Psalm 22, Matthew 27:39, 44 and 46, Luke 23:33, John 19:23-24

Matt Summerfield

It was the American writer Elbert Hubbard who once wrote, 'If you suffer, thank God! -- it is a sure sign that you are alive.'

Suffering, struggle, trials, troubles are a reality in our world - a reality in our lives.

Three thousand years ago, Israel's most beloved King - King David - was experiencing a real tough season in life. Out of his broken heart he writes a song which has become Psalm 22 in our Bibles. In this Psalm David expresses how he feels deeply misunderstood, ridiculed and rejected, and surrounded by enemies who want him dead. David is a broken man - he feels like he's on his last legs - and so it's no wonder that he begins his song with the word, 'Why?'. It's a question we all ask when we suffer!

There are some things that happen in the world that are very hard to understand. We cannot easily explain away some of the pain we experience. Of course, some of the reasons we suffer are because we, or others, have made bad choices - we're greedy, jealous, proud, selfish, unkind and suffering ripples across the world as a result. The Bible calls this behaviour sin - it destroys everything - how we feel about ourselves, our relationships with other people and our relationship with God.

It would be fair to say that in his lifetime David brought a lot of suffering on himself. He, like all of us, did not live a sin-free life and he had to experience the consequences as a result and here he is - suffering badly - some of it no doubt because of his own mistakes. As he begins his letter though, the question he asks is not, 'why is this happening?' The question David asks in verse 1 of Psalm 22 is directed to God:

'My God, My God why have you forsaken me?'

God I'm suffering. God I'm struggling. God I feel like I'm going under. God I'm not sure if I'm going to make it. And yet God you are silent. Where are you?

Have you ever talked to God like that? I know I have and that's ok! We don't serve a God who is like some A list celebrity who angrily bounces back, 'Who do you think you are? Don't you know who I am?' God wants us to be real with him. He can take it.

But where is God when we're suffering? Where is God in the silence of our pain? Psalm 22 gives the answer to this in a truly miraculous and prophetic way.

One thousand years after this song was written, within a mile of the place where David wrote and sang it, the broken, naked body of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would be nailed to a cold, wooden cross. He was deeply misunderstood, ridiculed and rejected, surrounded by enemies who wanted him dead and had now been successful!

He suffered the most terrible death imaginable by the Romans, the masters of torturous execution; yet Jesus suffered on the cross not because he had sinned - the Bible tells us that the punishment that we deserve for our sin was laid on him. He suffered on the cross so that we could be set free from sin, so that we could be forgiven and have a new start - to be restored in our wonderful relationship with our creator God.

And in some miraculous way, as David writes his song in Psalm 22 it's as if he gets a fast forward into that moment on the cross. As David describes his own suffering, he finds himself describing Jesus suffering on the cross.

In Psalm 22:6-7 David writes:
'I am scorned and despised by all! Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads.'

In Psalm 22:16 David writes:
'My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs.'