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well, it's hard to hear that and say thanks be to God, even though it is central to the story that we tell Much of the sermon is devoted to Psalm 22 and the entire Som is printed

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in your bulletin at the appropriate time. I urge you to follow along. There is a cultural expectation , at least in some cultures, the christians are happy. Is it reflected in kim's and songs that

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contain lyrics such as and now I am happy all the day or I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free and I find this annoying. Mhm. Mhm. I've nothing against happiness. But

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I do take exception to the attitude that assumes that if your customary demeanor is anything less than santa claus on a coffee jag, then your faith is weak . Mhm. But upon the opposite attitude equally annoying

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. The attitude that thinks that crew christians must be morose, humorless, grim people who dare not smile or laugh and his only pleasure comes in, anticipating the pains of hell that others will suffer because they

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did not take life seriously enough. Now I understand the sentiment that produces hymns such as once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, but I'm not about to start singing by the light of

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burning martyrs, jesus bleeding feet. I tracked during my morning shower. There is no single human emotion that is characteristic of the christian life and there is no single human emotion that is foreign to the christian

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life. Mhm Jesus sanctified all human life by living it, including all human emotions. And jesus was an emotional person. He grew angry, he threw things around. If the if the occasion demanded it

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, he walked, he rejoiced. It is true that the new testament never said that Jesus smiled or laughed, but he never said he didn't, and there is good evidence that he went to parties and

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that he made sure that there was enough wine, and that it in fact was fit to drink ST athan ages name that is known to some of you writing on the book of psalms says that the entire

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bible is God's word to us, but the book of psalms contains our words to God, and one can find the entire range of human experience in the songs. In the psalms, people shout in the

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psalms, people tremble in the psalms, people fear in the psalms. People praise in the psalms. People make music in the psalms, people mourn and in the songs people despair. My God, my

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God, why, why have you forsaken me now ? We inevitably associate these words with good friday. They were in some accounts, jesus dying words on the cross. There are a staple of every seven

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last word service where we often tried to explain them away. It's almost impossible for us to read or hear or speak the first verse of psalm 22 without thinking of the crucifixion. But precisely because we associate

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the first words of this song with the crucifixion, we rarely go on to the rest. So this morning, as we at least pursue wisdom, I want us to consider the whole song without if possible

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, thinking of jesus passion even for a few moments and we will get to that. But let's start with the psalm itself. Now I ask Amanda and laura to read it as an anti pon to read

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it back and forth, so that you all could hear the structure of the psalm as well as see it in your bulletin. Yeah, well, we start with the question, we start with why?

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My God, my God, why? Why have you forsaken me? Forsaken, abandoned, deserted. Why? Now this isn't atheism, This isn't the question of someone who has lost faith. People who

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have lost faith. So a little quiet. They don't ask why they explained why, Why it was that what they once thought to be true now has become an illusion or flat, outright lie. But

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faith has no soliloquies. Someone's always listening. The song must still believe the psalmist is talking to somebody . It's not the denial of God. It's more like an indictment. Why have you gone away when

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I am in such distress? Why have you gone away when I need you so badly? I brought that point. The som is Antipolo On the one end, on the other hand, the psalmist describes

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the present a time of distress. The time of pain at time of abandonment. Yeah. This almost then turns to the past when God was at work when God was there, back then. God was

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there. But now, God, God, where are you now? And back and forth, we go. But then, Right in the middle of verse 21, everything changes. The psalmist cries for

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help. One more time. Save me from the mouth of the lion. But then we moved to cry up from the horns of the wild auction, You have rescued me. Whatever the psalmist asked for

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is given the need has been met. God showed up And from that point halfway through verse 21 to the end of the psalm, the psalmist, for the most part is no longer talking to God.

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The psalmist is talking to the people, to the people of the great congregation and the chronological tension moves from past versus present to present and future. The emphasis now is not just on what God has done

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, it is on what God will do. The promise you see will be fulfilled. There will be grace, there will be a rescue. And in view of all of that our task, I am

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convinced that all of us are here in this psalm and in view of God's work of salvation, our task is simple. All we have to do is say so future generations will be told about the Lord

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and proclaim God's deliverance to a people. Yet unborn saying that God has done it now. There is a certain kind of piety. Even kind of guy started off with highly that says you must be happy

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, no matter how unhappy you are. And that kind of piety would like to remove the beginning of this song from scripture or at least ignore it. Oh my God! My God! Why have you

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forsaken me? Oh, shut up and believe. Yeah, but the bible itself will not let us do that. The feeling of being abandoned by God is a legitimate human emotion. It is not sinful

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, it is not the whining of weak faith. We often feel that way when things are too much for us. When we must do something we might not be able to do. When we must end

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you. When we must endure what we cannot change when things happen and we cannot see anything positive or beneficial in them. We feel that way and scripture allows us scripture commands us really to say so to

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God. We are allowed to voice our frustration. We are allowed to voice our pain. We are allowed to voice our despair. The very word of God says. My God. My God, why

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have you forsaken me? Mhm. Okay. But there is all the difference in the world between feeling abandoned by God and being abandoned by God. There is a promise and it holds. When you pass

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through the waters, I will be with you and to the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you. For

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I am the Lord, your God, the holy one of Israel, your savior. God keeps God's promises. Yeah, and that is why we can cry out. That is why we can say God

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, where are you? And that is why we can express our fear or our anger or our pain or are incomprehension for God is faithful still. So it does not seem to me that jesus cry on

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the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me is a cry of despair or disbelief. He wouldn't have had to quote scripture to do that. I think Jesus wanted his followers then

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and now to remember the whole song to look at the cross and remember that God did not and does not despise the affliction of the afflicted, that God did not and does not break a bruised reed or

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quench a dimly burning wick that no matter how things seem or feel at any given moment, God is faithful. Still, future generations will be told about the Lord and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet

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unborn. We are here today hearing these words and saying these things because generation after generation has remembered and acted. We ourselves are that people yet unborn through exile and return through cross and resurrection. Through years

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and centuries in which many have cried out, Our God, Why have you forsaken us? God's deliverance has been proclaimed. Yeah. And now it is our turn. Mhm. It's our turn to be

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honest about all that we feel. It is our turn to be forthright when we wonder where God is or if God is or why God does not act to end what we consider to be intolerable. It

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is our turn to doubt and deny and lament. Just as it is our turn to praise and pray and rejoice. It is our turn, above all . It is our turn to do all that we

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can do so that another people yet unborn, our Children and their Children and all the Children of the earth may learn from us all that we have learned from those who came before. Dominion belongs to the

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Lord. No matter how it seems or fields at any particular time, Dominion belongs to the Lord. The crucified one. The very one who cried out , My God! My God, Why have you

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forsaken me? The crucified one is the victor, blessing and honor and glory and power. Be under