During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
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. 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. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
Psalm 22:1, 14-18
Followers of Jesus have long had a great appreciation for Psalm 22, at least in part because the first verse is what we know Jesus spoke from the cross as he was in anguish. When we say that the “Psalms were the prayer book of Jesus,” this is a perfect illustration. The words of the Psalm were a part of the fabric of Jesus’ life, and as his life was ending, this was the book, these were the words, that he turned to that gave voice to the horrific reality he was feeling.
It is not only the sense of abandonment by God, it is the amazing, seemingly prophetic words of verses 14-18 that are a foretaste of what Jesus would endure. No doubt dehydration was a part of the physiological reality he dealt with as he was dying. His hands and feet were definitely pierced. The act of crucifixion undoubtedly dislocated his joints. And we know that people were watching him, and that the soldiers divided up his clothes.
Among other things, we can take from this Psalm the continuity that exists in the Bible, from Old Testament through the New Testament. When we read the Psalms, we need to remember that we are reading the prayers that Jesus and his first century followers prayed and the songs that they sang—alone, and together.
When going through a difficult patch of life, remember that the Psalms give us language to use that voice our deepest hurts; but read the latter third of the Psalm (verses 22-31) as well; the life of faith never ends in darkness, but in the celebrations of the goodness of God!
For Reflection
- When you are broken by the circumstances of life, even feeling abandoned by God, how do you express yourself? Disbelief? Anger? Tears? “Woe is me”?
- When in these times, how does it help to know that Jesus experienced despair and felt the same things as you?
Prayer
Lord, I thank you that I can find comfort in even the worst of circumstances, knowing that you have felt the worst of human emotions. Help me today, whatever I am feeling or experience, to give honest voice to my prayers, and to know—to KNOW—that you are with me. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
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Devotionals