Reflection on the view from beneath a cross versus Jesus’ view from atop it……(published 6/17/2022 CBB)
Christian writer and spiritual director Charlotte Donlon, put out a challenging post today as her Psalm of the morning …. Psalm 88. She writes:
“If you want some words to wrap around your depression, anger, etc., I offer Psalm 88. This is the morning psalm for today.
After all of the words expressing anger, sadness, disappointment, it just stops. There’s no turn to thanksgiving or praise. It’s one of my favorite psalms.”
Psalm 88
Domine, Deus
1
O Lord, my God, my Savior, *
by day and night I cry to you.
2
Let my prayer enter into your presence; *
incline your ear to my lamentation.
3
For I am full of trouble; *
my life is at the brink of the grave.
4
I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; *
I have become like one who has no strength;
5
Lost among the dead, *
like the slain who lie in the grave,
6
Whom you remember no more, *
for they are cut off from your hand.
7
You have laid me in the depths of the Pit, *
in dark places, and in the abyss.
8
Your anger weighs upon me heavily, *
and all your great waves overwhelm me.
9
You have put my friends far from me;
you have made me to be abhorred by them; *
I am in prison and cannot get free.
10
My sight has failed me because of trouble; *
Lord, I have called upon you daily;
I have stretched out my hands to you.
11
Do you work wonders for the dead? *
will those who have died stand up and give you thanks?
12
Will your loving-kindness be declared in the grave? *
your faithfulness in the land of destruction?
13
Will your wonders be known in the dark? *
or your righteousness in the country where all is forgotten?
14
But as for me, O Lord, I cry to you for help; *
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
15
Lord, why have you rejected me? *
why have you hidden your face from me?
16
Ever since my youth, I have been wretched and at the point of death; *
I have borne your terrors with a troubled mind.
17
Your blazing anger has swept over me; *
your terrors have destroyed me;
18
They surround me all day long like a flood; *
they encompass me on every side.
19
My friend and my neighbor you have put away from me, *
and darkness is my only companion.”
As I read this Psalm slowly, line by line, I can feel the pain of the Psalmist’s descent into rumination, depression, despair and to a questioning feeling of abandonment and rejection. I have generally looked to the Psalms and found a redemptive turn toward hope among David’s emotional laments. As she points out, however, this Psalm does not turn upward in thanksgiving and praise…….. it simply stops.
Strangely, reading the questions in Psalm 88 takes me to Ezekiel 37…..”CAN these dry bones live?” ….. or as the Psalmist beseeching God, “Am I to go the way of the dry bones? Why have you not responded to my plea?”
God asked the prophet Ezekiel what he thought of such a proposition and prospect for the multitude of dry bones in the valley, “Can these dry bones live?”, who replied, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” What a word of faith from Ezekiel! Walking among the bones, seeing their parched, disjointed condition, his senses and reasoning would scream, “Never can such bones live! I cannot imagine it ever being possible.” Instead, in Ezekiel’s heart, that knows God is sovereign over ALL THINGS, he affirms that God alone knows the answer…. His response allows for a possibility that seems impossible to him, that such a possibility can be known, even accomplished by the Sovereign God.
David in Psalm 88 appears to be on the verge of finding himself dead and unable to even utter another plea. What is the condition of his faith at that point? His abrupt ending gives us no clue of what faith and hope remain, only of his anguished thoughts and feelings in that moment.
I think, too, of Martha going out to meet Jesus. (John 11:21-22) “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “my brother, Lazarus, has died. If you had been here, my brother would not have died. BUT I KNOW THAT EVEN NOW GOD WILL GIVE YOU WHATEVER YOU ASK.” That’s an even more extraordinary faith than is expressed by Ezekiel, it seems to me. KNOWING that even in death, beyond one’s human senses, reason, and understanding of how it can happen, even beyond death to decomposition, one can trust that God in Jesus Christ is still Sovereign. He made man from the dust of the earth. He made woman from the rib of Adam. Is it too hard for God to resurrect dry bones, or to bring forth Lazarus from the grave? Then, is my faith such that I can trust that God will use even my current pitiful condition, like the Psalmist describes his own, for His glory, my good, and the gain of hope and wisdom for us all?
Dare I have that much confidence in God? Do I KNOW God’s heart and hand, his love and power, his goodness and sovereignty sufficiently to trust Him with everything, even my own apparent impending destruction and death? Jesus Christ most assuredly did KNOW……. and so can we!
David’s lament and plea in Psalm 88 challenges me. It is the ultimate cliff hanger. How firm is my grasp on God or my confidence in His grasp on me? Shall I,too, trust in His heart and hand to the uttermost, even as I hang on the cliff?…….. Or on a cross?
Those standing at the foot of the cross on Good Friday might have had such a Psalm as 88 come to mind as they stood there and watched Jesus die, as all their hopes for how He might have saved them faded like the breaking of a bent reed or the quenching of a flickering flame.
Knowing that Psalm 88 is where their hearts and minds might go, Jesus chose instead to direct their attention to a different Psalm….. Psalm 22….. as he spoke its opening cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
One method of teaching is to say the first line of a work of literature or a song and have the students continue with the completion of the recitation or singing. When Jesus the rabbi, priest, prophet, king, and redeemer spoke Psalm 22:1 from the cross he was remaining true to his work of exemplifying for us the completed work on the cross and pointing us to God’s good and perfect plan, for hope and a future….
Read all of Psalm 22 slowly, line by line:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far(B) 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, 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; 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.
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!
Jesus’ seven sayings from the cross have each been examined for what Christ is communicating from the cross. It seems to me that each of them can be identified as being sourced from or referenced or embodied within Psalm 22.
- Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (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.) Jesus knew that they were stubborn, ignorant and blind to the reality of his incarnate nature, but he also knew that his Jewish ancestors had trusted God and would, in time see the truth of who the risen Jesus Christ is. He asked for mercy for them from the very cross upon which they killed him because he knew the rest of the plot line.
- Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. (8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,“let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”) Jesus affirmed for them again and demonstrated that He was capable of saving the man beside him and, in doing so, demonstrated the soon-dawning reality of his own power to save all the world, that He is indeed the God who saves.
- Woman, behold, thy son! Behold, thy mother! (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.) Jesus blessed his mother from the cross and carried out the duty of a son to provide for her as she had cared for him and was faithful to her call in life.
- My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (1(a) My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?) Jesus points the people within his voice to the song of victory in Psalm 22.
- I thirst. (15 (a and b) My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;) Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Psalm 22 and expressed the reality of it on the cross.
- It is finished (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!) Jesus’ mission as the human Incarnate God was accomplished at the cross, though the people there could not see what lay beyond, He did know and it did continue and still continues to be fulfilled in His resurrection, ascension, and in the continuing work of Pentecost. - .Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. (15(c)you lay me in the dust of death.) Jesus died resting in the loving spirit heart and arms of the Father
There are days, when I would turn to Psalm 88, anxious days, days of grief when I am questioning the intimate personal loving kindness of God for me in the midst of my woes in the circumstance of the moment . But if, in those moments of depression and grief, I can then remember what I KNOW of God in Christ, I can remember Jesus’ cry of lament, comfort, and reassurance from the cross, as well, and return to Psalm 22 to be reminded of the power of Christ at Calvary and all that the continuing power of the Holy Spirit of Christ at Pentecost has accomplished in my life and in the world.
Please forgive what appears to be my trite use of a cartoon character’s line from Toy Story on the title, but it just seems to sum up my inadequate effort to convey the far-reaching consequences of the events of Calvary and the Garden Tomb and the rocket boost that propelled the gospel even more profoundly at Pentecost than what was accomplished by Jesus’ 40 days among His disciples before His Ascension.
“Buzz Lightyear’s trademark catchphrase of “To infinity…and beyond!” from the animated movie was named as UK’s favorite movie quote of all time,” its ridiculousness, its illogic, its ineffability does completely express my awe at the wonder of God’s Presence, His Goodness, His Sovereignty, and His nearly unimaginable personal and selfless Love for me and all mankind!
When Jesus told His disciples that they would do greater things than He, He was not being coy or mysterious. He was revealing what the power of His Spirit and His Church, soon to be given to and birthed through them would do …… you will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to all the world. They had no idea how large the world actually is or how such a task as “to all the world” would be accomplished….. but Christ knew. And His Holy Spirit and His Church will indeed accomplish His purpose!
Psalm 22:29-31
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.
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!
Addendum: The short Sunday 3- point sermon preached 10/9/2022 by Rev Craig Carter as part of our church’s “Transformed” series.
Continuing our message series on “Transformed.”
Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2
Opposite extremes exist:
Emotionalism: All that matters is what you feel. (“Gushers”)
Stoicism: Feelings aren’t important at all. (“Stuffers”)
EMOTIONS AREN’T EVERYTHING!
EMOTIONS AREN’T NOTHING, EITHER!
God has and expresses emotions, especially obvious to us in the Incarnate Jesus Christ!
Matthew 27:46 shows us feelings by Jesus that express his human emotions but do not reflect His true knowledge of the love and presence of God!
How we FEEL may not match the truth of God’s actual proximity and love. Look at Psalm 22
Our EMOTIONAL HEALTH is transformed when we take what we are feeling and….
1.) Name it!! Identify the issue. Let’s know the true root and reason for our feelings.
Vs. 1. Jesus’ feelings of abandonment due to weight of sin born on the cross….in Jesus’ case, the weight of all of OUR sins.
2.) Reframe it!! Evaluate it in the light of God’s truth in His Word. You don’t have to believe everything you think. You don’t have to accept everything you feel. Vs. 3-5 Jesus’ references to Psalm 22 from the cross shows what He truly knows according to the Word of God!
3.) Tame it!! If we don’t control our emotions they will control us. Unruly emotions can be used as a tool of the devil.
Change the negative feeling. -Philippians 2:5. By trusting God – Galatians 5:22-23
Channel it to put a positive spin on it . Vs. 19, 22-23, 28,29
Choose gratitude.