Psalm 22:25-31

Psalm 22:25-31 (NRSV)
²⁵ From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
²⁶ The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
²⁸ For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
²⁹ To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
³⁰ Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
³¹ and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.

Psalm 22 is an individual lament. If you want to know why the question of theodicy will never have a final answer for us, here is the fundamental reason. If you want to know why atheism will always be a valid response to our experience of life on this planet, meditate upon this psalm. Suppose you have an experience in which you want to God to speak or to act so much that it hurts. Suppose you look at an historical event, such as the Holocaust, and ponder why God did not stop that. In other words, the silence of God becomes deafening. If God is silent in the midst of the horrors of personal life and human history, then the silence can say a great deal. Belief in God is an affirmation that life triumphs over death, that hope triumphs over despair, that light triumphs over darkness, and that love triumphs over apathy. Yet, what would happen if the silence of God in the midst of tragedy means that death, despair, darkness, and apathy are the final word this universe has to say to humanity?

The date is pre-exilic. The theme of Psalm 22 is anguish of mind and religious doubt. Matthew has used it as a messianic prophecy.  The mood is one of alternate fear and a desire to seek God in the first part and in the second part a contemplation of the providential rule of God.  The poetic images move our hearts, though we cannot know details. The psalm expresses the spiritual anguish brought on by religious conflict. The writer is in shock to the point of expressing itself in physical symptoms due to the lack of response from God and the scorn of non-believers. Throughout the psalm, the writer portrays himself as a faithful worshiper of Yahweh. This faithfulness is the ground of his appeal to God for help. For this reason, one cannot see the psalmist as one who has fully despaired. He truly believes that an appeal to the power and justice of God will be efficacious.

Amid the turmoil of life, we too often find ourselves alternating between the major and the minor key. The struggles of life may lay us low for a time, as we have seen in verses 1-21a, but upon further prayer and reflection, we discover deeper levels of devotion.  Giving time to reflect can make room for more ambiguity in our lives than we would care to admit.

Psalm 22: 25-31 is part of a section that began in verse 21b, expressing praise for the ultimate deliverance the Lord brings, when the Lord will have heard and responded to the cry for help by the writer. These verses voice the fervent belief that the whole world will, step-by-step, turn to the Lord and worship the Lord. Notice the widening circles of praise. They are a psalm of thanksgiving. They continue the hopeful end of the psalm that begins as a powerful lament. The anguish and doubt of the lament give way to the hope we find at the end, beginning in verse 19. Thanksgiving is a typical part of the lament. The darkness of the soul has vanished. The Lord has answered the prayer. The congregation receives an assurance of an answer. The Lord has granted glorious deliverance. The grace of the Lord is sovereign and has power to save. All the nations will realize the power of the Lord and worship the Lord. Not even death can stop the kingly rule of the Lord over all creation. ²⁵ From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear the Lord. In Leviticus 7:16, people were to bring offerings that the male priests were to eat. In Numbers 15:3, they were to make an offering before the Lord to fulfill a vow. Therefore, ²⁶ the poor shall eat with them and receive satisfaction; those who seek the Lord shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever! Finally, the circle of praise extends to the entire earth, a large step for a writer in the Old Testament to take. Psalm 86:9 reminds us that the Lord has made all the nations, so they shall bow down and glorify the Lord. Isaiah 56:1-8 promises that the eunuch and foreigner will not be separate from the people of the Lord. Rather, they will become ministers before the Lord and love the name of the Lord. Malachi 1:11 anticipates a time when the name of the Lord shall be great among the nations. Consistent with this vision, then, the writer says that ²⁷ all the ends of the earth (goyim, nations, heathen, or Gentiles) shall remember by vividly calling to mind the deliverance of the Lord and turn[1] to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before the Lord. Psalm 47:6-9 affirms that God is the king of all the earth and nations, so that the princes of the nations shall gather as the people of the God of Abraham, for even the shields of the earth belong to God. Zechariah 14:9 prophesies that the Lord will become king over all the earth. Revelation 11:15 has the voices in heaven singing that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of the Lord and the Messiah, who will reign forever. ²⁸ For dominion belongs to the Lord, and the Lord rules over the nations.  ²⁹ To the Lord, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before the Lord shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for the Lord. All human beings are dust-to-dust mortals, including those who are currently dying (and perhaps even those who are already dead). Moreover, all, both the vigorous and the dying, will bow down to Yahweh. See such passages as Isaiah 45:23 (cited by Romans 14:11 and alluded to in Philippians 2:10, affirms that every knee shall be and every tongue confess. Revelation 5:13 looks forward to a time when every creature in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, will sing praise, honor, and glory to God and the Lamb.  ³⁰ Posterity will serve the Lord; future generations will be told about the Lord, ³¹ and proclaim the deliverance of the Lord to a people yet unborn, saying that the Lord has done it. John 17:20 has a similar concern for those who will believe through the word of the apostles. Thus, the Psalm seems to conclude with the hope of the messianic universal rule of the Lord.

A human life has many twists and turns. It has corners around which we cannot see. We can focus upon only the difficulties. In that way, the mind is its own place. It can make a heaven of hell, or it can make a hell of heaven.[2] We can focus upon the thorns of the rose bush and complain. We can also focus on the roses and rejoice because thorns have roses.[3] We wrestle with the ambiguities of a human life. It may well be true that one who is a pessimist early in life knows too much, while one who is an optimist later in life knows too little.[4] It may even be true that we treat someone as wise who despairs when others hope, whereas we dismiss those who hope when others despair.[5] Yet, it seems like this psalm is pointing us to embracing the ambiguity of a human life. The point is not to think negative or positive, optimistic or pessimistic, but to embrace it all as the multi-layered reality in which human life consists. Thus, this Psalm, beginning with so much anguish, ends with an ever-widening circle of praise to the Lord. We need to embrace both the threat of nothingness and the fullness of being, both the abyss and the promise of life.

Psalm 22 makes me think of exploring the theme of singing in time of trouble, or the song that comes in the night. The experience that the Lord was present in times of trouble has inspired many songs. They express the experience that God reached out to deliver from certain catastrophe.

Some hymns come to mind. “It is well with my soul” (1876) refers to sorrows like sea billows roll, and that the devil will try to ruin, and trials may come, it is well with my soul. “Jesus, lover of my soul” (Charles Wesley 1740)  refers to the nearer waters rolling and the tempest still high, that one sinks, faints, and falls, and that the Lord is the one who raises the fallen, cheers the faint, heals the sick, and leads the blind. 

One could also look at Beth Moore’s CD Songs of Deliverance. It is the culmination of a music project to go with her book Get Out of That Pit: Straight Talk About God’s Deliverance. Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman, CeCe Winans and Travis Cottrell lead an all-star cast of Christian recording artists singing their own stories of deliverance that echo the themes of the book. Her book proposes that if God can lift her out of the pit then God can lift anyone. She says she had dirt, darkness, anger, desperation, and confusion that brought her into the pit. Her book shares lessons of hope from which all can learn. Deliverance is waiting, she says, regardless of how you were stuck no matter how long you have been down, or whether you think you deserve it.

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[1] shub (pronounced "shuve"), which often means to repent or turn (back) to God.

[2] John Milton, Paradise Lost.

[3] Alphonse Karr, A Tour Round My Garden.

[4] The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little. --Mark Twain.

[5] I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope is admired by a large clan of persons as a sage. --John Stuart Mill, "Speech on perfectibility," 1828. utilitarian.org. Retrieved October 16, 2017.