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Suffering and Waiting for Deliverance

For the music director; according to The Doe of the Dawn. A psalm of David.[a]

22 My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
Why are you far from helping me, far from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I call by day and you do not answer,
and by night but I have no rest.[b]
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Our ancestors[c] trusted you;
they trusted and you delivered them.
They cried to you and were saved;
they trusted you and were not ashamed.
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by humankind and despised by people.
All who see me mock me.
They open wide their lips;
they shake the head, saying:
He trusts Yahweh.[d] Let him rescue him.
Let him deliver him because he delights in him.”
Yet you took me from the belly;
you made me trust while on my mother’s breasts.
10 On you I was cast from the womb.
From my mother’s belly you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me
because trouble is near;
because there is no helper.
12 Many bulls have encircled me;
mighty bulls of Bashan have surrounded me.
13 They open their mouth against me
like a lion tearing and roaring.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax;
it is melted within me.[e]
15 My strength is dry like a potsherd,
and my tongue is sticking to my jaws;
and you have placed me in the dust of death.
16 Because dogs have surrounded me;
a gang of evildoers has encircled me.
Like the lion[f] they are at my hands and my feet.
17 I can count all my bones;
they gaze, they look at me.
18 They divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.[g]
19 But you, O Yahweh, do not remain distant.
O my help, hasten to help me.
20 Rescue my life from the sword,
my only life from the power of the dogs.[h]
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion,
and from the horns of the wild oxen answer me.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 22:1 The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
  2. Psalm 22:2 Or “I am not silent”
  3. Psalm 22:4 Or “fathers”
  4. Psalm 22:8 Literally “Commit to Yahweh”
  5. Psalm 22:14 Literally “in the midst of my intestines”
  6. Psalm 22:16 Or “they gouge out” or “they bind.” Not the same word for “lion” found in vv. 14(13), 22(21). The Hebrew text presents such problems that any interpretation must be lightly held.
  7. Psalm 22:18 Hebrew “lot”
  8. Psalm 22:20 Hebrew “dog”