Psalm 22:23-31 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 22:23-31 on biblegateway.com
Verse 23You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
Verse 24For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.
Verse 25From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
Verse 26The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever!
Verse 27All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
Verse 28For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
Verse 29To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.
Verse 30Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,
Verse 31and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.
Devotion
The last half of Psalm 22 reads like a "Hallelujah Chorus"
of praise. The psalmist calls on everyone to praise God,
from the "great congregation" to "future generations." It
is striking, then, that the psalm begins on a very different
note: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
The psalmist (and Jesus after) cries out in anguish to a
God who seems silent. The turning point comes when
the psalmist knows that God has heard: "From the horns
of the wild oxen you have answered me" (Ps. 22:21). The
NRSV translates, "you have rescued me" but the original
Hebrew does not go that far. The psalmist may still be in
grave peril, but the fact that God has answered is enough
to move the psalmist to praise.
In our lives, as in this psalm, we lament and we praise.
In lament, we express to God honest emotions of fear,
anger and grief and we call on God to hear us. Then,
eventually, we turn to praise. Both lament and praise
are faithful forms of prayer. Both lament and praise are
based on the knowledge that God hears and that God
will answer.
Prayer
Gracious God, we know that you hear us when we pray.
Give us grace to pray boldly, trusting that you will answer.
Amen.