HAUNTING WORDS – Those who have encountered suffering through the centuries can identify with this psalm, for it amplifies the question that screams from intense suffering and anguish—My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Because of Christ’s use of this opening line from the Cross, this Psalm figures integrally into Christian worship during Good Friday observance. Psalm 22 also shows up through the gospels—verse 7 in Matthew 27:34 and Mark 15:29; verse 8 in Matthew 27:43; verse 15 in John 19:28; verse 18 in Matthew 27:35; mark 15:24; Luke 23:35; John 15:24.

PURPOSEFUL SUFFERING – Entrusting one’s life to the God described in Psalm 22—as the psalmist did and as Jesus did—changes everything. For instance, life can be understood not as a frantic search for self-satisfaction and self-security, but as a matter of dependence upon God. Suffering can be understood not as something to be avoided at all costs, but as something to be accepted—even embraced on behalf of others—with the knowledge that God shares the suffering of the afflicted. Death can be understood not as the ultimate insult to human sovereignty, but as something to be entrusted to God with the assurance that nothing in all creation can separate us from God (see Romans 8:31-39). [1]
 

Theologians, pastors, laymen and women, monastics, philosophers, and Every One have found themselves at some point in their journey in verse one of Psalm 22. Call it the dark night of the soul or simply the silence of God, we’ve all felt God aloof and distant from us. Single out the moment in your life that most closely corresponds to verse one.

But we are, however, at least through this writer’s testimony that despite our sense of abandonment, the psalmist still keeps the connection with God—My God, My God. How well has your connection with God remained intact during your dark night of the soul? ___Withering ___Total Disconnect ___Rubber band ___Stronger through suffering.

 

I would suggest using this famous psalm as the backdrop of Christ’s suffering on the Cross; meditate on Christ’s suffering and feeling of abandonment—which gives his followers “permission” to also be honest with God during their own sense of abandonment.

Close the homily by moving toward the end of the psalm which holds out hope and new possibilities for God’s help and gracious actions. (See verses 21-31).

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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible IV (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), page 766.