Psalm 22 invites us to linger with our own experience of agony and sense of feeling forsaken and forgotten. Why would we want to linger there when our bodies tend to want to avoid these feelings at all cost?
You might pause to consider if you even want to linger there, or even continue reading this post…
Please know that this invitation to prayer can be paused at any time. It might be something you prefer to come back to another time, be that an hour, a week, a year, a decade.
It does take great courage and inner safety to describe our utter vulnerability and despair to God in our prayer because we are so afraid we will be overwhelmed by these feelings. Of course we are. We have already endured so much!
Maybe the Psalmist, likely Kind David, is showing us a way forward here. He uses a vast array of descriptions, metaphors, and images to describe his duress in his prayer. He is aware of a foundation under girding him. He has an inner awareness of his essential beloveness and a tangible memory of inner safety. From this place of being held by God, he is able to pour out his heart, his need in prayer.
Go gently and compassionately with yourself as you find your own words and descriptions that bubble up in your prayer. Perhaps begin your prayer with a memory of feeling loved, accepted, and safe in God’s tender care. Allow your body to show you what that feels like from the inside. You can return to this place whenever other feelings seem to overwhelm or overtake you.
Our Creator knows that we have an inner body sense of the help we need. For some reason, allowing ourselves to be seen just as we really are in our need, describe what was needed when there was no one there to help us, opens us up to the love and grace that can heal. These are sacred moments that deserve loving, caring attention and patient, unhurried presence. And sometimes we need a compassionate witness to safely accompany us in this process. Spiritual direction is one way that offers this kind of compassionate witness.
May there be grace upon grace to meet you in your place of need this day, and always. Amen.
Psalm 22:1-15 (NRSV)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm, and not human;
scorned by others, and despised by the people.
All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
‘Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver—
let him rescue the one in whom he delights!’
Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
On you I was cast from my birth,
and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For Reflection and Prayer:
Was there a word, phrase or image which caught your attention you as you listened to or slowly read the text? Quietly savor this with Christ.
Notice any felt sense that seems to emerge as you linger with this passage. It might come as a bodily feeling, emotion, metaphor, picture, gesture or sound. See if you can describe it and simply be with it with patient curiosity. Be open to whatever more might emerge.
Perhaps you might want to draw, color or journal your conversation.
As the time of prayer comes to a close, share some quiet moments with Christ, simply resting safely in God’s presence.