My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? — Psalm 22:1 KJV
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? — Psalm 22:1 NIV
Reflection on Verse for Today
At some point in our lives, we sometimes feel so alone and abandoned, even when we’re told that God is always with us and will never forsake us. Our bible verse today found in Psalm 22 explores this very question… which reads, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” These words, uttered by David, but also famously echoed by Jesus on the cross, probe a deep human condition of feeling deserted during times of distress.
The verse can be a comforting reminder that even the most righteous, like David and Jesus, experienced periods of feeling abandoned by God. The mere existence of this verse within the Bible shows us that feeling distant from God is not a sign of spiritual failure, but a shared human experience, even by the figures we hold in highest esteem.
As we go deeper into this bible verse, it’s essential to recognize its context where the lament of abandonment begins a song that ultimately ends in praise and confidence in God’s deliverance. So, this is not just a verse about despair — but rather a verse about anguish in the context of faith. It is all about crying out in the certainty that there is someone there to hear.
We need to remember that this particular verse, as much as it is a some sort of a sorrow, is also a call for help. In his feeling of abandonment, David turns not away from God, but towards Him. The verse, therefore, becomes an affirmation of faith in the face of hardship. It suggests that during our times of desolation, when God seems farthest from us, those might be the moments when our faith is most crucial.
Does the sense of abandonment depicted in Psalm 22:1 reflect an actual distance from God, or is it rather a reflection of our human tendency to feel isolated during our trials and tribulations? There’s an inherent challenge in this bible verse to trust in the unseen and the unfelt, to believe in a divine presence that may not be immediately apparent. Ultimately, it might be through acknowledging our feelings of desolation and choosing faith regardless, that we find ourselves not abandoned, but drawn closer to the divine.