My God, My God: Psalm 22 and the Cross

In one paragraph

On Easter Sunday 2014, the pastor preached from Psalm 22, taking the congregation through the thousand-year-old words of King David and showing how precisely they described the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. Rather than going to the Gospel accounts of the resurrection, he stayed in the Old Testament to let the prophecy speak for itself. The sermon moved from the darkness of the psalm's...

Read together

1. Psalm 136 Preached the previous week; congregation recited 'for his mercy endures forever' as a refrain
2. Psalm 22:1-21 Primary text of the sermon, read and exposited as a messianic psalm fulfilled at the crucifixion
3. Psalm 22:1 Quoted as the words Jesus spoke from the cross, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me'
4. Psalm 22:3 Quoted to show David's shift from desperation to affirmation of God's holiness, 'But you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel'
5. Psalm 22:6 Quoted as David's self-description as a worm and reproach of men
6. Psalm 22:7-8 Connected to the scene of mockers at the cross saying 'He trusted in the Lord, let him rescue him'
7. Psalm 22:9-10 Quoted as David's appeal to God based on his trust from birth
8. Psalm 22:12-13 Quoted describing strong bulls of Bashan encircling, connected to Roman soldiers surrounding Jesus
9. Psalm 22:14-15 Quoted and connected to physical details of crucifixion including dehydration and Jesus saying 'I thirst'
10. Psalm 22:16 Quoted, 'They pierced my hands and my feet,' noted as written a thousand years before crucifixion existed
11. Psalm 22:17-18 Quoted and connected directly to soldiers dividing Jesus' garments and casting lots
12. Psalm 22:19-21 Quoted as urgent plea for deliverance, followed by 'You have answered me' as the Easter turning point

Talk about it

1. The pastor pointed out that when David wrote 'My God, my God' he said it twice, and that there is no doubt in the Hebrew, it is a claim of intimate ownership. Have you ever found yourself crying out to God from a place of deep pain while still holding on to the fact that He is yours and you are His? What did that feel like?
2. David moves back and forth in Psalm 22 between 'I am a worm and not a man' and 'But you are holy' and 'But you are He who took me out of the womb.' Why do you think honest faith looks like that kind of alternation rather than a straight line, and where have you seen that pattern in your own life?
3. The pastor said that what the religious officials meant as bitter sarcasm at the cross, 'He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue him,' was exactly what God was doing. How does it change the way you read moments of mockery or suffering when you consider that God may be working most precisely in the place that looks most like abandonment?
4. The sermon described Jesus taking on the full weight of human guilt even though He had never personally experienced guilt, and said that the credit from that is transferable to us. What does it mean to you practically to live as someone whose guilt has been removed?
5. The pastor mentioned Pascal's wager and said God responds to anyone calling out in faith, even if that call comes from desperation or from something more like logic than feeling. What do you think honest faith looks like for someone who is not yet sure God is there, and how might this group come alongside a person in that place?