Psalm 22

The text: Psalm 22 (NRSV)


From bad to worse.

In Psalm 25 I was surrounded by enemies whose triumph seemed imminent. In Psalm 77, the Lord was conspicuously absent and seemed even to have changed his character. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't figure it out.

Now, in Psalm 22, on top of all that, I am sick, wasting away, out of joint, surrounded by enemies like wild beasts who are not even waiting for me to die before they divide my meager estate (or my flesh). I think of those gruesome films of "ravening and roaring" lions eating their prey alive. I am that prey.

Death seems imminent. My death.

In this state, I cry out both day and night: My God, why have you forsaken me?

God does not answer, and I find no rest.

From bad to worse. Now what?

In Psalm 25, surrounded by my enemies, I was exhorted to repent of my sins. In Psalm 77, sleepless amidst my troubles, I was charged to remember the deeds of the Lord. Now, in the direst straits of Psalm 22, in addition to repenting and remembering, I am called to praise God and look to the future. I am called to praise God—who seems determined not to rescue me—and to believe (get this!) that "all who sleep in the earth bow down" to the Lord; "all who go down to the dust" bow down. Even if I am killed, I am to praise God. Even from the grave, as the dust I will become, I am to bow down in praise to the Lord!

Then this: "... and I shall live for him." (v. 29) After death, grave, and dust, I shall live for him.

Psalm 22 is, of course, the Psalm that Jesus quoted from the cross. The path we are to walk is clear and the way we are to walk that path is plain. Forsaken. Praise. Surrounded by enemies. Praise. Killed by enemies. Praise. Buried. Praise. And then, resurrected by the one who is praised in all things. Praise.

And the future?

"Posterity will serve [the Lord];
     future generations will be told about the Lord,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
     saying that he has done it." (vv. 31-32)

In our faithfulness, and in God's, we become a part of God's big story. Our deliverance even from death becomes a part of what will be remembered and proclaimed about our God by future generations.

From bad to worse to new life, the Lord has done it. Praise.