O my soul,

Are you ready to give up? To throw in the towel? Are you utterly spent? Empty and exhausted? Does it seem to you that you have been abandoned by God?

Know that you are not alone.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

― Psalm 22:1-2

Here is the psalmist, crying out in bewilderment to God, my God: Why have you forsaken me? Unable to sleep. Exhausted. Empty. Groaning in misery.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

― Psalm 22:1a

But there is no answer.

Is what lies ahead simply too hard? Is this the end? Is the enemy too strong?

Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

― Psalm 22:12-15

I am truly poured out. Has God himself laid me in the dust of death? I have nothing left. I am completely spent. There is no more.

O my soul, but there is!

For there are two voices in the psalm. It is a conversation, a to and fro. We have heard from despair. But there is also hope. Listen now to hope.

Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

― Psalm 22:3-5

Here is hope, and here are reasons for hope. Let’s consider four reasons.

Firstly and most obviously, the Lord is trustworthy. Those who went before us cried out to God, they trusted him, and he delivered them. He delivered them. They were not put to shame.

“For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”

― Malachi 3:6

Hope in the Lord does not disappoint. It never has. So hope in him.

There is a second and slightly less obvious reason for hope, which is that the Lord is holy, enthroned on the praises of his people. Why is this a reason?

All around us we see reason to despair, to lose hope, to give up. People are duplicitous and there are ulterior motives. Shady and shadowy conversations abound. Self-interest is everywhere.

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

― Ecclesiastes 7:20

But the Lord is not like that. He is set apart from all that contaminates and all that corrupts. He is holy.

O my soul, rejoice that the Lord is holy.

And the third reason?

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.

― Psalm 22:9-10

O my soul, not only has the Lord been faithful to those who went before, he has been faithful to you, your whole life.

Which leads us to the fourth and by far the most important reason for hope. Because of course the psalm is prophetic.

For dogs encompass me; 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.

― Psalm 22:16-18

I rather doubt that David even knew why he was writing this. But we know.

And they brought [Jesus] to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull).

And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take.

― Mark 15:22,24

O my soul, if you think you have been abandoned by God, you need to think again about who actually was abandoned on your behalf, and why.

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

― Mark 15:33,34,37,38

So what does this mean? The psalmist tells us.

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.

Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

― Psalm 22:27,28,30,31

He has done it! The curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Nothing now separates us from our Heavenly Father. Thank and praise the Lord that he has done it.

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died⸺more than that, who was raised⸺who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

― Romans 8:33-35

O my soul, rejoice that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ, no matter how hard the journey seems! 🙏