When I Feel Abandoned, a Reflection on Psalm 22:1-15

One of the discussions I remember from some theology class was the classic problem of how God could be all good and all powerful and at the same time we humans were suffering. Trying to solve this, we came up with quesions like "Did we deserve every bad thing that happened?" or "Was the bad thing we were experiencing going to turn out to be a good thing after all?"

However we frame our answers to our inquiry into the nature of God, we who are faithful hold on the knowledge (hope? faith?) that yes, God is all-powerful and all-good.

But, sometimes, we feel abandoned. We can pray "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Even Jesus felt abandoned--remember Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34.

Yet, even in that sense of forsakenness, we can turn only to God. O my God, "I cry by day ... and by night...."

The lectionary has chosen this portion of Psalm 22 as a response to the reading from Job, and I can imagine Job saying these verses; e.g., "All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads."

And, certainly, Job would recognize the response of the onlookers in the psalm as matching the kind of response he had been getting from his friends in just saying that all he needed to do was turn things over to God who would then rescue "the one in whom he delights."