Psalms 22:20

Darling - Only one; beloved; sole.

Deliver my soul from the sword - Deliver נפשי naphshi, my life; save me alive, or raise me again.

My darling - יחידתי yechidathi, my only one. The only human being that was ever produced since the creation, even by the power of God himself, without the agency of man. Adam the first was created out of the dust of the earth; that was his mother; God was the framer. Adam the second was produced in the womb of the virgin; that was his mother. But that which was conceived in her was by the power of the Holy Ghost; hence the man Christ Jesus is the Only Son of God; God is his Father, and he is his Only One.

Deliver my soul from the sword - The word soul here means life, and denotes a living person. It is equivalent to "deliver me." "The sword" is used to denote an instrument of death, or anything that pierces like a sword. Compare 2 Samuel 11:24-25. As applied to the Saviour here, it may mean those extreme mental sufferings that were like the piercing of a sword.

My darling - Margin, "my only one." Prof. Alexander, "my lonely one." DeWette, my life. The Hebrew word - יחיד yâchı̂yd - means "one alone, only," as of an only child; then one alone, as forsaken, solitary, wretched, Psalm 25:16; Psalm 68:6; then it means one only, the only one, in the sense of "most dear, darling." Here, according to Gesenius (Lexicon), it is used poetically for life, as being something most dear, or as denoting all that we have, and, therefore, most precious. Compare Job 2:4. This is the most probable interpretation here, as it would thus correspond with the expression in the first part of the verse, "deliver my soul."

From the power of the dog - Margin, as in Hebrew, from the hand. The enemy is represented, as in Psalm 22:16, as a "dog" (see the notes on that verse); and then that enemy is spoken of as inflicting death by his hand. There is a little incongruity in speaking of a "dog" as having hands, but the image before the mind is that of the enemy with the character of a dog, and thus there is no impropriety in using in reference to him the language which is commonly applied to a man.

22:20 Darling - Heb. my only one; his soul, which he so calls, because it was left alone and destitute of friends and helpers.