Skip to main content

Lamenting

             My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? (Psalm 22:1)

David wrote a number of lament psalms, but this is the one from which Jesus quoted as He died on the cross. Sometimes, when I go to God with my laments, I feel a little ashamed. Jesus was facing death before He prayed in Gethsemane. He was dying before He quote this psalm. Let me be inconvenienced, and I whine to God.

The first issue that needs to be addressed is the fact that while we know Jesus was in the habit of praying, we don’t know the content of many of those prayers. I suspect, based on what He said sometimes, that He may have prayed a few “Shatter their teeth!” prayers but maybe not.  

I’m not going to suggest that we suck it up and not complain until the night before we face our crosses, or until we’re on our crosses. Instead, I’m going to remind myself and you that there was a plan behind what led to Jesus quoting Psalm 22:1 that brought about the greatest good that has ever been done. There could also be a plan  behind what we face when we’re tempted to quote Psalm 22:1 that will bring about the greatest good in our lives or someone else’s.

It’s hard to keep in mind that our suffering may not be a personal attack or a judgment on God’s part. The book of Job was written to make sure that was explained. I’ve said before,  sometimes what we face is for the benefit of others. Sometimes, we need to get a little perspective. This is not as bad or hard as that. It’s not that this isn’t painful or hard. It’s not that we don’t deserve sympathy, compassion, kindness, etc., but we need to remember that it isn’t as bad as it could be. We can suffer without becoming Chicken Little.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   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. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. 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. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more