With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with
their teeth.--Psalm xxxv. 16.
All they that see me, laugh me to scorn; they shoot out the lip,
they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he
would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in
him.--Psalm xxii. 7, 8.
This prophecy is so exactly in accordance with the event, that one
could readily believe the royal psalmist had stood on Calvary's
mount, and literally recorded the insulting taunts and ironical
reproaches used by the despisers of the suffering Jesus. The men,
their actions, and the time, are exactly described, and even their
insulting language noticed, with a minuteness that precludes a
possibility of mistake. This disgraceful scene occurred at the
passover; at that feast, when Israel was commanded to remember
her Lord's mercies, in delivering her from Egyptian bondage; when
he slew the strength of Egypt's land, even from the first-born of
Pharoah that sat on the throne, to the first-born of the captive
in the dungeon. At that solemn festival, did those merciless
hypocrites discover (beneath the cloak of pharisaical sanctity)
the rancorous enmity they cherished in their hearts towards virtue
in its purest, loveliest form. But how void of every spark of
magnanimity must be the wretch who can sport with the feelings
of one writhing in all the agonies of death. How lost to all the
kindlier feelings of our nature, thus to exult over suffering
humanity. Surely the Chief Priests and scribes strangely forgot
their station and their pride, when they could stoop to join the
railing throng, and mingle their voice of mockery and insult with
the Jewish rabble. How little did they intend to honour Jesus when
they insultingly exclaimed, "he saved others, himself he cannot
save." But we admit the fact, and glory in the truth. He indeed had
then cured many a dire disease, and released some from the very
jaws of death: and in those very hours of sorrow, he was saving "a
countless multitude, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation," who must inevitably have perished for ever, had he not
been content to suffer for them. But though he saved others, himself
he would not, yea, he could not, save. His honour was pledged in
the council of peace; he must fulfil the covenants he had engaged
to perform. God is not "a man, that he should lie; neither the son
of man, that he should repent:" "hath he said, and shall he not do
it?" or "hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" "Sing, O
ye Heavens, for the Lord hath done it; and shout, ye lower parts of
the earth, for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in
Israel."