Meditation on Psalm 22

1. When we rely upon our God, he is our shield and our sword, our protector and provider of our necessaries in this life.

2. When we suffer adversity, whether publicized or not, we are left open to scorn and contempt for we sing the praises of our God who has supplied us with no good things, just the exact opposite. Our enemies lord it over us and our bodies betray us. Worse yet we appear not only to those who hold us in contempt but to our very selves to have been abandoned by our God.

3. In the extremity of the moment, when all seems lost, literally dying, our bodies are broken upon the ground, and about us the jackals menace as they encircle us and at any moment will move in for the final kill, do we at that moment abandon our dependence on our God of mercy and rescue?

4. The very direness of one’s predicament is the exact moment of peril. The very stays which keep us erect and in our traces are kicked away. Our weakened heart and other muscles can not keep the gantry of our spine, hips, and femurs stacked upon the knees in line and erect to fend off our enemies.

5. Do we have the great good sense to complain to God, to let him know his presence is needed, and right this moment?

6. When the moment passes and we have not been rescued but we still cling to life, what then? Is it then that we succumb and trust only in God?

7. Reminds me of my older brothers wrestling me to the floor and putting me in the hammer lock and saying: “Do you give?” and then after really putting their full mass behind the maneuver, “How about now; do you give now?”

8. Should we be grateful to God for beating us down from our station in life, a time at which we had the reputation for strength, endurance, and confidence that we were the child and children of a beneficent God?

9. Isn’t it true that when we are broken down and emptied out, we want to say to God, “Why this is just absurd. I must have done something to deserve this. And maybe I did get a little too comfortable in my skin and a little cocky and less dependent on God.”

10. Lip service to God is best defined as praising God when the lights are on and we have our good name and reputation, our friends, and our collaborators, all of which keeps us erect like the very sinews and muscles of the body itself.

11. The test of our hope in salvation comes in how we respond to abnegation, despair, and defeat. Are we truly defeated? What would change that outcome?

12. Having a good attitude seems just a wee bit trite! Like telling a cancer victim in stage 4 to just buck up and think happy thoughts.

13. Real trust in God is called for. Our actual acquiescence in his governance over us and the entirety of creation is required.

14. Is this different than fatalism? Yes, because in order to experience eternal life as Christians we have to live, suffer, and die as He did. We have to take up our cross and any other burdens placed upon us. We have to look death in the eye and not flinch. We know Our Lord did it; and he expects of us the same, and in his stead, and in his quest for everyone who seeks victory who can take the abuse that results of loving the gift of life on this Earth, what should be an earthly paradise.

RJH. Wednesday, October 3, 2012. Revised slightly on Saturday, October 13, 2012.