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Psalm 22 Prayed
Meditating
on Christ’s suffering
and
victory on the cross
The suffering of the cross
O Lord Jesus, it was the third
hour
when
they crucified you.
At the sixth hour darkness came
over the land
until
the ninth hour.
At the ninth hour you cried out
in
a loud voice,
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”
which
means:
“My God, my God, why have you
forsaken
me?
Why are you so far from saving
me,
so
far from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry out by day,
but
you do not answer,
by
night, and am not silent.”
Yet you are enthroned as the
Holy One;
you
are the praise of God’s people, O Jesus.
In you our fathers put their
trust;
they
trusted and you delivered them.
They cried to you and were
saved;
in
you they trusted and were
not
disappointed.
Despite this, you were treated
like a worm
and
not a man.
You were scorned by men and
despised
by
the people.
All who saw you mocked you;
they
hurled insults, shaking their heads:
“Come down from the
cross,
if
you are the Son of God!”
In the same way the chief
priests,
the
teachers of the law and the elders
mocked
you.
“He saved others,” they said,
“but
he can’t save himself!
He’s the King of Israel!
Let
him come down now from the cross,
and
we will believe in him.
He trusts in the Lord;
let
the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since
he delights in him.
He trusts in God;
let
God rescue him now if he wants him,
for
he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
In the same way the robbers
who
were crucified with you
also
heaped insults on you.
Yet your heavenly Father
brought you
out
of the virgin's womb;
He made you trust in him
even
at your mother’s breast.
From birth you were cast upon
him;
from
your mother’s womb he has been
your
God.
Yet it was your Father's will
to crush you,
and
cause you to suffer,
to make your life a guilt
offering,
and
to lay on you the iniquity of us all.
For this, you had to endure the
cross,
you
had to cry out to your Father in agony:
“Do not be far from me,
for
trouble is near
and
there is no one to help.
Many bulls surround me;
strong
bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Roaring lions tearing their
prey
open
their mouths wide against me.
I am poured out like water,
and
all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it
has melted away within me.
My strength is dried up like a
potsherd,
and
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you
lay me in the dust of death.”
Dogs have surrounded me;
a
band of evil men has encircled me,
they
have pierced my hands and my feet.
I can count all my bones;
people
stare and gloat over me.”
When the soldiers crucified
you,
they
took your clothes,
dividing them into four shares,
one
for each of them,
with
the undergarment remaining.
This garment was seamless,
woven
in one piece from top to bottom.
“Let’s not tear it,” they said
to one another.
“Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
You brought your humiliation
before your Father,
you
poured out your grief:
“They divide my garments among
them
and
cast lots for my clothing.
But you, O Lord my Father, be
not far off;
O
my Strength, come quickly to help me.
Deliver my life from the sword,
my
precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the
lions;
save
me from the horns of the wild oxen.”
The victory of the cross
Thank you Lord Jesus,
for
enduring all this for me.
Therefore I will declare your
name
to
my brothers and sisters in Christ;
in
my congregation I will praise you.
I will say among my fellow
believers:
“You who fear the Lord, praise
him!
All
you beloved of Christ, honour him!
Revere
him, all you saints of God!
For God has not despised or
disdained
the
suffering of Jesus, the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from
Christ
but
has listened to his cry for help
by raising Jesus our Lord from
the dead,
so
he could credit righteousness to us.
He was delivered over to death
for our sins
and
was raised to life for our justification.”
From you, O God, comes the
theme
of
my praise in the great assembly;
before those who revere you,
will
I fulfil my vows.
We, the poor in spirit will eat.
We
who hunger now
will
be satisfied with Christ;
For he is the living bread
that
came down from heaven.
Since by faith we eat of this
bread,
we
will live forever.
This ‘bread’ is his flesh,
which
he gave for the life of the world.
We who seek the Lord Jesus will
praise him—
our
hearts will live forever!
Lord Jesus, all authority in
heaven and on earth
has
been given to you.
You command us to go
and
make disciples of all nations.
Therefore, let us see in our
generation
the
fulfilment of this promise:
‘All the ends of the earth
will
remember and turn to the Lord Jesus,
and all the families of the
nations
will
bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the
Lord Jesus
and
he rules over the nations.’
O, let the rich of the
earth feast and worship;
let
all who die and go down to the dust
kneel
before him—
those
who cannot keep themselves alive.
May they find forgiveness
and
eternal life in you, O Christ.
May all our decedents serve
you;
let
future generations
be
told about you O Lord.
Then they will proclaim your
righteousness
to
a people yet unborn—
for
you have done it.
for he has
done it.
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Psalm 22 Prayed
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