And saith unto them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.” Mark 14:34 KJV
And He *said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” Mark 14:34 NASB
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Psalm 42:5 KJV
Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence. Psalms 42:5 NASB
Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd century BC, a number of Jewish scholars in Egypt (tradition says 70), translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. It became known as the Septuagint Version. When they were translating Psalm 42 and 43, the word they chose for “cast down,” is the Greek word, “perilupos.” This just happens to be the exact same word the Lord used in Mark 14:34.
While this may seem a curious coincidence, it suggests how the mind of the Lord Jesus was dwelling on the Psalms during that last day in His earthly life. He had quoted from Psalm 41 about the betrayer (Ps 41:9; John 13:18). They sang a Psalm from the Great Hallel, possibly Psalm 118 (Matt 26:30). He spoke of the cup which He was about to take, possibly an allusion to Psalm 16:4, 5.
On the cross, His mind was dwelling on Psalm 22 and the familiar cry of the Lone Sufferer in His forsaken condition. His last words on the cross were, “Father into thy hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46), an echo of Psalm 31:5, “Into Thine hand I commit My spirit.” Though He did not quote it from the cross, He could well have moved through that Psalm and added, “Thou hast known My soul in adversities” (v 7). To these, some might add the last verse of Psalm 22, “That He hath done this” or, “It is finished.”
His mind was dwelling on the Psalms during that last 24 hours, up to, and including the cross. In them, He found expression of His deep grief and sorrow. We have utterances of these six Psalms, but it is absolutely certain that His sorrow found expression in many of the Psalms – portions that we have not perhaps appreciated that tell of His sorrow. But He found comfort as well, as each of these Psalms tell of deliverance and the trustworthy nature of the God upon Whom He relied. So, both the expression of sorrow and the expressions of comfort from the Psalms filled His mind and soul.
Did He dwell on the second half of Psalm 22 when the Lonely Sufferer becomes the Leader of Song? Did He comfort Himself with Psalm 16 and the promises that He would not be abandoned to the grave? Did He range over Psalms such as Psalm 110 with the glad anticipation of the welcome He would receive and the investiture at the right hand of God?
There are only six Psalms we have evidence from which He drew comfort. Yet the entire Psaltery and prophetic Scriptures were an open book to Him. All the prophets spoke and wrote of Him. Moses wrote of Him. All of Scripture pulsated with the promises of coming glory following suffering. He, no doubt, drew from all and rested amidst the suffering, allowing the promises of coming glory and the fruit of His suffering to assuage the deep sorrows and sufferings of the cross.
Consider:
Since the Lord Jesus is the Word, He did not have to “recall” Scriptures as we do. They were in His mind constantly.