Psalm 22

To the Choirmaster

According to the Lamb of the Morning

a Psalm of David

⁰¹          My God, my God,

 why have You forsaken me?

            Why are You so far

from saving me,

                        from the words of my groaning?

⁰²             O my God,

I cry by day, but You do not answer,

and by night, but I find no rest.

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Why Have You Forsaken Me?

For the Lord’s Day:  the 3^rd of October 2004

Introduction:  It has not been a good summer to be a pastor!  Having had inside knowledge of two situations where pastors were put out of their congregations, and hearing of another pastor’s unsettled life and suicide, plus the ordinary unsettled conditions of the last year in all too many other congregations has been quite dispiriting.  On top of that we should add in the ordinary of dissatisfaction associated with the hoping for a building addition.  All of these various unsettlings have become a heavy burden for my own soul.

 

I had once thought that any troubles associated with building projects were specific within the congregations themselves.  However, I am beginning to think that while there is always the potential for trouble within any organization – it seems that Satan engages all of his weapons just when the church in general or in particular begins solid preparations for an increased ministry in a hostile world. 

By these troubles he means to discourage the sheep and shepherds by any and every means possible.  I have probably said this more than you want to hear, but within our own Presbytery – hardly a congregation has been unaffected with trials and tribulations of one sort or another.  And yet, when I calculated the number of adult members in preparation for the Presbytery askings this last week, I was absolutely amazed to see that Great Lakes Presbytery has grown by ten to twelve per cent in the last statistical year and that doesn’t even factor in the newer works being engaged in since January.  All of this in the midst of a continuing trail of tears and even anguish.

 

Certainly, there are many aspects of our common lives that can cause us personal and spiritual turmoil – everything from medical concerns, family, employment and friendships.  And, if I be so bold in this season of the year – even political events played out in the media and in many cases in more violent societies than our own.  If you are of the mind that politics could thus be taken too seriously, let me remind you that this is the probably source of David’s depressing lament in the opening of our Psalm.  And since, these words and experiences are also credited to our own Lord Jesus Christ, let us not downplay the persecution often implicit in political relationships both antiquated and modern.

 

Overview of Psalm Twenty-two:  To begin our study of this emphatic “Psalm of the Cross”, let us begin with the opening subscription.  Delitzsch, reports that “Luther, with reference to the fact that Jesus was taken in the night and brought before the Sanhedrim, renders it ‘of the hind, that is early chased.’”  He also tells us that a further possibility includes “the lamb of the morning sacrifice.”

 

Spurgeon notes that “the words Aijeleth Shahar are enigmatical, and their meaning is uncertain; some refer them to a musical instrument used upon mournful occasions, but the majority adhere to the translation “Concerning the hind of the morning.”  Further speculation suggests that the Temple Band must have been named: “Morning Hind.” I have simply chosen the phrase:  “According to the Lamb of the Morning.”

 

But, there is so much more in this special prayer hymn than the naming of the Psalm and the tune to which it was sung.  There are here the prophetic glories to be spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.  Spurgeon notes “It begins with, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ and ends, according to some, in the original with ‘It is finished.’”

 

Delitzsch organizes the most succinct outline of this precious psalm.  “We have here a plaintive Psalm, whose deep complaints, out of the midst of the most humiliating degradation and most fearful peril, stand in striking contrast to the cheerful tone of [Psalm Twenty-one] – starting with the disconsolate cry of anguish, it passes on to a trustful cry for help, and ends in vows of thanksgiving and a vision of world-wide results, which spring from the deliverance of the sufferer.”  And so, there let us leave our opening thoughts and move on to a critical analysis of the first two verses.

 

Development:  Several of the commentators observe the conflict of emotions in the first verse, but as Calvin allows “are yet ever entering into the minds of the godly together.”  There is in this first verse not only a temporary sense of being left alone, but also a confession that God still is, and as we shall see – that He still acts in the best eternal interests of our troubled souls.  “My God, my God,  why have You forsaken me?”

 

Who has not felt the loving discipline of the Father’s hand in an apparent but temporary abandonment?  And when all is said and done, is it really the Father who has withdrawn or that we seeking our own tawdry glories have stepped out on our own?  Satan is always and ever, within this old world – tempting even the elect to give up hope and embrace the despair of faithlessness.  However, we sense in this opening statement – that the Psalmist is far, far from having given up on his Lord and his God.  “My God, my God” he pleads faithfully before he bares his desperate heart.

 

Most of the commentators suppose this psalm to have been written sometime in the midst of David’s persecution by Saul.  But, of course we must look forward in the life of the Church to the use of this phrase by our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.  Even as did David prophetically write these words, so too did our Lord know, as Spurgeon writes:  “He knows the Lord to be the all-sufficient support and succour of his spirit, and therefore appeals to him in the agony of grief, but not in the misery of doubt..”

 

“Why have You forsaken me?” – here is not only the agony of David whose sins were well numbered, but also the dramatic soul suffering of our Lord Jesus upon the cross.  Here is the clear implication of the impact of sin – separation from the God of light and life.  This would be our common lot for eternity, had not the Lord Jesus taken upon Himself the intensity of this eternal punishment.  It is thought by some medical commentators, that Jesus died on the cross not from the ordinary failure of lungs and breathing to gravity, but to a broken heart.

 

This is the work of sin, not only in the lives of the elect but more abundantly in the lives of the wicked. Even as our once famed Western Civilization is dying, once it was separated from the vine of life, so too is the increasing desperation of a culture trying and failing to live without the knowledge and grace of our saving Lord.  We have only to look around us to realize the appropriateness of David’s prayer:  “Why have You forsaken?”  Ours is a culture abandoned, even as many others have been in the past.

 

Application:  But, we cannot save a culture, however much we might desire to do so!  “Why are You so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”  David’s salvation was personal, as is our own.  And sometimes within the course of History, the good Lord does indeed raise His elect to positions of influence and power – thereby to promote the eternal cause of His kingdom, however poorly it appears to us to be represented here on earth.  In the case of Jesus, nailed upon the cross - He was there to endure all the human passions that cause us grief and suffering.  We do not have a king and savior who does not understand the terrors of passing on from this life to another place with all the mortal doubts and fears that may discourage us.  In line two of verse one we hear expressed the ordinary human fear of dying – of passing on without benefit of God’s compassion and encouragement.

 

There is in this line of text two different points for our consideration.  They are in the sense of personal distance: “from saving me” and “from the words of my groaning.”  His understanding of his salvation is of prime importance to David in the unpleasant circumstances in which he finds himself.  Certainly, we too are commended to “work out our salvation in fear and trembling,” as a matter of course in the growing up of our own relationship to the Creator.

 

In addition, David raises the difficulty of facing perplexing, even dangerous times without a close assurance that his painful groaning is even heard?  And yet do we not see here in this lament a hope of salvation – that even in the midst of terrible disaster and torment – the poet moves on from despair of being saved to a lesser fear of not being heard?  Even in the depths of despair – there is a hope of salvation and if there is a hope of salvation – there is still a hope of being heard.

 

David continues his personal lament in verse two:  “O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”  Here is further proof of David’s interest in the Almighty God of heaven and earth.  He has not given up hope in the midst of despair.  He has not been transformed by modern medicines and chemicals into the emotional appearance of another person.  He has retained his not only his integrity, but also his own mind, soul and body.

 

Day and night, David remains on His knees seeking the revelation of the Lord’s precious will and purpose.  And in his personal travail, the prophetic import of this great “Psalm of the Cross” is to be revealed almost whole millennia before its greater importance, purpose and comfort to our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus too spent night and day in prayer to the Lord.  The night before, in the garden – in the intensity of His prayers, He even sweat blood, and once having been brought out into the sunlight to be crucified, he still occupied His time in prayer to His Father.

 

In both cases, that of David and also of Jesus – we must be encouraged by the fact that even in the desperate circumstances they both faced, the love of the Father was not withheld and all of His purpose was being worked out in their own suffering in order that many saints might be saved because of their work.  So let us be encouraged in our own nights and days of doubt, fear and emotional wreckage, because it is thereby that our faith is better grounded and in the dawning of the Lord’s continued providence – we may learn a better and sounder hope.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

The Westminster Confession & Catechisms.

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