Augustine on Psalm 22

Now what follows is spoken in the person of The Crucified. For from the head of this Psalm are the words, which He cried out, while hanging on the Cross, sustaining also the person of the old man, whose mortality He bore. For our old man was nailed together with Him to the Cross.

"All that saw Me laughed Me to scorn" For they shook their head in derision, saying, "He trusted in the Lord, let Him deliver Him:" "let Him save Him, since He desires Him."

"I have been strengthened in You from the womb." It is the womb of the Synagogue, which did not carry Me, but threw Me out: but I fell not, for You held me. "From My mother's womb You are My God." From My mother's womb: My mother's womb did not cause that, as a babe, I should be forgetful of You.

"You are My God," "depart not from Me; for trouble is hard at hand." You are, therefore, My God, depart not from Me; for trouble is near unto Me; for it is in My body.

"They opened their mouth upon Me." They opened their mouth upon Me, not out of Your Scripture, but of their own lusts. "As a ravening and roaring lion." As a lion, whose ravening is, that I was taken and led; and whose roaring, "Crucify him, Crucify him."

"I was poured out like water, and all My bones were scattered." "I was poured out like water," when My persecutors fell: and through fear, the stays of My body, that is, the Church, My disciples were scattered from Me. "My heart became as melting wax, in the midst of my belly." My wisdom, which was written of Me in the sacred books, was, as if hard and shut up, not understood: but after that the fire of My Passion was applied, it was, as if melted, manifested, and entertained in the memory of My Church.

"My strength dried up as a potsherd." My strength dried up by My Passion; not as hay, but a potsherd, which is made stronger by fire. "And My tongue cleaved to My jaws." And they, through whom I was soon to speak, kept My precepts in their hearts. "And You brought Me down to the dust of death." And to the ungodly appointed to death, whom the wind casts forth as dust from the face of the earth, You brought Me down.

Posted by Carlos J. Medina