My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving
me, so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I
find no rest.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.
Psalm 22:1-3
Psalm 22:1-3
All
who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. Psalm 22:7
Dogs
surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and
my feet.
Psalm 22:16
Psalm 22:16
They
divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
Psalm 22:18
Psalm 22:18
I
will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
Psalm 22:22-24
You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
Psalm 22:22-24
Psalm
22 is famous because Jesus quotes from it on the cross when he says the
words that open the psalm: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?” Each of the
first four passages cited from Psalm 22 are referenced in the Gospel
accounts of Jesus crucifixion.
However, it is generally accepted that that Jews knew their
Bibles so well that they could quote one line or two from something and
imply the whole. Therefore,
because this psalm ends on the note of praise, many have suggested that
when Jesus said those words he implied the ending, so the words of Jesus
were not despairing but an experience of grief buckled to the knowledge
of God’s deliverance.
The
experience of the psalmist is one of abandonment, or at least perceived
abandonment. It is important here to think through what this says: this
does not say so much that God abandons but that God’s non-answer to
the psalmist’s particular request, because that request was not
answered as hoped, means God has “abandoned.” So, abandonment
doesn’t mean God has somehow become distant or even non-omni-present,
but that God has not answered the prayer as the psalmist wanted it.
Many
of us experience this at times: What we hoped God would do, what we
wanted God would do, what we trusted God to do, God did not do. This
psalm, therefore, is for those who experience such abandonment.
Jesus felt abandonment, yet knew His Father was there and would
deliver him. (the
above comments stem from those of Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed)
One
again, the Psalms teach us to enter God’s world eve as we live in
ours.
“Lord, thank you for allowing me to cry out to you, even to question
your faithfulness to me and your presence with me when I feel abandoned.
Yet thank you that perception is not always reality.
You have said that you will never leave me nor forsake me.
When I am “hanging on” to You I will remember that the
reality is that You are hanging on to me. Amen”
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