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Chapter 103: The Pharisees are Represented by the Bulls: The Roaring Lion Symbolizes Herod or the Devil.
THE NEXT PART OF THE PSALM SAYS: "Trouble is near, for there is none to help me. Many calves have surrounded me; fat bulls have encircled me. They opened their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. All my bones are poured out and dispersed like water," and this was also a prediction of the events that happened to Him. On the night when some from your nation, who were sent by the Pharisees, Scribes, and teachers, came upon Him from the Mount of Olives, those whom Scripture referred to as butting and prematurely destructive calves surrounded Him. The phrase "Fat bulls have encircled me" was said in advance about those who acted the same way as the calves when He was brought before your teachers. Scripture described them as bulls because we know that bulls are the creators of calves. As bulls are the progenitors of the calves, your teachers caused their followers to go to the Mount of Olives to capture Him and bring Him to them.
The phrase "For there is none to help" also indicates what took place, as there wasn't even one person to assist Him as an innocent individual. The expression "They opened their mouths at me like a roaring lion" refers to the king of the Jews at that time, named Herod. He was the successor of the Herod who, when Christ was born, killed all the infants in Bethlehem born around the same time, because he thought that among them would be the one of whom the Wise Men from Arabia spoke; for he didn't understand the will of Him who is stronger than all, how He had commanded Joseph and Mary to take the Child and go into Egypt and stay there until they received a revelation to return to their land. And they stayed there until Herod, who killed the infants in Bethlehem, died and Archelaus succeeded him. He died before Christ came to the assignment on the cross given to Him by His Father. When Herod succeeded Archelaus and received the authority designated to him, Pilate sent Jesus to him in a gesture of respect, bound; and God, knowing this would happen, had spoken: "And they brought Him to the Assyrian, a present to the king."
Or, He may have meant the devil as the roaring lion against Him: whom Moses calls the serpent, but in Job and Zechariah he is called the devil, and Jesus addresses him as Satan, showing that his name comes from the deeds he performed. For "Sata" in the Jewish and Syrian language means apostate, and "Nas" is the term from which he is called by interpretation the serpent, according to the interpretation of the Hebrew term, forming the single word Satanas. For this devil, when Jesus rose from the river Jordan, at the time the voice said to Him, "You are my Son: this day have I begotten You," is recorded in the apostles' memoirs to have tempted Him, even saying to Him, "Worship me;" and Christ answered, "Get behind me, Satan: you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." Just as he deceived Adam, he hoped to cause trouble for Christ too. Furthermore, the statement “All my bones are poured out and dispersed like water; my heart has become like wax, melting within me,” predicted what happened to Him that night when men came against Him to the Mount of Olives to arrest Him. In the memoirs said to be composed by His apostles and others, it's recorded that His sweat fell like drops of blood while He was praying and saying, “If it is possible, let this cup pass:” His heart and bones trembling; His heart being like wax melting inside Him: so we can understand that the Father willed His Son to truly undergo such sufferings for our sake, and we may not claim that as the Son of God, He did not feel what was happening to Him. Additionally, the expression “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my throat,” predicted, as I mentioned earlier, that silence when He, who proved all your teachers unwise, gave no answer.