This week we’re feeding on Psalm 22: `My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?` – that astonishing cry of utter horror and abandonment drawn from Jesus in His agony.
It completely demands our deep gratitude and our worship. (Probably pausing for that right now)…
But in this particular post we’re focusing on another aspect of this amazing psalm. These are words originally drawn from David when he was desperately struggling – and a psalm, therefore, that can equip us with words we could need if ever deep darkness comes on us too…
What do they bring us? First, that in times of darkness it is absolutely alright to say these things, to cry out to God in horror as to why, now – even though `from my mother’s womb you have been my God` (v10) – He seems utterly absent, He is simply not coming through on our behalf: `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!` Jesus cried out so; and David, inspired actually by God the Holy Spirit, did too. Clearly situations where that cry of `Why??!` is dragged out of us can possibly be part of the deal of being a believer, and it is a cry that is not wrong. It’s what the books of Job and Habakkuk both teach us: it is ok to ask questions of God – even, to scream. It’s striking, too, how Psalm 22 continues: ` In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame….` So why, now, is God so absent? And we may well recognize the answer David (and Jesus?) gives in a dark swing of mood at that moment: it must be me, must be my fault: `But I am a worm and not a man…`
Then secondly: if that time comes that we find ourselves descending deeply into the darkness — Jesus has been yet deeper still. So much that David shouts in horror in Psalm 22 was prophetic (as well), and found its darkest fulfilment at the cross: `They hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the LORD,” they say, ”let the LORD rescue him. Let Him deliver him, since He delights in him”` – abuse repeated quite literally at the cross. Then, `All my bones are out of joint… They have pierced my hands and my feet` – that’s what happens with crucifixion – that utterly sadistic form of execution prophesied very remarkably here (remarkably since it was not yet invented in David’s time). Then, ` My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth` – we remember Jesus’ desperate thirst just before His agony finally ended; and lastly, these words that came so callously true at Calvary: `People stared and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them, and cast lots for my garment…’
Of course Jesus was going through far more than just this-worldly physical crucifixion; He was quite literally going through hell, utter and horrific separation from the Father, for us all; things no one else ever has, nor will. But how all this can feed us we grasp more deeply by remembering Revelation 5 and 6. In Revelation 5 we read of a sealed book no one can understand. Chapter 6 reveals it as the book of human suffering: of imperialism, war, famine, economic injustice, plague, religious persecution, and – perhaps hardest of all – the silence of heaven (8:1). And John the apostle, we read, `wept and wept’, because all the book gives him is a horrendous question-mark, and no one can open the book and explain it (5:3). But then it turns out there is someone who can: the Lamb who was slain. Only He can open the book: and the reason is – stated very clearly – that only He has been to the deepest heart of the darkness, and there redeemed us and by His blood made us a people for God (5:9-10). There are times when the `problem of suffering` – how can a loving God be so absent, permit so much evil?- must be given an intellectual answer (while recognizing that Jesus’ unanswered question on the cross shows us there are only partial answers this side of eternity). But when it is we ourselves who are deep in the darkness, intellectual answers may not be what we need. What we need then is the grasp that the crucified Christ has been right to the bottom of the pit, thus He alone is with us, He alone really understands. (In a sense it may complement the question of Psalm 22:1, `Why have you forsaken me?`, by almost making Him our companion there now?) And it is this grasp of Jesus that Psalm 22 offers us now…
And lastly; from Psalm 22:22 onwards there comes a pointer forward. `I will declare your name to my brothers; in the assembly I will praise you.` This is another verse spoken by Christ, but it’s the joyous risen Christ this time, in Hebrews 2; and what a thing to be called His brother! `You who fear the LORD, praise Him!… For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one…` Did Jesus have this assurance as He gave up His spirit when the crucifixion ended? It does seem at least that as He cried out, `My God, my God…!`, no answer came. But that is not our situation. These verses invite us in darkest moments to reach out for the glimmerings, the shreds, of a faith from God that can start to step into a process (like a conveyor belt?) in which, somehow, somewhere in the distance, things will come to make sense – the faith that, because He loves us, God certainly would not let us go through deep darkness unless thereby some really colossal glory is going to be released…
`The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise him… All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him… He has done it!`
It is worth mastering this psalm, `arming our minds` as 1 Peter puts it, to forearm us for things that might possibly come in this broken, fallen, rebellious world; even as we also pray in the Lord’s Prayer, and very rightly, as He taught us, `Lord, do not bring me to the time of trial…`. Being sure that `He will not` – ever! – `let us be tempted beyond what we can bear` (1 Cor 10:13)… but as Peter says, forearming ourselves is worth it!
