Psalm 22 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 22 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
Verse 2O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.
Verse 3Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Verse 4In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
Verse 5To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
Verse 6But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people.
Verse 7All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
Verse 8"Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver- let him rescue the one in whom he delights!"
Verse 9Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother's breast.
Verse 10On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
Verse 11Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
Verse 12Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
Verse 13they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
Verse 14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
Verse 15my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
Verse 16For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me. My hands and feet have shriveled;
Verse 17I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me;
Verse 18they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.
Verse 19But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid!
Verse 20Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the dog!
Verse 21Save me from the mouth of the lion! From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
Verse 22I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
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
Good Friday smells of death. For today is the day Jesus died, the day when humanity could not stand the embodied love of God any longer. Golgotha, the Place of the Skull—here is where we took Jesus to kill him with cross and nails. The words of Psalm 22 rang out that day on the death hill as Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
When we read the whole psalm, the smells of death are even more pungent as the vicious animal imagery builds: "many bulls encircle me," "ravening and roaring lions," "dogs are all around me," "the horns of the wild oxen." It reeks of animals and excrement, blood and death. Verse 15 reads, "You lay me in the dust of death." So here we are, with Jesus, teary-eyed, death's odor clinging to our nostrils. But remember: "dominion belongs to the Lord." And Jesus' dominion extends all the way to death.
Prayer
Christ of the crucifixion, we follow you to death's hilltop. We wait as the stink of it all invades our senses. In our waiting, we trust in your eternal dominion that will never die. May we, even now, catch a whiff of your Easter on the wind. Amen.