Psalm Meditation 892
Proper 11
July 23, 2017

Psalm 22
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
8 “Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver—let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”
9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
10 On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 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;
15 my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me. My hands and feet have shriveled;
17 I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But you, O LORD, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion! From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD. May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
28 For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.
30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.
(NRSV)

It is interesting to note that the psalmist is complaining about being forsaken to the one being accused of ignoring the psalmist in the first place. It is good to know that I am not the first to feel as if God has moved away from me and left me to sink or swim on my own. I am actually hoping that more people than not have had the experience of feeling abandoned by God. Not because I think it is a good to feel abandoned, rather because it seems to be part of normal faith development. All the things that gave us a sense of security in our relationship with God begin to disappear at some point and we are left with a feeling of having been abandoned.

My mom used to lay clothes out for my little brother and me to wear, especially on school days. One day we discovered that there were not socks so we ran downstairs to let mom know she had forgotten to lay out socks. She told us she figured were old enough to pick our own socks. Over the course of the next few weeks we were given more and more responsibility in dressing ourselves. I am sure it would not have gone as well if it had fallen to us to begin dressing ourselves all at once.

In some cases our sense of abandonment is God stepping back and letting us take the responsibility for which we are ready, all the while standing at the ready to support us with cheerleading or correction. Other times we are so devastated and caught off guard by situations that we don’t feel God as present even though that is not the way it is. In either case we do well to join the psalmist in going through the process of moving from the feeling of abandonment to the realization that God has been with us all along.

July 17, 2017
LCM