Psalm 22
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.[b]
3
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.[c]
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[d] 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[e] 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, honor 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[f] I will fulfill my vows.
26
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those 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,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
Verses 1-2
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.
Im sure we all examples of where God doesn't seem to answer our preyer
We cry out like David does here.
I wonder when you’ve said this in your life?
Why have you forsaken
I cry out all day, but you do. not answer.
This is a Psalm of David, he often write like this.
David lived in seasons of great danger and deprivation.
David knew what it was like to feel the presence and the deliverance of God and had experienced such many times before.
Every prior time of help made this dramatic absence of God’s help more devastating.
What does David not do here?
Withdraw from God.
Notice David doesn't just say God, he says My God.
Intimacy.
Principle: Don't stop talking to God
So often in unanswered prayer we can draw away.
Verses 3-5
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.
David did not forget that God is Holy.
Interesting - brought out God’s holiness character.
Not primary his love, mercy but His holiness.
His holiness is what carries us through the storms.
‘There is no unrighteousness in him” Spurgeon
Hab 1:13
‘Your eyes are too pure to look on evil..’
His perfect plans can be trusted.
David also remembered how God had answered and delivered many times before.
Strangely, this would add measures of both comfort and despair:
Comfort, knowing that he cried to the same God who had delivered before and who could deliver again;
Despair, knowing that the God who had delivered before now seemed so distant and silent.
Principle - remember what He has already done.
Journal
Verse 9-10
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.
God’s lifelong care of us.
Verses 21-24
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, honor 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.
This is the pivot in the Psalm
Where it begins to get more positive
Might not be the answer David was expecting.
But verse 24 tell us he knows God’s presence.
Principle: Verse 22 - worship is so important.
My friend says that
‘When we don't know what to do, we praise and worship’
We going to go through it again now.
Some of you will know this,
but this isn't just a Psalm from David, its a prophecy
Pointing towards the nature and actions of the Messiah.
How do we know its about Jesus?
1 Peter 1:10-11 tells us that the prophets looked for the time and place and specifics of the Messiah.
Psalm 22 has to be one of those
Verse 1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Jesus deliberately chose these words to describe His agony on the cross
Matthew 27:45–47 / Mark 15:33–34
Jesus will have known the Psalms for his prayers.
Memorised them.
He was there when they were written!
But Psalm 22, he will most certainly have been praying this during his time in Gethsemtane and preparing for the cross.
Yet Jesus forsakenness was all part of the plan
‘This was the blackness and darkness of his horror; then it was that he penetrated the depths of the caverns of suffering.’ Spurgeon
This is important.
Because in our feeling of foresaked-ness,
we know its not actually true.
Because Jesus was forsaken so we would never have to be.
And thats important to remember in times of pain.
Verses 12-18 (verse 18)
They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
This is all Jesus.
Jesus was stripped
Soldiers gambled (cast lots) for his clothing at the very foot of the cross. John 19:23-24 / Matthew 27:35
Its all pointing to Christ.
What He did on the cross
for us.
Verse 22
I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
John 17:26
“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Hebrew 2:10-12
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
Hebrews 2:12 quotes the second half of Psalm 22 (specifically, Psalm 22:22), proving clearly that the entire psalm points to Jesus, not just the agony of the first half
Gethsemane
Luke 22: 39-46
39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.[g] 45 And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Verse 42
“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done”
We may say that this section of Psalm 22 reflects the primary reason Jesus went to the cross: to glorify and obey His God and Father.
And its the primary reason we exist - to glorify and obey God the Son
Obedient disciples of Christ.
The will of God is often far darker and more painful than we imagine for reasons we can’t immediately understand
Isaiah 55:8
My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.
We experience comfort in our pain.
Verse 43
And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ
Remember the next Psalm? Psalm 23
Ask for the Holy Spirit’s help, comfort and strength
Notice its a strengthening?
Romans 5: 1-5
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
2 Corinthians 12:7-9, Paul pleads with God three times to remove the “thorn in his flesh.” God’s answer? “My grace is sufficient for you
Every unanswered prayer is still an answered prayer—just not always in the way we expect.
God’s Silence is Not God’s Absence
We often equate silence with rejection. But God's silence can be a space of deep spiritual formation. In the silence:
We learn to wait on God (Isaiah 40:31).
We develop perseverance (Romans 5:3-5).
We deepen our faith—not in outcomes, but in God Himself.
Illustration: Think of a teacher who is silent during a test. The teacher hasn’t left the room—they’re watching, letting you apply what you’ve learned. Likewise, God may be silent, but He is near.
God Answers According to His Will, Not Our Wishes
1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
God is not a vending machine. His priority is not our comfort, but our growth. Sometimes He says:
Yes – and we rejoice.
No – and we wrestle.
Wait – and we grow.
Verses 27-31
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!
In these verses you can hear the prophetic image of the gospel going out to the world
Preaching of the cross, what this Messiah Jesus has done for us
And the Psalm that starts with why have you forsaken me, finishes with
‘He has done it!”
Echoes of “It is finished”
God is in control.
His plan is perfect and will come to pass.
In our prayers we have to learn to trust Him.
Prayer
God on Mute, by Pete Greig, chapter 10
Based on Ephesians 6
Lord,
help me to stand today.
Temptations and trials abound.
When life hurts,
I get confused, dishonest, suspicious, and critical.
I put on the belt of truth.
When life hurts,
my relationships suffer—especially my relationship with You. I put on the breastplate of righteousness.
When life hurts,
I either get really lazy or I make myself really busy.
I put on the shoes of the gospel.
When life hurts,
I let down my guard and leave myself exposed.
I take up the shield of faith.
When life hurts,
my thinking gets negative and I question everything.
I put on the helmet of salvation.
When life hurts,
I’m a coward.
I take hold of the sword of the Word.
Lord, it doesn’t feel very “finished” down here.
I don’t feel very “finished’.
See me kneeling.
Help me stand.
