For dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me; they have pierced my hands and my feet.--Psalm
xxii. 16.
We cannot with any degree of consistency, apply these words to
David. It is true he was often surrounded by foes, and encompassed
by adversaries; but, never were his sorrows and sufferings of the
kind here described. By the spirit of Prophecy, he spoke of the
sufferings of Jesus, and to him alone can we with truth apply these
words, or indeed, the whole Psalm.
We see Jesus surrounded by men, who, for their ungovernable rage,
are not unaptly compared to dogs; and the assemblies before whom he
was brought, proved by their conduct towards him, that they were
unjust Rulers. What they called the Hall of Judgment, was, in this
case, the seat of injustice and oppression. On every side, did the
assemblies of the wicked enclose him; yea, they crucified him, by
which act they pierced his hands and his feet. Crucifixion was not a
Jewish punishment, but one used by the Romans, and they considered
it so disgraceful that it was not allowed to be executed on a
Roman, however heinous his crimes. It was only slaves, and persons
belonging to the conquered territories of the Roman Government,
who were sentenced to a death alike ignominious,[88] painful, and
lingering. It was shameful, as the condemned always suffered naked;
it was extremely painful, for they placed the sufferer on the cross
when on the ground, the feet and outstretched arms, were then nailed
to the wood, which being upraised, and one end fixed in a hole in
the ground, the sudden jirk occasioned the most excruciating pains
to the whole body. And when we consider that the nails were driven
through the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet, the most
nervous parts of the body, the mind sickens at the thought, and is
unwilling to dwell longer on so distressing an object; humanity
sends forth a wish that death may speedily relieve the sufferer.
But, as no wound is inflicted on any part of the body absolutely
necessary to existence, the unfortunate sufferer often lingers many
an hour in this extreme agony, before the powers of nature are
exhausted and death closes the scene.
[88] Hebrews xii. 2.
This is but a faint outline of the sufferings of crucifixion, to
which the Priests and Rulers sentenced the blessed Jesus, whom we
see going forth to the place of execution, carrying his own cross,
and fainting beneath the load. His unfeeling persecutors, fearing,
lest he should expire by the road, and thus disappoint them in their
cruel design, lay hold of a Cyrenian, named Simon, whom they compel
to bear the cross to Calvary, a spot, rendered sacred to memory by
the sufferings of Jesus, who humbled himself unto death, even the
death of the cross. Yes, he who could command a legion of angels to
his rescue, here submitted to a painful and ignominious death. Do we
hear the Prophet inquire "Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel,
and thy garments like him that treadeth the wine-vat?" Jesus
replies, I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people
there was none with me; and "I looked and there was none to help;
and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore, mine own
arm brought salvation." Whenever we look to the cross of Jesus, we
should eye him as "the surety of his people," as the "just suffering
for the unjust, to bring sinners unto God." It was for them he
wept, bled, groaned, agonized, and died. But while Christ crucified
is to the "Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,
it is unto them that are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ the
power of God, and the wisdom of God." Jesus, that he might sanctify
the people with his own blood, "suffered without the gate." "Let us
therefore go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach."
Jesus suffered a painful, shameful, and ignominious death, to
deliver his people from the bitter pains of eternal death. His
crucifixion is the procuring cause of their salvation; for he died
that they might live. Ought we not to admire and adore the wisdom of
our God, who could cause such invaluable good to spring out of what,
distinctly considered, was an act of such injustice and cruelty. We
see the persecutors of Jesus full of fury and indignation, executing
their cruelties on the innocent object of their abhorrence. But,
at the same time, we discover, that by their instrumentality, the
designs of God are accomplished. Not that their crime is in the
least degree lessened. No, the hatred, malice, envy, injustice,
rage, and cruelty, was all their own act and deed, and the sin and
guilt, consequent on the foul transgression, is with justice laid
to their charge. The moral evil of the act, is in nowise diminished
by the Lord's overruling it to accomplish his purposes and making it
minister to his glory. He can make "the wrath of man praise him, but
the remainder of that wrath he will restrain."