The KJV of Psa 22:9-10 (Heb: vv. 10-11) reads as follows:
But thou art he that
took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's
breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's
belly.
I have seen this text being used by some advocates of "infantile
faith" by Presbyterians and other (mainly Reformed) advocates of infant
baptism. Notwithstanding this being a poetic text, the text, at most, only
shows that an infant can have "hope," not "faith." While
"hope" is an important part of faith, they are not one-to-one
equivalent. Furthermore, many advocates of infant baptism do not view this as
teaching infantile faith and/or is a basis for infant baptism. Consider the
following:
Johann Peter Lange
Str. IV. Psa 22:9. [Perowne: “Faith turns the mockery of his enemies into
an argument of deliverance. They mock my trust in Thee—yea I do trust in Thee;
for Thou art He,” etc.—C. A. B.].—Made me careless on the breast of
my mother.—I have chosen this expression because the hiphil of בטח can mean
“make to lie securely” as well as “to make trustful,” and there is no reason to
accept exclusively the former (Venema, Rosenm., De Wette, Gesen.,
Hupf.), which would render prominent the secure and comfortable condition of
the suckling under the protection of God on the mother’s breast; or the latter
(Chald. and most interpreters), which emphasizes the early time of the trust
wrought by God in the suckling. A trust to the mother’s breast (Hitzig),
however, is not said nor meant, but on the mother’s breast to God, and
it is psychologically the less assailable, as Jewish mothers were accustomed to
suckle their children until their third year. Too much, however, is sought in
the expressions, if it is found noteworthy, that the sufferer speaks only of
his mother and at the same time hints at the beginning of his life as in
poverty (Delitzsch14) or if
an allusion is found to the taking up of the regenerate in the bosom of the
Father as a sign of recognition and adoption (Gen 16:2; Gen 50:23; Job 3:12), with reference to the
thought, that God treats him as a Father (Cleric., J. H. Mich., Hengst.).
Calvin (on Psa 22:9)
God had caused him to confide upon the
breasts of his mother, the meaning is, that although it is by the operation
of natural causes that infants come into the world, and are nourished with
their mother’s milk, yet therein the wonderful providence of God brightly
shines forth. This miracle, it is true, because of its ordinary occurrence, is
made less account of by us. But if ingratitude did not put upon our eyes the
veil of stupidity, we would be ravished with admiration at every childbirth in
the world. What prevents the child from perishing, as it might, a hundred times
in its own corruption, before the time for bringing it forth arrives, but that
God, by his secret and incomprehensible power, keeps it alive in its grave? And
after it is brought into the world, seeing it is subject to so many miseries,
and cannot stir a finger to help itself, how could it live even for a single
day, did not God take it up into his fatherly bosom to nourish and protect it?
It is, therefore, with good reason said, that the infant is cast upon him; for,
unless he fed the tender little babes, and watched over all the offices of the
nurse, even at the very time of their being brought forth, they are exposed to
a hundred deaths, by which they would be suffocated in an instant. Finally,
David concludes that God was his God. God, it is true, to all
appearance, shows the like goodness which is here celebrated even to the brute
creation; but it is only to mankind that he shows himself to be a father in a special
manner. And although he does not immediately endue babes with the knowledge of
himself, yet he is said to give them confidence, because, by
showing in fact that he takes care of their life, he in a manner allures them
to himself; as it is said in another place,
"He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young
ravens which cry," (Ps 147:9).
Since God anticipates in this manner, by his grace,
little infants before they have as yet the use of reason, it is certain that he
will never disappoint the hope of his servants when they petition and call upon
him. This is the argument by which David struggled with, and endeavored to
overcome temptation.
Origen (an advocate for
infant baptism)
27. When the Little Ones are Assigned to Angels.
Then again
one might inquire at what time those who are called their angels assume
guardianship of the little ones pointed out by Christ; whether they received
this commission to discharge concerning them, from what time "by the laver
of regeneration," through which they were born "as new-born babes,
they long for the reasonable milk which is without guile," and no longer
are in subjection to any wicked power; or, whether from birth they had been
appointed, according to the foreknowledge and predestination of God, over those
whom God also foreknew, and foreordained to be conformed to the glory of the
Christ. And with reference to the view that they have angels from birth, one
might quote, "He who separated me from my mother's womb," and,
"From the womb of my mother thou hast been my protector," and,
"He has assisted me from my mother's womb," and, "Upon thee I
was cast from my mother," and in the Epistle of Jude, "To them that
are beloved in God the Father and are kept for Jesus Christ, being called,"
--kept completely by the angels who keep them. (From the First Book of the Commentary on Matthew, Book XIII [ANF
9:491])
