Psalm 22 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? *
and are so far from my cry
and from the words of my distress?
2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer; *
by night as well, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are the Holy One, *
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
4 Our forefathers put their trust in you; *
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 They cried out to you and were delivered; *
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.
6 But as for me, I am a worm and no man, *
scorned by all and despised by the people.
7 All who see me laugh me to scorn; *
they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,
8 "He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; *
let him rescue him, if he delights in him."
9 Yet you are he who took me out of the womb, *
and kept me safe upon my mother's breast.
10 I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born; *
you were my God when I was still in my mother's womb.
11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, *
and there is none to help.
12 Many young bulls encircle me; *
strong bulls of Bashan surround me.
13 They open wide their jaws at me, *
like a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water;
all my bones are out of joint; *
my heart within my breast is melting wax.
15 My mouth is dried out like a pot-sherd;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; *
and you have laid me in the dust of the grave.
16 Packs of dogs close me in,
and gangs of evildoers circle around me; *
they pierce my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.
17 They stare and gloat over me; *
they divide my garments among them;
they cast lots for my clothing.
18 Be not far away, O Lord; *
you are my strength; hasten to help me.
19 Save me from the sword, *
my life from the power of the dog.
20 Save me from the lion's mouth, *
my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.
21 I will declare your Name to my brethren; *
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
22 Praise the Lord, you that fear him; *
stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel;
all you of Jacob's line, give glory.
23 For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
neither does he hide his face from them; *
but when they cry to him he hears them.
24 My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.
25 The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: *
"May your heart live for ever!"
26 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, *
and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.
27 For kingship belongs to the Lord; *
he rules over the nations.
28 To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down in worship; *
all who go down to the dust fall before him.
29 My soul shall live for him;
my descendants shall serve him; *
they shall be known as the Lord's for ever.
30 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
the saving deeds that he has done.
Reflection “ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Do these words not cut to your core and echo in your heart? Have there not been times in your life when they have tumbled off your tongue? There certainly have been times in mine when I cried out, “Where are you God? How could you let this happen to me? Why can I not feel your presence? I cannot take this any more. Why have you abandoned me?“
For a long time I believed that my complaints and anger at God were evidence of my weakness and lack of faith. So I would beat myself up, “How could you even think that way Debra? You say you are faithful; well, this is evidence of your faithlessness.” Feeling even worse I moan on. “No wonder God abandons me, I am nothing but a wretched, faithless “‘worm and not human!’”(Ps 22.6)
And then one day I really heard the words of Psalm 22. (You know how it is, you can hear something one hundred times and then, the one hundred and first time your ears open and you really hear it?) That is what happened for me with Psalm 22, which is sometimes called a “Plea for Deliverance from Suffering and Hostility.”
It was during one of those dark times of my life that I could so relate to the words, “My God…Why are you so far from helping me, …I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. “ Yes, that was exactly how I felt. The thing is, also like the Psalmist, I never stopped calling out and complaining to God, which today I understand as evidence of my faith, not my faithlessness.
You see, as I read Psalm 22 I asked myself, “Why would the Psalmist keep calling out to God even when God seems not to answer? Why bother?” Then it occurred to me that even Jesus utters those excruciating words. He had been hanging on the cross for hours. His hands and feet pierced and stinging, his muscles gripped in spasms as his lungs were filling with fluid as he was slowly suffocating. In that dark hour surely Jesus could not feel God’s presence. Yet, from the depths of his agony Jesus calls out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Can you imagine what must have been going through Jesus’ mind? ”Why have you forgotten me? I have answered your call on my life. Every day and every night I come to you in prayer and follow your direction. I turn to you in every situation and rely on you in all that I say and do. This is too much. I cannot bear this agony. Where are you now? Why have you abandoned me?”
I believe this agonizing scene exposes the true nature of Jesus’ relationship with God just as he describes it to the disciples the gospel according to John when he prays, “The Father and I are one.” (John 10.30) And again, “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may (the disciples) also be in us.” (John 17.21) We are one in the Father. Even when nailed to a cross, nothing separates Jesus (or us) from God, which, by the way is a basic tenant of our faith.
Christianity has evolved over time. Some would say for the better, others would argue, not so much. Either way, the root of our faith is the inseparable relationship between God and humanity. But the root has been wrapped in the clothes of creeds and the tunics of tradition, outer garments that bury rather than lay bare our intimate relationship with God.
But when our “bones are out of joint… our mouth dried up… and we can count all our bones,” our creedal clothes are stripped from us, and also tradition’s tunics. Then in our naked vulnerability we return to the root of our faith and cry, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me,” because we remember the Psalmist’s words, “Commit your cause to God; let God deliver—
let God rescue the one in whom God delights!” (Ps 22.8)
And here lies the stunning transition. From the depths of agony comes the recognition of God present. The psalmist continues,
”From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.” God is in the midst of our suffering.
“For God did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;
God did not hide God’s face from me,
but heard when I cried (out).” (Ps 22.23-24)
This is the good news of Good Friday. When we are in so much pain and fear that we cannot see beyond it, when our finances are shattered and our family is in crisis, when a global pandemic has made us afraid of everyone and everything, when a deadly disease is decaying our defenseless body, when our nation is shaken and we are not even sure it is safe to go to church, this is the moment we must return to the root of our faith and in our naked vulnerability cry out to God.
With nothing left except our naked vulnerability, in every cell and every space of our being we must know that Jesus' words are true for us, ”the Father and I are one." This is the good news of Good Friday.
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