Psalm 22 To the leader: according to The Deer of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.
1) 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
2) 6 But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
8 ‘Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver—
let him rescue the one in whom he delights!’
9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
10 On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
15 my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shriveled;
17 I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.
3) 19 But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!
From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.
4) 25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
5) 28 For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.
30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.
Context: Psalm 22 is an excellent example of a lament. In Week 5, we studied Psalm 80 and learned that a lament is a feeling or an expression of grief with a 5-fold structure: 1) Call, 2) Description of trouble, 3) Plea for God to respond, 4) Statement of trust that God is listening, and finally a 5) Vow or expression of praise. You can see a rough outline of the way I see this 5 fold-structure in Psalm 22. This ancient lament was used by Jewish people seeking deliverance.
Psalm 80 was a communal lament, arising from the deep communal suffering of exile whereas this week’s Psalm 22 is an individual lament. It has been attributed to King David who certainly had several occasions to express the sense of abandonment that permeates the first lines of this psalm. David suffered intense scrutiny and condemnation in his relationships with Saul and his family in later years. Those who are closest to us are often the ones who hurt us the most.
Yet, once again we see the heart of one who has a deep relationship with God and a faith that surely must be strengthened by the brutally honest expression of his darkest feelings and the processing that carries him through to the confidence of deliverance, perhaps not today, perhaps not for our psalmist … but one day for God’s people!
Going Deeper: Psalm 22 is also known as a Messianic psalm. Christians believe it foreshadows the suffering and death of Christ in a way that no other passage of Scripture does. Christians read Psalm 22 on Good Friday. Good Friday is the most obviously dark day of the year for those of us who are Christ followers as we grieve with those first disciples. Surely they must have felt abandoned by Jesus as he felt abandoned by God. We remember the lament of Jesus as he gives his life out of an enormous love for humanity... for you and for me and for all… and we join his lament with a heavy heart on Good Friday.
The Gospel writer Mark tells us that “At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling for Elijah.’ And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.’ Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’”
Even though we have illusions that Jesus, who was fully divine, was always connected to the Father (John 10:30 the Father and I are one) and surely felt the Spirit at all times … perhaps because he was also fully human, he did experience “disconnection” and perhaps it was in this moment. Surely this was an honest cry coming from the depths of the soul! That means God knows how I feel in my darkest hour! Have you ever felt the kind of abandonment that emerges in the words of the psalmist and from the heart of Jesus? What were your circumstances? Who in your life has deserted or betrayed you? What other emotions were churning around in the depths of your despair? What were your feelings toward God?
Read Psalm 22. What verses remind you of Jesus as he suffered on the cross? Read Mark 15:24-32, “And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take. It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, ‘The King of the Jews.’ And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!’ In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.’ Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.” Look at verses 7, 8, and 18 of Psalm 22. Where do you see echoes of this psalm in these Markan verses? What does that say to you about the relationship between psalm & gospel?
As I have lived and breathed through the psalms this summer, I have found that Jesus also lived and breathed the psalms. As Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I hear not just the words that are spoken. I hear the intent and the fullness of the psalm. I hear the culmination of the journey …the anticipation of resurrection. I hear Jesus as he joins the psalmist and the communion of saints praising God and expressing deep faith in a time of despair and death, “we shall live for God!” (See Verse 29) Think again of your own time of abandonment. How did you process through your experience? When were you able to praise God? Have you been able to proclaim, “I shall live for God!...”?
Pondering: Read Mark 15:34-39 (see the first bold print passage above) out loud and slowly … this is the passage of Scripture in which Jesus quotes Psalm 22 … Alternatively you could use the 5-fold structure (see the first “context” paragraph) to allow a psalm of lament to emerge from your own life and circumstances as you practice lectio divina on your own writings.
Lectio=Listen to the words. Read the words slowly, repeating them again and again, allowing them to linger on the tongue, savoring their beauty ...
Meditatio=Prayerfully listen as you read until a small portion of the psalm (a word or a thought or a phrase) begins to draw you deep within. Turn your “portion” over and over in your mind and consider what God may be inviting you to think or feel or do or be … Write down what Spirit has given you so you can remember. Stay with your “portion” and commit it to memory as your thought for the day …
Praying:
Oratio=Spend some time in prayer responding to God’s invitation … allow prayers of confession, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, praise, or ... to emerge in this time you are spending with God.
Contemplatio=When you runs out of words to say, simply rest in the presence of God, lingering with God in loving companionship … Amen!
Here is a youtube video of Psalm 22 put to music ...
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