Leading into
Easter we’ve been reflecting on Psalm 22. The psalm is a poem a prayer a song written
over 1000 years before Christ by king David. It’s a prayer from a time in his
life when he was in trouble and obviously suffering physical and spiritual
isolation. We don’t know which particular instance in David’s life inspired
this poem or rather I should say necessitated this prayer being written. But
both its ability to capture the intensity of human suffering and of gutsy hope
has meant that it has stood the test of time. Each new generation that have
uncounted it can relate to it. You get the feeling that the thing that is
causing David the most suffering is not the taunts of his enemies, or the
physical suffering but rather the aloneness: that God who has been close to him
since his mother womb now in this hour of need feels far off, distant. The
doors of heaven seem firmly shut to him and he feels his cries just echo round
the room unheard. It’s what people down through the ages have called the long
dark night of the soul.
Yet as the prayer unfolds we see that David
does not despair or throw his faith in God out rather he affirms a strong
belief that despite the absence of the feeling of closeness, God is still the
one who is in control, God is working his plans out for good, that God is able
to save him. He knows God well enough to know that God is for him and with him
even though he cannot feel him. That God will bring about a salvation that will
have positive effects not only for him but also for the poor and the needy and
bring people from all nations and families to worship and acknowledge God.
More than simply standing the test of time
like all scripture it has the breath print of God on it as well. Paul in 2
Timothy 4:16 says that all scripture is spirit breathed and Psalm 22 has been
seen by the gospel writers as prophetically pointing to the suffering that
Jesus would go through on the cross.
The Taunts of David’s enemies ‘he trust’s
in God let God save him’ echo the taunts thrown at Jesus in Matthew 27:43 “he
trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him. He said “I am the Son of
God”.
The description of all the joints being out
of place and all his strength being gone reflects the process of crucifixion
where the person slowly dies of asphyxiation as they run out of the strength to
force their whole body weight on to the nail through their ankles and hands to
grab a gasp of breath the stress and strain causing the joints to pop and dislocate.
The picture of the tongue sticking to the
roof of the mouth and the horrific thirst, being reflected in one of Jesus
sayings from the cross recorded in John’s gospel ‘I’m thirsty’. John writes
that Jesus said this to fulfil scripture.
John also quote’s Psalm 22 in his narrative
when Jesus clothes are divided up between the soldiers at the cross and they
decide not to divide his outer cloak but rather to gamble for it. The outer
cloak was the most valuable part of Jesus clothing. In Psalm 22 verse 8 it says
‘They divide up my garments between them and cast lots for my clothes’.
Jesus himself chose the first line of this
psalm as his dying words. As recorded in Mark and Matthews Gospel in their
original Aramaic, the language that Jesus would have used in everyday life. You
get the feeling that they were ingrained in the memories of those who had heard
them. Not words of despair in Jesus final hour of suffering but rather in
Jewish short hand quoting the whole of Psalm 22, which is a prayer of hope.
That despite the situation and the horrific nature of what was happening God is
still in control and that God is working out his good plans beyond the
situation in the situation…
Because it is prophetic it also points
beyond the cross to Jesus resurrection and the fact that because of god’s
saving action in Jesus Christ that people from all nations and families would
come to know God and that those who experience God’s salvation would show care
and justice to the poor and needy. At the cross, when Jesus felt that isolation
from his father, a way was being made for us to enter in to a new relationship
with God.
At the heart of this prayer is relationship:
An intimate knowing of God. That’s what makes it a prayer of hope in the middle
of what is vividly described opposition and danger. It is why it comes from
David a man after God’s own heart. It is why it is on the lips of Jesus on the
cross.
One of the
debates around what’s known as the ‘problem of evil’, why do bad things happen
to good people, is the assertion that evil and suffering in the world means you
can’t have a good God who is all powerful. The argument goes something like
this. A good God would never let evil happen so it must mean that he is not
sovereign. He’s not in control or if God is all-powerful and allows evil to
happen how can God be good? But poetry and prayers don’t live in the field of
theoretical theology and philosophy, they come from the heart and head
grappling and wrestling with what’s going on now. So David in his prayer has it
both ways. He affirms God’s sovereignty, ‘even though I don’t feel you and you
don’t return my calls God still you are enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Still you have always done well to them and saved them. Beyond this situation I
know that you will continue to save people and show justice and mercy. In fact
from this situation people of all nations and even those not even born yet will
know you have done it.
That is Jesus on the cross as well. His
answer to his mockers and taunters is to quote Psalm 22. It may seem that God
has forsaken him. But as it says in Isaiah 53 of the suffering servant, “we thought him stricken by God, but it was
our sins that he bore.” The answer is that God’s sovereignty and goodness are
not diminished by this situation or Jesus suffering far from it as it says in
Psalm 22 people yet unborn will know of God’s goodness and salvation and they
will see that God has done it.
I can’t help but hear the words that John
records of Jesus that the other gospel writers simply heard as a loud cry
echoing those last words of Psalm 22 “it is finished”. Because here on the
cross Jesus has done all that was needed to be done for you and I to be saved;
the sin that separated us from God forgiven and a way was made for us to come
back and know God. In one of the paradoxes of the cross the writer to the
Hebrews is able to say that for the joy set before him Jesus endured the shame
and the suffering of the cross. The joy that was set before him was not his own
personal safety or wellbeing but rather that you and I would come to know him
and abide in him and he in us.
In a profound way the cross shows us the
amazing way God chose to work. It would have been easy for God to over come
evil with a great display of power for the one who created it all to stop the
world and judge it and find it wanting. To start again like some parallel
universe or Microsoft version with those troublesome glitches ironed out
hopefully. However God does not do that instead he destroys the power of sin
and death in the world by accepting powerlessness. By allowing his son to be
killed. A move so absurd and ridiculous that only God could have seen it. That
as we look back we can say it is God who has done this.
This prayer and the cross itself show us
that even in the darkest moments even in the face of the worst humanity can
dredge up God is able to bring light and hope. It’s what our faith and hope is.
That God’s character will shine through.
Ric Foxley from the leprosy Mission talks
about going to visit an Australian missionary Gladys Stains who worked in a
leper colony in India. She and her family her husband two sons and daughter had
worked in the leper colony for over thirty years. In January 1999 Graham her
husband and her two sons Philip aged 10 and Timothy eight were burned to death
in their car. Hindu extremists had attacked them while they were sleeping in
the car at a camp. The three had tried to get out of the car but a crowd of
about 100 people had stopped them. There was a huge outcry in India over this
and the government clamped down on extremists who were trying to kill the
Christian minority in India.
At the funeral attended by thousands from
many different faiths Galdys Stains was able to say. “ I am terribly upset, but
not angry. My husband loved Jesus Christ who has taught us to forgive our
enemies’ She continued to work with the leper colony until she had to retire
recently. The impact of this tragedy and her offer of forgiveness was that it
had a profound impact on the lives of many people in India and round the world.
The Indian government has just bestowed its highest civil award on her and she
is hoping to go back to India to receive it. Tragedy and darkness and evil
happen and surround us yet in the midst of that a good and sovereign God works
his plans for good.
Often people mistake faith that holds on to
God in the midst of the seeming absence of God for blind faith. But God does
not invite people to have a blind faith rather a knowing faith.
We know God well enough that in the face of
suffering and sorrow we know God is for his people.
We know God is good. We know god is able to
work out his plans for our good.
We know God isn’t suddenly too busy with
international affairs to deal with things on the home front, our home front.
We know God well enough to say well God I
feel so alone. I feel abandoned where are you.
We know God and the reality is that God is
there and with us and for us despite that emotional isolation.
We know God well enough to wrestle with God
in the seeming darkness.
We know God hears the cries of our souls
and answers.
No comments:
Post a Comment