Read: Psalm 22
Read: Matthew 27:1-10, 27-54
Have you ever been angry with God? Have you ever complained to Him? Perhaps the emotions of your circumstances seemed too hard for you to handle, either in its intensity or the duration. I have to admit, I’ve been over this whole pandemic for a while now. Although I am not blaming God for our current situation, I’m still a bit frustrated with how long this crisis has drawn out.
If you’ve never been angry at God, that’s okay. It’s not a requirement to be a believer, but I would encourage you to pray harder, dream bigger, and expect greater things in your spiritual walk. If you look at any of the major leaders in our faith, from the Old Testament to the New, you will notice a recurring theme of people complaining to God that their expectations were not met. So if you have complained to God, you are in good company.
Let’s face it. You complain. We don’t like to admit it because it seems so negative, but it’s true. You complain about people in your life that are frustrating you. You complain about your circumstances. You definitely complain about the government. The only thing that is worse than your own personal problems are people that complain about their problems. I mean, can’t they keep their feelings to themselves and just let us vent about OUR problems?
The Psalms give us a great insight on how we can approach our emotions and bring all of our feelings before God. This Psalm, Psalm 22, invites us to bring our darkest moments to God and trust that He understands our emotions, He won’t run away in an awkward state, and He can relate to our pain in a deeper way that we can ever comprehend.
The Struggle is Real
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” These words come from the crushed spirit of King David. He feels far from God, not because he has sinned or allowed his heart to wander, but because his circumstances have left him feeling overwhelmed. He has prayed, but feels like his prayers are not being heard. He feels worthless because people are mocking him for his faith. He feels all alone, like everyone has turned on him, even those who he used to trust.
This is a real feeling that we can all relate to. We tend to think this is unique to us, but it’s not. If you’ve ever put your neck out for something you’ve believed in, stood up for a principle that was unpopular, then you’ve felt rejection. It’s not a good feeling and it often leads to us remaining quiet when we should have spoken up. Fear of rejection plagues us from doing what we want to do, what we need to do, and what we are called to do.
Will God Allow You To Suffer More That You Can Handle?
But there is hope in all of this, because David also expressed fatih, as weak as that faith is, he expresses it. He knows that God is holy and on His throne. He knows that God will not tolerate evil. And He knows that God will do what is just, according to His nature. David is trying to give himself a pep talk in the midst of a terrible situation. He is reminding himself that God is still in control, even when it doesn’t seem like it. Even when it seems like God is far away.
God knows us. Even before we were formed in our mother’s wombs, He knew our strengths and our weaknesses. More importantly, he knows our limits. You might have heard the expression that God will not allow you to suffer more than you can handle, but that’s not true. He won’t allow you to be tempted more than you can bear, but He most certainly will allow you to suffer until you break. Because it is in the breaking that you learn that you cannot trust in your own strength. It is at that point that you have to cry out to God and put your trust in Him.
David is crying out to God because there is nothing else that he can do to rescue himself. He has tried everything. His energy is depleted. It is in this moment that God is able to rescue him without him thinking something that he had tried actually worked. Have you been at that point before?
We cannot, we must not boast in our own strength. We must boast in the power of God alone. Only He can truly rescue us from trouble. David is acknowledging that at the end of this Psalm and inviting us to join with him in giving praise to the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Wait, Isn’t This About Jesus?
I realize that I’ve glossed over an entirely obvious connection to whom this Psalm is actually about, but I wanted you to understand that this was written by King David out of real emotions that he felt. These were moments of weakness and vulnerability that we often feel in our own lives as well. If we can sympathize with the words of this Psalm, how much more can Christ sympathize with us, who truly experienced the suffering that David describes?
David might have felt these emotions, but he never really experienced the realities. Sure, he had felt distant from God, but God had always been with him, even in his darkest hours. David likely faced mockery from his peers and rejection from his own administration, but there is nowhere in Scripture that shows us where he suffered the sort of torture that he is describing here.
Yet, when Jesus’ abused body was clinging to the nails in His hands that pierced Him to the cross, while the guards where gambling over His robe and the Pharisees were mocking Him and telling Him to come down from the cross of His own power, in that moment, Jesus pulled Himself up to take a breathe and cry out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some scholars believe that Jesus only cried out that first verse because He ran out of breath, but when He dropped back down with the weight of His body pulling on His nail pierced hands, He continued to recite the rest of this Psalm as He suffered on the cross.
While you and I might feel as David felt that God has abandoned us, that God is punishing us even though we don’t feel like we’ve done anything wrong, or that God is far from us in the moment when we needed Him the most, the truth is that God has only ever done that for one of His children, His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus endured the punishment that you and I deserve. We cry out for justice, but justice for us looks like what Jesus suffered on the cross. He bore the wrath of God even though He had never sinned. He faced the rejection of God even though He had done everything to please His Father. God turned His back on His own Son, even though Jesus had eternally coexisted with Him in the trinity. As Timothy Keller has said, “Jesus was truly deserted by God so that you would only ever feel deserted by Him.”
We can sympathize with David because we can relate to similar experiences where we felt we had suffered unjustly. But Jesus can sympathize with us in our weakness because He was the one who truly suffered the wrath of God.
What to Do When You Feel Far From God
This Psalm can help us when we find ourselves angry with God and our circumstances. First, we should bring our complaint to God. He already knows our hearts. It’s important that we are open and honest with Him. Secondly, we should preach the gospel to ourselves. We need to remind our hearts that of the faithfulness of God. Third, we need to minister the gospel to others. One of the worst things to do when we are bitter is isolate ourselves and tend to our own wounds. The best thing is to serve others and share the gospel with them. Likewise, they can minister to us. “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”
Adam Miller is the president and host of Songtime Radio and serves as the pastor of South Chatham Community Church. This article is a condensed version of one of his sermons.