Psalm 22:1–24 // Honest suffering before God // Dale Piscura
The psalm represents a heartcry from the sufferer to His God. HIs agony and His desperation are expressed without reservation. He experiences a sense of being forsaken. Forsaken-abandoned, forgotten, deserted. The help that has always been sufficient and on time has vanished. His cries are not carefully edited, to be acceptable language. His brokenness speaks to God who has always been faithful to His people (verses 3-5).
This Psalm, this Psalmist teaches us a principle of authentic relationship. No pretending here. Clear and real communication about his desperate condition. He declares praise as well as sorrow. He suffers truthfully. He suffers faithfully. He knows his God is great and good.
Most of us are familiar with verse 1 as one of Jesus’ final words from the cross. His saving the world was agreed upon before the founding of the world yet at Calvary the man Christ Jesus cried out. His despair was like no other. In His perfection He prayed this way. Since human suffering is inevitable and we have the perfect man to model ourselves after let’s pursue His likeness.
True praying whether petition, praise, confession or sorrow is done with all our faculties. Our minds form our thoughts, but our affections reveal our feelings. Our words spoken may sound like prayer without being so. Since we are told in James 5 to pray with fervency to connect with God and His power, some praying may be only words. James declares some prayer is effective, meaning some prayer is not. Jesus corrected the prayers of leaders that prayed in public for all the wrong reasons. True prayer is intimate, a person and their God communing together. So very significant are the descriptions of Jesus found in the book of Hebrews, “In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a son, he learned obedience through what He suffered.”
Perhaps we can all examine ourselves.
Question to Consider:
Are we as honest and transparent before God as the psalmist and Jesus? When we are suffering do we allow our true feelings to be mixed in with our praise?
Prayer Prompts:
Lord, I am broken because…..
Lord, I know you love me but…..
Lord, I need you to…
Lord, I want to share all my life with You, help me.
