nd despised of
the people" (verse 6). This is His own complaint. No longer a man
but writhing on the ground like a worm, the substitute of sinners,
thus the Holy One felt when He was numbered among the transgressors.
The Hebrew word "worm", means the small insect, the coccus, from
which the scarlet color is obtained by death of this worm, that
color which was used in connection with the tabernacle. Thus He died
as our substitute that our sins though they are as scarlet might be
white as snow. Men reproached Him; His own people despised and
rejected Him. Then we read how He was mocked and scoffed at. They
"laugh me to scorn," they "shoot out the lip," they "shake the
head." The very language of the leaders of the people as they
surrounded the cross is given by the Spirit of God. "He trusted on
the Lord that He would deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him"
(verse 7). What depths of the depravity of the human heart they
reveal! And in all this, while He suffered thus from man His sole
trust was in God (verses 9-10). His whole life was to trust in the
Lord to lean upon Him, till that moment came when God could no
longer know Him as His own, when the sword, the sword of judgment
awoke against the Man, the fellow, the companion of the Lord of
hosts (Zech. xiii:7). What that sword did to Him is expressed by the
cry of the forsaken One.

And what else do we find here? We can follow the whole story of the
cross in the first part of this Psalm. His enemies are described,
the bulls and the ravening and roaring lion.--"I am poured out like
water."--"All my bones are out of joint."--"My heart is like wax;
it is melted in the midst of my bowels." Like fire melteth wax so
His heart melted in the fire of wrath against sin. The strength of
the mighty One, who fainteth not and knows no weariness, failed. His
tongue cleaves to His jaws. "Dogs" and "the assembly of the wicked"
--Gentiles and Jews were there. "They pierced my hands and feet;"
crucifixion, unknown among the Jews when David lived, is here
predicted by the Holy Spirit. "I may tell all my bones" as well as
the words "all my bones are out of joint" refer to His suffering on
the cross. Then after they hung the Prince of Glory at that cross we
read "they look and stare upon Me" (verse 17). "They parted my
garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." What man did to
Him, what He suffered from man and from Satan's power is here
described. Yet it was God who bruised Him. C