“A resource in times of trouble”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Friday, October 14, 2022

Psalm 22 (Forward, p. 77) CEV p. 567

I can still remember my astonishment and amazement. I was a lay reader at the time and had been asked to take part in our parish’s annual Good Friday ‘Meditations from the Cross’ service. Its format was based on the seven utterances of Jesus during His crucifixion and I was given one or several of those utterances to comment on. I was assigned the fourth saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

As an aid to writing my talk I was handed Bishop Ralph Dean’s book on the seven words, and was amazed, and yes, so surprised, that Jesus was not original in saying these fore-mentioned words. They had been uttered by King David centuries before. David, apparently, had experienced something of the same dereliction, the same abandonment, as Jesus underwent on the Cross. I found that truly astonishing, for I could not recall in David’s life anything even remotely similar.

Now the fact that his words had been written down and become part of the Hebrew Scriptures that Jesus would have known so well, gave me another insight, namely that Jesus was repeating words that He’d known and loved for years. And now, most poignantly and aptly, He was applying them to Himself. This gave me an insight as to how the Scriptures, particularly the Psalms, can be used by each of us. We can use them to mirror our emotions, and express them, when our words seem insufficient or inadequate. To me, Jesus’ application of this psalm in this way gives us permission to do so.

However, there is something else that I discovered as I read this psalm in light of what Jesus endured on the Cross: there were descriptions of the agony that were strangely evocative of a crucifixion, and nothing else:

“I have no more strength than a few drops of water. All my bones are out of joint; my heart is like melted wax. My strength is dried up like a broken clay pot, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth” (verses 14-15a)

And there were words from the bystanders, and torments at their hands that are uncanny in how they actually described what happened there at Golgotha:

“Everyone who sees me makes fun and sneers. They shake their heads, and say, ‘Trust the Lord! If you are his favourite, let him protect you and keep you safe” (verses 7-8);

“Packs of dogs close me in, and gangs of evildoers circle around me; they pierce my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones” (v. 16);

“They stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them; they cast lots for my clothing” (verse 18)

There is one last thing we must take notice of—and apply in our lives—that we can take from this psalm. Constantly throughout it, David makes mention of God’s past faithfulness and help, almost as a way of reminding God to ‘get on with it’ and do it again in this present circumstance. And, as if this isn’t enough, from verse 21b on, he speaks of the confidence he has that God will indeed ‘do it again’ and praises God for it—yes, in fervent anticipation, long before it has happened!

Here is a dynamic that I have noticed throughout the psalms: after a period of lament, an ‘getting it all out there’, there is a kind of resolution, a kind of calm and inner peace in having given it all over to God, a kind of trust and satisfaction that it is now in His hands for Him to look after. And not only there, I have also noticed this in my own poetry, and indeed, even in my own outbursts of emotion. After the ‘explosion’ as it were, the outpouring of emotion, there comes a calm and a peace. So, I can’t help but wonder whether Jesus, there on the Cross, said more than just this one line from the psalm but the whole thing, and came to that same place of trust and peace and surrender. I suspect that He did and that this was part of His secret, part of His ability to cope with the utter terror and pain of the Cross. And, if this ‘worked’ for Him, so too can it for each of us. Amen.

Forward notes: “I will declare your Name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you” (verse 21).

“Perhaps it’s not surprising that as I’ve gotten older, I find myself thinking I have some wisdom to share with younger people. Of course, this starts

with my son, but I realize that sometimes our children hear the same message we’ve struggled to communicate more clearly when it comes from some other elder.

“My hope—for my son, his wife, friends, and other young people—is that they’re hearing collected wisdom from sacred texts, historical observations and writings, music, art, social science, and other dependable resources. It’s easy to believe that technology changes all things, yet deeper reflections on the Old and New Testaments unveil situations, challenges, and victories already experienced. For this generation and the next ones, these sources of wisdom hold responses to problems that seem so new.

“And all the while, I will declare and praise God’s name, praying that the wisdom I’ve found in my years may take hold in the hearts of others.”

Moving Forward: “From whom do you seek wisdom? Who do you see declaring God’s name in your midst?”