first part of His sufferings, in the second part of His Glory and
exaltation.

And we must not overlook the two Hebrew words the Holy Spirit has
put over this Psalm: _Aijeleth Shahar_. The margin tells us they
mean "the hind of the morning." This has a beautiful, though hidden
meaning. Some have thought of the innocent suffering of a wounded
hind and the dawn of the morning brings relief. They have applied
this to the death and resurrection (in the morning dawn) of the
Lord. But the meaning is better still. The oldest Jewish traditions
give us the key. They take the expression "Aijeleth Shahar" to mean
the Shechina, the glory cloud, which was visible among His people
and they speak of "the hind of the morning" as being the dawning of
redemption. The dawning of the morning is compared by them with the
horns of the hind, on account of the rays of light appearing like
horns. According to their tradition the lamb was offered as the
sacrifice in the morning as soon as the watcher on the pinnacle of
the temple cried out "Behold the first rays of morning shine forth."

But what pen can describe the predictions and the fulfilment of His
sufferings, the sufferings of the Holy One! Here we behold what it
cost Him to redeem us. Here we have the full description of what His
atoning work meant. Here we see the full meaning of the sin-offering.

Well may we bow our heads and hearts here and worship as we gaze
upon this picture. The opening word of the Psalm expresses the
consummation of all the sufferings of Christ, that word which came
from the darkness, which surrounded the cross and in which we are
face to face with the unsearchable depths of His atoning work. "My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me." He who was ever with the
Father, one with Him in all eternity, who could say on earth "I am
not alone" was left alone. He was forsaken of God. But more than
that. Jehovah bruised Him; He put Him to grief. The spotless One
bore the wrath of God alone. It was then that He who knew no sin was
made sin for us. How significant it is then that the Holy Spirit
puts that word of the Lord Jesus Christ before the predictions of
His physical sufferings. They tell us what our redemption cost Him
--the awful price, forsaken of God. The Psalm also emphasizes what
man under the terrible instigation of Satan did unto Him. We glance
at some of these sufferings as expressed by His own Spirit.

"But I am a worm, and not man; a reproach of men, a