Thursday, January 13

Psalm 22:1-5

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 Israel.

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.

Sometimes the smallest and seemingly insignificant words are the most important words. The first few verses of Psalm 22 contain words like “God,” “forsaken,” and “groaning.” Those words are followed by words like, “enthroned,” “Holy One,” and “saved.” All extremely important words but for me the most important word just might be that little three-letter word, “Yet.”

“Yet” means that despite this that has happened, something else is still possible. “Yet” means that even though it may seem, from my human perspective, that the pain that I am experiencing is both endless and irredeemable, from God’s perspective that is not so.

Many years ago one of our sons displayed some troubling and unusual physical symptoms following a family trip overseas. A specialist told us that it was possible that he had contracted a disease that could possible damage his heart if untreated – and the only way to know was to do a blood test. So I held my 4-year old son in my lap as the nurse approached with what had to look to him like a giant needle. As she put the needle to his arm he looked up at me and with his eyes full of tears and fear wailed, “Daddy, why are you letting her do this to me!?”

How could I explain the possibility of disease to my little boy? How could I explain that it was because I loved him that I allowed the nurse to put the needle in his arm? All I could do was hold him even more tightly and whisper in his ear, “It’s going to be O.K. buddy; I’m here, I love you, I’m not going to let you go, it’s going to be O.K.”

It strikes me that, in a way, that’s what David is telling us in Psalm 22. Unspeakable pain has come into his life, yet he trusts that God is good. He feels alone and forsaken, yet he will trust that God is with him. He doesn’t see how anything good can come of his situation, yet he will trust that God can and will redeem his pain into good.

I, for one, am thankful that God invites me to be honest with him – about my pain, my questions, my fears and my doubts. But I am also very grateful for that he also has given me that little word, “yet!”

Brian Coffey