When it looks like God's abandoned you (Psalm 22 6-20-10)

            Tonight we again return to the Psalms, the Prayer Book of the Bible. As I said last week, there seems to be a Psalm for just about every emotion and almost every situation. Whether you’re happy, angry, sad, tired, whatever, it is in there somewhere. Our passage tonight looks at a common feeling, the feeling of abandonment, particularly abandonment by God, but in a very peculiar way. It’s not peculiar to the Bible I suppose; in fact the Psalmist’s way of looking at the situation seems very consistent with later parts of the Old Testament, particularly the story of Job. Rather, it is peculiar because it is so alien to our way of looking at things.

            The first line of this Psalm most of us have probably heard before. Jesus said these words from the cross, but many people don’t realize that he was quoting this very psalm and he was doing so for a reason. Let’s take a look and see what Jesus might have been trying to say and how that can help us in our lives as well.

^{Psalm 22}

¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
       Why are you so far from saving me,
       so far from the words of my groaning?

 ² O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
       by night, and am not silent.

            The Psalmist starts out with two lines of complaint. He is crying out to the God whom he has given Himself to. Though we know that God is not like human beings who sin, yet we can detect in this psalm a sense that perhaps the psalmist feels betrayed. His situation appears to indicate that He has been abandoned by God.

            Loyalty is an important part of all strong relationships. We expect those whom we have been loyal to ourselves to also be loyal to us. If I stick my neck out for you, I expect you to be willing to stick your neck out for me. Trust is another part of relationships. If you tell me you’re going to do something, and I risk something on that promise, then I trust you to be faithful to your promise and come through.

            The psalmist and all of Israel had received a promise from God of a certain level of loyalty and faithfulness to them on His part. In Ezekiel God puts it this way, He says “My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” The people of Israel belonged to God and had received many promises from God. But, from the Psalmist’s perspective at this point, God did not seem to be living up to His promises.

            Jesus, in a way, expressed a similar feeling of abandonment. But, rather than doubting God’s intentions, Jesus was pointing out that, to those surrounding Him, it certainly would’ve looked like God had abandon Him.

            I know I have often felt abandoned by God in one way or another as well. I remember when I first went to college; I had a strong sense of calling. I knew who I was, where I was going, what I was supposed to do. I felt like I had the world on a string. Throughout college I could always just kind of drift through. I never had to work too hard to get the grades I needed, and I could spend all my free time doing the things I wanted to do.

            I got through, got my bachelor’s degree, and then got ready to go to seminary. Seminary is like “graduate school” for pastors and theology professors and that sort of thing. I got into a really good school in a really great city, Boston. So, my wife and I moved out there. We loved it, loved everything about it, the city, the people, the church we were going to, everything.

            Then came time for my second semester, and the school tells me that for some reason they hadn’t received my final transcripts from college. No problem I think, I’ll just call the school and have them send them over. So I do that. The school tells me that when I left I still owed them $600 from a loan they’d given me, but now that it’s been eight months since I left school, the loan has increased in late fees to $1600. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have $1600 just lying around. Since I couldn’t get my transcripts sent, I couldn’t start my second semester. Since I couldn’t start my second semester, I couldn’t get my student loan money. Since I couldn’t get my student loan money, I couldn’t pay my rent, and because I couldn’t pay my rent I had to go home.

            It didn’t sink in until I got back home and couldn’t find a decent paying job with a philosophy degree that it really sank in. All of the sudden, I felt like God had dropped me.

            The Psalmist continues…

 ³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
       you are the praise of Israel. ^[a]

 ⁴ In you our fathers put their trust;
       they trusted and you delivered them.

⁵ They cried to you and were saved;
       in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

Here he looks back, and this is going to be pivotal to our understanding of this Psalm. Though he feels abandoned, he knows who God still is. God is still the Holy One, the praise of Israel. He remembers that in the past the forefathers of Israel had trusted God and He had delivered them out of all sorts of problems. He knew that, though he may feel like God is not doing anything for him now, that doesn’t change what God has done in the past.

In fact that’s why he’s so taken off guard when it looks like he’s not getting any help now. This is key, because on the cross, when Christ quoted this Psalm, it obviously looked like He wasn’t getting any help either. But Christ knew all the times and ways in which God had already been at work for and through Him, like when he healed people and cast out demons. And he remembered times when God had delivered Him, like the time when He was preaching in Nazareth and the crowd tried to throw Him over a cliff; and yet somehow He was able to just walk right through them and go on His way.

In my own situation, after leaving school, one of the first things I needed to realize was that my present situation didn’t change who God was or His promise to me, but that’s something we’ll get into more as we progress.

            Next, the Psalmist illustrates just how far he’s fallen in his situation…

 ⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
       scorned by men and despised by the people.

 ⁷ All who see me mock me;
       they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

 ⁸ "He trusts in the LORD;
       let the LORD rescue him.
       Let him deliver him,
       since he delights in him."

            Not only is the Psalmist feeling abandoned by God, but the people around him are mocking him for trusting the very God whom he is feeling abandoned by. It feels like a double rejection: rejection by God and rejection by people because of God.

            If you remember, this was true of Christ as well when He was hanging on the cross. Matthew recounts it this way in chapter 27 verse 42 through 44: 42"He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' " 44In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

            While, obviously, I’ve never had an experience that dramatic, most of us who are believers can point to at least one or two times when they’ve been made fun of for doing what they knew God wanted.

            And yet the Psalmist returns to all the reasons he ought to trust God…

 ⁹ Yet you brought me out of the womb;
       you made me trust in you
       even at my mother's breast.

 ¹⁰ From birth I was cast upon you;
       from my mother's womb you have been my God.

            Here is an interesting thought. Normally, we don’t think of babies trusting in God. We don’t think of babies as trusting in much of anything really, we don’t imagine they do much in the way of deep and meaningful thought. And yet, a baby is really a perfect symbol of trust. When first born a child trusts unfailingly in their mother. They have to. That’s why it’s often so damaging when those first few years of life are unpredictable and even disastrous. In fact, Jesus uses children to illustrate what it looks like to be one of His disciples. He says in Matthew 18:3, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

            You see, those things which a child depends on from their parents, are essentially gifts from God through the parent. Sometimes the parent gets in the way of the child receiving those gifts; but the idea is that by trusting in their parents, the children are, in a way, trusting God.

            Next, the Psalmist calls to God again like a child might call to their dad…

 ¹¹ Do not be far from me,
       for trouble is near
       and there is no one to help.

            Of course, a kid wouldn’t ever put it that way. But you get the idea, he’s scared and he’s looking to his dad, or in this case his God, to rescue him. In Jesus’ case, there was literally no one else who could be there with Him and rescue Him from the fate He was about to suffer.

            Then the psalmist takes out a big chunk to return to talking about the situation itself. He gets very poetic here, using some pretty scary images…

 ¹² Many bulls surround me;
       strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

 ¹³ Roaring lions tearing their prey
       open their mouths wide against me.

 ¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
       and all my bones are out of joint.
       My heart has turned to wax;
       it has melted away within me.

 ¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
       and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
       you lay me ^[b] in the dust of death.

 ¹⁶ Dogs have surrounded me;
       a band of evil men has encircled me,
       they have pierced ^[c] my hands and my feet.

 ¹⁷ I can count all my bones;
       people stare and gloat over me.

 ¹⁸ They divide my garments among them
       and cast lots for my clothing.

            I hope you noticed something interesting in there relating back to Jesus’ crucifixion. If you didn’t, let me highlight those parts again. There was “a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and feet.” And “they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing,” which, of course, was what the Roman soldiers did at the foot of the cross, they gambled for his clothing. This was written long, long before Jesus was born. No one even knew what the plan was when it came to a messiah yet, but God did. I find that very interesting.

            Next, the Psalmist returns to asking God to help him, this time in very specific ways

 ¹⁹ But you, O LORD, be not far off;
       O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

 ²⁰ Deliver my life from the sword,
       my precious life from the power of the dogs.

 ²¹ Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
       save ^[d] me from the horns of the wild oxen.

            It’s good to pray this way I think. Sometimes the prayers we send to God are a little too wimpy. Sometimes I think we pray weak little prayers because maybe we don’t really trust God to answer them. God always, of course, answers prayer, just sometimes in ways we don’t like. But it’s good to be specific, because praying for specific things forces us to trust God in specific ways.

            The answers may not always come in the way we expect, like when I prayed that God would provide a way for me into the ministry after I had left seminary, I didn’t expect Him to bring me to work at Gibault for two years before I ended up filling in as chaplain. When it came to Jesus, though He Himself was aware of what God was doing, the disciples didn’t expect that the way God would save Jesus would be by resurrecting Him from the dead. But when you trust in God to do specific things, specific things happen, even if they weren’t quite what you had planned on.

            But, after asking God to help him, the Psalmist does something very strange, he says…

 ²² I will declare your name to my brothers;
       in the congregation I will praise you.

 ²³ You who fear the LORD, praise him!
       All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
       Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

 ²⁴ For he has not despised or disdained
       the suffering of the afflicted one;
       he has not hidden his face from him
       but has listened to his cry for help.

 ²⁵ From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
       before those who fear you ^[e] will I fulfill my vows.

            In the midst of his suffering he praises God and tells others to praise Him as well. Though his situation looks terrible, he knows that God is good and faithful, he says…

 ²⁶ The poor will eat and be satisfied;
       they who seek the LORD will praise him—
       may your hearts live forever!

 ²⁷ All the ends of the earth
       will remember and turn to the LORD,
       and all the families of the nations
       will bow down before him,

 ²⁸ for dominion belongs to the LORD
       and he rules over the nations.

 ²⁹ All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
       all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
       those who cannot keep themselves alive.

 ³⁰ Posterity will serve him;
       future generations will be told about the Lord.

 ³¹ They will proclaim his righteousness
       to a people yet unborn—
       for he has done it.

            Have you ever heard of a paradox? Webster says a paradox is: a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true. Basically, it means when two things are both true but it seems like they can’t both be true. A paradox depends on us not having all the information. An example might be a magic trick. We see the woman get in the box on the stage, we see the magician saw the box in half, pull the box apart, put the box back together and woman step out unharmed. It seems impossible, it seems like a paradox. But the reason it looks that way is because we don’t have all the information, we don’t know the trick.

            Another example of a paradox is when you know God to be good and loving, and yet it looks like He’s acting in ways that aren’t good and loving. The only solution is that we don’t have all the information. But the Psalmist gives us an example that’s difficult to follow. How can we, as Christians, know for sure that God loves us and cares about us? Especially when all the world looks like it’s falling down around us.

            The answer is quite simple really. We know that God loves and cares for us because He died for us. And we know that He can win any battle for us, because He was raised from the dead. We know that He did these things for us because we trust in them. If you’re baptized you have the extra benefit of knowing for certain that God has united you ceremonially to Christ’s death and resurrection.

            I’ll end with a quote from a book I once read and no-longer remember what book it was or who wrote it. The author said: “It is more important to know what God has done, than to know what He is doing.”