Psalm 22 | Resources
Discussion Questions
– Summarize the psalm as a group.
– What truths in the psalm encourage your heart? What facts challenge you?
– Have you ever felt forsaken by God?
– What does this text teach us about Christ’s suffering from the cross?
– Do you ever struggle to believe that God will never forsake us? Why is this so hard to believe?
– What is hopeful news shared in verses 22-31? In light of this good news, how ought we live?
Memory Verse
“You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! All you descendants of Israel, revere him!” Psalm 22:23 (CSB)
Devotional
“Why have you abandoned me?”
Who hasn’t felt this way at some point in their lives? In a large or small way, all of us have at one time or another felt that God was distant. Far. Not with us.
I felt this to varying degrees for about a seven-year stretch in my 20s. Like just about every Christian kid going off to college, I assumed I was going to meet my spouse at college or during the college years. That’s what most people do, right? I thought that I would surely be married by 24. That age came and went, and as each year passed by, I began to slowly and increasingly question God. Why had He abandoned me? The desire for marriage was a good one, and God had seemingly deserted me in my singleness. While I can’t say I ever mastered contentment and joy in my singleness, I can say that I found a sweet comfort to run to in times of my deepest heartache.
That comfort is found here in Psalm 22. Throughout this psalm, we see allusions to Jesus’ crucifixion. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” are the very words uttered by Christ on the cross. So why is there comfort to be found here? Because on the cross, Christ was abandoned. Christ endured the abandonment of the Father so that we would never have to. Christ not only bore our sin on the cross, but also separation from his Father. In Christ, we never have to see the back of God. In Christ, we will never be abandoned by God.
What comfort this is! In our deepest and darkest moments in life, we can rest in the fact that God will never abandon us, because Christ was abandoned on our behalf. So church, rest in that comfort today, tomorrow, and every day until Jesus returns.