Psalms 22:15

Cleaveth - To stick close to.

Potsherd - A piece of broken pottery.

My strength is dried up - All these expressions mark a most distressed and hopeless case.

Into the dust of death - This means only that he was apparently brought nigh to the grave, and consequent corruption, this latter David saw; but Jesus Christ never saw corruption.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd, - A "potsherd" is a fragment of a broken pot, or a piece of earthenware. See Isaiah 45:9, note; and Job 2:8, note. The meaning here is, that his strength was not vigorous like a green tree that was growing, and that was full of sap, but it was like a brittle piece of earthenware, so dry and fragile that it could be easily crumbled to pieces.

And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws - See the notes at Job 29:10. The meaning here is, that his mouth was dry, and he could not speak. His tongue adhered to the roof of his mouth so that he could not use it - another description of the effects of intense thirst. Compare John 19:28.

And thou hast brought me into the dust of death - Or, as we should say, "to dust" - "to the grave" - to the dust where death reigns. See the notes at Daniel 12:2. The meaning is, that he was near death; or, was just ready to die. Who can show that the Redeemer when on the cross may not in his own meditations have gone over these very expressions in the psalm as applicable to himself?

22:15 Dried - I have in a manner no more moisture left in me, than is in a dry potsherd. Cleaveth - Through excessive thirst and drought.Death - Thy providence, delivering me into the power of mine enemies, and by thy terrors in my soul.