Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Psalm 22:1-5 (NIV)
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.
Identify the psalmist’s movement from complaint, to petition, to praise.
Jesus, I recognize the prophetic words from this Psalm to be what You cried from cross. You were despised by the people, mocked, insulted, beaten, and You carried the weight of all sin for all mankind on Your shoulders…alone. But still, You demonstrated unwavering total trust in the Father even when You were forsaken with no relief in sight. No matter how bad things could ever get for me, it would never come close to the anguish that you endured for my sins. Thank You that the story doesn’t end on that gruesome cross, but instead because of Your faithfulness, You conquered sin and death with Your glorious resurrection. Instead of mourning, for what I did to You, I can praise You for what You did for me. I can trust You in all situations because I am Yours and You will never leave me or forsake me on this earth or for eternity. Because of that, I can worship and praise You with all my heart, even when I am going through rough times. In everlasting praise, Amen.