Psalm 22
Following God can be confusing! All of us have experienced times when the “thing for God to do” is “obvious.” We know what God should do (just ask us). At that moment the world is about “me” and “what I experience.” Rarely do we consider how our requests would affect others—especially our “unknown” people.
I have no idea about David’s circumstances when Psalm 22 was written. Fleeing an enraged Saul’s relentless efforts or the cold calculations of Absalom had to be among David’s hardest experiences.
Surely those were not his only difficult moments! In such times there had to be moments when a confused David felt that God had abandoned him. There had to be moments when his situation confused him. He knew what God had done for him, but he also knew his situation. The reality of both produced David’s confusion. (Too often the mix of our present reality and our insights confuse us!)
The mix of insight into God’s ways and of the realization of our own human weakness often produces a weird understanding. A result: the unexplainable mix of contempt for self and respect for God. A product: a simultaneous feeling of abandonment by God and praise for God.
For the person of a deep godly faith, the moment of abandonment by God is often accompanied by an overwhelming sense of praise for God. This person has a strong sense of human weakness coupled with God’s strength, a strong sense of human unworthiness coupled with God’s worthiness, and a strong sense of human neediness coupled with God’s invulnerability.
The worthiness of God is championed!
Link to other Writings of David Chadwell