Summer Psalms - Psalm 22

We've been looking at the Psalms recently and as you know already, this is Hebrew poetry. So we've been reading lots and lots of poetry verses in the Bible. And this is a really common style of writing. About one third of the Bible is poetry. And the reason it's so common is that the authors, the ancient Israelites who wrote this, thought it was a really useful way to express themselves and to express emotions.

And so, you know that poetry has that kind of power to ignite your imagination. It often uses creative imagery and through that it invites us into an experience and it really encourages us to look from things, maybe from a different angle, or to think about some big ideas slowly and over time. And in the Psalms, poems fall into two broad categories. There are Psalms of praise and there are Psalms of Lamentations. Psalms of praise draw your focus to things that are worthy of celebrating and are joyful.

And they, yeah, they bring your attention to what is good in the world. And we had some good examples of those already. So Pastor Alan took you through Psalm 1, Pastor Simon took you through Psalm 23. They're both examples of Psalms of praise. And so on the other side you've got Psalms of Lament.

Those are psalms that draw your attention to what is not good in the world. They're prayers that vent anger and pain and confusion and they ask God to do something about it. And we had a good example of that with Psalm 3 that Pastor Simon took us through. And so I'm going to continue along and look at another Psalm of Lament this morning. It's Psalm 22.

I think it's safe to say that Lament is something that still resonates with people today. This isn't just a lost ancient tradition. It is something that resonates with people to this day. And no one seems to highlight that better, I think, than Taylor Swift. And that, that might sound like a surprising thing to say if you haven't heard of her music before.

But she's a music artist who has embraced a form of lament. So she essentially draws on and constantly draws on her own life tragedy, you could say, her own life's sorrow for inspiration to her music. And she's seen immense success. Her music is loved by a phenomenally large number of people the world over. Last year she had a sold out world tour.

Many, many of you probably went to her concert. When she came to Australia, you know, Crowds of over 600,000 people in Australia alone. It's, it's quite staggering. And the diversity of her fan base is unmatched she has fans that span the generational spectrum, and people from all countries love her art. And because of her success and the impact you could say, that she's had on society, there are groups of people that now study Taylor Swift.

They analyze her cultural impact. Right. It's quite profound. And what people who have studied her success suggest is that part of that at least comes from her practice of lament. Right.

There's. It's partly comes from her embrace of lament, this ancient discipline that she's turned into an art form. And just to highlight this point, I'm going to compare for you just some of her lyrics with some Bible verses just to give you a flavor. And I'm doing this in the form of a quiz. I'm going to test your knowledge this morning.

It's simply called Taylor Swift or Lamentations. So can you tell the difference? I've got a few quick ones here for you. So I'll read the sentence, and you've got to tell me, is it Taylor Swift or a Bible verse? This one says, have you ever seen anything like this?

Ever seen pain? Like my pain, seeing what he did to me? Is it Taylor Swift or Lamentations? Taylor Swift. Okay.

Yeah. All right. So Lamentations.

To throw a curveball right at the start. There's a. The next one says, it rains when you're here and it rains when you're gone. Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift.

Right.

You're right. That's it. Taylor Swift. Good pick. Long were the nights when my days once revolved around you.

I hear a lot of Taylor Swift. There's must be a few fans in the. In the crowd here. You're right. Good job.

And the last one, I remember it all. Oh, how well. I remember the feeling of hitting the bottom. Taylor Swift or Lamentations?

Well done. Did anyone get all four of them? No. Okay. Well, that was kind of the point.

That was. It was supposed to be hard to pick those apart. I think if you got them all, you either know your Bible really well or you're a huge Taylor Swift fan. So. So the point there is, is a Taylor Swift, she's drawing on lament for inspiration, right?

For her music. And she takes her. Her anger, her pain, her confusion, and she articulates that. Right? And there is something about lament that really resonates with people.

There is something about lament that people are drawn to and they find release in. And that's part of the reason for her success as an artist. And you. She's inviting people into that process. All Right.

So the. The thing, though, is that anyone who has been deeply hurt, anyone who is in pain, who is angry or confused about what they're going through, will know that just singing along to a song like that doesn't give you or deal with the root cause of those emotions. Right? And so it doesn't provide that. The means for fully processing that hurt, you could say.

So while Lament resonates with people, you could say that it's something that we, as a culture, we don't practice it very well. And so it raises the question, what do you do when you're faced with these kind of emotions, when you're suffering or the people around you are suffering, when your situation fills you with pain and anger, what do you do with that? How do you deal with those emotions? And we're going to explore this idea by stepping through Psalm 22. This is a famous prayer of Lament.

So it starts up with this. So right at the start, four, verse one, we're given just a little note at the top. It says this for the choir director, a psalm of David, to be sung to the tune Doe of the dawn. This is something that you would probably read of it very quickly and not consider. But there's a few important points here, just like right off the start, which kind of shape how you should view this psalm for yourself.

I think the first is that we know it's a Psalm of David. So it's written by King David, and he's had a. We know, a lot of hardship in his life and his experiences, sometimes due to his own actions, sometimes due to things outside of his own control. And safe to say he's had a very difficult life, and he's written this psalm about his own personal experiences. But secondly, we also see the note there that this is now being sung to a tune, and no one knows what Doe of the dawn is or how that melody goes, but we know that there's a choir director that this is meant for, Right?

And so all of a sudden, this opens this prayer up right off the start. This prayer and the anger and the confusion that you'll see captured within it as we read it is now a prayer for everyone, right? It's not just about David. This is a prayer that countless other ancient Israelites would have prayed and that we're now invited in to pray as well. And so the next two verses say this.

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away? When I groan for help every day, I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief. So you can feel the emotion here, can't you?

He's saying, why aren't you paying attention to me? And he's also lifting up a protest. He's saying, God, you know that I've been crying out day and night. I know that you can hear my voice, but it feels like you're so far away. It feels like I'm alone in this.

And that's not okay. That's his protest. And importantly, this is a protest built on relationship, right? So you can see that in that first line there, he says simply, my God, my God. He knows that this is his God.

This is someone that he has a personal relationship with, and he assumes that God cares about him, right? And that's the starting point for what follows. And I guess that's what makes the sense of absence here even more painful for David is that relationship as well. And so you might recall, Pastor Simon gave us insight into this when he preached on Psalm 3. He said, the Psalms show us that emotions are important, but they should be expressed within the context of our relationship with God.

And that's what you see David do here. You know, what's going to follow are some really intense emotions. But right up front, he's acknowledging his relationship with God. And that's. That's really important.

And also, you'll. You'll recognize verse one here, or perhaps more commonly in the. The niv. My God, my God, why have youe forsaken me? Why have youe abandoned me?

Jesus speaks these same words when he's dying on the cross. And in his moment of feeling abandoned, He. He used these same words to cry out to God. And again, we're given that sense that this isn't just a prayer of David. This is a prayer that other people used right in their time of isolation and grief.

It's not just David's prayer, you know. Countless other people, including Jesus, have drawn this psalm to express their anger and confusion. And so from here, he goes on with an appeal. He says this in verses 3 to 5. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

Our ancestors trusted in you, and you rescued them. They cried out to you and were saved. They trusted in you and were never disgraced. The mode of prayer here has changed. So he's now talking about how God has proven his faithfulness in the past.

In the past, there have been times when people have cried out and God has answered them. And so this is, of course, it's A reference to that foundational story in the Old Testament. This is about the Exodus. This. The story of God's people being enslaved in Egypt and God sending them a deliverer and delivering them from slavery in Egypt.

And so he's describing this contradiction of feelings. He's saying, I don't feel like you're present. I don't see you anywhere in this situation, but I know you've responded in the past. So he's reminding God that he's been faithful in the past. And just asking an honest question, he's saying, why aren't you being faithful now?

That's how he feels.

He goes on to say this, but I'm a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all. Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their head, saying, is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him.

If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him. I am a worm. His circumstances make him feel less than human. And he describes in detail why that's the case. It's his isolation.

So he's isolated from God. It looks like he's isolated from other people. There's been some sort of breakdown in the relationships that he's having. But instead of just bottling all that up, instead of just bearing that deep down, he. He verbalizes them.

He. He writes them down. He articulates them in some way. And there is a strong encouragement for us to do the same, to verbalize those emotions, to articulate them in some way. And I think we can easily dismiss that idea just by saying, God already knows how I feel.

God already knows. And that's true. Absolutely true. But what this is showing us is that there's some sort of process that David is going through here. There's some sort of prot.

Process that those. For dealing with those emotions. Right? And it looks like he's doing that by articulating them.

He goes on to say this. He says, yet you brought me safety from my mother's womb and led me to trust. Trust you. At my mother's breast, I was thrust into your arms at my birthday. You have been my God from the moment I was born.

Do not stay so far from me, for trouble is near and no one else can help me. So you find that these are some of. This is one of the most unique descriptions of God in the whole Bible. It's an image of God as a midwife. And he says, you brought me out of the womb.

You laid me on my mother's. Chest. And that's an amazing image. It's one that describes a close relationship. He knows that God is the author of his life and that God has been close to him since the moment he was born.

And so he does that. He depicts God as a midwife, this strong maternal presence that's always been with him. And again, he's describing a contradiction of feelings, isn't he? He's saying, I have this knowledge about you, that you care about me, that you've been with me, and just saying, where are you? Where are you in this moment?

He goes on to say this. My enemies surround me like a herd of bulls. Fierce bulls of bastion have hemmed me in like lions. They open their jaws against me, roaring and tearing into their prey. So this is an analogy that most people won't find relatable.

I'm sure herds of bulls, roaring lions, they, they aren't and, you know, commonplace for us. But this is a common analogy used throughout the Bible, especially in the Psalms. You'll find this in many places. It's describing circumstances that are dangerous or people who are hostile towards you. And while it might seem strange to us, this is really common in their culture and their time.

Those bulls and lions, they were, you could say, probably the most uncontrollable things that they could think of. They're uncontrollable, deadly. And so he's using this imagery to describe how his circumstances just seem so completely out of control. And so his circumstances, they're like wild animals that just, they could kill you in a second. And so you can feel the distress in his words, can't you?

He continues and says, my life is poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax melting within me. My strength has dried up like sun baked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead. There is so much powerful imagery already, isn't there? And just keeps layering it on and on and on. Life being poured out like water, bones out of joint, heart melting like wax. He's falling apart and there's no cohesion or unity.

His, his thoughts, his feelings, nothing is making sense. And it's affecting him physically, right? So his strength is gone, he's thirsty. And the image you have is of a person who's collapsed, they're in the desert with no water. And in that place of fear and weakness, he goes on to say this.

My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs. An evil gang closes in on Me, they have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. My enemies stare at me and gloat. They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.

So not many people had pet dogs back then. And the dogs in this imagery there, you're supposed to think of wild pack animals that are scavenging for food. And so this image is building on the verses that came before you, imagining this man who's lying in the desert. He's thirsty, he doesn't have anyone with him, and the dogs are surrounding him. So he's in this place of isolation and pain.

And what do people do? They take advantage of him, he says instead of helping him, they gamble for his possessions. It's pretty intense and interesting to see here as well, the imagery that's being used of hands and feet being pierced and people gambling for someone's possessions. So there's another as a link here to things that Jesus suffered and went through as well. And I'll come back to that later.

So from here, he changes the mode again, but only briefly. So from verse 19, he says, O Lord, do not stay far away. You are my strength, Come quickly to my aid. Save me from the sword, Spare my precious life from these dogs, Snatch me from the lion's jaws and from the horns of these wild oxen. So the mode changes here to request.

But note how many verses we've already read compared to this section here. It's 18. Been through 18 verses of David just focusing on and drawing attention to what's wrong in the world. Right. He's articulated in a lot of detail those emotions that he's feeling.

And then we get these three relatively short verses just requesting something from God. And I think this is instructive for us. I think it is. You know, David's assumption here is that actually it's much more important to spend time articulating what is happening to him, right? To draw attention to his pain, to his grief, and to lift those things up to God.

And so from here, there's a big shift in the psalm, and I'm not going to cover this second section in any great detail, but I'll read you one verse to give you an idea. So verse 22 says, I'll proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I'll praise you among your assembled people. And very abruptly, this is turned from lamentation into praise. And I look at this and I go, what's happened?

You know, this is. It's. For a modern reader, this is not like a nice progression. There you've gone from something, some of the worst circumstances, just to praising God and go, how do we get there? And so you can.

You can assume that this has happened. What's happened here is that David has composed the first part of this psalm in that time of pain and grief, confusion. But at some point later, he's experienced a resolution to this, right? And he's composed this second part, which goes from verses 22 to the end 31, to capture that, to capture it. And so he's essentially doing what people in that time and culture did regularly.

What you're supposed to do as an ancient Israelite when your prayers were answered, was to share that with other people know. And so he says, here, I'll praise you among your assembled people. He's saying, I'm going to go to the temple. I'm going to go where everyone's coming together and assembling, and I'm going to tell them my story of deliverance. And so I don't have time to go through that second part in any great detail.

What I want to do instead is just focus on the first part of that psalm, the lament part of that psalm, and just take a moment also to focus on the link that psalm has to Jesus.

There is something really interesting going on there. You know, when you, when you read the Gospels and those depictions of Jesus crucifixion, There are over 20 places where the Gospel authors draw attention to what is happening to Jesus and links to this, the verses in this prayer. And so I've put a few of them on the screen there for you. There's the fact that Jesus took the very words of this psalm. He says, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

There's a piercing of the hands and the feet. There's people gambling over Jesus clothes. There's the insults that people yelled at Jesus. They are links to this psalm. And so originally, this was David's prayer.

David wrote this as his personal prayer of lament. And because it was so powerful, because it really resonated with people and articulated so clearly what a lot of people go through in their time of suffering, it became the prayer of countless other Israelites. And then it became Jesus prayer. And not only did Jesus speak the words of the psalm, but he also literally experienced many of the things that are described in it. And what Jesus is doing there is identifying with the suffering of humanity.

He's identifying with the suffering of humanity. And there's a great paradox here that people often highlight. Jesus saying, my God, my God, why have you Abandoned me means that on the cross that God himself became God forsaken. Jesus experienced that intense feeling of isolation, the pain of not getting a response when he cried out. And what that leads us to realize is that Jesus doesn't just sympathise with our suffering.

He enters into it, and he experiences it firsthand. He knows exactly what it's like. Our God is one who is willing to enter into pain and suffering. Our God is one who would actually rather endure pain and suffering than abandon us. Our God is one who is even willing to give his life for us.

And the link to Psalm 22 here shows us that. And it shows us that Jesus is God entering into our suffering, entering into our pain, so that he can conquer it, so that he can heal it. And knowing that it gives us something to hold on to in those times of pain, anger, and confusion.

And so Psalm 22, it was David's prayer, it was Jesus prayer. And it's meant to be your prayer, too. And a huge part of this psalm is biblical lament. It's that process of expressing your anger, your pain, your confusion to God about what's not right in the world. But it's done within the context of a relationship.

And that's the key. That's what I hope you see in that There is that what's missing from the pop songs and the artists who use a form of lamentation is that they really only scratch the surface of what it means to lament. If there isn't that relationship, then you're not likely to experience that release. You're not likely to experience that comfort or process those things at a deeper level. And so I want to invite you into this process.

I want to invite you to try lament for yourself whenever it feels appropriate in your own time to express your anger, your pain, your confusion to God about what's not right in the world. And there's no special formula to do this. But I would like to offer you some suggestions here. The first is to sit with the psalm. Sit with Psalm 22 and let it give you inspiration.

Let it encourage you to pray in a way that maybe you haven't before, in a way that you might feel a little bit uncomfortable doing, but knowing that this is in a way that God is actually inviting you into. God says he's okay with you bringing these things to him. And second, there, take note of what's broken in your own life, in your community, in your relationships. Once you notice a place of pain, don't move on too quickly. Explore it.

Think of how terrible that actually is. Say those things out loud. Write them down. Just describe what things are like, just like David did. He describes the pain of being in isolation, that fear of feeling like he's about to die, the toll that his anxiety is taking on his body.

He's articulating them. And you might feel some big fear feelings. I'd say let yourself feel them. That's part of the process. Don't try to move past it too quickly to just be in it.

And this is actually how you move through it, is by spending time in it. And then, number three, there is create a lament. Bring a protest to God. Voice your anger, voice your confusion. Protest these things that you think shouldn't exist in God's world, and tell God how you feel about it, knowing that God hears you.

And then the last one there is to look to Jesus in the same way that Psalm 22 points to Jesus. Let your focus turn to him and then look there for God's response to your lament. Imagine Jesus there on the cross, just taking all the grief and the pain of the world. See him carrying it for you personally. See him fighting against the darkness.

And then look to his resurrection and see the victory that he's won. And let that change your perspective of the state of the world. Let it give you hope. And that's the. That's the process in a nutshell.

That's a process for processing your own emotions and looking to God to find that comfort, that hope. And so for many of you, this practice of lament will be uncomfortable. It's something that I don't think our society does very well, but I think it's a really important part of our spiritual growth. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, I just want to thank you for this time that we had this morning, Lord. Thank you. That we can come together and lift up your name, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord, also that. That you're okay with us lifting up our anger, our pain and our confusion to you, Lord, that you say that it's okay to talk like that, that we can focus on those things that are not right in our own world.

And part of that process of getting through them, Lord, is to lift them up to you, to express them, to articulate them, and look to you, Lord, for resolution. And so I pray, Lord, that in those moments that you would bring us comfort, Lord, that we would be able to express all those things to you and find our hope and our comfort and peace from you, Lord, especially as we turn our eyes to look towards Jesus, Lord. As we look at all the things that are not right, we can look to Jesus, Lord, and hold on to that. As we look at all the things that are broken, we can look to Jesus and see that they will one day be restored. And we thank you for that, Lord.

In your mighty name, amen.