so called, not because there is but one soul in the body, but because it was dear and valuable to him; and hence we render it "darling", an only one being usually the darling of its parents; so a man's life is dear to him, all that he has will he give for it, Job 2:4. Christ's life was a more precious life than any man's, and peculiarly his own, in such sense as another man's, is not his own; and his soul also was an only one, it was not polluted with original sin, as the souls of other men are; it was pure and holy: the word here used is sometimes rendered "desolate" and "solitary"; see Psalm 25:16; and it may have this sense here, and be translated "my lonely" or "solitary one" (k); he being forsaken by God, and deserted by his disciples; his soul was in darkness, sorrow, and distress, wherefore he prays it might be delivered "from the power of the dog"; either Satan is so called for his malice and envy, who had put it into the heart of Judas to betray him, and had filled the Pharisees with envy at him, and who through it delivered him to Pilate; or the impure, cruel, and wicked Roman soldiers, and in short all his crucifiers; called in the plural number "dogs"; see Gill on Psalm 22:16.

(i) "unicam meam", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Tiguriue version, Cocceius, Junius & Tremellius. (k) "Solitariam meam", Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.

Geneva Study Bible

Deliver my soul from the sword; my {l} darling from the power of the dog.

(l) My life that is solitary, left alone and forsaken by all, Ps 35:17,25:16

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. from the sword] From a violent death.

my darling] Lit., my only one. The clue to the meaning is given by the use of the word of an only child (Genesis 22:2; Jdg 11:34). The word denotes the one precious life which can never be replaced. Cp. Psalm 35:17.

the dog] See on Psalm 22:16.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - Deliver my soul from the sword. "The sword" symbolizes the authority of the Roman governor - that authority by which Christ was actually put to death. If he prayed, even on the cross, to be delivered from it, the prayer must have been offered with the reservations previously made in Gethsemane, "If it be possible" (Matthew 26:39); "If thou be willing" (Luke 22:42); "Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." The human will in Christ was in favour of the deliverance; the Divine will, the same in Christ as in his Father, was against it. My darling - literally, my only one - from the power of the dog. By "my darling" there is no doubt that the soul is intended, both here and in Psalm 35:17. It seems to be so called as the most precious thing that each man possesses (see Matthew 16:26). "The dog" is used, not of an individual, but of the class, and is best explained, like the "dogs" in ver. 16, of the executioners. Psalm 22:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 22:20-22)In Psalm 22:19 the description of affliction has reached its climax, for the parting of, and casting lots for, the garments assumes the certain death of the sufferer in the mind of the enemies. In Psalm 22:20, with ואתּה the looks of the sufferer, in the face of his manifold torments, concentrate themselves all at once upon Jahve. He calls Him אילוּתי nom. abstr. from איל, Psalm 88:5 : the very essence of strength, as it were the idea, or the ideal of strength; lė‛ezrāthi has the accent on the penult., as in Psalm 71:12 (cf. on the other hand Psalm 38:23), in order that two tone syllables may not come together. In Psalm 22:21, חרב means the deadly weapon of the enemy and is used exemplificatively. In the expression מיּד כּלב, מיּד is not merely equivalent to מן, but יד is, according to the sense, equivalent to "paw" (cf. כּף, Leviticus 11:27), as פּי is equivalent to jaws; although elsewhere not only the expression "hand of the lion and of the bear," 1 Samuel 17:37, but also "hands of the sword," Psalm 63:11, and even "hand of the flame," Isaiah 47:14 are used, inasmuch as יד is the general designation of that which acts, seizes, and subjugates, as the instrument of the act. Just as in connection with the dog יד, and in connection with the lion פי (cf. however, Daniel 6:28) is mentioned as its weapon of attack, the horns, not the horn (also not in Deuteronomy 33:17), are mentioned in connection with antilopes, רמים (a shorter form, occurring only in this passage, for ראמים, Psalm 29:6; Psalm 34:7). Nevertheless, Luther following the lxx and Vulgate, renders it "rescue me from the unicorns" (vid., thereon on Psalm 29:6). יהידה, as the parallel member here and in Psalm 35:17 shows, is an epithet of נפשׁ. The lxx in both instances renders it correctly τὴν μονογενῆ μου, Vulg. unicam meam, according to Genesis 22:2; Judges 11:34, the one soul besides which man has no second, the one life besides which man has no second to lose, applied subjectively, that is, soul or life as the dearest and most precious thing, cf. Homer's fi'lon kee'r. It is also interpreted according to Psalm 25:16; Psalm 68:7 : my solitary one, solitarium, the soul as forsaken by God and man, or at least by man, and abandoned to its own self (Hupfeld, Kamphausen, and others). But the parallel נפשׁי, and the analogy of כּבודי ( equals נפשׁי), stamp it as an universal name for the soul: the single one, i.e., that which does not exist in duplicate, and consequently that which cannot be replaced, when lost. The praet. עניתני might be equivalent to ענני, provided it is a perf. consec. deprived of its Waw convers. in favour of the placing of מקּרני רמים first for the sake of emphasis; but considering the turn which the Psalm takes in Psalm 22:23, it must be regarded as perf. confidentiae, inasmuch as in the very midst of his supplication there springs up in the mind of the suppliant the assurance of being heard and answered. To answer from the horns of the antilope is equivalent to hearing and rescuing from them; cf. the equally pregnant expression ענה בּ Psalm 118:5, perhaps also Hebrews 5:7.

(Note: Thrupp in his Emendations on the Psalms (Journal of Classic and Sacred Philology, 1860) suggests עניּתי, my poverty (my poor soul), instead of עניתני.)