Slices
Prepare
Without looking in your Bible, how many details can you recall of Christ’s crucifixion?
Bible passage
For the director of music. To the tune of ‘The Doe of the Morning’. A psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 ‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say,
‘let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.’
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 on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear 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 within me.
15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
22 I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honour him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned
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 I will fulfil my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him –
may your hearts live for ever!
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,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
Explore
No refunds will be offered on the guarantee given for this set of notes (see Way In)! This psalm is all about Jesus Christ. But, weirdly, it is also about the man who wrote it, many centuries previously. Without doubt it describes the experience of others who have suffered for their faith through the ages. It deals with the dreadful (but blessed!) experience of one isolated individual at a point in time. It also covers the great sweep of God’s purpose through eternity. Today we are reading one of the most extraordinary works of true prophecy ever given.
We must begin with spiritual horror. A godly man has been abandoned by God. He cries out – and God does not seem to hear. Further disgusting details follow, including many of a more physical nature (vs 6,7,12–17). However, one remarkable feature of this psalm is the way in which the glorious, triumphant sections are interspersed between the horrible parts. Reading verses 3 to 5, 9, 10, 22 or 23 in isolation, no one would imagine the descriptions that come between them. We are not reading a simple human narrative here; we are being given a glimpse of the divine overview. That explains why, from verse 25, the psalm proceeds to celebrate and to declare the triumph of the Lord.
Respond
This is about the future too! As you now pray, why not make yourself the fulfilment of the prophecy in verses 30 and 31?
Deeper Bible study
‘Lord, I long for you, but you seem so far away while I am suffering and struggling.’ Has that ever been your experience?
Have you ever felt deserted by God? Perhaps you have gone through a tragedy or have suffered with depression or anxiety and have found it nigh on impossible to pray. Your thinking about God has been negative, and at best he seems to be standing at a distance. Where is God when it hurts?
If you have ever felt like this, then this psalm is for you. David is at rock bottom (v 1). He is up and down in his reflections – having started by agonising about God’s distance from him (vs 1,2), he steadies himself by reminding himself of God’s faithfulness (vs 4,5). Then the next wave of depressive thoughts hit him and he feels his life is worth nothing (vs 6–8). Again he finds some relief in God’s faithfulness (vs 9–11) and he starts to turn the past into prayer: ‘Please, Lord, be with me, because if you won’t, no one else will’ (vs 11, free translation). It seems he is also unwell (vs 14–17) and he feels his prospects for recovery are not good; and he has human enemies. ‘Lord, please intervene’ (see vs 19–21); ‘then I will speak of your greatness and goodness’ (see vs 22–28). Even as he was hanging on by his fingertips, he cried out to God for rescue and relief.
This psalm reminds us of Jesus’ anguished cry of desertion on the cross. It is full of similarities between what David experienced and what Jesus endured at his crucifixion. Verses 1, 7, 8 and 17, in particular, are recalled in the gospel accounts. Jesus’ separation from the Father brought about our salvation, as the resurrection shows. There is always hope, even when it is hard to see…
This psalm progresses ‘from the grim facts of the present which have the first word, to the glorious facts about the future as the last word’.1 Be encouraged!
1 John Goldingay, Psalms for Everyone; Part 1, Psalms 1–72, SPCK, 2013, p73
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Ezekiel 42,43; 1 John 2
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray for God´s guidance for the Scripture Union movements who form the Pacific Islands Community as they are praying and working towards a new SU ministry in Samoa
