April 5, God’s Perspective

Today’s reading: Psalms 21-25

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you
so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night,
but I find no rest” - Psalm 22:1-2.

These verses are probably familiar because Jesus uttered these words while dying on the cross. Jesus recited the first verse and any Jew listening would have recognized that this was a cry of David in which he reiterated his confidence that he would survive his trials and praise the Lord. It is permissible to be honest with the Lord and to pour your heart out to Him. The purpose, however, is not to stay in your perspective as you cry out, but to obtain God’s perspective concerning your situation, and then to reiterate your hope in Him. Perhaps it would be good for you to go to the account of Jesus’ death during which He uttered this phrase in Matthew 27, and be challenged to do what the writer of Hebrews instructed you to do:

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? . . .Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees (Hebrews 12:4-5, 12).