Psalm 22: My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Psalm 22:1a, 24 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?. . .For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him."

Have you ever felt like God had forsaken you? Perhaps you were in a painful trial, and it felt like God wasn't doing anything. You called on his name, but he did not seem to comfort you. You prayed to him, but he did not change your circumstance. This morning, this is where we find David. In Psalm 22, we find David crying out to the Lord asking why he has forsaken him in his very time of need. Let us look at this psalm this morning, and try to find out what David is trying to teach us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Firstly, let us address David's cry. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is David's question. At first, this question might be hard to us to reconcile with scripture. Did God actaully forsake David? Did God take away his presence from him, and not answer his prayers (22:2)? If we use scripture to interpret scripture, we find that this surely wasn't the case, because God has promised to never leave David nor forsake him (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5-6, and many other verses as well). How then can David be uttering these words? The key is found in the genre of the psalms: poetic language.

When we read the Bible, we ought to read it like a newspaper. That is, we read each section according to its genre. When we read the news articles in the newspaper, we expect it to be true and trustworthy, but we certainly would not read the comic section that way because we know it is fiction. Reading the Bible is the same way. We do not read the Psalms like we read the Gospels, expecting them to be literal in every facet. Certainly part of the psalms are literally, but for the majority of them, the are poetic. Therefore, when David asks if the Lord has forsaken him, he is asking this because it seems like the Lord has forsaken him. He is amidst so great a trial that it feels like the Lord is no where to be found. However, God is right there beside him, as David even acknowledges in verse 24 of the very same psalm (quoted above).

Nevertheless, what do we do amidst trials when we feel that the Lord has forsaken us, and is nowhere to be found? Some trials that the Lord puts before us often make us feel this way. The question is this: what do we do with them? For David, as clearly seen in this psalm, it meant to cry out to the Lord and to remember his character. Firstly, amidst our great trials, we ought to call out to the one who we trust can fix them, that is, God and God alone. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Phil. 4:16). Secondly, we ought to remember God's character. Directly after David asks the Lord why he has forsaken him, he remembers God's character: "Yet you are holy" (22:3). Amidst David's trials, the Lord is still holy. Amidst his great and unbearable pain, God is still sovereign just as he was at David's birth (22:9-10). Amidst our great trials, we must do as David did and cry out to God, asking him to help us, but at the same time remain in a humble posture that remembers the character of the Lord.

So, how are you doing in responding to the intense trials that God has given you? Have you called out to the only one who can help you? Have you remembered his character and his goodness? Have you trusted in the one who promised to deliver you? Go and do likewise this morning.