I just wanted to share part of a sermon that I heard last night, because the preacher highlighted something which I had often thought about in Psalm 22 and yet felt it might not be appropriate to think it. As I listened to the psalm being read I was reminded of the battle that so many Christians face, and not only in countries where the name of Christ is rejected, but also in our own towns and neighbourhoods where God's people suffer at the hands of family and others because they refuse to allow satan to be their master.
This is the first part of the Psalm:
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.
3Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.
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.
6But 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.
9Yet 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.
11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no-one to help.
12Many 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 in the dust of death.
16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced 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.
19But 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 me from the horns of the wild oxen.
The preacher alluded to these verses and while stressing that while they indeed relate primarily to the Lord Jesus when he died on the cross and when God his Father turned his back on him because He was suffering for our sins, added that people who have been subjected to physical and emotional abuse - and especially those who are suffering dreadfully at the hands of other people because they are Christians - can also relate to them. His hope was that such people would indeed find comfort in this Psalm, because they can have the assurance that the Lord Jesus understands their sufferings because he too has endured such suffering himself. The difference being that while Jesus suffered alone as an innocent victim and he was suffering as a sacrifice for our sins, when Christians suffer abuse from others, the Lord Jesus suffers with them and is totally sympathetic and empathetic with them, like no one else can be.
DearChristian Friend, your battle may be hard and at times so hot that you feel as if you can't take any more. But remember that the Lord knows and understands that you are going through, and He is not merely a compassionate observer. In the very next Psalm, we are reminded 'Even though though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are [He is] with me, your [His] rod and your [His] staff they comfort me'.
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