A Meditation - Psalm 22: Abandonment

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?"  Psalm 22:1

I've been having these bouts of bad dreams lately.  The biggest theme amongst all these dreams is the feeling of abandonment, either from my parents, my brother, or my friends.  The last time I woke up, my mind drifted to those famous words: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?".  Why did Jesus quote this phrase from Psalm 22?  It's easy to stop there at the first verse seemingly have found our answer, that it was simply God turning away from Jesus while He took sin into Him.  But reading through the psalm as a whole, one finds a much more deeper and profound meaning in Jesus' last words.  In light of the whole psalm, the phrase transforms from one of loneliness and lament into a source of great comfort to suffering believers.

The whole of Psalm 22 applies not only to Jesus' death but also to His resurrection.  In fact, the writer of Hebrews cites Psalm 22:22 as also being words of Christ (Hebrews 2:12).  In other words, Jesus meditated upon this entire psalm, not just the first verse.

A step-by-step summary of the psalm would sound like the following:

• The first third of the passage the psalmist overcomes his feeling of abandonment by God by reminding himself how God delivered his ancestors (v. 6-8) and remembering God's past faithfulness to himself (v. 9-10).
• Despite the suffering found in the next 10 verses (v. 12-21), the words found are definitely not one of panic and despair.  Rather, the tone of the middle verses (v. 12-21) is one of composure and poise, having an utmost trust in deliverance.
• The final verses brings the psalm to a triumphant climax of praise after deliverance from death.  He calls upon his brothers to join in praise (v. 22-26) and foresees future generations giving testimony to what God has done in raising him from the grave (v 27-31).

What a beautiful link Jesus has created for us, now that we have read this psalm in its entirety!  If we stop reading the Psalm at verse 1, or even in the middle somewhere, all we still end up with is defeat.  It's not until we read the Psalm as a whole that we can grasp the full message of the gospel.