Today’s Reading:
PSALM 22:1-15
My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? (v. 1)
The Psalm for today begins with the most anguished cry in human history: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These are the words of our lord Jesus Christ at the depth of His suffering on the cross. His suffering was unique at that point as He offered Himself up for the sins of His people. And so, we have tended to see this cry as unique to Him. These words were first uttered by David, and he was speaking for all of God’s people.
David is expressing in the first place his own experience of feeling abandoned by God. Here is the most intense suffering God’s servant can know – not just that enemies surround him (7, 12-13) and that his body is in dreadful pain (14-15), but that he feels that God does not hear him and does not care about his suffering. And this is not just the experience of David. It is the experience of all God’s people in the face of terrible trouble. We wonder how our loving heavenly Father cannot help us when we are in such distress. Yet, even in the extreme distress, David never loses faith or falls into complete hopelessness. His anguish leads him to pray, and the first words of the prayer are “My God”. Even in his suffering and wondering about the ways of God, he does not forget that God is his God.
He remembers God’s past faithfulness (vv. 4-5) “In You our fathers trusted, and You delivered them. To You they cried and were rescued; in You they trusted and were not put to shame”.
He remembers God’s past care in his own personal life (vv. 9-10) “Yet You are He who took me from the womb, You made me trust You at my mother’s breasts. On You was I cast from my birth and from my mother’s womb You have been my God”.
He knows that God can help and turns to God as the only one who will help “But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O You my help, come quickly to my aid”.
We must never stop praying, even in our deepest distress and suffering.
This Psalm is not only the experience of every believer, but it is also a very remarkable and specific prophecy of the sufferings of Jesus. We see the scene of the crucifixion especially clearly in the words, A company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet – I can count all my bones, they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
Jesus knew this psalm and quoted its first words to identify with us in our suffering, since He bore on the cross our agony and suffering. Hebrews 2: 14 says “since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death”. Jesus does deliver us by becoming our substitute and the sacrifice for our sins.
OLAJIDE OGUNFUWA
Prayers:
Lord, let my needs not be forgotten by You, let my petitions be brought up for remembrance before Your throne, in Jesus name.
Father, the suffering and death of Jesus Christ must not be in vain in my life, in Jesus name.
Father in the days when I cry out to You, arise and respond from heaven Thy dwelling place, send help to me quickly, in Jesus name.
Sons of the wicked shall not prevail against Nigeria, in Jesus name Amen.
Mighty God when our spiritual leaders are going through suffering and distress, help them to understand that You are faithful and can still deliver them, in Jesus name. Amen.
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