Read: Psalm 22
Remember and turn to the LORD. (v. 27)
When I was seven years old, my father abandoned me after my parents divorced, but I couldn’t stop loving him or longing for him. Many of us feel similarly about God sometimes. When we don’t feel his presence, it’s easy to feel abandoned. In many of my most vulnerable times, I’ve been tempted to think God is absent; however, experience has taught me that when I call out to God, he hears me.
In the first half of today’s reading, David expresses his sense of being abandoned by God (v. 1). Still, David never loses faith, even under extreme distress; instead, his anguish guides him to prayer. Even in his suffering, he does not let go of his knowledge that God is his God. He articulates his faith and remembers God’s steadfast love (vv. 9-10). We see his hope in the earnestness of his prayer. He seeks God, he turns to him, because David knows God can and will help (v. 19). David gives us a positive example, to never stop praying, even in our deepest distress.
In this psalm, David conveys the profound despair of someone who, despite feeling abandoned by God, continues to express unfaltering faith. David teaches us that times of despair can lead us to pray, and, in turn, as prayer changes us and as we remember God’s promises, we’ll be able to face the problems that come daily into our lives with grace. Prayer reinforces our faith, and draws us nearer to God and his gift of deliverance.
As you pray, cry out to God and share your despair with him.
About the Author
Ariana D. Den Bleyker is a Pittsburgh native currently residing in New York’s Hudson Valley. She is the author of two devotional poetry collections,To Be Held by the LightandWaking in the Light. She is an ordained deacon in the Reformed Church of America.
