Psalm 22:5

They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Confounded—i.e., ashamed.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:1-10 The Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, testifies in this psalm, clearly and fully, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. We have a sorrowful complaint of God's withdrawings. This may be applied to any child of God, pressed down, overwhelmed with grief and terror. Spiritual desertions are the saints' sorest afflictions; but even their complaint of these burdens is a sign of spiritual life, and spiritual senses exercised. To cry our, My God, why am I sick? why am I poor? savours of discontent and worldliness. But, Why hast thou forsaken me? is the language of a heart binding up its happiness in God's favour. This must be applied to Christ. In the first words of this complaint, he poured out his soul before God when he was upon the cross, Mt 27:46. Being truly man, Christ felt a natural unwillingness to pass through such great sorrows, yet his zeal and love prevailed. Christ declared the holiness of God, his heavenly Father, in his sharpest sufferings; nay, declared them to be a proof of it, for which he would be continually praised by his Israel, more than for all other deliverances they received. Never any that hoped in thee, were made ashamed of their hope; never any that sought thee, sought thee in vain. Here is a complaint of the contempt and reproach of men. The Saviour here spoke of the abject state to which he was reduced. The history of Christ's sufferings, and of his birth, explains this prophecy.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They cried unto thee - They offered earnest prayer and supplication.

And were delivered - From dangers and trials.

They trusted in thee, and were not confounded - They were not disappointed. Literally, "they were not ashamed." That is, they had not the confusion which those have who are disappointed. The idea in the word is, that when men put their trust in anything and are disappointed, they are conscious of a species of "shame" as if they had been foolish in relying on that which proved to be insufficient to help them; as if they had manifested a want of wisdom in not being more cautious, or in supposing that they could derive help from that which has proved to be fallacious. So in Jeremiah 14:3, "Their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters; they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; "they were ashamed and confounded," and covered their heads." That is, they felt as if they had acted "foolishly" or "unwisely" in expecting to find water there. Compare the notes at Job 6:20. In the expression here, "they trusted in thee, and were not confounded," it is meant that men who confide in God are never disappointed, or never have occasion for shame as if herein they had acted foolishly. They are never left to feel that they had put their trust where no help was to be found; that they had confided in one who had deceived them, or that they had reason to be ashamed of their act as an act of foolishness.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4, 5. Past experience of God's people is a ground of trust. The mention of "our fathers" does not destroy the applicability of the words as the language of our Saviour's human nature.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. Not disappointed of that for which they prayed and hoped.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They cried unto thee, and were delivered,.... As the Israelites did in Egyptian bondage, and as they in later times did when in distress; see Exodus 2:23; &c. The crying is to be understood of prayer to God, and sometimes designs mental prayer, sighing, and groaning, which cannot be uttered, when no voice is heard, as in Moses, Exodus 14:15; but oftener vocal prayer, put up in times of distress, and denotes the vehemency of trouble, and eagerness of desire to be heard and relieved; and this cry was from faith, it followed upon and was accompanied with trusting in the Lord; it was the prayer of faith, which is effectual and availeth much, and issued in deliverance;

they trusted in thee, and were not confounded: or ashamed; neither of the object of their trust, the living God, as those who trust in graven images; so Moab was ashamed of Chemosh, Jeremiah 48:13; nor of their hope and trust in him, it being such as makes not ashamed, Psalm 119:116, Romans 5:5; nor of the consequences of it; When men trust in anything and it fails them, and they have not what they expect by it, they are filled with shame and confusion, Isaiah 30:2; but they that trust in the Lord are never confounded, or made ashamed; their expectations do not perish: now Christ mentions this case of his ancestors as a reason of the praises of Israel, which they offered up to God for deliverances, and which he inhabited, Psalm 22:3; as also by way of encouragement to himself in his present circumstances, that though the Lord was at a distance from him, and seemed not to regard him and his cries, yet that he would deliver him; and likewise as an argument with God that he would do so, since it had been his wonted way and method with his fathers before; moreover he may take notice of it in order to represent his own forlorn, uncomfortable, and deplorable condition, which was abundantly worse than theirs, and the reverse of it, as it seemed at present.

Geneva Study Bible

They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - They cried unto thee, and were delivered. If they were delivered because they cried, the Sufferer who cries "day and night" (vex. 2) can scarcely remain unheard for ever. They trusted in thee, and were not confounded; or, were not put to shame (οὐ κατησχύνθησαν, LXX.). Psalm 22:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 22:4-6) The sufferer reminds Jahve of the contradiction between the long season of helplessness and His readiness to help so frequently and so promptly attested. ואתּה opens an adverbial clause of the counterargument: although Thou art...Jahve is קדושׁ, absolutely pure, lit., separated (root קד, Arab. qd, to cut, part, just as ṭahur, the synonym of ḳadusa, as the intransitive of ṭahara equals ab‛ada, to remove to a distance, and בּר pure, clean, radically distinct from p-rus, goes back to בּרר to sever), viz., from that which is worldly and common, in one word: holy. Jahve is holy, and has shown Himself such as the תּהלּות of Israel solemnly affirm, upon which or among which He sits enthroned. תהלות are the songs of praise offered to God on account of His attributes and deeds, which are worthy of praise (these are even called תהלות in Psalm 78:4; Exodus 15:11; Isaiah 63:7), and in fact presented in His sanctuary (Isaiah 64:10). The combination יושׁב תּהלּות (with the accusative of the verbs of dwelling and tarrying) is like יושׁב כּרבים, Psalm 99:1; Psalm 80:2. The songs of praise, which resounded in Israel as the memorials of His deeds of deliverance, are like the wings of the cherubim, upon which His presence hovered in Israel. In Psalm 22:5, the praying one brings to remembrance this graciously glorious self-attestation of God, who as the Holy One always, from the earliest times, acknowledged those who fear Him in opposition to their persecutors and justified their confidence in Himself. In Psalm 22:5 trust and rescue are put in the connection of cause and effect; in Psalm 22:6 in reciprocal relation. פּלּט and מלּט are only distinguished by the harder and softer sibilants, cf. Psalm 17:13 with Psalm 116:4. It need not seem strange that such thoughts were at work in the soul of the Crucified One, since His divine-human consciousness was, on its human side, thoroughly Israelitish; and the God of Israel is also the God of salvation; redemption is that which He himself determined, why, then, should He not speedily deliver the Redeemer?