The Suffering Israelite

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Psalm 22

This Psalm comes to us as a prayer to God in a time of great suffering.  It is customary for us to comfort those who are afflicted and feeling forsaken by God by showing them all the passages that teach God would never leave them nor forsake them; and that is totally appropriate.  

But this Psalm does something shocking by showing us that its equally appropriate for people to ask the question of “My God, my God, why?”

Let us come to God’s Word for understanding concerning how our suffering and His sovereignty are complementary to each other!

Psalm 22 explores one of the darkest places to which a believer can descend down into.  A place so dark and despairing they beg God for the answer to the question of “why have you forsaken me?”

1. The Reality of Human Suffering. Psalm 22 puts words to dark feelings of being abandoned by God…and validates those feelings…
   1. A Model Prayer for the Afflicted People of God.
      1. A Model Prayer when you feel overwhelmed, feeling like you are falling apart or staring in death’s face.  
         1. Illustration: Charles Haddon Spurgeon suffered from deep depression.
         2. Application:  If the “Prince of Preachers” Charles Haddon Spurgeon felt this way how much more you and I?
      2. A Model Prayer in the Midst of Persecution. Psalm 22:6-8 & 11-18 
      3. A Model Prayer when feeling forsaken by God. Psalm 22:1 DO NOT hide from feelings of being abandoned by God but rather OWN THOSE FEELINGS AND TELL IT LIKE IT IS.  This challenges the common Christian thinking that God is present in our suffering.  The Psalmist said God was not present with him…We must give people room to wrestle with God…
   2. A Mature Prayer.  We may think its immature to pray and ask God “why?”.  But the faith being put on display in Psalm 22 is the exact opposite.  This Psalm confesses 2 seemingly contradictory realities…The twin Realities of Human Frailty and God’s Sovereignty coalesce and form a powerful declaration that these 2 sets of facts are NOT at odds with one another but rather in the 22^nd Psalm they “live in the same room” together.
2. The Reality of Divine Sovereignty-Psalm 22:28-“The Kingship belongs to the Lord…”
   1. 4 Keys to Victorious Suffering in Psalm 22
      1. We must remind ourselves of God’s redemptive saving graces in the past! Psalm 22:3-5.
      2. We must remind ourselves of God’s involvement in bringing us to deliverance from the very moment of our births. Psalm 22:9-10
      3. We must urge God to change our circumstances and/or deliver us rather than leaving us as victims of persecution and injustice. -Psalm 22:19-21.
      4. We must believe our own petition.  Immediately begin to exercise faith that God will act on your behalf even before He brings about the answer to your prayers. 

Here is the question:  Is God present in our suffering?  And if so, why does He not intervene?

There are at least 3 guiding principles in helping us to answer this question:

1. If we define the presence of God as deliverance from human suffering then absolutely not.  God was not present in the sense He removed Spurgeon from his ill fate.
2. God could have rescued Christ, Spurgeon and David from their suffering but He chooses not to.  God did not make the world a place whereby He constantly intervenes to remove injustice and harm which human beings do unto one another.  Maybe we think God should have made the world that kind of place but He did not.
3. Sometimes God does intervene but many, many other times He does not.

Here is the answer:  God chooses to do something that is far more staggering than remove us from suffering and evil…He chooses to suffer with us.

The key to how to suffer victoriously is found in learning to cling to God in the midst of the trial. 

There is a vast difference between “God, God why have you forsaken me?”  and “My God, my

God why?” the former is accusatory and the latter is relational.  The fact that Psalm 22 is in the

Psalter means God has made room in the Christian experience for believers to pray “Why?”

Here are 4 takeaways for our study of Psalm 22:  (SEE VERSES 19-31)

1. The first 2/3rds of the Psalm acknowledges human feelings of hopelessness while the final 3^rd acknowledges a faith so pure it’s as if deliverance has already occurred.
2. Therefore, this Psalm encourages us to do 2 things:
   1. Do not deny the reality of what’s happening to us, and also; 
   2. Do not lose faith in what we know of God.  Grim facts about our circumstances are eclipsed by gloriously greater facts concerning God and His redemptive purposes.  The grimness of human suffering has the first word…the Glory of God has the final word.  
3. The 22^nd Psalm showcases the staggering reality that our facing 2 seemingly contradictory truths has the potential to bring worldwide implications for the glory of God manifesting to all nations.  When the unredeemed see the people of God facing these 2 realities triumphantly they cannot help but want to know Him for themselves.  Our victorious suffering has a global impact for God’s kingdom…this has been true for 3 millennia according to Psalm 22.  (SEE Psalm 22:26-31)
4. Christ Jesus the Lord was able to face the 2 realities of His grim death but also of His glorious resurrection because He understood this concept: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”-Hebrews 12:2

Conclusion:

Perhaps the deepest darkness a Christian can ever feel this side of eternity is found in the opening phrase of Psalm 22.  In Christ, God can now fully grasp the utter despair His children feel when we ask Him “Why?”  In the 22^nd Psalm we have a holistic understanding of Human Suffering and Divine Sovereignty put on display!